I should have posted these before the conference but, I have put the abstracts from Religious Movement & Sensory Experience here. The conference was fantastic and I will post about the day later this week.
This last weekend was the Classical Association conference, which is the main academic conference for the field of Classics in the UK. One of the themes of the conference was the senses and I presented a paper in a session on The Senses in Roman Life. The paper took up the acoustics of the Baths of Neptune in comparison with Seneca's description of noises he hears from the bath complex beneath him (Letter 56).
My paper was well received and I had a number of great questions afterwards. It was helpful to get feedback from others, several of which brought up questions or points I had not thought of. I had a couple of people comment on the originality and creativity of my project. It was nice to have someone else affirm that my studies are not as crazy as I sometimes think it might be. I was struck by the number of PhD students taking up sensory experience type topics in a variety of manners. It was also a great opportunity to meet and network with other academics working in sensory studies. Plus, there were some potential publication opportunities for my paper!
In all it was a great weekend, which left me exhausted but with a healthy dose of motivation to get my own project back underway.
A list of Senses panels at CA.


In the latest issue of the analytical bulletin "IISEPS News" we offer to your attention materials reflecting the most interesting results of the Institute researches in the third quarter of 2015.
Our researches demonstrate that financial well-being of Belarusians in general became worse again. Thus, the number of those, whose financial standing worsened, increased. Average per capita income (including salaries, pensions, social benefits and other incomes) significantly decreased: from $ 240 in June down to $ 200 in September (a year ago this figure amounted to $ 288). The number of respondents who think that Belarusian economy is in crisis exceeded 75%. Anxiety for the future is not passing away: only every fifth respondent expects that socio-economic situation in the country will improve in the near future, while every third expects a worsening of the situation. Probably, this is the reason why more than half of Belarusians approve of the fact that Russia transferred another credit to Belarus.
Belarusians' attitude to the state power remains quite skeptical. Indices of trust to almost all of state institutions except the President remain negative. The number of those who think, that political life in Belarus is developing towards democracy, decreased; majority of respondents keep talking about "reinstallation of past Soviet orders" or even about "formation of authoritarianism, dictatorship". Evaluating the recent law "On battling corruption", majority of respondents thinks that "it won't influence the level of corruption" and "the level of corruption will only increase". Although the number of those who blame Belarusian powers and the President for the crisis significantly decreased, almost half of respondents think that the state of affairs in our country is developing in the wrong direction, while only a third thinks that the direction is right. However, the readiness for changes in society is still quite low.
Attitude to the state power and its opponents is best reflected in the main political event of the year – presidential campaign. Majority of those who expect changes connect these changes to elections. 72.5% of respondents expressed their readiness to vote; only 15.5% support boycott. According to the results of all post-election surveys the turnout was higher than expected, so it makes sense to suppose that the required barrier of 50% of voters will be exceeded in these elections too. Peace and stability turned out to be the biggest problem influencing the choice between the candidates. Electoral rating of the President increased up to 45.7%, trust rating remained at 47%. According to the closed question 17.9% of voters are ready to vote for the candidate from the civil campaign "People's Referendum" T. Korotkevich, while according to the open question this share amounted to 7.2%.Total electorate of "opposition outside elections" did not exceed 8%. Real results depend on the turnout, and a simple calculation demonstrates that if people who expressed their readiness to vote will actually vote, then 45.7% of votes for A. Lukashenko will turn into 64%, and 17.9% for T. Korotkevich will turn into 25%. Three thirds of respondents believe that the President will be elected in the first ballot; almost 58% of respondents agreed that the results of the elections are predetermined; only 36.4% of respondents think that conditions for all candidates are equal, while almost a half of them disagreed with this. At the same time almost 48% believe that these elections will be free and just, and 35% don't think so. Half of respondents think that official results of the elections will be trustworthy; one third of respondents believe in the opposite. Answering the question "If you believe that the results of presidential elections would be falsified, how would you react to this?" almost a half of respondents said that they "will accept them because it will be impossible to change them"; more than a quarter of respondents chose the variant "I won't believe these results and will be very upset, but I won't take part in mass protests"; and only 10% will "take part in mass protests to try to change these results".
Isolationist moods still prevail in foreign-policy orientations of Belarusians. The share of "Euro-Belarusians" slightly decreased, while the share of "Belo-Russians" slightly increased. Over 28% of respondents think that people in Belarus treat Western countries with respect or sympathy, 21% – with concern, 15% – with disregard or fear, and 32.8% – without any special feeling. Among the current candidates the most pro-European electorate chooses T. Korotkevich, the most pro-Russian one – A. Lukashenko. The idea of the "Russian World" is regarded positively by 35% of Belarusians, 41% of respondents are indifferent towards it, and 16% are negative. Evaluating the accession of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015, 55.3% of respondents said that it reinforced the union, expanded the shared market and increased the political weight of the union. 32.6% of respondents think that poor countries were added, and other participants of the union would be obliged to help them. Ukrainian-Russian crisis remains one of the most important factors influencing the changes in foreign-policy orientations of Belarusians. It should be noted that sympathies of the majority of Belarusians are still with Russia. Although the level of support has slightly decreased, majority of Belarusians continue to support Russia in this conflict.
In our "Open Forum" rubric we continue to present the most interesting results of the latest surveys of our col-leagues from neighboring countries.


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How much does a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing make?
The average hourly wages for Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing is $10.59/HR, which is below average for occupations in the processing, manufacturing and utilities sector and are below average for all intermediate occupations. These wages grew at a below-average rate from 2002 to 2004.
What is a day in the life of a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing like?
Sewing machine operators sew fabric, fur, and synthetic materials to produce and repair garments/other articles. They... more
What education do you need to become a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing?
1. In general, you usually need some high school or a high school diploma. 2. You usually receive on-the-job... more
What is the current Job Outlook for a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing?
The job outlook for Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing is... more
What is the future Job Outlook for a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing?
Your job outlook will continue to be Below Average because: 1. The employment growth rate will likely be below... more
What is the currently unemployment rate for a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing"?
11% of Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing are unemployed. This... more
How many Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing are employed part-time?
6% of Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing are employed only on a... more
How many Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing are self-employed?
Roughly 4% of Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing are... more
What is the average age of a Machine Operators and Related Workers in Fabric, Fur and Leather Products Manufacturing?
The older-than-average worker (44) will likely be offset by a later retirement age (64) resulting in an average... more
What I wish I knew before taking an Actuarial Science Major
Pastor: Job Description
What do you learn in a Biological Science Program
How to Become a Pediatrician
What I do as an Electronics Engineer
How to Become an Oncologist
Employability of students in Biological Sciences

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AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. This is an elective class available to all 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. An application is required. Please review the brochure and see if this is something you might be interested in pursuing.


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5 Hotel Booking Mistakes And Ways to Avoid Them
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20 amazing Facts You Should Know About Olympic Games
15 amazing Facts About Alexander The Great | The Greatest Warrior in History
The Olympic Games, which originated in ancient Greece as many as 3,000 years ago, were revived in the late 19th century and have become the world's preeminent sporting competition. From the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., the Games were held every four years in Olympia, located in the western Peloponnese peninsula, in honor of the god Zeus. The first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens, and featured 280 participants from 13 nations, competing in 43 events.
The Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and organizing committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, and organizes and funds the Games according to the Olympic Charter.
1. The Official Olympic Flag was Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world.
2. Up until 1994 the Olympics were held every four years. Since then, the Winter and Summer games have alternated every two years.
3. During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.
4. James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.
5. The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.
6. the modern games were only canceled three times, always on account of war. The 1916 Summer Olympics in Berlin were canceled because of WWI. The 1940 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, as well as the 1944 Summer Olympics in London were canceled because of WWII. When people are fighting for basic survival, global athletic events tend to hold a lot less meaning.
7.The equivalent of a bronze medal.The top prize at the first modern Olympics was the silver medal. In 1896 in Athens, first place winners got a silver medal and an olive branch. Second place got a bronze. Third place got nothing.
8. In 1900, in France, winners got paintings instead of gold medals. Gold, silver and bronze medals weren't given out until the third modern Olympics, in 1904. The French gave the winners paintings because they believed they were more valuable.
9. The Beijing Olympics, 2008, began at exactly 8:08:08 PM on 8/8/08 because the number 8 is considered lucky in China.
10.The traditional release of live doves at the Olympic opening ceremony was abandoned after Seoul 1988, when around 10 chose not to swoop majestically across the skies but instead to settle on the rim of the Olympic cauldron just as it was being lit and were instantly burned to death.
11. In 1904, at the St Louis Olympic Games, American Fred Lorz (4th from left) was awarded first place in the marathon until it was revealed that he had stopped running after nine miles (14 km), then traveled the next eleven miles (17 km) in his manager's car before running the final stretch. He eventually admitted the deception and was banned for life, but reinstated after an abject apology. Fellow American Thomas Hicks took the gold.
12. Dimitrios Loundras was a Greek gymnast who took part in the Athens 1896 Summer Olympics. Young Dimitrios won a bronze medal for his efforts, and to this day he still remains the youngest Olympic competitor and medalist on record. Even more amazing, he was 10 years and 218 days old when he won his medal. That's a lot of pressure for a kid, but Dimitrios did just fine. Later in life he became an admiral in the Greek Navy. Perhaps he held onto his medal when he was out to sea, for good luck.
13.Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn (2nd R) remains the oldest contestant and medal winner at any Olympic games. He was 72 years, 281 days old when he competed at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. He was already 60 years old when he won his first Olympic gold medal in 1908.
14. Hitler banned alcohol from the Olympic Village in 1936 but permission was given for the French and Italian athletes to be served wine with their meals, and after protests the Dutch and Belgian squads were allowed to have beer.
15. The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
16. Gender testing was introduced at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Female competitors from then on had to have their gender verified (although the practise was discontinued in 1996). A notable exception: at the 1976 Games in Montreal, Great Britain's Princess Anne was allowed to compete without the test.
17.In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the person who finished in fourth place in the women's high jump was actually a man, German athlete Heinrich Ratjen. Two years later, he won a gold medal setting a new "women's" world record in high jump at the European Athletics Championships, before his real gender was discovered randomly when police got a report that there was a man dressed as a woman traveling in Magdeburg
18. Ethiopia's Abebe Biikila won the 1960 Rome marathon barefoot because no pair of running shoes from official manufacturers adidas could be found which would comfortably fit his feet.
19. At the 1912 Olympics, a Japanese marathon runner named Shizo Karakuri quit and went home without telling the officials and was considered as a missing person in Sweden for 54 years.In 1966, he was invited to complete the marathon with the total time of
54 years, 8 months, 6 days ,5 hours and 20.3 seconds.
20. American Margaret Abbott won women's golf gold at the Paris 1900 games in bizarre circumstances. On holiday in the French capital with her mother to visit the World's Fair which was running concurrently, she took part in what she thought was merely a golf tournament to celebrate the Fair and left for the USA not knowing she had become the first-ever American gold medallist.
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If you're in debt up to your ears, you may feel that you'll never be able to get rid of the bills that plague you. You may even be experiencing anxiety each time the phone rings, since you're not sure if it will be a friend or a bill collector. However, there are things you can do to relieve yourself of your debt burden in a relatively quick and efficient manner. Use this information to learn more about what you can do to obtain debt relief as soon as possible.
Although you may have never considered it, filing for bankruptcy is one of the best techniques you can use to get rid of excessive debt. Bankruptcy is essentially a form of financial protection; it's designed to keep individuals from being bogged down in so much debt that it threatens their livelihood and quality of life.
If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, you are likely trying to decide which chapter you should file for: 7 or 13. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the ideal choice for people who want to totally wipe out their debt. The plus side is that you will usually walk away from your filing completely debt free. However, you will lose some of your assets, such as your car, home, boat, and other belongings. These items will typically be liquidated to pay back your creditors.
Conversely, the Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to keep your things as long as you adhere to a payment plan that the bankruptcy court trustee will oversee. All of your bills will be combined into one lump sum payment that you must pay each month for a set period of time. While you are still going to be responsible for adhering to your payment plan, you will at least be able to manage it more easily. This can go a long way toward helping to increase your peace of mind.
Another method you can use to obtain debt relief is to seek out charitable aid. While it may seem that many charity efforts are aimed at large-scale events such as disaster relief and the cessation of world hunger, there are a number of charities out there that help regular people who simply need help with their bills.
For example, if you have excessive medical bills, you may want to check with the medical center that you are indebted to in order to find out if they have private financial donors who are willing to pay for all, or a specific portion of your medical bills. You may be pleasantly surprised to find out you receive help that alleviates some of your financially related stress.
You don't have to remain mired in a sea of bills. Start using these tips right away so you can experience debt relief without delay. For more information about bankruptcy, visit Curtis A. Anderson, Attorney At Law.


The Motherhood Center of New York's own Paige Bellenbaum joins Deb Flashenberg for the The Prenatal Yoga Center's blog series Yoga | Birth | Babies.
"Have you ever had a friend or family member you suspected was suffering from a Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder and just didn't know if or how to approach them? With more than 20% of new parents suffering from Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders it is important to have the tools and language to help.
If you think you have PPD, Call The Motherhood Center at 212-335-0034. We are here to tell you for sure if you have postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety. And more importantly, if you do, we will provide the treatment you need to feel better.
The perinatal journey looks different and feels different for everyone. When Postpartum Depression and Anxiety enters the equation, the impact can be debilitating for the whole family. Due to the ongoing stigma that surrounds maternal mental illness, many women don't realize that the right support and treatment can make a world of difference.
We were so inspired when TMC client, parenthood blogger, and early childhood educator Ashley Abeles recently shared her experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. Through her journey she learned how to relate to herself, her partner, and her new son. In an effort to provide honesty, hope and permission to other struggling new and expecting mothers, she began a blog, Muffin Man's Mama. Her blog went viral almost over night receiving nothing less than praise and appreciation, and endless "me too" comments. Due to her strong voice and bravery, Good Morning America shared her story with the world last week.
We sat down with Ashley to get her take on how The Motherhood Center's New and Expecting Moms PMAD Support Group — led by Program Director Paige Bellenbaum, LMSW — helped her from her darkest hours of self-judgement and doubt to a take on new motherhood that made room for self-compassion and imperfection, too.
What "moment" or occurrence ultimately convinced you to sign up for time with The Motherhood Center?
I had been struggling on and off for many months [following the birth of my son] and was unsure of where to turn. A friend happened to send me information on The Motherhood Center because she was interested in an upcoming class. When I visited the website, I realized that the center specializes in treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. There was an upcoming support group and I registered to attend.
At the time, I was unsure if this group would be the right fit for me – I still did not know with certainty that I was experiencing postpartum anxiety and depression. I just knew that I needed to do something and this seemed like a step forward.
That first group was difficult for me and I spent much of it crying, but I also felt an immense sense of relief. I had found my people – and they were kind, courageous, intelligent, successful women from all different backgrounds. This was clear evidence for me that perinatal mood and anxiety disorders do not discriminate and are not a reflection of a woman's strength or character. I needed to learn this in order to have compassion for myself.
Those weekly groups became a key part of my recovery. They helped to pull me out of isolation and normalize what I was going through. Because of [TMC Program Director] Paige and the other mothers in the group, I felt like I had a safety net. That support held me up and gave me strength.
I religiously attended the weekly support groups because every ounce of my being knew that The Motherhood Center was where I needed to be – even on the days that were hard. I still doubted my ability to get better but I knew that if anyone could help me get there, it was the team at TMC. I had previously told my husband that I wanted to get well but was lost – that I needed someone to take my hand and show me the way out. When Paige offered me additional services at the center, she extended me the helping hand I so desperately needed.
When did things start to shift in a positive direction for you?
I think if I had to choose a moment that changed things for me, it would be the first time I met Paige, which was during my second support group meeting. She had a way of making me feel understood and cared for, which is what ultimately kept me returning to TMC.
What was it like to talk to your partner about your PPD?
I am married to a wonderfully caring and supportive man, so talking to him about my struggles felt natural. We have always kept open lines of communication and we maintained that during my struggle with postpartum anxiety and depression. In fact, I think our communication improved during that time. We both recognized that I needed his support and that this was a time when we needed to come together, rather than pull away. Although this was the most challenging experience we have had together, it brought us closer than ever.
One of the most helpful things my husband did was to be a non-judgmental ear when I needed to talk through my feelings. There is a saying that you are only as sick as your darkest secrets. He made it safe for me to not keep secrets. This was so important in my journey to wellness.
What tools did you find most useful for helping yourself while also keeping your partner in the loop (or not)?
The Motherhood Center has provided me with a variety of tools and I have found it helpful to discuss those with my husband. This allowed him to effectively support me when I had a hard time utilizing those tools on my own. It has also been helpful for me to become more informed about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. For a long time, my experience felt very confusing to me. Gaining more information gave me a better understanding of what was happening with me and why. That understanding was immensely comforting and allowed me to reclaim more control of my life. Sharing this information with my husband made it easier for him to process my experience and to support me through it.
On your blog, you described not identifying with PPD because of the misleading belief that one has to have violent thoughts to truly have it. When did you realize and accept that you were also suffering?
I always knew that I was suffering, but I did not initially recognize that suffering as postpartum depression and anxiety. I initially attributed my struggles to having a flawed character. I blamed myself for my experience and thought there was something inherently wrong with me. I finally realized that I was suffering from postpartum anxiety and depression when I saw the commonalities between my experience and the experiences of the other mothers in the support group.
Paige also provided me with accurate information on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and helped to dispel many common myths. Once I was properly educated, it became easier to recognize and accept what was happening. Putting a name to my experience was a relief.
While I understand how difficult it can feel, caring for yourself is crucial in being able to care for your child. You are not prioritizing yourself above your child. You are prioritizing yourself for your child. This journey has taught me that one of the best things I can do for my son is to take care of myself. I am able to be a better mother and to better meet his needs when my needs are met as well. As women and mothers, we often feel guilty for taking care of ourselves. We may feel that prioritizing ourselves takes something away from our families. In reality, it is just the opposite. Caring for ourselves allows us to care for others. The voices telling you that you are undeserving are just the voices of anxiety and depression – they will tell you lies that feel like truths. Don't listen. You deserve to be happy and well. Your child deserves a mother who is happy and well. With appropriate treatment, you can get there – I promise – and the first step is making yourself a priority.
What other tools has TMC brought into your daily routine / thought practices?
One of the most important things I have learned from TMC is that I am not alone. As a new mother at home with a baby, it is easy to feel isolated. That feeling of loneliness can be magnified by postpartum anxiety and depression. I compared myself to other parents on social media and felt like I was the only one struggling. That feeling – and the shame that accompanied it — led me to isolate myself more and more. I eventually felt paralyzed. I was depressed, in part, because I felt isolated but my anxiety prevented me from taking steps to change that. Joining the PMAD support group was a life-changing decision. Meeting Paige and the other moms in the group helped to normalize my experience. I realized that I was not alone in my feelings and was finally in an environment where it felt safe to be honest. Those groups provided me with the connection I so desperately needed and helped to build my confidence.
TMC has also reminded me of the concept of the "good enough mother". I remember learning about this theory in my psychology and child development courses, but had failed to apply it to myself. Discussing this concept helped me see that the pressure I placed on myself to be a perfect mother was not only unhealthy for me, but also for my son. Now, when I feel that mom-guilt sneaking up on me, I remind myself that imperfection is actually ideal. My perfectionism was undoubtedly a major contributor to my postpartum anxiety and depression; TMC has helped me to release some of the pressure I place on myself. I now have more realistic expectations.
Self-care has always been a bit of a struggle for me. I have historically had difficulty making time for myself. TMC has helped me to recognize the importance of prioritizing my well-being. I have begun to focus more on healthy eating, exercise, rest, and meditation. I previously felt guilty focusing on self-care. Now I realize that I am a better wife and mother when I care for myself as well. This has also expanded into feeling more confident expressing my needs and setting boundaries as necessary.
There's more to Ashley's story on her blog Muffin Man's Mama., on Facebook, and Instagram. Read on for: Drowning In Plain Sight: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression and Anxiety and The Perfectly Imperfect Parent.
Meanwhile, her husband Brian Abeles joined Paige and TMC clinical psychologist Dr. Chuck Schaefer on The Positive Mind podcast last week to share a partner's take on dealing with Postpartum Depression and Anxiety.
Why does nobody talk about postpartum anxiety?
Birndorf, who specializes in reproductive mental health for women before, during, and after pregnancy, focuses on unpacking the disconnect between what motherhood is supposed to be and the way people experience it in actuality. And there is often a great divide between the two. "No one likes to pair that ideal with imperfection, and reality, and struggle, and difficulty. We can't believe that could be the truth." At the Motherhood Center in NYC, Birndorf's team offers the kind of support for new and expecting mothers that not nearly enough of us receive in 2018. She sees women who are struggling with postpartum depression as well as postpartum anxiety, an experience that many share but that is all too often overlooked or misunderstood.
But whatever your experience (or preconceived notion) might or might not be, Birndorf's wider message is crucial and profound: We all need to be mothered. Hit listen to hear the full podcast episode and play to see Birndorf answering some of our Q's about mom expectations, anxiety, and getting the help you need.
Catherine Birndorf, MD is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and founding director of the Payne Whitney Women's Program at the New York Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. She is also the founder of the Women's Mental Health Consortium, a New York area network of women's mental health clinicians and researchers. Dr. Birndorf's area of psychiatric expertise is in reproductive mental health, helping women with emotional distress during times of hormonal change, from menses to menopause. She specializes in treating women before, during and after pregnancy, as well as at other times of transition in their lives.


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City sets meeting for Dana residents
By Bill Moss, Published: February 12, 2014
Dana residents whose wells were found to be contaminated with a farm chemical can learn more about tapping onto a city water line during a community meeting on Thursday, Feb. 20.
City to take up fee waiver for dealership, Dana homes
State fines trailer park $65,000 for sewage spills
City water exceeds EPA standards, report says
McGrady 'very disappointed' with Buncombe over MSD vote
Laurel Park making gains against water loss
The water line is expected to reach residents of the Academy Road area within six months of groundbreaking, Hendersonville City Manager John Connet said.
The City Council last week awarded a $747,438 contract to Cooper Construction Co. to run the line after the city received word that state agencies have awarded grants covering about 90 percent of the cost.
State agencies awarded the city of Hendersonville $953,000 for the emergency water line, which has a total estimated cost $1.075 million. The City Council voted last week to cover the $121,763 difference with utilities fund money.
The city has provided bottled water paid for by the Bernard Allen Memorial Emergency Drinking Water Fund and also installed an outdoor spigot that affected residents can use to get as much free water as they need.
County and state environmental agencies say tests show elevated levels of the pesticide dieldrin in at least 12 wells in the Academy Road area off Ridge Road. Regulators first found the contamination after testing in August and October 2012 and confirmed in December 2012. Dieldrin was used from 1950 to 1987 as an insecticide to control termites around house foundations and against insects in corn, cotton, fruit and vegetable crops. Dieldrin was used to control termites until 1987 when it was banned.
The city has been working with local legislators and state agencies to put together the funding for an emergency city water line. It has waived connection fees for the water hookup.
"We're planning for up to 75 connections" to area households, Connet said. "We don't know if all 75 will connect. Some may, some may not. Not all those are contaminated."
The city can't formally let the contract until the state releases the funds.
"Hopefully that will be soon," he said. "We'd like to get started by the first of March ideally. We've tried to phase it in so we could tap people on as we go, which would allow us to get the folks (first) that have the highest contamination level. It just depends on where they're located."
The state grants that put the project over the top financially were announced in a Feb. 3 letter to the city from state Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary John E. Skvarla III and state Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker.The money came in the form of a $453,500 award from Community Development Block Grant contingency funds and a $200,000 grant from the Bernard Allen Memorial Emergency Drinking Water Fund.
"Additional funds from the Bernard Allen Fund will be available to close abandoned wells," the state leaders said in the letter. Last July Henderson County was awarded $300,000 from the Rural Economic Development Center.
"These grants are the results of the combined efforts of our Division of Waste Management and the Department of Commerce along with the tireless efforts of Senator (Tom) Apodaca to provide us the resources to navigate the complexities of this project," Decker and Skvarla said.
The community meeting is at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the fellowship hall of Dana Baptist Church on Ridge Road beside Dana Elementary School.


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Hate Crush by A. Zavarelli
Posted on 24th December 2019 4th December 2019 by Dísir
Published by Amazon Digital Services, Amazon Publishing on 21st November 2019
They call him the devil.
When I crash-landed into him on my first day at Loyola Academy, I was sure that couldn't be true.
He was the most gorgeous man I'd ever seen in real life.
Little did I know he was also the cruelest.
I went from starstruck to stunned the moment his cynical eyes cut through me.
I can't tell you what it was that made him want to punish me. But from that day forward the brooding recluse of a man made it his goal to torment me.
I want to loathe him, and some days, I do.
But good or bad, nobody's attention has ever tasted so sweet.
What do you do when you have a hate crush on your bully?
Worse yet, what do you do when he's also your teacher?
The bully-love-hate-teacher-forbidden mega trope romance is a not-so-secret catnip of mine, so 'Hate Crush' seemed like a good idea at the time. And to be fair, I did have an idea of what this was going to be and there were no illusions (at least, not too many) about it turning out to be a sweet, salty thing with an easy, kissy ending.
Like the blurb suggests, Sebastian Carter has found a target in Stella LeClaire, the new girl who is only part of the elite and rich crowd because of the strings that her father has pulled in Loyola Academy. The affair that they eventually fall into however, is one borne out of obsession, unhealthy dependency, abandonment issues and a way to work out a loss of direction and bitterness…the furthest thing from love, in my opinion.
This much I expected, even welcomed because I wanted to see how things would move from confused hate to lust to love as the story went on. A. Zavarelli did lay this out clearly enough, that this twisted relationship of theirs was anything but wholesome and that much, I was clear about.
What was hard to stomach though, were Sebastian Carter's extended periods of bullying, of breaking down, of constant humiliation and cruelty for the sake of teaching a bitter and hard lesson in life simply because life had been hard for him. Doling pain out in equal measure isn't surprising in terms of human behaviour I guess—people who have been hurt and cut deeply can and will do the same to others with a vindictiveness that is hard to witness, even in fiction—yet this happened to an extent where there was just too much of stomping down and very little building up and grovelling, which I needed to see in equal measure. One minute he's distant and aloof, ghosting her for months; the next scene he's back with a personality transplant and overly concerned and suddenly in love with her…really?!
In essence, the incredible masochistic streak I kept seeing couldn't and shouldn't simply have been mitigated only by a short period of remorse and lip service that was entirely disproportionate in righting all the wrongs that Sebastian committed, rendered even more ineffective by Stella's easy capitulation and an epilogue that briefly told about a difficult journey to get to where they were five years later.
And if the end point was to see a stronger, grittier Stella who could resist even Sebastian's cruelty, it actually felt as though it looked like she would have gotten there on her own, which suggested that his awful, nasty treatment of her was in fact, unwarranted. It'd served no transformative purpose as a result, and merely looked like an exercise in detailing reprehensible behaviour because neither could really get past their own issues to de-couple from their toxic relationship.
I'm leaving my rating as an arbitrary 3-starred one because of my own indecision regarding the subject matter and the narrative purpose it was supposed to serve, which I felt wasn't entirely fulfilled. 'Hate Crush' didn't tread on my triggers because it was a bully sort of romance (it's something I can handle) but rather, infringed on my own personal sense of justice that demanded an equal amount of development and transition to a believable relationship I could buy into.
Posted in Contemporary Romance, New Adult, ReviewsTagged Contemporary Romance, cookie-cutter-cliches, Idiotic Lead Character, irksome-prick-bastard, New Adult, SmuttyLeave a comment
Would Like To Meet by Rachel Winters
Posted on 22nd December 2019 22nd November 2019 by Dísir
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on 3rd December 2019
After seven years as an assistant, 29-year-old Evie Summers is ready to finally get the promotion she deserves. But now the TV and film agency she's been running behind the scenes is in trouble, and Evie will lose her job unless she can convince the agency's biggest and most arrogant client, Ezra Chester, to finish writing the script for a Hollywood romantic comedy.
The catch? Ezra is suffering from writer's block--and he'll only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. With the future of the agency in jeopardy, Evie embarks on a mission to meet a man the way Sally met Harry or Hugh Grant met Julia Roberts.
But in the course of testing out the meet-cute scenes from classic romantic comedies IRL, not only will Evie encounter one humiliating situation after another, but she'll have to confront the romantic past that soured her on love.
I can't exactly put my finger on what, but 'Would Like To Meet' just didn't work out at all from the very start.
What threw me off were the stage directions that set the scene, followed by a myriad of text messages, a plethora of characters and a fumbling heroine who messes up at the very start. For this reason, it was hard to get past just the first few chapters with the way the story was laid out and I had to keep going back to the blurb of the book just to keep the synopsis in my head and who the protagonists really were because there wasn't an establishing scene with both Evie Summers and her romantic leading man in it.
In fact, the focus on Evie, her whirlwind life and the number of people in it—it was the impression I got in the first few chapters—was exhausting as I hit an early, early patch where the story just flattened to the point where I skimmed and then, fully stopped. I'd be hard-pressed to classify 'Would Like To Meet' as romance, but rather it's more chick-lit with the focus on Evie's personal growth and self-discovery in the journey she takes in the story.
In any case, I'd never been quite so fidgety about the story (wanting to put it down while straining at the leash to do something else is quite a bad sign) and obviously this has to be a case of 'it's just me'.
Posted in Advanced Reader Copy, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Edelweiss, ReviewsTagged ARC, Bored boneless, Chick lit, Edelweiss, Not interesting enough, Skimmed through, Threw in the towel midwayLeave a comment
Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai
Posted on 18th December 2019 22nd November 2019 by Dísir
Series: Modern Love, #2
Published by Avon on 21st April 2020
OMG! Wouldn't it be adorable if he's her soulmate???
I don't see any wedding rings [eyes emoji]
Breaking: #CafeBae and #CuteCafeGirl went to the bathroom AT THE SAME TIME!!!
One minute, Katrina King's enjoying an innocent conversation with a hot guy at a coffee shop; the next, a stranger has live-tweeted the entire episode with a romantic meet-cute spin and #CafeBae is the new hashtag-du-jour. The problem? Katrina craves a low-profile life, and going viral threatens the peaceful world she's painstakingly built. Besides, #CafeBae isn't the man she's hungry for...
He's got a [peach emoji] to die for.
With the internet on the hunt for the identity of #CuteCafeGirl, Jas Singh, bodyguard, friend, and possessor of the most beautiful eyebrows Katrina's ever seen, comes to the rescue and whisks her away to his family's home. Alone in a remote setting with the object of her affections?
It's a recipe for romance. But after a long dating dry spell, Katrina isn't sure she can trust her instincts when it comes to love—even if Jas' every look says he wants to be more than just her bodyguard…
When Katrina King's visit to a cafe results in a narrative spinning out of control thanks to a fame-hungry stranger, her sudden viral fame threatens her ordered, routined life and pushes her friend/bodyguard of many years to hide her away at his family peach farm. It takes, predictably, the intervention of animals and friends and family for the status quo to change between them, but it's still a slow, slow burn of a romance, with a lot of thoughts about 'why this shouldn't happen' up until the last third of the book.
Both Jasvinder Singh and Katrina are cautious in their own ways thanks to their own personal histories, but the jigsaw puzzle of both Jas's and Katrina's lives are revealed in fragments, which proved frustrating at times as I tried to piece together it all without the whole picture coming into play. Yet these seemed fairly inconsequential even as the story wore on, as Rai chooses to take the smoother and calmer path to a HEA that simply creeps up on you.
Alisha Rai's 'Girl Gone Viral' is a different animal from its predecessor and it's a change that I don't exactly know how to deal with—not a bad one, since it sort of hovers between contemporary romance and a slight threat to privacy that requires nothing more than staying low and some familial, domestic upheaval. The angst level is low—not the sort that pulls the emotions out of your chest and has it aching—with an equally-strange low level of steam that's unusual for Rai's writing. Still, the last few bits of the book were the parts that I truly found enjoyable, much more than the first, slower-paced sections where things just trundled along, despite the softer and sweeter protagonists who actually do deserve each other and their HEA.
Posted in Advanced Reader Copy, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Edelweiss, ReviewsTagged ARC, Chick lit, Contemporary Romance, Edelweiss, Indifferent shrugsLeave a comment
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker
Series: London Celebrities, #2
Published by Carina Press on 20th February 2017
It's not actress Lily Lamprey's fault that she's all curves and has the kind of voice that can fog up a camera lens. She wants to prove where her real talents lie—and that's not on a casting couch, thank you. When she hears esteemed director Luc Savage is renovating a legendary West End theater for a lofty new production, she knows it could be her chance—if only Luc wasn't so dictatorial, so bad-tempered and so incredibly sexy.
Luc Savage has respect, integrity and experience. He also has it bad for Lily. He'd be willing to dismiss it as a midlife crisis, but this exasperating, irresistible woman is actually a very talented actress. Unfortunately, their romance is not only raising questions about Lily's suddenly rising career, it's threatening Luc's professional reputation. The course of true love never did run smooth. But if they're not careful, it could bring down the curtain on both their careers…
Lucy Parker's 'London Celebrities' is a rather unique series I think; there's nothing quite like what I've gone through in my years of reading romance and I do like the premise that each story is based on. Revolving around the tv or theatre scene and written with startling and subtle acerbic humour at times, Parker brings together characters that stand out because of their (either revolting or outstanding) actions or their circumstances.
In this case, Luc Savage and Lily Lamprey clash when the latter is 'forced' cast in Luc's latest production. The former is a stern, no-nonsense, work-first acclaimed director and the latter, often mistaken for her tv persona, is hopefully not just a pretty face with a penchant for stealing men under people's noses and a voice that makes people cringe or get aroused. Stereotypes are par for the course at the start and insults are freely flung, but if this was going to be a falling-for-the-boss-type story, Parker injects so much more into this relationship than I could ever imagine.
The slow burn of 'Pretty Face' made this trundle along at times; Luc/Lily's relationship slid along into something more congenial past their fractious meeting but I was still squinting to see their chemistry and heat by the time they kissed, much less when they fell into bed. There was plenty of drama that advanced the plot and how Luc and Lily soon became integral to each other's lives, but much of it still felt like a lot of hand-wringing and indecision for both. In other words, I'd was hoping that their attraction was written more overtly, and their need for each other more obviously—and more shown rather than told through inner monologues.
The book's last quarter was arguably the best bit, when push came to shove as their relationship was put through a test I wasn't sure both could recover from, yet Parker's resolution of it was satisfying, more so because of the maturity she injects into her characters. The charm of this grew on me as the story wore on as well, and by the time this ended, I was wanting more of Luc and Lily.
Posted in Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, ReviewsTagged Antipodean Authors, Chick lit, Contemporary Romance, Favourite Book CouplesLeave a comment
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Series: London Celebrities #5
Published by Carina Press on 20th January 2020
He might be the sexiest man in London, according to his fan site (which he definitely writes himself), but he's also the most arrogant man she's ever met.
She might have the longest legs he's ever seen, but she also has the sharpest tongue.
For years, rival TV presenters Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport have traded barbs on their respective shows. The public can't get enough of their feud, but after Nick airs Sabrina's family scandals to all of Britain, the gloves are off. They can barely be in the same room together—but these longtime enemies are about to become the unlikeliest of cohosts.
With their reputations on the rocks, Sabrina and Nick have one last chance to save their careers. If they can resurrect a sinking morning show, they'll still have a future in television. But with ratings at an all-time low and a Christmas Eve deadline to win back the nation's favor, the clock is ticking—and someone on their staff doesn't want them to succeed.
Small mishaps on set start adding up, and Sabrina and Nick find themselves—quelle horreur—working together to hunt down the saboteur…and discovering they might have more in common than they thought. When a fiery encounter is caught on camera, the public is convinced that the reluctant cohosts are secretly lusting after one another.
The public might not be wrong.
Their chemistry has always been explosive, but with hate turning to love, the stakes are rising and everything is on the line. Neither is sure if they can trust these new feelings…or if they'll still have a job in the New Year.
Nick Davenport and Sabrina Carlton are petty rivals on and off tv, but there's good cause for it…up until the point where both their careers are suddenly in jeopardy. A twist of events forces them to co-host the dreaded early-morning show which no one bothers with, since it's not quite the 'serious' stuff compared to what they used to do, and with the list of grievances sitting between them, neither's looking good at all. This status quo doesn't look like it's about to change, until mishap after mishap spring the comedy into the story and Nick/Sabrina find themselves in various compromising positions which make everyone else think that they are public enemies but secret shaggers.
I've never felt so rewarded by a Lucy Parker book as I have with 'Headliners'. (To be fair, I had a good feeling about it when I read the blurb and got started.) I can't entirely remember what transpired at the end of the last book even, but as a standalone, 'Headliners' functions perfectly legitimately. Characters from Parker's previous books who have already found their HEA do flit in and out however, and if you've not read the rest of the books, there's a bit of an insider-wink-wink sort of joke that you could miss out on.
Still, Parker crafts a holiday rom-com with so much panache and style and comedy—it's hilarious to read how one thing after another befalls the ill-fated couple as they wear out the enemies-to-lovers trope to the fullest. In the previous books, I'd always found a particular sort of imbalance when it came to quirk, dialogue and characterisation, but 'Headliners' seemed to have perfected these somehow: not too many quirks, snappy and funny dialogue and spot-on 'Love-Actually' type characters. Might be a bit of a bias here, but I'm voting this as Parker's crowning glory.
Posted in Advanced Reader Copy, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Netgalley, ReviewsTagged Antipodean Authors, ARC, Chick lit, Contemporary Romance, Favourites, I actually laughed, Netgalley, SmuttyLeave a comment
The Business of Blood by Kerrigan Byrne
Posted on 8th December 2019 8th November 2019 by Dísir
Series: The Business of Blood, #1
Published by Ardent Publishing on 20th October 2019
London, 1890. Blood and death are Fiona Mahoney's trade, and business, as they say, is booming.
Dying is the only thing people do with any regularity, and Fiona makes her indecorous living cleaning up after the corpses are carted away. Her childhood best friend, Mary, was the last known victim of Jack the Ripper. It's been two years since Fiona scrubbed Mary's blood from the floorboards, and London is no longer buzzing about the Ripper, but Fiona hasn't forgotten.
And she hasn't stopped searching for Jack.
When she's called to a murder in the middle of the night, Fiona finds a victim mutilated in an eerily similar fashion to those of the Ripper, and only a few doors down from Mary's old home. The relentless, overbearing, and irritatingly handsome Inspector Grayson Croft warns her away from the case. She might have listened, if she hadn't found a clue in the blood. A clue that will lead her down a path from which there is no return.As a killer cuts a devastating swath through London, a letter written in blood arrives at her door, and it is only then that Fiona realizes just how perilous her endeavor is. For she has drawn the attention of an obsessive evil, and is no longer the hunter, but the prey. Fiona Mahoney is in the business of blood.
But she's not the only one.
Taking place smack in the aftermath of the Ripper murders in the most squalid bits of London, 'The Business of Blood' follows an intrepid Fiona Mahoney who has somehow managed to eke a place out for herself as the clean-up crew of wet work, keeping company with questionable characters just so she can live decently. But it's also one that has put her on a path of investigation and ultimately revenge: to search out the Ripper who'd torn up her friend 2 years prior, up until she tangles with law enforcement and the people who may or may not have had a hand in the murders suddenly happening all around her once more.
I loved the premise of the story from the start: it's suspenseful, and probably groundbreaking for putting a female protagonist in a role that most heroines steer clear of in historical romances. It's also macabre but fascinating in the way murder cases and unsolved crime mysteries probably are, hinting of ethnic struggles and the consequences of those in individuals that eschew the notion of life being sacrosanct—more so as these seem to underpin Byrne's London as a gritty and unstable hotbed for brutal violence and insanity.
There's barely a hint of romance at all in fact; much of it is Fiona's story, her quest to unravel the thread linking the pile of bodies rapidly falling around her and her interactions with characters who are hiding too many secrets of their own for her liking. Seeing as this is a series, the Ripper murders aren't done and dusted just yet, with the climax taking a bit of a hooked twist while leaving unresolved matters for the next few books to cover.
Byrne does write a good mystery, though it's the purple prose and some over-descriptions of emotions or events that I could have done without. Still, 'The Business of Blood' is an intriguing read and a bit of a mental screw, to be honest. Yet I'd be the first in line for the next book already.
Posted in Historical, Mystery/Crime, ReviewsTagged Historical, mystery-crime, suspense-thrillerLeave a comment
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Posted on 2nd December 2019 7th November 2019 by Dísir
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. on 31st December 2019
Meg Mackworth's hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing beautiful custom journals for New York City's elite. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no one else would spot it. She hadn't counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid . . .
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out—before he leaves New York for good—how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline, a fractured friendship, and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn't have time for Reid's questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other about their lives, work, and regrets, both try to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper.
But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it's too late . . .
If I'd initially thought there was something paranormal in the blurb, I could probably be forgiven for thinking that—Kate Clayborn's 'Love Lettering' is intriguing just from the summary of its story and in contrast to what I thought, is founded on the abstract brought to life by the external forms of typography, colours, shapes and sizes.
The subject matter itself that 'Love Lettering' touches on has complexity behind it—signs, signals and their representations, codes, connotations, meanings and so on that can be broken down as academically deep as you want to make it—which is also what made me rather excited about romantic fiction being quite overt about how we're essentially semiotically-led people.
It's how Meg Mackworth interprets the world in any case, up until the point where she 'foretells' a mistake that would have been made when a particular client of hers comes in with a stoic and aloof fiancé. A year later, the decision comes back to haunt her in the best of ways: Reid Sutherland aka now-an-ex-fiancé reluctantly partners up with her as she tries to find inspiration in NYC for a particular design job, in the hope that she could help him find some kind of renewed pleasure in the place he can't wait to move out of.
Seeing their odd relationship develop through the game of signs is quirky different all on its own but it was ultimately something I couldn't get invested in past the first chapter or so. Having it go on made the storytelling sag even before the halfway point, and I found myself skimming just to catch the turning points between Reid and Meg…one of the oddest couples I've ever read about.
There's creativity in the plot and in the way its written, but what stumbled me quite a few times was how Clayborn took a small, single thought which came through as the at-times frenzied inner monologue of Meg's, then ran amok with it, drew it into the past or into the future, or flung it out far into the abstract before grounding it back in the present—racking up the paragraphs while adding to my confusion.
Like primary theme of the book, Meg's infatuation with (and hyper-analysis of) the minutest signs lent the narrative a certain quirk and whimsicality, but also a lack of directness, coupled with convoluted descriptions that gave me pause, especially when I had to go back to re-read something just to get some clarity and focus back just to confirm what had transpired. And sometimes, it really felt like much ado about nothing when all I wanted to was for the plot to move decisively onward.
But move on it finally did, up to a point towards the end where it took a hooked sort of turn I didn't expect and then I simply went through the rest easily. 'Love Lettering' is an unusual and clever one, sort of unevenly paced but if code and signs are your thing, this is the one to go for.
Posted in Advanced Reader Copy, Chick Lit, Contemporary Romance, Edelweiss, New Adult, ReviewsTagged ARC, Chick lit, Contemporary Romance, Deep in Geekdom, Edelweiss, New Adult, Skimmed throughLeave a comment


text:
Aid to the Soviet Union
1991-08-28T21:25:00-04:00https://images.c-span.org/defaults/Capitol_default-image.jpgRep. Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services committee, briefed reporters in the U.S. Capitol on a proposal to appropriate approximately $1 billion in aid to the Soviet Union for food and medicine in the fiscal year 1992 budget. Specifically, the money would come from appropriations for the Department of Defense. The fiscal year 1992 foreign aid authorization bill contained no humanitarian aid for the Soviet Union.
Rep. Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services committee, briefed reporters in the U.S. Capitol on a proposal to appropriate… read more
Rep. Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services committee, briefed reporters in the U.S. Capitol on a proposal to appropriate approximately $1 billion in aid to the Soviet Union for food and medicine in the fiscal year 1992 budget. Specifically, the money would come from appropriations for the Department of Defense. The fiscal year 1992 foreign aid authorization bill contained no humanitarian aid for the Soviet Union. close
Text type Federal News Service Transcript Text People Graphical Timeline
Filter by Speaker All Speakers Les Aspin
Les Aspin U.S. Representative [D] Wisconsin
Congressional News Conference
Aug 28, 1991 | 2:54pm EDT | C-SPAN 1
Last Aired:
Sep 01, 1991 | 10:05am EDT | C-SPAN 1
Aug 29, 1991 | 2:34am EDT | C-SPAN 2
Aug 29, 1991 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPAN 1
See all on Foreign Aid Soviet Coup
Food Aid to the Soviet Union
President Bush commented on food aid to the Soviet Union in response to a question from a reporter while on vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine.…
BBC World Service: Events in the Soviet Union
A re-air of the BBC World Service News, the English language shortwave service of the United Kingdom. Events reported on the…
BBC World Service, the shortwave news service of the United Kingdom, reported on events in the Soviet Union, including Soviet…
Open Phones: Events in the Soviet Union
Viewers commented on events in the Soviet Union prior to a joint news conference with U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Canadian…


text: HighVoltage.routes = false

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Inslee gave a press conference on his broadband initiative that included Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, and Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila, who will sponsor the bill along with Sen. Shelly Short, R- Addy. The conference also included Washington State Public Works Board Chair Scott Hutsell, Harrington Mayor Justin Slack and Colville Tribal Council Member Susie Allen.
"It's been great. You know, our schools use the internet. Kids come to the library, they sit out front of our city hall, they come to the coffee shop so they can use the internet, after school and after hours," said Slack.
Increased economic opportunity and access to both telemedicine and educational resources are among other issues mentioned by Inslee as key reasons access to broadband improves rural communities.


text:
"An Endless Dialogue" Ernst Neizvestny's Illustrations to Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"
Anna Chudetskaya
ON THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Although Ernst Neizvestny is something of a symbol of our national independent art, it would seem appropriate to look back at some of the highlights of his biography. Born in 1925, Neizvestny was part of the generation destined for conscription and dispatch to the front line at the age of 18. War was undoubtedly a formative existential experience for him: joining the conflict as a private in the Airborne Division in 1943, he was very heavily wounded and even counted as dead. After the war, it took him several years to recover his health. Later, he studied - for about two years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Riga, and then at the Surikov Institute in Moscow. In 1955, Neizvestny joined the sculpture section of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR and, in 1957, participated in the Festival of Youth and Students. Even when Neizvestny was still a student, he was awarded prizes for his works, with state museums purchasing some of his pieces. He often took part in exhibitions and his career as a Soviet sculptor appeared to be off to a good start. However, when he was still a student, he began to have both artistic and ideological "differences with the system of Socialist Realism". These differences were typical for students who were former soldiers: although many were Communist Party members, their extreme wartime experiences required special means of expression outside the mainstream of officially approved art.
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. Fyodor Dostoevsky. 1967
Etching on paper. 29.5 × 20.0 cm (stamp); 47.5 × 34.5 cm (sheet)
Neizvestny was drawn to the subject of violent death: one of his first works in which he searched for new artistic idioms was the sculpture entitled "Dead Soldier" (1957). A year later, it was followed by "Man Who Took His Life" (1958). By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Neizvestny was already an accomplished artist with a distinct worldview and vast creative potential. He was already contemplating creating the colossal sculpture "Tree of Life", which he expected to become a visual symbol of the unity of art and science - the unity of scientific and intuitive paths of learning about the world. The artist's numerous creative ideas had a colossal existential drive. The ordeals that destiny had in store for him, however, were not at all of a creative nature. The most famous episode from
the artist's life has been described many times: it was his bitter dispute with the then head of state, Nikita Khrushchev, in December 1962, at a show to mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Moscow branch of the Artists Union of the USSR (MOSKh). This conflict had quite drastic consequences: at the end of 1962, Neizvestny was excluded from the Artists Union and, accordingly, could no longer rely on assignments from the state. In 1962, Neizvestny set about creating "Orpheus", his statuette of the Greek mythical hero: completed in 1964, it represented a muscled man on his knees, his arm bent at the elbow and pressed against his head, which is thrown back, and his other arm ripping his chest apart in order to touch the cords of his soul hidden under his skin.[1] This sculpture conveyed the theme of human suffering and despair with extraordinary forcefulness.
Neizvestny was genuinely interested in philosophy. At this point, it would be appropriate to note that, while training at art school, he also attended lectures at Moscow State University's department of philosophy. At the lectures, he became acquainted with Yuri Karyakin.[2] Later, echoing Pushkin's designation for the enduring friendship formed in youth, Neizvestny would call Karyakin "a lyceum friend", and the writer and the artist remained close for many years. Even during his student days, Karyakin developed a scholarly interest in Dostoevsky, and this interest determined his further professional career. Karyakin wrote an article "Anti-Communism, Dostoevsky and 'Dostoevshchina'" (1963), the publication of which in the Prague-based magazine "Problems of Peace and Socialism" marked the beginning of the writer's reinstatement in Russian public cultural discourse. Later, Karyakin continued his meticulous study of Dostoevsky's journals, drafts, notebooks, and social commentary.[3] Neizvestny undoubtedly shared his friend's keen interest in Dostoevsky, although what produced a truly powerful impact on him was Mikhail Bakhtin's book "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics".[4]
A philosopher, a literary scholar, a solitary genius, Bakhtin spent more than 30 years isolated from his professional community because of the state's repressive policies. Nonetheless, the tract published in 1963 was in synch with one of the main worldwide trends of 20th-century philosophy: engagement with the problem of the Other. This problem was revealed in his analysis of Dostoevsky's creative method as introducing the concept of dialogic narration, and through this analysis of Dostoevsky's texts, he produced his definition of the "new type" of novel: unlike the monological novel, in which the author's position is unequivocally revealed, this new type of novel is polyphonic.
Later, Neizvestny wrote: "The idea of polyphony ... this issue was elaborated on by Bakhtin brilliantly."[5] Polyphony, dialogism, antinomy - all these categories drawn from Bakhtin's work resonated with the artist as he pursued his own creative goals. The idea that he found particularly engaging was "a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses"[6]. Bakhtin's discoveries contributed to expanding the artist's conceptual territory. Today, one can quite confidently suppose that Bakhtin supplied Neizvestny with a theoretical foundation for his creative quest while also enabling him to follow "in the philosopher's steps," to undertake his own enquiry into Dostoevsky's prose, but using the method that he was a master of: graphic art. As a result, he created hundreds of drawings based on Dostoevsky's works.
These numerous graphic pieces were not straightforward illustrations to the texts. Later, Neizvestny explained his goals in a fairly detailed manner in his text "How I Illustrated Dostoevsky"[7]. Even his use of terms indicates Bakhtin's influence: "I appreciate in Dostoevsky his polyphony," wrote Neizvestny, "his multitude of voices and the conflict of his own inner contradictions."[8] In his analytical work, Neizvestny appears to be following in Bakhtin's footsteps; the artist, however, is not a literary scholar or a critic. Comparing Bakhtin's monograph and his creative method, Neizvestny emphasised that, "my advantage [consisted in that] I studied Dostoevsky, only not through analysis but using a method of parallel creativity."[9]
Neizvestny did not so much seek visual parallels for the writer's prose, but rather had a more global intent: visualising the philosophical substance of a literary work. And not just of any particular novel, but of the philosophy of Dostoevsky's writings.
One of the crucial points for Neizvestny was to approach Dostoevsky as an artist of the tide: "for me ... [Dostoevsky was] an artist of the tide. That is, he moved along with life, not creating individual masterpieces, but as if creating objectified meditations of his mental states, his ideas, projected as an end-to-end movement through an entire life, from the first jolt to infinity. And in this movement, he tackled several grandiose themes which run through his novels as guiding ideas. The novels, sure enough, are constructed in keeping with the rules of literature - with an introduction, an elaborate plot, something in the way of denouement, and an intrigue. This is purely literary workmanship. But philosophically, Dostoevsky has a prodigious amount of ideas, and I singled out the ones that spoke the most to me."[10]
So, what are these "philosophical ideas" singled out by Neizvestny? First, this is the idea of dialogue - the inner dialogue, the clash of different voices within an individual. And, as a consequence, this becomes "the polyphony of human consciousness". Following in Dostoevsky's footsteps and reaching deep into his heroes' minds, Neizvestny created his own original metaphors, and deve I oped his own visual symbolism. Gradually, these ideas translated into 12 etched compositions that Neizvestny included in a portfolio published in Italy in 1967.[11] One can say that these compositions were the crystallisation of a multitude of previous artistic explorations.
Little by little, scores of drafts produced this series of etchings. The artist displayed these pieces at several shows, including a print exhibition in Moscow and his solo show in Tallinn. It was important for Neizvestny to show this portfolio to Bakhtin: he found an opportunity to pass the folder with the etchings to the philosopher, who was then living in a retirement home in Grivno. Later, in an interview to a Polish reporter, Bakhtin described his impressions of the Neizvestny prints: "It was the first time that I sensed a true Dostoevsky. Ernst Neizvestny managed to capture the universal nature of the writer's image ... This is not illustration, this is an emanation of the writer's spirit ... [He] managed to convey the unfinished state of human beings in general . This is a continuation of Dostoevsky's world and imagery in a different medium - in the medium of graphic art."[12] Attitudes to Dostoevsky in the Soviet Union, meanwhile, were undergoing a cardinal change. Within 10 years in the 1960s, this semi-prohibited author was reinstated as a Russian classic, and his novel "Crime and Punishment" was reintroduced into the school curriculum. Articles and books about his life and work started to be published, and academics began to deliver public lectures about the writer; Russian Dostoevsky scholarship started to flourish.
When, in the late 1960s, the Nauka publishing house set about preparing an academic (fully annotated) edition of "Crime and Punishment", it was proposed that Neizvestny's images be used as illustrations. The idea of using Neizvestny's illustrations was proposed by the publishing house's deputy director Anatoly Kulkin,[13] a coursemate of Karyakin at the university and a friend of the artist. Besides, Neizvestny already had some experience illustrating literary works - he had created drawings for masterpieces by Dante[14] and Plato. But the Dostoevsky project was a special one: this time, he was motivated by the interest of a researcher.
In the late 1960s, however, the partial liberalisation of cultural life that had taken place during the Thaw came to an end. In those years, censors could withdraw their approval even in relation to works and projects that had been previously allowed. This was what happened to Neizvestny and his participation in the publication of an academic volume was now considered undesirable. In his article "Neizvestny, Dante and Dostoevsky",[15] Kulkin describes in great detail the ferocious pre-publication tug-of- war between editors and scholars on the one hand and censors on the other. However, despite all these spokes in the wheel, the book with Neizvestny's illustrations was released.
The book contains 18 illustrations - six more than in the Italian portfolio; some of them develop the earlier themes and some tackle new ones. Perhaps Neizvestny came to think that greater loyalty to the text of "Crime and Punishment" was essential. The artist gave each composition a name. Thanks to "How I Illustrated Dostoevsky"[16], Neizvestny's account of his work, one can familiarise oneself with the artist's comments on the illustrations. It should also be mentioned that in these illustrations the artist's visual idiom becomes more diverse: they include airy outlines and a line drawing of Raskolnikov's profile, as well as a practically Naturalist representation of the laughing old woman's face, and the energetic, highly contrasting imagery of the drawing featuring the "cracked mirror".
One of the new illustrations is a portrait of Dostoevsky. Neizvestny himself said that among all known images of Dostoevsky, the one he liked most was Vasily Perov's "very honest Realist portrait". Placed at the beginning of the tome, Neizvestny's own portrait of the writer, however, is a far cry from Naturalist style. That artist himself called this image "the ultimate abstract portrait". The portrait features over-emphasised forms: the forehead protrudes mightily, black shadows conceal the eyes, and the skull's structure is accentuated. However, this stylised image resembles the real person: Dostoevsky is recognisable. In his commentary, Neizvestny remarked that, in this somewhat abstract piece, he attempted to create an expressive emblem, ignoring details.[17]
The writer's hands evoke intense psychological strain. It is curious to see how the artist uses this visual metaphor: in one composition, the hand is pressed firmly against the head; in another, the hand semi-covers the eyes; in the third image, the clenched hand holds several human faces. This symbol also becomes becomes "polyphonic": in one instance, a symbol of inescapable fate, at other times, a symbol of protection and safeguarding.
The bony hand catching hold of a toddler's head becomes a symbol of death. In Neizvestny's graphic pieces, the hand is a very important visual element existing seemingly independently from the human body. This shows the artist's special attitude to corporality: he not only deforms and over-emphasises, but also works with the human body as if it is "an open form."[18] The physiology of the body is something completely foreign to Neizvestny: his corporality is very close to literary imagery.
This can be seen especially clearly in his special treatment of the human personality. Elaborating the idea of the polyphony of human consciousness, Neizvestny comes to the following conclusion: "there are three ideas of a human appearance ... There is the human face, which bears the impress of both nobleness and ignobleness. This face is changeable. There is the visage, which is the divine substance shining through the human face; it is luciferous and metaphysical. And there is the guise. The guise is a mask. It is satanic."[19] This notion that a human personality can have three different variants - "a face, a visage, and a guise" - empowers the artist to emphasise Rodion Raskolnikov's transformations. One of the first illustrations features the young man's profile, a barely traced outline on a white sheet: stubble on the chin, a skein of tangled hair over the forehead, the eyes half-closed, he is completely self-absorbed. This is Rodion's human face. In the next illustration, we see a face that appears to consist of two parts - the young man's face morphs into an ugly mask: "This is Raskolnikov's guise, a split Raskolnikov. What is this? A split face does not necessarily spell out an end. Raskolnikov is divided. But this is already close to a guise, this is like a split mirror,"[20] wrote the artist about this illustration. In his commentary on another illustration, called "Arithmetic", Neizvestny writes: "What is arithmetic in this novel? ... Raskolnikov dreams. Although his dreams can be considered as somewhat false. [He dreams] that having killed the old woman he will be able to provide for himself as a talented person - not a louse but a genius - and thus bring happiness, through himself, to humankind and even to people close to him. In his estimate, by killing an old woman who nobody needs or cares about and making many people happy, he takes a positively reasonable and beneficial step. This is what arithmetic is about. This is what drives revolutions, killings, and great bloody reformers. Everyone starts with an estimate. But Dostoevsky in this novel (and his novel is like a laboratory flask, like a laboratory where an experimental form, perceivable by reason, of such acts is carried out) learns the implications of this bivalent logic ... It is as if he established a diagnosis for present-day terrorism too."[21]
As for the idea of dialogue itself, in Neizvestny's art, it translates into the imagery of arguing "doubles". This composition features what looks like a clash of two male profiles facing each other, nearly identical except that one man holds an axe and the other a cross. Between these two profiles, there is a smaller man's head - and we understand that this argument is taking place inside this small-sized human head. The disputants are far bigger than the little man himself. In fact, this is a dispute between the axe and the cross, violence and faith, murder and life.
"An infinite dialogue" is how Neizvestny characterized the novel "Crime and Punishment": "Dostoevsky's antinomy is like an endless game of Yes or No. His novel is an endless dialogue: God exists - God doesn't exist, killing is OK - killing is not OK ... Dostoevsky does not give an answer."[22] And doubles arguing with each other are the visual metaphor of this dialogue: the dialogue of "narrow-minded positivism"[23] and the mind of a believer, with no end in sight. In one of his interviews Neizvestny would say: "Dostoevsky's strength is in his ruthlessness"[24]. So, does the artist suggest that this inner dialogue turns out to be ruthless and endless?
Arguably, this is not so. Neizvestny's illustrations to Dostoevsky's novel not only reflected the hopes of our nation's artists of the 1960s, but also continued the Humanist tradition originating in the Renaissance era. Virtuosity in drawing, bold composition and visual expressiveness impress on the viewer the artist's profound conviction that evil and powerful forces that seem to have such a potent grip over human consciousness can be contained. Neizvestny believes that the human spirit can get the better of "the split of [a person's] own consciousness" and stay on the side of goodness. And, paradoxically, through the endlessness of this ruthless dialogue there appears an image glorifying the human being's holistic nature.
Since 1994, a smaller-sized replica of this statue has been used as the prize for the annual Russian TEFI national broadcasting award.
Yuri Fyodorovich Karyakin (19302011) was a philosopher, writer, literary scholar and public figure.
Yuri Karyakin's books Re-reading Dostoevsky (Perechityvaya Dos- toyevskogo) (1971), Raskolnikov's Self-Deception (Samoobman Raskolnikova) (1976), Dostoevsky on the Eve of the 21st Century (Dostoyevsky i kanun XXI veka) (1989), and Dostoevsky and the Apocalypse (Dostoyevsky i Apokalipsis) (2009) are valuable contributions to Russian Dostoevsky scholarship.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (Problemy poetiki Dostoyevskogo) (Moscow: Sovetskiy Pisatel, 1963).
Ernst Neizvestny's interview "How I Illustrated Dostoevsky" (Kak ya illyustriroval Dostoevskogo) (from A.M.Kulkin's archive). Last accessed on Aug. 19, 2021. (Hereinafter referred to as "the Neizvestny interview".)
Thanks to Karyakin's ministrations, the portfolio (series) of 12 compositions was published by the Italian publishing house Giulio Einaudi Editore.
Quoted from: Per Dalgaard, "Neizvestny's Dostoevsky Illustrations: Bakhtinian Polyphony Applied to Visual Art," Russian Language Journal 136-137 (1986): 133-146. Last accessed on Aug.19, 2021.
Anatoly Mikhailovich Kulkin (19282014) was a philosopher, a staffer at the Novy mir magazine, an editor at the Nauka publishing house. He was Yuri Karyakin's fellow student at Moscow State University's department of philosophy and a friend of Ernst Neizvestny.
Dante Alighieri, Minor Works, Literaturnye Pamyatniki [Literary Monuments] series (Moscow: 1968).
Anatoly Kulkin, "Neizvestny, Dante and Dostoevsky," Chelovek, no. 6 (2016): 145-161. For an expanded version of Kulkin's memoir. Last accessed on June 24, 2021.
The Neizvestny interview.
This image was featured on badges produced for a session of UNESCO in 2006, which was declared the Year of Dostoevsky by UNESCO.
"Pure form" is the term used by John Berger in his description of Ernst Neizvestny's artistic method (John Berger, Art and Revolution. Ernst Neizvestny and the Role of the Artist in the U.S.S.R. [Iskusstvo i revolyutsiya. Ernst Neizvestny i rol' khudozhnika v SSSR] (Moscow: 2018), 64-78.)
Ernst Neizvestny, The Centaur: Ernst Neizvestny on Art, Literature, Philosophy (Kentavr: Ernst Neizvestny ob iskusstve, literature, filosofii) (Moscow: 1992), 111.
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. Crime and Punishment. 1969
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. "Arithmetic". 1969
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. "To Sonya from Raskolnikov". 1968
Etching on paper. 27.0 × 20.3 cm (stamp); 46.8 х 34.3 cm (sheet)
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. World of Svidrigailov. 1967
© Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. "Burden of the Murdered". 1969
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. Doubles. 1967
Etching on paper. 27.4 × 19.1 (stamp); 34.5 × 45.5 (sheet)
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. Death of Svidrigailov. 1967
Ernst NEIZVESTNY. Revenge Sentiment. 1968
Illustration |
Fyodor Dostoevsky |
Book design |
Book illustrator
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EXPRESS brand designer bracelet--multi row with magnetic clasp! Fabulous gift-- comes with Express tag with $39.98 retail price on every one!!
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Business News›News›Politics and Nation
Around 4k-5k challans issued daily since new motor vehicles act came into effect: Delhi Police
By PTI | Sep 06, 2019, 10.35 PM IST
Drunk driving, over-speeding, jumping red lights, driving without insurance will also attract higher penalties.
The Delhi Police has issued around 4,000-5,000 challans on an average per day for violating traffic rules since the day the new motor vehicles act came into effect from Sunday.
A total of 254 challans have been issued for drunk driving, 1,229 for driving without seat belt, 4,097 for driving without helmet, 1,527 for dangerous driving and 2,698 for red-light violations, a senior officer said.
Around 4,000-5,000 challans have been issued on an average per day to the traffic violators till Friday, the officer said.
Under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, which came into effect on September 1, the penalty for driving without insurance has been doubled from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 for first-time offenders and has gone up four times for second-time offenders to Rs 4,000.
Not wearing a seat belt, drunk and dangerous driving, over-speeding, jumping red lights, driving without insurance and overloading vehicles will also attract higher penalties.
A person riding a two-wheeler without helmets will not only have to pay a fine of Rs 1,000, but would also have their licences suspended for three months.


Due to leaving some magnets too near the disks we're having to make a full re-boot of th Insert-Disk website.
Our tech-elves are working away in the background to bring you fresh (well 1970's onward) geekery.
Latest Elf Update: We're up and running on the latest stable WordPress platform.
At the moment the website content is very much video based. Insert-Disk is essentially a hobby website used to share my love of video games and old tech collecting.
Feel free to have a wander around the site and enjoy the collection!


We are delighted to announce an AWARD nomination for the 'Smile!' holiday Workshops.
You can also register your interest or sign up for any of our workshops by clicking the button below the picture.
Easter 2019 is fully booked. Next available workshop is Summer 2019.
*Nominated for ' Best Holiday Workshops' in the 2019 Hoop awards.
3Theatre is a new approach to theatre education and aims to build confidence through the arts, created by Claire Doyle in 2016.
With over 20 years of performance and teaching experience, alongside extensive training at the Royal Academy of Music (London) and the Theatre School of Dance and Drama (Edinburgh) Claire has enjoyed a varied career receiving an array of accolades, including the HL Hammond Prize (RAM). In addition to her wide-ranging performance experience, Claire has enjoyed playing a key creative role in a multitude of innovative theatre, film and dance projects worldwide.
Now living in Edinburgh with her young family and regularly leading workshops for youths, Claire has come to appreciate the brilliance and creativity of young minds and the importance of confidence, resilience and positivity in their development.Claire's wealth of experience and training coupled with her desire to support and encourage young people lead to the creation of 3T – an inclusive social enterprise designed to harness the power of the imagination and spread the joy of creativity … to all!
The 3Team is made up of hand picked, experienced professionals in theatre, music, performance and teaching who guide all students through their learning journey.
3T continue to work alongside schools and nurseries and provide bespoke workshops/classes designed to engage and inspire young minds.In every holiday you'll find a 'Smile!' project and you can also catch us running classes for local after school clubs programmes.
Claire also takes on private students in the UK and America and is invited to teach visiting ( overseas) and resident performing arts students across Scotland.
In 2018 and 2019 we started to fund and part fund creative experiences for primary/secondary schools, local community groups and charities.
More information can be found by reading on or by following our creative adventures on social media or selecting the appropriate section from the drop down menu.
These award nominated workshop experiences have been rated 5 Stars by participants, parents and industry professionals.
Smile recognises a brand new approach to theatre. The aim is simple; create a supportive and creative environment in which everyone can realise their potential. Students are given the practical tools and opportunity to explore ideas, gain confidence in their ability and instincts and be inspired to work effectively towards their goals.
3Theatre prides itself on inclusivity and students of all ages, stages and confidence levels are welcomed with a smile.
We offer two award programmes. All 'Smile!' participants have the opportunity to record their journey from the workshop to be submitted for an accredited award. By recognising each student's learning journey, the aim of the award programme is to highlight personal achievement and how these skills can transfer into life and work.These awards are recognised by SQA and SCQF ( the national credit transfer system for all levels of qualifications in Scotland).
Each Saltire award/young volunteer student can also be put forward for recognition of their work and time.
3Theatre believe that the benefits of the arts should be available to everyone, regardless of circumstance.
If you are part of a school, community group, private company or charity and have an idea to create something special, please get in touch using the contact form on this site. We love brainstorming unique and inspirational ideas. To find out more about our work you can check out our Insta, Facebook, Twitter and facebook for updates and sneek peeks!
Have a scroll down to read sample testimonials or contact us directly through this site.
We are learning every day from experienced people.
I developed confidence, social and communication skills.
Thank you 3Theatre! Working with you was a creative, magical joy.
Thank you SO much to Claire Doyle and 3Theatre for the fantastic week our three children had at the Smile workshop. Thank you for understanding and letting them be who they really are!
So impressive and the best thing my daughter has ever done.
Both my children Choose ' Smile!' because Claire allows them to use their imagination to create a story,tell it in their own words and perform in a way they feel comfortable with.The pride and confidence they gain from this is immeasurable, thank you to 3Theatre for another wonderful experience!
I did it! I can do it again.I want to do more.
Claire is one of the best teachers I've ever been lucky enough to work with. Incredibly talented as a performer herself and with all of her teaching experience she's simply the perfect tutor to bring out the best in anyone who wants to succeed creatively, in any of the performance disciplines.
Smile was an enjoyable and well run theatre project, ending in a well staged and enthusiastic performance that was fun to watch. All the children seemed very happy to be on stage and they had clearly gained a lot of confidence to to work as a group. Thank you!
Thank you so much for making this morning's event such a fantastic success. The event went perfectly and the feedback was excellent. Your involvement in this morning's event was much appreciated…. Thanks to you , the children, audience and VIPs had a wonderful time.
On behalf of everyone at E Linton can I thank you for the fantastic job you did with the (students). …they loved it and had a real 'moment to remember' yesterday. Your enthusiasm was inspirational. Many congratulations. Lots of positive feedback from our parents too.
Thanks . My youngsters enjoyed it SO much and it meant a lot to them all. For some of them in particular …. it will have boosted their self-esteem hugely. For me, seeing their faces today on the stage was just great, and to watch you working with them as been a privilege. Thank you Claire!
You were brilliant… hopefully there will be further opportunities for more things like this.
The Olympic Torch Relay was really fun, and I would love to do it again but I obviously can't! I signed up for it because I wanted to get better at performing. Claire was an amazing coach and the workshops were sooooooo much fun!
The practice sessions were fun as Claire, who taught us everything, was really upbeat, enthusiastic and energetic… I'll remember it forever.
…the performance on Friday… was one of the best events I've ever been to.


The parable of the sower challenges gospel proclaimers to fulfill their responsibility regardless of the response. Jesus describes three unproductive responses and one productive response that yields differing quantities. Unproductive hearers will always be unregenerate and sometimes include the regenerate. Those producing fruit will always be regenerate.
Careless hearers fail to understand the word of the kingdom. This person parallels the lazy man or sluggard found in Proverbs. Mental incapacity is not the issue here – rather, it is a matter of the will. The careless person views exposure to the Word as interesting perhaps, but not applicable. Their "whatever" approach prohibits exerting any effort to integrate truth into daily living. Ultimately, this reveals a hardened heart. Mark 6:52 reveals that the disciples failed to understand what the feeding of the 5,000 signified. The text reads, "they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." They failed to put together that a Person who multiplies bread will watch over them in the storm. Careless hearers fail to assemble truth with life.
Often such hearers assume that what they need will be readily available. However, Jesus states that a careless response to the Word activates the devil. The Word does not sit on hard ground. The devil violently takes it away. Ephesians 6:10-18 and 1 Peter 5:8-9 teach that believers face a mortal enemy and real spiritual warfare. That warfare takes place on the battlefield of the mind. "Standing" and "resisting" both involve faith – and Romans 10:17 declares that "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Successful spiritual warfare depends entirely on being equipped with God's Word (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
Hard-hearted, careless, "whatever" hearers of the Word yield the advantage to the devil by allowing him to remove their only defense.
Careless hearers fill churches today. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that going to a building and hearing a sermon does not automatically bring spiritual productivity. The Word must be understood and applied to daily life. This means (going backward through the applications in Ephesians) employers must be fair, employees diligent, fathers godly in the rearing of their children, husbands loving, wives submitted, believers Spirit-filled, resisting and exposing the works of darkness (including vulgar communication), forgiving as God forgives in Christ, speaking only what edifies, not stealing, not sinfully angry, speaking the truth, distinct from the world, maturing in a local church, and unified in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, the devil comes and snatches the Word away.