Looking for the Wednesday Wandering? Page back for a look at what it's like to give a reading. You can also learn how I felt about this year's Bubonicon. Then join me and Alan as we attempt to discover the secret connection between the Eleven-Plus exam and rock 'n roll.
JANE: So what happens to people who don't do so well on their exams? Are they forever banned from further education?
ALAN: Well, as always, the answer is yes and no.
Things are a lot easier now than they were when I was going through the system. Back in my day, all British children took an exam when they were eleven years old which effectively branded them for life. It was called the eleven-plus and if you passed it, you went to grammar school, studied academic subjects, took your O- and A-level exams, went on to university and generally did well for yourself. If you failed the eleven-plus, you went to secondary modern school, took mainly non-academic subjects, left as soon as you could and either spent your life doing unskilled jobs or, if you were sufficiently motivated, did an apprenticeship and became an engineer or something.
JANE: That sounds horrible. Spending the rest of your life marked as a success or a failure based on one exam taken when you eleven seems very cruel. I definitely would have been a "failure." I was far from my academic best at age eleven.
ALAN: Yes – the eleven-plus exam was quite controversial. Eventually it was abandoned and the distinction between the different kinds of secondary schools disappeared. They became known as comprehensive schools. They were still streamed academically, but at least it was easier to move between the streams.
But even in the days of the eleven-plus, all was not necessarily lost. One of my lecturers at university was an eleven-plus failure. After he left school he studied part time at night school and eventually got his A-levels and went on to get a degree. However, he was very bitter about it, and it can't have been easy for him.
JANE: Night school? That term sounds as if you mean more than simply school held in the evening.
ALAN: Actually, that's exactly what I mean. The classes really are held at night, after the working day ends. This is so that people who do have a job will still have the opportunity for study. The classes are funded by the students themselves, though there is generally some funding provided by local councils, and employers will often pay for their employees to gain further qualifications.
People who are serving an apprenticeship are particularly likely to study this way – they work for "the man" during the day, learning practical skills, and they study in the evening (funded by "the man") to get more formal qualifications.
JANE: So what is the level of study? High school? Grammar School? I guess what I'm asking is do these adults find themselves going back to where they "failed" at age eleven?
ALAN: It depends on exactly where their earlier education ended. The courses of study lead, initially at least, to O- and A- levels just as they would have in the school system (remember these are national exams). So it's a way of giving people a second bite at that particular cherry.
No, I get your point. What happens after they've taken the exams?
ALAN: After taking O- and A- levels, the student can continue studying for various certification programs (again these are nationally recognized qualifications) which sit somewhat uneasily between A-levels and degrees. The institutions that offer these certifications are known as polytechnics. In the 1970s, as demand for degrees rose, many polytechnics turned themselves into universities and started offering degree courses.
JANE: Here we have something called a GED (I think that's the right set of initials) that is basically a certificate saying you have passed high school even if you didn't go to an officially recognized school. But your Night School seems different from this.
ALAN: I think there's some overlap. Your description sounds basically similar. However, the courses of study I've been talking about can (and often do) lead to more elaborate qualifications.
My father was an apprentice engineer and he went to night school and got an HNC (Higher National Certificate) in applied mathematics. However, he failed the exams for the next course he took, and never went any further with his studies after that.
He always blamed failing the exams on the war. He claimed that the sound of exploding bombs was too distracting. And given that he spent his twenty-first birthday on duty as an Air Raid Warden watching Nazi aeroplanes bomb seven kinds of brick dust out of his home city, there's probably a certain amount of truth in that excuse.
JANE: My students had a lot of excuses, none of them quite as good as bombs dropping around them.
Apprenticeships have a long tradition, even in this country. It sounds as if the process has modernized there.
ALAN: Yes – apprenticeships have a history stretching back many hundreds of years. For as far back as we can trace it, my family have all been engineers. My father was very keen for me to do the traditional thing and serve an apprenticeship, as both he and his father and his father before him had done. But, much to my dad's disgust, I went to university instead and I can't say I regret it.
JANE: Why not? Is what and how you learn so different?
ALAN: No, it isn't that different. But my degree was my passport out of the working class. It opened doors that would have remained forever closed to me if I'd followed my father's wishes.
JANE: So, why did your father reject the university approach? Were he and your grandfather so proud of what they'd done?
ALAN: It's the class thing again – "People like us don't do that kind of thing." My father and grandfather were both very proud of their skills and their achievements. But they knew their place in the class system. They knew what they were and, more importantly, what they weren't. They would never have dreamed of leading the kind of life that I've lead. It just wasn't done.
After my grandfather died, we found his apprenticeship certificate when we cleaned up his house. It had actually been torn in two and was being used to line a drawer in his dressing table! The terms and conditions were fascinating. He was paid one shilling a week, and if he was five minutes late reporting for work he was fined three pennies. In modern terms, that means that a quarter of his salary was deducted every time he was late!
JANE: That's both fascinating and sad. Did you keep the certificate?
ALAN: I've no idea what happened to it. I certainly don't have it, and I didn't find it in my parents' house after they died.
JANE: Well, now I understand a lot better why so many British rock and rollers didn't go to university, but instead ended up in trades and playing guitar. I wonder what the ramifications of the end of the eleven-plus exam have been for British popular music?
Anyone know a study on that?
As I mentioned in last week's Wandering, I decided to debut my new "Artemis Awakening" series at this year's Bubonicon. That's the new series I just sold to Tor Books. I was reading from the first book, Huntress.
Well, I printed out the first three chapters and took them with me. Since I had been working on getting enough of the second Stephanie Harrington manuscript done so that I could print Jim something to start reading for me on Monday, I didn't have time to do a practice reading.
So there I am, sitting on some weird bit of hotel furnishing at the front of the room, checking out the lighting. Yep. No way I can do this without my magnifiers… Oh, well.
I'm always horribly embarrassed, but the audience was pretty patient.
So you'll need to ask the people who were there what they thought of the story. I do want to thank the large number of people who came. The turnout was really quite flattering, especially since registration had been open a bare two hours. Moreover, I was reading right when the Art Show opened, opposite both another reading and another panel. So, thanks for making the effort. I did notice.
Bubonicon this year was at a new, larger hotel. This created a distinct disconnect for those people like me who have been going to the convention since it was so small that it only had two tracks of programming (they're up to five). The tracks were basically a room with panel discussions and a room for readings. I rather liked when the convention was that small. For one thing, you could talk to just about anyone you met and be certain that you'd been at the same events. That just doesn't happen now.
Still, Bubonicon remains solid gold as a convention where a lot of people attend programming. I've talked to friends "back East" who joke that it's a successful panel if the audience outnumbers the panelists. That's never a problem at Bubonicon. This year I was only on two panels, but both of them were in the same huge room and both of them were filled front to back. True, I was on the panels with some heavy hitters (Brandon Sanderson and Carrie Vaughn for both) but my solo talk on writing series endings drew somewhere between eighty and ninety people – and that's a rough and possibly conservative estimate.
In fact, the con chairs commented that Bubonicon was one of the rare conventions where the Opening Ceremonies are standing room only.
One of the events Jim and I went to as audience members was the Artist Guest of Honor's presentation. This year we were blessed with a versatile, talented, and very funny Artist GOH in Ursula Vernon. I love artist presentations because these are creative people who tell their stories in a different way. Those of you who know Ursula Vernon's work (and I'm sure many of you do, as she's up for a Hugo this year) know she is also a writer. Those communications skills meant that she was able to talk about her process in a manner that non-artists could follow easily – without, I think, dumbing it down for those who are fellow practitioners.
Jim and I got a bonus from attending. After the Mass Signing – (thanks to all of you who dropped by, especially to those of you who were excited to see Changer and Changer's Daughter available again) – we went out to grab a quick dinner before going to the costume contest. We saw Ursula walking with her partner, Kevin, ahead of us on the sidewalk. I'd wanted to thank Ursula for agreeing to pour at the Afternoon Tea and to tell her how much I liked her presentation, so I called out. The four of us ended up going searching for the elusive Pei Wei restaurant and, failing to find it (we stopped two blocks short), we ended up at a Japanese steakhouse.
Yeah… It was a good convention. Maybe next week I'll talk about the return of Bill Scott… But that would lead me into one of those crazy discussions about writing and characterization, so I'll save it. Let me know if you're interested! And if you have any thoughts about this year's Bubonicon, I hope you'll post them in the comments. Like I said, the convention has gotten so big, I feel as if I'm missing most of it!
If you missed the Wednesday Wandering, do page back! I'm talking about a new series I'm writing for Tor Books. But do come back and join me and Alan as we discuss just how exams work — or at least how they should.
JANE: Now that I know what those "level" exams are, I admit to curiosity as to how the exams actually work.
ALAN: The structure of the British exams is quite interesting. Invariably, they are essay questions. Even the scientific exams which, by their very nature, involve mathematical calculations still generally require discursive answers. And there is no such thing as a single correct answer. If you can justify your answer you will get the mark even if what you said was not what was on the question setter's mind when the question was devised.
My chemistry teacher was one of the official GCE markers (though not for his own students, obviously). I well remember that he was marking a paper where the question had asked the examinee to devise a chemical reaction for producing hydrogen gas. The answer that one candidate presented was weird and convoluted and my teacher was sure it was absolute nonsense. Nevertheless, he set up an experiment and tried the student's answer out. Much to his surprise, it did actually work. The yield was abysmal (the reaction was not efficient) and nobody in their right mind would ever use it. But nevertheless it worked. The student got the marks.
JANE: It's wonderful that the teacher actually did the experiment. That's devotion!
ALAN: So you can see why I'm quite uncomfortable with the idea of exam questions that expect unequivocally right (or wrong!) answers. Generally speaking, there is no such thing. I positively despise multi-choice exams because they encourage that way of thinking. The only advantage that multi-choice exams seem to offer is that they are easy for the teacher to mark. And that should be the very last thing on the teacher's mind. The job of a teacher is to teach, to encourage students to understand the subjects they are studying, not to rote-learn facts.
Any fool can learn to chant that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides of a right angle triangle. It's just a magic spell, right?
JANE: It isn't? Seriously, I get your point. All three of them on a triangle. Go on.
ALAN: But it takes real understanding to derive Pythagoras' Theorem from first principles or to calculate the length of the shortest side given the lengths of the other two, showing all your working along the way of course. Any British candidate who answered that last question by providing only the length of the shortest side would get only partial marks. You must demonstrate your understanding and show all the steps along the way to the answer. Nobody gives a monkey's what the calculated answer really is. Even if you get the answer wrong (because you made an arithmetical error), you'll still get the marks if your working shows that you knew what you were doing.
Such exams are hard to write and even harder to mark. But students who work under this discipline emerge with a greater appreciation and understanding of their subjects than do students who merely regurgitate isolated facts parrot-fashion in response to (often ambiguously phrased) multi-choice rubbish.
The only honest answer to most multi-choice exam questions is "Who cares?" If you need a fact, look it up.
JANE: Mostly, I agree. However, I will argue that sometimes you can't look a fact up because you don't know where to start. I think this is where rote memorization comes in – it provides a foundation.
I'm a lousy speller – a direct result of being a fast "by the shape" reader. When I was a kid, I was often told "look it up," when I misspelled a word. I'd get furious because I couldn't look the word up because I didn't know how to spell what I was looking for.
But I wander… What was your hardest exam? Did it have a letter or number?
ALAN: My degree exams were the hardest I've ever taken. Erudition flowed in a never-ending stream from my brain, down through my arm and dripped out of the end of my pen onto the paper. I ended up with a lower second (the people's degree!) though I think I deserved an upper second. Oh well, never mind – I was a bit unlucky with the choice of questions. Our Organic Chemistry Professor had two questions on the final paper. Normally the prof only got to set one question. But he was new and flexing his muscles a bit. And his questions were in my weakest areas.
JANE: A lower second degree? You've lost the American again.
JANE: I am not going to ask why there was a goat on campus… Or why you couldn't walk on the grass. I am glad to hear that if you've worked hard, they try to make sure you get your degree. I've heard some nasty stories here about students forced into eternal student-status by an autocratic professor or department.
ALAN: No – that simply can't happen.
JANE: There are places where that happens here, too, but not usually on a college campus. Maybe it's because American lawns are younger and more vital.
I've sold a new series to Tor Books. The series title is – as you may have guessed – "Artemis Awakened." The working title for the first book is Huntress.
"A world forgotten, a world rediscovered, a world awakening – with consequences that will embrace the entire Universe.
"When Adara the Huntress and her puma demiurge, Sand Shadow, rescue off-planet archeologist Griffin Dane from his wrecked space shuttle, Adara knows she's getting into trouble – she just has no idea how much or how far reaching that trouble will be, nor that it will involve the awakening of forces thought forever dormant.
"The residents of the planet Artemis have not forgotten their long-ago heritage as a pleasure planet, nor the violent assault that ended with the slaughter of the elite 'seegnur' and the 'death' of any machinery more sophisticated than a simple grist mill.
"Seeking the means to get Griffin in contact with his orbiting ship, a small group sets off to Spirit Lake where the enigmatic Old One Who Is Young resides in what is one of the few technological facilities that was not bombed to rubble. Is the Old One the friend that Adara and her mentor, Bruin, believe him to be? What is behind his obsessive interest in the things of the past?
"Complicating matters is the growing romantic tension between Adara, Griffin, and the third member of their company – Terrell the Factotum. Terrell feels he owes the debt of his life to Griffin, while at the same time he deeply resents the other man as competition for Adara's affections.
As with most proposals, this barely scratches the surface, but I hope it gives you some feeling for the project. In response to a couple of separate requests (thank you, Dominique; thank you, Jim) I'm going to break my usual reticence about a work in progress and read from the first couple of chapters this Friday at Bubonicon (5:00 pm, Acoma room). I know it's early in the convention, but maybe some of you will be able to be there.
The novel is about half-written and I plan to get back to it as soon as I finish the sequel to Fire Season – hopefully in just a few days. I'm eager to be back on Artemis… I hope some of you will join me there.
TT: Give Me and O! Or an A!
Looking for the Wednesday Wandering? Just page back and take a look at why I think writing for kids is as hard – or maybe even harder – than writing for adults. Than join me and Alan while he explains the mysteries of the British exam system.
ALAN: Actually the phrase "level exams" isn't used as such. I think you are probably referring to the national qualification exams that British children take at ages 16 and 18. In my day they were called O-level and A-level exams (Ordinary and Advanced) though I believe the names have changed a bit since I took them. Nowadays O-levels have largely been replaced by GCSE exams (General Certificate of Secondary Education) which is a slightly more pompous name for essentially the same idea.
JANE: Hmm… If the names have been changed, Harry Potter's "Owl" levels must evoke the older exam. Would kids have gotten the joke?
ALAN: Probably not – it's been about 25 years since O-levels turned into GCSEs. Though by a strange coincidence, I recently discovered that there is a move afoot to re-introduce O-levels and scrap GCSE. Quite what this would involve is not yet clear to me.
JANE: So these are national exams. Interesting.
ALAN: Yes – these are government-run exams which lead to a nationally recognised qualification that is useful for putting on a CV (you'd call a CV a resume).
JANE: Excuse me, sir, I'd call a C.V. a curriculum vitae! In my profession (before I became a good-for-nothing writer), we used C.V.'s, not resumes. Jim also uses a C.V. I wonder where the split is?
ALAN: Oh I'm so pleased! I thought the CV had completely died out in America. I'm glad to find out that I'm wrong.
JANE: It isn't all that common. I remember listening to Sting's song "Epilogue: Nothing 'Bout Me" with a friend… There's a line in which Sting mentions checking his "C.V." My friend said, "What's a C.V., anyhow?" So it's not exactly common outside of the more academic professions.
ALAN: Anyway, in order to make such an unwieldy thing as a national exam easier to manage, the country is divided into several autonomous educational regions and each region administers its own exams.
When I was 16 I took my O-level GCE exams (GCE – General Certificate of Education). Most people take up to eight subjects at O-level. But I was a bit of an exception and I took nine. Feel free to call me a show off.
ALAN: And when I was 18 I took my A-level GCE exams. These are very advanced exams indeed, and after taking their O-levels, students have to specialise and choose up to three subjects to take to A-level. I studied maths, physics, and chemistry to A-level. And then I went on to university to study chemistry – not only are A-levels quite prestigious qualifications to have in their own right, they are also university entrance exams. You simply can't go to university if you don't have good marks at A-level.
JANE: Ah… That explains something that has puzzled me since I read the biographies of rockers Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood (good books, both, actually), I had a sense that there was a point where they couldn't have gone on to university, rather than choosing not to do so.
ALAN: That would be right. University study is very challenging and there are only a limited number of places available. There would seem to be little point in awarding a place to someone who is unlikely to benefit from it. So the universities use high grades at A-level as an indicator of academic ability and potential. Even so, the dropout rate is not negligible – the courses are very, very tough indeed and some people simply can't take the pressure.
JANE: Interesting. Here there is no barrier to getting a college education other than willingness and ability. As someone who has taught, some of my best students were those who came in late. It would have been a pity if they'd been shut out based on not being able to score high enough when they were young.
ALAN: That's fair enough – but how do the potential candidates demonstrate their ability in the first place?
JANE: As well as the grades they receive in classes and the GPA we mentioned before, there are standardized tests of various sorts: PSAT, SAT, GRE. They're not the same as the exams you mentioned because they're not government-sponsored. However, they're meant to provide a basic exam that makes it easier to compare between different schools.
ALAN: So it amounts to much the same thing in both our countries – you cannot go to university without providing proof of academic potential. Only the mechanisms are different. The ideas are the same.
JANE: I'm still not sure…. Somewhere down the line, I'd like to discuss this further. For now, I've got a book to write.
sub-genre. One thing kept coming up that really disturbed me. This was the assumption that writing for "kids" is automatically easier, that "kids" are a less demanding audience than adults. I think that this is the exact opposite of the truth.
I feel a need to define the difference between "middle grade" and "YA." Once you get beyond picture books and books for beginning readers, fiction is fit into two general categories: middle grade and YA. These differ not only in the age of the reader for which they are intended, but in structure and form.
Middle grade books usually have a tight focus that explores one plot element at a time. Because of this, they are often episodic, with a chapter or series of chapters focusing on one event, then moving on to the next. The Mary Poppins novels (see WW 11-16-11, "Not a Spoonful of Sugar" for more about these great books) are a good example of the episodic format.
YA novels are harder to define – in fact, a while back I did an entire piece on Tor.com on what makes a YA novel. There was a lot of disagreement, but I think everyone generally agreed that YA novels often focus in on characters in their mid-teens to late twenties. They are often "coming of age" novels because these years are a time when people usually are exploring the boundaries between what it is to be a "kid" and what it is to be an adult. However, that doesn't mean "growing up" is the only theme. Hardly. It's just a frequently recurring element.
By these definitions, the Stephanie Harrington books I'm writing with David Weber are solidly YA, even if the books are accessible to younger readers.
Of course, there are books that fall in between. Jeanne Birdsall's very enjoyable "Penderwick" novels are a good example of these "bridge" books. They are episodic, but there is usually a theme that ties the various episodes together. Elizabeth Enright, whose books I read as a kid and that I still love, was also very good in building this sort of novel.
Rebecca may not have had the critical vocabulary to explain to me why she found The Hunger Games exciting, but not at all upsetting, but once I'd read the book I realized that her thoughts were as sophisticated as those of any adult. Lots of would-be writers of YA make the mistake of believing that, because younger readers lack the vocabulary to discuss what they're reading, they don't have the capacity to think about the content on many and complex levels.
But they do. In fact, since a book may be their first exposure to a particular idea, I believe that young readers think more, not less, about what they are reading. Here's a personal example. I first encountered Islam when my parents gave me Marguerite Henry's novel, King of the Wind. The story opens during the festival of Ramadan – a very different concept to someone raised in a Catholic context. I mean, I knew Catholics fasted sometimes, for a day of so, but a fast that was extended even to animals? A fast that went on for a whole month, stretching between sunrise and sunset? These were very exciting and different ideas. I thought about them a lot.
Another example: Recently, Jim and I watched the very fine animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. When we discussed it with some friends, the question arose as to how different types of "bending" were passed on genetically. In the end, we agreed that the people who wrote the story hadn't really thought through that detail very carefully.
I know they will… And I'm really thrilled.
Some of you probably remember how a couple of weeks ago (WW 7-11-12, "Taking a Break"), I mentioned that Jim and I had a couple of volunteer cucumber plants growing out front. We made this judgment based on the leaf shape, the color and size of the flowers, and the manner of growth.
Based on all of this and the space we had (not much unless we wanted to give up the sidewalk leading to the front door), we put tomato cages around the plants, then supplemented them with rope trellises when the plants grew taller. No problem… until the plants started setting fruit.
The first fruit to appear started as more rounded than our typical just-set cucumbers. We raised eyebrows, but didn't think much about this because we couldn't recall if the cucumbers we'd been growing were hybrids or not.
Oh! Wait. Want me to back up a bit? Right. Many of the plants grown today are hybrids, bred for one or more special qualities. Disease resistance, handling heat or cold, flavor, shape or color, and low seed production are among the things that growers have worked toward. The cucumbers Jim and I have favored these last several years have been "oriental" varieties. We like them because the flesh is crisp, they grow well in our heat, the skins are so thin you don't need to peel them, and, frankly, because they look cool and you rarely see them in stores.
However, if you plant the seeds of a hybrid plant, you may find it has reverted to one of the "base" types. This is what Jim and I initially thought was the case with our volunteer cucumbers. We left them in, interested to see what we were going to get. Even when the fruits became rounder, we didn't give up our initial hypothesis as to plant species. Lemon cucumbers are quite round and ripen to a distinct yellow, so we knew there could be lot of variation within the species.
But as the fruit continued growing, we began to give up on our hypothesis. We stopped referring to them as "volunteer cukes" and started calling them "anomalous curcubitae," the latter word being a reference to the larger genus that includes cucumbers, squash, melons, and gourds. The first fruit kept growing, first softball size, then larger. The shape stayed distinctly rounded. The exterior began to change from a fuzzy green to something patterned.
Such was the case when Jim and I left for a long weekend visit to celebrate my mother's birthday "back East." We asked our cat-sitter to keep up with the watering and hoped for the best.
When we got home, it was after dark, but the next morning I went out and checked the plants. In five days, the fruit had changed enough that we made a new diagnosis. What we had growing out there was not a cucumber but a cantaloupe. Or, rather, I should say, cantaloupes, because at least two others had set.
This didn't seem at all impossible. We collect grey water in our kitchen and use it for the smaller beds and isolated plants. Last summer, we ate a lot of cantaloupe. Quite likely, seeds had made it into the water, landed on fertile soil, and later germinated.
I found myself thinking that this was a good omen for the summer. As I mentioned a while back, "cantaloupe" means "wolf song." You may have guessed, I have thing for wolves. How utterly fantastic to have wolf song melons volunteering to grow in the front of my house!
I'm tempted to end this with a moral about writing and never knowing what random seed is going to become a story, but I'll spare you. However, I do have a question.
Can any of you tell me how to know when a cantaloupe is ripe?
Looking for the Wednesday Wandering? Page back one and curl up with me as I share a bowl of curry and a good book. Then join me and Alan as we decipher who is what in the British academic world.
JANE: Now I have a question about your educational system. When I was reading about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, they were referred to as "dons" or was it "deans"? Anyhow, what is a don? Is it the same as a dean?
ALAN: They were both dons. A don is the head of a mafia family, and also a fellow of a university or college. I doubt if the two professions have much overlap in real life.
We don't have deans except at collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. The dean of the college is responsible for discipline. An interview with the dean as a result of bad behaviour is, I am told, much to be feared.
What's a dean in America?
JANE: At least at the schools I knew, a dean was the head of an academic area. There might be a dean for the liberal arts college, another for sciences, another for business. Deans usually had started life as professors, but shifted at some point to administration.
ALAN: Ah, I see! That sounds similar to our collegiate deans, though I don't think we have an exact equivalent, at last not in the sense of the head of something as vague as an academic area.
But while we're on the subject of job titles, I've always been puzzled by the vast numbers of professors that American universities seem to have. As far as I can tell, any member of the teaching staff seems to get called professor. Is that right?
JANE: Not quite… It works like this.
The lowest rank is an instructor, sometimes called an adjunct professor. This person can be considered a contract worker, not really a part of the department. Next comes the assistant professor. In some places, there is an in between role – the "visiting assistant professor." This person teaches classes, but usually doesn't hold any committee appointments.
Now, neither adjuncts or assistant professors should be called "Professor." This lofty title is reserved for "full professors." Full professors have years of teaching and publications behind them and have passed the complex and demanding tenure review.
Therefore, an adjunct or assistant professor should not be called "Professor." He or she should be called "Mr. or Ms."( if he or she has not completed the Ph.D.) or "Doctor" (if he or she has done so).
However, most American students use "Professor" indiscriminately. I guess they feel it's better to "promote" than accidentally demote someone who gives them their grades. Calling a Professor "Doctor" is actually a demotion of sorts, because it acknowledges only the degree earned, not the passing of the complicated tenure process.
ALAN: We only have one "official" professor per department. The professor is the administrative head of the department and, as with your professors, will have years of teaching and research experience. Though having said that, my degree is in chemistry which traditionally divides into three areas of study: organic, inorganic, and physical. Consequently at my university, the Chemistry department had three professors, one for each discipline.
Depending on their relative positions in the hierarchy, our university teaching staff are known as readers, lecturers and junior lecturers.
Not that it particularly matters, except in terms of the pay packet the different ranks receive. Most students call their teachers by their Christian name. I can't really imagine calling any of the university staff by a formal title except perhaps "Doctor" for those who were a little strait-laced, or those I met only once in blue moon.
JANE: A couple of terms that have always puzzled me are "chancellor" and "rector." The latter sounds vaguely ecclesiastical. Can you fill me in on these?
ALAN: A chancellor is a figurehead. The actual work of administering and representing the university is carried out by the Vice-Chancellor. Chancellors are non-resident and generally non-academic. Often they will be prominent people in other fields who are appointed so that the university can (somewhat cynically) ride on their famous coat tails for a while. Princess Ann is the Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, for example.
And, to answer the other half of your question, in Scotland, the Vice-Chancellor is called the Principal and often has a Rector as the third administration/management official.
JANE: And a rector is?
ALAN: Just another administrator as far as I know. There probably were religious connotations once upon a time, but if there were, they have long since vanished. Of course, I don't really understand the Scottish system all that well. They've always been a law unto themselves and I might be missing something subtle.
JANE: Well, at least we have an abundance of administrators in common. Next time I want to ask you about a term we have in common – but one I think has widely different meanings.
Sometimes books bring very unexpected things into your life. As the summer unfolds and the garden produces our daily vegetables, I am fondly reminded of how Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim brought Indian cooking into mine.
Although I was already a huge fan of Kipling's The Jungle Books, I was an adult before I ever tried Kim. What made me take the gamble was my fondness for recorded books. As I was browsing the library shelves one day I decided to try Kim, which I had avoided for some time out of a child's loyalty to my first love. The reader was excellent – so talented that Jim later suggested we buy a copy for our private library – and the story was complicated, full of twists, and just plain marvelous.
We have a couple of Indian restaurants we enjoy, but for some reason the idea of simply going and ordering a dish of vegetable curry never crossed our minds. Instead, we hunted through shelves of Indian cookbooks until we found one that we liked the look of. By now it was summer, so we adapted the recipe in the book (which called for cauliflower, which neither of us care for cooked, though I'll eat it raw) to use the surplus from our garden.
To a base of browned onions and oil saturated in powdered turmeric, coriander, chili, and cumin, we added zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and string beans. Since we were using "wet" vegetables rather than the drier potatoes and cauliflower called for in the recipe, we cut the broth, adding just a few tablespoons of liquid so that the vegetables would not singe before they started producing their own broth. The end result was both savory and spicy.
These days, we make some variation of this recipe every summer. When we have more produce than we can use immediately, we cook up surplus and freeze it for the winter. As good as the curry tastes in summer, it's even better in winter when the spices warm the body from the inside out and the reminder of summer warms the soul.
We've also made other recipes from that book. They've all been good, but nothing has pleased us quite as much as that vegetable curry, maybe because when we eat it, we join in spirit with Kim and the lama as they dine together in the shadow of Zam-Zammah outside the Wonder House in the city of Lahore.


결혼식, 촬영장, 행사장, 기업 행사 케이터링 등에 직접 찾아가 퀄리티 높은 음식을 선사합니다.
최고급 스테이크 뿐만 아니라 고객의 니즈에 맞는 다양한 음식 구성으로 프리미엄 케이터링 서비스를 제공합니다.
다수의 경험을 통해 쌓은 노하우와 진심어린 자세로 언제나 감동을 선물하겠습니다.
We offer catering services for corporate events, weddings, movie shoots, or just your everyday friendly gathering.
you'll have peace of mind that we'll provide top-notch food and service.
Recognized as one of 300 high potential startups by K-Global and ICT for Steakout's GPS based food-truck service.


21st Birthday Cakes For Female short post.
There are a amount of retailers which make cakes that could vary from PG 13 to Oh Molly! Particularly if that is your reward. Harris Teeter delivers you all of the manage in excess of you cake.
Extra key phrases are birthday and 21st Birthday Cakes For Female.


text:
U.S. Navy recruiters flood Mid-South high schools and colleges in search of recruits
U.S. recruiters visit area high schools and colleges in Mid-South
By WMCActionNews5.com Staff | October 1, 2019 at 7:46 PM CDT - Updated October 1 at 7:46 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The U.S. Navy says it's in a war for talent as recruiters visit Mid-South colleges and high schools for possible recruits this week.
They're looking for young people who have the potential to excel especially in the areas of nuclear power engineering, cryptology, intelligence and IT management.
At some locations, students can even put a virtual reality headset to the test to experience a high-speed, daring rescue under enemy fire.
The Navy says the current economy makes it challenging to find recruits.
"So right now the job market is doing very well, and though that's a very positive thing, it makes it a little tougher on the military for us to recruit folks. It makes it very competitive for us," said U.S. Navy Senior Chief Justin Nobel.
Navy recruiters say when they find the right candidate, they pull out all the stops offering signing bonuses up to $38,000 along with other benefits.
The National Navy Recruiting Command is based in Millington.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Strona z 131
A Companion to the Action Film
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An authoritative guide to the action-packed film genre With 24 incisive, cutting-edge contributions from esteemed scholars and critics, A Companion to...
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The Social Structures of the Economy
Much orthodox economic theory is based on assumptions which are treated as self-evident: supply and demand are regarded as independent entities, the...
The Handbook of Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice
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This Handbook presents current and future studies on the changing dynamics of the role of immigrants and the impact of immigration, across the United...
Consuming Life
With the advent of liquid modernity, the society of producers is transformed into a society of consumers. In this new consumer society, individuals...
Modernity as Experience and Interpretation
We are all modern today. But modernity today is not what it used to be. Over the past few decades, modernity has been radically changed by...
Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance
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New ID card systems are proliferating around the world. These may use digitized fingerprints or photos, may be contactless, using a scanner, and above...
Global Capitalism: A Sociological Perspective
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Joseph N. Cohen
The global financial crisis has challenged many of our most authoritative economic ideologies and policies. After thirty years of reshaping the world...
Search Engine Society
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Search engines have become a key part of our everyday lives. Yet while much has been written about how to use search engines and how they can be...
The Autism Matrix
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Today autism has become highly visible. Once you begin to look for it, you realize it is everywhere. Why? We all know the answer or think we do: there...
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We're so used to being told that it's the most natural thing in the world, that we are built to do this and that it's the best thing we'll ever do that when it doesn't feel like any of those things we sit there silently beating ourselves up and pretending to everyone that it's the most wonderful time of our lives. Of course, there's a million things going on - there's hormones, there's sleep-deprivation, there's the overwhelming responsibility that comes with keeping a small human alive and there's the visitors and the pandemonium and the pressure from all walks of parental theories and frankly, it's all a little too much for anyone.
Anyway, when I finally felt ready, eight months later, to share my experiences, I set up this blog. That was exactly a year ago and what a year it has been. I've been stunned and overjoyed by the response the blog has got. Sure, not everyone agrees with what I say but at the end of the day - these words are mine, they describe my experience, they are honest and raw and if, at the very least, they touch someone else and make just one woman feel less alone in the turmoil of motherhood then it was all worth it.
More than anything, I passionately wanted (and still do) this blog to be a safe place for all women, men, parents, whatever their take on raising Smalls, to be able to come and say anything and everything without fear of judgement. I wanted this blog to be a place of support. I wanted to share all my dirty, dark, gritty and wonderful experiences and shine a light on them and say, "Hey look how rubbish I am at this! Look how hard I found this! Look how cool this is! Look! Look! Look! You are not alone."
Now, it's not just a blog. Now it's becoming a network of wonderful, wonderful women who all make this a great place to be. I'm privileged to have you all on board, to have you listen, share and support. You are coming to events, you are spreading the word and we are thriving.


By buying this product you can collect up to 4590 bonuspoints.
Silovagn kds 54 typ DB, vädrad, längd över buffertar 26,5 cm, epok III.
Model: The car's main frame is constructed of metal. The buffer sheathing, grab irons, and handrails are constructed of brass. The car superstructure and numerous separately applied parts are made of high quality plastic. The car is weathered realistically. The minimum radius for operation is 600 mm / 23-5/8'. Length over the buffers 26.5 cm / 10-7/16'.
Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) type Kds 54 powder freight silo car with compressed air unloading. Former type Ucs 908.


text:
Q: Запустить дочерний процесс не повлияв на родительский Есть у меня скрипт, который должен запускаться по крону.
Коротко о скрипте: берет из моей БД значения и экспортирует их на другой сервер по средствам его API.
Суть в том что нельзя взять сразу все значения так как их очень много, нужно их постепенно экспортировать(ограничений API). Нужно брать их порциями по 50 штук.
Что я пытаюсь сделать: выборку 50 значений, экспорт по API, после этого таймаут 60 секунд, после этого запуск еще одного такого же процесса, закончить текущий процесс.
Проблема:
exec('/usr/bin/wget -q --spider --tries=1 ' . $url);
die('Синхронизация продолжается в фоновом режиме.');
Вот так я пытаюсь запустить еще один процесс. Но проблема в том что тот процесс из которого вызывается эта команда не прекращается, а ждет пока не закроется запущенный им процесс, а тот который запустился в свою очередь ждет тот который запустил он и так далее.

A: Я бы не стал заморачиваться с процессом, а сделал бы пул выборки и счётчик. По счётчику отбирал бы каждые 60 секунд нужный мне массив данных и передавал бы по API.
P.S.
Правда я не совсем понял что именно нужно передать данные или именно многопоточность организовать .

A: я в пхп не силен, поэтому, как вариант могу предложить вариант на Си
парочка функций создает полностью независимый процесс:
fork();
exec();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
McCray Named To Naismith Trophy Watch List
Kansas senior All-American Danielle McCray was one of 50 players named to the Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List announced on Wednesday, Nov. 18, by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
McCray, a 5-11 guard/forward from Olathe, Kan., is a 2009 All-Big 12 First Team member and was named 2009 Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. McCray was also named to the preseason All-Big 12 squad, while also being listed as a candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, honoring the achievements of student-athletes for their contributions on the court, in the classroom and in the community.
McCray has helped lead the Jayhawks to a 2-0 start by averaging 23.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, while connecting on 8-of-12 shots from beyond the arc. McCray was recently named one of the top five small forwards in the nation by ESPN.com. She also was named a preseason Second Team All-American by the site.
McCray is one of six players from the Big 12 Conference to earn a spot on the Preseason Naismith Trophy Watch List, joining Baylor freshman Brittney Griner, Nebraska senior Kelsey Griffin, Oklahoma State senior Andrea Riley, Oklahoma junior Danielle Robinson and Kansas State senior Ashley Sweat.
The Naismith Trophy Watch List is compiled by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors, which base its criteria on player performances from the previous year and expectations for the 2009-10 season. The Naismith Trophy presented by AT&T will be awarded at the 2010 NCAA Women's Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.
Fans can participate in selecting the winner through text messaging, which accounts for 25 percent of the final results.
In late February, the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors will compile a mid-season team of the top 30 players in the nation. In March, the Naismith Trophy voting academy will narrow the list to four finalists.
Connecticut junior forward Maya Moore won the award in 2009 and will try to become the first player in history to win two Naismith awards in high school and two Naismith awards as a collegian. For more information on the Naismith Trophy, please visit www.naismithawards.com
McCray and the No. 19 Jayhawks will be back in action on Sunday, Nov. 22, when they play host to Michigan. Tip-off at Allen Fieldhouse is set for 2 p.m.
2009-10 Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List
Breland
Allyssa
Delle Donne
Forward/Guard
Gray-Lawson
Griner
Houts
Jareica
Jaeschke
Shenise
Jantel
Italee
Marginean
McCray
Jené
Naughton
Pedersen
Ta'Shia
Pohlen
Prahalis
Brittainey
Da'Shena
Stricklen
Shekinna
Sverrisdottir
Vandersloot


text:
Government, Health
Why is there a shortage of General Practitioners?
By Peter Brooks
Why do we have a problem in recruiting General Practitioners and how can we overcome the shortage? The answer – to quote Aneurin Bevan, the Health Minister in the Post World War II Labour Government: 'By stuffing their mouth with Gold'.
In 2001 the Author Chaired a Review of the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee (AMWAC), the principal body to oversee medical workforce planning and to provide information on how to optimally match the supply and expertise of medical practitioners with community demands in Australia. The report –Tomorrow's Doctors-review of the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee, was presented in late 2002 Catalogue Records and the Reviewers also published the findings in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The important issues raised included
The Australian medical workforce, like those of most developed countries, is increasingly "feminised" and exposed to the global market for doctors
Demand for health services is increasing.
Concern in relation to doctor shortages is increasing particularly in rural areas
There should be more flexibility for entry of overseas trained doctors
There is an urgent need to increase medical student numbers
Issues of workforce practice, including role/ task substitution should be explored
Well little has changed except on the recommendation to increase Medical School enrolments, which has resulted in an increase (Domestic students) from 1,699 in 2004 to 3,533 in 2021 Medical Deans while lip service has been given to most of the other issues.
So while we have doubled the number of doctors we are graduating at the same time the number of final year Medical students indicating they will train in General Practice has fallen from around 55% in 2004 to less than 20% in 2021. So why do we have a problem in recruiting to General Practitioner, and, if they are not training as GPs, what are they doing? It seems that many are going into Specialist training which offers lifestyle (working part time) and certainly financial benefits but does little to address community needs for a medical workforce. Surely the reasons for these career choices need exploration given the dire situation we find ourselves in with General Practice.
If this is so then perhaps we need a much broader review of the role that the health workforce plays in the community, remembering that less than 50% of diseases are social and life style factors (obesity, lack of exercise, health and general literacy, education, employment) which rarely can be solved with prescription or a diagnostic test. This is not to belittle the role of health professionals but does illustrate our health system emphasis on the Medical model rather than a more holistic approach.
The recent Grattan report on Primary Health Care proffers some insights and potential solutions. The report summarises many of the issues that likely work against General Practice as a career choice when it remains one of the best ways for anyone to practice the 'healing role'. I have been a specialist all my life but when I look back at my early career when I used to do GP locums at weekends and vacation times it remains without a doubt one of the highlights. I know it is different now but I know many GPs who still enjoy their busy lives and the satisfaction they have from their interactions with the patients they care for.
The Grattan Report does recognises that payment is a key issue – What they get paid and how.
We travel around the world 'espousing' the benefits of the Australian Health System – a system that works because we have this wonderful cohort of GPs who act as a filter to Specialists and guess what! – we pay them about a half of what we pay the Specialists! Across OECD countries the renumeration of doctors (both GPs and Specialists) is significantly higher than the average wage of all workers. While in Australia self-employed specialists earned at least twice as much as self-employed GPs.
The pay gap in Australia between Specialists and GPs remains one of the highest in the world despite efforts to reduce out of pocket expenses which continue to disadvantage patients, particularly at the specialist level. A small co-payment at a GP level is probably essential. At present the thousands of dollars added to specialist bills remains a blight on the health professionals who charge these fees.
The Grattan report makes compelling reading, exposing the deficiencies of our current health system. We still have a very hospital centric system if exemplified by our politicians who at every election bombard the community with promises to build a new hospital or clinic in every local area! Most of us don't spend much time in hospitals – or at least shouldn't. But we do need services in those communities that prevent us from attending Hospitals – and of course they have blossomed during Covid as health professions embraced Digital based solutions – Telehealth and the like – and these must continue to be appropriately funded Northern Health emergency department
The Grattan Report also points out that since the inception of Medicare the health care profile in Australia has also altered with chronic disease taking up much more of the health care budget and subsequently health professionals' time. Doctors in particular, but all health professionals, need to ask what needs to be done by them and what could be done by another member of the health care team. Programs for these conditions need to focussed on prevention at every level. Why do we continue to see how obesity drives so many chronic diseases yet we baulk at getting serious about bringing in taxes on sugar content of food and drinks while the world every year gets 'heavier'?
Whilst the Grattan report proffers a number of solutions for a "New Primary Care" model I think we may be underestimating the financial and lifestyle pull of part time specialist practice on those seeking to join the medical profession. If so then costings will be significantly higher and Minister Butler may need to look at history and the oft quoted response from Aneurin Bevan the Health Minister in the Post World War II Labour Government when asked how he was going to persuade the Doctors to join his National Health Scheme and he replied 'By stuffing their mouth with Gold'.
And so he did.
Peter Brooks
Peter Brooks trained in medicine as a rheumatologist and has a major interest in health workforce reform in particular new models of care with role substitution and team care. He established the first Physician Assistant program in Australia and more recently was instrumental in the develop of a Health Navigator Program . He has been a major promotor of Digital solutions particularly for chronic disease and established the Centre for On Line Health at UQ in 2000. He is also a strong advocate for patient engagement in all aspects of health decision making and health policy issues including research integrity and use of technology in healthcare .
https://johnmenadue.com/author/peter-brooks/
Broadening the Health workforce: Assisting primary care
In a post-Covid Australia, telehealth underpins the future for healthcare
Developing a systems approach to enable patient navigation: A path to achieving patient empowerment?
The lack of integration in Australia's health workforce. There are unconnected silos everywhere.


Saturday has seen the "strongest winds" lashing Northern England too, while coastal areas could be hit by winds as strong as 70mph. "The aircraft circled the airport and landed safely".
"It's going to be another very windy one, particularly across northern England, Northern Ireland, southern Scotland and northern Wales", he said.


Parents/guardians with children registered in the above programs are being asked to pick their children up at regular school dismissal time. Please note that after-care or school staff will remain on site until all students are picked up.
All permits at SCDSB schools have been cancelled. The permit office is reaching out to individual permit holders to notify them.


text:
Principles of Radically Inclusive Judaism
Connect with the Center
Welcome Intermarried But Maintain Norms Preferring In-marriage? A Review of the Jewish People Policy Institute's Exploring the Jewish Spectrum in a Time of Fluid Identity
Edmund Case | December 1, 2016
The Jewish People Policy Institute has issued a rather amazing report, Exploring the Jewish Spectrum in a Time of Fluid Identity, a project headed by Shmuel Rosner and John Ruskay. The report is based on the 2016 Jewish World Dialogue, which involved surveys and discussions in which 715 highly engaged Jewish leaders from around the world participated. The JPPI is a prominent Jerusalem-based think tank chaired by Stuart Eizenstat, Dennis Ross and Leonid Nevzlin.
I describe the report as amazing because of the realistic and somewhat positive tone with which it describes intermarriage, and because of the great emphasis it places on being welcoming. At the same time, the report expresses a profound conundrum: whether it is possible to be genuinely welcoming of intermarried families, and also maintain communal norms that prefer in-marriage over intermarriage. I don't think the Dialogue participants or the authors of the report go quite far enough to support the genuine welcoming that I believe is needed.
The Importance of Welcoming
The main finding of the report sets up the conundrum: there is remarkable consensus among engaged Jews regarding the need for the Jewish world (1) to be inclusive and welcoming toward all those who seek to participate in Jewish life, but also (2) to maintain selective communal norms. (emphasis added)
"Twenty-five years after the American National Jewish Population Study revealed the substantial increase in intermarriage in an open society, most Jewish leadership groups strive to seed, nurture, and strengthen a broad range of quality Jewish cultural and educational programs and a communal environment that welcomes all who seek to participate." (emphasis added) (9)
The main recommendations of the report include striking support for programmatic efforts to welcome and engage interfaith families:
to "seed and support programs that reach out to Jews with weak identities and/or those whose Jewish status may be uncertain but still seek to learn and engage in Jewish life."
"[T]he government of Israel, Jewish federations and philanthropies should continue to invest, both to encourage as many Jews as possible to intensify their engagement with Judaism, and also to create a welcoming environment."
to "acknowledge those who have cast their lot with the Jewish people, in terms of behavior and self-identity, but have not yet undergone conversion and become fully fledged members of the Jewish people." (10-12)
The endorsement of the need to be welcoming to people in interfaith relationships is extremely heartening, especially considering that the report is a product of an Israel-based think tank and involved many Israeli participants. Even in the area of Israel-Diaspora relations, the emphasis on welcoming is striking: "Jews around the world expect Israel to offer a welcoming environment to all those wishing to participate in Jewish life and identify with the Jewish people." (9)
Attitudes and Norms
The rub with being welcoming comes with what communal norms are to be maintained, and whether that can be done while still being welcoming. "[N]orms are needed to maintain the Jewish people as a collective, and prevent it from disintegrating into a fragmented and diffuse collection of groups and individuals." (10)
The key chapter "Jewishness Meets Intermarriage" starts with a brief review of statistics showing high rates of intermarriage, such that "[M]ost Jews understand that the Jewish community, except in Israel, is gradually becoming one for which interfaith marriage is normative…," together with surveys showing that intermarried families have a weaker connection than in-married families to the Jewish community and to Judaism. (67-68)
Dialogue participants were asked a series of questions that ascertain their attitudes towards intermarriage. The first question was whether the Jewish community should encourage Jews to marry other Jews, whether because doing so might succeed, or to make a symbolic declaration that in-marriage is preferable. Even though the participants expect intermarriage will continue to be a significant feature of Jewish life, more than 80% believed the community ought to encourage in-marriage.
The authors note that these participants "want the community to invest in measures that according to their [own] assessment are not going to completely alter the trend of intermarriage (some might still hope that the trend can be somewhat reversed)." (68-69) The authors also note that it is not clear what the programmatic implications of encouraging in-marriage would be: "after trying to promote it for many years, no magic bullet has been found for this endeavor – only maintaining a certain communal norm, welcoming all people, and providing opportunities for Jewish learning and living. Essentially, doing everything possible to encourage distanced Jews to intensify their involvement with Judaism." (69-70)
Dialogue participants were also asked whether intermarriage could be a blessing for the future of Judaism. The authors aptly summarize the argument: If non-Jews intermarry and agree in higher numbers – "as they do" – to raise Jewish children, the Jewish community no longer "loses" Jews to intermarriage, it "gains" non-Jews and their children who become part of the community. But again, "Even as they see a reality that cannot be reversed, and even as they hear the many success stories of integration of intermarried couples into the community, and even as they hear some of their leaders celebrate intermarriage as an opportunity for growth – they remain doubtful." (72)
The authors locate the source of this hesitation in the studies that show lesser engagement among intermarried families. Many of them cannot overlook the studies that repeatedly show that intermarriage leads to a lesser engagement with Judaism and are not certain that is it within the community's capabilities to bring interfaith families to the level of engagement of in-married families. (72)
Dialogue participants were not asked whether being Jewish requires a commitment to Jewishness alone (whether religious or peoplehood exclusivity). The authors say this is a question in need of exploration, as there is a growing share of Jews who do not see their Jewishness as exclusive. (75)
The one communal norm the report addresses is Jewish leadership: while many Jews want intermarried families to be full participants in Jewish life, they still have an inclination to preserve some symbolic features that point to the advantage, from a communal viewpoint, of in-marriage over intermarriage. (75) Thus, "Jews want their religious leaders to be unquestionably Jewish, and most of them want their communal leaders to be Jewish." There is less agreement on whether a communal leader must have a Jewish spouse. (86)
The authors make an interesting comment about the "leader as role model" argument: "The question of 'leader as role model' becomes significant… only when the encouraged 'model' is an in-married Jewish family. Clearly this is what most Dialogue participants believed to be the case." This is a very clear example of an underlying attitude that supports maintaining a norm.
The Conundrum
I have argued elsewhere that it is extremely difficult if even possible to encourage in-marriage and at the same time genuinely welcome the intermarried. Expressions of preference for in-marriage risk making those who intermarry feel that their relationship is sub-optimal and disapproved. The authors recognize this when they raise the question, "What if encouraging in-marriage alienates intermarried couples – an alienation that Dialogue participants were acutely worried about." "Obviously, a strong desire to be 'welcoming'… could be complicated by a campaign to encourage in-marriage." (70) Similarly, if leaders don't see the potential benefit from intermarriage, they will be less inclined to make efforts to engage interfaith families. The authors suggest that Jewish leaders can argue in favor of the model of the in-married Jewish family "without it implying the justification of criticism of Jews who made the personal decision to marry a non-Jew" (89); I don't think that is the case.
Relying on studies showing lesser engagement of intermarried families is suspect when the community has not been welcoming and when very little effort has been made to "invest in interfaith families" with programming targeted to engage them. Again, the authors recognize this: "[P]roponents of outreach policies [argue] not that intermarriage is a blessing, but rather that with the right policies (being more welcoming, investing in interfaith families etc.) the potential is there for a beneficial effect on the community." (73)
These expressions of attitudes of Jewish leaders are extremely important; as the authors note, "[C]onnected Jews make the communal rules. It is highly engaged and connected Jews who grasp the challenges, and attempt to tackle them. These Jews, participants in our groups, seemed somewhat readier than we had expected to make definitive assertions concerning the value of in-marriage to the community and its long term interests." (72) The authors say "It is fair to suspect that had the Dialogue included more Jews of no religion, more disconnected Jews, and more unaffiliated Jews, the answers … would have been different." (71-72) I suspect the same would be true if more less- and moderately- engaged Jews and their partners were included; the leaders may be behind the rest of the community. In the report's recommendations, the authors say that the community "accepts the fact that many Jews who are important to the larger community marry non-Jewish spouses;" "acceptance" in my opinion is not a warm enough response to achieve the engagement that the community appears to want to achieve.
I do see promise if one of the recommendations of the report is implemented: to create communities of practice that will develop "best practices in dealing with the broad range of contemporary Jews and Jewish groups," "leadership training programs so leaders can deepen their understanding of the new milieu," and welcoming language and messaging in organizational materials. (11)
Definitions of Jewishness and Interfaith Families
The report includes a fascinating discussion of definitions of Jewishness that have implications for engaging interfaith families Jewishly, which I have summarized separately. One part of the discussion is particularly important.
The report identifies four aspects of Judaism as primary components of Jewishness: in the order in which they were ranked in surveys, they are culture, nationality/peoplehood, religion, and genealogy. The authors note that putting less emphasis on genealogy "fits nicely with … understanding that intermarriage is an irreversible part of Jewish life and with the cautious optimism some have concerning 'the community's ability to turn this challenging trend into an opportunity.'" But they also note that as Jews emphasize nationality/peoplehood, comfort with intermarriage could seem to rest on shaky ground, because intermarrieds currently show less connection to other Jews and Israel. One of the report's recommendations is to "create initiatives that consciously seek to enhance the understanding of the Jewish peoplehood component among all who participate in Jewish life (Jews and non-Jews who affiliate with the community)." I would only note that efforts to influence non-Jews who affiliate with the community, and their partners, will be hindered to the extent that maintaining a norm of in-marriage makes interfaith couples feel second rate.
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Bookstores or other retailers, libraries and schools can order the book from Ingram Book Company.
A Three-Generation Yes or a Three-Generation No? Guest Post by Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Judaism Is Not Just For Jews: The Lesson of Interfaith Families
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text:
Northern Portugal Wildfires
In The News, Local and International » Serious Fire News »
Replies: 15 • Hits: 1.259 • Page 1 of 2 • 1 , 2
#1 by Voltman , Wed Aug 10, 2016 7:51 am
Portugal is burning again.
"Wildfires sweep through dry Portugal forests"
"Portugal wildfires: Hundreds of firefighters tackle forest fires"
The David Hey's Collection of Railway Photographs
Calendars for all years
British Movietone
RE: Northern Portugal Wildfires
#2 by Sheldonboy , Wed Aug 10, 2016 8:32 pm
Just heard Fire Engines
The email of the species is more deadly than the mail.
http://brummiestalking.org.uk/
#3 by Cleopatra , Sat Aug 13, 2016 6:58 pm
What is happening to Portugal, the fires in Northern Portugal and Maderia?
According to the Sun it looks like Spain will be in trouble too!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1593919/ch...southern-europe
#4 by Sheldonboy , Sat Aug 13, 2016 8:44 pm
Very Sad for places like this.
#5 by Slow Jo , Sat Aug 13, 2016 8:47 pm
After fires of that scale ,it must take wild life ,and plants years to recover ,if they ever do.
Slow Jo
#6 by Voltman , Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:10 am
Burning old growth is a traditional way of promoting new growth. It happens really quickly.
#7 by Cleopatra , Tue Aug 16, 2016 6:57 pm
Yes, but it is the knock on effect on the animals I worry about
#8 by Slow Jo , Wed Aug 17, 2016 8:20 pm
See they have wildfires in california ,it seems to be happening more often now ,is it to do with global warming.?
#9 by Voltman , Thu Aug 18, 2016 7:45 am
In places that are normally cooler it might be. I think California has always had them.
Some of the fires in recent years have been started by arsonists, particularly in Portugal, even our forests will burn if we deliberately set fire to them.
#10 by Voltman , Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:49 am
There is a massive forest fire raging again in Portugal, around Pedrógão Grande, north-east of Lisbon.
Villages are being destroyed in the path of the fire.
https://streaming-ondemand.rtp.pt/nas2.s...229030.mp4.m3u8
64 people have died so far, 47 of them in or by their cars on a main road through the forest.
157 injured.
1000 firefighters, one has died.
http://www.publico.pt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40336622
http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/19/polit...r-portugal-fire
https://www.rtp.pt
#11 by Sheldonboy , Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:18 pm
Lets hope they sort it soon.
#12 by Voltman , Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:56 am
Still going, 204 injured and 64 dead.
This is a clip from Euronews.
Nightmare stories are emerging among people who managed to escape.
One of those who survived the so-called "road of death" was Mario Pinhal.
But he is mourning the loss of his wife, 40, and two daughters, aged 12 and 15. They died on the N236 in the village of Varzeas.
Mario told reporters how he fled the fires in one vehicle with his parents and Godmother, who also survived. His wife and daughters were in another car.
Through tears, Mario said leaving home was a great mistake.
"I helped my Godmother to get out of the car. I never let her go because otherwise she would have fallen.
"Maybe at that moment, I could have gone to look for my wife and daughters in some of the cars there.
"The only thing I regret was to have left home. Regardless of the efforts and goodwill of people, all I want is to have my wife and daughters back."
Mario's mother said: "Four of us survived on that road. We should have died. Nobody would miss us. But the girls died. How can I explain this?"
http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/21/opera...nters-fifth-day
#13 by Sheldonboy , Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:18 pm
64 dead, each one a sad story.
#14 by Voltman , Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:39 pm
The funeral of the fireman Gonçalo Correia was held today.
It's quite possible that he was a voluntary firefighter, they make up a large part of Portugal's fire service.
https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/pais/centena...e-pera_v1009799
#15 by Cleopatra , Fri Jun 23, 2017 5:30 am
I sincerely hope this awful tragedy comes to an end soon. I cannot imagine how frightening it must be.
As Voltman says most of the firefighters could well be volunteers like they are in the Algarve, so his logic that they could also be so in the North is very feasible. What commitment!
I recall many years ago in the apartment I used to stay in when I visited the Algarve, they added a euro to everyone's bill which went to the Firefighters - which I never objected to paying.
May those who have lost their lives rest in peace and those in hospital recover as quickly as possible!
Small Fire In Exeter Gets Out Of Control


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PDU Power Strips,Patch Panel,Patch Cord,PCI 100M Adapter,Passive Optical Component,PCI E 100M Card,PDLC Metal Cable,Passive Copper Cable,Panel Mount Adapter,Panel Wall Mount,PDLC Connector,Panduit Opticom Panels,PDH Multiplexers,Passive Optical Components,Patch Cable,
Considerations About Fiber Optic Transceiver Designing
Sunday 02 February, 2020 |
The rapid expansion of fiber optic networks, including data services measured by data volume or bandwidth, shows that fiber optic transmission technology is and will continue to be a significant part of future networking systems. Network designers are becoming increasingly comfortable with fiber solutions, since the use of which allows for more flexible network architecture and other advantages, such as EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) resilience and data security. Fiber optic transceivers play an really important role in these fiber connections. And while designing fiber optic transceivers, three aspects need to be considered: environmental situation, electrical condition and optical performance.
What Is a Fiber Optic Transceiver?
The fiber optic transceiver is a self-contained component that transmits and receives signals. Usually, it is inserted in devices such as routers or network interface cards which provide one or more transceiver module slot. The transmitter takes an electrical input and converts it to an optical output from a laser diode or LED. The light from the transmitter is coupled into the fiber with a connector and is transmitted through the fiber optic cable plant. Then the light from the end of the fiber is coupled to a receiver where a detector converts the light into an electrical signal which is then conditioned properly for use by the receiving equipment. There are a full range of optical transceivers available in telecommunication market, like SFP transceiver, SFP+ transceiver (eg. SFP-10G-SR shown below), 40G QSFP+, 100G CFP, etc.
Designing Considerations
It's true that fiber links can handle higher data rates over longer distances than copper solutions, which drive the even wider use of fiber optic transceivers. While designing fiber optic transceivers, the following aspects should be taken into consideration.
Environmental Situation
One challenge comes to the outside weather—especially severe weather at elevated or exposed heights. The components must operate over extreme environmental conditions, over a wider temperature range. The second environmental issue related to the fiber optic transceiver design is the host board environment which contains the system power dissipation and thermal dissipation characteristics.
A major advantage of the fiber optic transceiver is the relatively low electrical power requirements. However, this low power does not exactly mean that the thermal design can be ignored when assembling a host configuration. Sufficient ventilation or airflow should be included to help dissipate thermal energy that is drawn off the module. Part of this requirement is addressed by the standardized SFP cage which is mounted on the host board and also serves as a conduit for thermal energy. Case temperature reported by the Digital Monitor Interface (DMI), when the host operates at its maximum design temperature, is the ultimate test of the effectiveness of the overall system thermal design.
Electrical Condition
Essentially, the fiber transceiver is an electrical device. In order to maintain error free performance for the data passing through the module, the power supply to the module must be stable and noise-free. What's more, the power supply driving the transceiver must be appropriately filtered. The typical filters have been specified in the Multisource Agreements (MSAs) which have guided the original designs for these transceivers. One such design in the SFF-8431 specification is shown below.
Optical Performance
Optical performance is measured as Bit Error Rate, or BER. The problem facing designing optical transceiver lie in the case that the optical parameters for the transmitter and receiver have to be controlled, so that any possible degradation of the optical signal while traveling along the fibers will not cause poor BER performance. The primary parameter of relevance is the BER of the complete link. That is, the start of the link is the source of the electrical signals which drive the transmitter, and at the end, the electrical signal is received and interpreted by the circuitry in the host by the receiver. For those communication links which use optical transceivers, the primary goal is to guarantee BER performance at different link distances, and to ensure broad interoperability with third party transceivers from different vendors.
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Wednesday 15 January, 2020
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Monday 06 January, 2020


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Sectarianism, betrayal and a pig's head – The most controversial transfers in football history
by Ste McGovern 01/02/2020, 00:26
From crossing sectarian divisions to good old fashioned betrayal, these are the most controversial football transfers ever.
It's been over thirty years since Mo Johnston shockingly joined Rangers over Celtic, becoming the first Catholic to sign for the Scottish club. It was a contentious precedent to set, one that he must have known would cause serious ructions, but an important one too.
After looking back on such a massively controversial football transfer, we sought out other ones that were equally so, and perhaps even more controversial than this one:
Mo Johnston – Nantes to Rangers
To many, Celtic and Rangers represent more than just football clubs. They represent tradition, identity, and culture. Same country, same city, same sport, but two totally diverging entities in almost every possible way beyond those few shared commonalities.
In the one hundred year history of the Old Firm, no one had dared to cross that Rubicon. That was until 1989, when Maurice Johnston unexpectedly joined Rangers.
The Scottish striker played for the Hoops for three years in the mid-eighties, before leaving for France to join Nantes. After two years playing for the Canaries, it was widely assumed he would return to Parkhead, making his defection to the Gers all the more stinging.
Graeme Souness, who was the manager at the time, also signed the club's first black player, Mark Walters. "Yeah I'm proud of those signings," he recently wrote for The Times, "but I literally didn't give them a second thought because sectarianism or the colour of your skin was never an issue in our house. I made the decisions purely on football."
The decision paid off handsomely; Johnston's goals helped steer the Ibrox outfit to two consecutive league titles, after a run of just two in the entirety of the previous decade. But to this day the name Mo Johnston brings back bitter thoughts for the Celtic faithful.
Late drama, The Troubles and Big Jack almost chinning Cascarino – Ireland's greatest 1-1 draws
Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano – Corinthians to West Ham United
No one could have possibly foreseen the ripple effects that were to come when Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano arrived at West Ham United in 2006.
The Argentine duo, who signed from Brazilian side Corinthians, were considered two of the brightest prospects in football. So how, exactly, did they end up with the Hammers and not a top European club?
The answer lies with Kia Joorabchian, the agent who orchestrated the deal. It later came to light that the pair were subject to third party ownership, meaning a non-footballing entity owned their economic rights, something that was and still is disallowed by the Premier League. Their transfer was one of the shadiest in English football history.
Despite being one of the preeminent young defensive midfielders of the decade, Mascherano somehow couldn't get a regular run in the team ahead of Hayden Mullins. Tevez, though, played a key role in West Ham's survival that season, scoring the winning goal at Old Trafford to keep them up. That was when everything went to hell in a handbasket.
Sheffield United were relegated in their stead, leading the club to take legal action. Neil Warnock left the club, moaned about it at every opportunity, and also sought personal damages from the London club. The two clubs agreed £20m in compensation, although the real cost for the Blades was likely far greater in the long run.
The two players ended up leaving for Liverpool and Manchester United respectively that summer, before Tevez was later involved in another controversial transfer by switching to Manchester City after two years. The forward famously held aloft a 'Fergie RIP' sign during the club's title celebrations in 2012. Those were the days.
Ranking the top ten Premier League players from Argentina
Luis Figo – Barcelona to Real Madrid
Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned. Or, at the very least, it's a close second to the level of betrayal felt by Barcelona fans when Luis Figo left the club for their bitterest of rivals in 2000.
Unlike Celtic and Rangers before Mo Johnston, there had been a history of players turning out for both Barça and Real Madrid; 17 in total up until that point, in fact. But Figo was an entirely different kettle of fish.
Considered one of the greatest players in the world at the time, the Portuguese was naturally a fan favourite and in return he showed devotion for the supporters. Not in a million years did anyone think he could possibly leave.
When rumours were circulating that the left midfielder was going to do just that, he denied it. "I want to reassure fans that Luis Figo, with all the certainty in the world, will be at the Camp Nou on July 24 to start the season," he told Catalan newspaper Sport.
Little did everyone now what was going on in the background. Figo had signed a pre-contract agreement at the time with Florentino Perez, who was bidding to become Real's president. Polling the club's members on which player they would most like to see at the Bernabeu, he got to work on securing their number one choice.
Perez got Figo to agree to a deal that if he won the presidency the player would join Real, but if not then the player would receive one million euros. If he did get elected, however, then Figo would be subject to a whopping €26m penalty if he refused to sign for the club.
For Figo, it seemed like a win-win, as Perez was considered a long shot up against incumbent Lorenzo Sanz. Under his stewardship, they had won two Champions Leagues, but the finances were a source of tension inside the club. He was booted out by the members, leading to Perez activating the €62m buyout clause in Figo's contract.
All of a sudden it was a lose-lose scenario for the player, who had no choice to but to cross the divide in auspicious circumstances. By some accounts he had pleaded with Barcelona to pay the financial penalty, but president Joan Gaspart could not bear the thought of paying off their rivals.
When you look back at footage of Figo playing in all-white, you can tell that the joy has gone out of him a little bit. But Barça fans didn't care, they only hurt. There has rarely been more intense hatred for a player from a fan base, who infamously launched a pig's head at him during a particularly fraught Classico.
He still has not been forgiven.
Kaka, Ronaldinho & Zidane – The maddest attempted transfers in Premier League history
Sol Campbell – Tottenham Hotspur to Arsenal
Could you have imagined Alan Shearer moving from Newcastle United to Sunderland? Or countenanced Steven Gerrard leaving Liverpool for Manchester United? It is simply unthinkable, and yet the equivalent transfer occurred down in north London in 2001.
When Sol Campbell left Spurs for Arsenal 18 years ago, it caused a huge furore among the Lilywhites faithful, who still feel the sting of betrayal to this day. The centre-back had come through Spurs youth academy, played for the first-team for nine years, four of which he was captain, and had even said at one point that he would never play for the Gunners.
2001 @SpursOfficial fans show their disgust at former player Sol Campbell #THFC #JUDAS pic.twitter.com/UgoAHeigbn
— Spurs Nostalgia (@thfcnostalgia) October 6, 2014
With no Champions League football forthcoming at White Hart Lane, however, he crossed battle lines and joined up with the enemy. The whole thing was a bit cloak and dagger, as the transfer only became public knowledge when Campbell was presented to a bewildered and shocked press core.
The defender went on to win two Premier League trophies and two FA Cups with Arsenal. But the worst bit for Spurs? He left for nothing.
Five of the best free transfers in Premier League history
Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev – Terek Grozny to Beitar Jerusalem
So far we've covered sectarian divisions, shady dealings, and good old classic betrayal, but none of them compare to the unadulterated racism that made this transfer one of the most controversial of all time.
Beitar Jerusalem is a bastion of Israeli nationalism and the country's right wing. Their home crowd can be heard chanting "here we are, we're the most racist club in the country" or "Death to Arabs" at games.
It shouldn't be a huge surprise, then, that there was such a vociferous reaction to the news that two Muslim Chechen players would be joining the club in 2013. The supporters reacted with a banner that read "Beitar will always remain pure".
This was the environment Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev were stepping into when they joined Beitar six years ago. When they signed for the club, who have never signed an Arab player, they were met with verbal abuse and spat at. The backlash reached it's dire zenith when the organisation's offices were torched in an arson attack.
When Sadayev scored his one and only goal for the club, hundreds of hardcore fans walked out. He played seven games for the team, while Sadayev only play once, before leaving. The saga was captured brilliantly by the Guardian:
In more recent years, the club renamed itself Beitar Trump Jerusalem after the US president established an embassy in the city, and following the signing of a player called Ali Mohamed fans claimed on social media that they wanted to change his name, even though he was Christian and not actually Muslim.
Read – Five high-profile transfers that famously collapsed at the very last minute
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ArsenalBarcelonaBeitar JerusalemCarlos TevezCelticChelseaJavier MascheranoLiverpoolLuis FigoManchester UnitedRangersReal MadridSol CampbellTottenham HotspurWest Ham United


Hello, February! | Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs..
That cold weather must really have been very limiting. Good finally you were able to get out. Being opposite end of the seasons my goal is to order and stack firewood for Feb. Plus try and get the struggling dry vegie garden to survive a little longer!
I always start thinking of gardens in February – hopefully you get yours to survive! 🙂 I know the struggle well. It was pretty limiting for me – with my little guy we couldn't go out. He is too teeny for that level of cold! Thank goodness it has passed!
Love the pics! And Joe's Hamburgers sounds like a pretty good place! Your winter hike sounds awesome, and the bonfire too. I love a good bonfire when it's cold out! And the owl- how awesome is that? Glad you guys got to enjoy nature a bit. I'm still feeling a little cabin fever from that weather last week!
You really got hit with a doozy of a storm. You were so calm and collected. I would have freaked out at the thought of losing power. I'm glad you got a reprieve that following weekend.
I think I need to make a list of lists in my BuJo. I want to have monthly goals, mostly for crafting. I did at least get two done for January but the paper did engulf me a bit as the artist in me can't rush art.
I was kind of freaking out. LOL. I had my husband pick up an electric space heater just in case the heat went out. I would not have slept with a space heater going but at least I know Wyatt would have been warm!
I like the idea of a list of lists! I am a huge list maker too. You are right though, you can't rush your inner artiste! My mom tried to teach me to crochet the other night. I was so terrible. My fingers and brain are not connected, I don't think. Lol.
It was an amazing pie! People line up out the door every weekend for a pie from Kate's. 🙂 It was my first one ever and I loved it.
I hope your month is going well too!
Oooh, snow moon. I love that!
I know right! Next month is not as cool – the Worm Moon. Lol.


text:
Tangled Up in Blue : Policing the American City
by Rosa Brooks
Named one of the best nonfiction books of the year by The Washington Post
"Tangled Up in Blue is a wonderfully insightful book that provides a lens to critically analyze urban policing and a road map for how our most dispossessed citizens may better relate to those sworn to protect and serve." --The Washington Post
"Remarkable . . . Brooks has produced an engaging page-turner that also outlines many broadly applicable lessons and sensible policy reforms." --Foreign Affairs
Journalist and law professor Rosa Brooks goes beyond the blue wall of silence in this radical inside examination of American policing
In her forties, with two children, a spouse, a dog, a mortgage, and a full-time job as a tenured law professor at Georgetown University, Rosa Brooks decided to become a cop. A liberal academic and journalist with an enduring interest in law's troubled relationship with violence, Brooks wanted the kind of insider experience that would help her understand how police officers make sense of their world--and whether that world can be changed. In 2015, against the advice of everyone she knew, she applied to become a sworn, armed reserve police officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department.
Then as now, police violence was constantly in the news. The Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum, protests wracked America's cities, and each day brought more stories of cruel, corrupt cops, police violence, and the racial disparities that mar our criminal justice system. Lines were being drawn, and people were taking sides. But as Brooks made her way through the police academy and began work as a patrol officer in the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods of the nation's capital, she found a reality far more complex than the headlines suggested.
In Tangled Up in Blue, Brooks recounts her experiences inside the usually closed world of policing. From street shootings and domestic violence calls to the behind-the-scenes police work during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential inauguration, Brooks presents a revelatory account of what it's like inside the blue wall of silence. She issues an urgent call for new laws and institutions, and argues that in a nation increasingly divided by race, class, ethnicity, geography, and ideology, a truly transformative approach to policing requires us to move beyond sound bites, slogans, and stereotypes. An explosive and groundbreaking investigation, Tangled Up in Blue complicates matters rather than simplifies them, and gives pause both to those who think police can do no wrong--and those who think they can do no right.
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Tangled Up in Blue (Paperback)
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Publisher: Penguin Press
Publish Date: February 2021


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When we talk about decongestant drugs, we generally refer to all those active ingredients used in medicine to combat nasal congestion.
Nasal congestion is a symptom of many respiratory disorders and is characterized by inflammation of the nasal mucosa accompanied by vasodilatation, swelling and accumulation of mucus. You can also find out a cure for your nasal problems in Perth. Visit their clinic to find out more.
The main causes of the stuffy nose may be in pathological conditions, such as colds, allergies, nasal polyps, and sinusitis. Nasal congestion can create more or less marked situations of discomfort, for this reason – besides the treatment of the primary cause that caused the symptom – it may be useful to resort to the use of decongestant drugs that can give relief to the patient.
Phenylephrine (Tachifludec), this active ingredient is available in pharmaceutical formulations for topical use which is for oral use. In addition, phenylephrine is also used in ophthalmology, where it is used as a mydriatic agent.
Naphazoline (Rinazina, Imidazyl Antihistamine, Eye Drops Alpha, Indaco); Naphazoline is used as a decongestant of both the nasal mucosa and the ocular mucosa, for this reason, it is available in pharmaceutical formulations such as nasal sprays and eye drops.
Xylometazoline (Actigrip nasal, Otrivin, Argonne nasal decongestant), also, in this case, xylometazoline is an active ingredient used as both nasal and ocular decongestant.
Oxymetazoline (Actifed nasal, Vicks Sinex). Most of these decongestants can be found in pharmaceutical preparations either alone or in combination with other active ingredients with properties similar to them, or in combination with an antihistamine, antibacterial or antipyretic drugs (such as paracetamol).
As stated above, the decongestants commonly used are agonists of alpha-1 adrenergic receptors. Thanks to their activity, these active ingredients are able to induce constriction of the smooth muscle of the blood vessels present in the nasal mucosa. In doing so, the decongestants reduce the local blood flow, thus decreasing the swelling that characterizes the state of nasal congestion and favoring the patency of the upper airways.
Generally, decongestant drugs are well tolerated and cause side effects in rare cases. However, the main side effects that may occur are headache, hypertension, tachycardia, and insomnia. Moreover, following the abuse and the use for long periods of time of the aforementioned decongestant drugs, a sort of paradoxical effect can occur that causes a worsening of the symptoms of the closed nose.