How can I pass information from my bootloader to my main program?
Since a bootloader and an application program have access to the same data memory, passing values from one to the other is quite simple.
If you write to bootStatus in the bootloader, you can read that data in the main program.
Beware however, if the main program initializes the area of memory in which the data variable is located, you will not be able to retreive the information. To avoid this possibility, disable data initialization in your main program, and enable it in the bootloader only.


CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan -- As a young boy, Cpl. Robert C. Richardson III was taught the value of being able to fix things with his own two hands. He was only 12 when his father taught him to weld, and at 13 he received his first chainsaw.
Richardson, a machinist with Maintenance Repair, General Support Combat Logistics Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, put his skills to good use recently here when he helped 1st Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company, CLR-2, construct sickle sticks, a tool used by EOD teams to locate and identify improvised explosive devices.
"When (insurgents) bury wires, they dig a trench and then lay the wire in so we needed something that would be able to find that edge and help us see that definite drop of the sickle in the ground," said Sgt. Daniel Bocksnick, EOD assistant team leader with 1st EOD Company.
Bocksnick, a native of Kalispell, Mont., said to construct the sickle sticks the unit purchased collapsible aluminum poles that do not twist or bend and expand to about 12 feet long. At the Intermediate Maintenance Activity maintenance repair lot, Richardson took measurements and designed a sickle, or hook, to specially fit the poles.
Richardson hand-drew the design for the sickles, then transferred the drawing to design software used with the shop's jet-machining center, a machine that uses a mixture of water and abrasives to easily cut through metal.
Bocksnick said because EOD Marines have to carry extra equipment, it helps to make gear as lightweight as possible.
Sgt. Robert Miller, motor transportation chief for 1st EOD Company, said it was also important the sickles were strong and had good curvature.
"Some of the initial (sickles) we had were having trouble digging in the (ground) because the dirt is packed harder here than say at the Twentynine Palms, (Calif.) training area, so it was becoming an issue," said Miller, a native of North Jackson, Ohio.
Richardson designed the new sickles with an angle so that a Marine could scrape them on the ground without digging too deep into the dirt. The exaggerated curvature allows for greater sensitivity and nimbleness when being used.
"They have been working great out on the training lanes," said Miller.
Richardson produced 30 sickles for EOD, who uses them at the IED training lanes here and on missions throughout Helmand Province.


text:
Mad Times
"To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart." - Wendell Berry
PF: Neglect
Posted by jeffy at 05:45 PM in Photo Log | Comments (3)
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. The mainstream literary world has a tendency to ghettoize genre fiction, classifying it as fundamentally slight in comparison to "serious" fiction. As someone who reads "mainstream" fiction as well as "genre" fiction, I'm in a position to recognize that there are at least as many artfully written books in SF as there are outside of it. Being aware of this form of literary bigotry in others allows me to recognize it in myself when it comes to other genres. Like romance. I have caught myself slipping into a dismissive tone when the subject of romance fiction comes up. In an effort to cure myself of this malady, I asked my sister-in-law Rachel to suggest a few good romances for me to read. She gave me a stack of four books as a sample and I read this one first since it was due back to the library first.
Minerva Dobbs is an actuary with a weight problem: she thinks she's fat. We meet her in a bar as she is being dumped by her current boyfriend, David. It's immediately clear to the reader that David is a jerk and she's better off without him. Still, rejection is painful and Min seeks solace with her two girlfriends, the sweet traditional blonde Bonnie and the independent fiery redhead Liza. On the "get back on the horse" theory, her friends cast around the bar for Min's next conquest and their eyes alight on Calvin Morrisey. Cal is your basic god among men. He's a fabulous babe. Min is intimidated, but after some alcoholic persuasion she moves across the room towards the hunk where she overhears part of the male side of this drama. It seems that Cal has just made a bet that he can bed Min. What she doesn't hear is that it's her ex, David, inciting the bet and that Cal doesn't want to take it but instead bets that he can take her to dinner. The other confusion is that Min thinks the bet is for $10 (which the dinner bet is), but the bedding bet (or non-bet depending who you ask) is for $10,000. Min retreats, Cal advances, she decides to play him a bit (she needs a date for her sister's wedding at the end of the month) so they go to dinner and have a dreadful time. And things move on from there.
So there's big cliches here, but Crusie puts in some interesting twists. I liked that Min knows there's a bet since it completely changes the usual bet storyline. What makes the book a hoot to read are the interestingly neurotic characters (and their interestingly psychotic exes and parents). The book is close to 80% dialogue and it's fun snappy dialogue. I suspect it's not a spoiler to say that Cal and Min end up together, and while I pretty much assumed this would be the case from the beginning, there are enough ups and downs to make it somewhat ambiguous.
There's lots of thematic subplots. The psychological theory of relationships is contrasted with the fairy tale theory. Issues about female body image and food. Chosen families vs. birth families.
This is the first romance I've read since junior high when everyone was passing around Judy Blume's Forever in a copy that fell open to the naughty bits. As an SF reader I'm almost blind to the conventions of the SF genre, but I know they're there even when I don't notice them. One of the things in this book that jumped out at me as odd was the wildly shifting point of view. We are privy to the thoughts of all the main focus characters in a way that I don't generally see in the books I read. I thought it was odd how calculating the characters were. They were frequently thinking several moves ahead in how their actions would affect what the other characters would do in a way that seemed alien to me. The other thing that struck me was that I don't think I have ever read a book with as much description of clothing and decor.
I had fun reading the book. It's very funny and the characters are people I wouldn't mind knowing.
Posted by jeffy at 03:32 PM in Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
This is the ninth fantasy novel by Robin Hobb (ignoring for now all the earlier books under her other pseudonym, Megan Lindholm). Her first three were about FitzChivalry Farseer, the bastard son of a prince of the royal family of the Six Duchies. Her second trilogy was set far down the coast in a community of traders whose ships, made from a strange substance called wizard wood, come to life. Those books examined the complex social net of the traders and the complex lifecycle of their world's dragons.
In her latest trilogy, Hobb returns to the Six Duchies and the character of Fitz. She also brings to the fore the one character who was present in all six previous books (though in disguised form in the Live Ship Traders), the Fool. The Fool is a member of a race different from the rest of the human denizens of Hobb's world. He is capable of prescience, but not only can he see the future, he can engineer changes in the future by exerting influence over certain other individuals who can serve as catalysts to sweeping alterations in the course of history. Fitz is such a catalyst.
One of the distinctive features of Hobb's world is that there is more than one kind of magic (though you could argue that they are all aspects of the same ill-understood underlying phenomenon). In particular there is what is called the Wit which allows its adepts to sense and communicate with other living creatures at an animal level. There is also something called Skill which is a more intellectual power. Neither is particularly widespread, and some people are capable of exercising both powers (Fitz, of course, is one of these.)
In the hands of a lesser writer, the dynamic duo of the Fool and Fitz could be a recipe for stories where the plot moves along by auctorial fiat. Hobb has instead built characters and cultures with a realistic level of complexity and conflict. Plans go awry. People refuse to be manipulated.
It's hard to talk about Fool's Fate without putting in a raft of spoilers for it and all the prior books. I enjoyed it as a page-turner adventure. I got impatient with some of the annoying habits and bull-headedness of the characters, but that's really how it should be and just shows that the characters are realistic. Overall, the book had a feel of trying to intentionally wrap up all the loose ends in the Fitz/Fool story arc. At times it seemed like Hobb was burning backstory like cord wood. Indeed, she says on her web page that she thinks this is her last book about Fitz and the Fool. But she also points out that she thought she was done with Fitz after the first trilogy.
Posted by jeffy at 11:11 AM in Book Reviews | Comments (0)
PF: Morning
When your idea of "morning" is 12:00 noon, this is all that's left of the donuts.
Cry, the Beloved Country at Book-It!
We've been subscribers to Book-It! Repertory Theatre for years now. We love their mission of translating books to stage as books (with as much of the language of the book intact as possible). Their current production of Alan Paton's 1948 novel is one of their best. We had never read the book, which is about pre-Apartheid South Africa. It tells the story of a collision between two families, one black, one white.
The adaptation and performances are mesmerizing and touching. It's one of those entertainments that will bounce around in your head for a long time after the final curtain and change the way you look at the world.
The show just opened and continues at the Center House Theatre in Seattle Center Thursday through Sunday until April 10th. Ticket info behind the link above.
Posted by jeffy at 03:46 PM in Personal Interest | Comments (0)
The movie named for a horse and marketed for a movie star. Viggo Mortensen stars as Frank Hopkins, a cowboy and US Army courier in the 1890s. While the movie claims to be based on a true story, more reliable sources indicate that while Frank Hopkins was a real person, there's a good chance his skills leaned more towards the telling of tall tales than long-distance horse racing. But we're talking about a movie here.
Hopkins is challenged out of a mid-life complacency into travelling to Saudi Arabia to compete in a (fictional) 3,000 mile race across the Arabian desert. He faces ridicule for the parentage of his wild Mustang from the owners and riders of the thoroughbred competitors. He makes friends with the Sheik (played disarmingly by the great Omar Sharif) and his daughter (the striking Zuleikha Robinson). Competes with the aggressive Lady Anne Davenport (Louise Lombard) and the evil Prince Bin Al Reeh (Sa�d Taghmaoui). The plot is pure Saturday movie serial. The execution does justice to the genre with lots of characters to cheer and boo, and seldom a question of which is the appropriate response.
I suspect that had Mr. Mortensen not just come off the biggest movie event of all time with his starring role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the movie might be a bit different. The character of Frank Hopkins is most interesting when he's interacting with his horse, Hidalgo, but it feels like the perspective of the film got dragged towards its popular star and away from its title character. Still, Mortensen is good enough to stand the scrutiny, and the horse is good enough to steal the occasional scene.
Posted by jeffy at 03:57 PM in Movie Reviews | Comments (3)
Romeo + Juliet
Second in Baz Luhrmann's "red curtain" trilogy (after Strictly Ballroom and before Moulin Rouge!). He does the "update the Bard" thing with Romeo and Juliet changing the setting to Verona Beach and the swords to guns.
In the documentary features on the DVD, Luhrmann states his intent of reproducing the kind of popular entertainment Shakespeare was aiming for that would put butts of all persuasions in seats. The movie feels like that, but the language is a great distancer to modern audiences. I would have needed the play in front of me to figure out what the heck they were talking about a lot of the time. Actually, that's not true; Luhrmann's far too good a visual storyteller to let you get too lost even without subtitles for the Elizabethan English (it occurs to me that you could make this into an extremely funny movie by providing (un)suitable subtitles ;-)
While it might not have been successful as a broadly popular blockbuster, it is a lot of fun to watch these actors strut and sail through the hyper-stylized sets and settings Luhrmann and his team dreamed up.
Leonardo DiCaprio is the perfect mix of innocence and passion as Romeo. Claire Danes manages to combine girlish obsession with an open-eyed intelligence that brings Juliet to life. John Leguizamo's Tybalt is over the top but manages to avoid crossing the line into parody. Harold Perrineau Jr. plays the doomed Mercutio with verve. Also notable are Miriam Margolyes as Juliet's Nurse, and Pete Postlethwaite as a tattooed Father Laurence.
The DVD is chock full of extras including an early video version of some of the scenes put together to convince the studio that Luhrmann's vision would work on screen.
Our friend Kate is a member of Seattle's Early Music Guild, a thriving organization dedicated to preserving the music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. They have a concert series every year with world-class performers of these styles. Kate was kind enough to share her guest tickets with us for last night's performance.
The Netherlands Bach Society (Dutch site) is in the midst of their first tour of the US. They specialize in performance of Bach and his contemporaries on period instruments in period style. They are joined on this tour by Marion Verbruggen, arguably the world's greatest living recorder player.
The program included works by Johann Schelle, Johann Kuhnau, Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Bach, and, of course, Johann Sebastian Bach.
But the highlight was J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 4. Their performance of this piece was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I still can't believe it. The rest of the concert was marvelous, but that Brandenburg... wow.
If you ever get the opportunity to see this ensemble, pay whatever they're asking and go.
PF: Clean
A beaver has started the work to clean away this fallen tree.
My first entry for Photo Friday.
bootleg neon
I had to post this one because the boy at the movie theatre got on my case for taking a picture in their lobby. He claimed that the studios get all bent about people taking pictures of their promotional materials. Huh? They don't want their advertising to be seen more widely? Whatever. So here you have it, stolen neon.
It's dandelion season.
Potlatch day 2
I went to most of the panels at Potlatch on day two (2/28). Here's what they were. Read on through the cut for absurd amounts of detail about them. If I had the time I'd make it shorter, but I'd rather get it posted than spend months polishing it into jewel-like brevity.
Life After the Singularity
At The Precipice: Assembling Human Space
Waiting for the Electrician
Deception Versus Transparency Smackdown
For those not clued-in to the lingo, "singularity" here means a fundamental change in the nature of humanity or society. This panel spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out what that really means. A definitive example would be the point at which computing power becomes sufficient to fully model or simulate the human brain such that a person's "mind" could be reimplemented in hardware.
The problem came in trying to come up with an example in real life. It was generally agreed that while things like the advent of agriculture or the industrial revolution did remake society, they did not result in the kind of wholesale change that SF has proposed. The nearest thing proposed was the ascendence of Homo Sapiens over the Neanderthals (or whoever it was who came before us), but since we don't know too much about how that happened, it's hard to tell whether it really qualifies.
Really, I think the concensus that was emerging was that SFnal singularities are not a real-life scenario. It was pointed out that the events in Brunner's The Shockwave Rider take much of their verisimilitude from the fact that he depicts a future where people have not changed very much at all and the world has changed only incrementally except for a few key areas where more sweeping changes occurred.
Unfortunately, accepting the "singularities don't exist" thesis would have invalidated the panel's subject so discussion continued in a more speculative mode.
Someone wondered what would happen if some subset of humanity made a jump to another level. Something like what happens in Nancy Kress's Beggars books where the necessity of sleep is genetically engineered out of some people. One of the panelists suggested that the next-wave people might not look back on those of us left behind with much compassion. The room was optimistic enough to think this unlikely (and in Kress's books, the sleepless pretty quickly begin work towards uplifting the sleepers to their own level).
This was the most dynamic panel of the day. I took copious notes even down to trying to record who said what when I could tell. Rather than spend a week trying to synthesize them, I'm presenting them here only lightly edited. My apologies if I misattributed or misheard anyone's comments. Let me know and I'll update this account.
The word "Community" appeared about a thousand times so I took to writing just "C". I think I'll leave that alone here.
I put my comments in square brackets since no one heard them but me ;-)
Opening remarks:
Ulrika:
How physical space is organized affects how people interact.
As we plan communities "are we desiging the places and the technology for community in such a way that it helps it or hinders it."
Tamara:
Community has saved my life. Use communitites as support both day to day and in crisis. Three kinds of C built, gay C, SF C, Music C. C is human, not structure. Travelled a lot growing up and think of self as a citizen of the world. Seen C used for political movements instead of family. Trying to bring the human viewpoint to this panel.
Interest in architecture and urban planning. "I know C when I see it." Precipice from Shockwave Rider vision of a village where C is part of the design assembled after a disaster as C project. Not just a single individual's vision. SR changed me because Ghirardeli Valencia Taliesin Port Marion(?) combination. Ledd to book A Pattern Language
Looking ahead, possibilities of this kind of disaster can lead to opportunites to build more environmentally. Move away from "centripital scattering". What happens when you take a bunch of kids from suburbia and put them in a spaceship? They can't relate to the tight social net of the old village model.
Had experience of living in an intentional community (Puget Ridge), one-time president of a cohousing organization.
Build places that are intended to be lived in as if they were a village. Just as one person's erotica is another's pornography, one person's cozy village can be another's hell on earth.
Cohousing is planned with mix of private and common space. Meals for whole C about 3 times a week (somewhat required). People take turns cooking and cleaning. Eco villages with clusters of groups. Or filling in a block.
Different from fandom where infrequent gatherings. Then there's Howard Rheingold's virtual communities. TNH's Making Light where single person acts as gatekeeper (and moderator/disemvoweler).
Who and what are gatekeepers of a C. What allows people to join? What prevents people from joining? Gatekeepers prevent tragedy of the commons if they do their job well. Sometimes whole community is gatekeeper. With cohousing, economics of owner occupancy sets a bar. Mix of people there already. Process of how existing group interacts. Can you have community without a formal process?
C started as need-web: those who provide the services you need, food, construction, entertainment, family ties. As tech has broken the need to address these needs in your locality, social and entertainment functions have been pried off the physical realm. Clothes from china, veggies from south america, may never see your neighbors. "gated communities".
Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg
Disappearance of coffeeshops, beauty parlors. Third Place. In England, the local pub. For me Fandom is my Local. For a lot of people that is just gone from their lives.
[Nobody mentioned the book (which I haven't read) about this, Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam.]
Any group will form C if forced like in Jail or Military. Think of internet C as being interactive. Don't know neighbors and don't necessarily want to. Holly Park in Seattle closest thing to public housing, people formed a kind of southern porch-sitting community. City trying to engineer a repeat of that that by introducing mom & pop stores etc. T doesn't think it will work because it had to evolve. (Holly Park got mowed down by "urban renewal"... Physical structure influenced ability to make it a community. Had green belt. Mostly ranch duplexes, not tenements.
[Funny that Tamara who was suggesting that she was the voice for humans being the vital ingredient brought this back to the panel premise that setting plays a large part.]
Someone pointed out that military training builds a C feeling. Ulrika says that this is a result of the training, they have sufficient commonality to be able to interact easily with anyone from the group.
Someone else says that the architecture of Military communities fosters this as well.
Bronx stoop evening conversation too.
Things being tangential to a path allow levels of interaction from meeting eyes to stop and linger to sit and talk for hours.
Puget Ridge had none of the doors directly facing each other. [I'm assuming this was intended to make the decision of whether to interact a voluntary one rather than forcing it by lining things up?]
Someone brought up Kitty Genovese, the woman whose assault many people witnessed and yet no one reported to police. Too many people heard it so everyone assumed that someone else took care of it. If it had been 20, maybe nobody moves. 2 people, both move. It's a "who's in charge?" issue. Training can overcome this.
The action of people in that kind of situation tells you whether you have a C or not. If people take responsibility for others then it's probably C. If they don't, then maybe not.
Sense of ownership/intentionality Commitment leads to Community. (the "plugin society" in Shockwave Rider didn't have that)
Brunner's Precipice is populated by Heinlein characters with multiple jobs can't stand to not be working for the group.
Investment in situation. College is a good example. Prep school where all students were part of the construction process and responsibility for all actions of community. Like Amish barn raising as in Witness where Harrison Ford's character realizes he's more part of the C from participating.
Now specialization/money-based relationship doesn't have the richness of interaction to support C.
Convention committees as example of C.
Note that Brunner missed the possibility of social space within the computer world.
Virtual Cs are different. Social contact is as much a need as food and air. Online Cs quickly spawn physical gatherings very often. Reproduces the evolution of fandom.
Some people who talk well, some who type well.
Online chat is complete social leveller for handicapped.
On the internet nobody can tell you're a dog.
They can only tell if you're a bitch.
Lived in a group of 8 houses in green belt overlooking urban blight. Needed to be a C and was. One person worried about speed on road and just built a speed bump and resulting conflict tore C apart.
We don't know how to build C these days. Endemic isolation is almost a mental illness.
Have to find ways to get along in the space stations or the global community. Fandom has some of the best communicators on the planet. Know people who have no friends. People who don't know how to even connect with one other person.
C built on single interest and can die when that interest dies. On the other hand, the give and take within a larger group gives you churn which is good for the larger C.
Church was a way that it used to happen.
[I thought that "used to" was interesting. And wrong.]
You have to be the thing. Example of woman who invited neighbors over for pancake breakfast. Model it for others. In Fandom can learn how to socialize and can learn how to build C. Active group of participants who model C.
Someone gave example from fandom where they saw impulse towards showing love to others and were hence drawn into the C.
Concept of social capital. Gift economy forces the connections that make a group into a C. Egoboo as motivation towards participation.
And yet Worldcons have started becoming more like spectator events.
There's also the problem of your life choices putting you into a situation where your neighbors form a community that you want nothing to do with. (They're all republicans, say)
(means you're in the dark.)
Eileen Gunn wanted to talk about digital publishing, specifically how her site Infinite Matrix could more effectively push fringe short fiction by established writers.
(I wanted to holler out that she should change the name to Last Dangerous Visions, but I restrained myself)
I have total sympathy for this, but Eileen wanted to make the site massively popular and self-sustaining without her having to do any work. Probably not going to happen.
There was an emphasis on the ascendence of the blog format and suggestions that fiction serialized in a blog-like format with an RSS feed might be a win.
The big question that no one had a real answer to was how to make online fiction pay.
By this point in the day my laptop batteries were running low and my personal batteries weren't too far behind. This was a wide-ranging discussion of the book of honor, John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider.
I'm sad to say I can't really remember very much of the discussion. The panelists came well-prepared with examples from the book. Someone talked at length about the hits and misses in the predictions made in the book (predictions that presumably are derived from the Tofflers' Future Shock)
Comments were made about the sameness of Brunner novels. Surprise was expressed at the revelation that the government was being run by organized crime (and someone pointed out that the surprise of this revelation can be attributed to the fact that Brunner had written about that possibility in a previous book and probably felt he didn't need to hash out all the buildup again)
Some incredulity was expressed towards the idea that the voting at the end of the book would have any very profound effects. This was explored in much more detail in the Deception vs. Transparency panel.
The concensus seemed to be that it wasn't a very good book except that it had lots of cool ideas and provided a good jumping off point for wide-ranging discussion. What more could a bunch of fen ask for? (besides a better-told story, I mean)
This one was really interesting and I wish I'd had enough juice left to take detailed notes because I can hardly remember it now :-(
I'm hoping somebody else took notes and will post them somewhere.
Posted by jeffy at 10:52 PM in Bloggage | Comments (0)
Lost Gloves in Europe
A commenter left a link to http://www.lostglovegallery.com/ with lots of pictures of lost gloves and a stated mission of reuniting them with their owners. Soon to be accepting submissions, evidently. Most are in Germany, a few in France.
Posted by jeffy at 01:15 AM in Lost Gloves | Comments (1)
John Crowley's Little, Big to have 25th Anniversary Edition
Friday night at Potlatch, publisher Ron Drummond announced plans for a new edition of John Crowley's beloved novel.
Little, Big was originally published in 1981. Evidently Crowley was unhappy with the original book design. It was good as far as it went, but he had envisioned more of a 1920s Art Nouveau thing.
Incunabula Press did a limited edition run of Crowley's Antiquities that he was happy with (no surprise since it's a gorgeous book (one copy of which sits on my shelf *gloat*)).
So Incunabula will be producing a limited edition printing of Little, Big completely re-typeset and re-designed. And with illustrations by artist Peter Milton.
Milton does engravings/etchings that could have been inspired by Crowley's work if it weren't for the fact that Milton created them before having read any of Crowley's books (actually during the same time period during which Crowley was writing them, which is kind of creepy). The book will be illustrated with copies of 13 Milton etchings as well as a bunch of expanded details from those same works. The Davidson Gallery here in Seattle has some examples of Milton's work.
The new edition will be published on a subscription basis so that production costs are covered up-front. There will be a regular trade hardcover edition of 1500 copies selling for $75, a group of 600 numbered copies at $200, and finally a set of 26 lettered editions for $800. To sweeten the deal on the $800 edition, they will be printed with a four-page blank spread to be filled in by John Crowley with a personalized inscription along with your chosen passage from the book written out in longhand. Here's a sample of Crowley's writing so you can see why this is cool.
There is a web page for the project at http://www.littlebig25.com/. Scroll down to see content (it seems obvious, but it took me a while to figure out that there was content below the fold on the opening page).
Must find more pennies.
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
I picked this off the shelf since it was the book of honor at Potlatch 13.
It's one of those books where it takes a few chapters before you have any idea what's going on. Eventually you get the idea that our hero, Nick Haflinger, is in the process of being interrogated by something like hypnotic regression. So the chapters alternate between things as they happened and expository lumps where he is conversing directly with his interrogator. Mixed in with these are shorter bits that seem meant to give the reader a better idea of what kind of future the book is set in. This approach is especially apt since the book is loosely based on the predictions made by Alvin and Heidi Toffler in their 1970 book Future Shock (Shockwave Rider was published in 1975). I haven't read the Tofflers' book so I can't say how much Brunner took from their work.
I was hoping to have gotten this review written before going to Potlatch, but I didn't manage. Now after having listened in on a handful of panels discussing topics surrounding the book, it's hard to recall what I thought of it before.
Haflinger is a computer prodigy. He is trained by a secret government agency, but he becomes disillusioned with their mission and becomes a fugitive. He successfully evades them for years but eventually they catch up with him and he has to run. Through a series of coincidences he ends up in the town of Precipice, a sort of utopian commune formed in the wake of a huge earthquake in California. From that point the plot twists and turns until a not particularly satisfying climax.
The section set in Precipice reminds me strongly of the section of Atlas Shrugged where there is a utopian enclave with a similar feel.
It was fun to read mostly for all the prediction stuff which all holds up well enough. Some stuff came true, some hasn't yet, some didn't and won't, lots of stuff that happened wasn't predicted. The fun part is in seeing what fits into the categories.
There was one little editorial blunder that threw me for a loop. It's not important at all, but since it keeps running around in my head I'll put it down here. The girl in the book, Kate, has a pet cougar, Bagheera, who's been partially uplifted (genetically engineered to be sentient). At one point Kate and Nick are headed to Kate's house and they know that Bagheera won't be there. Kate says "it'll feel strange to go in and not have Bagheera come to rub against my ankles." Ankles are what house cats rub around. I'd think a full-grown cougar would be rubbing a bit higher up, like hips. Knees at least.
It's an uplifting sports movie (sure are a lot of those) about a race horse and his human collaborators set during the Great Depression. Red Pollard (played by Tobey Maguire) is a young man abandoned by his parents. Tom Smith (played by the awesome Chris Cooper) is a down-on-his-luck horse trainer. Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) is an automobile millionaire tortured by the death of his young son. All these damaged people are joined by a horse with similar defects, both physical and psychological. Together they win races. Cue the inspirational music.
The performances are all as good as you'd expect from these actors (very good, indeed). The production design is impressive. The cinematography is lovely. The documentary-style interludes narrated by historian David McCullough resonate interestingly with current events (even if they don't fit into the film very well). William H. Macy is a hoot as the excitable radio announcer.
So why don't I like the movie very much? Mostly it's because I felt manipulated for practically the entire film. I don't know much about the psychological language of film, but somehow the folks making this movie caused me to react in a way that felt completely disconnected from my conscious perceptions. I'd be rolling my eyes at the swelling music and the sepia-toned imagery at the same time that tears were running down my face. Maybe it wasn't overt manipulation. Maybe the emotional reaction was to a genuinely touching subject while the eye rolling was a reaction to some ham-handed directing. Either way, that facet of the film was bad.
Extras on the DVD were pretty typical with the exception of a gallery of pictures taken by Bridges during the production with a cool panoramic camera I didn't catch the name of.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Child safety in schools: Whose responsibility is it?
RERA and IBC: The real solutions for real estate
Future of Arabian Gulf Security amidst New Naval Coalitions
Ashish Alex at January 2, 2020
CPPR in the News
Image source: The News Minute ( Image for representation )
Education is one of the most important building blocks of one's life. A child spends nearly 13-15 years of his/her life in school. Along with providing quality education, ensuring a safe environment should be one of the top priorities for schools.
The recent death of a 10-year-old from a snakebite in a school in Wayanad district caused an uproar in the state of Kerala. What we saw after that was a blame game between the opposition and the government; students and residents came down heavily on the school authorities while a minister accused the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). The question here is who is ultimately responsible for such incidents and what are the ways to prevent them?
From the Dabwali (Haryana) fire incident in 1995, where 425 children perished, and umpteen number of sexual abuse cases that have been reported from schools across the country, to the most horrific murder of 7-year-old Pradyuman Thakur in a school in Gurgaon, there have been so many instances where lives of innocent students have been snuffed out. Yet we are still unable to do anything to prevent such incidents. Data shows that 43 children die in road accidents every day in India. Many innocent lives were lost in a number of accidents and boat mishaps in Kerala in the past years.
At the policy level, there is no dearth of guidelines or policies to address these issues. The Indian Constitution guarantees the right to life and dignity, education, protection from abuse, and opportunities to develop as able adults through Articles 21, 21A, 39(e) and 39(f), respectively. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, have strict provisions to deal with any offences against children, with POCSO having the provision of capital punishment. It is worthy to mention that in this particular case from Kerala, the accused have also been charged under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, which deals with any cruelty against children. The same provision can also be invoked for any corporal punishment that is meted out in school. (Corporal punishments are banned across schools in India.)
The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) issued detailed guidelines on school safety in 2014, with further additions in the coming years to ensure that institutional mechanisms and procedures should be implemented in the school system along with relief and redressal strategies in case of any such incidents to guarantee a safe and harmonious school environment. Both the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations have enough provisions to ensure that children are safe in schools. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) came up with a comprehensive manual on safety and security of children in schools which is a compilation of 22 existing and approved manuals/guidelines developed by various government agencies like NCERT, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDWS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), National Institute of Disaster Management Authority (NIDM) and many more. To add to this, there are guidelines issued by specific state governments, police departments, National and State Disaster Management Authorities, among others.
In August 2018, MHRD proposed draft guidelines that fix accountability of the school management in ensuring safety and security of children in school. The provisions advocate following of the guidelines set by NCPCR as the central document and propose that in case the schools do not adhere to these, they should be fined anywhere between 1% to 5% of the total revenue that they have generated in the preceding year. In case of continuous violation, the government has been given the right to withdraw the recognition of such schools and take over its operations. However, the draft guidelines have not seen the light of day.
The majority of the above provisions target private schools. Compulsory provisions like installation of CCTV cameras in schools, appointment of a counsellor, police verification of staff and many other guidelines are forced upon private schools, while the government schools get away. Safety of children should be the top priority for schools and states should take the initiative to implement these provisions first in the government schools and then in private schools in a phased manner.
There are many challenges before us—policies are scattered; state and board provisions are not centralised; various organisations dealing with schools have no idea of how to go about dealing with these issues. A few suggestions listed below could be a positive step towards a safe school experience for children across the country.
1. All the provisions which are scattered right now should be brought as one policy document, and preferably under one agency which could be either the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights or the National Disaster Management Authority.
2. The agency selected as the primary agency should be given ample rights to take necessary action against any violation, whether it is at the government level or at the school level.
3. The teacher training institutes and teacher training courses across the country should include 'child safety' as a subject.
4. Even though School Management Committees (SMCs)/PTAs are legally empowered to take decisions, majority of the schools do not allow them to exercise it. Hence, SMCs/PTAs should be given the right to exercise their powers.
5. Schools should create awareness among parents through SMCs and PTAs about the importance of educating their children about safety and against possible dangers.
6. In a country where nearly 53% of the children are sexually abused, it is important that children are taught life skills to tackle such issues. It is also imperative to make them understand the difference between 'safe touch' and 'unsafe touch'.
7. All schools should have Student Safety Committees led by students. They should be given the authority to audit the school premises and report issues to the school principal leading to immediate resolution.
8. Many states and education boards across the country have included disaster management as a component in their curriculum. A stricter implementation of this should be given priority.
9. Once most of the schools get permanent recognition, further inspections are not conducted (except in certain states, where the fire department does demand renewal of the fire safety certificates) to check if they are adhering to the norms. In such a scenario, the government should form a District Safety Committee with the officials from District or the Block Education Office along with the local police authorities and fire station, who should be given the right to inspect schools for any grave safety breach. The findings should be used to penalise schools or take stricter action against them.
10. A safety audit of the schools (every year or every 2 years) by an external agency should be made mandatory.
11. Reporting protocols in case of any offence should be publicised across schools to make students feel empowered to report such matters to the relevant authorities.
12. Mandatory refresher trainings on child safety should be given to teachers, students, parents and support staff like drivers, peons, housekeeping staff, etc.
13.All schools should make health and life insurance coverage for the students mandatory. Both the parents and the school could contribute equally to this.
14.Schools should have at its immediate disposal emergency numbers, number of nearby hospitals or clinics, vehicles on call, school safety plans and mapping of the neighbourhood for dealing with an immediate crisis.
15. Form Child Safety Committees at the community level with Sarpanch/Panchayat President as the head of the committee. They should be ready to address any emergency situation in schools.
The responsibility of Children's safety cannot be solely put on schools. It should be a collective effort of the government, community, schools, parents, students and teachers. They should come together and work as a unit to ensure safety and security of children and not a single life will be lost in future.
This article was published in The News Minute on December 26, 2019 click here to read
This article was also published in the Campus Varta on December 26, 2019 click here to read
The Malayalam version of this article was published in the Azhimukham on December 31, 2019 click here to read
Ashish Alex is the Director of Operations at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR). Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of Centre for Public Policy Research.
Ashish Alex
Ashish Alex is Director of Operations at CPPR. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with specialisation in HR from Symbiosis, Pune. Some of the key areas of his 13 years of work involved project management, monitoring and evaluation, organisational compliance, child safety, leading and managing teams and partnerships.


text:
Schweini may leave United for nothing
Bastian Schweinsteiger after Germany's Euro 2016 semi-final loss against France on July 7.PHOTO: REUTERS
Aug 26, 2016, 5:00 am SGT
http://str.sg/4cxM
LONDON • Manchester United would consider allowing Bastian Schweinsteiger to leave for free, after the German midfielder stated that they will be the last European football club he plays for.
The 32-year-old cost United around £6 million (S$10.7 million) when Louis van Gaal, the former manager, signed him from Bayern Munich last year.
After a disappointing first season, there is a recognition at United that, if it is suitable for both parties, a transfer fee will not be requested should the German receive an attractive offer.
The World Cup winner, who retired from international football last month, has two years remaining on his three-season, £140,000-a-week contract. That equates to around £15 million in wages if he stays until the end of his deal.
Allowing Schweinsteiger to go for free would give the midfielder a greater chance of finding a club that is desirable to him and would cut United's losses on a player who has been dropped from the first-team squad by manager Jose Mourinho.
The Daily Mail also reported on Wednesday that several United players warned him to stop watching his now-wife Ana Ivanovic play tennis and train while the German was returning from injury last season.
Schweinsteiger was pictured following Ivanovic, 28, in Miami and Madrid as United struggled to secure Champions League football.
His statement on Wednesday that he will not play for another European club appeared to pave the way for a move to a club in Major League Soccer, China or the Middle East.
However, the transfer windows of the MLS and China are closed until February and June respectively, so unless he becomes a free agent, Schweinsteiger could not play there until then.
THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES, LONDON
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 26, 2016, with the headline 'Schweini may leave United for nothing'. Print Edition | Subscribe


This time I wanted to keep it very simple.
a bit sharper than before. Also more like the original painting.
Titel: Down by the water, Size: 24 x 20 cm, Arches rough.
Have you missed the post "Hiding in the leaves"?
Well, if that´s so; here´s a shortcut to that post.
But hey! You have one futher down first!
I really love this painting, Catharina!
Beautiful Painting, Catharina. I like this combination of colors and the almost abstract composition. Ciao!
Hi Catharina, lovely painting "less is more". The only thing I wonder:is it water at both sides or snow at one side? I miss a difference in colour but it can be the photo.
It is water on both sides.It is only a light wash of blue. It shows better in reality.
But then again; it is not up to the artist to change the viewers interpret of the painting.
All of us interpret differently what we see. And that is the fun part of looking at "art".
Hello Catharina:) This is a really nice painting. Almost abstract. The colors are stunning. It maybe simple to you but it doesn't look like it. I love it. Very nice job done!
Thank you Renate :) I´m glad you like it. It was very simple to make compared to all the layers I had to work with on the other one, plus smaller.
I love the painting and your minimalist approach gave me an awesome feeling of serenity, very zen-like.
Aha :) Nice to hear that. It´s so interresting to hear my readers interprets of the paintings! I´m glad you like it!
Why there are only 2 posts on your page? On purpose? Why not to make 7 or ten or more to show more of your latest treasures? (I did not mean to sound like advertising).
I like to present my drawings to the friends but I can not start any action to sell them, deep inside I think it would be some kind of betrayal.
I like the abstract feel of this painting.
;) I have increased the amount of posts now to...four. That will do.
this is great catharina ! wishing you every success for your show !


The ERC20 Token Standard defines the interface that a Token contract must implement.
This is the interface defined by ERC20.
Let's start implementing this interface step by step. First we define the essential fields owner, totalSupply, balances and the events Transfer and Approval. This is pretty straightforward.
In the constructor we set the total supply of tokens, the owner, and the smart contract; to start, we establish that all the coins belong to the owner. This smart contract will use the totalSupply defined during contract creation, and there's no way to create additional tokens after deployment.
The requirement for the function totalSupply can be solved by using the public keyword during the definition of the totalSupply field.
The public keyword automatically exposes a getter function also called totalSupply that can be called publicly. For keeping track of balances we need a mapping. This will map addresses to numbers: the user accounts to their balances.
The transfer function accepts two parameters: the recipient and the amount to send.
The amount to be sent will be deducted from the balance of the function caller, msg.sender.
Before we deduct the value from the caller's balance, first we must confirm that they have enough funds to transfer by using the assert statement. If the assertion is satisfied, we deduct the funds from the sender. Then we try adding the funds to the receiver in a new variable result that has the same type (uint256) as the balances we just mapped to these addresses.
We must assert that the balance of the receiver has increased after the transfer.
This is a check against overflow errors. In the end, we generate a Transfer event before the function returns.
Finally, we have the balanceOf getter function, which returns the balance for a given address.
The implementation so far can perform the basic functionalities of tokens: hold balances and transfer tokens. This is nothing we haven't seen before. However, there are a few more functions that provide more advanced functionalities, so we'll look at those next.
The ERC20 introduces an allowance mechanism. This set of functions allows the account owner to provide specific allowances to many different accounts.
To accomplish this in our smart contract we must map the provider's address to a set of different accounts, each with specific allowance value. Essentially, we need to keep a balance book for each separate account.
For this we will use a mapping of addresses to nested mappings of allowances. Every nested allowance mapping will be address => uint256. We also need a getter function for this mapping called allowance.
To give someone an allowance we use the approve function. We only need to add a record in the *allowed *mapping.
Alice makes an allowance to Bob to spend N coins. Then she changes her mind and wants to decrease the allowance from N to M coins. If Bob has already spent the N coins before Alice makes the change to M coins, Bob will be able to spend a total of N+M coins. There is no easy way for Alice to make sure this didn't happen without checking all transactions on the blockchain.
That is why we will add a require statement before the first line in the function.
This requires the allowance value to be 0 or the previous allowance for the spender's account to be 0. Given our previous scenario, Alice will have to set the allowance from N to 0, check how much money Bob has already spent, then create a new allowance of M tokens or no allowance at all.
Next up is the transferFrom function. This one will be used by spenders to spend coins from their allowances.
It accepts three parameters, the address _from(source) and _to(target) and value.
First we get the remaining allowance and make sure that it's greater than the value to be transfered.
Then we subtract this value from the allowance and add it to the recipient's balance. Last, we need to subtract the value from the original owner's total balance. During the execution of the function if any of the assert statements fail, all previously executed commands will be rolled back and the entire transaction will fail. Now that our contract is finished, let's deploy it with Truffle.
First we put our code in the DailyToken.sol file in the contracts directory.
Then we alter the migration file called 2_deploy_contracts.js located in the migrations folder. We import our smart contract just like the other contracts, but in the deploy function we need to pass two additional arguments for our smart contract.
These extra parameters will be passed to the constructor of our contract. In our case we need the total supply and the address of the contract's owner.
Now on to deployment. Let's start fresh by deleting the build directory.
Let's interact with our DailyToken using the console.
Check the output of the truffle migrate command, you will see the address where DailyToken is deployed. Mine is 0xf204a4ef082f5c04bb89f7d5e6568b796096735a.
To be sure, let's check the owner of this instance.
Now name two accounts: parent and child. We'll use the owner's account as parent since that's where all the coins are. Let's create an allowance to the child account of 100 coins.
While creating the allowance, an event called Approval will be generated. We can listen for that event in another terminal window. Open another terminal into the same folder. Then run truffle develop.
Get a handle for the deployed smart contract.
The event accepts a filter argument. In this case we want all events from first to last block.
When you run this event watcher it will return any previous events as well, because we specifically said listen for all events from block 0 to the latest one.
Now create the allowance call in the first terminal.
Today we deployed our custom smart contract and interacted with all it's functions via terminal. Also we listened to it's events from another blockchain node. This is very much inline with the async architecture of technologies like NodeJS and gives us an idea on how real-world applications can be built.


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This 3 bedroom house on Beach Dr Destin for sale is only about 1 block from the Destin Elementary School. The home has been recently remodeled and updated with granite counter tops, new tile, new carpet, and wood flooring. For those that need storage this 3 bedroom house on Beach Dr Destin for sale has a 2 car garage and a built in work area, washer/dryer, laundry sink and extra refrigerator.
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Sorry but this home on Beach Dr in Destin has sold. Click below for more Destin homes for sale and Destin real estate for sale.


The good folks of the Retox Day Party return for a very special edition of the event that makes you LOVE Sundays! For ONE time only we take Sunday's hottest event in the city to Saturday. Join us Saturday May 5th as we celebrate cultural independence on Cinco de Mayo as the cities most anticipated day party gives you a preview of what's to come all summer. We the RETOX KINGS want all our Kings and Queens to come out and have $3 You-Call-It drinks . Providing a wide array of sound will be the DJ tandem group Menace Cartel. In typical Retox fashion all we ask is for you to be there between 2pm and 8pm for a little day/early evening fun.


Spectacular oceanfront residence on the North Tower at world-renowned Carillon Hotel & Spa Miami Beach. Community offering a pristine beach front, 6 acres of tropical resort oasis, 4 pools, 70,000sq. ft. of spa amenities, over 50 classes & workshops per week, and 4 dining venues on site. A must see, featuring breath taking ocean views, 10 ft celling, white glass floors, italian-made cabinetry, miele and Sub-Zero appliances.


Six years to save the Great British high street!
Retailers failing to engage in digital transformation won't be operating by 2024, according to ninety percent of senior decision makers within the retail industry. In fact, a quarter believe that retailers steadfastly clinging to more traditional ways of doing business won't exist three years from now.
The research, published by Hitachi Consulting, revealed that despite the importance of retailers modernising and future-proofing their operations, less than half (45%) have passed the midpoint on their digital transformation journey – and only 1% consider themselves to be where they want to be.
A lack of internal strategy (29%), management buy-in (19%), and knowledge (29%) are the biggest barriers to digital transformation, according to three-quarters of respondents asked to consider their own operations. Concerns over these barriers led a quarter of respondents to state they were "scared" to digitally transform, citing a lack of understanding around how best to begin transformational projects, coupled with a heightened fear of risk.
"More and more retailers are experimenting with innovative technology. But as the research shows, it's a small minority that are at the more advanced stages of the digital transformation journey, and the majority are therefore missing out on many of the benefits, such as improved cost control and profitability," said Pierson Broome, Retail specialist at Hitachi Consulting.
"However, it's not all doom and gloom. 99% of retailers are now tackling digital transformation – even if some aren't far along their journey, that's significant progress compared with a few years ago. Now their focus needs to be on implementing a full and clear digital transformation strategy, guided by the knowledge and experience of experts and backed by senior management, to provide a solid foundation for remaining at the cutting edge of retail IT systems. This will give them the best shot at not only surviving to 2024, but thriving."
Respondents also highlighted that an omnichannel strategy is critical. 70% agree that it is critical to the high street surviving and 82% already closely link their omnichannel strategy to their brand values.
"Today's shoppers expect a seamless shopping experience regardless of whether it's online or offline. They don't think about the channel they use, they simply want to purchase. This shift in attitude and growth in cross-channel purchasing by the digital native generation demands a seamless shopping experience. To do this, retail IT must be aligned with sales operations," concluded Broome.
Hitachi Consulting is the digital solutions and professional services organization within Hitachi Ltd., a global technology and social innovation leader. Hitachi Consulting is a catalyst for positive business change, propelling organizations to drive disruptive innovation and to accelerate digital transformation. We help organizations leverage data as a strategic asset to innovate faster, develop new revenue streams, and respond to global dynamics with insight and agility. We collaborate with clients to create solutions that help maximize operational efficiency and deliver measurable, sustainable business results. Visit us at www.hitachiconsulting.com.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2016 (ended March 31, 2017) totalled 10,034 billion yen ($89.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.


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Backpacking; Throw away your preconceptions.
For some there may be a cry of ridiculous. For others, good on you mate. I did something I haven't done for 30 odd years. At the ripe old age of 56 I went backpacking and stayed in a hostel. Well, a few hostels, which allowed me to complete the beautiful Coastal Walk from Portstewart to Ballycastle in Northern Ireland. I'm not sure what I expected. I did know from friends that the quality of accommodation had significantly improved since way back when, but I did not expect the hospitality and companionship which are thrown in for free with a hostel stay.
My home was my badly packed backpack and would be for the next 7/10 days. I'd packed too much, treated it like a suitcase rather than taking those bare essentials. My route was a flight from Luton to Belfast, then rail and bus journey to Portstewart. By car you could travel by ferry from Holyhead to Dublin and a 3 hour drive to Portstewart. There is a morning ferry from Holyhead that gives plenty of time for the drive in Ireland and a conveniently located hostel on Holyhead to break the journey the night before. ANGLESEY OUTDOOR CENTRE is walking distance from the ferry port, so perfect for foot passengers too.
Once in Ireland and backpacking I had to carry my 15kg rucksack "friend" around like a needy child. The hostel owner in Portstewart (Pete), greeted me with tea biscuits and a sympathetic ear on my inadequate packing skills. My twin room was clean, tidy, basic and comfortable. I showered,acquainted myself with the kitchen and got to meet fellow travellers. "I've been thinking" says Pete "Why don't you take out the some of the stuff you've over packed, leave them here and pick them up when your finish the walk. There's a train from Belfast, Coleraine to Portrush just down the road from here (Portstewart) easy enough." Sure enough that's what I did, my "friend" losing over a third of it's original weight. He didn't introduce me to the Irish for idiot (edjit) but I could have accepted the label if offered.
It was this type of attitude I found typical at the other hostels I stayed as well. In Ballycastle the owner said she was light on bookings, offering me a single room for the same booking price as a dorm bed, 15 quid. "Here's the kitchen, grab what you like tea, coffee, toast, cereal or cook if you want to". A couple who were walking, sightseeing the delights of Ireland before they became Mr+Mrs later in the year, cooked a pasta evening meal. They offered me a place at their table, I nipped out for a bottle of Chardonnay. We toasted health and prenuptials before swapping stories and future plans. Just to round off the evening we walked a 100 metres to watch the local shallie band. Is this what I've been missing all those years?
Next stop was a hostel in Bushmills. It took me 15 minutes just to check in due to the delightful staff at reception. They couldn't have been more helpful with, information, stories, jokes advice etc. What did surprise me, was the gender and diverse age demographic of hostels attendees. Most of the chaps sat in the 35-50 years old group, whilst the gals averaged 25-30.
On the first night of hostel life I was encouraged to become exceedingly drunk by midweek revellers simply having a great time in a local bar. The owner of a charging tablet (Dennis) engrossed me with his stories of travelling to the Antarctic, building his own boat and the refurbishment of a dilapidated old school over the decades. Having done so much with his life, "out of the blue" as he put it, he had a stroke. It took him a full six months to recover, leaving him with impaired sight to his left eye. Instead of slowing down, it was his wake up call to get on with life. Very quickly I became part of a community, people offering advice, destinations to explore, others to be avoided. Sharing became the norm. Hostel staff were caring and considerate without being intrusive.
From Bushmills I had the absolute pleasure of backpacking the coastal route from Giant's Causeway to Ballytoy.
Wonderful day, beautiful views, where solitude and peaceful souls collide. Having enjoyed the harbour of Ballytoy along with tea and sandwiches, I started my final leg of the walk to Ballycastle. Third time lucky, again. My hostel host organised a drink, a chat and a single room, as the season was yet to begin in earnest. So having learned cotton tee shirts and backpacks do not compliment each other. Same story with wrong socks they don't help, even in the right boots. I have learned hostel life is good, more than good and I have decided to go home and explore the UK Hostels. Remember, you're never too old to throw away your perceptions. One last request: If you see a fellow walker/hiker out backpacking, say hello and smile. You're both on the same select team.


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