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DICTIONARY, LETTER A
April 28, 2021 Joanna Pyrgies Leave a comment
In ancient architecture, an anta or antae (antas) is an architectural term that describes the end of the protruding side walls of the naos (the inner chamber or sanctuary of a temple), forming a pronaos (a porch). By these means, the antas, as a part of the front walls, create posts or pillars on either side of an entrance to the naos and are usually shaped as pilasters, usually with more decorative capitals than the front columns. However, the anta differs from the pilaster, where the latter is purely decorative element and does not function as a structural support of the anta. The term in antis, applied to a pronaos or a temple (aedes in antis, templum in antis), meaning a type of structure (a temple, a tomb) with two (or more) columns or caryatids in the pronaos, placed between the antas.
The Athenian Treasury in Delphi with two antae framing a set of two columns. Photo by Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (2005). CC BY-SA 2.0. Photo and caption source: "Anta (architecture)" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
The antas could also appear from the side of the naos's rear wall, as a repetition of the arrangement used from the front side of the temple (the so-called temple in double antis). In the layouts of temples with a full colonnade in the facade (such as, for example, prostylos or amphiprostylos), the antas are much shorter.
Templum in antis. Drawing by CLI (2009). Public domain. Photo and caption source: "Anta (architektura)" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
Featured image: Athenian Treasury with two columns in antis. Photo by Rob Stoeltje from loenen, Netherlands (2015). CC BY 2.0. Photo source: "Athenian Treasury" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
"Anta (architecture)" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3nuIC6L>. [Accessed on 28th April, 2021].
"Anta (architektura)" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3eCBHVg>. [Accessed on 28th April, 2021].
"Athenian Treasury" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3A3hNNd>. [Accessed on 24th June, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 14. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
ArchitectureDictionarySacred Architecture
DICTIONARY, LETTER N
A type of tombstone in ancient Greece, mostly in the fourth and fifth centuries BC. It imitated the shape of templum in antis. It, namely, it looked like a small temple in classical order with antas, columns or pillars and a decorative pediment, also decorated with figures in the facade. The pediment (frontispiece) was usually filled with family scenes in high relief, where the dead appeared inside the house alongside the living. Also "[some] of the Hellenistic inscriptions found in the Bay of Grama, [in the Ionian Sea of Albania], are placed inside a naiskos, and in this case the religious context is an invocation of Castor and Pollux, [the] Dioskouroi [in Greek and Roman mythology], for a safe passage across the Adriatic, rather than funerary" ("Naiskos" 2020).
Funerary naiskos of a young soldier (Aristonautes, son of Archenautes, of the deme Halai). Pentelic marble, found in the Kerameikos necropolis in Athens, ca. 350–325 BC. Photo by Marsyas (2005). CC BY 2.5. Photo and caption source: "Naiskos" (2020). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
The naiskos form developed from an Attic tombstone stelae in the second half of the fourth century BC.; initially simple in shape, with time they had acquired a more complicated form referring to the facade of a Greek temple with a pediment supported by columns.
The facade of Naiksos also appears as a decorative motif in the funerary "black-figure and red-figure pottery of Ancient Greece at the Loutrophoros and the Lekythos and the red-figure wares of Apulia in South Italy, [the fourth century BC.]" ("Naiskos" 2020).
A similar style of funerary tombstones can be also observed in the so-called aedicula, typical of Roman art.
Featured image: Naiskos-style funerary stele of Cyzicus (an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia, in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey), with high-relief decoration; epitaph inscribed on the plint: "Attalos, son of Asklepiodoros, greetings!" Made of marble, from the second quarter of the second century BC. Stele of funerary banquet represents, from left to right, a servant holding a round object, perhaps a model of the Arsinoeion in Samothrace, a seated woman, a half-reclining man holding a phiale in which a snake is drinking, a boy cupbearer. Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Denon, ground floor, room 11 (Musée du Louvre, Paris, France). Photo by Jastrow (2008). Credit given by W. H. Waddington, (1854). CC BY 3.0. Image cropped. Photo and caption source: Wikimedia Commons (2021).
"Naiskos" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3bQQvhL>. [Accessed on 28th February, 2021].
"Naiskos" (2020). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2PkkoiN>. [Accessed on 28th February, 2021].
"Naiskos stele of Cyzicus" (2021). In: Wikimedia Commons. Available at <https://bit.ly/3bHRUaa>. [Accessed on 28th February, 2021].
DictionarySepulchral monuments
DICTIONARY, LETTER M
Jewish tombstone in the form of a vertically positioned rectangular stone or wooden slab, and from the nineteenth century also made of cast iron, topped with a straight line, triangle, semicircle or two segments of a circle, decorated with a bas-relief in the upper part and covered with an inscription (epitaph) at the bottom. The Hebrew epitaph was placed on the eastern side of the slab, as both, the tomb and the tombstone were oriented to the east. The stone slab was placed on the grave, on the headboard or in the legs of the deceased. It was often supported from the back by a stone block with a rectangular or semicircular cross-section, very rarely decorated.
Matzevot at the Cemetery in Warsaw at Okopowa Street. Photo by Grzegorz Petka (2008). Public domain. Image cropped. Colours intensified. Photo source: "Macewa" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
The reliefs in the upper part of the tombstone are not only decorative, but also symbolic; from the sixteenth century on, above the epitaph but under the top of the matzeva, there were usually sculpted symbols referring to the name of the deceased, their profession, character features, or sadness, mourning and death. Some of the decorative motifs on the matzevot are intended for representatives of traditional groups of the Jewish community, e.g. for a person from a priestly family (kohena) – those were hands folded in prayer, for a descendant of a Levite family, a cup, for a scholar or a rabbi – a Torah crown or a book for a woman, a lamp-stand, for the descendants of the tribe of Judah, a lion. Over time, the matzevot were given an increasingly complex architectural form, with cornices, columns, and recesses, and its height increased, sometimes reaching four meters.
Matzevah derived from the distant past, when it first meant sacred pillars in Canaanite sanctuaries, and then boulders, placed in memory of some important event; placed in cemeteries by Ashkenazi Jews.
Such a tombstone was adopted in Poland; the oldest one preserved there dates back to 1203 and is now at a Jewish cemetery in Wrocław (Poland), at Ślężna Street. The form of the matzevot is also recalled by erratic boulders placed on graves in Jewish cemeteries in north-eastern Poland. When in the early nineteenth century's Poland, the administrative authorities of the partitioning powers ordered Jews to take surnames, Jewish traditionalists placed an appropriate entry containing this name on the reverse, unfinished side of the matzeva. In the areas associated with German culture, from the mid-nineteenth century, it was customary to place an epitaph in Hebrew on one side of the matzevah, and in German on the other. Similar records can also be found in Jewish cemeteries in large cities of central Poland, on the graves of assimilated Jews.
Featured image: Matzevot at the old Jewish cemetery in Wrocław. Photo by Barbara Maliszewska (2010). CC BY-SA 3.0 pl. Image cropped. Colours intensified. Photo source: "Macewa" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
"Macewa" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3tXyQwX>. [Accessed 14th February, 2021].
Jagielski J. (2021). "Mazewa". In: Portal DELET. Available at <https://bit.ly/2ZeT6fx>. [Accessed 14th February, 2021].
DICTIONARY, LETTER L
From the time of the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great (306-337), it was the imperial and military banner (a vexillum). The original standard was first used by Constantine during the Battle of the Milvian Bridge against Maxentius (312) but the same name also refers to similar standards produced in imitation of the original one in the Late Antique world and later on.
A follis of Constantine (c. 337) showing a depiction of his labarum spearing a serpent on the reverse; the inscription reads SPES PVBLICA. Struck 337 AD. Constantinople mint. CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG, laureate head right SPES PVBLICA across field, labarum, with three medallions on drapery and crowned by a christogram, spearing serpent. CONS in exergue. RIC VII 19. According to RIC, this famous reverse type represents the defeat of tyranny by the death of Licinius. Yet, the scene also has powerful Christian imagery in that it allegorically portrays the power of Christianity over evil. Coin from CNG coins, through Wildwinds. Used with permission. Follis 337 Constantine. Photo and caption by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. (2005). CC BY-SA 3.0. Image enlarged; colours intensified. Photo source: "Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
The origin of the word labarum is a matter of scientific debate. Some suggest it derived from the Latin word labarum. Others say it is a Gallic word because Gaul was the starting point for the war against Maxentius, and there were many Gauls in the army.
The emperor Honorius (393-423) holding a variant of the labarum – the Latin phrase on the cloth means "In the name of Christ [rendered by the Greek letters XPI] be ever victorious" and the Globus with the still pagan symbol the victory. Photo and caption by Marsyas (2006). Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo source: "Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
After a Christian author and an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, Lactantius (240-320), shortly before the battle, the emperor fell into ecstasy, during which he received an order from Christ to place on the shields of soldiers the sign of heaven, consisting of the first two Greek letters of the word 'Christ' (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ) — Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ). This monogram is indeed found on coins and writings from the time of Constantine. Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339), a biographer of the emperor's life, adds that at the moment of the start of the fight, the pagan ruler called for the help of the Christian God, as a result of which he saw in the daylight a radiant cross with the Greek words: 'Through this sign you will win!' The next night, Constantine saw Christ with the cross and was advised to have a banner made with the image of the cross, displaying the christogram of the 'Chi-Rho' symbol ☧. This banner is, of course, a labarum, made in the shape of the letter T, standing for the cross, and attached to the upper bar. As such it was henceforth carried by Constantine's troops.
The day after his victory, on October 29, 312, Constantine rode triumphantly into Rome. The city gave him a wonderful party. As for the vaccination of Christianity, it was still until the end of his reign, a transitional period. But although Constantine chose not to tease the Roman pagans with a new religion in one God, he nonetheless openly manifested the origins of Christianism in the heart of the Western world by minting coins with the christogram of the 'Chi-Rho' while the labarum in the form of the cross flew over the ranks of his army.
Constantine's labarum, with a wreathed Chi Rho from an antique silver medal. The "medallions" which are said to have shown portraits of Constantine and his sons are sometimes replaced by the three circles or dots. Drawing by Nordisk familjebok (1911), vol.14, p.1088. Uploaded in 2006. Public domain. Photo and caption source: "Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Coin of Vetranio (350 AD.), a soldier is holding two labara. Notably, they differ from the labarum of Constantine in having the Chi-Rho depicted on the cloth rather than above it, and in having their staves decorated with phalerae as were earlier Roman military unit standards. Photo by Marsyas (2010). Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo and caption source: "Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Featured image: The emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1055) (centre panel of a Byzantine enamelled crown) holding a miniature labarum. Photo by Andrew massyn (2008). Public domain. Image cropped. Colours intensified. Photo source: "Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
"Labarum" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3tPYsM8>. [Accessed 12th February, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, pp. 69, 224. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Rops D. (1968). Kościół pierwszych wieków. pp. 477-480. [L'église des apôtres et des martyrs]. Ostrowska K. trans. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy PAX.
DictionaryLegends&Myths
EUROPE, POLAND
April 3, 2021 Joanna Pyrgies Leave a comment
Easter comes with spring and it is the most significant Christian holiday, also beautifully celebrated in Poland. The very beginning of spring had already been celebrated in Polish territory in the times of paganism and was associated among the former Slavs with the so-called Jare Gody, a several-day Slavic ritual spring festival that was a farewell to winter and a welcome to spring (Sławosław.pl 2019). These celebrations took place around the spring equinox and so began with the calendar spring, that is to say on the twenty-first March (Ibid.).
Goodbye to Marzanna
The first important ritual of the Jare Gody was to burn or drown Morena (Marzanna in Polish), an effigy which has been a symbol of the Slavic goddess of winter of the same name (Sławosław.pl 2019; "Morana (goddess)" 2021).
Marzanna in Poland. Photo by Ratomir Wilkowski, www.RKP.org.pl (2010). CC BY 3.0. Photo source: "Morana (goddess)" (2021). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Sometimes, for a better effect, even both of these activities were performed: first, Marzanna was set on fire, and then thrown into the water, especially into rivers whose currents are able to take her away from the view of the audience (Sławosław.pl 2019). In the past, this ritual was often accompanied by making noise: crackling, rattling, knocking, singing and playing all kinds of instruments (Ibid.). I am not sure if this custom is still celebrated in Polish schools. In my time, all the children at school participated in the competition to create the best effigy of Marzanna, which we later carried to the river and drowned them all there. I remember that the fun was great, although now children's entertainment is unfortunately changing … Yet, my seven-year-old nephew still cuts out a small image of Marzanna from coloured paper and glues to her round head curly hair from tissue paper.
Jare Gody and Easter
As Marzanna is associated with winter, Jaryło and Jarowit, who were gods of fertility in the folklore of eastern and southern Slavs, are both associated with spring (Sławosław.pl 2019).
Morena effigy, Slovakia. Photo by T. Kičin, early twentieth century. Public domain. Colours intensified. Photo source: "Morana (goddess)" (2021). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Today, the place of pagan deities in Poland is obviously taken by the Risen Christ, who replaced them as a symbol of the New Life. In the pagan times, after the beginning of Jare Gody (the name originates from the names of the gods), people lit fires on the hills to summon as much heat and sun as possible (Ibid.). Willow and hazel twigs were also collected, from which the so-called panicles were made (Ibid.). Those were bunches of branches and flowers clogged on the roofs of new buildings (Ibid.). At that time, the houses were cleaned and incensed, as much as it is today, and traditional Slavic cakes were also baked (Ibid.). It was a time of joy, because then everything was slowly beginning to bloom and revive (Ibid.).
Pussy willow branches are cut and used for the panicles. Photo by Avicennasis (2010). Public domain. Photo source: "Śmigus-dyngus" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Christianity celebrates this time in a similar way, but with other religious values; houses are adorned with flowers and blooming twigs to glorify the promise of the Resurrection with the forthcoming of spring and with it, the hope that the dead will be reawakened to eternal life.
Different ways of fasting
In Poland, Easter is also a culinary celebration (Lemnis, Vitry 1979, p. 218). The overture to the Easter feasts has always been the preceding Lent. In old Poland, fasting was followed very strictly, even at the royal court, but those were primarily the poor urban population and peasants who fasted truly, in a real "Catholic" way, both for religious and material reasons (Ibid.:218). So people ate sour rye soup (żur), groats, cabbage, herring, and later also potatoes, all sprinkled only with oil (Ibid.:218). In the Polish region of Masuria, fasting was particularly exemplary, without using either butter or milk (Ibid.:218). At magnate courts and rich monasteries, people fasted in a peculiar way, serving various and deliciously seasoned fish dishes, by no means in fasting amounts, and alcoholic drinks did not seem to interfere with fasting at all (Ibid.:218).
Funeral of herring
On Good Friday, the court and city youth organized a "funeral of sour rye (żur) and herring" (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:218). The clay pot with the sour rye soup was smashed, while the herring was hung on a branch as a punishment for the fact it had ruled over meat for six weeks, harassing human stomachs with its weak meal" (Ibid.:218).
Actually nowadays, Polish żur is one of the most frequent served soups during Easter. Still, it is not a fasting dish, as it is usually enriched with halves of boiled eggs and slices of white or ordinary sausage.
The Easter "Blessed"
In the mansions of magnates and noble courts, a wonderfully set Easter table was blessed by the parish priest or chaplain, while the poor brought food for the same reason to the church (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:218-219). On Easter Saturday, both in towns and villages, eggs, bread and salt were brought to the church and placed on the festive table after blessing (Ibid.:218).
Food blessing in the nineteenth century, by Michał Elwiro Andriolli (before 1893). Public domain. Photo source: "Święconka" 2020. In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
This custom has fortunately remained in Poland to this day, when beautifully decorated baskets filled to the brim with Easter specialties are brought to the church and blessed. As the old Polish tradition dictates, the basket is not complete without beautifully painted eggs (pisanki), a piece of bread and salt.
Modern ceremony in Poland of blessing the food brought to the church in baskets for Easter breakfast. Photo by Błażej Benisz – WSD Ołtarzew, www.wsdsac.pl (2007). CC BY-SA 2.5. Photo source: "Święconka" 2020. In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
In addition, we put now a little bit of everything in the basket that will later be served on the Easter table: pepper, sausage, ham, horseradish, butter, a lamb made of sugar or flour, with the inscription "Hallelujah", and for children – chocolate hares.
Pisanki and kraszanki
Easter in Polish folk cuisine was much more modest than that of the nobles, but more closely related to the old customs and rituals (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:219). Such relics of pagan beliefs include Easter eggs (pisanki or kraszanki in Polish), which are hard-boiled, dyed and artfully decorated; in the past it was usually made by village women (Ibid.:219). Painting eggs, which for the Slavs symbolized energy, joy of life and harvest in the new growing year was an important part of the pagan festival of Jare Gody (Sławosław.pl 2019). The culmination of the celebrations were feasts given on the hills, during which people sang, danced and exchanged Easter eggs as gifts (Ibid.). The practice of dyeing eggs for Easter still persists (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:219). The old Easter eggs were often true works of folk art; today's ones usually give way to the old ones in terms of elegance and artistry (Ibid.:219). Yet all do their best to make them colourful and carefully decorated.
Easter eggs (pisanki). Photo by LeCornichon (2007). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo source: "Pisanka" (2021). In Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
Since the egg is an ancient symbol of life, it has reigned supreme on Easter tables, because Easter is also a feast of nature awakening to life (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:219). Easter eggs were often dyed red in particular (Ibid.:219). A special dye can be used to obtain a dark red colour, but my mother always dyes the eggs organically by soaking them in onion shells. Such red Easter eggs had, according to ancient Slavic beliefs, magical properties and were said to be effective, especially in matters of love (Ibid.:219).
In the eastern territories of former Poland, it was also customary to give the priest Easter eggs on Good Friday (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:219). A French cartographer and architect, Guillaume de Beauplan, who stayed in seventeenth-century Poland, described this custom, claiming that the priest collected up to five thousand eggs in two hours (Ibid.:219). He also adds that while thanking the pious donors, he kissed the girls and the younger girls, but he only gave the hand to kiss to the old women (Ibid.:219).
Easter traffic in the kitchen
During the Holy Week, the greatest traffic was in the kitchen, from which the delicious smells of various dishes prepared for Easter came from (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:219). They aroused the appetites of the fasting household, longing for the Resurrection, which marked the end of the fast and the beginning of the Easter feast (Ibid.:219). Nowadays, we do fasting in Poland only on the Good Friday and Good Saturday, till the Resurrection, or we start celebrating just after the Easter Mass, when finally we sit down to a ceremonial breakfast. As in modern-day Poland, the so-called "Blessed" ("Święcone" in Polish), that is to say the food from the basket, and other delicacies were placed on the spring-decorated table in the dining room (Ibid.:219). Compared to the old Polish appetite, today's one is much smaller. In old Poland, the Easter breakfast consisted of hams, sausages, brawn fish, fish in jelly, whole baked piglet and Easter cakes: mazurek cakes (Easter pastry), tortes and the famous old Polish "baba" cakes (Ibid.:219-220). Of course, vodka, meads, beer and wine were not forgotten (Ibid.:210).
The Easter Lamb made of butter or sugar towered over everything. It has been a symbol of the Risen Christ (Ibid.:210). The entire table, shimmering with a wide range of colours and tempting with seductive scents, was decorated with green dyes and colourful Easter eggs (Ibid.:220). Of course, the blessed food eaten on Easter was either more modest or stunningly rich, which depended on the wealth of the house (Ibid.:220).
Easter breakfast
Easter breakfast started either quite early, or at noon or even a little later (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:242). In some houses, the more impatient gentlemen "attacked" the festive table already on Good Saturday, but mostly these were just preliminaries to the Sunday "culinary battle" (Ibid.:242). The Easter feast, even the most modest one, began with the sharing of a hard-boiled egg with mutual wishes, as it happened between pagan Slavs (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:220; Sławosław.pl 2019). The "Blessed" consisted only of cold dishes, with a huge variety of tastes and aromas (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:220). People were seated at the table, which, due to the set of dishes, was the prototype of today's cold buffet (Ibid.:220). Of the hot dishes, only red borscht prepared on beetroot kvass was served, which differed from Christmas borscht in that it was cooked on essential meat broth, often on boiled ham (Ibid.:242). Instead of Christmas Eve dumplings, quarters of hard-boiled eggs or sliced sausage were put into the borscht (Ibid.:242). At the end of the feast, hot bigos (a Polish dish of cabbage, meat and sausages) was served (Ibid.:242).
Formerly, different beliefs were associated with some of the dishes on the Easter table (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:242). According to Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569), a poet and prose writer who lived during the reign of King Zygmunt August, sausage protected against snake biting, horseradish – from fleas, and roasted hazel grouse from … prison.
Easter baba sprinkled with powdered sugar. Photo by Diego Delso (2013). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo source: "Baba wielkanocna" (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
Polish Easter pastries also deserve special attention during the celebration: tortes, bundt cakes ("baba" cakes) and Easter pastry ("mazurek" cakes) (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:220).
Polish queen from Italy and tortes
Tortes appeared relatively late in Polish cuisine and the fashion for them probably came from Italy, thanks to Polish queen, Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494 – 1557) who came from the Dutchy of Milan (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:220). During the reign of her son, Zygmunt II August (Sigismund II Augustus 1520 – 1572), splendour and luxury prevailed at the royal court in Krakow (Ibid.:222). The queen mother herself, marrying the Polish king, Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund the Old 1467 – 1548), introduced Italian customs to the court (Ibid.:222).
The traditional form of baking baba cakes. Photo by Hubertl (2014). CC BY-SA 3.0. The making of this work was supported by Wikimedia Austria. Photo source; "Baba wielkanocna" (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
This meeting of two high-level European cultures has proved beneficial in many cases, particularly in the fields of art, architecture, literature and music (Ibid.:223). With time, Italian influences also began to emerge in Polish cuisine (Ibid.:223). Italians were amazed to see how much meat Poles ate every day (Ibid.:223). The Poles, on the other hand, mocked the Italians' love of vegetables, which they considered exaggerated (Ibid.:223). And although vegetables are often served on Polish tables, the excessive and by no means health-promoting passion for meat dishes has remained with us to this day (Ibid.:223). An example of this is the Easter table with the "Blessed", both in the past and now (Ibid.:223).
Baba cakes
Among the Easter cakes served to this day, the so-called baba cakes (bundt cakes) and mazurek cakes (Easter pastry) are a peculiarity and pride of Old Polish cuisine and native Polish specialties (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:220).
The girl in the national Polish costume, serving Polish baba cake. Postcard sent on April 11, 1936, entitled "Happy Hallelujah". Publisher: Polonia Kraków. By Adam Setkowicz.Publisher: Polonia Kraków (1936). Public domain. Image source: "Baba wielkanocna" (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
Baking Easter baba cakes was an emotional event and could be called a kind of theatrical mystery (Ibid.:221). The cook, the housewife and other women locked themselves in the kitchen, where men were forbidden to enter their kingdom (Ibid.:221). The whitest wheat flour was sifted through a sieve, hundreds of yolks with sugar were rubbed in pots, saffron was dissolved in vodka, which not only beautifully coloured the dough yellow, but also gave it a spicy aroma Ibid.:221). Then the almonds were ground, the raisins were carefully selected, the scented vanilla was mashed in mortars, and the yeast was made into a leaven (Ibid.:221). The dough placed in the cupcake moulds was covered with linen tablecloths, because the "chilled" baba cake did not grow and was slack-baked (Ibid.:221). So the windows and doors of the kitchen were sealed for fear of drafts (Ibid.:221). Properly grown baba cakes were carefully put into the oven (Ibid.:221). Finally, as they were lifted from the hot cavities of the oven on a wooden shovel, it was not uncommon for the kitchen to hear dramatic shouts and crying; a baba cake which was browned too much or "sat down" was a disgrace (Ibid.:221).
A selection of Mazurek cakes ready for Easter in Poland. Photo by Magic Madzik – Flickr: 100/365: Ready for Easter (2009). CC BY 2.0. Photo source: "Mazurek (cake)" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Simultaneously, successful baba cakes taken out of the oven were placed on fluffy quilts to prevent them from being crushed while cooling down (Ibid.:221). In addition, the conversation was in whispers, as the noise could harm the delicate dough (Ibid.:221). The cooled baba cakes were beautifully and generously glazed (Ibid.:221). The most famous and delicate were the so-called fluffy and muslin babas (Ibid.:221).
Mazurek
On the other hand, the origin of the mazurek has not been sufficiently explained so far (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:221). Perhaps they reveal the influence of sweet Turkish cuisine (Ibid.:221). Mazurek is a low cake, usually on a crispy bottom or on a wafer, covered with a layer of nut, almond, cheese and dried fruit mass, colourfully glazed and beautifully decorated with preserves and dried fruit (Ibid.:221). Good housewives often had several dozen recipes for mazurek cakes (Ibid.:221).
How Poles spend Easter
According to our tradition, we spend the first day of Easter at home with our family and sometimes we invite our closest friends to the "Blessed" breakfast (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:264). On the second day of Christmas, that is the Good Monday, we either visit our friends ourselves or host guests (Ibid.:264). Then we serve cold stews or bigos as a starter, and after borscht or żur, usually roast meat, such as turkey in rich sauce (Ibid.:264). The sweet finale are surely Easter cakes: mazurek, baba cakes and tortes (Ibid.:221).
Śmigus-Dyngus
The Good Monday morning is still associated with a long tradition of pouring water over each other, hence usually called "Wet Monday" or, more commonly, "Śmigus-Dyngus" (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:264).
Soaking a Polish girl on śmigus-dyngus (a postcard). Nationwide Specialty Co., Arlington, Texas — In Buffalo, N.Y., Stanley Novelty Co., 200 S. Ogden St. – Boston Public Library (circa 1930-1945). CC BY 3.0. Photo source: "Śmigus-dyngus" (2021). Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
Of course, this rite comes from our pagan ancestors (Sławosław.pl 2019). Slavic Śmigus and Dyngus were originally separate rites and cleansing rituals, bringing strength and health (Ibid.). Śmigus relied on lashing each other with blooming twigs, and Dyngus on pouring water over each other (Ibid.). In the evening of that day, the dead were remembered, their graves were visited and they were offered food (Ibid.). The custom of pouring water, that is to say Dyngus, has survived to this day as a real national water fight, especially in the countryside (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:264). Yet, it is still called Śmigus-Dyngus. In the Old Poland, particularly unmarried girls were the victims of watering, and boys were their "water" attackers (Ibid.:264). The girls defended themselves vigorously and noisily (Ibid.:264). In reality, however, they were satisfied, because if a girl had not got soaked on that day, she would have been considered deliberately disregarded, which did not bring about a quick marriage, and even threatened with her ending as a spinster (Ibid.:264). In cities, especially nowadays, water can be streamed to anybody, either with buckets, water guns, bottles, or balloons filled with water and thrown from above (Culture.pl 2014). In rare cases, water is sprayed in small sprinklers in the form of colourful eggs or perfumes are used instead of water, confined to rather symbolic sprinkling of a potential "victim" (Lemnis, Vitry 1979:264).
But just in case, to avoid getting soaked, especially when it is still chilly outside, it is definitely better to stay home on that day, enjoying that time together with your family and friends and to have an opportunity to change your clothes if the fun is full-blown (Culture.pl 2014).
Another opportunity to spend family holidays
As in 2020, Easter of 2021 is still heavily marked by the time of pandemic and so it cannot be fully celebrated, especially by participating in all religious celebrations in the church. People usually take part in them by means of online transmissions. Nevertheless, today, that is to say on Good Saturday, according to the long Polish tradition, people anyway came to the church with their beautifully decorated baskets to bless the food to be served on Easter Sunday as the "Blessed". Although last year I was spending Easter on my own in Dublin due to the pandemic, this year for the same reasons, I can enjoy it together with my family. After Christmas, 2020, it is the second important family feast I have had an opportunity to celebrate in Poland, and hence write on typical Polish traditions connected with Christian feasts, some of which have originated from pagan Slavic rites, still very present in our modern Polish lives.
Happy Easter and God bless!
Featured image: "The Resurrection" by Ricci, Sebastiano (1659 – 1734). Uploaded by DcoetzeeBot (2012). Public domain {{PD-US}}. In: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Image cropped.
"Baba wielkanocna" (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3wlGWka>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"Mazurek (cake)" (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/31JeieF>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"Morana (goddess)" (2021). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2R26GSy>. [Accessed on 2nd April, 2021].
"Pisanka" (2021). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3mjapq9>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"Śmigus-dyngus" (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at < https://bit.ly/3rLClEn>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"Święconka" 2020. In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3cMv3Mn>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"West Slavic fermented cereal soups" (2021). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2PoOfHm>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
"Wielkanoc" (2021). In Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3wlCkdQ>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
Culture.pl (2014). "Śmigus-Dyngus: Poland's National Water Fight Day". In: Culture.pl. Available at <https://bit.ly/3cIAMmq>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
Lemnis M., Vitry H. (1979). W staropolskiej kuchni i przy polskim stole. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Interpress.
"The Resurrection" by Ricci, Sebastiano (1659 – 1734). Uploaded by DcoetzeeBot (2012). Public domain {{PD-US}}. In: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Available at <https://bit.ly/3dzTqMm>. [Accessed on 3rd April, 2021].
Sławosław.pl (2019) "Cykl roczny: wiosna". In: Sławosław.pl. Sławny Słowian Świat. Creative Commons 4.0. Available at <https://bit.ly/3h9N0Fe>. [Accessed on 2nd April, 2021].
EthnographyLegends&MythsMediaevalTraditions&Customs


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JetsInsider.com > News > Blogs > C.J. Mosley: "I'm Playing Monday Night"
C.J. Mosley: "I'm Playing Monday Night"
Last week the Jets got their quarterback back, this week they'll get the quarterback of their defense back as well. After answering a few questions from reporters, C.J. Mosley decided he couldn't hold it in anymore and declared that he'll play against the Patriots this week.
"I'm playing Monday night," Mosley said. He left himself a tiny bit of wiggle room in case he has a setback, but he made sure to let everyone know he plans to play on Monday.
Mosley still hasn't practiced with the team since suffering the groin injury against Buffalo, but he looked good in individual drills today and that was enough for him to feel confident that he'll be ready. Mosley said he hopes to practice with the team tomorrow and Saturday (there won't be any media coverage of Saturday's practice but the team will release an injury report that will tell us if he was limited or a full go), but with players of Mosley's caliber and experience he doesn't need to practice to be ready to play.
After suffering the injury in the season-opener, Mosley said he thought he would've returned sooner and admitted he was annoyed to miss so many games.
"It's been annoying, obviously," Mosley said. "You set a timetable up, you're not ready and you feel like you had a setback. But you have to be patient, because if I tried to get out on the field the past couple of weeks, I would've made it worse."
So, just how impactful will it be for the Jets to get Mosley back?
"As impactful as getting a starting quarterback back," Gase said,"It's that impactful."
Well, we know exactly how impactful it was for the Jets to get Sam Darnold back last week so that should give fans plenty of confidence heading into Monday's game.

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Position Statement on Climate Intervention
Climate Intervention Requires Enhanced Research, Consideration of Societal and Environmental Impacts, and Policy Development
Humans are responsible, through the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse pollutants, for most of the increase in global average temperatures over the past half century. Deep reductions in these emissions must be central to any policy response to the dangers of climate change. In tandem with those reductions, there may be a need for climate interventions to help reduce or offset some of the effects of climate change. AGU urges national funding agencies to create substantial research programs on climate intervention so that the risks and opportunities are much better understood. A proper and full evaluation of potential uses and impacts of climate intervention will require a broader dialogue that engages more societies and the public.
In conjunction with this statement, AGU has issued a short white paper that examines the case for climate intervention and related research in more detail.i
Climate intervention is a "deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change."ii The most plausible approaches to climate intervention fall into two distinct categories.
The first category, known as carbon dioxide removal (CDR), utilizes approaches and techniques that remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere. CDR approaches include large-scale afforestation, which is already being done on the planet to some degree, along with enhanced mineralization or weathering, combining energy crops with storage of CO2 in the soils or reservoirs deep underground, and machines that chemically capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
AGU endorses calls for substantial CDR research programs such as those outlined by the National Academies.iii Understanding the economic, environmental, and practical challenges in scaling these options is essential given the urgency of the climate problem and the potential roles for CDR in overall strategies for lowering the concentrations of warming pollutants in the atmosphere.
The second general category of climate intervention proposals is albedo modification (AM). It involves cooling Earth by reflecting sunlight away from the planet. Most AM research has focused on putting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere or seeding clouds in the lower atmosphere to brighten them. AM cannot substitute for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, because its effects on the climate are not simply to reverse warming and because it would have no direct effect on ocean acidification caused by increasing carbon dioxide levels.
However, in theory, it could reduce some harm done by climate change during the time it takes for societies to implement deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions while also potentially developing and deploying CDR systems. It could also, in theory, cool the climate quickly and thus prove highly valuable should society at some point face rapid changes in climate that cause unacceptable damage.
AGU urges national funding agencies to create substantial research programs on AM and to embed them, where appropriate, in existing larger programs on climate science because much of the knowledge needed to understand AM systems overlaps heavily with the knowledge needed to understand the changing climate system. Since 2009, several groups have advocated AM research programs. These include the U.S. National Academies,iv whose findings on this topic AGU endorses. Such research, if conducted openly with introspection and self-scrutiny as befits the global scientific community, could help diffuse information widely and also help facilitate the development of appropriate international norms about testing and evaluation of AM systems. AGU is concerned that scientific discussions around AM are taking place mainly in a small number of western countries. A proper and full evaluation of potential uses and impacts of AM will require a broader dialogue that engages more societies and the broader public.
While much can be learned from laboratory and modeling research, AGU finds that robust AM research programs must recognize that important advances in knowledge may also require field experiments. Decisions about where and how to conduct field experiments are best left to competent authorities that already oversee such questions; where adequate national oversight does not exist, active efforts will be needed to build that capacity.
AGU is concerned that the debate over research funding for CDR and AM has been prone to paralysis. While legitimate concerns have been raised about scalability and the side effects of climate intervention schemes, those same concerns have been used to block funding of the research that could help understand and address them. The reality is that climate change is happening, and it too creates risks; balancing those risks is essential to effective policy strategies. There are currently no large public research programs on climate intervention and only a few private sector efforts aimed at advancing particular technologies. Public sector research programs are essential to ensuring transparency and an adequate coverage and level of research support.
CDR and AM cannot substitute for deep cuts in emissions or the need for adaptation, but it is possible that they could contribute to a comprehensive risk-management strategy aimed at reducing the harms of climate change.
Adopted by AGU on 12 January 2018. Based on an earlier statement adopted by AGU on 13 December 2009 in collaboration with the American Meteorological Society (as adopted by the AMS Council on 20 July 2009) which was revised and reaffirmed February 2012.
i AGU White Paper 2017: Climate Intervention Requires Enhanced Research, Consideration of Societal Impacts, and Policy Development.
ii Shepherd, J. G. S., et al., 2009: Geoengineering the climate: Science, governance and uncertainty, RS Policy Document 10/09 (London: The Royal Society).
iii National Research Council, 2015: Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press) https://doi.org/10.17226/18805
iv National Research Council, 2015: Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press) https://doi.org/10.17226/18988
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How to Become an Astronaut
How do you become an astronaut? That's what Tumble listener Margaret wants to know. We go straight to the source to get an answer: A NASA astronaut! Dr. Serena Auñon-Chancellor shares her journey to outer space with us. Starting from being a kid watching shuttle launches, to her school's Astronaut Club, all the way to NASA's Astronaut Candidate program, and finally to the International Space Station. Serena also shares the surprising truth about doing science research in space. Join us on her path to the stars!
Here's Margaret's video:
MEET SERENA, NASA ASTRONAUT
Photos courtesy of NASA
Dr. Serena Auñon-Chancellor is the second woman of Hispanic descent to fly in space. The first was Ellen Ochoa, who also become director of the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, TX. Serena told us she'd wanted to become an astronaut since watching shuttle launches.
This video features some interesting information about Serena's life and interests outside of space!
In the episode, we talked about some of the training Serena did to prepare to become an astronaut. Watch more here:
And here's a 30 minute video of Serena giving an educational talk, including a video of her time on the ISS!
We recommend this fantastic article about Serena and her medical research on the ISS, which goes more in depth about the importance of life science research in space.
Space Medicine isn't Just for Astronauts. It's for All of Us - CNet
And here's a fun article about 12 Cool Experiments Done on the ISS, from Mental Floss.
Serena conducts cancer research on board the ISS
NASA Astronaut Selection
For American astronauts, astronaut selection is the one true path.
This is a video explaining how it works, as well as the history of the process.
Meet NASA's most recent astronaut candidates, selected in 2017.
More official NASA info on applying for the job, here.
To listen our extended interview podcast episode with Serena, pledge just $1/month on Patreon.
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Tumble Wins Gold in 2019 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards
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Insights, scoops, and analysis of the most important election season of our lives
President Good Deals Strikes Again
The New York Times just reported that the Trump administration was on the verge of a deal with pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs, but then at the last minute the talks collapsed. But it's why the deal fell apart that makes this story special.
Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump's chief of staff, insisted the drug makers pay for $100 cash cards that would be mailed to seniors before November — "Trump Cards," some in the industry called them.
Some of the drugmakers bridled at being party to what they feared would be seen as an 11th-hour political boost for Mr. Trump, the people familiar with the matter said.
So this dude negotiated what seems like a pretty good deal that would serve the American people—"the drug companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket consumer costs and would even pick up the bulk of the co-payments that older Americans shoulder in Medicare's prescription drug program"—but this alone was not enough of an October surprise, so they went further and wanted to force these companies to send out little cash cards to seniors right before the election. These cards would obviously have Trump's name somewhere. The White House strenuously denied that they would be Trump branded, but we all know that is a lie. Trump just did this exact thing with the $1,200 pandemic checks in April!
This is cuckoo's nest stuff!
Here's more from the Times:
One drug company executive said they worried about the optics of having the chief executives of the country's leading pharmaceutical makers stand with the president in the Rose Garden as he hoisted an oversized card and gloated about helping a crucial bloc of voters.
"We could not agree to the administration's plan to issue one-time savings cards right before a presidential election," said Priscilla VanderVeer, the vice-president of public affairs at PhRMA, the industry's largest trade group. "One-time savings cards will neither provide lasting help, nor advance the fundamental reforms necessary to help seniors better afford their medicines."
How spectacularly stupid and unethical one must be to make Big Pharma look sane and ethical!
I need a drink.
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Featured / Recipes / 25.11.2016.
Pork tenderloin is a dish that was served in the 16th ct. in the castles of noblemen of Hrvatsko zagorje region. Pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes, in a cream sauce with wine and plum brandy, with a side dish of domestic wide noodles, even today stands as an example of a balanced and refined dish.
Wash the meat, wipe and remove the excess fat and membranes.
Insert pieces of butter in the place of a kernel into the prunes. Cut the remaining prunes on thin stripes and pour with white wine.
Use the handle of a wooden spoon to create a hole along the entire length of the tenderloin, and then stuff the prunes in it.
Add salt, pepper on prepared tenderloins, fry them on oil on all sides in a deep and wide dish. Add prunes cut in strips, add salt and sauté on moderate fire adding wine and water.
When the meat softens (after 35 minutes), add cooking cream, and near the end add plum brandy. Cook until you get thick gravy.
Cut the pork tenderloins onto steaks. Serve with home-made wide noodles and gravy.
Pork tenderloins can be removed near the end of cooking. Carve them in steaks and when the gravy is done, return them back into the dish.


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Crowdfunding for Medical Costs Almost Always Fails
You have almost certainly seen the pleas while scrolling through social media: Called crowdfunding, folks try to raise money to pay for their sick loved one's mounting medical bills.
But new research shows these grassroots campaigns rarely raise enough money to make a difference.
According to GoFundMe, which corners over 90% of the U.S. crowdfunding market, more than one-third of its fundraisers are for medical needs.
But crowdfunding should be seen as a "symptom" of the U.S. health care system's failures -- not a solution, said Sara Collins, who is vice president of health care coverage and access at the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, and was not involved with the study. Instead, policymakers should address the reasons that Americans have to resort to online campaigns, she noted.
That could include expanding Medicaid -- the government health insurance program for low-income Americans -- as well as measures to bring down out-of-pocket expenses for people with private insurance.
Under "Obamacare," most U.S. states did expand their Medicaid programs to cover more residents. However, 12 states -- largely in the South -- have resisted.
Crowdfunding for medical bills has often been talked of as an "ad-hoc" safety net -- a place for the uninsured or underinsured to turn to in times of need.
But the new findings, published Feb. 3 in the American Journal of Public Health, reveal a different reality.
People dealing with medical debt are often facing "astronomical" costs, explained lead researcher Nora Kenworthy, an associate professor at the University of Washington, Bothell.
So, even a crowdfunding campaign that goes relatively well may still fall far short of getting people out from under medical bills.
Nor do crowdfunding sites do what a true safety net would, Kenworthy said: Catch people equally.
For the study, she and her colleague Mark Igra collected data from GoFundMe's website, using its search engine to find campaigns in every U.S. ZIP code.
The investigators found over 437,000 fundraisers listed for medical needs between 2016 and 2020. Altogether, those campaigns raised an impressive-sounding $2 billion.
But campaigns varied wildly in their success: The top performer raised $2.4 million, from over 70,000 donors, while 16% of all campaigns raised nothing.
When campaigns made money, they typically had modest success, pulling in a median of $1,100 in 2020. ("Median" means half of campaigns made more, and half made less.)
And across all study years, almost 90% of campaigns failed to meet their goals; half reached 25%, while one-third raised half of what they'd hoped.
Who was most successful at fundraising? The people who already had some advantages.
The study found that more campaigns were launched in U.S. states with the highest rates of medical debt and lowest rates of insured residents. Yet, those same campaigns earned the least.
A look at the data by income found a similar pattern: Campaigns in the one-fifth of U.S. ZIP codes with the highest incomes raked in a total of $152 million in 2020. That compared with $70 million in the one-fifth of ZIP codes with the lowest incomes.
That disparity is not surprising. "Social networks have a lot to do with it," said Igra, a graduate student in sociology. "Most campaigns are not reaching a lot of people. They're not going viral."
Instead, Igra said, people who try crowdfunding typically reach people they know. And for low-income Americans, that generally means other people facing similar financial struggles.
No one is advising people to avoid crowdfunding. Even $1,000 may help with medical needs, Kenworthy said.
But people should be aware, the researchers said, that the big campaigns that spread across social media are not typical. There can also be downsides to crowdfunding, Kenworthy noted, like privacy concerns and earnings being considered income.
All agreed that the crowdfunding trend points to underlying systemic issues: Many Americans need better health care coverage and social assistance programs.
And ultimately, Collins said, it's the sky-high cost of health care in the United States that needs to be addressed.
"It's not the utilization that's the problem," she said, "it's the prices."
USA.gov has information on getting government help for medical bills.
SOURCES: Nora Kenworthy, PhD, associate professor, nursing and health studies, University of Washington, Bothell; Mark Igra, MA, graduate student, sociology, University of Washington, Bothell; Sara Collins, PhD, vice president, health care coverage and access, Commonwealth Fund, New York City; American Journal of Public Health, Feb. 3, 2022, online
Insurance: Lack Of
Health Care Access / Disparities
Insurance: Misc.
Insurance: Private
Insurance: Medicaid
Computers / Internet: Misc.


We come to this reading the day after Ash Wednesday, which is certainly a solemn day on the Christian calendar. Many Christians across the world yesterday received ashes on their foreheads and heard the refrain, "from dust you were made, and to dust you shall return." You might think this sounds a bit grim, and if you've never actually experienced it, it might seem completely foreign. If that's you, take a look at Genesis 3:19. It's taken almost exactly from that passage, which is the curse of Adam after the fall of man. It's intended to be grim, its origins are embedded in a curse for all humanity and that curse has become one of the defining characteristics of what it means to be human, namely death. The point of the refrain is to force us to grapple with our sinfulness, our brokenness, and ultimately our death. While those realities are intended to be reflected upon, they aren't intended to be the final conclusion and that brings us to Psalm 25.
This passage is to be contrasted with the paragraph you just read and the entire point of Ash Wednesday. It offers hope even in the midst of doubt and worry. The psalmist expresses confidence in the covenants of God but also shows moments of vulnerability and worry.
Is humanity broken? That's a simple question and most people who work from a Christian framework would say yes. It's really hard for me to dispute that when death and suffering is so evidently in our faces. There was a school shooting yesterday in Florida that left 17 people dead. I imagine if you ask anyone in that community or even remotely related to that event how they feel, "broken," wouldn't be too far off the mark. They should feel broken, and it could be argued that maybe they need to feel broken in order to heal.
I struggle with things like this because the tendency for so many of us Christians is to immediately jump to the future. We want to skip the suffering and go right to the good stuff. We say things like, "God has a plan" or "everything will be okay in the end." We want to skip the pain and skip the hurt, but skipping the suffering can't do anything but devalue those in pain and those hurting. It's not even biblical. The very existence of sin, of death, of the cross stands counter to the notion that we should skip the hard parts and go right to the easy. We weren't given cheat codes to jump to the last level. We were given a quest, which is called life and in it there will be both joys and hardships. I guess I can't say with 100% absolute certainty, but I'm pretty sure no one has ever lived that hasn't experienced some level of hardship.
A couple of days ago, on the recommendation of my sister-in-law, I listened to a Fresh Air interview with a Duke Divinity School professor named Kate Bowler who has incurable cancer. Since being diagnosed, she has developed a significant distaste for platitudes like those mentioned earlier and gained a new appreciation for struggle. Bowler believes that because of her struggle she has become more empathetic towards others who are in pain and seems to have a better perception of beauty. She now finds it in places she didn't before. She also mentions that she immediately became more appreciative of Lent and highlights the desire to skip to right to Easter, but explains that life just isn't like that.
This passage in Psalms should help those who want to offer those trite remarks see that it's both possible to live in pain, to feel broken, and to still trust in God. Yesterday, I mentioned that we should embrace our brokenness, but maybe "accept" is a better word to use here. We accept that nervousness, fear, doubt, and worry exist. We can feel them and still, at the same time, love God. Verse 2 is a great example where the psalmist says, "O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame." In other words, "God I trust you, but please don't let me down!" There's a confidence in God, but a slight tinge of uncertainty or worry. This should be all too familiar to most of us.
Pain is real, brokenness is real, and loving God doesn't make those things go away. Not here, not yet. But one of the gifts of God is community. He's given us other people to lift us when we fall, to enter the pain with us, to hold our hands when we're scared, and to love us when we hurt. Verse 3 promises that those who wait on God will not be put to shame but waiting can be hard. It can even take an entire life, but the good news is that he's given us people to wait alongside us. You aren't alone.


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Yahoo Health
This Entire Neighborhood Secretly Learned Sign Language To Surprise Deaf Neighbor… And That's No Easy Feat
Sure it was part of an ad campaign by Samsung, but it was also genuinely remarkable: the neighborhood of Bağcılar, Istanbul in Turkey learned sign language as a surprise for one young adult who is hearing-impaired.
Muharrem thought it was going to be a day like any other when he and his sister went about their regular routine: Stopping for bagels, buying fruit from a street vendor, taking taxis… even bumping into other pedestrians on the street.
In other words: All the makings of a totally normal day-in-the-life.
Muharrem encounters people around his neighborhood who all seem to mysteriously know sign language. (Photo: YouTube)
Except one thing was very, very different for Muaharrem, who is hearing-impaired. Every single person he interacted with that day spoke to him in sign language, from the bagel shop employee who let him know the bagels were hot to the apologizing pedestrian to the gregarious cab driver.
Samsung spent about a month teaching the town's residents sign language (and also strategically hiding cameras throughout town to capture Muharrem's reaction). The ad, called "Hearing Hands," was created by Samsung Türkiye and the advertising agency Leo Burnett Istanbul to promote the cellular agency's new video call center.
Above all, those are some dedicated neighbors, as learning sign language is no easy feat!
A neighbor spills the beans on the cameras to an obviously touched Muharrem. (Photo: YouTube)
According to the University of Vermont, "American Sign Language is the primary language of an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 Americans, including deaf native signers, hearing children of deaf parents, and fluent deaf signers who have learned ASL from other deaf individuals." Sign language is not universal; each country typically develops its own form of sign language corresponding with that country's spoken language. (In the United States, for example, American Sign Language, or ASL, corresponds to American English.) It also notes that many universities now offer ASL as a foreign language and have programs devoted to both the linguistic and anthropologic study of ASL.
This video poignantly raises awareness of the challenges for those who are hearing impaired — they can't communicate with much of the world.
Related: The Skeleton Video Everyone's Getting Emotional Over
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) reports that two to three of every 1,000 children in the United States are born deaf or hard of hearing, with 90 percent of those children born to parents without any kind of hearing impairment.
At the end of the video Muharrem, understandably, loses it. So did we. (Photo: YouTube)
Furthermore, NAD reports, while 95 percent of newborns receive a hearing screening before being discharged from the hospital, many of those suspected of being hard of hearing do not receive the appropriate follow-up evaluations and care to ensure that those children are able to have full access to language therapists as they continue to grow.
"The acquisition of language from birth is a human right," says NAD. "Deaf and hard of hearing infants should be given the opportunity to acquire American Sign Language (ASL), a fully accessible visual language, as early as possible, in addition to the opportunity to access and acquire the spoken language(s) used by their families through the use of assistive technologies and other strategies. The NAD is strongly committed to ensuring that parents of newly identified deaf or hard of hearing infants receive accurate information about the benefits of acquiring and developing proficiency in both ASL and English."
The Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (CEASD) is working alongside NAD on what they refer to as the Child First campaign, a lobbying movement to ensure that hearing impaired children receive the same educational rights and benefits as their hearing peers. Some of the core elements of the Child First movement are helping to make schools create classroom environments where students with disabilities are in the same classes and receive the same instruction as students without disabilities and assuring that deaf and hard-of-hearing children are in an educational environment that successfully accommodates their language and communication needs, including access to both American Sign Language and spoken English in their classrooms as well as visual and auditory technologies for support as needed.
In 2012, a "We the People" petition was filed with the White House to officially recognize American Sign Language as a "community language," to help destigmatize the use of ASL in schools and to recognize it as a valid language of instruction in schools.
The White House responded, saying, "Nothing in federal law prohibits a school or university from having a curriculum that includes ASL instruction. Nothing prohibits courses taught in ASL for students with and without disabilities. The Department of Education has implemented policies, investments, and programs to ensure that all students, including students who are deaf or hard of hearing, have access to a world-class education, along with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills through appropriate assessments aligned to high academic standards" and noted that the "Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing."
Up Next: Nothing — Not Even Lyme Disease — Can Keep This Couple Apart
According to my Facebook groups, these $21 pants (50% off!) are everything
They somehow do it all — repel pet hair, magically never wrinkle and make your butt look incredible.
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Penarth RNLI lifeboat station has launched an appeal to raise £52,000 for a new lifeboat.
The money will pay for a new D-class inshore lifeboat which, it is hoped, will replace the existing boat in early 2018 and accompany the station's bigger Atlantic 85 lifeboat.
RNLI volunteers say the new boat will help the lifeboat crew save lives at sea for years into the future.
At a celebratory appeal launch at the lifeboat station today (21 July) Olympic sailor Hannah Mills, 28, who hails from Dinas Powys, will meet the volunteer lifeboat crew and station officials and give her support to the fundraising bid.
Hannah, who won a silver medal at the 2012 Games in London and is soon to set off to Brazil to compete in the Rio de Janiero Olympics, said: 'I grew up sailing in these waters and I knew that if I ever got into trouble the RNLI would be there to help me.
D-class lifeboats are the most numerous and main workhorses of the RNLI operating in inshore waters and there are over 150 in the fleet.
Since 1980, when Penarth RNLI lifeboat station re-opened after a break of some 80 years, they have had five different D-class boats. The present one, the D693 Connie Daines has been in Penarth since 2008 and during that time has been launched on 225 service calls, rescued 332 people, and saved seven lives. In 2015 Penarth RNLI lifeboat station rescued more people than any other inshore station in Wales.
Jason Dunlop, Lifeboat Operations Manager for Penarth RNLI Station said: 'We have fantastic support from our community and I would like to appeal to them once again to help with this appeal and encourage everyone to take part in fundraising activities.
'Our volunteer crews can be called out 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year to help save lives at sea on the Bristol Channel, on the beaches, in the rivers and in Cardiff Bay. By supporting this appeal people will be ensuring our volunteer crews have the latest equipment to help them to continue in that mission.
Anyone interested in supporting the appeal, whether that be via donation, hosting an event or volunteering their time, should contact penarth@rnli.org.uk. Alternatively, please visit www.penarthlifeboatappeal.org to donate.
D-class lifeboats are generally replaced within 10 years of starting service. At 5m long and weighing 400kg, a 50hp Mariner engine gives the boat a top speed of 25 knots with a crew of three on board, making it fast, manoeuvrable and stable.
The D-class operates closer to shore than all-weather lifeboats and is specifically suited to surf, shallow water and confined locations, often close to cliffs, among rocks or even in caves.


text:
Eric Holder Calls For Moratorium On Death Penalty
From The Huffington Post:
Attorney General Eric Holder called Tuesday for a moratorium on the death penalty pending a Supreme Court decision on the use of lethal injection drugs in Oklahoma.
Speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Holder, noting that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as a member of the administration, said the "inevitable" possibility of executing an innocent individual is what makes him oppose capital punishment.
"Our system of justice is the best in the world. It is comprised of men and women who do the best they can, get it right more often than not, substantially more right than wrong," Holder said. "There's always the possibility that mistakes will be made … It's for that reason that I am opposed to the death penalty."
He continued: "I think fundamental questions about the death penalty need to be asked. And among them, the Supreme Court's determination as to whether or not lethal injection is consistent with our Constitution is one that ought to occur. From my perspective, I think a moratorium until the Supreme Court made that determination would be appropriate."
Holder clarified that his personal views on the matter are not part of an ongoing Justice Department review of state execution practices.
Read more at The Huffington Post


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Description: Adhesive product, hypoallergenic and water proof, with duration of 1 to 4 days on th..
Adhesive product, hypoallergenic and water proof, with duration of 1 to 4 days on the skin.
Application on clean, dry skin, no cream.
Adhere to the flat parts of the body.
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Adhesive/Temporary Tattoo - "Handmade in Brazil"


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Impressive results in helping the body naturally enhance its performance are shown through the use of PowerFX bands. Many users report increased balance, flexibility and energy levels. When your body's natural energy is flowing freely you are able to use your body's full potential and perform to your optimal levels.
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text:
Computer Science >>
SOA Interview Qs
Additional Computer Science Flashcards
What is SOA?
It is a architecture for building business applications using loosely coupled services (which act like black boxes) and can be combined to achieve a specific functionality.
What are some important points of SOA?
(Hint: 5)
- Components are loosely coupled.
- Services are black boxes.
- Services are self-defined.
- Services are maintained in a listing.
- Components can combine to achieve a particular functionality.
In SOA, do we need to build systems from scratch?
No, you can integrate or make an existing system as a business service. Provided that each is loosely coupled and exposed it's functionality.
Can you explain business layers and plumbing layers in WS?
The division is needed to identify a service.
- Business layer: has direct relevance to business as it carries out business functions.
- Plumbing layer: a technical layer which talks about managing computer resources.
What is the difference between services and components in WS?
- Services are logical grouping of components to achieve business functionality.
- Components are implementation approaches to make a service.
Can you describe the complete architecture of SOA?
(Definition)(Hint: 5)
Because the goal of SOA is to connect multiple systems together, they must message each other. ESB acts like a post office which guarantess delivery of a message between systems in a loosy coupled manner.
(Registry, Workflow, Service Broker, Process Manager, SOA supervisor.)
What is a end/endpoint? What are the types?
An endpoint is a connection point where a service can be available to the client.
ABC = Address (where), Binding (how), Contract (what)
Can you explain a practical example in SOA?
An online order system for a companies website.
Are web-services SOA?
SOA is thinking, it's an architectural concept and web service is one of the technical approach to complete it. Web services are the preferred standards to achieve SOA.
What is a reusable service?
It is an autonomous, reusable, discoverable, stateless functionality that can be part of a composite application or service. A reusable service should be identified with a business activity described by the service specification.
Talking about Service identification, which approach between top-down and bottom-up methodologies encourages re-use and maintenance?
Since the top-down approach is business-driven, it can be practical to separate the different concerns of business and IT of different plans, providing a common ground in between.
How can you achieve loose coupling in a SOA?
- Use the service interface to limit the dependency.
- Encapsulate the service functionalities to limit the impact of changes.
The Service of a SOA should be engineered as stateless or stateful?
Service should be stateless. It may have a context within its stateless execution, but it will not have an intermediary state waiting for an event or a call-back.
What is ESB?
A infrastructue that implements the SOA concept; which provides mechanism for security, implementing a level of SLA, routing, & transformation capabilities.
What are the common pitfalls of SOA?
- Viewing SOA as an end (its a means to an end).
- Trying to solve multiple problems at once (solve small pieces first).
What is the endpoint Contract (what)?
It defines the protocol of how the client should communicate with the service.
What is the endpoint Binding (how)?
Determines how the endpoint can be accessed and how communication is done.
What is the endpoint Address (where)?
Indicates where we can find this service. It is a URL, which points to the location of the service.


As regular users of the Air Canada web site, we were frustrated with the user experience. Having made a number of costly mistakes, I finally decided to contact a friend who works at Air Canada, in the hope of get in touch with the people responsible for their web site.
Soon we were introduced to the vice president in charge of the web site. She was very receptive. However, the Internet team was closed to the idea having us looking at the user experience. They insisted that survey results were very positive and according to them, the user experience was great. To prove our point, we decided to run an evaluation of user experience at our own cost. We simply asked a few users to execute key tasks, such as booking a flight, checking flight status, finding information on luggage, and so forth.
We then showed the video and results to the team. It was obvious to everyone that there was an urgent need for improvement.
We were the first user experience company to be engaged by Air Canada; an amazing fact given that their web site generates 4.7 billions dollars in transactions per years. Prior to our work, the only information Air Canada had on the user experience had been amassed through the use of surveys and superficial focus groups run by traditional marketing agencies.
When evaluating an existing website, we prefer using remote testing because users are in their own environments. We have found that preserving the typical experiences of users in test groups is essential if we are to get accurate results. In this case, we had brief informal discussions with users about previous travel experiences, future trip plans, and so on. We then ask the users to pretend that they are planning the trips they had described to us. This could have involved booking a flight to Paris, verifying the stasis of a flight, or searching for baggage information. We then asked users to re-execute these tasks as if we were not there. Users were invited to go to other web sites if this is what they would normally do. They had access to Google, Expedia, Travelocity or any other site they might typically use.
In this test, we had 12 users perform 16 key tasks. A task was defined as a failure if the user required assistance to achieve the goal. Results were dramatic. User failed most tasks.
Based on the test results, we proposed a series of redesign elements using prototype tools ranging from Paper, Photoshop, Powerpoint animation and Axure. We then re-tested. After six iterations, users were able to achieve 100% successful completion of the tasks without any hesitation.
Air Canada found that some of the recommendations were easily implemented, while others took more time because they were at the back end of the system.
More importantly, Air Canada has now adopted the user experience as a key strategic practice for the organisation. They have hired user experience specialists and built a usability lab. While we know from experience that remote testing is more effective, we applaud Air Canada for the development of the usability lab. This is a clear statement that Air Canada is committed to treating user experience as a priority.
Since our original work with Air Canada, we have been engaged to perform multiple subsequent user experience evaluations for Air Canada to assist in the development of online check-in and mobile strategies.


text:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <Photos/Photos.h>
#import "CTAssetThumbnailStacks.h"

@interface CTAssetCollectionViewCell : UITableViewCell

@property (nonatomic, strong, readonly, nonnull) CTAssetThumbnailStacks *thumbnailStacks;

@property (nonatomic, weak, nullable) UIFont *titleFont UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *titleTextColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *selectedTitleTextColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;

@property (nonatomic, weak, nullable) UIFont *countFont UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *countTextColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *selectedCountTextColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;

@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *accessoryColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
@property (nonatomic, strong, nullable) UIColor *selectedAccessoryColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;

@property (nonatomic, weak, nullable) UIColor *selectedBackgroundColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;

- (nullable instancetype)initWithThumbnailSize:(CGSize)size reuseIdentifier:(nullable NSString *)reuseIdentifier;
- (void)bind:(nonnull PHAssetCollection *)collection count:(NSUInteger)count;

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Januária è una microregione del Minas Gerais in Brasile, appartenente alla mesoregione di Norte de Minas.

Comuni
È suddivisa in 16 comuni:
 Bonito de Minas
 Chapada Gaúcha
 Cônego Marinho
 Icaraí de Minas
 Itacarambi
 Januária
 Juvenília
 Manga
 Matias Cardoso
 Miravânia
 Montalvânia
 Pedras de Maria da Cruz
 Pintópolis
 São Francisco
 São João das Missões
 Urucuia

Januaria

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Since it seems to be true crime day here at eMike and stats are showing a renewed interest in some of my earlier posts on Joran van der Sloot perhaps an update is order. Joran has a Peruvian girlfriend who brings him candy (which he sells to other inmates) and does "chores" around his cell. Apparently one of the chores she performed was allowing van der Sloot to impregnate her.
What is with these women that are obsessed with famous killers? van der Sloot is awaiting trial for one murder and strongly suspected in a second and she thinks it's a good idea to have his baby? And while I'm on the subject, if this is what passes for "maximum security" in Peru what's a minimum security Peruvian prison like? Pole dancers and a champagne room?