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July 11, 2020 • 11:18 am Comments Off on Interview with Olga Neuwirth
Interview with Olga Neuwirth
Here's a new interview with Olga Neuwirth conducted by Boulez Saal's Philipp Brieler, discussing Pierre Boulez and Neuwirth's new piece Naufraghi del mondo que hanno ancora un cuore — one of the new works premiered on Saturday's program. The entire Festival of New Music: Distance/Intimacy is being streamed live and then archived for 30 days. You can find this program here (Neuwirth's piece begins at 55:00).
Filed under: COVID-19 Era, new music, Olga Neuwirth, Pierre Boulez, Pierre Boulez Saal
June 13, 2020 • 2:10 pm Comments Off on Ojai Talks: 2020 Virtual Festival
Ojai Talks: 2020 Virtual Festival
UPDATE: Wiener Staatsoper will stream Olga Neuwirth's new opera Orlando (conducted by Matthias Pintscher) on 23 June from its platform here. Apparently you will need to use a VPN set to a location in Europe to stream (inaccessible to USA), but that's an easy work-around.
Ara Guzelimian hosts these fascinating conversations with this year's Ojai Festival artists. I'll post them as they become available. The first three are now live:
Conversation with 2020 Music Director Matthias Pintscher about his background and his friendship with Pierre Boulez (11 June)
Conversation with Matthias Pintscher and featured artist Olga Neuwirth (12 June)
Conversation with and performances by the Calder Quartet (13 June)
Conversation with Steve Reich (14 June)
Here's my essay for the overall program: The Art of Transitions
And my program notes for each of the ten events are all to be found in the online program book under that tab here.
Filed under: Asra Guzelimian, Matthias Pintscher, Ojai Festival, Olga Neuwirth
October 11, 2019 • 10:41 am Comments Off on Breaths of Fresh Air: The Seattle Symphony Premieres Olga Neuwirth
Breaths of Fresh Air: The Seattle Symphony Premieres Olga Neuwirth
Last night's concert was the first chance I've had to experience Thomas Dausgaard in action with the Seattle Symphony since his inaugural season as music director began. Even with just a fraction of the players onstage for the entire first half (and a modest-sized orchestra for the second), this was music-making on a very high level. There was no fall-back on routine — which might easily have been the case, in view of the presence of two ultra-familiar works anchoring the program: the fourth of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Mozart's final Symphony, the so-called (though not by the composer) "Jupiter."
What gave the programming an edge was the inclusion, side-by-side with the Bach, of a new work by the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth titled Aello – ballet mécanomorphe. Dausgaard led its world premiere in Stockholm last year, with flutist Claire Chase as the soloist and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (which he helmed until starting his SSO tenure this fall). Neuwirth was one of six contemporary composers commissioned by Dausgaard and the SCO to write new response works that somehow react to the Brandenburg Concertos. (For the record, the others include Uri Caine, Brett Dean, Anders Hillborg, Steven Mackey, and Mark Anthony Turnage — the whole project was presented at the 2018 BBC Proms [see video above].)
The Seattle Symphony had the honor of giving Aello's U.S. premiere — and, it is to be hoped, will continue pursuing the music of this boldly imaginative, singular, uncompromising composer. Neuwirth is at last gaining long-overdue recognition. She was a key presence at the recent Musikfest Berlin
(where I had a chance to hear Susanne Mälkki conduct the young Karajan Akademie musicians in Aello, with Berlin Philharmonic principal Emmanuel Pahud as the soloist).
Neuwirth's commission was to write a companion piece to be paired with the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major (BWV 1049), using essentially the same chamber ensemble. Except she replaces Bach's soloist trio of violin and two flutes (or flute-like instruments) with a solo flute as protagonist. Her counterparts are a pair of trumpets (one piccolo) that play with various mutes — taking on the role of the Bach flutes. (The doubleness of the latter come back as well in the flute soloist's alternation between her "normal" instrument and a bass flute for the final movement.)
As "continuo," Neuwirth substitutes a multiple-personality "harpsichord" comprising a synthesizer and a percussionist (Michael Werner) who plays a mechanical typewriter (the score specifies an "Oilivetti Lettera 22" model, which is amplified), a triangle made to resound with an automatic milk foamer, and a water-filled glass pitched to a high E. And even the string ensemble is "de-natured" by the complex multiple tuning system Neuwirth establishes for the whole ensemble (including the solists), with four layers of different pitchings.
Claire Chase, the score's dedicatee, is a widely acclaimed musical adventurer who has built her solo career around expanding the potential for her instrument. Neuwirth avails herself not only of Chase's extraordinary musicianship but of her stage charisma as well. The flutist's performance last night cast a spell with her commanding gusts and mysterious whisperings, egging on the motley trumpet sounds and breaking free from the ensemble's attempts at hegemony.
As she nimbly — indeed, balletically — turned and twisted, Chase's compelling stage presence seemed to conjure an oracle, at times blissful, at others demonic in its aura. Aello actually refers to an ancient Greek harpy, but Neuwirth subverts the sexist image by making her mythical being into "someone sent by the gods to restore peace, if necessary with force, and to exact punishment for crimes."
Similarly, the "macho" personae of Baroque trumpets is tamed and, as it were, Dada-fied through the mutes and the resultant kaleidoscope of colors (Neuwirth herself studied trumpet). The legacy of Dada — its absurdist play with machines and "stuff," with the mechanical aspects of modernity — is another important influence on Neuwirth's aesthetic.
There were some muffled gasps and giggles from the audience, reacting to the absurdist humor of the piece — yet Aello is by no means a simple "parody" of the Bach companion (neither in the usual sense of the word nor even the Baroque sense).
Neuwirth follows Bach's three-movement design and quotes snippets of his motifs and melodies, but these appear more as vanishing recollections of a musical world that no longer makes sense. Along with the playfulness, there are moments of mesmerizing mystery — above all in the slow middle movement, which approaches the ethereal — and even of terror. Neuwirth's sense of pacing is superb — no wonder she has a flair for the stage and for film scoring. She dramatizes a remarkable attempted coup by the ensemble in the final moments that is thwarted, once again, by the flute-goddess's knowing breath.
Dausgaard led a (mostly) standing ensemble in the Fourth Brandenburg itself to start the program and set the stage for Aello. Claire Chase joined principal flutist Demarre McGill and concertmaster Noah Geller to form the solo group. All of them listened intently to their fellow musicians and responded with in-the-moment honesty. Dazzlingly stylish and refined, Geller gave the insanely difficult violin cadenzas the elan of breakout jazz solos. I especially relished the mingled "mega-flute" colorations McGill and Chase created as their lines bobbed and wove together.
The Mozart sounded … BIG in comparison to the chamber delicacy of the first half (Baroque and Dadaish alike). I would have preferred a slightly less beefed-up string section. Dausgaard mostly succeeded in keeping balances beautifully weighted, but Mozart's wind writing was at moments a tad lacking in presence because of the wall of string sound.
Still, the Danish maestro enjoys an inspiring rapport with the SSO, and everyone was on high alert to deliver. He even pulled a few Arthur Nikisch moments, in which he conducted using nothing but his eyebrows. Dausgaard approached the "Jupiter" as a proto-Beethovenian epic, exploiting explosive accents (with dynamic contributions from James Benoit on timpani) and delineating a sense of musical travel, above all in the outer movements.
He obviously possesses a fantastic ear, and the ability to coax microsecond readjustments, so that rich, unexpected colors emerged — most wondrously, in the veiled murkiness he elicited from the slow movement's harmonic clouds. Mozart's pauses became a powerful theatrical device through which he drew intriguing connections between the first two movements, the one Apollonian in majesty, its cantabile counterpart an Orphic reverie.
Mozart famously performs his own retoolings of Bach (and Handel) in many of his late period works: the "Jupiter" finale is glorious exemplary. Dausgaard kept the architecture cleanly in view without dampening the visceral excitement.
The program will be repeated on Saturday 12 October at 8pm. And Claire Chase performs in recital tonight at 7.30pm at Octave 9.
Review (c)2019 Thomas May. All rights reserved.
Filed under: Olga Neuwirth, review, Seattle Symphony, Thomas Dausgaard
March 28, 2019 • 6:47 am Comments Off on Clocks Without Hands at Maerzmusik
Clocks Without Hands at Maerzmusik
Looking forward to this concert tonight: orchestral works by Ashley Fure, Justė Janulytė, and Olga Neuwirth. Program book here.
https://www.ricordi.com/de-DE/News/2015/06/Neuwirth-Masaot.aspx
Filed under: Maerzmusik, MärzMusik, new music, Olga Neuwirth
September 26, 2018 • 3:48 pm Comments Off on Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway at Oper Frankfurt
Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway at Oper Frankfurt
left to right: Steffen Ahrens (Ensemble Modern), Elizabeth Reiter (Alice), and John Brancy (Pete); photo (c) Monika Rittershaus
My review of Olga Neuwirth's extraordinary video-opera, directed by Yuval Sharon at Oper Frankfurt, is now online at Musical America:
FRANKFURT, Germany—Questions give rise to more and more questions in Lost Highway, including one that kept recurring to me as I became increasingly entangled in the performance: Why is Olga Neuwirth still so woefully underrepresented in America's new music scene? The evening I spent with Oper Frankfurt's production (September 19) proved to be so engrossing, so provocative in all the right ways, that the neglect of her fascinating body of work seems all the more outrageous—and our loss all the more to be pitied, until it's remedied.
Filed under: Musical America, new opera, Olga Neuwirth, Oper Frankfurt, review, Yuval Sharon
September 1, 2016 • 2:39 am Comments Off on Olga Neuwirth's New Percussion Concerto for Lucerne Festival
Olga Neuwirth's New Percussion Concerto for Lucerne Festival
Last weekend at Lucerne Festival brought the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth's latest major orchestral work: a percussion concerto titled Trurliade – Zone Zero (which references one of the Austrian composer's sources of inspiration, the sci fi master Stanisław Lem). The soloist was Victor Hanna, and Matthias Pintscher conducted the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy.
Trurliade was the eighth in the ongoing Roche Commissions series, which picks from the leading composers at work today to commission a new orchestral work every two years, which is then premiered at Lucerne Festival. Neuwirth has also been serving as this year's composer-in-residence at the Festival, which is focusing on the theme of women in music.
Neuwirth is a genuinely fascinating, one-of-a-kind composer who has created especially striking works of music theater (including collaborations with fellow Austrian and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, an operatic treatment of David Lynch's Lost Highway, and a "musicstallation" in homage to Herman Melville, among others).
In her Neue Zürcher Zeitung review, Michelle Ziegler writes:
Trotz der plastischen Anlage geht Neuwirth mit den Bezügen und Zitaten in ihrer «Trurliade – Zone Zero» ungemein feinsinnig um. Sie lässt die Zahnräder der Orchestermaschinerie zwar wie geschmiert laufen, verliert sich aber nie in einem vorhersehbaren Trott. Sie fügt Geräusche nicht zur Show ein, sondern findet im Klang der Schrottobjekte einen poetischen Zauber. Damit hat die Komponistinfür ihre zweite Residenz beim Lucerne Festival ein wunderbar persönliches, zugleich tiefsinniges und erfrischendes Werk geschaffen.
The composer has written an intriguing program note introducing her new concerto:
This is why the title of the piece refers to Stanisław Lem's Trurl's Machine. With his warning against unfreedom, Lem in turn alludes to George Orwell's novel 1984. In Lem's story the machine designed by Trurl insists on its mindless and inflexible assertion: "Two plus two is seven." In Orwell's book the apparatus of power demands obedience through re-education, propaganda lies, and surveillance by illogically claiming that "two plus two is five" – until the individual complies with the stipulations of the regime and gives up thinking. The regime "teaches" renegades and dissidents to love Big Brother by using cruel methods of torture. The protagonist, already demoralized and worn down mentally and physically through continual re-education measures, nevertheless does not give up the fight and becomes dangerous to the Party when he dares to express (mathematical) facts: "Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two is four." And he does so even though, according to Orwell, the loudspeakers keep demanding over and over again that everyone accept whatever Big Brother defines as true, including that two and two is five. This phrase represents the obedience required by an ideology in contrast to rational facts and truth.
Filed under: commissions, Lucerne Festival, Olga Neuwirth


NEW YORK – It's Super Bowl ad time again. Advertisers of all stripes are vying for the attention of the 111 million viewers expected to tune in. The goal is to be the most-talked about ad over the water cooler – or Slack chatroom – come Monday morning.
Amazon: The internet giant's founder, Jeff Bezos, stars in this 90-second comedic ad showing different celebrities including chef Gordon Ramsay, actress Rebel Wilson, singer Cardi B and actor Anthony Hopkins subbing in for the voice of Amazon's voice assistant Alexa.
Budweiser: Anheuser-Busch dispenses with its usual Clydesdales and puppies and instead goes with a 60-second ad that depicts, to the tune of "Stand By Me," the company's program to provide water to areas in need.
Bud Light: The beer brand's recent ads have centered on a Game of Thrones-like universe that uses the meaningless-but-catchy phrase "Dilly Dilly." Now, in a 60-second ad running in the second quarter, the brand introduces "Bud Knight," a heroic character who is ambivalent about helping out in a battle.
Coca-Cola: The soda maker strives to include everyone in its 60-second ad: people of different ethnicities, someone in a wheelchair and a person who uses the they/them pronoun are all shot at various locations in Mexico clutching or drinking different varieties of Coke.
Doritos & Mountain Dew: The two Pepsico brands have linked spots that show a lip-sync battle between Peter Dinklage, who lip syncs a Busta Rhymes song as a representative for Doritos Blaze, and Morgan Freeman, who lip syncs a song by Missy Elliott for Mountain Dew Ice.
Febreze: Procter & Gamble's air freshener tackles toilet humor with a 30-second ad airing in the second quarter. It purports to be a documentary about Dave, whose "bleep don't stink." The kicker: Since your Super Bowl party guests are a bunch of not-Daves, you might want to take other precautions against bathroom odor.
Kia: The automaker has enlisted Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler (who last popped up in a Skittles Super Bowl ad two years ago) to promote its Stringer sports car. In the ad, he drives backward so fast that he gets younger thanks to computer-generated magic. In a nod to advertising tropes, the ad also contains a subliminal message if you watch it backward; Kia helpfully provides this version online.
Michelob Ultra: The Anheuser-Busch light beer brand has 30-second ads in the second and fourth quarters starring Chris Pratt . In one he runs and does yoga while singing along to "I Like Beer," a remake of a country song from the 1970s.
Pepsi: The soda maker calls back to its past Super Bowl advertising efforts with Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Celtics basketball player Kyrie Irving and Cindy Crawford in a 30-second ad airing right before the Justin Timberlake halftime show.
WeatherTech: The maker of car floor mats shows footage of its new factory being built in a 30-second ad in the first half of the game. On-screen text reads: "At WeatherTech, we built our new factory right here in America. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?" It's the fifth consecutive year WeatherTech has advertised during the Super Bowl that all of its operations are in the United States.
NEW YORK – Peyton Manning takes a family to Universal Parks & Resorts. Chris Pratt works out to get in shape to tout Michelob Ultra. Bill Hader takes a break on set to snack on some Pringles.
In a Pringles ad , Bill Hader has a snack on set and introduces a made-up practice dubbed "flavor stacking," in which he mixes and matches different Pringles varieties. M&Ms enlisted Danny DeVito to embody what happens when a red M&M becomes a person after wishing on a lucky penny.
Coca-Cola's anthemic 60-second ad features varieties of Coke, from Coke Zero to the stevia-flavored Coke Life, quaffed by women, men and a person who uses the "they" pronoun.
It's the fifth year WeatherTech has advertised in the Super Bowl touting its all-American operations. Founder and CEO David MacNeil said his ad doesn't have typical Super Bowl accoutrements – "no ponies, no puppies, no pretty girls" – but said it's straight to the point about its message.
While the majority of advertisers release their ads ahead of time to try to drum up publicity, there are some holdouts. Fiat Chrysler usually appears during the game without advance warning. Other advertisers that have remained mum about their plans so far include E-Trade and Monster Products. "It may be that advertisers with risky ads are waiting for the game, hoping to protect the surprise and break through the clutter," said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University.
Published: Feb. 2, 2018, 8:07 a.m. Updated: Feb. 2, 2018, 12:09 p.m.


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The killer whale is a black and white sea creature that is also known as an orca. They can live anywhere, but prefer cold waters, such as the Antarctic. They live off a diet of other animals that can range from small fish and sea creatures, like squid, to other whales. They can travel in a pack to attack a large whale and kill it for food. The orca is one of the predators of the sea, though normally we only think of sharks in this way. But there is no evidence that a killer whale will attack a human in the ocean. Many sailors have been dumped in the water among a pod of these creatures and no harm was done.
Size and ferociousness are the key defense tactics these whales use for their own protection. Most animals instinctively know that the whale means business, and stay far away. They have sharp teeth and can charge other animals. Smashing into them, or tearing chunks from their bodies, they can quickly devour a sea animal. No one wants to mess with that kind of power!
Killer whales don't have too many enemies when it comes to the ocean. They're pretty much at the top of the food chain and no one wants to have a go at them. But they do have predators, though attacks aren't that common. Some sharks may attack a killer whale, especially if it's not with its pack. Battles between great whites and the killer whale are a source of fascination for some people, and have been recorded and posted all over the internet. These two creatures are both strong killing machines, terrors of the waters they swim. Who will win in a battle between them? Humans as well are predators of the orca. Some hunt them, or kill them out of fear. But these creatures are only doing what they were born to do-- feed and stay alive.


Another powerhouse week in the gardens. We plugged along between the rainstorms and ignored the heat. More broccoli was transplanted out and more fall cauliflower too. It seemed like we were always picking beans. The pea trellises all came down, cleaned up and hopefully tilled (if it ever dries out). We plan to replant this area this weekend with Autumn delights.
Our primary duties are harvesting and weed control. With all this rain the crops and weeds are both thriving but we are on top of it all and this feels good. We are relieved that severe weather has missed us and have not had any issue yet with excessive rain. The garden is lush, green and beautiful. Life is good.
Summer Squash bloom in the morning.
Winter Squash plants are loaded with blooms too. The bees are busy.
Looks to be a bounty this year from our mini orchard. The peach and pear trees are heavy with fruit. We are looking forward to the harvest.
The peach tree we planted the year Maeve was born. This year will be the 1st harvest.
And look at that! Tomatoes around the corner. The tomato patch looks wonderful.
A Hot, hazy picture of peppers right around the corner too.
An amazing share this week and what is even more amazing we were able to harvest, wash and pack all that bounty and still get our garden chores done. Enjoy the wonderfulness of it all.
We climbed over the 500 pound mark….537 pounds of garden delights this week.
Head Lettuce-perfect lettuce from our hoop house. Either romaine or a summer crisp called Lovelock.
Baby Cabbage Head-The perfect size for a fresh slaw, added to fresh salads or grilled is wonderful too.
Eggplant-Looks to be another bumper crop again this year. Plants are loaded.
Zucchini-Here they come….several varieties planted and an assortment in every share.
European slice Cucumbers-2 in every snack pack share. Thin and delicious. We pick cucumbers everyday.
Making my way down the cucumber trellis in my outfit of choice this past week.
Mini munch cucumbers-This mini thin skinned cucumbers that have appeared in the grocery stores….our 3rd year growing them and we love them.
Red Norland Potatoes!-Nothing beats the flavor of a just dug potato….enjoy!
1st peek at the potatoes.
Parsley-Large flat leafed Italian. We had to include it in the mix this week. Parsley and buttered new baby red potatoes-Heaven!
Green Beans-A bounty! Picked in and after the rains. We rinsed them off but do rinse again before preparing as there may be some grit remaining.
Snow Peas-The end of the pea season for us. Scott pulled the trellis right behind my picking.
Garlic-A summer staple around here. We dug a few more early birds to enjoy with the potatoes.
Head lettuce-romaine and lovelock summer crisp lettuce in every full share.
Lovelock Summer Crisp at harvest.
Baby cabbages-As I mentioned before we love this size of these little guys. Tender, sweet and wonderful raw in salads or slaw, or fantastic in stir fry dishes or grilled.
We clear cut the mini cabbage crop and another one started a few weeks back for a late season harvest.
Eggplant-Here we go…we sure can grow eggplant for some reason….enjoy!
Zucchini-We harvest daily and pick them small. Tender sweet and a nice mix of varieties.
A great zucchini harvest this week.
BIG! bag of cucumbers-An assortment in every Full Share. These too are picked every day.
Morning cucumber harvest from 1 side of the trellis.
Our favorite white cucumbers are just starting to produce.
Red Norland Potatoes-A bumper crop this year and we are just starting to dig the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG row.
Delicious. We had a meal of just potatoes the night we dug.
Parsley-Large flat leaf Italian-A must for the share this week to go with the potatoes.
Parsley drying after it's rinse.
Auntie Howdy…if you ever need to take a quick day road trip come on down and visit-we would love to see you.
Green Beans-A HUGE! harvest this week and a HUGE! bag.
BIG! bags of beans…2 pounds in every Full share.
Sugar snap peas-this marks the end of our "pea season".
Garlic-2 more heads in the Full Share this week. Fresh garlic is fantastic.


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Jeb Bush says the NSA isn't powerful enough
By Colin Lecher@colinlecher Aug 19, 2015, 3:12pm EDT
Source The Associated Press
Share All sharing options for: Jeb Bush says the NSA isn't powerful enough
Jeb Bush says the National Security Agency should not have its powers scaled back, the Associated Press reports. But encryption by private technology companies like Google, Bush suggests, is a threat to national security.
"I think the balance has actually gone the wrong way."
"There's a place to find common ground between personal civil liberties and NSA doing its job," Bush said, according to comments he made yesterday at a forum reported on by the AP. "I think the balance has actually gone the wrong way." Bush says a recent change to the Patriot Act that ordered a stop to the bulk collection of Americans' phone records was misguided; there was "no evidence," he says, that the surveillance violated civil liberties.
Bush also suggested that encryption by private companies, which high-profile law enforcement officials have fought against, "makes it harder for the American government to do its job while protecting civil liberties to make sure evildoers aren't in our midst."
The comments are not a complete surprise. Bush has already been vocal in his support for the NSA, and with the exception of Rand Paul, many GOP presidential hopefuls have taken similar positions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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VOC open relegation pay-offs with a win
Bertus de Jong
VOC bested VVV in the first of three Relegation/Promotion playoffs, chasing down 155 in 35.1 overs for the loss of four wickets.
Having won the toss and elected to field, VOC restricted their hosts to 155 as VVV were bowled out with a ball to spare. Dirk van Baren's return of 3-43 was the pick of the bowling as several VVV batsmen got starts but failed to kick on. Runs were hard to come by given a sluggish outfield, forcing the batsmen to take the riskier arial route, but nonetheless VOC were the happier side at the break, though their efforts in the field were marred by an unfortunate injury to Paul Brous, who broke his thumb in the act of catching Shahrukh Akhtar.
An opening partnership of 84 between Maarten van Ierschot and Tim Ruyters layed the foundation for the VOC chase, and after van Ierschot departed one short of his half century, the first of Saqib Iqbal's four wickets, Ruyters pressed on with Jeandre Jumat. Ruyters was eventually to fall just after passing the milestone, stumped off Iqbal for 51, but there was no way back for VVV. Iqbal would strike twice more, Dirk van Baren nicking behind and Jumat holing out trying to finish the match in style with the scores level, but Pieter Seelaar would see his side home with a fine cover drive, to take first blood in the best-of-three series.
The two sides will meet again at VOC next Saturday, with a decisive match scheduled for Sunday at the same venue should VVV level the score.


The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is less. Less is more. The eye is a menace to clear sight. The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature.
When I brought Hofmann up to meet Pollock and see his work which was before we moved here, Hofmann's reaction was—one of the questions he asked Jackson was, "Do you work from nature?" There were no still lifes around or models around and Jackson's answer was, "I am nature." And Hofmann's reply was, "Ah, but if you work by heart, you will repeat yourself." To which Jackson did not reply at all. The meeting between Pollock and Hofmann took place in 1942.


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BLOG TOUR: Review of 'Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined' by Danielle Younge-Ullman
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Release Date: April 6th 2017
Buy The Book: A Great Read - Book Depository
Ingrid has made a deal with her mother: she gets to go to the school of her choice as long as she completes a three-week wilderness programme. But when Ingrid arrives, she quickly realizes there has been a terrible mistake: there will be no marshmallows or cabins here. Instead, her group will embark on a torturous trek, with almost no guidance from the two counsellors and supplied with only the things they can carry. On top of this, the other teen participants are "at risk youth", a motley crew of screw-ups, lunatics and delinquents. But as the laborious days go by, and as memories of her complicated past come flooding back, Ingrid must confront the question of whether she shares more in common with these troubled teens than she's willing to admit.
Ingrid is taking part in Peak Wilderness on a promise. If she completes the trip, she gets to go to the school of her dreams in England. But Peak Wilderness isn't anything like how Ingrid expected it to be. What she thought would be cabins and fun, outdoor activities were actually harsh nights of camping and brutal days of hiking. The story follows Ingrid as she struggles to make it through the difficult three weeks with a bunch of strangers who are all there for very different reasons.
What I particularly loved about this story was the various ways in which it was told. We got to jump between the past and present to gradually get the whole picture as to how and why Ingrid ended up at Peak Wilderness, and then there were the letters. Throughout the book, Ingrid writes letters that she never intends to send, but help her get her feelings out, putting them all onto the page. This variety in the storytelling kept things interesting and also kept me guessing as to what events had occurred in Ingrid's past.
Ingrid herself was a wonderful character to read about. Despite the situation she'd found herself thrown into, she managed to find determination to get through the difficult days. It was interesting to see how she reacted to the other characters and to watch her opinions of them change over time. She had a bit of everything to offer with her sarcasm, her wit, and her strength that grew throughout the book. Her turbulent relationship with her mother was heartbreaking but also beautiful at times. The writing really drove home the sadness and desperation that follows a career in the spotlight being pulled from right beneath a person's feet.
I'll admit that I'm difficult to please when it comes to romance in contemporary stories, so I was happy to see that the romantic relationships in this book didn't have any typically cheesy instalove attached to it. It wasn't what I expected, so I was pleasantly surprised! The journey that Ingrid and the other characters had to endure was gritty and tough, but I felt a sense of pride as they grew stronger through it. The secondary characters were all interesting in their own right, and it actually made me interested to learn more about them outside of Ingrid's story.
Whilst this book undoubtedly had it's more tragic elements, there was a sense of hope and determination underneath it all. With several issues being discussed, this story is a powerful one and these characters aren't easily forgettable.
Be sure to check out the other blogs taking part in the blog tour this week:
Labels: 2017 Reviews, Blog Tour, Danielle Younge-Ullman, Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined, scholastic + SHARE


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Home / Press & Reviews / Reviews for Behind God's Back by Harri Nykanen
Reviews for Behind God's Back by Harri Nykanen
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'In Nykänen's intricately plotted second Ariel Kafka novel to be published in English (after 2012's Nights of Awe), the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit cop looks into the shooting murder of Jewish businessman Samuel Jacobson, whose daughter he once dated. Jacobson's widow reveals that her husband recently engineered a major loan through Kafka & Oxbaum, a law firm owned by Kafka's brother, Eli, and a second cousin of theirs, Max Oxbaum. Kafka already knows that Eli and Max brokered their clients' loans from an Estonian company, Baltic Invest, which is owned by Israeli businessman Benjamin Hararin, a front man for Amos Jakov, who's believed to have links to the Russian mafia. Family ties and the tight-knit dealings within Finland's small Jewish community complicate the investigation, but the sympathetic Kafka manages to perform a delicate balancing act on his way to an unexpected resolution of the crime.' - Publishers Weekly
'There are two Jewish cops in all of Helsinki. One of them, Ariel Kafka, a lieutenant in the Violent Crime Unit, identifies himself as a policeman first, then a Finn, and lastly a Jew. Murky circumstances surround his investigation of a Jewish businessman's murder. Neo-Nazi violence, intergenerational intrigue, shady loans – predictable lines of investigation lead to unpredictable culprits. But a second killing strikes closer to home, and the Finnish Security Police soon come knocking. Behind God's Back is the second of Nykänen's novels featuring lieutenant Ariel Kafka (great name) to be published in English, following 2012's Nights of Awe. It's a very procedural police procedural, in that Kafka goes from person to person asking questions, discovering something new each time. Fortunately the novel's length (just under 200 pages) prevents this from becoming tedious, and the fact that, once all the pieces are in place, the mystery is actually pretty complex means that the end brings a satisfying payoff. Much is made of Kafka's Jewishness, and exploring these themes alongside more traditional noir elements is a first in my experience. It's an interesting take, and works well. It all plays out before a backdrop of a chilly Finnish autumn, making for a very pleasant read.' - Killing Time
'Led by the likes of Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, Nordic crime fiction is on something of a roll at the moment and this time the offering comes from Finland. Behind God's Back is the second novel in Harri Nykänen's Ariel Kafka series, following on from the success of the detective's first outing with Nights of Awe back in 2012. Ariel Kafka is a Jewish lieutenant in Helsinki's Violent Crime Unit. Although a non-observant Jew himself, his upbringing in Helsinki's close-knit Jewish community makes him an obvious choice to lead an investigation into the murder of one of that community's most prominent citizens. At first, his enquiries lead him to suspect anti-Semitic motives especially when another Jewish citizen is murdered but once these are discounted, Kafka finds himself embroiled in the complexities of shady loan deals, sightings of known hit men, threats to Israeli dignitaries and the behind-the-scenes machinations of Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency. Unlike the plot of this highly engaging novel, Nykänen's Kafka is a rather uncomplicated character - a mild-mannered middle-aged bachelor with no particular axe to grind when it comes to women. While many of his literary counterparts across the globe are usually hard-bitten, hard-drinking, hard-hearted cops with a dark and painful past, Kafka emerges as endearing to readers simply because he happens to be good at his job. Throw into the mix, an eminently readable translation by Kristian London, and we have here a very welcome addition to the genre of Nordic noir.' - Booktrust
'In Helsinki, someone murders Jewish office supplies stores owner Samuel Jacobson in front of his home in Tammisalo. Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit Chief Detective Huovinen assigns Detective Ariel Kafka to investigate the homicide because his subordinate and the victim are Jewish. Ariel knew Samuel as the cop dated the victim's daughter Lea when they were eighteen, but conceals that from his superior officer. As he and Detective Simolin go to the crime scene, Ariel knows Lea lives in Israel. Neighbors inform the culprit was a cop. They next question the widow Ethel who mentions her son Roni is in Lapland. The cops also learn from her that her workaholic husband stayed home for three days in spite of not being ill; and that he obtained a loan from Baltic Invest Estonian bank through the law firm of Kafka & Oxbaum; owned by Ariel's brother Eli and their second cousin Max. As the inquiry internationally widens to include Israel's Mossad and the Russian Mafia, a second similar murder occurs; thus the Finnish Security Police become involved. The second Case for Ariel Kafka of Helsinki's Violent Crimes Unit (see Nights of Awe) is a fabulous Finnish police procedural. The lead protagonist may not be a practicing Jew, but feels strongly about keeping his race and Israel safe. The multifaceted investigation follows subgenre standard operating procedures but also contains red herrings and twists. However, it is the close look into Finland's small Jewish community, still distrustful of authorities even by those generations born decades after the Holocaust, that make for a complex terrific whodunit.' - Midwest Book Review
'Nykanen's tidy style is reminiscent of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels...One charm of the novel is the sense of Finnish innocence and orderliness…another is the reserve of Nykanen's Helsinki cops, who are able yet unmarked by the dirty business that foreigners bring to their patch.' - Booklist
'A Helsinki businessman apparently murdered by the most awkward suspect possible launches Detective Ariel Kafka, of the Violent Crimes Unit, on his second case (Nights of Awe, 2012). Helsinki's Jewish community is small enough that everyone knows everyone else. Its community of police officers is even smaller. So you'd think that Kafka, a member of both of these exclusive sets, would know the uniformed cop who gunned down office-supply-chain owner Samuel Jacobson just outside his swanky home. For better or worse, though, evidence soon points away from the police to an imposter, presumably someone hired by Leo Meir, of Cemicon Ltd., who's been under 24-hour surveillance ever since he came to town, reportedly to arrange "a high-profile assassination." So Kafka's left to make inquiries among Jacobson's circles, who correspond roughly to Kafka's own friends and relatives. Kafka used to date Jacobson's daughter Lea. His brother Eli is a corporate attorney deeply involved in Jacobson's affairs. So is Eli's law partner, Max Oxbaum, who's Kafka's second cousin. The few suspects who aren't related to Kafka directly all have close ties to Israel, from Benjamin Haranin, the suspected money launderer who owns Baltic Invest, to Amos Jakov, long suspected of being his silent partner, to Haim Levi, the exchange student who spent a term living with the Jacobsons years before being named Israel's Minister of Justice. Now Kafka, whom the dead man long since dismissed as son-in-law material, wonders if he can rise to the occasion by avenging Jacobson's death. Perhaps the oddest Scandinavian mystery to have crossed the ocean yet, a mixture of Jo Nesbø's portraits of Nordic political corruption with Jerome Charyn's waggish Borscht Belt tales of Isaac Sidel, the Pink Commish of New York.' - Kirkus
'With the second in a mystery series featuring Ariel Kafka, a police inspector from Finland, this author has made sure to put a great amount of suspense and intrigue into a very small package. Kafka is a Jewish man and a lieutenant in the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit who is now investigating the murder of a Jewish businessman, Samuel Jacobson. The victim's widow has told the police that her husband had recently had some dealings on a major loan that went through Kafka & Oxbaum, a law firm owned by Kafka's brother, Eli. Kafka already knows that his brother had negotiated client loans with an Estonian Company, Baltic Invest, owned by a front man for Amos Jakov—a man who has dealings with the Russian Mafia. Being Jewish and being from a close family, Ariel finds the investigation a bit difficult to handle as he tries to keep his private life balanced while following the case. Ariel is dealing with international intrigue and a great amount of corruption which is hard for a man who is very dedicated to the badge of a policeman. He is so dedicated to his job, in fact, that he is willing to put his life on the line for it. As the investigation heats up, he finds some very interesting things in the mix. For instance: Neo-Nazi violence, and some pretty shady loans that lead him to some extremely odd culprits. Just when he feels as if he has a grasp on things, another killing occurs and the Security Police come in on the case. Soon it is unveiled that the Mossad from Israel also have their fingers in the proverbial pie, and Ariel has to deal with yet another, even bigger intelligence organization. Difficult to read, as most translations are, but this plot is one that the diehard mystery fan will find to be a good story worth reading.' - Suspense Magazine
'The comedian, Tommy Cooper, many years ago, told a story about his visit to a Chinese restaurant. Inevitably, there was confusion. Cooper was a curious chap and he asked the waiter if there were any Chinese Jews. The waiter reminded Tommy that the restaurant was not in China. They had apple and lemon juice but no Chinese juice. Today comedians would refuse that joke. And a non-Jewish author would avoid the searchlight that Harri Nykänen focuses on his Jewish community in Helsinki. Behind God's Back is the second novel to feature Jewish and Finnish cop, Ariel Kafka. Calling a policeman Kafka will appeal to some but in a novel that is always believable and realistic the literary nod is surprising if easily forgiven. The modern thriller is different from the detective story of the classic genre. Back then the detective and reader had to wade through characters all tainted by a motive for murder. Today the job of the detective is to first find someone with a motive, someone and something to resist inexplicable death and sacrifice. In Behind God's Back, the initial enquiries of Kafka produce little, neither evidence nor motive. Like the reader, Kafka is obliged to imagine what might have happened. Behind God's Back differs from modern overheated Scandinavian noir. It echoes the measured crime fiction of Swedish pioneers, Mia Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Detective Ariel Kafka also has a pleasant resemblance to the great reassuring Maigret. Kafka is a problem solver and not a two fisted adventurer. He understands human failing but his enquiries invite explanation rather than dig deeply into perversion and secret dirt. Kafka knows that investigation and conclusion depend on the accounts of others even if their telling is partial. Neglect those partial accounts, and the investigator will sacrifice perspective. His approach means we have a sensible and an honest view of the Jewish community of Helsinki. Much does happen behind the back of God but this is a consequence of human failing rather than the contrived evil villainy that we witness in the efficient but overheated novels of Scandinavian writers, Steig Larsson and Jo Nesbo. People need to earn a living, and that is always dangerous. Business and crime require deceit and betrayal. Distortion prevails and it impacts both victims and victimisers. An impartial Maigret type figure is essential. When a romance from the past returns to Finland, the reader can be forgiven for fearing romantic melodrama but Nykänen ensures that Kafka is true to himself. The detective remains aloof. Kafka is neither an outsider nor a willing participant. Instead, we have a man obliged to communicate and to understand. The connection with Israel affects all but it defines manners and conversation rather than character. It influences schemes and design but it is not a corrupt root. This is plausible, and such realism ensures a rewarding read. The characters have weaknesses, and some suffer and some do not. The surprise is not that this happens but how it does and to whom.' - Crime Chronicles
'Ariel Kafka, as the only Jewish detective in Helsinki's violent crime unit, has special insight into the Jewish Community. It goes without saying but it also provides Ari with a steady flow of cases. Therefore when a local company director and Jewish congregation member is murdered, Ariel is first choice of investigator. Unfortunately the victim happens to be the man who could have become Ariel's father-in-law a couple of decades before but Ari feels enough removed by time not to disqualify himself from the case. Gradually as the web of clues is carefully teased out, more worrying connections are discovered. The Mossad may be involved but then so may Ari's brother Eli. Crime-reporter-turned-author Harri Nykanen brings his very human detective out for a second airing after the debut Nights of Awe and once again I'm smitten. When a detective noir is told in the first person it's important to be able to engage with the narrator and Ari is a very engaging chap. Ariel wins our sympathy by not seeming to belong fully anywhere. He has the respect of his police colleagues but his Judaism sets him apart slightly. On the other hand, although a member of the local Jewish community and synagogue attender on high days and holy days, he ploughs his own furrow where religion is concerned. Indeed in Harri's last novel Ari's brother Eli was pressuring him to find a nice Jewish girl to marry. This time Harri's pen wreaks a little revenge as Ari discovers what sort of community pillar Eli actually is. That's the thing about Mr Nykanen; he can produce fascinating stuff like this in a succinct, absorbing volume and we haven't even taken a look at the murder yet! By the way, the novel works as a stand-alone but you'll miss out on the excellent debut novel if you read it in isolation. Harri, with the able assistance of highly talented translator Kristian London where the English is concerned, proves he can both reason and twist a crime novel beautifully. The knowledge he gleaned as crime reporter salts the story with little gems as much as he seasons it with his dry, subtle sense of humour. (Watch out for the comment about needing the proverbial dog walking witness and subsequent occurrence.) Also we're given an opportunity to learn more of Ariel's past and understand him as a rounded person when his job brings him in touch with one ex-girlfriend that his brother actually approved of back in their youth. If I have a moan it comes as a request to all book jacket synopsis writers: please, please don't tell us so much. Not knowing about the Mossad angle would have provided another twist and, as for the second murder… Why tell us before we start reading? It happens over half way through so again it would be an exciting surprise just at the point we believe things are calming down. (In fact I feel guilty telling you there's a second murder, even though the book blurb got there first.) Ok, rant over. After the rant comes a request for a favour. (Didn't think that through properly, did I?) At the time of going to press, publishers Bitter Lemon has no current plans to translate any of the other existing Ariel Kafka mysteries. Understandably – but sadly - in today's financial climate they want to see how this sells first. So perhaps if we all looked in their direction and smiled nicely…? Or failing that, if enough people succumb to the urge to a copy of the book... I know it's radical but it just may work!' - Book Bag
'A businessman gets shot on his doorstep in Helsinki one morning, and this apparently simple homicide lights up a web of connections and corruption that leads all the way to Israel. Ariel Kafka, of Helsinki's violent crime unit, leads the investigation despite his conflicting position in the Finnish Jewish community. Not only does he know everybody, but he also shagged the dead guy's daughter a while back. This is Nordic crime fiction at its understated end – there's none of the gory violence you'll find elsewhere in the genre. Nykänen is more interested in picking at the intersections of politics, religion and business, and how the lines of power all lead back to the same place. The pace is swift, and Helsinki makes for a beautiful backdrop, but there is a little too much reliance on the characters talking the plot to each other in perfunctory fashion. Kristian London's translation captures Nykänen's subtle humour well – in response to his brother saying 'what a boring funeral,' Kafka thinks, 'Eli was right though. I had attended funerals that were more fun.' The book is at its best like this: looking askance at the idioms and machinations of the genre.' - The Skinny
'Behind God's Back features Inspector Ariel Kafka, a Finnish bachelor, a Jew, who's just beginning to think that perhaps devotion to his job and the neglect of his personal life may have caused him to miss some opportunities. Kafka is an intriguing main character, a man we want to spend time with. He doesn't have a drinking problem, he's not a train wreck, but he does have the saving grace of possessing a lively, quirky sense of humour. Not that there's much humour to be found in the crime under investigation–the assassination style shooting of a prominent Jewish businessman who made the mistake of opening his own front door to the killer. When the novel opens, Finnish police are involved in Operation Jaffa aka Operation Haemorrhoid–renamed for the hours spent "without a break on the hard-edged, unpadded kitchen chair" watching a suspect through a telescope. This case, which purportedly involves a high-profile assassination, sprang from monitoring a group called Seeds of Hate who targeted a handful of "prominent Jews" for hate mail. The organization is also responsible for the kidnapping and beating of a professor, so the threats must be taken seriously. With a cast of nicely-drawn secondary characters (including a couple of nosy neighbours who keep a handy pair of binoculars close by,) Kafka works his way through the crime and makes the uncomfortable discovery that his much more successful brother, corporate lawyer, Eli is also involved in some shenanigans. As this police procedural unfolds, Behind God's Back, is mostly a leisurely read–although as often is the case with police procedurals, the plot tends to pile in on itself as the solution nears. The plot does not rely on tension, violence or gore, but instead the emphasis is on Kafka's dogged pursuit of the truth–no matter where that journey takes him. Kafka's bachelorhood and relationships with his colleagues are all tinged with humour. Kafka has an interesting voice, and he's a character who blends well with his quirky colleagues. The term crime fiction covers a vast range of subjects and cannot fit into some one-size-fits-all description. This series should appeal to fans of international crime, Nordic crime, or police procedurals that are light on violence but emphasize affection for returning characters. ' - Swiftly Tilting Planet
Written by Zebedee Administrator
Filed under Behind God's Back, Harri Nykanen, Review


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Zippy responds: Yes! You are absolutely correct!
Message: I am back after a long trek to Disney World! Snickers and Ruthy and Bitsy are fine but I am mourning poor skittle. (yes, the Skittle I told you about a long time ago) But all three corgis have a new freind named Tootsie! She is an Austrailian Shepard mix. But all the dogs will be at my house for Christmas! We even got them paw stockings from Petsmart! Merry Christmas Zippy and Family! Peace out, Apgw511 P.S. Long Live Skittle!
Zippy responds: Sounds like a wonderful Christmas! And long live Skittle.
Message: Hi Zippy This is our annual Christmas best wishes message to you. No snow here but the tree is being picked up Sat. anyway. We look forward to the boxes of decorations coming out and, of course, all the super treats Mum and Dad drop into our snouts!! (Not too many though as Oliver gets the 'squids') Yuk! We hope your Thanksgiving went well and you are hunkering down for a comfortable Christmas at fireside. Talk to you in the new year! Haley, Oliver and Morgan.
Zippy responds: Oh, my, thanks for a new word. Squids! Yeah, that sounds like something to avoid. Happy Everything!
Message: Hey Zippy, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Our mom and dad went to "grandma's house" for thanksgiving. They came home smelling like turkey, and stuffing, and corn, and potatoes, and pie. But didnt come home with any corgi snacks. What's up with that?
Zippy responds: That's not fair! It should be a holiday for all the family members! I hope you guys get something tasty soon.
Zippy responds: Oh, I hope there's video!
Message: Is there no end to the humilation? Check out these poor canines.
Zippy responds: Uh oh. My folks seem to be really, really amused by the alien one.
Message: These are just really wrong!
Zippy responds: At least some cats are sharing in the wrongness!
Zippy responds: Oh, no, the pet banana seems to be out of stock! Izzy! MAYBE YOUR MOM BOUGHT THE LAST ONE!
Message: Hi Zip, glad you're back, you know I have a birthday coming up and my mom has to look at my paperwork every year to make sure of the date, how pathetic. The squirrels are very busy right now and I want to chase them very badly but I can't be off my leash lest I become flat from a car. Hope you are very fine, love, Izzy.
Zippy responds: Ha ha, Izzy! Maybe you can trick your mom into thinking every day is your birthday! And, yes, leashes are important!
Zippy responds: Oh, Gimbli, sorry to hear about your mishap. Hope you are feeling much better now! Good luck with your new brother!
Message: Hi Zippy! I wanted to tell you about my neighbor named Carl. He lives down the road from us, and when he sees us coming, he always has treats ready for us. As you probably know, I have very hungry eyes, and have been able to woo him into giving me 6 milk bones at once! I think every neighborhood should have a Carl! What do you think?
Zippy responds: Yay, Carl! And yes, there should be more of him!
Message: Zipperola... One of our local rivers opens for Salmon on the 1st. Dads rods are at the ready and so are we! Remember, when rolling in slamon guts always start with the cheek first. Then on to your back to smear the stench on your neck. Over onto the other side and voila! Channel de Corgi!! (You don't need Salmon either... any dead bottom feeder will do in a pinch.) Good luck Zip. Our Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we will be sure to think of you at tableside.
Zippy responds: I have never rolled in salmon, but I will agree, few things beat dead fish guts for rolling.
Zippy responds: Hi, Issy, we are olde. Say hi to your grandma!
Message: Zippy! I'm a HUGE fan and I'm featuring you prominently on my dog blog The Daily Corgi ... please visit and let me know if you'd like to be featured as Dog Of The Day, please n' thank you sweetie!
Zippy responds: Awesome! Thanks for letting us know!
Message: Zippy- I need to find a school bus costume for Lucy for Halloween. I'm running out of time. Do you know where I can get one?
Zippy responds: Well, we made ours. Here are the instructions. I always feel like I am selling out my fellow canines when I help people make costumes for dogs... But I hope you guys have fun!
Message: Hi Zippy! We have a scary thing at our house. A swarm of yellow jackets built a nest under the siding and were buzzing around near our door. I had to scoot through them to get to my yard. I hope they don't sting my ears or my nub! I don't like them at all and neither does my Mom.
Zippy responds: Wow! It's been a bad year for stingy flying things! Good luck!
Zippy responds: Congratulations on your engagement! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun!
Zippy responds: Thanks, Cami! Good luck with your pet.
Zippy responds: Hmm, I don't think I've ever had a fig! I am jealous, and a little disturbed to learn of a new food that my folks have thus far deprived me of. I think I will go on a hunger strike. Oh, wait, no, I won't. I'm a Corgi. No such thing for me. But rolling in salmon sounds divine.
Zippy responds: Oh, my goodness, Lorena, now that is an adventure! You should write a book. Or at least a blog. As for sunflower seeds, they are just so little and seem to be more trouble than they are worth. I like Brazil nuts. Yummy.
Zippy responds: Thanks for asking, Fresno! I love the slide! Especially the twisty one! For heat, pools are good, but so is staying inside next to the A/C vent. Coooooooooool.
Message: Dear Zippy, I am writing to let you know that our beloved Jenny, aka Her Majesty, passed on to Corgi Heaven earlier this month. (I think she had a stroke.) We were kind of shocked because she was only 12 1/2 in people years, though I realize that is 87 1/2 in dog ones. Somehow I thought she'd live to at least 100 with all the energy she had. Although we are extremely sad and miss her terribly, we are so thankful for the years of fun and love we had with her. I'd just like to remind your human readers to make sure their dogs know they are loved. Zippy, would you consider making a bumper sticker that reads, "Have you hugged your Corgi today?" with your cute zippyweb logo from the top of this page? All the best to you and your wonderful humans, Jenny's Mom.
Zippy responds: Oh, so sorry to hear about Jenny. Hugs to all.
Message: Hi Zippy! Do you ever go on vacations with your two-leggers? I just returned from my first long road trip with mine. It was a blast. I discovered that riding on the lady two-legger's lap for the nearly 3K miles we logged was much more comfortable than lying on the floor of the car. She complained about her legs falling asleep, but I didn't feel anything unusual so I don'#8217;t know where that came from. I saw some bison but the two-leggers wouldn't let me herd them. I did get to taste a little bit of one though, in burger form. MMMMMM! Many people we met along the way gave me pets and belly rubs; it was the least I could do to let them indulge themselves. I'm looking forward to many more travels in the future! Enjoy the rest of your summer, Zippy!
Zippy responds: Bison! How exciting! Traveling is fun.
Message: Hey Zippy, my name is zip too and I am a tricolor pembroke. i wondered how you are doing? I have not seen any current pictures on your website and was checking in to see if you are well. have a great July!! Talk to you soon!!
Zippy responds: Hi, Zip, good to meet you. I am fine. People don't call you "Zippity Do Dog," do they? I hate that.


text:
Fresno State's Wright Announces Retirement
By Joshua Howard
FRESNO, Calif. - After 27 years as the Fresno State softball head coach, Margie Wright has announced her retirement effective June 30, 2012.
Wright, who is the NCAA Division I all-time winningest softball coach and is ranked second all-time in NCAA Division I history for victories regardless of sport, steps down after guiding the university to its first NCAA Division I team title (1998) and directing the softball program to unparalleled heights.
Under her direction the Bulldogs have appeared in every NCAA Tournament championship, while becoming the second all-time winningest softball program in Division I history.
An U.S. Olympic coach and 13-time hall of famer, Wright has amassed 1,454 career wins in 33 years while leading the 'Dogs to 1,291 victories in 27 seasons. With 10 NCAA Women's College World Series appearances under her tutelage, she also has led the program to three national runner-up finishes, three third place showings and three fifth-place performances in the WCWS. In addition, the 10-time conference coach of the year has led the softball program to 17 outright or shared conference titles.
While Fresno State is one of just five programs in Division I history to make 10 or more trips to the WCWS, she has coached 16 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans – a mark that ranks her No. 1 overall among active coaches while the softball program ranks third overall among Division I schools with 18 honorees. Wright also has overseen 138 all-conference picks, 89 NCAA All-Region, 53 All-Americans, 16 NCAA individual statistical champions, four NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award winners, two NCAA Top VIII Awardees, 15 Olympians, eight professionals and two No. 1 professional draft picks while averaging 48 wins a season.
In 2012 Wright coached her 1,700th game at Fresno State against then No. 7 UCLA and the Bulldogs notched a 6-3 road victory. She picked up her 1,450th career win at home against New Mexico State on April 20 and is on schedule coach her 2,000th career game at this week's WAC Tournament.
This National Coach of the Year has seen her squad ranked in the national polls for 27 consecutive years while the fan base led the NCAA in average attendance 13 times and total attendance 10 times. She also was a driving force behind the construction of the "New" Bulldog Diamond – the first true major league style ballpark for collegiate softball which proved to be a blueprint for softball growth on the NCAA Division I level.
"There is never a good time to do this [retire]," said Wright, who will lead the 'Dogs into the Western Athletic Conference Championship this week. "I love my team and we are going to give the rest of our season everything we have, but it is time.
"I would like to thank Fresno and the Central Valley for accepting me as one of their own for so many years. I want to thank all Bulldog fans and the Diamond Club for their tireless support. I especially want to thank all of my former players for such a wonderful career. The players and fans have kept me going for 27 years and I hope those years were as positive for them as they have been for me. It has been a great ride."
Off the field Wright has been just as passionate by being an advocate for the Central California Blood Bank and the Marjaree Mason Center as well as a highly sought after clinician and motivational speaker.
"Margie is the all-time NCAA Division I winningest softball coach in the country and she has demonstrated truly extraordinary dedication to her sport," Fresno State Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh said. "She has led our softball program with the utmost integrity, fairness and grace. Her commitment to the student-athletes and to Fresno State has been tireless and we are very fortunate to have had an individual who championed the mission of what being a student-athlete means, both on and off the field.
"She set a standard at Fresno State that other coaches around the country have spent years attempting to duplicate," Boeh continued. "One can review all the stats and accomplishments, but what stands out most is the fact that she was always passionate and the quintessential competitor. Margie is a pioneer and legend in the sport of softball, and more importantly she demonstrated that given the proper commitment, anyone can play a sport and succeed. She will be missed and we wish her the very best in all of her future endeavors."
A pioneer and legend among Division I softball coaches, Fresno State Athletics will celebrate Wright's accomplishments and iconic career on June 10 at 1:00 p.m., in Bulldog Diamond.
Coach Wright will address the media at 3:30 p.m. following Monday's scheduled practice at Bulldog Diamond. This will be the only press availability with Coach Wright until the conclusion of the WAC Softball Tournament. Fresno State Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh will also be available at that time.
-Courtesy of Fresno State Athletic Media Relations


It's looking really good, Jim!! I'm sorry about your back, a hot water bottle might help too.
Start running. I mean, start walking first. We don't want you to get a knee injury or something.
I can't run any more. not with my knees. but I still keep working on my 10,000 steps every day.
Nice … these are looking good!
Gardening is something I still haven't mastered yet … but trying … and garlic is something I wanted to grow too, after a lot more research of course!
wow! you grew pumpkins. I'm impressed. they're not that easy to grow.
Really? Maybe its our weather then because they grow without much help here, – cos its certainly not anything I did, except the watering part lol.
trying to stay up with you.
thank you. I hope it's warming there. the flamingos were a joke for my birthday last year. my granddaughters like them tho. they put one in one bed and the other in another bed.


I am having a problems with my refrigerator where it ends up with condensation on it and it is very frustrating.
What causes condensation on the front doors and inner sides of my undercounter refrigerators?
I would love to be able to fix this but I don't even know what is wrong with it in the first place. Any one with an information on this would be greatly appreciated.


十一选五时时彩怎么玩:Belt and Road: China's Soft Power Solution?
China's massive Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to be the largest global infrastructure project the world has ever seen, and looks set to have a defining impact on the 21st century. President Xi Jinping's vision of a new stage of globalisation founded on economic integration across Eurasia harks back to the Silk Road of centuries past. But the scale is grander, and if successful could bring about a new phase of global cultural exchange to rival that of its ancient forebear.
It's a US$900 billion project aiming to entrench commercial connections from China, through central Asia, to the Middle East and Europe, relying on massive railway construction – the 'Belt' – combined with the development of a network of ports and maritime trade routes connecting China, southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and east Africa – the 'Road'. It has received an enthusiastic response in central Asia given the promise of much-need infrastructure development, but it also has its detractors, notably India, and Europe has so far appeared ambivalent to the initiative. However, the opening of the Yiwu-London railway, an unbroken connection stretching from China's east coast to the UK, earlier this year certainly presents the potential for increased overland trade between the two countries post-Brexit.
Although they acknowledge that economic motives are the driving force behind Belt and Road, some critics fear that the Initiative will foster the spread of Chinese political influence abroad. It is hard to deny that the new Silk Roads will have profound effects beyond the economic, but commentators have so far overlooked Belt and Road's potential to develop positive cross-cultural exchange. As the BBC's Carrie Gracie reports, in countries such as Kazakhstan and Poland, Chinese workers on the project often lead lives quite separate from local communities. This might not look like a good start, but the construction of the Belt and Road is still in its very early stages – it is far too soon to conclude that, once finished, traders using the routes will remain similarly isolated from local life.
In fact, the potential of the Initiative to stimulate far-reaching cultural change cannot be underestimated, quite apart from the shift in global economic balance that it represents. The history of Belt and Road's spiritual ancestor, the Silk Road, shows us that cross-cultural meetings between traders from all over is one of the best ways to promote cultural exchange and tolerance. The Silk Road, a network of land-based and maritime trade routes, shaped the development of civilisations from China, through central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Persia, to the Middle-East and Europe, from the second century B.C. to the fifteenth century, and its legacy is still visible today across the continent.
Over time, the camel trains and caravans that first introduced the Romans to silks from the mysterious land of Seres (their name for an unknown China) far to the east helped the transport of far more than just trade goods. With silks, ceramics, glass and spices spread new technologies and ideas and, of course, people. Cities along the route became thriving multicultural communities. Many of China's Hui people, ethnic Chinese practitioners of Islam, descend from Silk Road travellers who married locals and settled in China. The true scale of the impact of the Silk Road can especially be seen through the spread of Buddhism from India to inner Asia and China. Today, Chinese culture without the influence of Buddhism is unthinkable, from the religion's tens of millions of adherents to the thousands of temples and grottoes across the country and the historical influence the religion has had over Chinese governance, philosophy, and traditions.
While it might be hard to imagine the spread of something as big as a new religion along the Belt and Road, especially in an era when the world is already connected via the Internet, we should remember that cultural exchange on the Silk Road happened largely through face-to-face interaction – and this has far greater power to spread ideas and increase tolerance. With the Brexit vote and the election of Trump, we have seen that online access to the rest of the world is not enough by itself to promote cross-cultural exchange – in fact, the Internet can amplify feelings of isolation, and it is no coincidence that those areas of the UK and USA which voted most strongly against globalism are those least touched by it through personal interaction. The Belt and Road Initiative promises to bring people across Eurasia into direct contact with global trade, and with it, each other. This kind of interaction can only promote cosmopolitanism and understanding, providing that local communities are included and also receive the benefits.
In time, as the Initiative develops and increases economic integration, it could do much more to spread a positive image of China and Chinese culture across the globe than current state-sponsored soft power efforts, which often fall flat with foreign audiences. As Carrie Gracie shows in her report, even now Belt and Road is helping the spread of culture in the other direction, as middle class Chinese consumers enthusiastically welcome British scones and jams together with the afternoon tea customs that go with them. Such exchanges will increase in both directions, between all countries on the route, and spread the flourishing cosmopolitanism that characterised the heyday of the Silk Road. The Belt and Road Initiative will undoubtedly expand China's influence as it brings the world closer together, but at the same time, it will change China too.


text:
Coronavirus used to crush free speech
Sun 8:41 pm +00:00, 21 Jun 2020 6
Jeremy Corbyn's brother Piers, 73, is charged with breaching coronavirus lockdown rules after attending 5G protest in Hyde Park
The brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been charged with breaching Covid-19 regulations for his part in a demonstration against 5G technology.
Piers Corbyn, 73, has been charged with taking part in demonstrations on May 16 and May 24 in Hyde Park in central London.
Scotland Yard today announced that a total of 24 people have been charged in connection with several demonstrations in London held during the lockdown.
Mr Corbyn, who was photographed being led away by police on May 16, has been charged with offences relating to the Health Protection (Coronavirus restrictions) Regulations 2020.
The older brother of the former Labour leader, with an address in Southwark, was ordered to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on July 24 and August 20.
by 5G Awareness | Jun 20, 2020 | 5G, Censorship, Coronavirus, Resistance
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8442385/Jeremy-Corbyns-brother-Piers-73-charged-breaching-coronavirus-lockdown-rules.html
6 Responses to "Coronavirus used to crush free speech"
Aldous says:
Piers Corbyn like his brother is 100% controlled opposition.
Is this pathetic and desperate stunt intended to deflect attention away from the recent BLM 'get togethers' where social distancing was right out of the COVID window? These Marxists really are the most hateful fucks.
Staged without a doubt.
Tapestry says:
He's very close with Mark Windows who does some very good work.
BTW One cannot be charged with anything whatsoever relating to so-called 'coronavirus lockdown rules'. These 'rules' are not even Legal Statutes which can also be ignored.
This legalese crap only applies to a Legal Fiction/Strawman/Fictional Identity et al.
https://www.commonlawcourt.com/reclaim-your-name/
http://www.yourstrawman.com/Strawman.pdf
22 Jun 2020 2:21 am
Prometheus says:
At the moment, the Police are just policy enforcers (they are clueless androids).
The people paying their wages (government/globalists/satanists):
policy enforcer:
A member of law enforcement that has little to no jurisdiction and generally handles traffic violations or misdemenors. Usually on a power trip.


But they are not buying much. Unemployment is high, especially among the many young people graduating from college. In all, 50,000 people remain displaced. Electricity and water supplies are still near crisis levels. Hamas, which governs Gaza, elected a new hard-line leader. Tunnel building goes on (and, presumably, so does the construction and smuggling of weapons). On the Israeli side, the political right talks of a new war in the spring over Hamas's rearming and expresses a desire to inflict a decisive blow.
The Capital Mall has a food court and 12 escalators, both rarities in Gaza.
As has been the case for a decade, the strip remains encircled. Israel tightly controls most going in and out: food, building supplies, people. Two children died recently for lack of drugs or medical access, one of cancer, the other of a heart problem.
It is unclear how the flickers of change elsewhere in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will ripple to Gaza, which is surrounded by Israel on two sides, by Egypt to the southwest and by the Mediterranean. With President Trump in office in the United States, Israel's right seems to feel empowered and is likely to push more settlements in the West Bank, even to toy with annexation, despite Mr. Trump's call to slow the pace.
The Palestinian Authority, which has wide backing in the West, seems to be looking abroad for ways to push its immediate future, including persuading the world to recognize a state of Palestine, threatening action in the United Nations and encouraging Israeli boycotts.
Samaher al-Masri, 40, plays with her son Othman in her family's new house in Beit Hanoun. Mrs. Masri lost another son, Majdi, to an accident.
Interviews make it clear that there is a growing distance between Gaza and the West Bank — a central reason cited by Israelis for the impossibility of negotiations. Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and took control of Gaza in 2007.
Mr. Madhoun and several others raised a possibility, a very long shot, one that could conceivably be acceptable to Israel's far right: Someday Gaza — with defined borders, no Israeli occupation and no settlers — could become the basis for a Palestinian state as settlements gnaw away at the West Bank.
Residents say they are focusing on getting by. Industrious and, for the most part, educated, they have cleared and rebuilt to the point that in places it is hard to tell there have been three wars in six years. One giveaway is that the concrete on the houses is fresh dark gray, rather than sun-bleached and weathered. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have underwritten minicities, as caravans and tents slowly empty. The Islamic University has patched the two buildings bombed in two wars and, with great effort, installed an impressive array of 450 solar panels on the science building, even though there is a fear the panels and the building might make a big target in the next war.
Hamam al-Sammara is Gaza's only remaining bathhouse. It is heated with olive wood and, its owners say, predates Islam's arrival over a millennium ago.
Capital Mall opened in January, with four floors of upscale shops. One woman lifted her niqab briefly for a photo in front of a Valentine's Day flower display. Another posed for her husband, who is in an Israeli jail.
The feeling was similar inside the steamy domes of Hamam al-Sammara, Gaza's only remaining bathhouse, heated with olive wood and, its owners say, predating Islam's arrival over a millennium ago.
Mona Ghalayini is betting on more than just survival. One of Gaza's few businesswomen, Ms. Ghalayini, 46, has built a small empire that began with a fast-food shop in 2003. For most people in Gaza, the sea is simply a place where fishermen work waters constricted by Israeli patrol boats. But she sees potential in the current stability, recently buying two seaside hotels.
Tourism is the future, she said. Then she reconsidered.


text:
Pensacola mayor candidates have lofty goals for city
Jim Little
Eight years into a new form of city government, the next mayor of Pensacola will take the helm of the city with expectations Mayor Ashton Hayward has created for the role — both good and bad.
Hayward was the first elected in 2010 — and re-elected in 2014 — as the first mayor under the city's first "strong mayor" system. The novelty of the new position is over and as the next to step into the role, Hayward's successor will take over a growing city with plenty of opportunities — and potential obstacles — along the way.
Besides being full-time executive of the city ultimately responsible for police and fire departments, garbage collection, the management of an international airport, a seaport and a natural gas utility — not to mention being the de facto spokesman for the Greater Pensacola area — the next mayor will face several critical issues right out of the gate.
At the top of the docket is the future of Pensacola's Port and waterfront, repairing the working relationship with the City Council, transparency with the public and how the city deals with the dozens of neighborhoods that make up the city.
MEET THE 6 CANDIDATES: Read more about each candidate and why he is running
The six candidates seeking to become the city's second "strong mayor" are Grover Robinson, Drew Buchanan, David Mayo, Lawrence Powell, Jonathan Green and Brian Spencer.
Pensacola's waterfront
Over the last year, the future of Pensacola's waterfront has become an increased area of focus.
A lawsuit challenging a planned fish hatchery on the Bruce Beach property ultimately led to the state pulling out of the property, leaving the question open as to what the city will do with the property.
MORE ON HATCHERY:FWC kills Pensacola fish hatchery on Bruce Beach, will begin seeking alternative locations
A recent proposal for Pensacola's Port for a milling operation for calcium carbonate led to a contentious City Council meeting, and after a long debate the council voted in favor of giving the mayor's office authority to vet and negotiate a lease with Incoa Performance Minerals. Previous to the vote, the city hired an international infrastructure firm to develop a strategic plan for the port using community input.
Whoever the next mayor is will have tremendous influence over what will become of Pensacola's downtown waterfront.
MORE ON THE PORT:Pensacola City Council votes to allow port lease negotiations between mayor, Incoa
Spencer was opposed to the Incoa proposal and a critic of the fish hatchery being located at Bruce Beach. Spencer voted with the rest of the council to move the Incoa proposal to the mayor's desk only after the language was changed to ensure it would have to come back to the City Council for final approval.
"Pensacola is struggling with an identity of the port," Spencer said. "The struggle is because some people believe the port is Pensacola's port of the past and must be carried forward to the present and to the future. And then, there's another sector of Pensacolians that recognize with Pensacola's very limited amount of waterfront on the city, there could be a re-purposing of those 52 acres in a way that doesn't shutter the public completely off from experiencing that maritime-based parcel."
Powell said the fact that Incoa is interested in the port is huge for the city, but wants to see what the strategic plan for the port will be when the firm the city hired completes its study.
"We need to maintain the port in some original capacity because once it's gone, you don't get it back," Powell said.
Robinson sent a letter last year urging a reexamination of the hatchery location and expressed being open to Incoa as long as it didn't harm another proposal from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and University of West Florida to build a research institution at the port.
"I think as that (IHMC proposal) moves forward, there's a real opportunity for us to do more marine research," Robinson said. "You talked about the hatchery before, the hatchery should've been at the port combining with IHMC and other things, and then who knows what could happen from there."
Buchanan endorsed the Incoa proposal and spoke at the City Council meeting to voice support.
"We marketed this property, and it has been for years," Buchanan said at the meeting. "And we paid for the marketing for it, so why are we telling a company that we solicited to go away? That's essentially what's happening tonight."
Mayo said activating the city's waterfront is one of the biggest challenges the city faces and he supports the Incoa project as long as it's fully vetted.
"It's been very problematic that a $60 million piece of waterfront real estate property has been a drain to the taxpayers," Mayo said. "And so, if we can make it successful as a traditional port operation, I'm all for it."
MORE ON BAY CENTER:Pelicans: News about G League team on hold as future of Bay Center uncertain
Green is more open to other ideas for the port and said he would like to look into using part of the site for a possible convention center.
"Pensacola Bay Center is not an adequate space for all events and having a convention center would draw more tourism for those events," Green said. "Whether it's local family reunions or whether it's a larger event that draws in tourists from everywhere, we would actually have a space to accommodate these functions."
Full-time job
The job of Pensacola mayor is a full-time one under the city's charter, which for almost all the candidates calls for giving up their current jobs.
Powell said if he was elected mayor he would stay on as pastor of Christ Our Redeemer Eternally Ministries, but doesn't believe that would conflict with being mayor full-time.
"I really hope the mayor takes out time to go to church," Powell said. "I really hope the mayor takes out time to have that time set aside for prayer, that time set aside for fellowship with his family, with friends. I think it's so important to maintain a balance. I don't see those duties impeding with my duties as a full-time mayor at all."
Robinson, whose full-time job is real estate development, said he would have to leave his current job to become mayor.
"It is a full-time job and I won't be working anywhere else and I'll be spending my time down there in City Hall," Robinson said. "But I'm not going to be in City Hall. My job, I think clearly, is to be out and about around the city participating with things, and moving stuff forward."
Spencer said he would have to leave his firm if he is elected mayor.
Buchanan said he would sell his remaining 10 percent in the Pulse if he is elected.
Mayo and Green both said they would also leave their current jobs if elected.
Over the years, Hayward's attendance at City Council meetings became rare and led to frustration among the City Council members that the mayor would not face questions from the council or the public over his policies.
All of the candidates agreed restoring the trust between the mayor's office and the Pensacola City Council would be a top priority for them.
Spencer said being a current member of City Council will help him work with the council.
"They know me," Spencer said. "They know my character. They have deliberated and argued with me — against me, with me — as colleagues on council."
Robinson said being commissioner has taught him the value of participating in public discussions.
"What we've seen over and over again when we've talked to people is the mayor doesn't address people when they have disagreements," Robinson said. "We have a public forum downstairs. I show up and I've had a number of people who disagree with me. We talked through some things. We've actually come to solutions that are mutual that are far more beneficial for the community because we've had that discussion."
Robinson added that not only would he attend City Council meetings, he would like to have a weekly press conference with local media outlets.
GET INVOLVED: CivicCon speaker calendar: Who's coming and when!
Buchanan said transparency in city government right now is "abysmal" and if he was mayor he would have an open-door policy with the City Council and the public.
"I'll tell you for a fact that I'm very confident that my administration would be the most transparent the city of Pensacola has ever had," Buchanan said.
Powell said the City Council is the voice of the city's constituents.
"I really want to build on and revitalize that relationship between the mayor and the City Council men and women," Powell said.
MORE:Pensacola City Council candidates talk transparency, finances and the port
Mayo said he believes the mayor and City Council working closely together will improve the city efficiency and make things happen at the city faster.
"It's been a little troublesome to see the lack of the sort of collaboration and cooperation between the mayor and City Council," Mayo said.
Green said he believes the City Charter requires candidates to attend every council meeting.
"As a mediator, it's in my nature to be able to help problem solve, and being in attendance at those meetings I would definitely do. In addition to that, I'm more so about being more involved in local communities throughout the city, and encouraging the council members to do the same. And encouraging the residents to do the same."
Pensacola used to have a full-time neighborhood association liaison who helped neighborhoods interact and engage with the city. The position was removed under the Hayward administration.
Green said the city needs to work better at engaging people on the neighborhood level to build the community morale and unite the city.
"That way we do have that working relationship just among everyone," Green said.
Powell said he would like to see the city treat neighborhoods equally while remaining fiscally responsible with city dollars.
"It's important that we give all neighborhoods their lion's share as it relates to their tax base contribution and other fiscal input to our city budget," Powell said. "Granted, some neighborhood footprints are large than others, the requirements are different than others."
Mayo said he would institute mobile town halls across the city as often as the neighborhood associations would invite him.
"We will be there front and center with city staff to address their needs and desires for their communities," Mayo said. "I believe our west side has been neglected, marginalized, so I'll have sort of an extra focus on our west side neighborhood in terms of public safety, adding sidewalks and street lights. Simple things that make a big difference."
Buchanan, who lives downtown, said the city has focused successfully on downtown, but while doing so it neglected other parts of the city.
"That means Brownsville, the West Side Garden District, Belmont-DeVillers, Scenic Heights, Pineglades, Woodland Heights," Buchanan said. "Neighborhoods that Mayor Hayward rarely utters. Whenever you listen to an interview with him, it's always downtown, downtown, downtown. And that's great, his legacy will be sealed with the success of downtown Pensacola."
Spencer, who also lives downtown, said unfortunately some neighborhoods haven't gotten attention they may need because they have not organized and come to the city.
"I, as mayor, would restore a staff person that would be designated exclusively to interact and basically reengage and reactivate neighborhood associations so that they could have really unhindered access to all, certainly of course council, but most importantly the mayor's office," Spencer said.
Robinson said he wants to work with council members to come up with a plan for each of the city's seven districts.
"We should be making success in all seven districts. It shouldn't be just one district that is seeing success," Robinson said.
Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com or 850-208-9827.
Hear directly from the candidates
The Pensacola News Journal will host a candidate forum Monday with all six candidates at 6 p.m. at the Pensacola Little Theatre. The event will also be broadcast on the News Journal's Facebook page.


text:
Q: Lower bound running time of this algorith for worst case I have an algorithm as follow:

and even I have the anwser for finding lower bound of this algorithm:

But the problem is that I can not understand this: when we set i >= n/2 but n/4<=j<=n/2 then in this algorithm j can not get any value which is  but as you see in the answer it says the middle loop iterates n/4?
I am really confused why.

A: OK, I am not sure which part you are confused about, but let me rephrase lower bound explanation from your abstract, and, perhaps, the confusion part will clear up.
First of all, the lower bound approach (kinda obvious stuff but omitted in your abstract and can be unobvious to beginner students). If you imagine set of all possible values of (i, j, k), we don't want to count them all, but we'll only count a smaller subset of them, defined by certain arbitrary restrictions. It turns out it's easier to compute lower bound on a subset than on the entire set (because you can do simple math like multiplying lower bounds of ranges due to these restrictions), and transitively, this will also be a lower bound for the entire set.
Now, these arbitrary restrictions are choosen the following:
1) Look at only i values >= n/2.  That means, instead of looking at [1..n], we look at [n/2..n].
2) Taking into account the previous restriction, also restrict j: look at j values in range [n/4..n/2]. The word "Consider" in your text applies to both (1) and (2)). Note that the reason we can do that is that [n/4..n/2] is always a subset of the [1..i] range since we already decided that we only look at cases when i >= n/2. Therefore limiting [1..i] to [n/4..n/2] is correct thing to do to get some lower bound.
Now that we know i is [n/2..n] (at least n/2), and j is [n/4..n/2] (at least n/4), there are n/2*n/4 combinations of possible (i, j) pairs. For each of these pairs, the inner loop will do at least n/4-1 iterations (I am not sure why -1, perhaps to signify rounding down?), therefore we get n/2*n/4*(n/4-1) tuples of (i, j, k) is omega(n^3).
If a small subset of variants is omega(n^3), than the original set is omega(n^3) too.
P.S. I didn't understand why you said "n/4<=j<=n/2 then in this algorithm j can not get any value". n/4 is smaller than n/2, so for big enough n values, j range will have some numbers.

A: It looks to me like the number of iterations in the middle loop should always be less than or equal to number of iterations in inner loop because k would always go from 1 to j.
Below is an example of where I walked through the loop .
array[1,2,3,4,5]

will produce the following iterations with the restrictions on the loops:

i=3,j=2,k=1 //i starts at 3 because of n/2 minimum
            //j can't go below or above 2 because of condition on middle loop
i=3,j=2,k=2
i=4,j=2,k=1
i=4,j=2,k=2
i=5,j=2,k=1
i=5,j=2,k=2

3 iterations of outer loop (at least n/2)
1 iteration of middle loop for each outer loop iteration (NOT at least n/4)
2 iterations of inner loop for each iteration of middle loop (at least n/4 - 1)

The text may have just swapped the descriptions for the bottom two loops. If this is the case, the answer given would still be correct.
Regardless, the important thing to note is that it runs in O(n^3) time.

A: You can visualize number of iterations in the loop as
for( i in [1..n] )
  for( j in [1..i] )
     statement;

as (for n = 6):
x
x x
x x x
x x x x
x x x x x
x x x x x x

this will give you complexity O(N*N).
Number of iterations in innermost loop (in your sample) is also N dependent so it will give you one more N multiplier (third dimension). So xes will fill 1/32 (?) of cube volume. But as it is a cube formation then complexity will be O(N³)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Crowne Plaza Doha—The Business Park recently won the Green Hospitality Award for Best Conserving Building in the tourism sector. The award was given by Amlak and Kahramaa as a recognition to the hotel that has integrated energy efficiency, resource conservation and air quality to its operations.
Steps undertaken by the hotel to ensure energy conservation include use of LED lights in the hotel's guest rooms, dining outlets, meeting rooms and public areas and 100% use of LED in the building's façade lights. Occupancy sensors are also used in office areas and staircases to minimize energy use. Other resource conservation steps include computerized chiller management system for optimizing energy use in air conditioning system, VFD in pumps and key tag system. The hotel continuously monitor, trace and compare historic data of energy water, LPG and waste management through the IHG Green Engage System to ensure that it remains committed on energy efficiency and monitor its energy usage.