text:
I want, perhaps one last time, to write as I once did. To not punish myself, and punish you, with my words. Last week, I began a review in dialogue in which I meet adult Alice, old Alice, close to death, in a darkweb chatroom, knowing that it was so odd and unsettling that I would never publish it even if I finished it. I cannot continue to present you with flowers that smell like dirty feet. Yet it troubles me to put together sentences and make them stick. In Tokyo, I collapsed, and ever since I have been experiencing a 'dropping' sensation in my head. Momentarily, I feel as though I am falling, and, as in a real fall, I anticipate the end point as a sudden, devastating impact. I anticipate the impact, but do not experience it. It troubles me to attempt to think coherently, to pull together the loose threads of my mind. But I want, perhaps one last time, to force myself to do it, and produce the kind of review I once produced with ease.
"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
I will write about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, because that is why you're here. I will write about Alice as though I know her, as though she is the solid surface upon which I have fallen. I will call her Alice, although she denies the name and wishes that I would call her something else. She is easily bored, and possibly a little stupid. Certainly, she is impetuous and sometimes thoughtless. She follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole, remember. She drinks from strange bottles and eats strange things, without a great deal of consideration, without being sure that it is safe to do so. When talking to a mouse she cannot help but mention her cat, even though she understands that it frightens the poor creature. She often puts her foot in it, not out of malice, but rather out of carelessness. In person, she would be infuriating, to me at least, but in fiction she is charming, because she has a dreamy disposition and is not without obvious faults.
Alice follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole and enters a world that is disconcerting to her. Within that world she is transformed; she becomes ungrounded, peculiar. She is the outsider there. The inhabitants, whom she thinks speak in riddles, question the turn and quality of her mind. Alice's experiences in Wonderland are often compared to a dream, and they are dream-like in ways. She says so herself, in fact. As in the dream realm, the population and landscape of Wonderland isn't unfamiliar, not completely so. Alice recognises the mouse and the bird, the door and the fire. It is more accurate to say that the familiar is distorted. The mouse speaks, for example. The dream realm isn't another, or alien, world, it is a wax model of your world that has been placed too close to the fire. Yet there are signs, clear signs, frequent suggestions, that Wonderland isn't part of the dream realm at all, but that Alice is more likely mad. Indeed, it is this way of interpreting the story that resonated with me, that moved me even.
The inhabitants, as far as Alice is concerned, speak in riddles, remember; their behaviour, moreover, strikes her as strange, unrelatable. This confuses and angers her and, in fact, makes her doubt herself. I feel that way all of the time, have done my whole life. Other people, the oppressive other, seem perfectly content and comfortable; they engage with each other successfully; and yet I cannot understand them. 'We're all mad here,' the Cheshire Cat says, but isn't it Alice who is mad, as she is the outlier? My concentration levels are poor these days, and I am unable to read carefully, but it seems to me that Carroll presents Alice, not as a young girl having weird yet harmless adventures, but as one who is unstable, as one who is, specifically, suffering from a crisis of identity. She is, to my mind, experiencing a fracturing of the self. Consider how we are told that she, in the ordinary world, pretends to be two people; she plays against herself, she admonishes herself. In Wonderland, the caterpillar asks her 'who are you?', to which she replies 'I hardly know myself, sir.'
Posted in English, Scottish & Irish, Favourites, Surrealism and tagged alice in wonderland, alice's adventures in wonderland, book, chesire cat, lewis carroll, mad hatter, madness, review, white rabbit on March 6, 2019 by booksyo. Leave a comment
UZUMAKI BY JUNJI ITO
Words brought me here. Or, I should say, my desire to avoid them. Except that they are, of course, unavoidable. I feel them like a heavy weight that bears down upon my head, such that every crude sound my lips make is painful to me. The knitting-circle nattering of my mind is even worse. And this? What I am doing now? This is the third wall that completes my triangular prison. My run down, but secure prison. I don't want to write, but words come, regardless. Painful and inadequate words; but if not this, then the gurgle or the drone. I sometimes wonder if the only solution is death, but death is, I fear, a canny bastard. How can one even contemplate or summon it without words? My weariness astonishes me.
I tried to hide behind my eyes. To pass the time staring mindlessly at pictures. To feel without words. Yet I ultimately realised that I can only process and understand images through the filter of language.
Uzumaki was part of this failed experiment. I had always searched for myself in books, but my aim this time was to escape, to escape my own narrative, my words, the words that not only define me but are, in fact, all that I am. However, the opposite occurred. I found myself in Junji Ito's world, in his city contaminated by spirals. I understood the paranoia and the obsession of the locals. They see the spiral everywhere, in the shell of the snail, in the cochlea of the ear, in the twist of the hair, in the swirl of water and the drift of smoke.
The book is full of grotesque images of the kind one would find in something like The Exorcist or Evil Dead. One episode, involving the reinsertion of a baby into its mother's womb, and the drilling for blood by mosquito women, was particularly, and memorably, gruesome and unnerving. Yet part of what makes the book so impressive is that Ito's horror works on two levels. There is the physical horror, whereby the body is manipulated, such that, for example, people are turned into snails and then often eaten; and there is also the psychological horror, the sense that, in the early stages at least, what is happening might be no more than ordinary human madness. In fact, even the most obvious examples of physical horror have a psychological element. The mosquitos, for example, with their endless buzzing, and the fear that they will penetrate the ear. There is, moreover, the spiral itself, and how Ito manages to transform this innocuous shape or pattern into something sinister, much like the way that Hitchcock did with birds.
With the emphasis being on the visual, it is natural that the story, and the characters, are underdeveloped. The plot is episodic and it never really goes anywhere, except that the horror increases in intensity and gore. The ending is also unsatisfying, not so much because it doesn't truly resolve anything, but because it suggests a love element that isn't really there in the rest of the story.
It is said of many horror films that they are morality tales. It is the bullies, the promiscuous, etc, that often make up the body count. The same is true of Uzumaki. Or, certainly, Ito at times appeared to want to make his story karmic in that way, with the bad people getting their comeuppance. Towards the middle of the book, he focusses on those who seek attention, both from the opposite sex and from their peers. One such episode ushers in Azami, Uzumaki's most celebrated character, who has a scar on her head that is said to make her irresistible to men. However, Ito doesn't follow through on this idea and even if he had it isn't sophisticated enough to make it a reason to pick up the book.
Uzumaki is stunning in places, is worthy of the praise it has had, and the regard in which it is held, but not for anything that you would associate with conventional literature. Moreover, although my experiment failed, and it did not resolve any of my issues, or provide any answers, for the respite that it gave me, I am grateful.
Posted in Gothic/Grotesque, Graphic Novels/Manga, Japanese & Chinese, Surrealism and tagged Graphic Novels/Manga, horror, Junji Ito, madness, obsession, surreal, uzumaki, visual on May 27, 2018 by booksyo. 2 Comments
THE RED LAUGH BY LEONID ANDREYEV
Horror and madness…
I made notes, with headings and categories. Whenever I read, whenever I am to write about a book, I do this. I wrote Horror and I wrote Madness, and then I filled the empty space.
The world is collapsing under the weight of its own faeces…
How many times have I expressed this thought? In those exact words, in fact? The world…the world…ack, I am tired of it. Let it collapse. Let me be at the bottom, the very bottom. Let me take the full weight upon my chest. Let me die first.
Write about the book. Give praise. Oh, of course, the book. My eyes shifted across the pages, from one end to the other, line after line, from top to bottom, and I cannot say that I was made unhappy.
I was talking to Vivien from Budapest. She moved to England in order to be a writer. We spoke about writing, of course.
I never read anything, I said, and think 'I can't do that.' Not Tolstoy, not Dostoevsky, not Proust, not Mann. I consider myself equally capable. Their works are, after all, only words. Words, that's all. Words, in pleasing combinations.
I gave her a copy of Ted Hughes' Crow. I opened it and read to her:
When Crow cried his mother's ear
Scorched to a stump.
When he laughed she wept
Blood her breasts her palms her brow all wept blood.
The world is collapsing…
I don't consider any writer to be a genius. I believe that I am mad. Sickness and horror. What an awful business life is. I was speaking to Eve too. She said that her dead sister is at peace, and that in this way she envies her…
Eve is disappointed, not mad. Already, at nineteen. I told her: peace is a human concept and therefore it cannot apply to the dead.
I wrote about The Red Laugh. Once, somewhere. Not here. I made notes, at least. Here:
Wild fiction 8 tortured brain 8 Terrible raving of a mad world 9 All mad 11 strange and terrible globes 12 abyss of horror and insanity 15 cloud of insanity 19 bloody savage nightmare 24 silence 8 neither slept nor eaten 19 dead men 25 pallor 25 are you afraid? 26 red laugh 27 lunatic wards 29 hair 37 constantly looking for something behind their backs 39 everything strange 39 filled with horror 43 hallucinations 50 dance on the ruins 84 afraid of going mad 101 hatchet/knife 102 black abyss 106 fingers/wild dance 109
Like a terrifying, beautiful poem.
Wild fiction. Tortured brain.
Terrible raving of a mad world.
All mad.
Everything strange, filled with horror.
Hallucinations. Dance on the ruins,
Afraid of going mad.
Something about a shell whizzing through the air like a witch…
That was my favourite line. The most pleasing combination of words. The witch. Andreyev could have written only that and his standing with me would have been assured. Perhaps he should have.
The Red Laugh is split into two parts, with a kind of intermission holding them together. The intermission spoiled my enjoyment slightly by spoiling the atmosphere. It deflates. In opening the book you are dropped immediately into a strange, almost surreal landscape. The intermission takes you out of that by taking the narrator out of the war, or at least out of the centre of the battle, and sending him home to die. The unreal becomes the real. The intermission is grounded, domestic, and somewhat tedious.
Whenever I write about the book I feel grubby…
As though I am lowering myself…
In the first part, there is a sense that anything could happen; that the action is not subject to the familiar laws of reality, because what you are reading isn't reality, but a kind of horrible dream.
The world as a horrible dream…
The world as a horrible dream from which you cannot awake, and which you cannot avoid except through death.
Death is the absence of everything…
It's not a dream.
FRAGMENT 10
As in a dream, the world of the first part of the book lacks form, or has it only to a minimal degree.
'Where are we,' asked somebody…
Everybody laughed, but their laugh was interrupted by a rough, indignant voice that sounded out of the darkness…
The lump with the protruding leg was thrown aside…
This is one of the ways in which The Red Laugh is frightening.
One stumbles around in the dark; hands groping, grasping at air, but occasionally slithering over something unidentifiable and unpleasant to the touch; eyes trained on the darkness, which is uniform, but in which, perhaps as a trick of the brain, one sometimes sees vague shapes.
The men, if they are men, do not know where they are going, only that they must go. No. Only that they are going….
It is clear to me, and to you too no doubt, that I do not have the patience or passion for this anymore. For writing. For writing about books, specifically. There was a time when I enjoyed the exercising of my imagination, when I was stimulated by the execution of a good idea. Now I can hardly bear to form a sentence, and I do not look for novel ways to express myself. My achievements in life cannot be the combining of words into a pleasant sequence, especially when that achievement is recognised by me alone.
Most of the time it is painful to speak, never mind write…
I'm oppressed by words…which I now find…
Words, like schoolchildren…snot-nosed and uncouth. My own, at least.
The Red Laugh is the laugh of horror and madness; laid on your back, eyes wide; mouth wide, swallowing the debris of a quickly collapsing world…
Posted in Gothic/Grotesque, Russian, Surrealism and tagged book, death, Leonid Andreyev, madness, review, The Red Laugh, war on May 7, 2018 by booksyo. Leave a comment
HUNGER BY KNUT HAMSUN
If you continue to lose weight, she said, I'll have to put you in hospital. My mother thought that I was starving myself. She spoke about it as though it was a conscious decision, as though I had decided to stop eating, out of vanity perhaps, when it was simply the case that I could no longer keep food down. I was fourteen years old, and being sick was easy. I didn't need to force it. I didn't tip my fingers down my throat and waggle them around. The vomit came when called, like a well-trained dog. She had always over-fed us, my brother and I, because it was the only thing she could do. For a while I had thrown her meals out of the bedroom window, but I couldn't live with the guilt. What little money we had went on this, on fattening the rats that gathered below. So I did my duty. I ate, and that was important; but I wasn't hungry. My shins burned when I walked, my mouth cramped when I talked too much, and I frequently lost consciousness, but I never knew hunger. I would, I thought, die happily without ever knowing what it felt like to want anything.
"God had poked His finger down into my nerves and gently, almost without thinking, brought a little confusion among those threads. And God had pulled His finger back, and behold–there were filaments and fine rootlike threads on His finger from the threads of my nerves. And there remained an open hole behind His finger which was the finger of God, and a wound in my brain behind the path of His finger."
That Knut Hamsun's first novel was published in 1890 is, with each new reading, increasingly surprising to me. This is not because it seems so ahead of its time – although many have made that argument – but rather because it strikes me as largely out of time. There is very little in it that dates it, that ties it to a specific period. The horse and carriage, the writing with pencil on paper, and one or two other moments or incidents, are the only real indicators. In terms of style, there are elements of Dostoevsky's supernatural realism, but on a meagre scale. Hamsun's unnamed protagonist is less intense, less obviously a front for an ideology or ethical-philosophical system; and certainly the author himself was less concerned with intricate plotting. In fact, there is little more to Hunger, in terms of action, than an exceedingly poor man wandering around Kristiana, that 'strange city which no one leaves until it has set its mark upon him,' which is now known as Oslo.
The most obvious interpretation of the book's title is that it refers to the central character's starvation, to the frequent days he endures without being able to eat. He is, as noted, wretchedly poor, and so cannot afford to. At times he becomes so desperate that he chews on wood shavings, or sucks a stone, or nibbles at a bone that he has procured from a butcher for an imaginary dog. Only occasionally – either through luck, charity, or his own hard work – does he come by a little money and therefore legitimate food. When denied basic sustenance the body will, of course, suffer, eventually wither and ultimately break down. Frequently he feels weak, his legs twitch and become unsteady, his head pounds, and his hair falls out. Even when he does take in food he throws it back up because his stomach is unused to it, it cannot handle it. Yet perhaps the biggest indication of his physical deterioration is how often people run away from him or try and avoid coming into contact with him, such as the woman who presses closer to the wall when he walks past. Indeed, the man's body is in such a bad way that even he notices it, and cries over it, when it is often the case that the person involved, as I know myself, is ignorant of what is happening to them.
However, this aspect of the book is, although disturbing, not particularly interesting. For me, anyway. Perhaps it is too familiar, too close to my own experience, but I think there's more to it than that. That someone who doesn't regularly eat would be physically weakened, would waste away, is predictable, natural, and therefore hardly worth devoting your attention to. I'm reminded of what I wrote about Lolita, which is that if all that book has to say is that pedophilia exists, and this is how grooming works, then it was a waste of time to write it. In any case, what is engaging about Hunger is how Hamsun shows that the mental and the physical influence each other. When the man eats he feels 'stimulated,' more stable and lucid, and 'capable of a greater effort' where his own writing is concerned. Conversely, when he is without food, his mental state worsens, resulting in wild mood swings. At times he is 'nervous and susceptible'; he is timid, apologetic, despairing, pathetic, and self-pitying. On other occasions, he becomes inexplicably angry and even sinister, such as when he goes in search of confrontation or starts to follow a young woman with the intention of 'frightening' her. One understands in these moments that it isn't only his appearance that alarms the locals.
What this means is that the less the man has, the more in need he is, the more mad be becomes, and subsequently the more unlikely it is that he will receive help. Because extreme vulnerability is unappealing. That is part of the tragedy of the novel, and of life itself. At his most demoralised and despondent, he turns to God, but not with any conviction or genuine faith, more in order to rail against Him or doubt Him. His luck is so bad, he thinks, that his existence must be at the whim of some higher power, or is at least evidence of the fact that he has been abandoned. Yet if anyone is to blame for his predicament it is he himself. Indeed, the most fascinating aspect of his character, and the novel as a whole, is how much responsibility he has for, how much he contributes to, his own downfall. Take, for example, his insistence on helping the tramp, to the extent that he pawns his waistcoat in order to give him some money. It's absurd, funny even. To be starving, to have so little, and give away your possessions or money, to people, in fact, who are probably better off than you are. The first time I read the book I couldn't take it seriously, precisely for this reason. It wasn't until I read it again that I began to understand.
The title of the novel refers to starvation, of course it does, but it also has a broader meaning or significance. Hamsun's protagonist is stripped of, or denied, or just plain lacks, almost all of life's essentials, almost all of the things that sustain us. He hungers, yes, but not only for food. He hungers for love, for sex, for work too, none of which he has access to. The only thing that he has, or that he can at least fool himself into thinking that he has, is his dignity. He helps the beggar because he does not want to be seen as being too destitute to give charity. He has next to nothing, but at least he can do that, at least he can still help others or attempt to. Similarly, when he sees a man carrying a bundle, he wants to take it from him and carry it himself. One might say that he cares too much about what people think of him – he blackens the knees of his trousers so that they will not look too worn, for example – and, yes, that is part of having dignity too, but, in my opinion, he cares more about what he thinks of himself. Isn't that vital? To be able to tolerate the person you are. Yes. It may be at some point in your life that other people cannot bear to look at you, but I hope that you are always able to look at yourself.
Posted in Favourites, Gothic/Grotesque, Scandinavian and tagged book, dignity, hunger, knut hamsun, madness, poverty, review, starvation on January 16, 2018 by booksyo. 6 Comments
KZRADOCK THE ONION MAN AND THE SPRING-FRESH METHUSELAH BY LOUIS LEVY
What will be related here is, like the novel by Louis Levy around which much of the action revolves, a 'dreadful and bloody mystery', one that is still not entirely understood by me. I make these notes, therefore, not in order to bring clarity to the situation but as a kind of exorcism. I write as a means of relieving myself of a burden and to bring a semblance of peace and order to my own soul. My patient, who I have always known as Kzradock, but who may in fact be someone, anyone, other than that man, was referred to me by the police as a paranoid schizophrenic. However, early in my treatment of him I doubted this diagnosis. When he screamed 'Kzradock!' I, like the police, understood this to be his name, certainly, but other of his utterances, and most persuasively the look in his haunted eyes, suggested to me some form of secret knowledge, a mystery, or story, that ought not to be ignored. In short, I doubted his madness, and, in turn, ended up doubting my own sanity.
I was making my morning rounds of the institute when I looked in upon Kzradock. He was standing in the corner of his room, his back to the wall. Often in situations such as these I would pass on to the next room without interfering, for the man was not harming himself, but on this occasion something compelled me to enter Kzradock's cell. I greeted the man with a sincere good morning, and he, without turning around to face me, took up his familiar refrain: 'Kzradock! Violently shaking hands! Hmm. Collapsing…under the burden. Eyes…ah…a consuming fever!' I wondered whether I ought to administer a sedative, but I suddenly wished to have another go at getting him to expand upon his seemingly incoherent ramblings. I asked him to whom it was that he referred. 'Kzradock!' he screamed. And then to my surprise he spoke, near moaned, these new, strange, barely comprehensible, phrases: 'Fever! Fresh Onion Man! Levy, Louis-Methuselah. Doctor! Oh doctor! I don't exist! Please help me!'
I considered these new offerings to be a kind of breakthrough. Certainly, he had not referred to me as a doctor before, which suggested that he recognised who I was and, perhaps, where he was. Kzradock, I said, gently, who is the Fresh Onion Man? Levy Louis? 'Kzradock and the doctor,' he replied. I am the onion man? 'No!' he screamed. 'You, like me, don't exist!' And then he began to weep. I thought at this point of ending our conversation, for I could see that it was especially distressing. I was about to leave when, conveniently, one of my attendants entered the cell and told me that there was a call for me in my office. When I picked up the phone, however, the line appeared to be dead. But as I listened closer I heard a crackling sound, something like tin foil being scrunched up into a ball; and then, faintly, I heard, or thought I heard, a voice say: 'Kzradock is a character, doc.' Hello? Hello? Who's there? 'It's a book, you fool.' What's that? A book? Hello?
I put down the phone, almost slammed it down, and looked around my office. The room was full of books, for I have always been a keen reader. I went over to the shelves and scanned them intently. Kzradock, Kzradock, Kzradock. Every single book was called Kzradock The Onion Man and the Spring Fresh Methuselah and each was written by Louis Levy. Ah, I'm lost, I thought to myself. I've gone mad! Kzradock has infected me with his madness! I took one of the books from the shelf and opened it. The pages were blank. I was on the verge of collapse when one of my attendants, the same attendant as before, entered my office. 'You have blood on your hands,' he said sheepishly. What? Is Kzradock dead? 'No, your hands, doctor, are bleeding.' I looked down at my hands. They were red. 'A papercut!' I screamed at the man. He smiled and nodded and then handed me a piece of paper. What's this? 'A police officer gave it to me just now.' Which police officer? No, don't say anything! You may leave!
I knew that something was amiss with that attendant. He was, I was sure, in on a plot to ruin me. He was, yes, a co-conspirator. Perhaps, I thought, he has even drugged me. In any case, I opened the note and read: esteemed author, Louis Levy, who died in 1940, will today, September 10th 2017, give a talk about his famous novel Kzradock The Onion Man and the Spring Fresh Methuselah. Although sensing a trap, I noted the time and address and, realising that I had only twenty five minutes to spare, immediately left the institute. When I arrived at the appointed place, however, the talk was over and Levy was answering questions. 'Yes, I would say that it is a Gothic novel. There is an insane asylum, of course, and murder, or at least the suggestion of murder, and a ghost. There is a scalping too! And there are, if you will allow me to quote myself, references to a hall of pain and an underworld of horrors. But it is, on the surface at least, as much a detective novel, but a confused kind of detective novel, whereby one isn't sure who exactly is investigating – is it Mr. Wells or Monsieur Carbonel or Dr. Renard? – or whether there has even been a crime!'
A round of applause. A hand now sprang up, a small and hairy hand, a hand much too small and hairy to be human. I looked closer and noticed that the entire audience was made up of mongooses. 'How do you feel, Mr. Levy, about the popular description of the novel as pulp?' Levy grinned back at the mongoose. 'Oh, I feel as though that term, that genre, is applied to books often as a kind of insult, or back-handed compliment at least. It is a way of saying that a story is fast-paced and fun, but not too taxing; that it is rather stupid, but enjoyable. It denotes low quality literature. Well, I guess my book is fun – what with the puma, and the man with the tapeworm, and all that – but, if I may say so, it isn't stupid nor low quality.' Another round of applause from the mongooses. I put up my hand. 'Yes, you, the man in the doctor's coat.' What, I stammered, does all this mean? Who are you? Who am I? The book…I don't understand. 'He hasn't read it,' whispered one of the mongooses. 'Philistine!' hissed another.
I quickly realised that I ought to leave. I pushed through the crowd, which had now started to turn on each other. Mongoose leapt at mongoose, teeth bared, aiming for the throat. Pools of blood began to form on the floor. Wider, higher. Up to my knees. I waded through it. At this stage the mongooses had stopped fighting and were, instead, starting to drown in an ocean of their own blood. As I reached the door I looked back. 'You don't exist!' one of the mongooses shouted, his head barely visible above the blood. 'This isn't real, it's a book. Kza…Kzr…the meaning…is madness.' I wanted to exit, to make myself safe, and yet I could not, I had to speak to the mongoose. What do you mean? 'The book, if you had read it, you philistine, has all the answers…memory and madness…Kzradock is the mind in collapse, the soul when over-burdened…think, man, about yourself…how have you been feeling lately? Well?' I had to admit I had not been quite myself. 'What is reality? That is the book's ultimate, profound question. Is it what you experience? Can what you experience be wrong? What does it mean to be of healthy mind, doctor? Is it when you can trust what you experience? Can you ever trust it?'
I wanted to reply, to converse further, but the head of the mongoose finally disappeared. So instead I pushed open the door of the auditorium and walked through, but rather than finding myself on the street, as I expected, I was, in fact, facing a wall, the wall of a cell in my institution. And, and as I turned around…there in front of me…was myself. 'Good morning,' I said to myself. 'How are you feeling today?' Kzradock! I screamed. 'Tell me more,' I replied patiently, 'who is Kzradock?' The Onion Man…I…I'm Kzradock! Louis Levy! Please! 'And who is Louis Levy, Kzradock?' Me…I'm…Dr. Renard de Monpensier…this is insanity…who are you? Who am I? Oh please…Spring Fresh book! Fever! Fresh Onion Man! Levy, Louis-Methuselah. Doctor! Oh doctor! I don't exist! Please help me.
Posted in Crime/Noir, Favourites, Gothic/Grotesque, Parodies & Pastiches, Scandinavian and tagged book, crime, dr renard de montpensier, kzadock, louis levy, madness, murder, onion man, paris, pulp, reality, review, spring fresh methuselah on September 10, 2017 by booksyo. Leave a comment
DOCTOR FAUSTUS BY THOMAS MANN
Excuse me if I begin this review by talking a little bit about myself. Although do not fret, for very soon I will turn my complete attention towards that great man – yes, great – who is no longer with us and yet whose influence is felt now and will be felt with even greater intensity as the years pass. My name is Rudolf Spenglebrauschnitlespritzer. I was born of Catholic parents or, more specifically, of one parent – my father was lapsed to such an extent that one would doubt he was ever anything but – in the industrial heartland of the north of England. I first met [P] during our schooling, despite my being older than he by 18 months. Please, forgive these preliminaries, but I have never written a review before and do not know how to proceed in the best manner, in such a way as to maximise reader enjoyment. I can proceed only as the mood takes me, as the events come to me.
Young [P] was, of course, despite being destined for the greatness that I have already made mention of, not immediately striking as a personality. He was reserved, rather than shy. Without wishing to contradict myself, I would say that this reserved nature was striking, or was – and this is perhaps more accurate – intriguing. One felt that he was not afraid to talk to you, or embarrassed, but that he did not want to. I can't say, even though I knew him from childhood all the way up to his death, that he and I were ever close. He would, for example, call me Spenglebrauschnitlespritzer, never Rudolf. And yet this man, this standoffish, reserved man, chose to compose, and post, the most personal book reviews. How to account for that, that tension? I do not know. I know that he was good at it, though, that his talent was enormous.
Before his death he was working on a new review, and I can't help but feel unsettled by it. Simply thinking about that final work, that dark work, the now forever incomplete work that would have elevated him to stratospheric heights of fame, even within his own time, makes my flesh crawl. That work was a review of Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. And so we come to the crux of the matter, the reason for my review. When [P] passed away in mysterious circumstances I was surprised to find that he left me not only his incomplete work on Faustus but a manuscript; this manuscript is, to say the least, alarming, and I have thought long and hard about whether I ought to share it with the public. The two men featured in this manuscript are unrecognisable to me. In any case, I present it here, in full and with no amendments. Let it serve as a testament to my friend, and as a warning.
I woke abruptly, perhaps from an unwelcome dream, to find that I was not alone. I had taken to my bed alone, for sure, and I had slept for some time, alone. How now had I company? And not just company, but a partner, for the body that was with me was – I swear it is true – actually beside me. My back to the presence, I felt the breath on my neck, hot breath, like the heat from a candle flame. Slowly I turned around.
He: Hello, [P].
I: Who are you?
He: Why the surprise, why the glum face? Are you not accustomed to waking up to a strange body beside you in bed?
I: Never like this, no. I ask you again: who are you?
He: Oh, I think you know.
I: What is your name, then?
He: They have given me many names; some I like more than others. But, again, names have never been such an issue for you before, so why belabour the point? Call me P.B., if you must, although that one is your own creation. Others know me as Mammon, or Satan. Take your pick, son.
I: Satan?
He: Don't give me that look. You knew this day would come.
I: I guess I did. What do you want?
He: To help you. Throw me an extra pillow, will you? Thanks. I want to help you, son. Tell me, have you read any good books lately?
I: Are you trying to chat me up?
He: Ha! Believe me, I could have you anytime I wanted. I wouldn't need to creep into your room late at night. Books, boy?
I: Yes, Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.
He: That's a great book.
I: Yes.
He: Going to write a review of that one, my boy?
I: I should think so.
He: You wrinkle your nose when you lie. I am the king of lies; there's no way of fooling me. You won't review Doctor Faustus; you've tried already and you found it impossible.
I: That's right. I don't know why, but I can't seem to compose a satisfactory review.
He: You were drunk, quite often, while reading it.
I: It's not that. It's so dense, so static, so abstract. There is so little narrative momentum. How do you review something like that?
He: I could tell you.
I: Please do.
He: And for me? What would I get in return?
I: I don't know. What do you want?
He: Ah, that is why I am here. To make a bargain with you, to strike a deal.
I: You suggest that I have something you want, doesn't that put me in a position of power?
He: You always were a clever bugger. Talk to me about the book; did it move you, son?
I: Yes. I was very surprised about that. I identified with Adrian very much. Not the genius part, I wouldn't say that…
He: How modest of you!
I: …but he is an isolated figure, in many ways. Intentionally so; by which I mean that he isolates himself, is not isolated by others. I feel that way a lot of the time, as though there is a barrier between myself and other people, as though I talk to them from behind glass. I must confess that I am to blame for this situation, that I encourage it. Indeed, Adrian is aloof, which is something I'm accused of more often than anything else.
He: The book isn't about you, boy.
I: I know that. Perhaps it is part of my self-obsession that I look for myself in all things, that I only truly enjoy something when I can link it to my experience of the world.
He: Adrian is mad though, don't you agree?
I: He certainly descends into madness. Was he always mad? He was always strange, yes, always peculiar in relation to others. I have a condition…
He: I know all about that.
I: …and one of the consequences of this condition is obsessiveness, a kind of intellectual obsessiveness, whereby I can get easily trapped inside my head to the exclusion of everything, and everyone, else. I saw that in Adrian. I couldn't say whether it was intentional, if Mann meant to present him as someone with that kind of condition or whether he merely saw it as a way of…
He: Describing the process of a creative genius?
I: No. You're putting words in my mouth. One can be obsessed with creative endeavours without being a genius.
He: It is so. Yet wasn't Mann, quite plainly, making that link between genius and madness?
I: Yes, I guess so. Adrian deliberately contracts syphilis, a disease linked to madness. He catches it by sleeping with a woman.
He: Bummer.
I: An act of love, perhaps? Is he saying: I'll take you, I want you, despite the consequences, despite your illness? That would be out of character though, I must admit.
He: Don't speak to me of love, it gives me migraines.
I: In any case, as the disease takes hold Adrian's creativity increases. Do you know Nietzsche?
He: I know him very well. We play golf on Tuesdays.
I: Nietzsche is said to have died of syphilis. His later years were characterised by an almost excessive creativity. The French writer Alphonse Daudet is another who had the disease. Quite apart from specific symptoms, there is that cultural link between the illness and creative people. What Mann was trying to say about that, I don't know. On one level you could argue that Adrian's genius as a composer wasn't 'part of him,' wasn't a necessary part, in that he had to become mad in order to deliver it. Or you could argue that the madness was a door which allowed the genius to step through and be exposed.
He: Very good.
I: Then there is the war. The German question. What can you say about that?
He: I don't know, son. I was rather busy during that time.
I: That the man writing Doctor Faustus, the narrator, is living through the second world war…what was Mann getting at? That art or culture is, in a practical sense, not possible in those circumstances? That clearly isn't the case. There are many instances of great art being born in times of war. Is he trying to say something similar to what Adorno said about how art is morally impossible after Auschwitz? That to engage in art, to create, after such atrocities is barbaric? One could even say Satanic?
He: Steady on, old chap. You'll give me a complex.
I: Oh, I just don't know. This is why I cannot review Doctor Faustus.
He: Hush, child. You're doing fine. But aren't you forgetting something important?
I: What?
He: Me, you cretin.
I: Ah, yes. You. What about you? You have the best tunes, they say, and you appear in the best books too. The Faust legend. The encounter with the horned-one. What do I have to say about that?
He: Nothing?
I: Nothing of any note, sir. Adrian speaks to the Devil, makes a pact with him. The usual stuff: his soul for a reward, for the ability to compose something truly special. What is interesting is that Mann allows you to make up your own mind about whether the conversation, the pact, really happened. Adrian is crazy, and the Devil acknowledges that. Is it his madness that allows him to see the Devil? Or is it his madness that causes him to see the Devil?
He: What do you think?
I: What do I fucking know? I'm in bed with Satan right now! Clearly, I'm not qualified to make that call.
He: So what do you say, boy? I'll give you a review, the best review ever written.
I: Y'know, I'd rather we had done this at a crossroads. Making deals in bed feels…kinda wrong.
He: But what do you say?
I: Ok. Sure. You can have my soul; it's a pretty lousy thing anyway.
He: Marvellous. Ok, so this is how it works. Write up this conversation and leave it for your friend to post, that Rudolf Spenglebrauschnitlespritzer. The review will go…ayoop…through the roof, they'll love it. Anything that has me in it is a winner. Of course, you won't be around to enjoy the adulation. You'll live for, oh, maybe a few more days. Yeah, you're pretty much a dead man walking. I forgot to mention that? Small print is a bitch. Always read the small print, boy.
I: A few more days? Can't you be more specific? I'll be on tenterhooks.
He: Ok, so you'll hear a song, I won't say when but soon, perhaps when you're in the supermarket, or on a bus or in the toilet. It'll be 'our song.'
I: Elton John?
He: What? That's Your Song, you idiot.
I: Ok, so, what's the song?
He: Boyz II Men 'End of the Road.'
I: I love that song! Some people think it is cheesy, but fuck 'em. That spoken word bit at the end? 'All those times you hurt me, and just ran out with that other fella…' Fucking brilliant.
He: It's a cracker. So, yeah, when you hear that song you have exactly 24 hours left. Make the most of them. If you want a tip I'd say hookers are a good place to start. Lots of expensive hookers.
I: Expensive hookers. Ok. Thanks.
The manuscript ends here. I don't want to speculate about what [P] was going through that night, whether his visitor was real or imaginary. Clearly he was real for him. I can speak, however, about the accuracy of the prophesy, for [P] died of unknown causes within four days of the date at the top of the manuscript in my possession.
Posted in German & Austrian, Parodies & Pastiches and tagged art, book, devil, doctor faustus, genius, german, madness, pact, review, satan, thomas mann, war on August 25, 2017 by booksyo. 5 Comments
THE PLEDGE BY FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT
For years I approached people as though I was a detective trying to solve a case. I thought logic could be applied to them; I thought that no matter how confusing, how irrational and out of character, any of their behaviour seemed, explanations and answers would be forthcoming if you kept a professional distance and were intelligent and perceptive enough; and that, furthermore, you could, in fact, accurately predict behaviour with a small amount of information. I saw the chaos around me, which so troubled my peers, as being simply a ball of string to untangle. I prided myself on understanding people, even if I only rarely liked them. Then, eighteen months ago I made the decision to climb down from my comfortable vantage point, to engage fully with the world, and found, at closer quarters, that it is surreal and nightmarish, and that any attempt to make sense of it, to impose order upon it, is futile and likely to lead to madness.
I had read Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Pledge once before, around five years ago. At that time, I found it, like many other police procedural novels, fun, easy-going, immediately satisfying, yet ultimately inconsequential. Perhaps I read it too quickly, but more likely my judgement was a result of an overriding complacency. I was happy then. It was not until I picked it up again this week, as a different man, as someone who is not at ease with the world or himself, that I came to appreciate how complex and moving it is. It begins with a chance meeting between a writer of detective novels – who is narrating the action – and a police chief. Not long after they are introduced, the author is offered a ride, during which the chief criticises the detective genre. These novels are, he says, a 'waste of time,' not because the culprit is always brought to justice – this he considers to be 'morally necessary' – but because they proceed logically. You can't, he advises the narrator, and me too, albeit too late in my case, 'come to grips with reality by logic alone.'
As a way of illustrating his point he starts to tell a story about one of his officers, Matthäi, which then dominates the rest of the book. These postmodern, meta-fictional aspects of The Pledge are often praised, yet are, for me, one of its few, but not fatal, flaws. The framing narrative, the meeting between the author and the chief, including his criticisms, are too contrived, are gracelessly executed, and, worse still, unnecessary. It is clear that Dürrenmatt himself is speaking through the policeman when he objects to convenient, predictable plotting, and how at odds it is with reality, but these points could, and are, made far more powerfully in the rest of the novel. The reader does not need them to be spelt out quite so clinically. In fact, these elements have the potential to compromise the intensity of what follows, because one always has in mind that one is listening to a story being recounted; it comes close to taking one out of the action, it weakens, if not breaks, the spell.
The reason that these things do not too negatively impact one's experience of the book is due, in large part, to the author's ability to create and maintain a foreboding atmosphere. Even before the main storyline is introduced Dürrenmatt writes about the 'inhuman silence' of the Swiss canton, of unnaturally dark days, and of mountains that resemble an 'immense grave.' One is given the impression that this is a menacing, strange place. The houses are wretched; the sun, when it actually comes out, is malevolent. The writer of detective novels is spooked. He mentions his fear of 'not waking again', of feeling as though he is trapped inside an 'endless, meaningless dream.' Later, there is the repeated red symbolism, which of course reminds one of blood, but most eerie and unsettling is the role of the hedgehog giant, whose significance will become clear upon reading the book.
"You're choosing madness as a method, and it takes courage to do that, no question; extreme positions impress people generally these days; but if this method does not lead to its goal, I'm afraid that in the end, all you'll be left with is the madness."
The first glimpse one has of Matthäi is as an 'old man on a stone bench.' He is 'unshaven, unwashed'; his clothes are 'smeared and stained; his eyes are 'staring, stupefied'; and there is a strong smell of absinthe. His current unfortunate state means that one is eager to find out how a former police officer came to be this way, especially when it is told that he was once a 'most capable man', even a 'genius.' The crime at the centre of the book is the murder of a child, a girl, perhaps the most emotive kind of crime, and, in the early stages of the investigation, the impression that one gets of Matthäi is of someone who is strong and dispassionate. For example, he is the only one present when the body is found who is able to look directly at the corpse; and the only one willing to shoulder the burden of informing the parents [during which he makes the pledge of the title]. Indeed, in one of my favourite lines, he says to a doctor that he didn't want to suffer with the world, he wanted to be superior to it.
However, none of this lends any weight to the chief's description of Matthäi as a genius. The earliest indication of his special ability is when he offers to release the primary suspect to a crowd who have gathered in order to seek vengeance. He says he will turn the man over to them if they can guarantee justice, then proceeds to convince them that this would be impossible, because they cannot prove his guilt. It is a daring move, and evidence not only of his talent, but his arrogance too. Matthäi believes that he can read people, and that reason, his reason, will triumph over disorder. One sees further evidence of this in his unwillingness to accept that the primary suspect is actually guilty, despite him having motive, opportunity, a previous conviction, and the girl's blood on his clothing. On one level it seems like a kind of a superiority complex, such as when I was at University and would argue the most extreme positions, because I felt as though I could do so better, more logically and consistently, than anyone else could argue their more mainstream opinions.
As a study of arrogance, The Pledge would be fine, but not quite the masterpiece that it is. What elevates it even further is that one can also interpret Matthäi's stance as a great, obsessive, and ultimately insane, dedication to his work and, more importantly, to the truth [as he sees it]. The easiest thing would be, of course, to be satisfied with the most probable culprit and close the case. Certainly, the chief, the townsfolk, and his colleagues, are happy to do so. For Matthäi personally, who has landed a excellent job opportunity in Jordan, and is due to leave the country imminently, it is the best, the most sensible thing to do. However, he refuses to, or he can't, and his behaviour becomes increasingly irrational, his methods and theories more monstrous, as he vows to catch the real perpetrator of the crime. As he pieces together his case, everything that he argues is plausible, but the point made by Dürrenmatt is that logic is so powerful that one can create, and justify, appalling narratives, that in a world of chaos one can find links between an infinite number of unrelated, insignificant things, and thereby imbue them with false significance. It is to his immense credit as an author that he has one rooting for his madman, has one believing in him, even when he ruthlessly uses a small child as bait in order to catch a killer who may not even exist.
Posted in Crime/Noir, Favourites, German & Austrian and tagged book, children, crime, detective, friedrich durrenmatt, german, killer, logic, madness, matthai, murder, obsession, police, postmodern, promise, review, switzerland, the pledge on May 5, 2017 by booksyo. 2 Comments


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How will you fill these clear, small glass bottles? Our craft bottles are perfect for larger bottle pendants, memory crafts, storing tiny embellishments, and more.
These small glass bottles measure almost 2 inches tall, not including the cork, and are approximately 7/8 inches in diameter. Corks are included with these clear glass bottles.
2 small glass bottles per package.


Children from across the UK have designed the smartwatch of the future. These kids all under the age of 14 were asked by Currys PC World to design how they thought wearable technology should look and feel in the near and distant future. From holograms to mood sensors and even time-travel, these young designers let their imaginations loose to blew us all away with their innovative ideas.
Half a century ago, who would have even dreamt of all the weird and wonderful things that your wristwear could do today. Even beyond being a means by which one can tell the time (and a stylish accessory to boot), with a quick finger-swipe one can now be connected with their friends, their videos and photos, their music collection…and even to their own heartbeat.


text:
Q: how do you point 'screen_function' to a function in the same class? In a plugin class, I'm successfully creating a new tab on a Member page using:
    bp_core_new_nav_item( array(
    'name' => __( 'MyTab', 'bp' ),
    'slug' => 'mytab',
    'position' => 200,
    'screen_function' => array( $this, 'mytab_screen' ),
    'default_subnav_slug' => 'mytab'
) );

The problem appears when you click the tab.
The function is found - this Warning DOES NOT appear:
Warning: call_user_func_array() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback etc

But the function is not called and you end up on the
'It seems we can't find what you're looking for.' page.
Am I using the correct approach to point 'screen_function'  to a public function in the same class ?

A: That is the correct approach.
The problem was in the function mytab_screen()
I wasn't using 'array' for the 2nd parameter in the add_action for the template call.
Nothing fancy, just sloppiness.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Looks like this is the level 80 version of Sergeant's Heavy Cape.
Even though it says it requires level 70, it fits the 80 bracket better. There's no point in adding 70 PvP gear once WotLK comes out. It's like adding PvP gear to the 60 bracket.
Equip: Increases critical strike rating by 26.
Equip: Increases your resilience rating by 30.
This is on the Ptr's latest build.


Over on The Register, Alexander J. Martin provides the story of how Lauri Love's search warrant was executed back in 2013 and what happened next.
It provides some interesting details and color. I'm not sure it really changes anything legally. But if you're following his extradition hearing and the attempts of the U.S. government to have him stand trial here, you will likely find it interesting.


text:
Q: Python - How to check if socket is still connected I have the following code, which is self explanatory:
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(host, port)
s.send("some data")
# don't close socket just yet...
# do some other stuff with the data (normal string operations)
if s.stillconnected() is true:
    s.send("some more data")
if s.stillconnected() is false:
    # recreate the socket and reconnect
    s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    s.connect(host, port)
    s.send("some more data")
s.close()

How do I implement s.stillconnected()
I do not wish to recreate the socket blindly.

A: I've had good results with this variant to check if a socket is closed (negate the result if you want to check if it's still connected):
import logging
import socket

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

def is_socket_closed(sock: socket.socket) -> bool:
    try:
        # this will try to read bytes without blocking and also without removing them from buffer (peek only)
        data = sock.recv(16, socket.MSG_DONTWAIT | socket.MSG_PEEK)
        if len(data) == 0:
            return True
    except BlockingIOError:
        return False  # socket is open and reading from it would block
    except ConnectionResetError:
        return True  # socket was closed for some other reason
    except Exception as e:
        logger.exception("unexpected exception when checking if a socket is closed")
        return False
    return False

A: If the server connection is no longer alive, calling the send method will throw an exception, so you can use a try-exception block to attempt to send data, catch the exception if it's thrown, and reestablish the connection:
try:
    s.send("some more data")
except:
    # recreate the socket and reconnect
    s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    s.connect(host, port)
    s.send("some more data")

EDIT: As per @Jean-Paul Calderone's comments, please consider using the sendall method, which is a higher level method that sends all the data or throws an error, instead of send, which is a lower level method that does not guarantee the transmission of all the data, OR use higher level modules like an HTTP library that can handle socket lifecycles.


It's no myth: More couples than ever are relying on two incomes to get by.
According to the Families and Work Institute in New York, 79 percent of today's married couples have both people in the work force, up from 66 percent in 1977.
But at some point, life happens — you start a family, go back to school or face a layoff — and this new reality may force you and your partner to question whether you're ready to jump off of the dual-earner treadmill.
It is critical to have a frank conversation with your spouse about why you're making the choice to live on one family income.
Don't resign yourself to an all-ramen noodle diet without first setting a detailed budget for living on one family income.
"Once a couple can see what their obligations are, they can look at that list and determine what they give up," Lawrence says.
Forgoing a few lattes probably won't make up for the loss of an entire paycheck.
Still, it's not impossible. "There are lots of surprising ways to lower housing expenses," she says.
Cars are another major expense, and it might be worth selling a vehicle if one person won't be commuting, Backon says. And clear off any credit card debt or other monthly bills that might prove cumbersome later as a one-income family, she says.
With most of today's couples pulling in two paychecks, many of the trappings of today's modern family — the bigger house, new cars, dinners out — are the result of a two-income lifestyle.
Don't expect to have all of those things if a single-family income is your priority, Gilbert says.
"You need to have an open discussion with your peers and say, 'We really can't afford to go out to restaurants and do these other things because we've chosen to live this one-income lifestyle,'" he says.
Don't fall into the trap of eliminating long-term savings, Gilbert says.
"Because the retirement savings isn't immediately tangible, it's very appealing for a lot of folks to cut back on it," he says.
The same goes for discretionary spending. Ever go on a super-strict diet and entirely deprive yourself of certain foods, only to take a hard fall off the wagon? That's what too much cutting can do, Lawrence says.
Just because you plan to live on one family income doesn't mean you have to give up that other paycheck.
Practice what it's like to live on a single-family income for a while, especially if you don't have a sound budget to begin with, Gilbert says.
"The best way to do this is to pretend you don't have the money," he says.
Gilbert advises setting up an automatic transfer from the bank and withdrawing the entire second paycheck so you don't even see that money for a year. Then put the cash toward a secondary goal such as savings or a vacation.
"In this day of instant gratification and unbelievable media pressure to spend, this ability to save and to make lifestyle adjustments is more powerful than anyone really realizes," Lawrence says.
Read more about saving money and smart spending at Bankrate.com.


text:
Tail Policies 101
Risk Management, Mergers & Acquisitions
Natalie Terchek
Insurance policies might not be top-of-mind when undergoing a merger or acquisition – but if an unexpected occurrence pops up after your policy period ends, you'll wish you gave this area more thought.
An Extended Reporting Period (also known as a "Tail policy") can be purchased to extend the time in which a claim can be reported. This means that if a claim based on a wrongful act (actual or alleged) occurred within the policy period but was reported afterward, you will still be covered. When evaluating an acquisition target, a buyer needs to understand what types of Tail policies are in place, what risks are covered and how much coverage is available.
What Are the Different Types of Policies?
Most liability policies will either be written on an "occurrence" or a "claims-made" basis. Occurrence policies provide coverage for covered incidents that occur during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is made against the policy. Claims-made policies provide coverage for covered incidents if a claim is made during the policy period and if the incident occurred from the retroactive date to the end of the policy period.
It is important to understand this difference because many lawsuits are not filed until months or years after an incident occurs, potentially leaving a buyer less protected if their acquisition target has insurance coverage on a claims-made basis.
When Should You Consider a Tail Policy?
Tail policies should be considered and explored in both stock and asset purchases. A Tail policy for all lines – especially Executive Liability (Directors & Officers, Employment Practices and Fiduciary Liability), Cyber and General Liability – should be given the proper due diligence if a company is being purchased and is facing any of the following scenarios:
The company is dissolved with the goal of establishing a new company
There is a change in ownership or a change in controls
The company is rolled up into an existing entity
What Coverage Lines Should Be Evaluated?
Generally, any coverage written on a claims-made basis should be evaluated during the diligence process of an acquisition. Directors and Officers (D&O) liability policies are most typically implicated in mergers and acquisitions. Employment Practices Liability, Cyber and Fiduciary policies are often implicated as well.
D&O policies are almost always written on a claims-made basis. A buyer will want to avoid the risk that a former shareholder, member or limited partner of the target makes a claim against the target's officers and directors after the acquisition and expiration of the target's D&O policy period.
It's common within the Healthcare industry for the General/Professional/Medical Malpractice coverages to be written on a claims-made basis. Other coverages that could be possibly written on a claims-made basis include General Liability, Professional Liability, Umbrella, Cyber, Employment Practices and Fiduciary Liability.
In an asset purchase, even an occurrence-based General Liability should be given tail consideration. The policy is actually called a Discontinued Products & Completed Operations policy, which is designed to cover an occurrence (bodily injury or property damage) taking place post-close for a product that was sold pre-close. For example, a toy manufacturer sells a product, then sells their company in an asset deal, then years down the road a child gets injured by their product. Without a discontinued products policy there wouldn't be coverage.
What Risk Factors Should I Consider Before Purchasing a Policy?
Five factors go into a proper assessment of risk/need:
Cost – The cost of a Tail policy can vary, but a good rule of thumb is that a one-year Tail will cost between 100% and 125% of the annual premium. In many cases, a company that is being acquired will purchase a three-year or six-year tail and see costs increase to 250% of the annual premium for the longer extended reporting period it purchases. Of course, this rate can fluctuate based on the type and size of risk.
Past Losses – Past losses will always play a role in determining the probability of obtaining a Tail policy from the insurance marketplace, obtaining favorable terms (i.e., coverage, retention, and exclusions) and the cost of a respective Tail policy.
Exposure – Exposure will also play a large role in determining the items above. For example, if a company is highly leveraged, a Tail policy could include difficult language, restrictions, and exclusions that must be reviewed. Full market analysis and due diligence are always necessary when considering your broker partner for a transaction and subsequent search.
Statute of Limitations – Many claims-made policies typically offer one-year, three-year and six-year extended reporting periods to cover various and different statutes of limitation. Cyber is pretty much capped at three years in the current market. The longer the tail, the higher the cost and the more time is available for the policyholder to report a claim.
Risk tolerance of buyer and seller – Exploring a Tail policy should always be part of the due diligence process for all lines of coverage. It is important to discuss the risk tolerance of the buyer and seller to see if the budget will allow for such policies or if a company is able to self-insure.
What Are Naked Tail Policies?
It's common for entities to purchase what are known as "Naked Tail Policies" for deals they are structuring. These policies are purchased when an entity being dissolved or acquired did not previously carry a respective line of coverage (most commonly, D&O, Employee Practices Liability, or Cyber insurance). The acquiring entity will want to ensure coverage for the subsequent entity, in which case a Naked Tail Policy would need to be purchased.
Horton's Mergers and Acquisitions team can work with you to evaluate your risk and help you determine which coverage options best suit your needs. Reach out today to schedule a consultation.
Talk to a M&A Insurance Expert
Take a look at these other resources
M&A Commentary from Prairie Capital Advisors: Winter 2023
Republished with permission from Prairie Capital Advisors The U.S. economy showed resilience in 2022 but this is a challenging time. At the beginning of the…
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General, Manufacturing

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Our developers and architects offer effective HR solutions that help companies process employees information starting with contacts and ending with performance indicators. HR apps help businesses reduce workload and efficiently conduct their human resource tasks.
We aim to provide our clients with the cutting-edge HR software. Using our experience and following the latest trends we can offer the best development services on the market.
Our analysts come up with in-depth analysis of the existing HR systems and offer you the best ways to enhance those or build new ones from the scratch.
We develop applications for human resources management according to enterprise needs and goals. You will be able to order custom design with regard to your corporate style.
We implement business intelligence into HR solutions. It will help you manage resources in smart and efficient way. Our data science experts will teach you to use BI at full capacity.
We know how to design a HR data warehouse that is reliable, scalable and fast, and how to administer and enhance database environment that is effective, trouble-free and secure.
We help enterprises grow and improve inhouse management systems. With smart platforms for HR experts you will be able to optimize the workflow and productivity of your personnel.
Generate attendance with biometric devices and smart HR software. We develop apps that report on overtime, holidays, attendance, etc. All software is easy to integrate with other programs which HR managers use.
Our developers create software that will structure and process salary information, provide accurate and clear calculations, and manage the entire payroll process.
We create sophisticated core HR systems for enterprises from scratch. What we need is to know what basic and extra modules you need most of all. Any HR specialist will be pleased with our feature-rich solutions.
We develop user-friendly systems where you can easily manage all information on your employees leave in one place. You will be able to create leave programs using best practices software.
Our solutions are best for processing and managing claims information. Those are best HR practices we digitize for your convenience and implement into your HR management systems.
Every owner or CEO wants to effectively manage benefits and motivate appropriately their employees. We develop smart solutions that make it possible to track, calculate, and plan benefits for your staff.
Our web-based HR software comes with a responsive and ongoing customer support system. Our goal is to help clients achieve success. The main idea is to find the ways to save time, money, and effort in managing employees. Our software is best for companies with satellite offices all across the globe when conferencing with other employees is of utmost importance.
We build HR systems and platforms that can easily integrate with existing software. We will conduct in-depth research on your business logic and applications to offer enhancements.
We offer iOS and Android HR apps development to feel comfortable in the fast-paced work environment. We can custom design an app for any mobile operating platform.
Most HR systems we offer are cloud-based. That means that your employee data will wind up stored online somewhere, so ensuring that it's adequately protected.
We develop scalable solutions that will allow your company to work whereas the others can't keep working. Your databases will grow while the information is kept organized in one place.
Teambase is a HR management system developed to help organizations manage their staff, holiday requests, and trade licenses. A particular set of opportunities allows to analyze employees data, send reminders, alerts, automated email notifications and stay updated with a shared calendar.


See the locals in their home village, walk the farms, see the kids in school, learn about the different foods including lovo. Tours including a village. Join in the welcome Sevi Sevi with Kava, you might even get to meet the village chief.


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The View from Europe: Say No to TTIP
Ryan Gellert / 3 Min Read / Our Footprint
Organic cotton field in Texas. Since 1996, Patagonia has used only organic cotton, which uses nature-based solutions to manage pests and build healthy soil, instead of the synthetic pesticides, herbicides, defoliants, fertilizers and GMO seeds used to grow conventional cotton. Photo: Tim Davis
This past week Greenpeace leaked 248 pages of negotiating texts and internal position papers that reveal a deep rift among the 28 European governments, the European Union and the U.S., involved in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The Greenpeace report has caused an uproar here in Europe, including an announcement of opposition by the French government to the pact as it stands. Negotiations, which have already stretched out over three years, now appear to be in jeopardy.
Everyone for and against the pact acknowledges that TTIP has little to do with removing trade barriers, which have long fallen. The focus instead is on harmonizing environmental, health and animal welfare standards, which are generally stronger in the E.U. than in the United States.
A big case in point: genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The E.U. has adopted the "precautionary principle," which precludes the adoption of a new process or technology that poses unknown or unevaluated risks. Guided by the precautionary principle, the E.U. has allowed the cultivation of only one genetically modified plant, a specific breed of corn ("maize" in Europe) grown by only five nations on 1.5 percent of Europe's arable land.
By contrast, the United States follows a different path. It allows more liberal adoption of the new and untested, then attempts to manage resulting environmental risk. Forgoing the precautionary principle, the United States allows cultivation of more than 170 genetically modified plants. Large parts of the American Midwest have been given over to monocultures of genetically modified corn and soy.
We have long admired the E.U.'s principled approach to GMOs and other environmental and social standards. TTIP puts that all at risk; "harmonizing," in this case, is likely to result in a race to the bottom.
Patagonia opposes TTIP, as we did TPP, for its potential to weaken, and prevent the strengthening, of labor and environmental protections, even though TTIP's transnational harmonization of standards potentially benefits our company's bottom line. We do not want to see lower standards for human and environmental health and animal welfare on our side of the Atlantic. We believe that communities and nations have the right to protect themselves against a corporate-driven impoverishment of environmental and social standards.
As with the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has been signed but is not yet in force, the language of leaked TTIP drafts contain a disturbing Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism that allows foreign multinational companies to sue for lost profits should any of the participating nations strengthen environmental protections above the levels specified by the agreement. Chevron is reported to have lobbied for provisions that prevent European governments from banning fracking.
Patagonia also opposed the NAFTA and GATT agreements of the early 1990s, in those cases because we suspected they would adversely affect our business. They did. Before those agreements came into force, more than half of Patagonia's garments were sourced from U.S. textile mills and sewn in U.S. factories. NAFTA and GATT decimated the U.S. textile industry, including its specialty, high-value manufacturers.
In an age of free trade the critical question to ask of any new pact is: Who benefits? Does our earth gain relief from the crushing pressures of pollution, water scarcity and climate change? Does TTIP serve the many, on both sides of the Atlantic, or only a few—those who have the economic and political muscle to get their interests written, opaquely and without public oversight, into law? As the interests behind TTIP come to light, it's easy to say no to what we can now see.
Show your support for the European initiative against TTIP and CETA by signing here: stop-ttip.org
Ryan Gellert
Gellert is the general manager for Patagonia in Europe, and serves on the boards of the Access Fund and Soil Heroes. An avid climber and snowboarder, he's has climbed and ridden on every continent but Antarctica. He lives in Amsterdam.
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Susan Dorward
Raritan Valley Community College
Expired Susan Dorward
Sustainability and Energy Coordinator
Facilities and Grounds
Does the institution advocate for national, state/provincial, or local public policies that support campus sustainability or that otherwise advance sustainability?:
A brief description of how the institution engages in public policy advocacy for sustainability, including the issues, legislation, and ordinances for or against which the institution has advocated:
RVCC has frequent opportunities to interact with Somerset and Hunterdon County Freeholders (particularly Somerset's Peter Palmer), and state legislators (particularly Senator Chris Bateman, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, and former assemblyman now Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Upendra Chivukula), at meetings and events about sustainability, transportation (RideWise), and sustainable business (Sustainable Somerset Committee of the Somerset County Business Partnership). RVCC has advocated for cogeneration plants, public transportation, solar power projects, and LEED buildings. RVCC supports state legislation (S-2004 and A-3305) requiring that the state only plant native plants.
A brief description of other political positions the institution has taken during the previous three years:
A brief description of political donations the institution made during the previous three years (if applicable):
The website URL where information about the institution's advocacy efforts is available:


We will lend 10% of business gross annual sales (minimum business income $1,000,000) and collateralize the loan with RE utilizing 100% CLTV taking 2nd or 3rd lien position on available equity up to loan amount. Minimum borrower FICO 620 (NO bankruptcies, tax liens or judgments).
We provide term loans / lines of credit to well-qualified borrowers nationwide. Loans are structured based on (creditworthiness, business cash flow and RE collateral). We will lend in the ranges of $100,000 – $5,000,000+ with term of 1-4 years with monthly payments. The interest rates are as low as 12% for well-qualified borrowers. Minimal documentation, and funding timeline in 5-7 business days.
Looking for a first or second position bridge loan? $1 Million and Up?


Yes it can. If you are interested to know more, please read on.
The vacuum units in the Domestic Pump product portfolio include both condensate return and boiler feed units. But, no matter the unit type, the vacuum production part employs the same working principle. Domestic Pump products use condensate pumps to produce a so-called "liquid jet vacuum," which works on the basis of Bernoulli's Principle. This principle states that "pressure head + velocity head + elevation head = constant." The three main components required for the job here are a centrifugal pump, a multi-jet nozzle and a venturi pipe.
Fig. 1 represents a vacuum-producing chamber. I will use it to illustrate the process.
The pump delivers a stream of water up through the piping, then horizontally through the nozzle, and then through the venturi pipe. The horizontal direction of the flow means that the change in elevation is negligible here – essentially a constant. Once the water passes through the nozzle, it's broken into streams and injected into the venturi pipe, which narrows. But water is a non-compressible fluid, so the only way to get it through the narrowing is to accelerate the velocity. Following Bernoulli's equation, if the elevation stays the same and velocity increases, then the pressure must go down in order for the equation to remain constant. The water, forced at high velocity across the gap between nozzle and venturi, entrains air and gasses through the air suction check valve, which is open at this time, thus lowering the pressure and creating smooth, steady vacuum in the system.
Then the mixture of water and air is discharged tangentially through the venturi into the separation chamber. This causes a whirling motion inside the chamber, where the water is forced towards the walls of the vessel, and the lighter air flows to the center and is discharged through the vent of the chamber. An additional benefit of that centrifugal motion is more available pressure at the pump inlet and less pressure resistance at the venturi pipe outlet. The pump will stop once the vacuum set point is reached, and then the air check valve will close in order to separate the system under vacuum from the vented chamber.
Finally, the equipment takes a well-deserved rest before starting the next cycle, triggered by a call for duty from the vacuum switch, which is adjusted in the factory based on the application. Most commonly, an average set point of 5.5" Hg vacuum is maintained at 160ºF condensate temperature. This is the ASHRAE recommendation for vacuum heating systems. However, using the described technology, the Domestic Pump MJ clinical and industrial vacuum units are capable of producing vacuums up to 28" of Hg. In this scale, 30" of Hg would be a perfect vacuum.
Cycle after cycle, the water in the vented separation chamber will slowly evaporate. That's why the tank has a water level control. It consists of a level switch (either a float switch or a probe) and a solenoid valve. The switch will follow the water level and will signal the valve to open if the water level gets too low. The solenoid itself is installed on a make-up water supply line, and will let water into the chamber following the signal from the level switch.
So, by extracting water from the bottom of the chamber and pumping it though the impeller… out of the pump discharge… through the manifold elbow and a diverter… then into the nozzle… then across a gap to the throat of the venturi… we produce vacuum.


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Q: What is the difference between a Method and MetaMethod in Groovy? The API docs here: http://groovy.codehaus.org/api/groovy/lang/MetaMethod.html
Explain a MetaMethod as the following:

[A MetaMethod] represents a Method on a Java object a little like Method except
  without using reflection to invoke the method

What exactly do the docs mean by "a Method without using reflection" for invocation?

A: I can't find the reference, but i think i read somewhere they use Reflectors.


Relevant Solutions supplies filter vessels in simplex or duplex designs with integral transfer valves, for applications that include fuel gas, lube oil, liquid fuel, high purity water, seal gas and other process gas and fluids. All Relevant products are in compliance with ASME Code Section VIII, Div 1, European Pressure Equipment Directive, CML, GOST and many other country-specific requirements. OEM application specialists in high speed rotating equipment are available for assistance.
Filter housings can be designed and sized for OEM applications or retrofit upgrades of existing oil systems. Relevant offers various brands of Simplex or Duplex Filter housings for continuous operation. Looking for replacement oil filters? Check out the Relevant Solutions brand of Switch Filtration.


(by Dawn Reed) Once upon a time, a young Parisian boy got his first job as a waiter at a little cafe in a little establishment known as Hôtel Costes. With the initial love of clubs and making people dance, this boy grew up perfecting his craft around France at established discotheques. Ten years later, a chance meeting with the co-owner at his first place of employment occured, and thus crowned him resident DJ of Hôtel Costes. That man of course, Stephane Pompougnac, the renowned Prince of Lounge, has a ridiculous discography including 5 platinum albums, 14 gold albums, and 5,000,000 album sales worldwide. And now he returns to the US to do what he does best, DJ.
The 9:30 Club in DC wants to make sure one lucky Scene Trekker gets in to this chill party taking place Aug 31, so we've teamed up with them to give out a couple guest list spots! All you have to do is email us by 5 PM on 8/29 and let us know what Pompougnac track gets your groove going. Please include your first and last name for guest list requirements. The winner will be emailed back. Tickets to this gig are still available here.


Bonus: Christmas Graphics - As an extra holiday gift to our readers, we're including a set of S Scale Christmas Diner graphics you may use to produce an especially "festive" version of this project for your Christmas village or Christmas-themed railroad. For now, we're just providing the size of the project shown above (for use with S Scale or O-gauge tinplate trains or Christmas villages). If you need another size, contact Paul.


Radboud University, a leading Dutch academic community, deployed One Identity Manger to gain control of both access governance and provisioning, reducing by 50 percent the time it takes students to complete the enrollment process. While many identity and access vendors require customers to choose between provisioning and governance, Identity Manager addresses both, enabling the university to create an efficient and effective identity and access management strategy that will serve for years to come.
In addition to being a leading academic community, Radboud University is home to several research institutions and is affiliated with one of the largest academic hospitals in the Netherlands. As such, the organization manages a constantly changing user population of 45,000-50,000, including students, faculty, alumni, independent researchers, contractors, and others. With a continually changing population, the university faced several challenges including "entitlement creep," which occurred as users changed roles. Access required for their new roles was added, but access they needed for their old role was not always terminated, creating risk by giving large numbers of users access and entitlements beyond what they needed.
With 10,000 students entering and leaving the university every year – students becoming alumni at graduation, and new students needing speedy enrollment in the fall – the university also needed to make real-time changes to students' access rights. In addition, steady updates to national laws and business requirements regarding access made it necessary for the university to have a solution that enabled them to make those changes quickly and easily.
The school found it difficult to manage all of these challenges with its legacy Sun Microsystems IDM solution without a significant increase in staffing. In addition, an uptick in data leaks at Dutch institutions in general caused university officials further unease. Because the university handles a great deal of sensitive data, including personal information, bank account information and research data, Radboud officials were particularly concerned about the potential cost to reputation and finances if a leak occurred due to inappropriate access.
Working with implementation partner Intragen, Radboud University evaluated the market's identity and access management solutions, and chose One Identity Manager to address its multiple IAM needs. Completeness of solution was critical to the university's solution choice, and Identity Manager was selected for its ability to address both provisioning and governance needs, unlike the university's legacy solution. Using Identity Manager, Radboud put an end to entitlement creep, and enabled real-time changes to user access settings, ensuring the right people had the right access to the right data and applications. The solution also addressed the university's unique and complex user environment, enabling the management of users with multiple roles (i.e., an alumnus who is also a faculty member) by linking each user's roles to one identity.
With Identity Manager, the university has cut the time required to provision a new user in half, and because processes that previously were done on a nightly basis can now be done on a near real-time basis, enrollment time has also has been reduced from two or three days down to one. Combined with the solution's self-service options for users, these features have both improved user satisfaction and decreased IT workload.
With its provisioning and governance needs addressed, Radboud University now has the security it needs to protect itself from data leaks, and resultant damage to its reputation and financial bottom line. With Identity Manager, the university is set to effectively manage identity and access today, and can grow the solution to meet its needs in future years.


It's a tremendous undertaking to buy a home. It can be exciting and unsettling especially leading up to the transaction. If you're like most people, we bet you'll likely want some expert advice along the way -- and you'll undoubtedly need a real estate agent looking out for your top interests.
We're without question qualified in Naples real estate, and would love to provide assistance with purchasing a home.
Call Chickasha Realty today at 405-224-4298 or email ChickashaRealty@gmail.com.
We know that selling a home can be a daunting task. As well-connected agents, we'll strive to get the best prices and get it sold quickly. It's easy to snap up the first REALTOR you meet, but deciding on the best agent takes a little time.
We're without question qualified in Naples real estate, and would love to help you sell your home quickly and efficiently.
Give us a call at 405-224-4298 or email ChickashaRealty@gmail.com.


CANAL PARK - WASHINGTON D.C.
Canal Park is a magnetic new public space on the site of the historic Washington Canal in the heart of D.C.'s Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. It is alive year around, with dancing fountains in the summer, an ice rink in winter, and an all-season restaurant.
Town Square entered the construction scene in time to make design changes that led to significant savings, allowed for ongoing revenue generation, and produced a livelier park.
Canal park in winter. The distinctive ice rink encourages neighbors to keep attending the park in the cold season. It also drives traffic to the restaurant, and provides a revenue stream.
A close up of the ice rink's loop.
The restaurant is a window onto the park in all seasons.
The plan view of Canal Park.
Some of the more salient design features of the park.


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The Relentless School Nurse
Be Relentless in Your Practice, Whatever it is.
The Relentless School Nurse: In the News…
Professional Engagement
Relentless School Nurse Consulting
Relentless Blog
Podcasts, Videos, and Webinars!
Author: Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN
Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN is a Nationally Certified School Nurse (NCSN), currently in her 19th year as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. Robin is the Legislative Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association. She is proud to be a Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Fellow and past Program Mentor. She has been recognized in her home state of New Jersey and nationally for her community-based initiative called "The Community Café: A Conversation That Matters." Robin is the honored recipient of multiple awards for her work in school nursing and population health. These awards include, 2019 National Association of School Nurses President's Award, 2018 NCSN School Nurse of the Year, 2017 Johnson & Johnson School Nurse of the Year, and the New Jersey Department of Health 2017 Population Health Hero Award. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing, where she teaches the next generation of school nurses. She was presented the 2018 Rutgers University – Camden Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award for Part-time Faculty. Follow Robin on Twitter at @RobinCogan.
The Relentless School Nurse: Who Does That?
January 14, 2021 January 15, 2021 Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN
My school nurse has sh*t for brains. I don't have COVID. A child was sent home from school because they had possible COVID symptom(s) that fell within the CDC guidelines for exclusion. The parent retaliated by sending the child back to school wearing the tee-shirt pictured above. It was this story and sadly, so many… Continue reading The Relentless School Nurse: Who Does That?
The Relentless School Nurse: The Week I Got My COVID Vaccine
I look at this picture of me right after my vaccine and I remember the emotions flooding my thoughts. I was as elated as I was distraught. Elated to feel that very tiny pinch in my deltoid muscle. Decades of research led to this moment, when hope entered my body, giving my immune system the… Continue reading The Relentless School Nurse: The Week I Got My COVID Vaccine
The Relentless School Nurse: PBS NewsHour Extra Features Fred Guttenberg – How to Find the Helpers
The horrific scenes at The Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, are etched into our collective consciousness as a nation. For those of us who work in schools, the pictures of our elected leaders sheltering in place, hiding under desks, and laying on the ground are not new visuals. We have been subjected to hyper-realistic… Continue reading The Relentless School Nurse: PBS NewsHour Extra Features Fred Guttenberg – How to Find the Helpers
The Relentless School Nurse: Flourishing Even in the Face of Adversity with Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Author, journalist, researcher, science detective, and gifted educator, Donna Jackson Nakazawa has just launched Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-Narrating™. This course guides you step-by-step through over 100 lessons, activities, and strategies to harness the power of the brain and nervous system for calm, peace and possibility. Throughout this course you'll go on… Continue reading The Relentless School Nurse: Flourishing Even in the Face of Adversity with Donna Jackson Nakazawa
The Relentless School Nurse: What Do You Do When You See Online Abuse?
January 9, 2021 January 9, 2021 Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN
This free training is sponsored by Barbara Glickstein Strategies Attend this online training for Nurses. Learn what do you do when you see online abuse at this FREE Bystander Intervention Training: How to be an Ally When you Witness Online Abuse on Friday, January 22, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET Register to join… Continue reading The Relentless School Nurse: What Do You Do When You See Online Abuse?
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(NewsTarget) Adolescent girls who work or live on farms may run a higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life, according to a new Canadian study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Researchers from the University of Sterling in Scotland conducted a study in Canada of 1,100 women, half of whom had already been diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found that women with the disease were nearly three times more likely to have been farm workers, most during adolescence.
Toxic pesticides and other farm chemicals may be responsible for changes in the women's developing breasts that eventually led to breast cancer, the researchers concluded, because developing breast tissue is especially vulnerable to exposure to toxins during teenage years.
According to professor Andrew Watterson, a researcher in the study, roughly 4 percent of all cancers are related to a woman's occupation. Watterson and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer was highest among women who worked or lived on farms during adolescence, then went on to work in the auto or health industries.
According to the study's authors, certain chemicals involved in farm work, as well as chemicals in the auto and health industries, could be linked to cancer.
"Nurses and other healthcare workers are potentially exposed to ionizing radiation... drugs, anesthetic waste gases, and viruses possibly associated with cancer risk," the researchers wrote. "A number of hormonally active chemicals are, or have been, used in medicine and laboratory work." The study's authors added that a wide range of solvents is commonly used in the car manufacturing business.
However, cancer epidemiology specialists are skeptical of the study, which claims environmental chemicals are partly responsible for rising breast cancer rates. Henry Scowcroft, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, says Watterson's study involved too few subjects to draw any firm conclusions.
"Breast cancer is on the rise in Western society," Scowcroft said. "All the available scientific evidence shows this increase is largely down to changes in lifestyle factors. Scientists have also looked at whether environmental toxins might also contribute to the increase in breast cancer, but have found no conclusive link."
Watterson and his team of researchers have acknowledged that the link between farm and other environmental toxins and breast cancer should be more thoroughly studied.


Derek and Jenny Graham, originally from Ballina, are 2 human rights activist living in Gaza strip, Palestine. They have been illegally arrested , they have been shot at and they witness and experience first hand life under siege. They will tell their story,and the true story of life in the Gaza strip, Palestine, answer any questions and share their experiences .


Seems like some pretty pushed creatures in this set, especially the dinos, or is it just me?
Well if they weren't "pushed," folks would be complaining that dinos aren't powerful enough. So no, I don't think they're pushed. The dinos are just actually viable as a tribe after a single set.
It feels like you seem to think I am complaining about the power or saying something about power creep or something. I basically mean what you said, these cards look great and Dinos are looking viable.
Heh, you're right. I hate the internet and it's lack of tone/context. Please pardon my misinterpretation.
No problem, this happens all the time. I just wanted to make it clear I wasn't complaining.
Pushed also with a good/ unusual ability. Not too powerful, but there to fix something.
That's a somewhat playable card. Too bad that it dies to bolt … maybe it sees a little play in burn sideboards or in some kind of zoo lists.
It works really well with stp or against grisldad.
Not the best card ever but strong effects, decent body and evasive. I can see myself building some janky eternal brews with that.
every creature burn plays dies to every removal card in modern.
Which is why burn generally doesn't play creatures with CMC greater than 2.
What soul sisters variants play bolt?
It is kind of balanced, if you play dinos you have to play fewer creatures than those who play only small guys.
ha screw you soul sisters!
well, if someone in your LGS plays aetherflux, or people play a lot of vamps, you could sideboard this. not great otherwise.
This is a side board card. There are a lot of decks that have no life gaining ability, so I don't see a reason to use it as a main, but if they show up with a super life gainy deck you swap this in and they're screwed lol.
it also punishes go wide decks that enjoy servo tokens. For example your Angel of Invention will lava spike you if you go wide. not to mention it shuts down lifelink, which comes up pretty often.
Every time I see a "Can't gain life" effect I think of Grove of the Burnwillows. This dino is nice, with reasonable CMC.
reasonable? this is super cheap in standard.
rub+ combo deck idea: this,Hunted Phantasm, and flicker then follow up with some when a "creature an opponent dies" effects and shrivel or some other small boardwipe to speed up your kill.
This Akroan Horse, and steal back horse.
Or harmless gift an awakening zone.
that's a bit slow imo, Hunted Phantasm pops out five tokens at once, making Cloudshift into lava axe followed by Massacre Wurm who's now a sniper rifle.
That seems sweet. Don't forget the Forbidden Orchard. And maybe Genesis Chamber.
1 or 2 of in Modern burn sideboard.
I wonder if this will lead a possible unbanning of felidar guardian. Probably not but it's a good hate card for it.
When will wizards ever make my red card. 2/2 haste 2 of anything one red. Annihilator 1. I keep writing wizards but I get no response.