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List #3: SCIENCE & NATURE
List #5: BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR & ESSAYS
List #8: HISTORY & POLITICS
List #10: GRAPHIC NOVELS
BOOKS @ VOLUME # 158 (21.12.19)
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman {Reviewed by STELLA}
Forty women are in an underground bunker with no clear understanding of their captivity. Why are they there? What was their life before? And as the years pass, what purpose do the guards, or those who employ the guards, have for them? The narrator of this story is a young woman—captured as a very young child—who knows no past: her life is the bunker. The women she lives with tolerate her but have little to do with her and hardly converse with her. She is not one of them. They have murky memories of being wives, mothers, sisters, workers. They know something catastrophic happened but can not remember what. The Child (nameless) is seen as other, not like them, not from the same place as them. The Child has been passing the days and the years in acceptance, knowing nothing else, but her burgeoning sexuality and her awareness of life beyond the cage (she starts to watch the guards, one young man in particular), limited as it is to this stark underground environment, also triggers an awakeness. She begins to think, to wonder and ask questions. As she counts the time by listening to her heartbeats and wins the trust of a woman in the group, The Child's observations, not clouded by memories, are pure and exacting. We, as readers, are no closer to understanding the dilemma the women find themselves in, and like them are mystified by the situation. Our view is only that of The Child and what she gleans from the women—their past lives that are words that have little meaning to her, whether that is nature (a flower), culture (music) or social structures (work, relationships)—this world known as Earth is a foreign landscape to her. When the sirens go off one day, the guards abandon their positions and leave. Fortunately for the women, this happens just as they have opened the hatch for food delivery. The young woman climbs through and retrieves a set of keys that have been dropped in the panic. The women are free, but what awaits them is in many ways is another prison. Following the steps to the surface takes them to a barren plain with nothing else in sight. What is this place? Is it Earth? And where are the other people? Will they find their families or partners or other humans? The guards have disappeared within minutes—we never are given any clues to where they have gone—have they vapourised? Have they left in swift and silent aircraft? The women gather supplies, of which there are plenty, and begin to walk. I Who Have Never Known Men is a feminist dystopia in the likes of The Handmaid's Tale or The Book of the Unnamed Midwife but is more silent, more internal and both frustrating and compelling. I found myself completely captivated by the mystery of this place and the certainty of the young woman. The exploration of humanity and its ability to hope and love within what we would consider a bleak environment, and the magnitude of one woman to gather these women to her and cherish them as they age is exceedingly tender. The introduction by Sophie MacKintosh ( author of The Water Cure), which I recommend reading after rather than before, adds another layer of meaning to the novel. I Who Have Never Known Men is haunting and memorable—a philosophical treatise on what it is to be alone and to be lonely, and what freedom truly is.
STELLA'S 'BOOKS OF THE YEAR':
1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
2. Spring by Ali Smith
3. The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
4. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
>> Read all of Stella's reviews.
Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann {Reviewed by THOMAS}
"'Today' is a word that only suicides ought to be allowed to use, it has no meaning for other people." Even five decades after it was written, this wholly remarkable book continues to reveal new possibilities in literature and new impossibilities in living.
In the first part of the book, 'Happy With Ivan', the unnamed narrator records her obsessive love affair with a man she first sees outside a florist's shop near her home in Vienna. On account of Ivan, "the rest of the world, where I lived up to now — always in a panic, my mouth full of cotton, the throttle marks on my neck — is reduced to its petty insignificance." She snatches evenings with Ivan, plays chess with him (resulting in stalemate), writes him letters (which she tears to shreds and throws away, unsent), and talks with him on the telephone, but, mainly, she waits and thinks and smokes. "Ever since I've been able to dial this number, my life has finally stopped taking turns for the worse, I'm no longer coming apart at the seams. I hold my breath, stopping time, and call and smoke and wait." But hers is a desperate happiness, not a convincing happiness, not really happiness at all but a straining towards the impossibility of happiness, agitation trying to pass as happiness. Just as the difference between pleasure and irritation is generally merely a matter of degree, there is, for the narrator, no substantial difference between ostensibly contradictory states and the case for her happiness is made so strenuously that it is clearly made from a position of great unhappiness. Ivan lives along the street, but the narrator shares an apartment with Malina, a civil servant who works at the Austrian Military Museum but who is so compartmentalised in the narrator's mind that he never makes contact with Ivan, or, rather, never enters the Ivan compartment in the narrator's mind. Although the narrator interacts with Malina, and we are told of her visiting elsewhere with him, it is very unclear that Malina exists outside the narrator's mind, or, rather, that he is not an aspect of the narrator. "Ivan hasn't been warned about me. He doesn't know with whom he's running around, that he's dealing with a phenomenon, an appearance that can also be deceiving, I don't want to lead Ivan astray but he has never realised that I am double. I am also Malina's creation." I increasingly began to suspect that Ivan also exists, at least mostly, in the narrator's mind, and that, although probably affixed to someone she saw outside the florist's shop, the Ivan with whom this love affair persists is a never-quite-reachable eidolon of her longing and desperation. "My living body gives Ivan a reference point, maybe it's the only one, but this same bodily self disturbs me. Extreme self-control lets me accept Ivan's sitting opposite me." Is there no exteriority? All these words, these truncated staccato telephone conversations, these endlessly commaed descriptions, these letters and interviews and documents in many versions, these moments and encounters, these details, these memories and revised memories, these stupendous rants, are they all the desperate invention of the narrator (in the same way that the novel is the desperate invention of the author)? "Whatever falls on my ground thrives, I propagate myself with words and also propagate Ivan."
The second part of the book, 'The Third Man', intimates, perhaps, the degree of trauma that underlies the narrator's agitation and the fracturing of her psyche. Passages, seemingly dreams or memories, describe violence, torment and sexual abuse, largely at the hands of the narrator's father (and of, by extension, Austria and Nazism), enacted either upon the narrator or upon her naive and complicit alter ego Melanie. "Here there is always violence. Here there is always struggle." Bachmann's sentences offer no respite for the reader nor for the narrator. "I don't want to be any more, because I don't want war, then put me to sleep, make it end." The dream sequences are interspersed with conversations, written as script, between the narrator and the rational, interrogating Malina, bringing into her awareness the nature of her trauma, and moving towards the possibility of understanding. "Although it disgusts me to look at him [father], I must, I have to know what danger is still written in his face, I have to know where evil originates." But, Malina warns, "Once one has survived something the survival itself interferes with understanding."
The third part, 'Last Things', charts the shrinking of the narrator's world, her gradual inevitable loss of Ivan, either as reality or eidolon, her loss of confidence in herself or hope in her world — and it is much funnier than this list would suggest, though no less tragic. Experience, once replaced with knowledge of — or description of — experience, loses the power of experience. Language at once conjures and replaces — annihilates — what is lived. But, says the narrator, "I must have reached a point where thought is so necessary that it is no longer possible." Her conversations with Malina drain the reality from Ivan and reveal her isolation and self-suffocation. "I am not one person," she says, "but two people standing in extreme opposition to one another, which must mean I am always on the verge of being torn in two. If they were separated it would be livable, but scarcely the way it is." The slow, cumulative, fatal intrusion of rationality is here like a pin being pushed against the surface of a balloon with great, horrible, slow, thrilling patience. "The story of Ivan and me will never be told, since we don't have any story." Literature is lack. All that is written is written against the facts. Happiness, or imagined happiness, becomes harder and harder and at last impossible to sustain. The narrator's 'I', her subjective self, "an unknown woman", catches a last whiff of Ivan in the crack in the wall, enters it and disappears, leaving the rational alter ego, Malina, the cataloguer, the explainer, the understanding mind, to answer the telephone when Ivan rings (their first encounter) and to deny her very existence. The book ends with the bare sentence, "It was murder," but, if the characters are all fractured parts of a single mind (if there can be such a thing), what is the nature of this 'murder'? "What is life?" asks Malina. "Whatever can't be lived."
THOMAS'S 'BOOKS OF THE YEAR' (so to call them):
1. Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann
2. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman
3. Lanny by Max Porter
4. Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick
>> Read all of Thomas's reviews.
The Chandelier by Clarice Lispector $26
Virginia and her cruel, beautiful brother, Daniel, grow up in a decaying country mansion. They leave for the city, but the change of locale leaves Virginia's internal life unperturbed. In intensely poetic language, Lispector conducts a stratigraphic excavation of Virginia's thoughts, revealing the drama of Clarice's lifelong quest to discover "the nucleus made of a single instant". Written when Lispector was 23.
"Sphinx, Sorceress. Sacred monster. The Chandelier offers an early glimpse of Clarice Lispector's power." —The New York Times
Mr Lear: A life of art and nonsense by Jenny Uglow $33
How pleasant to know Mr Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough.
The writer of nonsense rhymes was also a serious painter and a gentle, melancholy man for whom the society he so amused with his verses made little room.
"Jenny Uglow has written a great life about an artist with half a life, a biography that might break your heart." —Robert McCrumb, Guardian
Black Mountain Poems: An anthology edited by Jonathan C. Creasy $38
Black Mountain College had an explosive influence on American poetry, music, art, craft, dance, and thought; it's hard to imagine any other institution that was so utopian, rebellious, and experimental. Founded with the mission of creating rounded, complete people by balancing the arts and manual labor within a democratic, nonhierarchical structure, Black Mountain was a crucible of revolutionary literature. Although this artistic haven only existed from 1933 to 1956, Black Mountain helped inspire some of the most radical and significant midcentury American poets. This anthology begins with the well-known Black Mountain Poets— Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov—but also includes the artist Josef Albers and the musician John Cage, as well as the often overlooked women associated with the college, M. C. Richards and Hilda Morley.
>>Redefining the Black Mountain poets.
>>Expressions of something shared.
Think, Write, Speak: Uncollected essays, reviews, interviews and letters to the editor by Vladimir Nabokov $65
Each phase of his wandering life is included, from an essay written while still at Cambridge in 1921, through his fame in the aftermath of the publication of Lolita to the final interviews given shortly before his death in 1977.
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki $26
In the years leading up to the Second World War, four sisters live in dilapidated houses in Osaka and Ashiya, and each navigate their own complex, personal relationship to the fading lustre of the Makioka family name. Rich with breathtaking descriptions of ancient customs and an ever-changing natural world, Junichiro Tanizaki evokes in loving detail a long-lost way of life even as it withers under the harsh glare of modernity.
"An exquisite novel about four sisters living though a turbulent decade. I'd put it in the 10 greatest books of the 20th century." —David Mitchell
"A near-perfect novel." —Hanya Yanagihara
Good Economics for Hard Times: Better answers to our biggest problems by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo $50
The 2019 Nobel Laureates in Economics show how traditional western-centric thinking has failed to explain what is happening to people in a newly globalised world. This books shows why migration doesn't follow the law of supply and demand, and why trade liberalisation can drive unemployment up and wages down.
Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum $33
It's New Year's Eve, the holiday of forced fellowship, mandatory fun, and paper hats. While dining out with her husband and their friends, Bunny—an acerbic, mordantly witty, and clinically depressed writer—fully unravels. Her breakdown lands her in the psych ward of a prestigious New York hospital, where she refuses all modes of recommended treatment. Instead, she passes the time chronicling the lives of her fellow "lunatics" and writing a novel about what brought her there.
"There is a great deal of humor, compassion, and sensitivity for the material. Readers will quickly commit to this extraordinary novel. Laser-sharp prose, compelling observations, and an engaging, sympathetic central figure conspire to make it a page-turner. Rabbits for Food is an impressive achievement. It should be read as soon as possible." —Los Angeles Review of Books
Missing Person by Patrick Modiano $26
An amnesiac detective on the streets of Paris is unaware that the person he seeks is himself, and that he in somehow implicated in something he cannot remember during the Nazi occupation.
Out by Natsuo Kirino $26
In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the graveyard shift at a factory. Burdened with heavy debts, alienated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband. She confesses her crime to her colleagues and unexpectedly, they agree to help.
Why Trust Science? by Naomi Oreskes $55
Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when our own politicians don't? In this landmark book, Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength, and the greatest reason we can trust it.
Caroline's Dilemma: A colonial inheritance saga by Bettina Bradbury $40
This history of a widow and her children whose lives were transformed by the conditions of her husband's will takes readers to the violent frontiers where squatters ran sheep in South Australia and Victoria, to Melbourne, Ireland, England and, occasionally, New Zealand. Caroline's Dilemma reveals much about women's property rights, widowhood, sibling relations, migration, settler colonialism, and Catholic-Protestant conflict. It also reminds us why feminists in the 19th century fought so hard first for wives to retain control of their own property, then for limitations on husband's rights to bequeath family property as they wished, and in the 1970s for fair division of matrimonial property when couples divorced. Both succession law and the question of couples' claims on relationship property are once again on the legislative agenda in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere.
>>Bettina Bradbury on Radio New Zealand.
The Happy Reader #14 $12
Grace Wales Bonner is a 28 year old fashion designer from south-east London. She has been feted by the worlds of both serious culture and high glamour, but here's the unusual part: her clothes come with reading lists. Interviewed by Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri, Grace explains how she sees herself on some level as a researcher. She visits libraries, digests acres of complex ideas about politics and identity, and expresses them, among other things, via the realm of clothes.
The featured book of this issue is Joris-Karl Huysmans's Against Nature (1884), supposedly the most decadent novel ever written. Its relentless inventory-keeping thrills and inspires some readers and baffles others, and is highly relevant to this season of non-stop accumulation. Contributors include Jarvis Cocker, Lydia Davis, Rob Doyle and Jeanette Winterson.
We have been asked to name OUR FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR (so far). Click on the titles to read our reviews and to secure your own copies.
THOMAS:
STELLA:
Labels: Book lists, Review by Stella, Review by Thomas
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BOOKS @ VOLUME #156 (7.12.19)
The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde {Reviewed by STELLA}
Maja Lunde, the author of the bestseller The History of Bees, turns her attention to water in her latest novel, The End of The Ocean. Like her first book, this doesn't feel like the distant future. As fires rage in Australia, the plight of David and his young daughter running towards relative safety is immediate and prescient. This is a book of two linked stories, each as compelling as the other, so you never feel deprived of either when the timeline changes. In 2017, Norwegian Signe, activist and sailor, is making a trip back to her home village. A witness to the chipping away of the glacier to provide special ice cubes for exclusive drinks, she is appalled and critical of her fellow past associates, particularly her ex-partner. Selling out for capital gain or to improve the financial lives of the community is an argument that has not and doesn't sit well with Signe. On a quest to make a protest, she sails across the ocean to confront her ex-lover. She is driven, passionate and angry, as well as sad. Sad for what has been, what could have been, and what is lost. Lunde delves back into Signe's early life, revealing the circumstances that have made her the eco-warrior she is. And it's a great story about small communities, about village politics, and being an outsider. Jump to 2041 and meet a father, David, and child, his daughter Lou, newly arrived at a refugee camp. Fleeing fire in the south of France, they are awaiting the arrival of the rest of the family, David's wife and baby son. Days pass, the food and water are depleting. The Red Cross has no information. As more people arrive, the camp becomes unstable and David, at the end of his tether, seeks release by wandering through the mostly abandoned town. David and Lou come across a boat — a small sailing boat perched on a trailer — on a property near the once water-filled river canal. Secured above ground, the boat becomes a refuge for David and a source of imaginative games for Lou. It's a place away from the chaos of the camp and the danger of flaring tempers as the resources dwindle. In Lunde's first cli-fi book, the focus was bees; here it is fresh and clean water. In 2017, Signe is tackling the commercialisation of water: who owns it and who can sell it. Lunde is clearly sending us some very direct messages about our current behaviour. In 2041, the issue of water is survival — it's a priority and an obsession. While this is labelled a 'dystopia', it doesn't feel far from fact. Climate fiction can be unrelenting, and there are definite challenges within the pages of The End of the Ocean, but Lunde cleverly draws out characters and stories that are human — her protagonists are not perfect and don't have all the answers, but they are tough and humane, ready to seek connection and hope to survive. There are many dystopian climate-focussed novels currently circulating as this topic becomes hotter and more pressing. Some are bleaker than others. This is well-written, compelling and involving. This is the second in Lunde's climate quartet, so there is more to look forward to. Also try The End We Start From by Megan Hunter, if you like something a little more lyrical or oblique.
Essays by Lydia Davis {Reviewed by THOMAS}
An essay is a literary form but a collection of essays is not a literary form, or, rather, a collection of essays, unless written specifically as a cohesive set, which is unusual for collections of essays, and in which case they are not usually considered a collection of essays but something else, only becomes a literary form, and only if we stretch our concept of what constitutes a literary form, at the point at which the essays are assembled, selected and ordered by someone, plausibly not even the author of the essays, some time, perhaps some considerable time, after they were written, at various times perhaps over a considerable period of time, during which the author may or may not have changed her approach to whatever and however she writes and may or may not have written and had published any number of other literary forms, if she happens to be an author who also writes other literary forms. 'Selected works' is not a literary form, and essay collections often tend to be selected works, these works often having appeared in various periodicals or other platforms over the years preceding their collection, or, generally more accurately, selection. Reviewing a collection of essays, as an instance of a literary non-form, presents certain difficulties as the reviewer is denied the various familiar analytic tools that are dependent on form, usually ending up making some generalised statements about the author, her qualities and importance, and then garnishing these comments with snippets pulled from various of the works in the collection, each work of which could be analysed as a literary form but none of which tend to be so treated, except perhaps cursorily, due to lack of space and time, space and time being a single entity in writing as they are in physics. If a reviewer does not quite know how to approach the literary non-form of a collection of essays this is because a reader, of which a reviewer is merely a pitiful example, does not know how to approach a non-form. A reader has no obligations towards the collectedness of pieces towards which, severally, he may have obligations, but also, at least, thankfully, tools dependent upon the form of the several pieces, but what obligations does a reviewer have towards the collectedness of the pieces? It is hard to review something that you do not recognise as a thing. Lydia Davis is best known for the devastating precision of the sentences that comprise some of the shortest, sharpest stories you are likely to read, and for her subtle and precise translations of Proust, Flaubert, Blanchot, Foucault, Leiris and others. Her economy of expression astounds, whether that economy is displayed in a single-sentence fiction, indefinitely extended in a translation, or in such various essays as are collected in this book. The essays, which are of various forms, all concern the relationship between language and lucidity; they all concern writing: either writers or the practice of writing; they are all about reading (of which the practice of writing is a peculiarly freighted subset). The essays all both demonstrate and concern what we could call 'the mechanics of form', the way in which language, well used, creates, sharpens or transfigures meaning in literature. Davis shows us how to narrow our linguistic aperture in order to maximise our literary depth of field. She is full of good advice, suggestions for new reading, exemplary sentences and memorable observations: "If we catch only a little of the subject, or only badly, clumsily, incoherently, perhaps we have not destroyed it." Because a collection is not a literary form, you have no obligation as a reader towards the totality of the volume, but there is much here to enjoy and discover, much that will sharpen your writing and your reading of the writing of others, much to return to and re-read. Most likely you will read it all.
Our Book of the Week this week, Murmur by Will Eaves, is a beautifully written, sad and thoughtful novel based on the chemical castration of Alan Turing, exploring concepts of personhood and consciousness, both human and artificial.
>>Read Thomas's review.
>>"Life is chancier than we imagine."
>>Murmur was awarded the 2019 Wellcome Book Prize (for a book that engages with some aspect of medicine, health or illness).
>> Murmur was a joint winner of the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize.
>> Murmur was short-listed for the 2018 Goldsmiths Prize.
>> Hear the opening section read aloud.
>> NOTHINGINTHERULEBOOK interview with Will Eaves.
>> The author's website.
>> Will Eaves and other CB Editions authors at Shakespeare & Company.
>> 20 questions for Will Eaves.
>> A bit about Alan Turing.
>> The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing.
>> Could you pass the Turing Test?
>> Ian McEwan's new novel Machines Like Me speculates an alternative trajectory for Alan Turing and A.I.
>> Read Thomas's review of The Absent Therapist by Will Eaves.
>> Read Thomas's review of The Inevitable Gift Shop by Will Eaves.
>> Will Eaves performs from The Absent Therapist.
>>YOUR MURMUR HERE!
Your Duck is My Duck by Deborah Eisenberg $35
Each of Eisenberg's perfectly poised, preternaturally aware, precisely composed and enjoyable stories carries the heft and resonance of novels (and take her about as long to write).
>>"Reality is not conventional."
>>"I do feel myself to be anaesthetised."
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson $37
A woman begins to find unexpected meaning in her life when she accepts the opportunity to care for twin children with unusual and disturbing abilities.
"Weird, funny, but also unexpectedly moving." —Buzzfeed
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill $17
"In fewer than 100 pages, Gaitskill achieves a superb feat. She distils the suffering, anger, reactivity, danger and social recalibration of the #MeToo movement into an extremely potent, intelligent and nuanced account. She pares a single story from the chorus of condemnations, with their similarities, varieties, truths and perceptions, and through select incidents and emotional focus we see the complex details of the wider picture. It takes an expert in short fiction to condense such a difficult subject, while allowing the reader interpretive space. Gaitskill is phenomenally gifted at the metaphysical microcosmic. She makes the abstruse world clearer. There are many ways the topic will be tackled in literature. This Is Pleasure sensitively and confidently holds its fury, momentum, contrary forces and imperfect humanity within a perfect frame." —Sarah Hall, Guardian
Stillicide by Cynan Jones $33
Jones turns his spare, effective prose to good effect in this devastating climate change novel. Water is commodified. The Water Train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage. As news breaks that construction of a gigantic Ice Dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock. A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying. And her husband, a marksman: a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life.
"Urgent." —Guardian
Melvin Day, Artist by Gregory O'Brien $70
A long-overdue, beautifully presented and thoughtfully written monograph on the seven decades of production of this New Zealand artist.
Pushing Paper: Contemporary drawing from 1970 to now by Isabel Seligman $45
An excellent global survey, well and thoughtfully selected and discussed.
Pursuit (The Balvenie Stories Collection) edited by Alex Preston $33
The stories in the this collection tell of determination, endeavour and perseverance against the odds. They range across wildly different contexts and cultures, from the epic to the intimate, in fiction and non-fiction, illustrating and illuminating the outer limits of human character and achievement. With contributions from Max Porter, Kamila Shamsie, Daisy Johnson, Eley Williams, Michael Donkor, David Szalay, Yan Ge, Benjamin Markovitz, Tash Aw, Peter Frankopan, and others.
>>Balvenie Distillery has a collection of whiskies to accompany the stories (or vice-versa). We incline towards the 14-year-old 'Week of Peat'.
The Boundless Sea: A human history of the oceans by David Abulafia $85
A magnificent book, both nicely shaped and satisfyingly detailed, surveying the way in which humans across the globe have used the sea to develop and extend their reach upon geography, through trade, travel and conquest.
The Tulip by Anna Pavord $75
A beautifully produced and illustrated edition detailing the astounding history and cultural resonance of this most prized and various of flowers.
Babel by Alan Burns $23
First published in 1969 and stylistically Burns's most radical work, Babel is written in short sections of highly condensed, often grammatically difficult prose. Burns targets the state, violence and power, dealing repeatedly with the Vietnam war, the effects of colonialism, religion, the amorality of the political class, the workplace, the violence inherent within the family, with the movement of money and state-sanctioned violence.
The Reality Bubble: Blind spots, hidden truths and dangerous illusions that shape our world by Ziya Tong $33
Our concepts of our world are severely limited by the narrowness of the sensual sliver to which we have access. Other animals share our world but, with the help of, for instance, infrared or ultraviolet or with 360-degree vision, they perceive it quite differently. This lively, fascinating book looks at ten of humans' 'blind spots' and shows us aspects of our world that we really need to take notice of before it's too late.
How to Read a Photograph: Understanding, interpreting and enjoying the great photographers by Ian Jeffrey $55
Approachable and interesting; good for both novices and aficionados.
The Deep History of Ourselves: The four-billion-year story of how we got conscious brains by Jospeh LeDoux $60
LeDoux argues that the key to understanding human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms. By tracking the chain of the evolutionary timeline he shows how even the earliest single-cell organisms had to solve the same problems we and our cells have to solve each day. Along the way, LeDoux explores our place in nature, how the evolution of nervous systems enhanced the ability of organisms to survive and thrive, and how the emergence of what we humans understand as consciousness made our greatest and most horrendous achievements as a species possible.
The Flight of Birds by Joshua Lobb $43
A linked collection of fictional and ficto-critical stories, presenting one person's encounters with a range of birds. The birds in the stories inhabit the same space as the human, but perceive the world in different, often opposing, ways. Embedded in the fictional encounters is a philosophical and theoretical investigation into the ways humans engage with birds. The book examines myths about birds - told in fables and fairy tales, documentaries, and poetry - and their symbolic functions in contemporary culture.
Eclipse: Concrete poems by Alan Riddell $23
In this volume of typographical poems, Alan Riddell weaves words and the very letters they're made of into shapes and patterns that heighten or, in some cases, completely undermine the professed message of the pieces.
Embers by Sándor Márai $26
In a secluded woodland castle an old General prepares to receive a rare visitor, a man who was once his closest friend but who he has not seen in forty-one years. Over the ensuing hours host and guest will fight a duel of words and silences, accusations and evasions. They will exhume the memory of their friendship and that of the General's beautiful, long-dead wife. And they will return to the time the three of them last sat together following a hunt in the nearby forest—a hunt in which no game was taken but during which something was lost forever. A classic of modern European literature, a work whose poignant evocation of the past also seems like a prophetic glimpse into the moral abyss of the present.
>>The candle that burned right down.
Rhyme Cordial by Antonia Pesenti $23
Some words and phrases do sound a little like some other words and phrases. From Alarm Croc to Cheepy Head, you'll enjoy Rhyme Cordial all day long!
Imperial Tragedy: From Constantine's empire to the destruction of Roman Italy, 363—568 by Michael Kulikowski $70
Makes a convincing case that Rome disintegrated due to internal forces and changes rather than because of external invasions.
Lunch with the F.T, A second helping: 42 new interviews edited by Lionel Barber $65
The most entertaining, incisive and fascinating interviews from the past five years in the Financial Times, including those with Donald Trump, Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Yanis Varoufakis, Zadie Smith, Nigel Farage, Russell Brand and David Guetta. Illustrated in colour with James Ferguson's portraits.
The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An intimate journey across our surface by Monty Lyman $40
Providing a cover for our delicate and intricate bodies, the skin is our largest and fastest growing organ. We see it, touch it and live in it every day. It's a habitat for a mesmerizingly complex world of micro-organisms and physical functions that are vital to our health and our survival. It's also one of the first things people see about us and is crucial to our sense of identity. And yet how much do we really know about it?
New Zealand Nature Heroes: Inspiration and activities for young conservationists by Gillian Candler $30
An excellent mix of activities, information, biographies, illustrations and much more.
Customer Service Wolf: Comics from the retail wilderness by Anne Barnetson $20
Barnetson, who is possibly a wolf, has, while working as a bookseller, drawn these wonderful comics of customer interactions that will resonate with anyone who has worked in retail or been any sort of customer.
A new batch of Faber Stories has arrived, fresh from the oven. Perfect as small gifts. $10 each
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Vital Adapt® is a nourishing, broad-spectrum herbal tonic designed to optimize the body's natural resistance and adaptation to stressful influences, while promoting health, longevity and total well-being. It features potent extracts of many well-known adaptogenic botanicals including Eleuthero, Rhodiola, Schizandra and Ashwagandha. The ingredients work synergistically to support healthy function of the body's natural processes while providing vital energy and promoting hormonal balance.
Vital Adapt® contains a unique, clinically-researched extract of Eleuthero (Russian 1:1 concentrate) that has been proven to increase the body's ability to withstand adverse physical conditions. Eleuthero is perhaps the most widely-researched adaptogenic herb, found to enhance job productivity, mental performance, concentration and alertness.
Schisandra has a long history of use in China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Russia. Vital Adapt® contains Schisandra seed extract in addition to the fruit extract. The seed extract is found to contain some of the most powerful adaptogenic compounds. The seed extract paired with the fruit extract offers the unique property of stimulating the central nervous system without causing over-excitation. This translates into a balanced, strong and enduring sense of mental and physical vitality.
Rhodiola is a popular adaptogenic tonic that promotes health and vitality. Rhodiola extract helps promote a calm emotional state and supports strong mental performance. It contains an assortment of constituents that encourage a healthy brain, optimal immune system function and hormonal balance. Used regularly, it enhances the body's natural resistance and adaptation to stressful influences while promoting mental endurance and metabolic efficiency.
Referred to as "Indian Ginseng," Ashwagandha is revered in Ayurvedic medicine for its remarkable ability to promote mental and physical vitality and stamina. Ashwagandha promotes metabolic efficiency and a general sense of well-being when combined with the synergistic herbal ingredients found in Vital Adapt.
These mushrooms are both highly regarded in Chinese medicine to nourish the kidney energy system and support adrenal function. Both Reishi and Cordyceps also help to protect the body when it is subject to environmental challenges.
Green tea extract and Turmeric work together synergistically. Both of these valued traditional herbs help maintain and support healthy cellular function while providing protection against environmental stressors.
Eleutherococcus senticosus Root 1:1 Ext.
Schisandra chinensis Berry 1:3 Ext.
Aralia mandshurica Root 1:5 Ext.
Rhodiola rosea Root 1:1 Ext.
American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) Root 1:3 Ext.
Fresh Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) Root 1:1.5 Ext.
Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) 1:2 Ext.
Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis) Mycelium 1:2 Ext.
Rosehip (Rosa canina) Fruit 1:1 Ext.
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) Root 1:1 Ext.
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) Root 1:1 Ext.
Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) Fruit 1:2 Ext.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) Root 1:2 Ext.
Other Ingredients: Deionized Water, Vegetable Glycerin, Grain Alcohol (20-30% by Volume), Luo Han Guo Fruit, Fennel Essential Oil.
Warning: If pregnant or nursing, consult a qualified healthcare practitioner before use.
2 ml (2.5 dropperfuls) in water or juice 2-3 times daily.


Archos 35 Internet Tablet - Tablet - 8 GB - 480 x 272 - 3.5"
Acer ICONIA B1-730HD - Tablet - 8 GB - 17.8 cm 7" - TFT 1280 x 800"
Mettenmeier Colibri X6 - Tablet - Pencomputer - Intel 1,2GHz - 2 GB RAM - 80 GB HDD - 10.4"
The Colibri X6 tablet of Mette Meier, is a suitable for field applications Pen computers for special requirements and professional applications.
The Colibri X6 tablet of Mette Meier, is a suitable for field applications Pen computers for special requirements and professional applications. All equipment has been certified by various protection classes, which further demonstrate the robustness and reliability of the system. We provide you with the technically flawless and used Tablet AC adapter, LAN and USB cable, and stylus.
To operate, the Mette Meier Colibri X6 tablet, is a 26.41 cm (10.4 inch) TFT color display is available, which displays 1024 x 768 pixels. In addition, a high-quality anti-reflective protective glass was applied to achieve a maximum scratch resistance. In addition to the pen input, you can also use the 5 + 2 function keys are freely assignable and thus offer the maximum flexibility.
In order for the used applications run smoothly, the Mette Meier Colibri X6 tablet has an Intel processor with 1.2 GHz and 2 MB cache. Similarly, the 2 GB DDR2 RAM makes for smooth operation of the system and its proper multitasking. For data storage, a 2.5 inch Toshiba is IDE hard drive with 80 GB of total memory in the Tablet.
There is a serial COM port, an Ethernet 10Base-T / 100Base-TX network port, and a combined VGA / USB port on the top of Mette Meier Colibri X6. All these interfaces are watertight and therefore well protected. Likewise also the connector for the external power supply is there housed.
Front side is the Colibri X6 tablet of Mette Meier IP66 and IP54 certified total. Thus, it is ideal for various outdoor applications, such as. Building sites. The connectivity is made possible by WiFi 802.11 g / b via an internal USB stick, which is available as an option. Otherwise, the USB port can also be used for other purposes. In addition, there is a USB slot in the battery compartment, for a Bluetooth retrofit or copy protection hardware. Furthermore, the PCMCIA 32-bit CardBus interface for various equipment can be used and has a weather cap.
Description Mettenmeier Colibri X6 - Tablet - Pencomputer suitable for field applications - Intel 1.2GHz - 2 GB RAM - 80 GB HDD - 10.4 "
Disk Toshiba MK8032GAX - 80 GB - IDE - 5400 rpm - 2.5"
Do the offered smartphones and mobile phones contain a branding or a Simlock?
Unless otherwise stated, the devices have neither branding nor Sim- or Netlock.


text:
Milwaukee Bucks' Malcolm Brogdon wins NBA Rookie of the Year award
Jeff Zillgitt
NBA media – reporters, writers, columnists and broadcasters – got the Rookie of the Year award right.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon won, as he should have.
The award is for the rookie who had the best year, as in a full season. It's not Rookie of the Half Year. Or Rookie of Third of a Year.
Is Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid the most talented? Does he have the potential to be the best player from the 2016-17 rookie class? Yes.
But Embiid played in just 31 games – 10 shy of a half season and 20 fewer than Kyrie Irving when he won the award in 2012. Voters wouldn't give the MVP award to a player who played 31 games, and the same rule applies to Rookie of the Year.
Brogdon was there, from start to finish, playing in 75 games. Four games into his rookie season, Brogdon scored 14 points and had four assists and four steals, proving early the second-round pick from Virginia was a formidable backup.
Brogdon, who is the first second-round player to win this award in the common draft era, averaged 10.2 points, 4.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals. He shot 45.7% from the field and 40.4% on threes, which was No. 1 among rookies who attempted at least 190 threes. He was also the only rookie to record a triple-double.
"I want to say, this is a testament to guys that are underestimated," Brogdon said during his acceptance speech at the inaugural NBA Awards show on Monday night. "Guys that are second round picks. Guys that are undrafted every year and get looked over, regardless of the work they put in, regardless of what they do. You can always achieve your dreams if you have faith, if you have sacrifice."
Not only was Brogdon an outstanding backup, but he was also a capable starter, too. In 28 games as a starter, he averaged 12.5 points, 4.7 assists and four rebounds.
He had an impact on the Bucks' success. With Brogdon on the court, Milwaukee, which made the playoffs, scored 109.2 points and allowed 106.5 points per 100 possessions. When Brogdon, who picks up a bonus from Nike for the award, was not playing, Milwaukee had a negative net rating.
In the NBA's first televised awards show, Rookie of the Year was announced first, similar to the Academy Awards leading off the show with best supporting actor – not the biggest award, but significant enough to attract attention early in the program.
Had Embiid played 50 games, he would've won. That didn't happen, and his Sixers teammate Dario Saric made a solid case for the award, too.
But Brogdon deserved it.
With Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons rookies next season, a Sixers player has a good chance to win the award a year from now.
PHOTOS: Best of the NBA Awards

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
'use strict';

function StateInline(src, md, env, outTokens) {
  this.src = src;
  this.env = env;
  this.md = md;
  this.tokens = outTokens;

  this.pos = 0;
  this.posMax = this.src.length;
  this.level = 0;
  this.pending = '';
  this.pendingLevel = 0;

  this.cache = [];        // Stores { start: end } pairs. Useful for backtrack
                          // optimization of pairs parse (emphasis, strikes).
}

// Flush pending text
//
StateInline.prototype.pushPending = function () {
  this.tokens.push({
    type: 'text',
    content: this.pending,
    level: this.pendingLevel
  });
  this.pending = '';
};

// Push new token to "stream".
// If pending text exists - flush it as text token
//
StateInline.prototype.push = function (token) {
  if (this.pending) {
    this.pushPending();
  }

  this.tokens.push(token);
  this.pendingLevel = this.level;
};

// Store value to cache.
// !!! Implementation has parser-specific optimizations
// !!! keys MUST be integer, >= 0; values MUST be integer, > 0
//
StateInline.prototype.cacheSet = function (key, val) {
  for (var i = this.cache.length; i <= key; i++) {
    this.cache.push(0);
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  this.cache[key] = val;
};

// Get cache value
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StateInline.prototype.cacheGet = function (key) {
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module.exports = StateInline;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Sublime Horror
Celebrating the best in horror
Four novels to wake us up to our own climate horror story
14/08/2019 / Grant Price / 0 Comments
Turn on the news today and you'll be confronted by a headline that seems more likely to have been ripped from a movie than real life: "Record heat fuels wildfires in Alaska"; "High likelihood of human civilisation coming to an end by 2050"; "Half of the Great Barrier Reef is dead". Cheery stuff. Even so, this isn't a disaster movie we're living in, it's a slow-burn horrorfest. There's a lingering sense of dread now that accompanies us everywhere. We know there's something on the horizon and we're pretty sure it's not going to be pleasant. And while some of us are trying to rewrite the narrative to make it less apocalyptic, the rest of us are still sleepwalking to oblivion.
My suggestion is that we turn to fiction in order to gain some insight into how to deal with our own climate change horror story. As always, films and literature are the gateway to understanding the gravity of real-life matters, and when they strike the right balance between entertainment and education, they can bring about a sea of change in how we perceive things. Think Blue Planet II, a documentary so influential that it caused a server crash in China due to so many people clamouring to see it. It's simple: art can convince people to care. And when we care, we change our ways; we take to the streets; and we resist, insist and persist. Our climate horror story could become a one-off with no sequel – but we still need to write the third act.
Here are four novels to make us fear for our own future and do something about it.
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John Christopher, The Death of Grass (1956)
A long time ago I came to the understanding that all men are friends by convenience and enemies by choice.
As one version of the saying goes, a society is only ever three meals away from anarchy, and The Death of Grass explores this notion with great enthusiasm. When grass plants (wheat, barley, rice, etc.) all over the world start to die out, society collapses due to the threat of famine, and we get to watch as a normal family sheds its morals remarkably quickly in order to survive. Containing page after page of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault – all described in language that is cold and sparse – it is without a doubt one of the most brutal and unforgiving novels in the genre. Think The Road (2006) with none of the carrying-the-fire hope that comes from the father/son relationship.
Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room! (1966)
Doing something means people must change, make an effort, use their minds, which is what most people do not like to do.
The inspiration for cannibalistic Heston-fest Soylent Green (1973), Harrison's novel doesn't dive directly into the deep end of insanity, but it does paint a depressing picture of life in a hugely overpopulated New York City in 1999 (sure, Harrison was a little off in his calculations, but not by much). The authorities keep people in check by dropping bales of barbed wire onto them from the sky and limiting their water rations. Medical care, steady jobs and personal safety no longer exist. The novel demonstrates there is no greater threat to humanity than its own inability to question the status quo and act before standards deteriorate so far that the new normal is to murder one another for food. What's scary is the fact that Harrison was warning us about the global population reaching 7 billion more than fifty years ago. It is now at 7.8 billion and rising fast.
Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest (2008)
Staying alive is not enough to guarantee survival.
The second book in a trilogy of novels focusing on an alien invasion and humanity's preparations for it, The Dark Forest is as much a parable for climate change as any of the other books on this list. For one thing, the invasion happens at a glacial pace; it takes centuries for the invaders to arrive, giving humanity enough time to fight among themselves, despair, rally, innovate and despair some more (sound familiar?). For another, Cixin goes into great detail about how the race to develop technology destroys already fragile ecosystems around the world, leading most human beings to eventually live underground. The horror element comes from showing how humanity is so quick to mine the depths of despair, risk total destruction and embrace evil instead of working together to find a solution. This is never more apparent than in "The Battle of Darkness", a chapter whose title couldn't be more appropriate.
J. G. Ballard, High-Rise (1975)
Let the psychotics take over. They alone understood what was happening.
This book is classic Ballard: all the characters are dislikeable, modern society and technology are the root of all evil and the narrative descends into chaos well before the end. What he does so well is show how quickly an ecosystem (in this case, a high-rise building) can break down when the individual components are no longer in perfect balance with each other. When people feel superior or inferior, they will lash out at one another, and when the constructs that keep us in check can no longer be enforced (like, say, during an imminent climate emergency), then violence and death will surely ensue. In this novel, it doesn't get much more horrific than when the "protagonist", Robert Laing, fights his way to one of the building's swimming pools and discovers what it is being used for.
Grant Price is the author of By the Feet of Men, a dystopian climate fiction novel published by Cosmic Egg Books. It is now available for pre-order.
Sometimes we include links to online stores within articles. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. It's only small but every little helps to keep our lights on.
Did you enjoy this article? Please help our independent coverage of horror continue.
Books, Fiction, Reading List
By the Feet of MenCormac McCarthyGrant PriceHarry HarrisonHigh-RiseJ. G. BallardJohn ChristopherLiu CixinMake Room! Make Room!Soylent GreenThe Dark ForestThe Death of GrassThe Road
Spiders and flies – the Gothic monsters of sci-fi horror
Meta-horror – a reading list
Sublime Horror takes 100s of hours every month to create. Without your support, we cannot keep going into the future. Join us on Patreon.
Gothic Remixed by Megen de Bruin-Molé review – an enlightening examination of Frankenfictions
BBC's Dracula review – a disappointing & preposterous pastiche
The Other People by C. J. Tudor review – a tightly-paced and gripping crime thriller-horror hybrid
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss – national identity and sacrifice in the good old days
Queering Prometheus in Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse
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© 2020 Sublime Horror


text:
For Grades K-4 , week of Dec. 16, 2019
1. A Milestone Marie
With performances all over the country, "The Nutcracker" ballet is one of the most popular holiday entertainments. One of the most famous "Nutcracker" shows is the production put on by the New York City Ballet, and this year's edition will go down in history. For the first time, the featured role of Marie is being played by an African American dancer. Eleven-year-old Charlotte Nebres earned the part by besting other talented dancers in auditions. But she wasn't overly impressed at making history. When told she was the first African American to get the part, she simply responded "Wow. That seems a little late." Charlotte has been dancing for more than five years and is a student the School of American Ballet, a feeder school for New York City Ballet. Children who have special talents often are in the news. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about a talented child making news. Pretend you are a TV reporter doing a story about this child. Write a paragraph telling how you would show this child's talents, and three questions you would ask to learn how they were developed.
2. Jolt of Fun
Displays of holiday lights are always a big attraction at this time of year, and the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has one that people won't soon forget. It's a lighted tree at the Tennessee Aquarium that gets its power from an electric eel! The eel is named Miguel Wattson, and he lights up the tree whenever he gives off a jolt of natural electricity. Electric eels have the ability to generate electricity with their bodies, and the staff at the aquarium figured out a way to collect it with sensors in Miguel's tank and link it to a Christmas tree. Miguel gives off low doses of electricity when resting or swimming quietly, and large doses when he gets angry or excited, triggering bursts of light on the tree and "kaboom" sounds over the aquarium's sound system. Electric eels can generate as much electricity as a wall socket in a home when excited. People often celebrate the holidays with pets or other animals — though not electric eels. In the newspaper or online, find and study stories or photos of people celebrating the holidays with animals. Use what you read to write a Haiku poem about one of these holiday animals. A Haiku has five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third. For added fun, write a Haiku about an animal you would like to celebrate the holidays with.
3. Secret (NFL) Santa
Chicago Bears linebacker Khalil Mack is a superstar in the National Football League, but he hasn't forgotten where he came from. To give back to his home town of Fort Pierce, Florida, Mack hooked up with the local Walmart and paid off 300 holiday layaway accounts people had set up to buy presents for their families. As a "Secret Santa" for the families, Mack wiped out about $80,000 in holiday debt for holders of the accounts. "We here at Walmart would like to thank the Khalil Mack Foundation for your generosity, and for making so many families happy for the holidays!" store officials said in a Facebook post. "Everyone is truly grateful for everything you have done for them!" Mack, 28, attended Fort Pierce Westwood High School before going on to the University of Buffalo and the NFL. His Secret Santa donation is not the first time he has helped out Fort Pierce. In June, his foundation purchased 100 pairs of cleats for the school's football team. In the holiday season people often do good deeds for others. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about a person or group doing this. Use what you read to write a letter to the editor, publicly thanking the person/group and telling how their actions could inspire others to do good deeds.
4. 5-Year-Old Hero
You're never too young to be a hero, and a 5-year-old in the state of Alaska just proved it in sub-zero weather. According to Alaska State Police, the 5-year-old carried an 18-month-old toddler half a mile to safety wearing only socks and light clothing after the power went out in their home. The children had been left alone in the house, and the 5-year old became frightened when the power went off and left them in the dark. Police said the temperature was 31 degrees below zero at the time of the incident in the village of Venetie. A 37-year-old woman was charged with leaving the children alone and endangering their welfare. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and can be any age. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about someone who is a hero for something they did. Use what you read to design an ad for the newspaper calling attention to what the person did. Give your ad an eye-catching headline that will make people want to read it. Share and discuss ads as a class.
5. Really Close Partners
Police officers who work as partners often say they feel as close as family. In New York City, two officers recently found out they ARE family — they just didn't know it. Officers Harley Greco and Tyler Barbour were teamed up in the city's 19th Precinct, and they immediately got along. But they didn't know they had connections beyond work. Thanks to relatives on Facebook, however, they discovered they were not only partners but cousins. The relatives had taken an ancestry test to track family history and were commenting on it on Facebook. Greco's grandmother and Barbour's first cousin had learned they were related when they discovered they both had family working the 19th Precinct, CNN News reported. "My grandmother called me and said, 'Do you know a Tyler Barbour?'" Greco recalled. "I said 'Yeah, I just went to his wedding -- that's my partner. "And she said 'Well, that's also your cousin.'" People often feel a special bond to family members or relatives. In the newspaper or online, find and closely read a story about someone who feels this way about a relative. Use what you read to write a short paragraph explaining how the person feels about the relative and why that makes them close. Then write a paragraph about a relative who is special to you and how they make you feel.
Common Core State Standards: Citing textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions; conducting short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.


St. Francis High School, Mountain View - There were thrills and agonies for the Warriors in the WCAL Track & Field Championships; in the end 52 season best marks were made from the 39 athletes competing in the WCAL Championship meet.
For the Lady Warriors it was a huge breakthrough in the 4 x 100 relay as they burst out into an early lead that was not surrendered until it was decided in a photo finish. Their time of 49.72 ranks them seventh all-time in school history and propels them up the section rankings into the top 10.
Lydia Sum has been a major contributor to the team all season and the Championships were no different. She broke her own school record in the triple jump at the trails with a wind legal mark of 36' 8.5." She came back just days later to finish second. She was bust jumping from one event to the next. In between jumps she finished third in the 300 meter hurdles and seventh in the long jump.
Shelby Smallwood has been another consistent contributor to the team's success this season. Smallwood ran a stellar leg on the 4 x 100 meter relay, finished second in the 100 and third in the 200. Joining her in the 100 and 200 final was Mary Ellen Bradley. A senior in just her second year of track and field she was firing on all cylinders in the trials running two personal bests on the day. Her time of 12.71 in the 100 meters puts her seventh all-time for the Warriors while her 26.72 ranks her tenth.
Ashley Lara has made her mark in the cross country record books and now in the track records as well. In her first year on the track the sophomore has come on strong despite a late start due to a leg injury. Lara ran a strong 800 meter race to finish third in the 800 meters in 2:22.75. Her mark places her seventh on the Warriors all-time list ahead of Emily Blaha, Morgan Lira and Jenifer Bergman. Lara has the unfortunate distinction as the fastest non-qualifying time from any league this season.
Taylor Johnson had quite the week of her own. A key member in the CCS Qualifying 4 x 100 relay the freshman had a breakthrough in the long jump hitting a mark of 16'2" to qualify for the finals where she finished in eigth. She also hit a personal best in the triple jump (32'4.5") and had a marvelous run in the 200 meters running 26.79.
Much of the team's standing this season has been powered by a dynamic group of athletes in the field events. Ronna Stone and Elena Bruckner have led that charge. Dubbed the "dynamic duo" of the Warriors throws Stone and Bruckner have competed and made their mark all season long at big meets such as the CCS Top 8 Invitational. The WCAL was no different with Stone throwing 37'0" for third hitting the CCS Automatic qualifying mark. Bruckner, who was just inches from the automatic qualifying mark finished fourth with a personal best 36'2." Her mark ties Ronna Stone's freshman record set last year at the WCAL Championship. Also in the throws was senior Kristin Uda, who had a breakthrough of her own throwing a personal best 31'6" to get to the finals. Teanni Roberts is another blossoming young talent. Her mark of 98'9" made her the Junior Varsity discus champion and is the furthest for the Warriors this spring.
Elaine Ma and Robriana Johnson have been huge contributors this season in the field events and they came through again in the championship. Ma finished fourth in the high jump and fifth in the long jump while Johnson finished sixth in the high jump and seventh in the triple jump. After easily hitting the CCS auto qualifying mark in the trials she fell just inches short in the triple jump.
The Lady Warriors finished fourth in the team standings qualifying three individuals and the 4 x 100 meter relay team to the CCS Championship. They move on to compete in the CCS Semi-Finals Saturday at Gilroy High School starting at 10 am.
Kellianne Connolly has had four years of plateaus and breakthroughs. She ended her high school career with the later shattering her personal best by nearly 30 seconds to finish in 12:25.10, a time that currently stands as #10 all-time for the Warriors!
It was a solid showing in for the Junior Varsity girls as Sonjali Padalkar finished second in the 100 meters and helped the 4 x 100 meter relay team finish with a season best time in fourth.


text:
package org.cdlib.xtf.textEngine;

import java.util.Set;
import org.cdlib.xtf.util.CharMap;
import org.cdlib.xtf.util.WordMap;

/**
 * Tracks the context in which a query was executed. This includes the list
 * of stop words applied, and the plural and accent maps used.
 *
 * @author Martin Haye
 */
public class QueryContext
{
  /** The set of stopwords used when processing the query. */
  public Set stopSet;

  /** The plural map used when processing the query. */
  public WordMap pluralMap;

  /** The accent map used when processing the query. */
  public CharMap accentMap;
} // class QueryContext


Vladimir Putin, whom Donald Trump admires, is a bit of a thug — no?
Trump's mentor Roy Cohn, once thuggish Joe McCarthy's chief counsel, was himself a bit of a thug, as well.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, was called a thug by an editor of right-wing Breitbart.
Paul Manafort, Lewandowski's replacement, has been called a "world-class thug" with a long history of supporting war lords, dictators, and oligarchs.
Steve Bannon, Manafort's replacement, has been called a thug.
And now comes his deputy campaign manager, David Bossie. Rachel Maddow aired this must-see segment on Bossie Friday night, noting elsewhere in the show that, yes, okay, campaigns may indeed hire gutter-dwellers — it's not pretty but it happens — but what's different is that normally they try to keep them hidden. Trump puts Bossie proudly front and center. "A friend of mine for many years," Trump told the Washington Post. "Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win." Yet in the first Clinton campaign President George H. W. Bush condemned Bossie's "filthy campaign tactics" and George W. wrote 85,000 of his dad's contributors asking them not to support Bossie.
President George H.W. Bush was a gentleman; prior to winning the Presidency in 1988, he had been, among other things, a war hero, a Congressman, our ambassador to the UN, director of the CIA, and Vice President of the united States. Donald Trump is a vulgar, bullying egomaniac, spectacularly unqualified to occupy the office.
And speaking of bullies? He has named Chris Christie to head his transition team (see: "The Thug Politics of Chris Christie"). The two are close. Trump's casinos failed to pay taxes owed to the state of New Jersey. Once Christie was elected, the $30 million bill was settled for just $5 million — a $25 million gift from Chris to Donald. It's quite a story.
Yet he's currently given a 30% chance of winning, which could lead to a trade war which could lead to a global depression which could lead (as the last one did) to a world war, which we would win in 25 minutes — but could lead to the end of most life on the planet (see: nuclear winter).


Description of a connection to another host or process, and associated data.
A connection is named based on what it's connected to – an "OR connection" has a Tor node on the other end, an "exit connection" has a website or other server on the other end, and an "AP connection" has an application proxy (and thus a user) on the other end.
Every connection has a type and a state. Connections never change their type, but can go through many state changes in their lifetime.
Every connection has two associated input and output buffers. Listeners don't use them. For non-listener connections, incoming data is appended to conn->inbuf, and outgoing data is taken from conn->outbuf. Connections differ primarily in the functions called to fill and drain these buffers.
Definition at line 40 of file connection_st.h.
True iff we're currently able to read on the linked conn, and our read_event should be made active with libevent.
Definition at line 78 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_start_reading_from_linked_conn(), and connection_stop_reading_from_linked_conn().
IP that socket "s" is directly connected to; may be the IP address for a proxy or pluggable transport, see "address" for the address of the final destination.
Definition at line 107 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_ap_handshake_attach_circuit(), connection_exit_connect(), connection_is_rate_limited(), connection_send_socks5_connect(), get_proxy_addrport(), and retry_listener_ports().
FQDN (or IP) and port of the final destination for this connection; this is always the remote address, it is passed to a proxy or pluggable transport if one in use. See "addr" and "port" for the address that socket "s" is directly connected to. strdup into this, because free_connection() frees it.
Definition at line 120 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_exit_begin_resolve(), MOCK_IMPL(), and retry_listener_ports().
Index into the global connection array.
Definition at line 89 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by circuit_dump_by_conn(), connection_add_impl(), connection_is_moribund(), and connection_unlink().
Unique identifier for this connection on this Tor instance.
Definition at line 130 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by control_event_conn_bandwidth(), and record_num_bytes_transferred_impl().
Despite this connection's being marked for close, do we flush it before closing it?
Definition at line 56 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_expire_held_open(), and connection_may_write_to_buf().
True if connection_handle_write is currently running on this connection.
Definition at line 66 of file connection_st.h.
Set to 1 when we're inside connection_flushed_some to keep us from calling connection_handle_write() recursively.
Definition at line 63 of file connection_st.h.
Buffer holding data read over this connection.
Definition at line 93 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by conn_get_buffer_age(), connection_buf_get_bytes(), connection_buf_get_line(), connection_buf_read_from_socket(), connection_fetch_ext_or_cmd_from_buf(), connection_fetch_from_buf_http(), connection_fetch_from_buf_socks_client(), connection_fetch_var_cell_from_buf(), connection_handle_read_impl(), connection_read_https_proxy_response(), and peek_connection_has_control0_command().
Boolean: did read() return 0 on this conn?
Definition at line 59 of file connection_st.h.
True if there is, or has been, a linked_conn.
Definition at line 70 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_add_impl(), connection_edge_flushed_some(), connection_is_rate_limited(), connection_link_connections(), connection_should_read_from_linked_conn(), connection_start_reading_from_linked_conn(), connection_stop_reading_from_linked_conn(), and MOCK_IMPL().
Another connection that's connected to this one in lieu of a socket.
Definition at line 127 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by circuit_get_streams_max_data_age(), connection_link_connections(), connection_should_read_from_linked_conn(), connection_unlink(), and MOCK_IMPL().
True iff we've called connection_close_immediate() on this linked connection.
Definition at line 81 of file connection_st.h.
For memory debugging: must equal one of *_CONNECTION_MAGIC.
Definition at line 41 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_ap_mark_as_pending_circuit_(), connection_free_minimal(), TO_CONTROL_CONN(), TO_DIR_CONN(), TO_EDGE_CONN(), TO_LISTENER_CONN(), and TO_OR_CONN().
Definition at line 114 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by add_connection_to_closeable_list(), circuit_resume_edge_reading_helper(), connection_about_to_close_connection(), connection_ap_mark_as_pending_circuit_(), connection_dir_finished_flushing(), connection_edge_destroy(), connection_edge_send_command(), connection_expire_held_open(), connection_handle_read_impl(), connection_is_moribund(), connection_mark_all_noncontrol_connections(), connection_mark_all_noncontrol_listeners(), connection_may_write_to_buf(), connection_or_single_set_badness_(), connection_state_is_connecting(), connection_state_is_open(), connection_unlink(), get_stream(), inform_pending_connections(), MOCK_IMPL(), relay_lookup_conn(), and retry_all_listeners().
For debugging: in which file were we marked for close?
Definition at line 118 of file connection_st.h.
Bytes read since last call to control_event_conn_bandwidth_used(). Only used if we're configured to emit CONN_BW events.
Definition at line 134 of file connection_st.h.
Bytes written since last call to control_event_conn_bandwidth_used(). Only used if we're configured to emit CONN_BW events.
Definition at line 138 of file connection_st.h.
Buffer holding data to write over this connection.
Definition at line 94 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by conn_get_buffer_age(), connection_buf_add_buf(), connection_should_read_from_linked_conn(), and MOCK_IMPL().
How much data should we try to flush from the outbuf?
Definition at line 96 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_bucket_write_limit(), connection_outbuf_too_full(), connection_wants_to_flush(), and connection_write_to_buf_commit().
If non-zero, port that socket "s" is directly connected to; may be the port for a proxy or pluggable transport, see "address" for the port at the final destination.
Definition at line 111 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_ap_handshake_attach_circuit(), connection_exit_connect(), connection_send_socks5_connect(), get_proxy_addrport(), MOCK_IMPL(), record_num_bytes_transferred_impl(), and retry_listener_ports().
CONNECT/SOCKS proxy client handshake state (for outgoing connections).
Definition at line 84 of file connection_st.h.
Only used for DIR and EXIT types currently.
Definition at line 46 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_dir_client_refetch_hsdesc_if_needed(), connection_dir_client_request_failed(), connection_expire_held_open(), dns_resolve(), inform_pending_connections(), and record_num_bytes_transferred_impl().
Boolean: should we start reading again once the bandwidth throttler allows it?
Definition at line 51 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_read_bw_exhausted(), and reenable_blocked_connections_cb().
Definition at line 91 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_is_reading(), connection_unregister_events(), MOCK_IMPL(), and set_streams_blocked_on_circ().
True iff we'd like to be notified about read events from the linked conn.
Definition at line 73 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_is_reading(), connection_should_read_from_linked_conn(), connection_unlink(), and MOCK_IMPL().
Our socket; set to TOR_INVALID_SOCKET if this connection is closed, or has no socket.
Definition at line 88 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by assert_all_pending_dns_resolves_ok(), conn_write_callback(), connection_add_impl(), connection_expire_held_open(), connection_finished_connecting(), connection_link_connections(), dnsserv_configure_listener(), and MOCK_IMPL().
Definition at line 105 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by check_sockaddr_family_match(), and retry_listener_ports().
Current state of this connection.
Definition at line 44 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_ap_handshake_attach_chosen_circuit(), connection_ap_handshake_attach_circuit(), connection_ap_handshake_process_socks(), connection_ap_handshake_send_resolve(), connection_ap_mark_as_pending_circuit_(), connection_control_process_inbuf(), connection_dir_about_to_close(), connection_dir_finished_connecting(), connection_dir_process_inbuf(), connection_dir_reached_eof(), connection_dirserv_flushed_some(), connection_dns_remove(), connection_edge_finished_connecting(), connection_edge_finished_flushing(), connection_edge_flushed_some(), connection_edge_process_inbuf(), connection_exit_about_to_close(), connection_expire_held_open(), connection_ext_or_auth_process_inbuf(), connection_ext_or_finished_flushing(), connection_flushed_some(), connection_or_change_state(), connection_or_finished_connecting(), connection_or_finished_flushing(), connection_or_get_state_description(), connection_or_group_set_badness_(), connection_or_process_inbuf(), connection_or_send_auth_challenge_cell(), connection_or_send_certs_cell(), connection_state_is_connecting(), connection_state_is_open(), inform_pending_connections(), is_valid_initial_command(), and MOCK_IMPL().
When was this connection_t created?
Definition at line 103 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_ap_handshake_attach_circuit(), and connection_or_single_set_badness_().
When was the last time libevent said we could read?
Definition at line 98 of file connection_st.h.
When was the last time libevent said we could write?
Definition at line 100 of file connection_st.h.
What kind of connection is this?
Definition at line 45 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by ap_stream_wants_exit_attention(), assert_connection_ok(), circuit_detach_stream(), connection_about_to_close_connection(), connection_add_impl(), connection_ap_handshake_process_socks(), connection_ap_handshake_send_resolve(), connection_bucket_read_limit(), connection_bucket_write_limit(), connection_check_event(), connection_counts_as_relayed_traffic(), connection_dir_finished_connecting(), connection_dir_finished_flushing(), connection_dir_process_inbuf(), connection_dns_remove(), connection_edge_finished_connecting(), connection_edge_package_raw_inbuf(), connection_expire_held_open(), connection_ext_or_transition(), connection_finished_connecting(), connection_finished_flushing(), connection_flushed_some(), connection_free_minimal(), connection_handle_read_impl(), connection_init_accepted_conn(), connection_is_listener(), connection_mark_all_noncontrol_connections(), connection_mark_all_noncontrol_listeners(), connection_mark_for_close_(), connection_or_get_state_description(), connection_or_nonopen_was_started_here(), connection_process_inbuf(), connection_reached_eof(), connection_state_is_connecting(), connection_state_is_open(), connection_unlink(), control_event_conn_bandwidth(), directory_handle_command(), dnsserv_close_listener(), dnsserv_configure_listener(), get_stream(), MOCK_IMPL(), oos_victim_comparator(), record_num_bytes_transferred_impl(), and retry_listener_ports().
Boolean: should we start writing again once the bandwidth throttler allows writes?
Definition at line 53 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_write_bw_exhausted(), and reenable_blocked_connections_cb().
Definition at line 92 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_is_writing(), connection_write_to_buf_commit(), and MOCK_IMPL().
True iff we're willing to write to the linked conn.
Definition at line 75 of file connection_st.h.
Referenced by connection_is_writing(), connection_should_read_from_linked_conn(), and MOCK_IMPL().


text:
Institute of Genetics and Cancer
Edinburgh Cancer Research
Edinburgh Cancer Research home
Susan Farrington
Susan Farrington: Colorectal Cancer Genetics
Figure A: Transcript analysis of Large Bowel Normal Mucosa identifies eQTL effects of GWAS risk loci (Dunlop et al. Nature Genetics 2012); Courtesy of ex-group member Li-Yin Ooi
Cancer of the large bowel and rectum (colorectal cancer) is a major public health problem as it is one of the commonest causes of early death due to cancer in the non-smoking male and female populations. The CCGG have collected and utilised population based DNA samples from colorectal cancer cases (~4000) and age and sex matched controls (~4000) to identify novel genes predisposing to colorectal cancer. Using genetic association strategies and candidate gene/pathway analysis, a number of genes/loci have been shown to be involved in susceptibility to the disease. Of the candidate pathways investigated, defects in both DNA mis-match repair (MMR) and base-excision repair (BER) have been identified as major risk factors in colorectal cancer susceptibility and other genes involved in the repair of oxidative damage are under investigation for rare-moderate and common low risk alleles. The large prospective collection has also enabled the influence of dietary and environmental factors on colorectal cancer risk to be explored and gene-environment interaction analyses are underway. Finally, recent identification of novel genes and loci involved in subtle increases in disease risk are a new and exciting challenge in trying to establish and understand their role in disease initiation (Figure A) and progression (Figure B), in both human and model systems, and whether the pathways can be targeted for new therapeutic and preventative agents.
 Figure B: Intestinal organoid culture used as a tool to observe effects of CRC risk loci; Courtesy of group member Anna-Maria Ochocka
Western General Hospital
Crewe Road South, Edinburgh EH4 2XR
IGC Staff intranet


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Guides are always second: these are written outlines for those who prefer to read.
General Questions(?) are last: they are not mandatory to follow for set up, but they are there to help and they will also come up when you search, just in case you need help and our support staff are not available.


The late Rear Adm. LeRoy Collins Jr. was a 1956 U.S. Naval Academy graduate. He was a Navy pilot and submariner who spent 10 years on active duty before joining the Navy Reserve. An active civic leader and business entrepreneur, he was appointed in 2007 by Gov. Charlie Crist as executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs. A champion for veterans, he created the Florida Veterans Foundation to honor and care for those in need.
Lawrence Snowden is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General and senior ranking survivor of the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. A civic leader and past chairman of The Economic Club of Florida, he was instrumental in establishing the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. In 2015, he was recognized during a joint session of Congress by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his efforts to strengthen the friendship between Japan and the United States.
Eugene Johnson spent 31 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1982 as a Chief Master Sergeant, the service's highest enlisted rank. A champion of civil rights and equal opportunity both in and out of uniform, he is a distinguished community leader and higher education advocate. He advises numerous non-profit and faith-based organizations on veterans' issues and holds top community service honors from several Florida colleges and institutes.
Dr. Harry Frank Farmer Jr.
Dr. Farmer served in the U.S. Army, Florida National Guard and U.S. Air Force before his retirement as a Colonel in 2004. A Vietnam veteran and former professor of history, Farmer became a physician in 1976 and served as president of the Florida Medical Association, chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, and from 2011-2012 as Surgeon General and Secretary of Health for the State of Florida.


text:
News + Politics Politics + Activism
How Elena Kagan's Femalecore Ladyflower Wimmyny Womanhood Could Change the World For Real
By Rachel
11:30am PDT
You may have noticed that there's been precious little coverage of Elena Kagan's confirmation as the next Supreme Court Justice. It seems as though when she refused to identify herself as the leader of the radical militant lesbian underground, everyone got a little less interested. Today, though, Slate argues that we should in fact care — that three women on the Supreme Court really does mean something significantly different than two, and that regardless of their individual legal views, their gender has a significance all its own. It would be silly to argue that women will rule differently just because they're women. As Slate put it, "there's precious little evidence that women think fundamentally differently from men about business or law," but rather that "if you seat enough women, the question of whether women deserve the seat finally goes away." (@slate)
In a way, it's a little bit circular logically; Elena Kagan's appointment is important because she's a woman, and her being appointed as a woman means we're one step closer to not caring about her gender. The argument is a little more complex than that, though. When there are enough women on the bench that their presence is normal and their participation in legal decisions is equal to the male justices, as opposed to a minority opinion, we get a little closer to correcting the bias that results from governing a hugely diverse body of people with a legal system that's been conceived by a very homogenous population – a population mostly of white men who are virtually all straight (or at least not out). The idea is that with the inclusion of Elena Kagan, a kind of "critical mass" is reached and that we have perhaps moved past some kind of nebulous tipping point of the judicial climate. (A study done in 2006 by the Wellesley Centers for Women about women on male-dominated corporate boards apparently really has identified three as this "magic number.")
While it's essentialist and tiresome to argue that women "just think differently" or have intrinsically different legal opinions, they do have life experiences that their male counterparts don't. As Slate puts it:
Ginsburg told the AP about a 2009 case involving a 13-year-old girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen and the ways in which—at oral argument—some of her male colleagues compared that strip-search to the locker-room high jinks of teenage boys. A court that appeared very sympathetic toward the school district after oral argument ended up voting 8-1 that the search was unconstitutional. (Clarence Thomas disagreed.) Nobody credits the Constitution with changing in those short weeks. What changed was that Ginsburg spoke out, both from the bench as the case was being argued and then again in the media while the case was still pending, explaining to USA Today's Joan Biskupic that her colleagues "have never been a 13-year-old girl" and adding that with respect to that strip search, "I didn't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."
None of us know much about Kagan's politics or what her judicial stance will be, as has been documented in an increasingly frustrated series of posts over the last few months. Maybe, though, we can come out on top no matter what? Is it possible that Elena Kagan's genitalia/gender identity can do for us what her past judicial record hasn't? GIVE US SOMETHING TO WORK WITH, WOMAN.
Related:Daily FixElena Kagan
Rachel is Autostraddle's Managing Editor and the editor who presides over news & politics coverage. Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.
Rachel has written 1086 articles for us.
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Sometime in the next, uh, 200 years or so the femalecore ladyflower wimmyny womanhood of Supreme Court Justices won't be an issue. Hopefully.
afebb22
One small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind.
Please don't let the lack of comments on all the "serious news" stories stop you from writing fantastic work.
Sure it's not as fun to comment or make jokes over but I would like to say/think you're broadening some horizons with your work.
I think we're all hoping for some progress with Elena added to the S.C.
This. I hate seeing articles without comments.
aw, you guys, thanks. this actually makes me feel really good.
Yes. I read the serious stuff and I learn things and then I often have nothing useful further to say but I REALLY REALLY like the serious stuff, and your stuff in particular Rachel, it is making me more rounded/informed/awesome so please don't stop doing it.
Rawrosaur
Say, come to think of it, that IS an excellent question (What ARE Elena Kagan's views?). But perhaps an even better one is, how do you get onto the S.C. without it being common info? Do congressmen/women know and us not? Are the electorate so uninvolved that they just don't care to find out? Has the media purposely not conducted interviews, etc., and sort of given this story the silent treatment? I wonder…
Sorry. Taking AP Government has given me a propensity for questions.
Well, according to the letter of the law, their *personal* views don't really matter. (Actually one could make that argument for elected officials too, but it's even more apt for judges.) Their job is to interpret the Constitution, not legislate. Even though sometimes in doing that, they actually find themselves establishing or changing law.
This article reminded me again how much I want the world to change. My also-lesbain-roommate (no, not "roommate") and I just moved to a new (more suburbian) neighborhood, and she doesn't want me to hang a big rainbow flag outside our door because she thinks we'll be harrassed. My rebuttal was that I 1. do not care if people still think us being gay is worth their concern, and 2. would be just as easily harrasessed by me standing out (pun intended) on the front porch.
I want to kiss all of the girls. I even want to have sex with some of them. I don't think that this makes me any more or less spiritual, kind, sexy, amazing, crazy, funny, or scary than any other girl.
I just want to be part of what changes the world.
oh god i meant to comment on this, but i had classes today and so my feelings went from "my book will cost HOW MUCH?" to "i will be super dedicated this time I PROMISE" now that thats over and i have a pumpkin spice frap in my stomach, i can digest this. ::ahem::
i don't get why we have to defend women in the workplace. it's so frustrating, WHY IS THIS STILL CONFUSING TO PEOPLE?!
ah , anyways, congratulations elena kagan, do not disappoint me, yo.
Elena Kagan is the 4th female Associate Justice. Sonia Sotomayor is the 3rd.
Ooh guess I should specify. She is the fourth appointed AJ, but one of the three current female AJs. My bad.
I'm trying to figure out what she's all about, because my COM 206 prof told us to find out who she is (and Sonia Sotomayor) and so far I can't figure out what's so important about her that he thinks we need to know….
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Lylah M. Alphonse: Not-so-random act of kindness. Beautiful.
Not-so-random act of kindness. Beautiful.
If you have anything to spare this Christmas, head over to Jenny The Bloggess and read this post, be inspired, and then go out and HELP SOMEONE. Donate cash to a food bank -- they can make it go much farther than you know. Bring toys to a shelter for women and children. Bring books to the hospital. Wait until Christmas is over and then act, if you like -- there are people who are down on their luck after the holidays are over, too.
Count your blessings. And then share the wealth.


January 19, 2010 - The Treasury Department recently released a monthly report stating that international demand for U.S. assets have grown, while several private investors have acquired a record quantity of government securities.
Net-buying for long-term U.S. securities reached $126.8 billion after a meagerly revised $19.3 billion purchased in October. This monthly data is perceived to be a loose measurement of how the U.S. can begin to fund the current trade deficit.
China is the largest intercontinental possessor of U.S. treasuries with $790 billion in holdings. After a $9.3 billion fall in November, China's holdings were still higher than they were a year ago.
Japan ranks as the second largest holder with $757 billion and with a gain of $11.4 billion for the month.
Overall, countries such as these [China and Japan] may be able to keep interest rates low, as long as they can keep an increased demand on U.S. securities.