text:
Q: Entity Framework Core bulk update underlying collections Is there a known extension for Entity Framework Core that can do this bulk update as in this SqlRaw example?
dbc.Database.ExecuteSqlRawAsync(
            "UPDATE [Assembly] SET OnHold = @OnHold, UpdatedWith = @UpdatedWith, UpdatedAt = @UpdatedAt, UpdatedById = @UpdatedById FROM [Assembly] INNER JOIN Station ON [Assembly].StationID = Station.ID INNER JOIN Project ON Station.ProjectID = Project.ID WHERE Project.ID = @ProjectID",
            onHold, updatedWith, updatedAt, updatedById, projectID)

All the tables are related, i.e. Project -> Station -> Assembly, and I want to update some values for all assemblies that are under the same project with specific ProjectID, as shown in the above statement.
p.s. Extensions I have seen until know can do bulk update, but on the first table, not on the related tables on the main entity.
Models:
public partial class Assembly
{
    public Assembly()
    {
    }

    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int StationId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string UpdatedWith { get; set; }
    public DateTime? UpdatedAt { get; set; }
    public bool OnHold { get; set; }

    public virtual Station Station { get; set; }
}

public partial class Station
{
    public Station()
    {
        Assemblies = new HashSet<Assembly>();
    }

    public int Id { get; set; }
    public int ProjectId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public virtual Project Project { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Assembly> Assemblies { get; set; }
}

public partial class Project
{
    public Project()
    {
        Stations = new HashSet<Station>();
    }

    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<Station> Stations { get; set; }
}

A: I would suggest linq2db.EntityFrameworkCore (disclaimer: I'm one of the creators)
Then you can do the following:
var updateQuery =
    from a in ctx.Assembly
    join s in ctx.Station on a.SationId equals s.ID
    join p in ctx.Project on s.ProjectId equals p.ID
    where p.ID == projectId
    select a;

var recordsAffected = await updateQuery
    .Set(a => a.OnHold, onHold)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedWith, updatedWith)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedAt, a => Sql.CurrentTimeStamp)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedById, updatedById)
    .UpdateAsync();

If you have defined appropriate navigation properties, query can be simplified and joins can be removed.
var recordAffected = await ctx.Assembly
    .Where(a => a.Station.ProjectId == projectId)
    .Set(a => a.OnHold, onHold)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedWith, updatedWith)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedAt, a => Sql.CurrentTimeStamp)
    .Set(a => a.UpdatedById, updatedById)
    .UpdateAsync();

A: The IQueryable.ToQueryString method introduced in Entity Framework Core 5.0 may help reduce/simplify the raw SQL used in your code. This method will generate SQL that can be included in a raw SQL query to perform a bulk update of records identified by that query.
For example:
var query =
    from a in dbc.Assembly
    join s in dbc.Station on a.StaionId equals s.Id
    join p in dbc.Project on s.ProjectId equals p.Id
    where p.Id == projectId
    select a.Id;

var sql = $@"
    UPDATE Assembly
    SET OnHold = {{0}}, UpdatedWith = {{1}}, UpdatedAt = {{2}}, UpdatedById = {{3}}
    WHERE Id IN ({query.ToQueryString()})
";

dbc.Database.ExecuteSqlRawAsync(sql, onHold, updatedWith, updatedAt, updatedById);

The major drawback of this approach is the use of raw SQL. However I don't know of any reasonable way to avoid that with current Entity Framework Core capabilities - you're stuck with this caveat, or the caveat of introducing a dependency on another library such as linq2db.EntityFrameworkCore as mentioned in another answer here.
If (when) the following issue is addressed in the future then we are likely to have a better answer to this question: Bulk (i.e. set-based) CUD operations (without loading data into memory) #795

A: Just a little patience there will be the built-in BulkUpdate() as well as BulkDelete methods in EFCore which will be delivered in EFCore 7.0
context.Customers.Where(...).BulkDelete();
context.Customers.Where(...).BulkUpdate(c => new Customer { Age = c.Age + 1 });
context.Customers.Where(...).BulkUpdate(c => new { Age = c.Age + 1 });


I am an indirect long-term user of this module via other modules that needed it and therefore was one of the victims when it broke for non-threaded perls a few years ago, with all the hassle of investigating, hoping for a while, and eventually migrating away from the modules that needed it.
Coincidentally I just found this module again, and can happily confirm that it works again.
I used it to kill trees of processes using killfam and to explicitly collect such trees for other operations using Proc::ProcessTable, and Killfam::get_pids().
I could confirm its functionality with an independent pstree shell scripting solution I wrote as fall-back.
Although I only used it on Linux yet I skimmed the source to get some confidence how it approaches platform independence, and it looked good to me.
Thanks to JWB for getting this module back on track.
In 2006 I did a real world project where I solved some parts in PROLOG. I thought about available Perl-only logic programming solutions on CPAN but after some experimenting recognized Language::Prolog::Yaswi as the best choice because sooner or later you need some real PROLOG-only features and you need to ask the according communities, which can better help you when referring to a real PROLOG they know.
The existence of this lib also was my primary decision criterion for SWI Prolog over GNU Prolog.
I used both directions, mostly PROLOG from Perl but also provided some functions from Perl to the PROLOG library (namely some DateTime functionality). It worked as documented, although as usual you should take some time for fiddling the best way how to organize both your Perl and (mostly) your PROLOG libs, e.g. when to use libs and namespaces, where to store PROLOG files, etc.
For testing I can recommend the "Autotest for SWI-Prolog" library which I simply adapted to print out TAP. This way you can test the PROLOG subsystem and the integration from within your Perl project.
The author was responsive for bugreports (something in SWI PROLOG had changed), investigated and fixed it. Everything felt matured (for those who don't trust version numbers below 1.00).
Thanks for this powerful lib that opens up a powerful different programming paradigm in The Right Way.
This module earns the most respect for being the base for some other new and hot CPAN modules like TryCatch, MooseX::Method::Signatures, MooseX::Declare, MooseX::MultiMethods, etc., which marry Perl6 like functionality with Perl6 like syntax and by that bring us a modern and aesthetic way of programming, all in Perl5.
for modules that use Devel::Declare and are more targeted to end users.
If you are looking for how to do OO in Perl then please have a look at more modern approaches, in particular "Moose". That will provide you with a much more concise, more natural and very modern interface.
This module would be soooo nice and useful if it wouldn't break all filename globbing globally in other modules.
Therefore I strongly suggest moving this module below the Acme:: namespace where you can expect such things.
This issue is fixed with v0.0.5.
I therefore raised my overall rating. Thanks.
This module helps surviving in a multi-language work environment where you need to participate in the discussion about the typical Perl FUD. And, admittedly, it really adds even more beauty and readability to your code.
I used it in the context of a Moose'ified and RPC:XML::Server-based application, providing an IMHO sufficiently complex environment of subs and methods that finally gave me a good feeling about this module, not being that alpha grade as it calls itself.
I would, of course, really appreciate it if the trailing semicolon after a method can be avoided. But currently the advantages in readability are worth it.
I'm a long term user of this module, even before it's existence on CPAN. This module works good for me.
- The file should use a lib path that matches its namespace, i.e., lib/DBIx/Class/Schema/Loader/DBI/Oracle.pm.
- It has documentation issues, eg. it uses "Postgres" in its description, probably because it was forked from that package. It's not that critical but such things make the user unsure. The hidden instance in DBIx-Class-Schema-Loader already fixed that.
My suggestion: Merge and fix the documentation (eg. the DBD::Oracle speed hint) into the DBIx-Class-Schema-Loader instance, no longer hide that other instance from indexer and take this instance here away again from CPAN.
I know, that it's a pity to give up on modules for the sake of authors reputation, but having it central in DBIx-Class-Schema-Loader is more worthy for the users. Maybe just incrementing version number in the DBIx-Class-Schema-Loader instance solves the reputation problem.
I'm coming from the explicit DBI/DBD/SQL programming world and are just switching/learning to the way of ORM. Therefore my point of view is rather at a beginner level.
DBIx class is really nice if you follow the path of the examples with widespread open source databases like MySQL. I mostly used it from within Catalyst and I got practically all simple and enhanced query problems solved quite elegant without programming in SQL.
So, why not 5 stars?
Because the documentation may become very confusing once you have to use another database system (Oracle in my case) and the basic examples are not enough or you need to do manually what normally Catalyst helper scripts do for you.
Then the documentation too often says "see This::Other::Related::Module". This might be true but requires you to understand each of those other related modules and to click through the hell of the circular dependencies between all those modules which is very annoying once you lost the thread. All this got worse when some of similar modules or some single methods just went deprecated. I really got lost there.
I wish the documentation would simply be more explicit even if that means doubling some prose and examples. Currently it feels a bit too much from a point of view of advanced regular DBIx::Class users.
Update 2008-05-30: I raise my rating to 5 stars. The docs got better and it's so worth all the effort to understand this ORM because it gets more and more fun the more you get used to it and the community on irc helps you with every problem within minutes. What else should they do to earn 5 stars?
Mason is a very perlish templating tool.
It is extremely powerful, although by using Perl as its template language it desires some discipline to take care of separating logic and layout.
Self decided discipline is what a Perl programmer needs anyway in larger projects, so it's ok, but don't expect your non-Perl project fellows to love mason templates.
With Mason you can do with your layout code (the templates) what you do with your normal code all the time: restructure every snippet that occurs to be reusable. Masons well-thought component API allows you to do this in various ways: with OO like inheritance, function or macro like calls or just "classical" template including.
There is syntactic sugar everywhere, exactly when you just realise you could need a feature there. Example is the filtering of output with or without entity encoding.
For web programming I prefer Mason over Template-Toolkit (which in turn I prefer for strange text templating, so it's no criticism of TT).
The only thing that I don't like is its prerequisite to Apache::Request which in turn tries to install libapreq which in turn is, depending on the OS, a "challenge" (to avoid the word "problem") for itself and practically everytime better installed with the OS distribution tools or by the sysadmin. I don't know why this dependency is set because Mason can be used without Apache or mod_perl, e.g. with Catalyst. Maybe a historical legacy. I would like to see that coupling divided.
Another thing that might take some time is to customize you editor for mixing highlighting of Mason/HTML and Perl syntax. At least with Emacs it kept me awake some time to fiddle with MMM-mode.
I like the idea of this module and even tried to reuse its contained collection of regexes, servers and answer types. Unfortunately it's probably too old to really recognize and handle most of the currently typical answers from whois servers.
I took Net::Whois::Raw instead and did some heuristically regexing for myself.
I use it for some time. No problems from my linuxish point of view.
I just wanted to rate my own package to get rid of those horrible question marks (now empty stars). And I use pod-mode everyday and it's really useful; pod-mode makes writing POD fun. Use it!


text:
Four HatchbackOne HatchbackThree HatchbackTwo Hatchback
99@4,800
Toyota Prius c Expert Review
Stefan Ogbac
Excellent fuel economy
Practical hatchback body style
Easy to maneuver in urban areas
Engine lacks power
Poor ride and handling
Higher trim levels are as expensive as base-model Prius
Volkswagen Golf TDI
Ford Focus SFE with 1.0L EcoBoost I-3
The 2015 Toyota Prius C gains restyled front fascia and taillights, standard LED low- and high-beam headlights, and improved cabin materials. Three new exterior colors have been added: Electric Lime Metallic, Tangerine Splash Pearl, and Sparkling Sea Metallic.
The entry-level 2015 Toyota Prius C is the smallest model in the Prius family. A 1.5-liter I-4 paired to an electric motor with a total system output of 99 hp is the only engine available and it's paired to a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Fuel economy is excellent at 53/46 mpg city/highway, making the Prius C one of the most fuel efficient vehicles on the market today.
With the 2015 Toyota Prius C's emphasis on fuel economy, the car doesn't perform well, with only 99 hp available to pull around its 2,500-pound curb weight. Handling isn't one of the car's strong points; the hatchback's tires focus on maximizing fuel economy rather than driving dynamics. This also impacts the Prius C's ride because it remains uncomfortable even with the smaller 15-inch steel wheels.
Thanks to its four-door hatchback body style, the 2015 Toyota Prius C has plenty of room inside for passengers. Trunk space is 17.1 cubic feet with the rear seats up, making it larger than some compact sedans, and can be expanded by folding the second row. Higher trim levels add Toyota's Entune infotainment system with navigation and allow access to smartphone apps via Bluetooth, 16-inch alloy wheels, and leatherette upholstery.
The 2015 Toyota Prius C received a four-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA (out of a possible five stars). In IIHS evaluations, the car earned a Good score in four categories and Poor in the small overlap front crash test (Good is the highest possible score).
For those looking for a fuel efficient hatchback that's easy to live with in tight urban spaces, the 2015 Toyota Prius C is a decent choice. However, driving dynamics, acceleration, and refinement have been sacrificed in its quest to get the most mpgs as possible. In a 2014 First Test review, we noted that the car is underpowered, taking it 6.8 seconds to complete the 45-65 mph acceleration test. Additionally, opting for the larger 16-inch wheels detracted from the car's ride quality, making it "tiring." While opting for the smaller 15-inch units improved the Prius C's ride, it also exaggerated the slow steering and made it feel more imprecise than it already is. The car's price is also another issue because higher trim levels, as we noted in a 2012 First Test review, can get up to $26,000 dollars, reducing its value proposition and its fuel efficiency advantage over similarly sized gas-powered vehicles. If you're set on a Prius C, we'd recommend considering the lower or mid-level trims.
Key Competitors

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Lehigh creates joint venture with Hera in Spain
Plastics News Report
Rubber & Plastics News Report
ATLANTA—Lehigh Technologies Inc. is planning to grow in Europe with help from Hera Holding.
The two companies are partnering in Spain to turn a Lehigh subsidiary into a joint venture with plans to build and operate what Lehigh said will be the first micronized rubber powder production facility in Europe.
Cost of the project and plant details were not disclosed.
Called Lehigh Spain, the facility will be built in Murillo del Fruto, Spain. Lehigh said it will meet the growing MRP needs of industrial customers across the European Union and neighboring regions, Lehigh said.
Lehigh Spain, which was formed as a subsidiary about a year ago, will also continue to develop new markets for the company's PolyDyne and MicroVyne product ranges, focusing on delivering high performance, low cost, sustainable raw materials for applications in the tire, asphalt and other industrial end users.


text:
In this section: Press Releases
Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations
June 6, 2016: Pharmaceutical Companies To Pay $67 Million To Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Relating To Tarceva
Office of Criminal Investigations
U.S. Department of Justice Press Release
United States Department of Justice
SAN FRANCISCO- Pharmaceutical companies Genentech, Inc. and OSI Pharmaceuticals, LLC will pay $67 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. made misleading statements about the effectiveness of the drug Tarceva to treat non-small cell lung cancer. The announcement was made today by United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch; Principal Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer; Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General Steven Ryan; and Howard R. Sklamberg, the Federal Food and Drug Administration's Deputy Commissioner for Global Regulatory Operations and Policy.
Genentech, located in South San Francisco, California, and OSI Pharmaceuticals, located in Farmingdale, New York, co-promote Tarceva, which is approved to treat certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer or pancreatic cancer. OSI Pharmaceuticals LLC is the successor to OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was acquired by Astellas Holding US Inc. in 2010 and converted to a limited liability company in 2011. The settlement resolves allegations that, between January 2006 and December 2011, Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals made misleading representations to physicians and other health care providers about the effectiveness of Tarceva to treat certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer, when there was little evidence to show that Tarceva was effective to treat those patients unless they had never smoked or had a mutation in their epidermal growth factor receptor, which is a protein involved in the growth and spread of cancer cells.
As a result of today's $67 million settlement, the federal government will receive $62.6 million and state Medicaid programs will receive $4.4 million. The Medicaid program is funded jointly by the state and federal governments.
"This settlement demonstrates the government's unwavering commitment to pursue violations of the False Claims Act and recover taxpayer dollars spent as a result of misleading marketing campaigns," said U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch for the Northern District of California.
"Pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to provide accurate information to patients and health care providers about their prescription drugs," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "The Department of Justice will hold those companies accountable that mislead the public about the efficacy of their products."
"Pharmaceutical companies that make misleading or unsubstantiated statements about their products can put patients at risk," said Deputy Commissioner Howard R. Sklamberg for FDA's global regulatory operations and policy. "The FDA will continue to work to protect the public's health by ensuring that companies do not mislead healthcare providers about their products."
"Drug manufacturers that make misleading claims about their product's effectiveness can jeopardize the health of patients -- in this case, cancer patients," said Special Agent in Charge Steven J. Ryan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). "Our agency will continue to protect both patients and taxpayers by holding those who engage in such practices accountable for their actions."
The settlement resolves allegations filed in a lawsuit by former Genentech employee Brian Shields, in federal court in San Francisco. The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. Shields will receive approximately $10 million. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
This settlement illustrates the government's emphasis on combating health care fraud and marks another achievement for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced in May 2009 by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $29.8 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $18.2 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ila C. Deiss and U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Trial Attorney Jennifer Cihon handled the case with the assistance of Paralegal Jonathan Birch. The settlement is the result of a coordinated effort by the Civil Division's Commercial Litigation Branch and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, with assistance from the HHS-OIG, the HHS Office of Counsel to the Inspector General, the HHS Office of the General Counsel-CMS Division, the FDA's Office of Chief Counsel, the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, the Office of the Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management, the FBI, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, the Office of the General Counsel for the Defense Health Agency and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
USAO - California, Northern
Download GNE Signed Order
Download GNE Settlement Agreement


It unfolds like a soap opera for the entertainment of millions and the profit of a few. What has football become?
It's hard to imagine that George Orwell and Ted Turner would have had much to discuss had they ever found themselves seated together over a Sunday roast — aside from a mutual appreciation of the pencil moustache. The tyrannicide and the tycoon would not, it seems fair to say, have much natural repartee. It would be one of those occasions to break out the conversational back-stops: weather, perhaps. Sport, certainly.
"Serious sport," Orwell might elucidate as he goes back for a second helping of parsnips, "is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting."
Turner, turning over a Yorkshire pudding, wondering what it could possibly be, would nod sagely. "Sport is like a war, without the killing," he would observe.
Orwell looks at him askance. His interlocutor, he thinks, sounds disappointed, as though sport's lack of bloodshed is an area for improvement; almost like he is offering recreation as a concept some constructive criticism.
"Ahem," comes a noise from across the table. His gargantuan white moustache putting both men to shame, his eyes twinkling, Baron Pierre du Coubertin clears his throat. "I always said," he declares, in heavily accented English, "that the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."
Perhaps that motto remains true for the Olympics, although in an age in which all sports and their participants rely so heavily on sponsorship, and in which sponsorship demands results for increased exposure, it is hard to imagine it does. Few would suggest it has ever applied to football; tribalistic, fierce, its historiography written by men who viewed second as abject failure. If it ever did, it does not now.
Should their host insist, then, that after the Viennetta has been cleared away and the coffees drained, his guests should repair to the living room to watch Sky's Super Sunday, De Coubertin would no doubt decline, his sporting sensibilities offended. Orwell and Turner, though, would find some reason to linger.
Two men for whom sport is war would not recognise the game being played out before them, its glitz, its glamour. What they would see is 90 minutes of action treated almost as a distraction from the real business of sport: the narrative of news. Sport is not war. Not now. In an era in which even war is entertainment — all that was missing from the second Gulf War in 2003 were extended highlights — sport is unlikely to be exempt.
It is a cultural trait that has been noted. In his treatise Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, the commentator Neal Gabler observed that the rise of a society driven by the desire to be entertained forced "nearly everything to turn itself into entertainment in order to attract attention."
As for war, politics, culture and the rest, so for sport. Gabler's thesis is that the primacy of entertainment evolved as essentially a democratic reaction to aristocratic control of what might be termed "old culture". Entertainment — be it print media, cinema, radio or television — was a culture dominated by the common man. He looked for "horse play, belly laughter, pretty girls, ingenious scenery, flippancy and fol de rol."
Most of all, he looked for humanity. There is a media doctrine taught as the theory of "Like Me": namely, every story printed or filmed must contain elements where the reader or viewer can see a parallel between their own life and that of the subject. People want to read about people like them; hence the proliferation of the human interest story. Sport is no different. As Gabler puts it, "Who needs the sporting events when the athletes themselves are walking inspirational soap operas?"
Inspiration is just one of the characteristics viewers, readers, listeners — consumers — of sport-as-entertainment expect. Just as in the penny dreadfuls and the yellow papers of the late 19th century and the tabloids and Fox News of today, so sport must provide the full gamut of human emotion. There must be disappointment and delight, heroes and villains, redemption and revenge, glory and gall. The sport itself — the action of the game — provides just part of this. The rest is in the anticipation and the denouement.
And that is where the media comes in. That is not just the written press, but television, radio, the internet, everything. Football is big business. To newspapermen, it is the battering ram with which to drive sales. To broadcasters, it means subscriptions. To websites, it means hits. It drives an industry (that industry then feeds football; the arrangement is mutually parasitic). And to drive an industry, to attract attention in an age of entertainment, as Gabler says, it must become entertainment.
All of which raises the question: can football, as seen through the prism of Sky, still be considered a sport? Or is it something else? It possesses characters, narrative, plot. It attracts more attention for what happens off the field than on. The game still continues, of course, but the edifice around it suggests that sport is just an aspect of what football has become. Is it, in fact, sports entertainment?
That term exists already, of course, for sport's embarrassing young cousin, professional wrestling. It was first coined in the mid-1980s, when the lurid, muscle-bound cartoons of the World Wrestling Federation were at their most popular, though it is thought to date back to 1935.
It is defined — by Wikipedia, for the omerta which pervades professional wrestling means few people have been inclined to discuss what counts as sports entertainment — as "a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competitive event using a high level of theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation with the purpose of entertaining an audience." That could, quite easily, apply to any Sky match featuring Nani.
Furthermore: "Unlike typical athletics and games, which are conducted for competition, sportsmanship, exercise or personal recreation, the primary product of sports entertainment is performance for an audience's benefit."
Sports entertainment is, then, sport with the sport removed; it is sport purely as narrative, sport as Sky Sports News would have us believe. It is to sport, essentially, as soap opera as to life. "It is ballet with violence," as Jesse Ventura, formerly a professional wrestler, now a politician, pundit and personality, put it. It is not competitive. What happens in a bout is not really significant, not on a technical level, because the outcome is pre-destined. The story, what this latest instalment means, is all that counts.
This is what football has become. A startling example came on March 9 this year, the morning after Barcelona, at their impish, dervish best, had exhilarated in excoriating Arsenal in the Champions League. For the 90 minutes of that 3-1 second leg win, sport happened, sport at its absolute best, two teams of impeccable technical expertise — though one, in truth, substantially better — seeking glory.
The headlines the next day? "Referee killed us, insists Wenger," read the Times, in reference to Massimo Busacca's officious — but hardly criminally baffling — decision to dismiss Robin van Persie minutes into the second half. The beauty of Barcelona was relegated to second billing behind the whisper of illusory controversy. The latest instalment is all that matters. That's enough of the sport, let's get back to the story.
That is not to suggest that football is in any way pre-determined, despite the best efforts of various match-fixers. And yet it is structured. It is structured in the sense that the fixture list, for all of the Premier League's denials, is either amended to provide a steady supply of appetising fixtures and putative storylines or, such is the regularity with which Super Sunday becomes Grand Slam Sunday on the same weekend every year, it proves the existence of God.
And it is structured in a less formal way, by a compliant media. To take one example: managers, at press conferences, do not often request silence and deliver a breathless monologue about the incompetence of referees. They are asked questions. Sometimes they answer them truthfully, or controversially. Often, how they answer them is irrelevant, because they have been asked a question which has no right answer, delivered a query from which they cannot escape.
So, too, mind games. There can be no concept more broadly defined in the sporting landscape than these exercises in cod psychology. They are largely, when removed from the hype and the hyperbole in which they are uttered, analysed and examined, attempts at smart-aleckry which would shame a child; delivered by a manager, and they become weapons in a perma-war for mental primacy.
Everything, in football, is heightened. Reality is not enough, so it is expanded, meaning is extrapolated, significance is assumed. And all of it around a structure to ensure maximum exposure, maximum interest, to guarantee, as Gabler puts it, that its characters fulfil their contracts "to carry out their lives for the amusement of the readers."
But perhaps, because there remains an element of sport at the heart, a kernel of actual endeavour, it would be unfair to group football, or more specifically elite football, with professional wrestling. Perhaps a better term can be found in another sub-genre of popular culture. Perhaps Super Sunday, or 6-0-6, or tabloid newspapers — by format or mentality — should come with a disclaimer. These people are real, it should read, and anything can happen, but some of what they do has been set up purely for your entertainment.
That is the format followed by the statement which precedes every episode of ITV's cult documentary soap opera, The Only Way Is Essex, a programme built around the lives of a dozen or so entrepreneurial, spray-tanned twenty-somethings in London's gaudy hinterlands.
It is part of television's latest trend, the "structured reality" format which started with Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, spawned The Hills and Jersey Shore and is now spreading, rather like a high-definition botulism, across Britain's networks. There is TOWIE, as it is known, now a Bafta-winning series. There is Made In Chelsea and Geordie Shore, respectively an insight into the vapidity of the aspirational class, the abhorrence of the assumed aristocracy and a chilling insight into what happens when humans do not have to work, merely drink, eat and rut.
The premise is simple: soap operas are expensive to make, because you have to pay writers and actors and build sets and stuff. Reality shows are, frankly, dull, because most people when left to their own devices don't do much and aren't interesting. So the two have been combined; reality wasn't quite enough for television, so it has been altered to be more like television. It has been structured.
"These are real people," Tony Wood, the creative director of Lime Pictures, which created TOWIE, told the Today programme. "We place them in environments in which the narrative of their lives and the emotional context of their lives will be played out."
This is Gabler's ingenious scenery, where the requisite horseplay can be carried out by pretty girls and boys. "Before the cameras roll we'll say 'remember to ask what happened last night'," according to Wood. "In the edit, I'll cut words out of sentences to make it more 'writerly' and give it that soap opera quality. But we don't make anything happen that they don't want to happen. The emotional narrative is real."
The parallel with football is clear. Not the football played on parks, but the football played in the Premier League and played out, in every minor detail, in newspapers and on the radio and the internet and the television. Not football the sport, football the sports entertainment.
The characters playing on the pitch are real; they determine which way their lives, their stories will go. These people exist. Anything can happen. Turner may even approve. Orwell and De Coubertin certainly would not. For them, all sport was struggle. To see it cast as mere soap opera, to see courage replaced by character, all of it consumed by narrative would be anathema. Neither conquering nor fighting well matter so much as they did. As long as there is a story to be had, in our most beautifully structured sport.
This article appeared on Episode Fourteen of the Blizzard Podcast. You can see which other articles we have featured by searching the Podcast tag, but we'd really like you to subscribe which you can do through iTunes, Soundcloud, our RSS feed or wherever you usually get your podcasts of choice.


The cooking classes are on Monday 24th April (yes, the Monday before Anzac day – take the day off work and have a nice long weekend) and Sunday 30th (choose one day).
I would love to book in to your cooking class on Sunday April 30th. Two of my friends are attending that day.
Sizzling and bubbling ... utterly impossible to resist.
And still producing award-winning wines.
Looking for something speedy, tasty and easy? Yep. This is it.


Sherry is a young woman who was involved romantically with Juliet's former husband, Edmund Burke prior to Juliet's arrival on the island.
The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.
The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile flow and the sun rise every day. Because of this aspect of the eight, Budge believe that Kek and Kauket were once deities linked to Khnum and Satet, to Hapy – Nile gods of Abu (Elephantine). He also believed that Kek may have also been linked to Sobek.
The feminine of the god Kek, Kauket (Keket) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She was a snake-headed woman who ruled over the darkness with her husband. Her name also meant darkness, as did her husband's name, but with a feminine ending.
O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky…The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as … Kek, darkness… I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.
Kauket was the feminine to Kek's masculine, more of a representation of duality than an actual goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Kek, and much more of an abstract.
She was, though, also related to the day – she was the "bringer-in of the night". This seems to show her to be the goddess of the night, just after sunset. The goddess of the the hours of the evening, as night covered Egypt, and the sun had disappeared. This was the twilight which turned into the darkness of night.
Kuk (also spelled as Keku) is the deification of the primordial concept of darkness in Egyptian mythology. In the Ogdoadcosmogony, his name meant darkness. As a concept, Kuk was viewed as androgynous, his female form being known as Kauket (also spelled as Keket), which is simply the female form of the word Kuk. Like all 4 dualistic concepts in the Ogdoad, Kuk's male form was depicted as a frog, or as a frog-headed man, and the female form as a snake, or a snake-headed woman. As a symbol of darkness, Kuk also represented obscurity and the unknown, and thus chaos. Also, Kuk was seen as that which occurred before light, thus was known as the bringer-in of light.


Internationally-renowned duo for voice and lute Mignarda returns to Cleveland for a special performance in tribute to the life's work of an important scholar.
Saturday, May 17th at 8pm, at the beautiful Tregoning & Co. Art Gallery, lute song duo Mignarda will present an evening of Elizabethan lute song and poetry in tribute to Edward Doughtie. The song texts are from the pens of important poets who lived in the age of Shakespeare; evocative poetry with a surprising emotional content set to music that ranges from compelling counterpoint to clever, sparkling and downright danceable.
The program will feature music from Mignarda's 2013 CD recording of John Dowland's last and best book of songs, published in 1612. To complement Dowland's highly sophisticated music, the program will also include settings of lute songs by his contemporaries Thomas Campion, John Danyel, and Robert Jones.
The concert is a tribute to Edward Doughtie (1935-2014), whose work in the field of the literary sources of English lute songs became a standard reference, and was the inspiration for many of Mignarda's poetically-themed programs. There will be a special introduction by Doughtie's colleague, Cleveland's own Dr. David Richardson, and the program will conclude with some new compositions for voice and lute including a modern lute song composed by Edward Doughtie.
Cleveland natives Donna Stewart & Ron Andrico, better known as Mignarda, are well-known to Cleveland audiences and one of the few professional lute song duos in the US. Dedicated to music of the 16th century, Mignarda's engaging approach has set a new standard for interpretation, authenticity and musicianship. Based in rural upstate NY, Mignarda performs throughout the US with an international audience for their ten critically-acclaimed recordings and a growing series of editions of historical music for voice and lute. Mignarda's CD, Divine Amarillis, received the 2009 JPF Best Classical Vocal Album Award, and the duo maintain an active schedule in touring, recording and teaching. In additon to live performances, their music has gained international exposure through radio and television broadcasts across the US.
Professor Richardson devoted much of his academic career to British Renaissance literature, with special attention to Edmund Spenser, biography, and rhetoric. He initiated and was Managing Editor of The Spenser Encyclopedia (1990) and edited four volumes of 16th-century British Nondramatic Literature (1993-96) for the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
After retiring from CSU, he helped develop academic programs for baccalaureate and graduate degrees from eight Ohio colleges and universities for site-bound students near Cleveland on the campus of Lorain County Community College (LCCC). He initiated Meeting Great Minds, a lecture series to bring stimulating minds to campus for close interaction with high-school and college students. From one such encounter, he initiated LCCC's Fab Lab and the Fab Lab Network.
Richardson has now officially retired twice but continues consulting about Fab Labs. He also enjoys hosting play readings, listening to chamber music, reading historical anthropology, hunting, jogging, and following Voltaire's advice about cultivating miniature tomatoes. Once, while his wife looked on with wild surmise, he swam with Hector's dolphins in New Zealand.


CONWAY — The Mount Washington Valley has long been known as a mecca for hiking, skiing, shopping ... but writing? Except for such publishing phenoms as Lisa Gardner and Tom Ryan, both of Jackson, and ski chroniclers Tom Eastman and Marty Basch, both of Conway, not so much.
CONWAY — It's not every day a best-selling children's author drops by Conway Elementary, but the Cougars were ready and rolled out the red carpet for Andrew Clements on March 29.
CONWAY — Assistance Canine Training Services (A.C.T.S.) has placed a facility therapy dog with Kelley Marcello, a children's mental health counselor at Children Unlimited Inc. in Conway.
CONWAY — Are Conway's elementary school students getting enough to eat in their school lunches?
CONCORD — A bill that would create a pilot program to allow swimming at car-top boat launches was heard by a House committee April 17 and will be voted by that committee on Tuesday, April 23.
PINKHAM NOTCH — Due to the inclement forecast for the weekend, Wildcat Mountain announced Friday that is closed Friday through Sunday of Easter Weekend.
BERLIN — A search for an 11-year old boy reported missing Wednesday evening ended happily when the youth was found safe and sound Thursday afternoon.
CONCORD — State Fish and Game Department Turkey Biologist Ted Walski predicts another good harvest during the upcoming 2019 spring gobbler season. The spring turkey hunt runs throughout the month of May statewide.
CONWAY — The White Mountains Community College veterinary assistant program, located in North Conway Village, has received approval by the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America.
CONCORD — The N.H. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is accepting letters of intent for its 2019 Conservation License Plate Grant Programs.
CONWAY — The town engineer told selectmen Tuesday that the Main Street project needs to encroach on the Conway Public Library's grounds in front of the building if the intersection is to be improved. The library's director hopes that can be avoided.
FRYEBURG, Maine — Oxford County commissioners and other officials heard from Fryeburg residents a second time at the American Legion on Tuesday about concerns over the closure of Fryeburg's Registry of Deeds office on Portland Street.
CONCORD — Developer Les Otten's vision for creating the crown jewel of resort hotels with the largest ski area in the Northeast at the Balsams got another major boost Thursday, this time from the state Senate.
CONWAY — The Saco River is predicted to reach 14 feet this weekend and if that happens West Side Road might be at risk of flooding, the town of Conway Emergency Management Facebook page warned Thursday afternoon.
CONWAY — A woman was charged with burglary by police Wednesday because they allege she left her laundry at the scene of the crime.
CONWAY — Advantage Kids and Cranmore Resort Tennis conducted NH's first USTA Team Challenge last Saturday, April 13, for children in grades 4-6.


I never thought I would ask to be released, though that is what it came to.
Feeling neglected and disposable was not healthy for me. I was not getting what I needed; there was too much going on for both of us. I asked to be released.
I feel it was the right decision while we worked on "sorting" so many "things" going on in life.
I also feel a big empty hole within me. I have to stop myself from doing my former daily devotions. They were habit and meant a great deal, though I was not aware of how much until I stopped completely.
I talk with some in my life with their responses as "well, your better off", yet my heart does not feel better off.
I feel agony, doubt, and sadness. I feel disconnected and painfully empty.
I just wish it were easier for me.
I'm proud of myself for setting healthy boundaries, yet I am seeking comfort. It is not easy for me to stick up for myself, especially with those whom I love, care for and am devoted to. It is that part of loving myself, of caring for myself.
I am hurting. I'm tired of hurting. I'm trying very hard to stay positive, not falling into 'self depreciating' statements, but the truth is I still hurt. Staying positive, loving myself and working through the pain, is the only way I can do this.
It has brought up a lot of baggage as well. So I'm feeling the pain and letting it go, instead of ignoring it and pretending it didn't happen.
I just wish I did not feel so alone no matter the fact that this is a process I must feel and do alone.
Truthfully, right now, I just want to be held. Held by someone who loves me, feeling safe and warm. Feeling valued.
I just want to cry until everything feels better or until I feel nothing at all and I can fall into a dreamless sleep.
It was never a question of love.
It was the realization of neglect.
and never fulfill with me what you fulfilled with others.
I suppose I understand. Nah…. I don't, really. Not really certain if I care to.
What I understand is that when I asked for clarification or to go slow, you threw a fit. Pouting like a child, telling me every thing you thought I wanted to hear. Then you became a hermit avoiding and projecting guilt until I acquiesced to who,what you wanted, the way you wanted it.
Soon you stopped sharing. I question if you were ever truthful or if you know what honesty is. Especially with what is coming out of the wash now.
hence the realization of neglect.
Your own actions made it easier to walk away from you.
I wish you the best with all the love in my heart and am grateful for all the positive things as well as the other experiences I learned from.
I truly do but with my boundaries firmly in place.
I do not need to beg anyone to spend time with me in any way shape or form.
Prose from The Wicker Man within the song Gently Johnny ~ wish I knew who wrote this….
Mixed with memories of recent and distant pasts.


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The Code of Ethical Conduct is the foundation of our Compliance Program. It outlines the duties and responsibilities of the Compliance Program and of those who are associated with the Heart and Health Medical. You can access a copy of the Code of Ethical Conduct by contacting our office.
Heart and Health Medical prohibits the receipt of gifts, regardless of size or dollar value, from health care industry vendors to employees and other individuals associated with Heart and Health Medical. We also have a rigorous conflicts of interest disclosure and review process to mitigate any potential conflict of interest that may impact patient care.
The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) and the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) provide information regarding waste, fraud and abuse in the federal and New York state health care programs. The Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) is the agency responsible for the enforcement of the HIPAA privacy and security rules. You can access their websites by clicking on the following links: OIG,OMIG, OCR.
In addition to providing the highest quality care for our patients, Heart and Health Medical holds the privacy of our patients' health information as a core value.
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Category: All Politics is Local
Medway Council Ombudsman outrage
In which Medway Council finds itself on the receiving end of yet another critical report, this time from a very unhappy Ombudsman..
Medway Council is in trouble with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for a second time as top councillors haven't changed their rules about how to support families with transport costs to get to school.
Who is this Ombudsman?
His name is Michael King. He's quite a nice chap, whose job is to make sure councils do what they should and everyone gets a fair deal. He investigates complaints about councils, is independent, and gives recommendations.
Continue reading "Medway Council Ombudsman outrage"
Anna and the conference
In which Anna McGovern, the Chair of Medway Youth Council, talks about the organisation achieved at their recent Annual Conference..
In a recent national ballot for young people called "Make Your Mark", it was overwhelmingly highlighted that 40% of young people in Medway wanted "Protect The Environment" to be prioritised as a national campaign. This is our youth demographic, denied the vote – but longing for a say on their future. The timing of our Annual Conference couldn't have been more spot on.
On the 20th November 2019, the Medway Youth Council hosted their Annual Conference for 2019 – "Climate Change – A Real Threat To Our Future!". We invited young people from across Medway to partake in a series of workshops, have the opportunity to converse with climate change professionals, and to attend an afternoon Q&A panel focussing on the key themes within the climate crisis. We were particularly fortunate to have MidKent College in Gillingham host our event for the day.
The purpose of our Annual Conference was to educate and inform young people on the issues concerning climate change on a local and a national scale. Whether you join Extinction Rebellion, engage in a protest or even make small changes in your lifestyle – we wanted to impart onto our young people that there are so many ways in which they can contribute towards the reversal of climate change.
Continue reading "Anna and the conference"
Doing it for the kids, part 3
In which our intrepid reporter continues to look at the state of children's social care in Medway following another damning report..
In case you hadn't heard, Medway Council has not magically been able to improve children's social care services in three months, following ten years of austerity.
However, the council is not off the hook and will continue to provide social care for children in the towns. On top of that, the big guns that have been sent in to help the council clean up its act and will stay for at least another six months.
Continue reading "Doing it for the kids, part 3"
Policies affecting young adults before an election
In which Anna McGovern, the Chair of Medway Youth Council, looks at the relevant issues for young people in this General Election..
Thursday 12th December will be a crucial day in the UK's political sphere. It is the General Election – a day in which the people vote for who they want to represent them in Parliament. A total of 650 candidates will be elected as Members of Parliament (MPs) to decide laws and policies governing the UK. Individuals vote for the candidate they wish to represent them within their constituency on a Parliamentary scale. Many of these candidates will belong to a political party, but some candidates do stand independently. Current polls suggest a Conservative lead, with the Electoral Calculus website outlining an 82% likelihood that there will be a Conservative majority. But I tend to take these polls with a slight pinch of salt, because you can never truly know what to expect until the election result is announced to the UK. Individuals will be voting for their preferred candidate (or, in some cases, the "best" out of a bad bunch) within their constituency for the General Election.
Continue reading "Policies affecting young adults before an election"
Safeguarding Rehman about town
It's election time and it's not unlikely another one is possible next year as well! As elections ever more become social media battles, PPCs promote themselves to anybody who has a pulse and is willing to fake a smile. With that in mind, it's worth looking at guidance regarding safeguarding and the sharing of images of children online.
This isn't about if you should share pictures of children online, but if you are interested in that, The Independent covered it here.
The following piece was inspired by a social media post by Rehman Chishti MP. The editing, as will become clear, is by us.
Continue reading "Safeguarding Rehman about town"
Standing up for those standing down
In which former Medway councillor Anne-Claire Howard ponders why female MPs are stepping down in this General Election..
The first question is, are many women MPs standing down? More than men? If that's the case, are they long standing MPs? And what reasons are they invoking? And are they of all parties, ethnic origin, or ages? It's a little easy to make all-encompassing statements like this, so I did a little research.
First of all, of the 58 politicians who are stepping down, 18 are women. "Well, that's not so bad", I hear you say. No, that's not so bad. It's basically the same proportion as there are female MPs in the house. This in itself is an issue, but not the topic of this piece. So proportionally as many women are standing down as men. But many of these women are relatively young and relatively recently elected compared to their male peers. That is more of a concern.
Continue reading "Standing up for those standing down"
iFAQ: Housing infrastructure fun
Medway was recently awarded a £170m grant from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock future housing developments on the Hoo peninsula. While homes are desperately needed in Medway, these developments are very unpopular around the peninsula due to a perception of over-development. As such we decided to ask if this was the best use of the funding, or could it have been better spent in other parts of Medway.
It was recently announced that Medway has been awarded £170m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock future developments on the Hoo peninsula. Do you feel that this is the best use of this money, or do you feel that other parts of Medway could have benefited from access to these funds? If so, how?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading "iFAQ: Housing infrastructure fun"
Boring History: The Zinoviev letter
In which Chris Sams looks to the past to try and figure out the General Election, and finds a Medway parallel along the way..
As the nation enters the throes of another General Election the bored electorate seem to be heading out to vote again, but there seems to be such divided opinion it would only take a news event to cost either of the big two parties their lead.
This is what happened in 2017 with Theresa May, when she singlehandedly cost the Conservatives votes by speaking at debates and events causing people to slide away. This time around Boris could do the same, Jacob Rees-Mogg may have already done so with his Grenfell comments, but who can tell at this stage?
Continue reading "Boring History: The Zinoviev letter"
In which Steve Dyke takes a look at what each party is pledging to do to tackle climate change, with very mixed results..
Thanks in no small part to David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, school strikers, Extinction Rebellion and the predictions of IPCC scientists, the environment (and in particular the climate emergency) has featured in this General Election campaign far more than in previous ones. In the past, such issues were largely the preserve of the Green Party, for whom environmental protection is a core principle. However in 2019 it seems as if any serious political party feels it must have policies and pledges to attract voters concerned with the climate crisis. Do I personally feel attracted by what is on offer?
Continue reading "If not now, then when?"
Political Figures Predictions: Rochester and Strood
In which Alan Collins from Medway Elects looks at the third and final Medway constituency, Rochester and Strood, to see what the future may bring..
It's November. It's cold. And there's another election looming. I have fired up my data projection model and already analysed the potential results in Chatham and Aylesford and Gillingham and Rainham. Now as I conclude this series it's time to take a look at Medway's third, and arguably most volatile, constituency.
Continue reading "Political Figures Predictions: Rochester and Strood"


God couldn't take 10-year-old Mausam Khanum's life last week. Terrorists did on Monday. Little Mausam was last month admitted to the GMCH with a life-threatening abdominal complication. It took a team of doctors more than two hours to help her cheat death. But not for long, Digambar Patowary reports.
God couldn't take 10-year-old Mausam Khanum's life last week. Terrorists did on Monday.
Little Mausam was last month admitted to the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) with a life-threatening abdominal complication. It took a team of doctors more than two hours to help her cheat death. But not for long.
Released on Monday morning, Mausam was yearning to return to her village – Satsari village near Sipajhar in Darrang district – along with grandma Jahanara Begum (45) and uncle Rafiqul Ali (36). On way to the bus terminus, Mausam caught the impact of the blast at Maligaon Chariali.
Mausam was brought dead to the very hospital where she got a fresh lease of life only a week back. So was her grandmother while Rafiqul was lucky to survive, albeit barely. "He is battling death in the ICU," said his younger brother Safiqul, who had come to fetch them.
Unlike Mausam, government employee Amulya Rajbongshi (46) from Tamulpur in Baska district was on his way to GMCH to be cured of chest congestion. Instead, he reached a private nursing home, unconscious on a stretcher after blast-induced splinters tore into his left leg and left hand.
"The blast occurred the moment the bus I was in reached Maligaon Chariali point," said Rajbongshi. "I jumped out of the bus in which many people lay injured. Bleeding, I pleaded with a traffic police and sought help, but he pushed me and ran away. I lost consciousness and found myself lying in this casualty ward," he said.
Brothers Chandan and Gautom Deka have a similar tale to tell. Hailing from Dimu in Kamrup district, the duo had come to GMCH for treatment. They were on their way home, but the blast forced them back in GMCH. Gautom's condition was serious.


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Site Map: MAIN / A Reader's Journal, Vol. 2 This Page
A READER'S JOURNAL
The Mystery of Consciousness
Published by NYREV, Inc./NY in 1997
A Book Review by Bobby Matherne ©2000
Web www.doyletics.com
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Several years ago I bought a series of taped lectures by John R. Searle on "The Philosophy of Mind" from the Teaching Company and studied them carefully. It was in those lectures that I first encountered his famous "Chinese Room" thought experiment. With that experiment he was able to convince me and many other philosophers that computers are not able to think and will never be able to. In a room was a person who received Chinese symbols from one hole in the wall, followed a rote procedure and wrote down symbols that went out another hole on which were written a translation in English. The question is, "Did the person in the room understand Chinese?" Obviously the answer is no. And since a computer operates in the same dumb way as the man in the room, the computer cannot understand Chinese or anything else for that matter.
This book is a compilation of a series of essays that Searle wrote in the New York Review of Books, which essays generated a lot of mail and responses from readers. The most vehement of the responses came from the adherents of Artificial Intelligence who took issue with Searle's point that computers can never become consciousness due to a lack of the personal experience of qualia or those internal subjective feelings of what it means to us as humans to be conscious.
Searle walks a tight line between dualism and materialism, rejecting both sides of the argument, and claiming in the end of the book that we can reject dualism while still accepting the irreducibility of consciousness. That is, consciousness cannot be reduced to computerized procedures, but it does not exist apart from the material plane as dualists would claim. "This is a fine mess, you've gotten us into, Ollie," as Stan would say. Why all the bother, you might ask. Well, the alternative would be for Searle to accept dualism, which he considers tantamount to scientific blasphemy.
[page xiii] It seems that to accept dualism is to give up the entire scientific worldview that we have spent nearly four centuries to attain.
Notice the finely veiled presupposition that science is a monotonically increasing endeavor, and therefore, after four hundred years of work, we must continue to build on our previous work, and not even consider that we were in error. Perhaps a useful error, but one nevertheless. The essence of Kuhn's insight into the nature of scientific revolutions was to predict that such building on a previous error continues until finally a new theory overthrows all the previous ways of holding things and a more general explanation of how the world works evolves into a new paradigm or new foundation for future understanding.
Four hundred years ago, we began a scientific revolution in which we ignored information from any source that was not directly perceivable by the senses. This occurred at the same time that human senses were becoming more materialistic and less able to view the spiritual world directly. We have built much of our modern technology on the hard sciences that grew out of that revolution. In the meantime, we have abandoned large areas of human endeavors, such as consciousness, allowing them to exist without an explanation for the very reason that materialistic approaches fall short of a full explanation, as Searle's Chinese Room metaphor so adeptly illustrates. I would suggest it is time for us to consider dropping the materialistic term "dualism" and adopt the premise that we live in both a spiritual and a material world and that the techniques for experiencing both worlds are valuable, complementary, and sometimes mutually exclusive.
Want an example of how a materialist scientist looks at consciousness? Read Francis Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis. It says:
[page 21] that "You," your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. [p. 3]
In the ninth century during the 8th council at Constantinople, the Church demoted man from a tripartite being of body, soul, and spirit into a dual being of body and soul. In the fifteenth century the new Church of Science began inexorably to remove the soul component. Crick's statement above shows that the job is complete — man is now only body, according to their credo and to claim otherwise will subject one to the cry of heresy.
Next Searle looks at Gerald Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection in which the unit of selection is not individual neurons, but large complex groups of neurons with specific functions that are chosen by a Darwinian selection process. Another scientist toes the line of the Church of Science. I've reviewed two books by Edelman, Bright Air, Brilliant Fire and The Remembered Present, so I won't repeat any material that you can read in those reviews. But Searle makes an interesting comment about Edelman's work that is worth examining. One requirement for primary consciousness in the brain is:
[page 44] It must have memory. . . . It does not just recall a stereotype but continually reinvents the category of cats [e.g.]. This conception of memory seems to me one of the most powerful features of the book because it provides an alternative to the traditional idea of memory as a storehouse of knowledge and experience, and of remembering as a process of retrieval from the storehouse.
What I suggest happens is that upon perception of a cat, e.g., a person's doylic memory of a cat is retrieved and those unconscious physical body states or doyles are attached to whatever cognitive categories are created as their cognition of the category of cat is re-stored in their cortical regions. This satisfies Edelman's requirement for reinventing the category, while allowing for the unconscious physical body states (doylic memory) to be fetched, attached to new categories, and remain unchanged the next time it is fetched. Thus doylic memory is a storehouse of experience while the categories of cat, e.g., are modified upon every new experience. [For an example of how specific such doylic memories can be, see the story of the woman with a lifelong allergy to dogs:
http://www.doyletics.com/redwag2.htm#dog_allergy ]
On page 49, Searle says "we still need a scientific account of how exactly pains are caused by brain processes." Having worked for years in a chemical plant on its process computers, I view pain as simply a signal to the central computer that some event has occurred out in the plant at one of its sensors. That status would be stored into local memory in the computer. If, for some reason, the sensor was unavailable, removed from service for replacement, the local memory would contain the last setting of the sensor. This artifice enabled the operation of the plant to continue even though one more sensors weren't working. Phantom limb pain is like a missing sensor in the human body. The status of the sensors were stored in local memory [in the limbic-brain stem region, what we call doylic memory for short] and when the status of the missing limb is queried, the pain is retrieved from local memory even though there are no sensors present. A thorough investigation of phantom limb pain in light of the science of doyletics, in my humble opinion, will take us a long way to a scientific account of how pains are caused by brain processes.
[page 50] The problem of what accounts for the inner qualitative states of awareness or sentience called "qualia" is not an aspect of the problem of consciousness that we can set on one side; it is the problem of consciousness. . .
I have known for some time that there are stored physical body states [doyles] and real-time physical body states that are happening in the moment. That would suggest that qualia exist in two forms, doylic and real-time, just as pains can exist in the moment or be doylic in nature as in phantom leg pain. After reading Searle's essays, I wonder if perhaps all qualia are doylic in nature. This would be radical, if it were true. It would mean that qualia is the name given to the subjective experience of doyles fired off in the moment. Since experience in real-time is a moving target and consciousness requires some passage of time, what William James referred to as the expanded present, suppose that the only registration in our consciousness occurs from the doyles that are triggered by the real-time sensors? Then there would be no real-time qualia, only real-time sensory data in the instantaneous present and doyles that fill the expanded present, those brief seconds around the present that our brain calculates as the present by a recursive looping over the doyles triggered by the real-time sensors! Thus all qualia would be doylic in nature. This is worth investigating further.
Remember the ballad of John Henry, the steel-driving man? He strove to prove that no machine could be stronger than man. He lost. A hundred years later a Russian chess champion strove to prove that no machine could beat a human at chess. He lost. Did that prove that the computer that won was smarter than the man it played? With John Henry's loss, we had to give up the illusion that man would always be stronger than a machine. Do we have to give the illusion now that computers are smarter than man? No, the Chinese Room metaphor squelches that illusion. The Turing test lays down the rules for that new battle of human versus computer, and it is simplicity in itself. You communicate with a computer terminal and if you are convinced that a human being is on the other side of the line after some period of time, and it's really only a computer talking back, the computer has reached the level of human intelligence. This will be the John Henry equivalent of a human-computer contest.
From the point of view of qualia, a computer that was able to understand and answer questions would also have to have qualia for it to be able to answer questions as if it were a human in order to pass the Turing test. First we would have to build a simulator for a human being, and then give that simulator all the historical experiences of a typical human being, so that in interaction with another human being, they would have the qualia to provide the internal information on which base answers that would convince a human being that they were talking to another human being instead of a computer. Suppose we used the knowledge of how experiences are stored during human childhood as doyles and how real-time sensory data triggers a looping of the cortex over doyles to create an expanded present that provides the internal experiences we call "qualia", and programmed this into a computer system, would that create a candidate for winning the Turing test? Seems plausible to me. Would the winner be conscious? No, just a clever simulation of a human being. Like a spike-driving machine was a clever simulation of John Henry.
This little analogy of John Henry is useful for understanding Daniel Dennett's view of consciousness. If our computer simulation of a human being passed the Turing test, Dennett would claim that the computer is therefore human, as he denies the existence of consciousness entirely. He discards qualia completely.
[page 99] He thinks there are no such things as qualia, subjective experiences, first-person phenomena, or any of the rest of it.
[page 107] His claim is that in fact we are zombies, that there is no difference between us and machines that lack conscious states. . .
In the last researcher that Searle discusses, Israel Rosenfield, I found some amazing insights. I immediately ordered his book, The Strange, Familiar, and Forgotten: An Anatomy of Consciousness, which I expect to reading and reviewing shortly. His book consists mostly of case histories of neurological injuries and disorders with descriptions of how the individual's consciousness was affected by them. Like his former collaborator, Edelman, he focuses on the connection of memory and consciousness. He claims that consciousness arises from the "dynamic interrelations of the past, the present, and the body image." (Page 180)
From my reading of what Rosenfield means by body image, he's talking about the experience of our body in the now when we considers things that happened in the past while things are happening in the present. What we experience is a combination of real-time sensory data in the present and the doyles that they trigger, plus the things we think about in the present have the possibility to activate doyles as well. Those cascading doyles from real-time sensory data and from memories combine to form what I understand to be called "qualia" and give us each a unique body image. Here's Searle quoting from Rosenfield's book:
[page 181] My memory emerges from the relation between my body (more specifically my bodily sensations at any given moment) and my brain's "image" of my body ( an unconscious activity in which the brain creates a constantly changing generalized idea of the body by relating the changes in bodily sensations from moment to moment). It is this relation that creates a sense of self. [p. 8]
What are doyles if not a series of cascading changes in bodily sensation from moment to moment. Doyles, because they are stored and retrieved by the limbic-brain stem are necessarily unconscious except in their effects on our body. We may not be aware of why we are crying, but we are definitely conscious of the fact we are crying. So it is with every doyle — we are unconscious of the reason for the very good reason that to be conscious means to have a conceptual or cognitive memory of it, and doyles are by definition neither conceptual nor cognitive. Once a doyle is traced before its original event, a cognitive memory is created of the original event and the doyle will no longer be triggered from then on. The very presence of a doyle means that its associated event is unconscious.
[page 182] The brain forms an image of our entire body. And when we feel pains or any other sensations in the body, the actual occurrence of the experience is in the body image in the brain.
This statement by Searle matches an insight that Doyle Henderson had some twenty-five years ago as he tried to sort out what was causing the horrible fear states in his body. He realized that the brain has no sensors inside it, so if one can feel a pain by thinking of a painful event, the brain must be re-creating that inside itself from some storage mechanism and sending signals out to the sensors that matched what the sensors reported to the brain during the original event. My insight that "if you have phantom leg pain and you have a leg, you call it real pain" is supported by this next passage by Searle.
[page 182] In a sense all of our bodily sensations are phantom body experiences, because the match between where the sensation seems to be and the actual physical body is entirely created in the brain.
In his Conclusions chapter, Searle covers a miscellany of topics, among which is the phenomena of blindsight. The phenomenon of blindsight provides definitive evidence to me that the amygdala and its surrounding limbic-brain stem region has the ability to perceive visual data in real-time and react to it. Before five years old, that image and reaction is stored as a doyle. Later when a similar image is received by the amygdala, it sends signals to the hypothalamus to trigger the same reaction that had occurred during that original event, the event when the doyle was first stored. If the cortical region has the nerves cut from the eye in the region where the person is correctly guessing what is there, there must be a parallel and necessarily unconsciousness mechanism of perception at work. That points to the amygdala and its ability to perceive visual patterns at any age and to store them before the memory transition age of five. Details on how this works is available at http://www.doyletics.com/doyletic.htm .
[page 189] Many people apparently believe that somehow or other, unless we are proven to be computers, something terribly important will be lost.
Searle is not one of those people, to his credit. Rightly understood, if we were to become convinced that we were nothing but computers, our immortal souls would be lost. This may not be the primary considerations for most philosophers of consciousness in this nascent 21st Century, but it is certainly one that this writer and philosopher understands to be a real and present danger to those who get so enamored of computers that they unknowingly relegate their souls to the same trash heap as their old 8086 computers.
Any questions about this review, Contact: Bobby Matherne
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Perhaps Brian Cashman sensed this was no way for the Yankees to play baseball in July, with every game feeling like an all-in poker hand, every win or loss a referendum on whether to sell at the trade deadline.
In that case the GM is right: The all-consuming speculation was creating desperation and anxiety that were doing more harm than good for the ballclub, as evidenced by Saturday's 2-1 loss in 12 innings to the Giants.
In the end it felt like a dagger of a loss for players hoping to avoid a sell-off, especially after Joe Girardi had wrung every last drop of pitching out of his three-headed bullpen monster, assuring that none of them will be available to pitch in the finale of this ballyhooed homestand on Sunday.
And perhaps it was that type of loss, as Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported Saturday night that the Yankees are now telling other clubs they are moving forward with their plans to trade Aroldis Chapman while looking to keep Andrew Miller.
In fact, though, a source close to the situation not only confirmed that report Saturday night but said the organization had come to a decision on Chapman before the Giants series began on Friday, after Hal Steinbrenner flew to New York from Tampa at mid-week and discussed the situation in person with Cashman.
The source said the loss to the Orioles on Thursday, when the Yankees had a chance to pull off a four-game sweep, pushed Steinbrenner toward agreeing with Cashman on trading Chapman, which in itself wouldn't necessarily have to be construed as telling the fans they were giving up.
Indeed, with Miller and Dellin Betances still in pinstripes, the bullpen remains a strength for this team.
And as Cashman told Steinbrenner, according to the source, he knows trading Chapman will bring back a high-level prospect, and perhaps more than one, that could pay big dividends in the years to come, based on the conversations he's had with other teams.
It's the right thing to do, as I've been writing for weeks, in particular because so many contenders feel Chapman could play a huge role in helping them win a championship in October, thus creating a major bidding war.
There is still a chance, the source said, that the Yankees could trade other pieces as well, if the ballclub unravels over the next week or so, but its recent uptick in play makes that less likely.
In any case, Cashman is expected to move fairly quickly now to trade Chapman, hoping that will quiet some of the will-they-or-won't-they noise that surrounds the ballclub.
Certainly Saturday's game was a sign that it seemed to be weighing on everyone involved.
To stay in this all-in poker hand, in fact, Girardi essentially emptied his pockets and threw his Rolex into the pot as well, pushing Chapman for two innings on Saturday and a total of 53 pitches in less than 24 hours, as well as using Miller and Dellin Betances, who the manager wanted to rest.
Because all three had also pitched Friday, that meant the late-inning trio of flamethrowers would be unavailable for the final game of this homestand on Sunday.
So by the 11th inning, when the score was still tied 1-1, this game felt all the more crucial.
In addition, the Giants, a team that has built a reputation with three championships since 2010 for smart, fundamental play and clutch hitting, had spent most of two games in the Bronx playing as if they'd enjoyed a little too much Manhattan night life during their visit.
There were errors and bad baserunning, the Giants looking like they were in a fog, having already lost six straight games since the All-Star break.
Yet the Yankees still lost, for only the second time all season — against 19 wins — when they used all three of their top relievers.
It was a killer loss that prompted Girardi, as he did last weekend, to call Sunday's game hugely important.
Sure he's desperate and that seems to be driving his decisions, whether it was pushing Chapman as he did on Saturday or finally using Betances in the 11th inning, or deciding to sacrifice bunt in the 10th inning, knowing it would take the bat out of the hands of his best hitter, Carlos Beltran.
Jacoby Ellsbury's bunt did get Aaron Hicks to third base with one out, and Girardi was willing to do that, knowing Beltran would be walked intentionally, to try and get a sacrifice fly from Brian McCann.
"It's a tough call," Girardi said. "But you want to make sure you have that opportunity. All you need is a fly ball."
McCann delivered a fly ball, just not nearly deep enough to left field, as he was perhaps a bit anxious in swinging at a first-pitch fastball up and away.
Anxiety, desperation, it's no way to play baseball in July. Perhaps that's why the Yankees have made their decision on Chapman.


On July 26, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, shared updates on the fiscal year 2017 budget, staffing, diversity and inclusion, and the University's strategic plan.
On May 4, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, provided an update to the campus community on the University's progress in several key areas of diversity and inclusion.
As the academic year begins to wind down, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, reached out to the campus community to provide an update on a number of important upcoming events and other topics, including MAP funding, diversity and inclusion, "Plan 2020" progress, and leadership transitions.
Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued a message to the University community on March 23, inviting Loyolans to participate in Holy Week and Easter liturgies on campus.
After much constructive and respectful dialogue, a proposed Student Free Expression: Demonstration and Fixed Exhibit Policy is now available for the Loyola community to review. Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, provided an overview of the key updates to the policy and encouraged the community to provide their feedback.
On February 10, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, wrote about the upcoming faculty receptions and the importance of identifying meaningful ways to address the faculty's top concerns.
On February 9, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, provided students with an update on tuition and fees for the 2016-17 academic year, as well as details on the considerations that went into the approval of the new rates.
On February 8, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, asked students to participate in the #MAPMatters campaign, encouraging Governor Bruce Rauner to continue to fund the State of Illinois's student financial aid program.
On February 8, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, asked faculty and staff to participate in the #MAPMatters campaign, encouraging Governor Bruce Rauner to continue to fund the State of Illinois's student financial aid program.
The Loyola community is invited to attend Interim President Dr. John P. Pelissero's State of the University addresses on Monday, February 8, and Tuesday, February 9.
Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued a note to faculty and staff inviting the Loyola community to work together to create an environment that promotes and supports diversity.
Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, responds to student concerns about diversity on campus.
On December 15, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, wrote faculty and staff to wish them a Merry Christmas and blessed holiday.
On December 10, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, wrote the Loyola community to note that Interim Provost Samuel Attoh, PhD, will be on medical leave beginning January 1. He has asked Patrick Boyle, PhD, vice provost for academic centers and global initiatives, to serve as interim provost for the lakeside campuses beginning January 1.
On the afternoon of December 8, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued a note to the Loyola community regarding a moratorium on specific sections of the University's Demonstration and Fixed Exhibit Policy.
Three weeks ago, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued a letter to students, faculty, and staff in regards to our campus community's gathering on the Lake Shore Campus, which demonstrated solidarity with students from the University of Missouri and highlighted concerns on our own campuses regarding the need to do a better job recruiting, retaining, and supporting a diversity of students at Loyola. In that communication, the interim president assured the community that University leaders would respond to student concerns raised that day, and to move this initiative forward faculty and staff members representing Student Development, Human Resources, and the Office of the Provost were asked to meet directly with concerned students.
On November 24, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued his Thanksgiving message to the Loyola community.
This afternoon, members of our campus community gathered on the East and West quads to stand in solidarity with students from the University of Missouri and participate in a national movement to discuss, and fight, racism focused on black students. Those gathered also stated their desire for Loyola to further address the needs of students of color and to recruit more students of color.
On November 16, Loyola will present its inaugural Martyrs Award to the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants. The award, which will be given annually to a local organization that works to help others, honors the slain Salvadoran martyrs and their commitment to service and social justice.
Last week was a busy and important one on the Water Tower Campus as we celebrated the grand opening of the John and Kathy Schreiber Center on Tuesday, September 15. The day's festivities included a multi-hour, live WGN-AM radio broadcast from the Center lobby, a CEO Summit with top civic and corporate leaders of Chicago, and a spectacular evening gala that featured a keynote address from General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), as well as remarks from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, among others. The following day, our Board of Trustees gathered for its quarterly meeting.
As we embark on a new academic year, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, invites the Loyola community to participate in the national It's On Us campaign, which addresses and prevents gender-based violence. In a recent message, Dr. Pelissero reiterated the University's commitment to the health and safety of its students, faculty, and staff, and highlighted the campaign as an important way for everyone to be part of the solution rather than bystanders to the problem.
The Loyola community is invited to attend Interim President Dr. John Pelissero's State of the University addresses on Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1.
The new academic year brings a fresh strategic direction to the University, along with a number of campus updates. In his recent note, Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, welcomed Loyolans back to campus and provided an update on enrollment numbers, campus improvements, and upcoming events that the University community can participate in. Most importantly, he introduced the University's new strategic plan, "Plan 2020: Building a More Just, Humane, and Sustainable World," which was adopted by the Board of Trustees in June.
Interim President John P. Pelissero, PhD, issued his first communication to the Loyola community since assuming his new role on July 1. In the letter, Dr. Pelissero thanked Father Garanzini for his 14 years of exemplary service, discussed his priorities for Loyola, and provided an update on the University's recent reaccreditation process.


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This Week on Socials
pquaye
December, 6, 2021
In Case You Missed: Here are quick highlights of some stories that trended over the past week
VIRGIL "OFF-EARTH"
Ghanaian-American fashion designer, Virgil Abloh has passed away after a private battle with a rare cancer decease.
Renowned fashion house, LVMH shared the sad news with a statement which read: "We are all shocked after this terrible news, Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom. The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow, and we are all thinking of his loved ones after the passing of their husband, their father, their brother, or their friend."
WILD LINE-UP FOR WILDALAND – DAVIDO, STONEBWOY, JOEBOY AND MORE
Christened as "Africa's Glastonbury", the WILDALAND festival is a music and entertainment lifestyle festival and seeks to provide a distinctive entertainment experience that will merge the best of both African audiences in the wild every December in Ghana.
The festival, which will see the grand return to live events, will also be characterised by ultra-immersive real-time social content. Davido, R2Bees and Stonebwoy have been named as headliners for this year's edition. Joining Nigeria's roster are Adekunle Gold, Omah Lay, JoeBoy, Oxlade, Buju, Lojay, CKay, and Ruger.
Completing Ghana's contingent are KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Black Sherrif, Gyakie, Wendy Shay, Kwabena Kwabena, Camidoh, Yaw Tog and Kofi Jamar.
MESSI SEVEN BALLON D'OR
After being cancelled in 2020, the Ballon d'Or returned with a bang in 2021 as the great and good of the football world again eyed the biggest individual honour the game has to offer. Speculations had it that Bayern Munich's Polish international striker Robert Lewandowski would be given the nod for the 2021 Ballon d'Or, or that Real Madrid would secure the award for their French forward Karim Benzema.
In the end, it was Lionel Messi who walked away with his seventh Golden Ball, beating Robert Lewandowski into second place when the results were announced by France Football in Paris on November 29.
WIZKID's O2 MAGIC
Nigerian singer, Wizkid sold out all his three shows at the O2 arena in London.
As previously reported the first show of his "Made in Lagos" Tour scheduled for 28th November was sold out in 12 minutes. As a result, a third date was added for 1st December due to the high demand. The singer's debut album "Superstar" released in 2011 and has since gone on to become the most streamed Nigerian artist of all time on streaming platform Spotify. Subsequently, he also won the "Artist of the Year" award for the African region in the Apple Music Awards 2021.
TWITTER'S JACK DORSEY BOWS OUT
As reported by the New York times, "the social media pioneer, Jack Dorsey, whose name has become synonymous with the company, stepped down on Monday as chief executive of Twitter, the social media site he co-founded in 2006.
He was replaced by Parag Agrawal, who as the company's chief technology officer had recently been working on technologies associated with cryptocurrencies, which have become a fascination of the tech industry's power brokers, including Mr. Dorsey.
OMICRON COVID-19 VARIANT IN GHANA
According to reports from the Ghana Health Service, two cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been recorded in Ghana. Ghana's health ministry detected the country's first cases of the new variant on passengers who arrived at the Accra international airport after a series of tests were conducted on the 21st of November. The Ghana Health Service said in a statement: "We have not seen any omicron within the community of Ghana, according to tests in the country. But the danger is that omicron could be incubating in Ghana." Scientists further disclosed that it will take weeks to discover how dangerous the new variant is, and sources have also revealed that the variant has been found in Europe, with cases of community transmission identified in earlier COVID-19 samples before travel bans came into place.
Compiled by: Team Whoopro.
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(, na numeração romana)  foi um ano comum do século XVII do actual Calendário Gregoriano, da Era de Cristo, e a sua letra dominical foi D (53 semanas), teve início a uma quinta-feira e terminou também a uma quinta-feira.

Eventos
 12 de abril - Canonização de São Filipe Benício pelo Papa Clemente X.
 25 de outubro- Giovanni Domenico Cassini descobre Jápeto, satélite de Saturno.

Nascimentos
 Robert Roy MacGregor - jacobita e herói popular escocês (m. 1734).
 Manuel Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Pimentel - Conde de Niebla, Duque de Medina-Sidónia e Marquês de Cazaza (m. 1721).

Falecimentos
 2 de junho - Leonor da Saxônia, condessa de Hesse-Darmstadt e duquesa da Saxônia (n. 1609).
 António Ferreira - executado no dia 23 de novembro pela inquisição, descrito na história do Padrão do Senhor Roubado.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Review: For the past 45 years, Athens Technical College has served the citizens of its surrounding ten-county service area by providing quality educational programs. Whether your goal is to earn a certificate, diploma, or associate degree, ATC has over 34 programs in business, health, technical, and manufacturing-related majors. ATC offers many courses through distance learning delivery systems, and the College is noted for its application and integration of technology into the teaching/learning process.
Location & access map for "Athens Technical College"


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Psalm 136:10 is a Bible verse that contradicts itself.
This video briefly describes why Psalm 136:10 contradicts itself
Even if you assume that only 10% of these were first born, God killed the wrong person, between 200,000 and 450,000 times, in a single night.
A Bible Verse That Contradicts Itself
1-minute video
Yet this verse says that these killings were examples of God's mercy, love and lovingkindness.
It says, "To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever". Other translations say "love" or "lovingkindness".
It was Pharaoh who was preventing the Israelites from leaving Egypt. But God killed those who were in no way responsible for Pharaoh's decision.
How many people were killed? It is estimated that there were between 2 million and 4 and a half million people living in Egypt.
This refers to the book of Exodus, which says that "The Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, even the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle"
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