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Category Archives: POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Brian Swimme, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Merton
Powers of the Universe: Radiance
July 2, 2020 amclaughlin2014	3 Comments
All the powers of the universe are one, seamlessly involved with one another, present everywhere in the universe, coursing through us, trying to bring forth Radiance.
In his concluding talk in the DVD series, "The Powers of the Universe" Brian Swimme speaks about Radiance.
The most powerful presence of Radiance is the sun. In its core, the sun creates helium out of compressed hydrogen, releasing light. The process of fusion generates photons. Light emanates in waves which collapse into photon particles, creating light. The sun is also giving off messenger particles called gravitons that mediate the gravitational interaction by penetrating the earth, pulling the earth to the sun.
We see the light, and feel the gravitational pull.
The moon also has Radiance, but not from creating light through fusion as the sun does. The photons that come from the moon are created by the sun's activity on the moon. The moon releases the light thus created, also bathing us with gravitons, to which the earth responds, as in the tides of the seas.
It is an ongoing activity of the universe to radiate. Even in the depths of the earth, everything radiates LIGHT. Radiance is the primary language of the universe.We are frozen light… Brian Swimme says that every being we meet holds fourteen billion years of radiance.
The twentieth century mystic Thomas Merton saw with clarity the gap between this stunning reality and our capacity to see it, and wondered how we might tell people that they are walking around shining like the sun!
Yet, by a willingness to see deeply, we can develop a subtle spirit that responds to the depths of spirit in another, a container that responds to the beauty of the other. The archetypal example of this kind of depth perception, Swimme says, is a mother beholding her child. What is a mother seeing in the eyes of her child? This is the depth perception of beauty.
When we look into the eyes of another do we see colour and shape only as in a surface, machine-like mentality or do we see flowing, radiating out of the eyes, the essence, the fullness of the person, his or her depth?
Light is a flow of emotions: light as joy, sadness, pouring out from another. Think what can happen with one glance where we fall in love so deeply that the rest of our life is changed: we contain the Radiance that is streaming out of another.
When, on a sleepless night, Swimme suggests, we go outdoors and see the stars, difficulties melt away and we are smothered with deep peace. Something glorious is streaming into us, something so deeply felt that we find peace in our at-homeness in the universe. When we look down and see fireflies (flashing to interest their mates) we realize we are participating in an amazingly sacred event.
We are drawn into the depth of things and when we go there we find the future direction of the universe. The earth makes rubies and sapphires out of elements that come together, that explode and sparkle with Radiance, as though the universe is trying to tell us something about our aliveness in the realm of possibility!
We sit by the ocean, drawn into what is really real, something that is attempting to establish a deep bond with us.
The magnificence of ocean/sand/sky wants to sparkle forth like a sapphire. We feel what reverberates out, Swimme says, as if completing the beauty that's there. We enter into relationship with the Radiance of the universe through resonance and that is the primary form of prayer. Reverberation is the primary sacrament. We become the radiance that is flooding the world. If the resonance is deep enough, it fills our being so that we reverberate with the being of the other.
The Radiance becomes the being. We are resonant with another when we begin to reverberate with the one we see. We are then in a non-dual relationship with another.
There is great joy in developing this level of interaction with life.
The mystics intuited radiance long before the physicists described it. Teilhard de Chardin, the French Jesuit priest-paleontologist who died in 1955, wrote: "Throughout my whole life during every moment I have lived, the world has gradually been taking on light and fire for me, until it has come to envelop me in one mass of luminosity, glowing from within…
The purple flash of matter fading imperceptibly into the gold of spirit, to be lost finally in the incandescence of a personal universe…
This is what I have learnt from my contact with the earth – the diaphany of the divine at the heart of a glowing universe, the divine radiating from the depth of matter a-flame". (The Divine Milieu)
"the Divine radiating from the depth of matter aflame"
Hildegard of Bingen, the astonishing 12th c. abbess and genius, wrote: "From my infancy until now, in the 70th year of my age, my soul has always beheld this Light, and in it my soul soars to the summit of the firmament and into a different air….
The brightness which I see is not limited by space and is more brilliant than the radiance around the sun …. I cannot measure its height, length, breadth. Its name, which has been given me, is "Shade of the Living Light"….
Within that brightness I sometimes see another light, for which the name "Lux Vivens" (Living Light) has been given me. When and how I see this, I cannot tell; but sometimes when I see it, all sadness and pain is lifted from me, and I seem a simple girl again, and an old woman no more!"
Brian Swimme, Care in the Universe, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE
The Powers of the Universe: Part Nine Inter-Relatedness
June 23, 2020 amclaughlin2014	1 Comment
On a summer morning seven years ago, while I was living in my hermitage in the woods beside the Bonnechere River, I sat outdoors, holding a mug of coffee, enjoying a warm breeze. I was preparing to write about Inter-relatedness.
At once, a dozen other tasks presented themselves, each one more appealing than writing. I washed a woven place-mat, hung it outdoors to dry, answered emails, read an old poetry journal, and finally settled on something truly urgent: picking crab–apples from a tree at the top of my lane.
I had noticed the tree the day before, its two large branches split near the trunk, their massive burden of crab-apples hovering just above the ground. I thought the tree might have been struck by lightning or pummelled by winds in a recent storm.
I began to fill a large bin with crab-apples, so eager to be picked that they nearly leapt from their branches. I worked quickly, mindlessly, concerned only that these small apples should be "used" before they fell to the earth to rot.
After nearly an hour of moving heavy branches that hung all askew, picking as many apples as I could reach, I decided I could do no more. I was hot, sticky, and being slowly devoured by a local chapter of mosquitoes who had found me out. Then, I happened to look up at the tree.
Something shifted in me. I was aware of a presence, a dim dark knowing, that moved my heart. Above me, the two split branches hung like almost-severed arms, and above them there was no great trunk. This was it. The tree was hopelessly broken, and would not bear again. Somehow I knew that it hadn't been lightning or fierce winds but the sheer weight of this huge crop of apples that had broken her branches. This feast of fruit she offered as her dying gift.
Did I acknowledge that? Offer my thanks? I hope so, but it was a brief act. I was eager to get out of the sun, away from the mosquitoes, into my swimsuit.
Minutes later, I was walking through the woods to where a stairway of carefully-placed flat rocks led down into the river. Embraced by the slowly moving water, my companion of seven years, I felt at first only the bliss of coolness, buoyancy.
The Bonnechere River
But gradually there came again the dim knowing that I had experienced beside the tree. Again I sensed a presence, a something, a someone, cooling me, embracing me, welcoming me into its life…
It was late afternoon when I at last opened my notes on the Powers of the Universe, garnered from Brian Swimme's DVD series and Jean Houston's teachings on the way these powers impact our lives.
Jean had spoken of White Buffalo Calf Woman who taught her people that all things are inter-related, so they must reverence all of life. This, Jean said, is what the power of Inter-relatedness is about: a vision of caring with a sense of the whole; we need an overarching vision that is so simple and alluring that we can see what can be, not from many different perspectives (science, art, religion, etc.) but from an all-inclusive vision. Jean sees the Power of Inter-Relatedness as an incredible invitation from the cosmos to create deep caring.
Inter-relatedness or Care has been at work in the Universe for 13.8 billion years, says Brian Swimme. Without it, the Universe would fall apart.
Parental care emerged as a value in the Universe because it made survival more possible with the mother and father fish caring for their young. As reptiles evolved, Swimme speculates that either they discovered caring, or perhaps it evolved along with them. Reptiles watch over their young and do not eat them (as do some fish). The amazing power of care deepens with the arrival of mammals, whose care continues sometimes for a lifetime. This, says Swimme, is the Universe showing what it values, enabling mammals to spread out.
In some species of mammals, the female selects among her suitors the male who offers the best chance of having her offspring survive. The female is behaving in a way that will affect the next generation. Through her, the Universe is working to extend care. An intensive study of baboons led researchers to find that when a female chooses a sexual partner one of the qualities she seeks is tenderness. Thus life seeks to deepen and extend care.
Mother Loon nestles babies on her back
Care has to be evoked. A mother sea-lion establishes relationship with her pup by licking, nuzzling, thus evoking her own motherhood. It is the same for us humans, says Swimme. We need to find ways to activate these deep cosmological powers so that we can interact with the universe. This requires imagination. The power of care is evoked out of the plasma of the early universe. How do we enter into that process of evoking care? Just becoming aware is to participate.
How we position ourselves within our relationships with all of life is crucial, and is an act of imagination. To position ourselves in order to USE life leads to the extinction of countless species. Even 100 million years of parental care was not enough to save many species of fish from extinction. The shaping of our imagination by economic, educational and manufacturing systems that see use as the primary mode or orientation towards life on the planet, also views children in schools as "products" to be shaped, (and a tree's bounty of crab-apples as something to be "used".) What would be another way?
Swimme notes the amazing capacity of humans to care, a power that is coded in our DNA, where life has extended its care through us. But we also have through the power of language and symbol, through our conscious self-awareness, the capacity for empathy. We can learn to experience care for another species, even as we can imaginatively occupy another place, and extend our care to other cultures. With deepening compassion we move outside of our own boxed–in perspective.
Seeing that cosmological care is built in from the very beginning of the universe, some people today speak of the Great Mother or Mother Earth. This, says Swimme, is the cosmological power of care employing a powerful image or symbol to reflect upon itself through the human.
On a day when I tried to avoid writing of Inter-Relatedness, I was given the gift of experiencing this power directly in the self-giving bounty of a crab-apple tree, in the welcoming, cooling embrace of a gently-flowing river. Great Mother felt very close, inviting me, in Jean Houston's words, into "a vision of caring with a sense of the whole".
Brian Swimme, Caryll Houselander, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Rainer Maria Rilke
Powers of the Universe: Transformation
June 16, 2020 amclaughlin2014	Leave a comment
Transformation is among the most stunning of the powers of the universe.
Unlike the power of transmutation which creates small changes over time, transformation is sudden, dramatic.
One day in July, a few years ago at our community's summer place, Mary noticed a nymph crawl out of the lake to attach itself to a plant. Mary, who has spent some twenty summers tending our lake, observing the life it contains, clearing deadwood, decay and weeds from its floor, knew what was about to happen. She carefully carried the plant with the nymph still attached up to the lodge. Then she invited everyone to come and watch the miracle. Within an hour the adult nymph had shed its tight skin, expanded its new body.
Before our wondering eyes, this pale, fragile, newly-emerged creature, its transparent wings delicate, took flight as a dragonfly.
Transformation.
In his DVD series "Powers of the Universe", Brian Swimme notes that while transmutation is the power of change at the individual level, transformation is change that is worked into the whole universe by the individual.
Scientists believe that the universe was aiming towards life from the beginning, yet the universe had to transform itself over and over through almost 10 billion years to get to LIFE. Early events in the universe are present in the early structures to which they gave birth.
Within stars, the birth of the universe is re-evoked, returning to its earlier stages.
Galaxies come to birth holding different eras in their structures. Galaxies enable planets which enable life.
These are transformative events leading to a time when more of the universe is present in one place.
Life is a way of holding a memory of an event. For example, in photosynthesis cells learn how to interact with the sun.
That learning process is remembered in the genes so it can be folded back out. Now that whole event of photosynthesis is here. It's not a "one-off". More of the universe is folded into it. The memory is passed on by cells.
With the invention of sexuality, two beings fuse, the memories they carry shuffled together in new ways.
The ancestral tree remembers, folds itself into a new being, shuffling events, shuffling genes so new combinations can arise.
The energy that permeates the solar system has been there for all time. Elements of the earth came from the stars. Life holds together all these ancient events.
A colossal interweaving enables this moment to exist. We can't say the universe is simply here "by luck". Swimme says that the universe is aiming to participate in the creation of community, attempting to become involved in a four-dimensional way in every place to activate community.
We have to orient ourselves to the reality that the universe is aiming towards this.
We are invited into a huge responsibility as part of this unfolding. An individual's experience can become the source for the recoding of the planet. All of cultural DNA can be recoded. The way in which we organize ourselves is recoding the genetics of other species.
With the appearance of the human we have the possibility of the transformation of the planet.
Swimme asks what laws we are proud of : ending slavery? votes for women? laws to protect animals? Where else do we see possibilities for transformation?
Today, as I write this, transformation is happening here in Canada, in the US, and spreading to countries around the planet that will affect the whole concept of policing, restoring a call to "serve and protect". Practices such as racial profiling leading to harsh treatment, even to serious injury and death will no longer be tolerated either by political leaders or by the people of our countries.
As Canada's CBC News reported: Thousands of people took part in an anti-racism protest in downtown Toronto Friday (June 12, 2020). Protesters have called for greater accountability from Canada's police agencies, cuts to policing budgets and acknowledgement of systemic racism in law enforcement.
From small transmutations in our personal lives, we can consciously seek the larger changes that will alter the planet, testing them for their coherence within the powers of the universe, asking whether these changes will contribute to the enhancement of life, becoming transformative.
We are part of the unfolding of the four dimensions of the universe. The universe is present now, enfolded in the work we do.
The mystics and poets intuited this before the scientists sought proof. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a century ago that, "We are the transformers of Earth. Our whole being, and the flights and falls of our love, enable us to undertake this task."
One of the clearest descriptions of the experience of transformation at the personal level comes to us from the 20th century mystic, Caryll Houselander. After a long illness, a bout of scrupulosity, Caryll had an experience of God that removed her obsessive fears and gave her a profound peace.
She writes: It was in the evening, I think. The room was dark, and the flames of firelight dancing on the wall seemed almost to cause me pain when I opened my eyes…. I no longer attempted to translate my torment as particular sins; I had realized in a dim, intuitive way that it was not something I had done that required forgiveness, but everything I was that required to be miraculously transformed.
Jean Houston advises that when we are moving into an experience of transformation we should go looking for guidance from the mystics, writers and poets who have experienced this. Welcome beauty into our lives. Know that we have within us a visionary process which is a source for the recoding of the planet. All the codings for the life of the unborn future are available in us. We are the recoding, the reset button
Brian Swimme, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Teilhard de Chardin
Powers of the Universe: Part Seven: Transmutation
Returning home a few years ago from a short holiday, I was appalled to see my front porch liberally splashed with bird droppings.
Then I looked up. My heart did a small dance of joy! Above the porch light sat a nest with small feathered heads… the phoebes had returned!
The previous year, the nest sat empty and I grieved the loss. Now in a brief moment of rejoicing, I was thinking like a planet, rather than a dismayed human. I glimpsed something of the transmutations in our perceptions, our behaviours, we humans are called on to make in this time of immense change.
In his DVD series, "The Powers of the Universe", Brian Swimme recalls Teilhard's saying that we are the universe reflecting on itself. Swimme invites us to see ourselves as the Power of Transmutation reflecting on itself in conscious self–awareness.
He asks, "How can this lead to a more vibrant earth community?"
Natural selection, Transmutation, is the way form changes through time… in the universe, the birth of radiant energy in atoms changes everything; clouds change into galaxies; primal stars transmute into stellar systems with planets; the earth herself changes from molten rock into a living planet.
The universe forces itself out of one era into another. If you are a particle you have nowhere to go but into an atom…
So, what do we do when we discover ourselves in the midst of the end of one era, moving into another? How do we participate in this Transmutation? Swimme says we need to look at the way life moves from one form to another. The earth uses a form of restraint, of judgement. At the moment when the earth begins to cool from its molten state to form a crust, there is a constraint into the form of continents. When two continents collide, there is further restraint on formerly free activity, enabling restriction and opposition that create mountain ranges.
To insist that things remain the same is to insist on the end of the planet's growth.
Another form of resistance happens when the desires of different beings are in opposition. At the heart of transmutation is the question of how to deal with obstacles and opposites. The grasshopper is constrained by the bird who eats it; the bird has to follow the grasshopper.
But to remove the constraints is to upset the beauty of form. A slower grasshopper leads to a less fleet bird; a slower bird means that the grasshopper decreases its speed. The destiny of the bird is tied to the grasshopper.
Creativity is spread out over the whole community. The system has constraints, demands, judgements. The natural selection dynamic is based on judgement that leads to excellence of form and beauty. The beak of the bird developed so it might retrieve bugs from a tree. The relationship between the bird and the tree is a form of intimacy. Every bioregion has this spectacular beauty, with the integrity of the whole maintained by this power of judgement, restraint, struggle….
…until humans arise, taking the whole system into collapse through our ability to get around the constraints, the judgements, using all the powers to our own advantage. No longer does natural selection take care of the whole.
Our challenge is to become the Power of Transmutation in conscious self-awareness. We are called upon to bring restraint to human activity so that the natural selection dynamics can proceed. The powers of the universe need the human to proceed through this change.
Though our laws, customs and disciplines impose restraint on human activity, they have until now taken for granted that the human is the focus. Now we need to ask for laws that enable the whole community of life to flourish. We need to say clearly, "Some things are going to lead to ruin".
We need a law to protect species for themselves.
The feeling mode of the person experiencing the Power of Transmutation is that one does not fit in. There is a sense of being cut off, set aside, rejected, even wounded. Yet those who feel most cut off are the ones how feel most deeply that the universe has made a judgement that this era is over. This is an invitation from the universe to look at what life does, to see in the opposition, the wound, one's destiny.
Swimme says: You are feeling the universe is rejecting part of you. Embrace the rejection, embrace that which is attempting to eliminate those aspects of yourself that are maladaptive, the elements that are part of the era that is over: a society based on consumerism, based on destroying opposition.
The planet is withering because humans have accepted a context that is much too small. We can no longer decide only what is best for a corporation or a culture but we must move to a larger context, to the planetary level. Our decisions will affect thousands of future generations.
We are the universe as a whole reflecting on itself in this particular place.Who are the models to inspire us? We co-evolve with all other beings. The great moments of beauty in the universe become our guides, and our criteria by which to judge.
We look to the future, to beings who will learn to live in harmony to enable the whole to flourish. Thus we learn to live in the context of the whole universe: past, present and future, with the energies of the planet.
Sometimes we catch a glimpse of that future: when a windstorm knocked out electricity in our community's holiday place a few years ago, some of us decided to stay on. Small changes, transmutations… an evening swim rather than a morning shower…. food cooked on a barbecue…water for washing dishes heated on the barbecue…. perishables such as milk and yogurt packed in an ice chest….wading into the lake in tall boots to scoop up buckets of water to keep the toilets working…
On the second night, sitting in darkness illumined by golden candles, we watched the rose madder sunset splash across the sky,
and soon after Venus become clearly visible. For a little while she was a silvery presence but as the earth rolled away to the east, Venus slowly sank below the horizon… This beauty we would have missed had there been electric light.
I remembered a snatch of poetry: "After my house burned down, I had a better view of the moon."
Brian Swimme, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Powers of the Universe: Synergy
June 2, 2020 amclaughlin2014	1 Comment
As we continue our exploration of the Powers of the Universe, as described by Brian Swimme in his DVD series, we come to the power of synergy. This power is magnificently illustrated in the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica.
They form a tight cluster with the outer circle exposed to the frigid cruelty of the weather while the inner circle is held in warmth. Then in a shifting soundless dance, they change places.
Emperor Penguins
This behaviour is their path to survival.
The power of synergy has brought forward some of the most wondrous and crucial development in the 13.8 billion year history of the universe.
Plants that need nitrogen to survive, but are unable to draw it in, form a synergistic relationship with nodules whose bacteria can draw in nitrogen.
Flowers, plants and trees that need to be pollinated thrive through their synergistic relationship with bees.
Swimme describes some great moments in synergy throughout the life of our planet:
(a) single cells learn to trade aspects of genetic information, enabling the spread of ideas across the earth;
(b) photosynthesis occurs when, in a synergistic relationship between life and the sun,
cells learn to interact with sunlight to draw in energy;
(c) life learns to get hydrogen from water, releasing oxygen, but as oxygen is destructive to life, those forms of life that learn to draw in oxygen, creating through synergy new structures, survive, while the forms of life that do not learn how to do this, sink down into the swamp ;
(d) 1.5 billion years ago, organisms learn how to mate: the discovery of sexuality enables an explosion of possibilities and new life forms as sexualized animals cover the planet.
Synergistic relationships enable survival and endurance. In order for life to endure two great challenges need to be met: find energy and create offspring. Life rewards creativity in these two crucial areas with survival.
YOUNG OTTERS….an endangered species
Synergy flowers as life finds creative response to this dual challenge.
The quest, according to Swimme, is not to eliminate the challenge but to respond to it.
Seeking a synergistic response to life's challenges leads to increasing complexity in the human.
Noting that the challenge of finding energy relates to finding food, Swimme cites an aboriginal tribe who depend upon rabbit for survival. Regularly a group of fifty hunters come together to catch an abundance of rabbits for a steady food supply. Their social cohesion results from this need to work together to catch their food.
In Inuit societies, the whole community comes together to capture a whale, something impossible for a lone hunter to achieve.
When humans learn to interact with seeds and plants, the nomadic way of life of the hunter/ gatherer societies is altered. A settled way of life emerges with the development of agriculture, pushing to the margins those who remain with the old ways, continuing to hunt and gather. The settled way of life intensifies through classical civilization and into industrial society where productivity increases, again with a crowding out of the earlier forms.
In our time, we see contemporary industrial society around the planet crowding out earlier forms of life, with the evaporation of indigenous groups everywhere. The factories and sweat shops of India and China lure workers into cities, where in order to earn small wages, they sometimes have to live separated from their families in barrack-like conditions.
Understanding the process that has led to this moment in the earth's history frees us to question whether this intensity of production is what we really want.
Does the revelation of the appalling, life-threatening conditions in factories such as those in Bangladesh lead us to question our societal thirst for more and cheaper goods? Is this really an enhancement of life on our planet?
Do we see the phenomenal rise in community gardens and farmers' markets as a sign of hope that we are shifting away from a production/transportation model that brings food to our table from across the planet?
A recent CBC story told of an organic garden created atop a high-rise building in downtown Montreal, a prototype for a whole new way of imagining how to grow the food we need near where we live.
The challenge for our time, as Swimme sees it, is for synergy to operate through conscious self-awareness.
The movement now needs to be from an industrial to a planetary civilization, requiring the birth of the planetary human.
Once we accept our true identity as earth community, sharing genes with oak trees and oysters, this becomes much easier.
If we see our humanness from the perspective of biology rather than from religion or politics or culture, we can begin to imagine a planetary society.
If we open ourselves to what other species can teach us, our learnings are greatly enhanced.
What might fish be able to teach us about keeping the oceans healthy?
Finally, war, once a form of social cohesion, has to be replaced.
We take on instead the challenge of a synergistic relationship with others
in order to deal with a wilting planet and a failing ecosystem.
The death throes of Western civilization can be experienced as birth pangs as a new era of humanity is about to emerge.
To move towards an abundance of life for all children, for all planetary life, demands greater synergy, deeper power, new technology and moral wisdom to guide us forward, Swimme believes.
As with other new developments, the older nationalistic forms of life will not disappear but will hang around as they gradually make their way to the bottom of the swamp.
This movement towards newness and rebirth is beginning. When we align our personal energies with it by creating mutually enhancing relationships, we are aligning our human energies with the cosmological power called synergy.
Brian Swimme, Covid 19 and the Web of Life, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Powers of the Universe: Cataclysm
May 27, 2020 amclaughlin2014	1 Comment
Cataclysm is as essential to reality as emergence. The destructions, degradations and disasters of the universe are part of the story of its life, a movement from a complex to a simple state that allows for the emergence of newness.
Imagine a star twenty times the size of our sun. The force of gravity would reduce it to a cinder were it not for the opposing energy sent forth from its heart, created by the fusing of hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei. This activity allows it to maintain, in Swimme's words, "a seething equilibrium" for some ten million years.
But when the hydrogen has all been transformed into helium that fusion process ends. Gravity causes the star to collapse into a smaller space until its core heats up to the temperature required to fuse helium into carbon. The cycle repeats as carbon fuses into oxygen, then oxygen into silicon and on and on until only iron remains. Iron releases no energy when it fuses; nothing is left to push out from the star's centre to oppose the force of gravity.
The star can only implode upon itself and in seconds a multi-million year process is over; a massive star becomes a mere speck.
Cygnus Loop Nebula: a small portion of the nebula which is actually the expanding blastwave from a stellar cataclysm — a supernova explosion — which occurred about 15,000 years ago. The supernova remnant lies 2,500 light years away in the constellation Cygnus the Swan.
But the energy of the implosion has crushed the constituent electrons and protons together to form neutrons, releasing more elementary particles called neutrinos.
This reverses the imploding movement to blast the star apart in a firework display more brilliant than a galaxy of shining stars. As it expands a nucleosynthesis takes place, creating the nuclei of all the elements of the universe. In this supernova explosion are birthed the elements that will form our planet and our bodies.
(For a fuller explication of this process, see Chapter 3: "The Emanating Brilliance of Stars" in Journey of the Universe co-authored by Brian Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2011)
The life story of a star is an astounding example of cataclysm giving birth to new life. But the power of cataclysm is seen in many aspects of life in the universe.
Two hundred and fifty million years ago (when our earth was already ancient of days at age four billion and a bit…) a cataclysm occurred that eliminated 96% of marine species and 70% of land species. Swimme says that huge die-offs occur roughly every one hundred million years, and we are right in the middle of one now.
Whatever our capacities for conscious denial, Swimme believes our hearts and our bodies feel this awareness in a rising sense of frustration, of regret, of failure. I would add to that a profound sense of grief. I recall watching a power-point that singer/songwriter Carolyn McDade prepared to illustrate the species in my own bio-region under threat of extinction. As I watched the unique, startling beauty of each form of life, the soulful eyes of owls, reptiles, birds, otters, small mammals gazing back at me from the screen, I was shaken by a grief so sudden and wrenching that I wept. All the while, Carolyn's voice sang a prayer of pleading:
" let them continue on…."
Later that summer I saw in the river near my home an otter with a mate and young, and felt a deep joy…
Concurrent with this extinction of species we have the desertification of land, the shrinking rain forests, the dying rivers and lakes as though engaged in a death dance between nature and man-made structures. We see the waning into near-extinction of many of the religious, political, economic, education, health and societal systems in which we had once placed our trust.
Is there a graced way to live into a period of cataclysm? Swimme suggests that we might identify with the power that is destroying us by consciously surrendering aspects of ourselves, our society, our way of being in the world, that no longer serve us, thus enabling the universe to pulverize those aspects…
We can try to see the destruction of consumer culture as part of the earth's work of cataclysm, seeking to free us, to free our lives.
When cataclysm strikes an area of the planet through flood or fire, earthquake, tornado or tsunami, haven't we heard voices raised that dared to bless the disaster for revealing what is really worth valuing in life?
Do we not experience this re-assessment of what really matters in our present COVID 19 crisis?
The twentieth century mystic Etty Hillesum, shortly before her death in Auschwitz in 1943, at the age of twenty nine, wrote words that may be a light for us in this time:
I shall try to help you, God, to stop my strength ebbing away, though I cannot vouch for it in advance. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear to me: that you cannot help us, that we must help you to help ourselves. And that is all we can manage these days, also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of you, God, in ourselves. And in others as well.
Alas, there doesn't seem to be much you yourself can do about our circumstances, about our lives. Neither do I hold you responsible.
You cannot help us but we must help you and defend your dwelling place inside us to the end.
This is our moment, Brian Swimme believes: our star exploding, ready to create emeralds and giraffes, ready to release us into a new earth community.
For the next level of growth, of deepening, something has to wake us up, shake us up. It may take a tornado to blow us all the way to Oz where the greatest gifts await us.
Jean Houston says that the call of this time of Cataclysm is to "radical reinvention" in order to speciate, to become a deepening spirit of the earth for her new emergence.
Never before in history have so many devoted themselves to develop fully, to regard problems as opportunities in work clothes.
Encouraging us that we have just the right gifts on just the right planet to bring this new earth community to life, Jean adds,
"You are blessed to be alive at this time."
Brian Swimme, Diarmuid O'Murchu, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Thomas Berry
The Powers of the Universe: Homeostasis
May 20, 2020 amclaughlin2014	Leave a comment
One of the major shifts in consciousness required for our time is that we belong to the evolutionary co-creative process, and it is in discovering our mutual interdependence within the cosmos, and particularly with planet Earth, that we will begin to reclaim our spiritual identity.
Diarmuid O'Murchu Reclaiming Spirituality New York Crossroads 1998
Homeostasis is the power by which the universe maintains what it values. It is a delicate dance of holding onto what is most important through all the swirls and shifts of change.
In his DVD series "Powers of the Universe", Brian Swimme offers some stunning examples of the earth's power of homeostasis:
*the dynamics that maintain the form and function of a mammal's body;
*the human bloodstreams where the ph balance is the same as in the bloodstreams of most animals and fish; the temperature of the human body.
The earth herself remains in a state where life can flourish, even as the sun gets hotter; the earth has maintained its temperature over the four billion years, just as a mammal's body does. The earth cycles through times of cooling when the ice caps swell to reflect more of the sun's heat away; then it grows warmer so that the ice caps shrink. This cycle repeats every 100,000 years.
The Milky Way Galaxy cycles through its explosions of supernovas. In one million year cycle where there are 8000 supernovas (a smaller number) the cloud becomes denser than usual, so the capacity to create stars is greater.
In the next million year cycle, 12000 supernovas explode. Homeostasis.
Then we humans enter the realm of life with our quality of conscious self-awareness.
When we understand what is valued, essential for life on this planet, our perspective shifts away from focus on the part to the whole. The enormous ego-centricity of our lives in a nation like Canada or the United States shifts to embrace the need to maintain human life in other parts of the planet, then to look at what animal life/ tree life/ river life/ocean life /earth life requires for its continuance.
Though we understand ourselves to be the gathered-in-ness of 13.8 billion years of life in the universe (the power of centration), though we honour the search for love and fullness of life that draws us forward (the power of allurement) and though we rejoice in the restless creativity that is our personal invitation from the universe to be involved in emergence, the power of homeostasis calls us to a care and vigilance, a keen awareness of the fragility of our existence, and a sensitivity to vulnerable areas.
When Brian Swimme's DVD series was released fifteen years ago, he could already see that homeostasis was falling apart in major life systems: the desertification of huge amounts of land, the poisoning of rivers and lakes, the loss of the rain forests, the very lungs of our planet… Why?
Swimme says it is because we humans are trying to use the power of homeostasis to maintain a subgroup of the whole rather than the whole body. We think our fundamental responsibility is to a sub-unit rather than to the whole body.
The great search happening in 2005 for fossil fuel in tar sands or through fracking, poisoning the water to release gas, Swimme described as a desperate effort to maintain a standard of life enjoyed by a favoured few.
Swimme calls it an intellectual illusion that humanity is separate from the earth community.
There is no human community without the whole. The earth community is a form of guidance for us, crying out to us that it is not inert material, not just stuff! It takes a major shift for us humans to see that we come out of the earth community, we derive from it. The matrix itself is primary.
Such an understanding would alter the way we organize life on the planet, calling us to create laws and establish policing to protect bio-regions as well as humans, to protect the right to existence of all life on the planet.
If we know that each being has a right to be we understand the need to restrict human activity so that the whole can flourish.
On a communal and on a personal level, the power of homeostasis will help us to maintain the achievements of our lives, to raise up energy and increase commitment to our work, to our relationships. We can tell the story of what we're about, tell the story of our love relationships and maintain a zest for life! Millions of years, Swimme says, are involved in a single moment of zest.
Whenever and wherever we tell the story of our emergence out of the life of the planet, honouring all the forms of life that share our right to be here, we are the power of homeostasis, enabling life to blossom.
But homeostasis, as with the other powers of the universe, has its down side.
Maintaining and sustaining what we value in life, what keeps us sane, is important, but, as Jean Houston warns, holding onto anything for too long leads to stagnation, and "the universe gets bored with you".
The opening scenes of the film, "the Wizard of Oz" show homeostasis as the absence of vitality. Nothing is happening in a place blown dry, grey-brown, empty. No one has time for the young Dorothy who is in a state of immense longing.
The only being who still has any zest for life is the little dog Toto.
When homeostasis goes on for too long, when life no longer holds zest, the next power of the universe must come into play:
Cataclysm ….
Brian Swimme, Brigid as Face of Sacred feminine, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Sacred Feminine, Thomas Berry
Powers of the Universe: Emergence
May 13, 2020 amclaughlin2014	2 Comments
Emergence and the Spirituality of the Sacred Feminine
Emergence: the universe flares forth out of darkness, creating, over billions of years, through trial and error and trying again, astounding newness: carbon for life in the middle of a star…. the birth of planets, our earth holding what is required for life to emerge….the creation of water from hydrogen and oxygen….the emergence of a cell with a nucleus.
Each of these seemingly impossible happenings did happen, offering us humans the hope that the impossible tasks confronting us in our time can be creatively addressed, showing us, as Brian Swimme expressed it, a domain of the possible beyond imagination.
Our human endeavour has been powered by non-renewable energy resources. Our task now is to reinvent the major forms of human presence on the planet in agriculture, architecture, education, economics…. We need to align ourselves with the powers of the universe, consciously assisting, amplifying, accelerating the process of creative endeavour.
In her teaching on the Powers of the Universe, Jean Houston speaks about how we can work with the universe in what it is trying to emerge within us.
We set up a schedule. We show up at the page, or in the listening or prayer place, regularly, to signal our intent to be open.
We create internal structures that are ready to receive what wants to emerge in us.
We drop in an idea that puts us in touch with essence, creates in us a cosmic womb so the universal power can work in us. Thus, like Hildegard of Bingen, we become a flowering for the possible, attracting the people and resources that we need.
Among the aspects of human life that require creative imagination for a new birth, I would like to focus on religion/spirituality/our way of relating with the Sacred.
More than thirty years ago the eco-theologian Thomas Berry wrote that:
…the existing religious traditions are too distant from our new sense of the universe to be adequate to the task that is before us.
We need a new type of religious orientation….a new revelatory experience that can be understood as soon as we recognize that the evolutionary process is from the beginning a spiritual as well as a physical process. (Dream of the Earth Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1988)
What new revelatory experience, what new type of religious orientation is emerging today?
As I am neither a theologian nor a sociologist, I invite you to experience with me a fragment, a fractal, of the newness in spirituality, that is emerging among women with roots in Christianity, with branches that now extend to embrace a relationship of partnership with a sacred feminine presence whom some would call the Goddess.
Take a chair at the table in a room in a small Catholic college in western Canada. As part of a focus group of thirteen women, drawn from some one hundred interviewees, you've been asked to reflect upon the way you blend your Christian faith with a relationship to the feminine holy.
For several hours of concentrated conversation on this topic, facilitated by the research co-ordinator, you listen to your new companions.
What do you see? Hear? Experience? On this sunny late spring morning, one of the women leads an opening prayer in the four directions, calling on the presence of the Sacred Feminine to guide us in wisdom, in newness, nurtured by the gifts symbolized by earth, air, water and fire.
As each woman speaks, you notice the different pathways that have brought them here, that have awakened their awareness of a Holy Presence that is feminine. For some it is the writings of the feminist theologians, uncovering the deep but largely neglected tradition of Sophia /Wisdom, the feminine principle of God. For others it is through earth–based spiritualities such as indigenous beliefs and practices, or involvement in ritual, or Wiccan studies.
For the several Catholics present, Mary has been the pathway. As one woman recalls, "I was taught as a child that God was too busy to hear my prayers so I should pray to Mary instead." Listen as other women tell of travels to places where the Sacred was known and honoured as woman in ancient times, especially sites in France and elsewhere in Europe sacred to the Black Madonna.
Statue of the Black Madonna in Holy Wisdom Benedictine Monastery in Wisconsin
But mostly you are struck by the way that for each one, imaging the Holy as feminine has given a voice, a new power, a sense of her own value that were lacking to her in the time when God was imaged as male. Imaging God as woman gives an honouring to women's bodies, especially needed in a culture where the standard for feminine beauty (young, slim, nubile) is set by men.
You hear women share without bitterness, but with a sense of having come to a place of grace, childhood and adult experiences of feeling devalued in Church – related settings because of being female. You smile with recognition as one woman recalls that when her teacher said, "God is in everyone," she had asked, "Is God in me?" and was assured that was so. "Then is God a woman?" she asked.
Her teacher, a nun, responded, "There are some mysteries we are not meant to understand."
Listen now to the responses when the facilitator asks, "How do you express your relationship with the Feminine Divine? Would you call it worship?"
No one feels that word fits. "She is a mother…"
"At first she was mother, but now is more of a friend"…
"A partner, inviting me to co-create with her."
"Devotion is the word I choose, because it holds a sense of love," and to this many agree with nods and smiles.
What stirs in you as you listen? Do you begin to sense that there is more to this emerging relationship to the sacred feminine than our need for her, our longing for her?
Is this emergence initiated perhaps by the Holy One herself who comes to us in our time of great need?
Statue of Brigid of Kildare
Brigid of Ireland has been called "the acceptable face of the Feminine Divine". Ancient Goddess and Christian Saint, Brigid is the threshold woman for our time.
Look around the table at your companions: these are power houses. The submissive woman, so beloved of patriarchal religions, has no place in a life devoted to the Goddess.
There is a rage for justice, for the transformation of life on the planet. One woman here has taken on the task of building and maintaining natural hives for bees; one is a film-maker who wants to tell stories of women that will change the way we see ourselves in the images of most films and television; one is a Baptist minister who writes of the way Jesus is himself an embodiment of the Sophia-Wisdom principle; one is a theologian who identifies the Spirit as the life force found everywhere in each land and culture and tradition, linking all of life; one fiercely joins the struggle to defeat those who would modify and monopolize the seeds of the earth, or put poison in ground water to release its gas…
As you look at these devotees of the sacred feminine at this table, you see that they are living the new revelatory experience that Berry wrote about.
They are themselves the beautiful reflection of the Sophia, the Sacred Feminine, the Goddess of many names, emerging in the lives of the women and men of today who are opening themselves to her. They are, we are, the ones ready with her creative power at work in us to take on the great tasks that our times require.
Gloria Steinem has written: God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there is no turning back.
How will we assist in this Emergence?
Sophia and the Journey into Radiance
April 28, 2020 amclaughlin2014	1 Comment
Almost every day since the COVID-19 pandemic began, leading to radical shifts in our daily lives, fresh perceptions, epiphanies arise about life on our planet. It's as if we are part of a global learning experience, a mandatory home schooling.
One of the effects of our self-isolation is that we are learning how much we need to be connected with animals, with nature, with natural settings, for our own wholeness and well-being. Thomas Berry said that "the natural world gives us an interior world. It gives us a healing presence, a fulfilling presence." It was Berry who counselled many decades ago that we set aside our Bibles for twenty years, to read, to learn from the Scriptures of the Earth.
And it was Berry who introduced the young cosmologist Brian Swimme to the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Through Teilhard, Swimme came to understand that there is a spiritual dimension as well as a physical one to everything in existence, and that the universe is in a deep process of transfiguration, moving towards beauty, embodying qualities regarded as divine, such as compassion, truth and love.
With Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme co-authored The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era -A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (HarperSan Francisco 1992)
In 2004, Swimme created the DVD series The Powers of the Universe.This astounding new moment in the planet's history is preparing us to recognize and claim these powers within us.
Seamlessness Continue reading Sophia and the Journey into Radiance →
Allurement in the Universe, Christmas Rebirth, Diarmuid O'Murchu, Hafiz, Jan Richardson, Jean Houston, POWERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Our Journey Towards Radiance: Part Five
November 20, 2017 amclaughlin2014	Leave a comment
When we come awake to the mystery and beauty of the story of our evolving universe, it is necessary for us to pause, to breathe deeply. Then, in trust and in joy, we set about the task of reweaving the fabric of our lives to reflect this newness.
As we approach the Feast of Christmas, how can we re-imagine its spiritual importance in the light of our new cosmic awareness?
The great spiritual teacher of our time, Jean Houston, offers guidance:
Christmas is about yearning for something to come into the world. It's the story of the birth of love, of hope, of a Holy Child in huge danger of being destroyed, bringing a new order of possibility into the world, needing to be protected and nurtured so it may grow into a free and luminous, numinous being. What is new in our time is the birthing of a whole new order of thought through the discoveries of the new cosmology creating a new mind with interconnectedness with so many sources of ancient wisdom.
Jean invites us to touch into our own yearning. What is the new life we long for in ourselves? What is ready to be seeded in the darkness of these pre-Christmas Days so that we come to the feast pregnant with new life?
The Winter Solstice was the inspiration for marking the Birth of Christ during the days when the sun's light begins to strengthen. Solstice evokes YEARNING for the light, for new birth within ourselves, within all whom we love. We desire this newness for life on the planet, for the planet herself. We desire that we and all that we love be made new with "the love that moves the sun and the other stars" l'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stele as Dante writes.
The song "Born of a Star" written by Carolyn McDade to reflect on the Solstice, assists us to know the gift that is at the heart of Christmas:
Return, return to the darkness return,
this longest night of wonder
Return, return to the dream, return,
This holy night to ponder
Deep in the night, listen, listen
Turn to the light, waken, waken
Deep in the night, turn to the light
Waken to sun's ancient summons
We who are born of star, who then are We?
We who are loved by star, who then love We?
In Jesus in the Power of Poetry (2009) Diarmuid O'Murchu suggests a new metaphor in our understanding of the feast of Christmas. He finds it in the writings of the thirteenth century Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart:
"What does God do all day long? God lies on a maternity bed, giving birth all day long."
O'Murchu reflects: "The infancy narratives, therefore, need to be approached afresh….as an archetypal statement of the God of prodigious birthing."
"(W)e are called to become co-birthers with our birthing God of the ongoing evolutionary re-creation of God's world in justice, love, compassion and liberation. Incarnation becomes an empowering and liberating dynamic, and Christians, instead of fleeing the world, are now challenged to embrace it in its full embodied existence." (pp 45-6)
Advent invites us into the wonder of pregnancy. We prepare ourselves for the new gifts which our birthing God wants to offer in and through us. We enter the heart's season of longing, awakening desires we thought long tamed, desires that lead us to the birthing of the deepest dreams of our hearts.
Jan Richardson offers this prayer to the birthing God:
In the enclosure of your heart,
O God,
enfold me
and give me
the courage of Bear:
to enter the cave
in the season of slumber,
to lie down defenseless
in your gathering dark,
to know your sustaining
as my soul is made ready,
to give myself over
to dreaming of birth.
And to whom are we called to give birth? To the God who dwells within.
The fourteenth century Sufi poet Hafiz encourages us with these words:
No one can keep us from carrying God
Wherever we go.
No one can rob His Name
From our hearts as we try to relinquish our fears
And at last stand — Victorious.
We do not have to leave Him in the mosque
Or church alone at night;
We do not have to be jealous of tales of saints
Or glorious masts, those intoxicated souls
Who can make outrageous love with the Friend.
We do not have to be envious of our spirits' ability
Which can sometimes touch God in a dream.
Our yearning eyes, our warm-needing bodies,
Can all be drenched in contentment
And Light.
No one anywhere can keep us
From carrying the Beloved wherever we go.
No one can rob His precious Name
From the rhythm of my heart —
Steps and breath.


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Q: I can't clone on gitlab with ssh I can clone over https just fine but after I connect my ssh key, I keep getting the following error:
ssh: connect to host gitlab.example.com port 22: Operation timed out
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

I've tried deleting and recreating the ssh key and adjusting the config port to 443 and nothing has worked.

A: If this is an on-premise GitLab installation (meaning not gitlab.com), chances are port 22 is should not be blocked.
Double-check that with:
curl -v telnet://gitlab.example.com:22

Switching to 443 would rather involve HTTPS. (github.com does have an SSH listener on port 443 or ssh.github.com, but that is probably not the case for your own GitLab  server), unless your server is configured to do so on altssh.gitlab.example.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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By Mitch Mosk Music, Premieres April 24, 2018
Premiere: Communication is Key to Some Professional Help's "In My Place"
An emphatic folk-punk ballad, Some Professional Help's "In My Place" is a worthwhile lesson in clear communication, a basic trait we could all improve.
Some songs just lay everything out all at once, making it easy for us to see, hear, and immediately understand what's going on – a clarity we seldom get to experience in life. One of the reasons things get harder as we get older stems from a seemingly adult tendency to value courtesy over self-expression. In trying to be "respectful" of one another, we fail to share what we really feel – thereby hindering growth, and actually hurting ourselves in the process.
That said, there's nothing better than a band called Some Professional Help delivering a song with, well, some professional help. An emphatic folk-punk ballad, "In My Place" is a worthwhile lesson in clear communication, a basic trait we could all improve.
I've taken time for talking to you
And I've taken the time for listening too
And no one's taking score
But if they did I know that I'd take more
Give me one moment, I'll give you my take
But if I give too much, please don't make me wait
For you to put me in my place
Listen: "In My Place" – Some Professional Help
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering "In My Place," the latest single off Some Professional Help's eponymous debut EP (out May 17, 2018 via Yomyamyeemyaz Productions). Self-described as an indie-folk/orchestral pop collective led by singer/songwriter Scott Alexander, San Francisco's Some Professional Help consists of a rotating cast of some sixteen musicians. Just like their lineup, the band's music is never the same thing twice – each song is a unique entity unto itself, glowing with a range of emotions and musical influences that make Some Professional Help hard to nail down, even if it's just for a moment.
In My Place – Some Professional Help
At the same time, Some Professional Help's music is quite unlike their lineup in that it's an intimate affair, as is exemplified on "In My Place." A highly personal "folk punk," alternative rock song reminiscent of REM, Dizzy-era Goo Goo Dolls and Weezer, Some Professional Help's latest release glows with dramatic gusto. Bashful acoustic and electric guitars come together in a glorious fury as Scott Alexander sings eloquently, his words hitting home as he calls out people for, in some a sense, not calling him out:
I don't want to argue to be petty
Or bicker to be contrary
I just thought I'd tell you how
that I love the way we disagree
Advice you did not ask for
is the only kind you need
I'm so glad I can count
on you to be a jerk to me
And I love the way we disagree
"I grew up in a family with a lot of fighting, as did most of my friends," Scott Alexander tells Atwood Magazine. "So we were never shy with our feelings or ideas around each other. I suspect it's also just a feature of being young that I really miss, as I've written about this before."
He continues, "I have found that, contrary to what I was led to expect, being an adult has made me more uncomfortable in my relationships, both social and artistic, as people seem to call me out less and less on my (always unintentional and well-meaning) bullshit. I of course strive to be a more empathetic and diplomatic person, but the abyss of give-and-take antagonism makes me incredibly uncomfortable and self conscious. In fact, the whole experience of Some Professional Help has really put this in to hyperdrive. Some of these fine musicians are obviously comfortable telling me if they want to change something, but some remain very hard for me to read. We're working on it."
The foundation of our bond is not conflict
In fact, it is quite rare
But if I can't tell when it's there
Then I'll freeze just like a statue
that's forgotten and defaced
And I'll crumble into ruins
if you don't put me in my place
"In My Place" captures a universal need for open and clear communication – the fluid transmission not only of ideas, but also of emotions. The world would be a whole lot better off if we just told each other when we did and didn't like our respective comments and behaviors – and that, in a nutshell, is the ultimate crux of "In My Place."
Stream Some Professional Help's latest release exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for more from the band: Their debut EP is out May 17, 2018!
Connect to Some Professional Help on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
📸 © 2018
:: Stream Some Professional Help ::
20182018 new musicApril 2018Atwood MagazineBaby Robot MediaExclusive PremiereIn My PlaceIn My Place Some Professional HelpIndependent MusicMitch MoskMusicNew MusicPremiereSome Professional HelpSome Professional Help 2018Some Professional Help aboutSome Professional Help artistSome Professional Help In My PlaceSome Professional Help In My Place 2018Some Professional Help In My Place aboutSome Professional Help In My Place lyricsSome Professional Help In My Place lyrics meaningSome Professional Help In My Place meaningSome Professional Help In My Place reviewSome Professional Help In My Place songSome Professional Help In My Place song lyricsSome Professional Help In My Place song meaningSome Professional Help In My Place song reviewSome Professional Help In My Place streamSome Professional Help musicSome Professional Help new musicSome Professional Help reviewTrack Premiere
Mitch is the Editor-in-Chief of Atwood Magazine and a 2014 graduate from Tufts University, where he pursued his passions of music and psychology. He currently works at Universal Music Group in New York City. In his off hours, Mitch may be found songwriting, wandering about one of New York's many neighborhoods, or writing an article on your next favorite artist for Atwood. Mitch's words of wisdom to fellow musicians and music lovers are thus: Keep your eyes open and never stop exploring. No matter where you go, what you do or who you are with, you can always learn something new and inspire something amazing. Say hi here: mitch[at]atwoodmagazine[dot]com
Premiere: Baerd's Vivid "Crete," a Mythic Alt-Folk Adventure
Premiere: Porlolo Fans the Fire in Fight Song "Awards"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Why A Negative COVID Test Isn't A Pass To Do Whatever You Want
Advice from Skeena Strong's event 'Fighting COVID In The Skeena.'
by The Skeena October 14, 2020, 4:24 pm 1.5k Views
Photo credit: @photovs via Twenty20
You might think that if you get tested for COVID and receive a negative result then that means you can do whatever you want. But that's the same thinking that resulted in U.S. President Donald Trump and many others catching the disease.
So why doesn't a negative test result mean you're in the clear?
That was one of the questions answered during Skeena Strong's latest edition of "Fighting COVID In The Skeena," a live Facebook event featuring Dr. Tara Moriarty, one of Canada's foremost infectious disease experts.
"Let's say you were in a crowded indoor space, like at a party or wedding or maybe inside in a restaurant and someone there has COVID," Dr. Moriarty said. "The other people in the room might not actually develop symptoms of COVID right away. Typically it takes about four days on average."
But she said other people might not feel sick for two weeks. "Which is why we have a two week quarantine or isolation period," she said.
So let's say you get tested for COVID the day after you were in the crowded indoor space. There's a chance that you will receive a negative result "because you haven't developed enough of the virus yet for it to be detected," she said.
That's why Dr. Moriarty and many other health experts say that you should wear and a mask and practice social distancing even if a COVID test suggests you don't have the disease. "People should be careful about that and not use those tests as a passport kind of to then go and live however they want, because that's a dangerous way of thinking about them," she said.
After all, we've seen what happened in the Trump White House when people followed that logic.
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Success with anti depressants?
Braf_Zachland April 2, 2017, 3:22pm #1
Anybody have their life changed by meds, tried what you could before going on them, put it off, didn't want to but have them a try? No side effects, but just a changed outlook on life, got their life back.
Also, who had therapy help them? Had no obvious "events" to require it but went and had them find something or just help you feel "normal" again?
What were your symptoms? Depression, anxiety, anger, suicidal???
I tried some meds a kind time ago and stopped before they probably even started helping. Had the sexual side effects. Tried therapy twice, very little didn't like Dr's. Wasn't enough to help anything. Feel I've been waiting for it to get better, maybe it's "situational" general practitioner thinks otherwise. Its been 10 years since I started to realize I needed to try something. Keep doing the "man" thing and saying suck it up sissy, but I'm tired. I want to feel good......or just, not bad.
Wow FRAT huh?
Fighting April 2, 2017, 3:25pm #2
unoiwantsomkolad April 2, 2017, 3:30pm #3
EFM April 2, 2017, 3:34pm #4
had a few really tough years about 15 years ago. was on them for a year or 18 months. they definitely helped get me through those years but the side effects weren't worth staying on them. things could be different today, but as time healed the wounds, the side effects outweighed the benefits.
Dysqo April 2, 2017, 3:36pm #5
I went on Zoloft about 4 months ago.
Little seasonal like depression, and stress and anxiety with high pressure job.
Took a few months for full impact and return to normalcy. Does not make me feel euphoric, but brings me 'level' back up. At work I'm handling stress 10x better (I had a 'are you fing kidding me!' like blow up, which is why I sought help). Therapist said I didn't require visits. 40ish with 2 young kids, taking care of dad, high pressure job, so made since situation I was in.
^first few months I can tell a minor loss of sensitivity, and decrease in sex drive, but it's not too bad.
209ese - Diet, exercise and meditation. Maybe find a therapist that works for you. You can't cheat your way to happiness with drugs, Ive tried.
That's the thing, gone through all that. Always "slip" and it takes my motivation to keep doing those things that should make me better. I understand your point but it's been a long time brother, just looking for any "success" stories.
DaveFu April 2, 2017, 3:54pm #8
If you can nut on them, that's a success!
TheBearStare April 2, 2017, 4:01pm #9
U have to find a therapist that you click with. That's honestly more important then any qualifications they may have. Lots of research on this. The quality of the relationship the therapist establishes with you is the biggest single factor that will impact treatment. If you don't click with a therapist you aren't going to go to therapy.
Secondly, You will get out of therapy what you put into it. Therapy isn't magic(neither is medication for that matter.) It will take work on your part to get results. Have an open mind with the stuff the therapist says but ultimately it's up to you to decide what works and doesn't work, and to communicate that to your therapist.
All medication has side effects. It's unrealistic to expect otherwise. Even tylenol and cough syrup can be bad for you. The trick with psychotropic meds(if u chose to go that route) is to find the right combo that gives you positives that outweighs the negatives. Not everyone's experiences will be the same. Work hand in hand with a psychiatrist if you are going to go that route. I'd encourage you to do therapy first though. So much stuff out there can be resolved without medication.
TheBearStare April 2, 2017, 4:02pm #10
^if it matters my feedback is based on the fact I'm a therapist and I've worked alongside psychiatrists for years
Braf_Zachland April 2, 2017, 4:09pm #11
TheBearStare - U have to find a therapist that you click with. That's honestly more important then any qualifications they may have. Lots of research on this. The quality of the relationship the therapist establishes with you is the biggest single factor that will impact treatment. If you don't click with a therapist you aren't going to go to therapy.
The two I had felt like they were just there for the check. They weren't engaging me at all really, I don't know, like you said, didn't click at all. Just keep going to them til I find one??? Anything I should look for or ask?
UltimateKeyboardWarrior April 2, 2017, 4:14pm #12
Depression runs in my family. It hit me when I was 25, six months after my mother passed away. Tried to suck it up and "be a man". It didn't work. Went to a therapist, she had me take a test. It said I was clinically depressed. She suggested that I talk to a psychiatrist about meds. I was 100% against that. Over time I realized that she might be right. The psychiatrist agreed that meds were right for me and he put me on Prozac.
No regrets whatsoever. As someone else stated, the meds don't make you euphoric or the life of the party. The meds simply move your average mood to the level where they should be,
I do have the sexual side effects - it is more difficult to come.
It is a trade off I will make every day of the week.
Talk to a doctor.
NutJobJim April 2, 2017, 4:15pm #13
Have you tried psilocybin?
I know it sounds stupid but I genuinely think that I had a life changing experience using that drug. It's almost like it completely rewired my brain and whole outlook on life.
DaddyO4 April 2, 2017, 4:23pm #14
Seems that I have sen a thread months ago about an anti depression med that didn't have sexual side affects,someone might recall the name. Hope you feel better.
DaveFu April 2, 2017, 5:06pm #15
DaddyO4 - Seems that I have sen a thread months ago about an anti depression med that didn't have sexual side affects,someone might recall the name. Hope you feel better.
Wellbutrin. It isn't an SSRI.
NutJobJim - Have you tried psilocybin?
That is something I am actually interested in trying. No idea how to get them.
Southpaw76 April 2, 2017, 5:08pm #17
This. The research shows that many things do just as well or better than the anti depressants without the nasty side effects.
DaveFu -
I remember that thread
Kings21 April 2, 2017, 5:54pm #19
I dont have time for a detailed reply so ill just say that meds and therapy in combination have helped me greatly. If i had a bad doctot or shrink then things could have just gotten worse. That said, ive been medicated and without therapy for a few years now and im in a happy place.
All meds will have side effects that will be different for everyone. The thing is trying to find a balance that works. Some side effects will be more tolerable than others.
flemingo April 2, 2017, 5:55pm #20
Valdoxan is pretty good for milder cases, no sexual disfunction. Cbt is the way to go though


text:
Reaching Beyond Borders: 2014 Mexico SPI
By Katie Gainsback
Having only traveled to Mexico previously on vacations, I was a bit nervous to arrive in the capital city last month to support the Mexico Strategic Planning Institute (SPI). Knowing I could only describe my Spanish as "no bueno," I felt anxious about spending 10 days in Mexico City with esteemed science teachers and education officials from seven states. However, what followed after SSEC Director of Professional Services Amy D'Amico, facilitator John Tully, and I touched down at Benito Juárez International Airport on December 4, 2014 was nothing short of a transformative experience.
Friday dawned bright and early as we made our way across the city to the offices of our host Innovación en la Enseñanza de la Ciencia A.C. (INNOVEC), or Innovation in Science Education to non-Spanish speakers. INNOVEC is a long-time partner of the SSEC and promotes strategies to improve the teaching of science, which includes supporting the implementation of our STC™ units at grades 1-6 in Mexico through professional development, assessment, and materials support. INNOVEC operates out of La Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia (FUMEC) or the US - Mexico Foundation for Science.
SSEC's Director of Professional Services Amy D'Amico
with faculty presenter Daniel Alcazar-Roman
Much like the SSEC's Professional Services division, INNOVEC is small but mighty. After a round of introductions Friday morning we settled in to work through the coming week's agenda with Claudia Robles, Raúl Ríos, Juan Carlos Andrade, Rosario Gutiérrez, Alberto Guzmán, and Catalina Everaert. To plan the National Workshop for Leadership Development and Strategic Planning in Science Education (Taller Nacional para el Desarrollo de Liderazgo y Planificación Estratégica para la Educación en Ciencias), INNOVEC tailored our traditional SPI to better suit Mexico's context.
To better contextualize each of the LASER elements, Claudia Robles and I spent time looking in depth at and modifying our session on Administrative and Community Support together. Through our conversations we discovered how many similarities exist in the obstacles to effecting change in the Mexican and American education systems. For example, in Mexico the emphasis during instructional time lies heavily with language and mathematics, as seen in the United States under the Common Core State Standards. What's more, the opportunities for inquiry science to be a great support to these disciplines go largely unrecognized. Mexico also experiences a high mobility among its teachers and administrators, as we do in many American states as well. This mobility adds an extra challenge to adequately maintaining training in inquiry teaching techniques when professional development can only occur outside of school hours. The list goes on but suffice it to say, we all agreed these similarities were eye-opening and worth making explicit during the institute.
While we spent a great deal of time preparing for the coming week, we had some adventures too when Juan Carlos took us to a book talk he was moderating with American author Sam Kean at the Benjamin Franklin Library. While I hadn't read any of Kean's work before, I have certainly added his books to my reading list after hearing him speak. In his latest work, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Kean explains brain function using anecdotes, historic case studies, and humorous analogies. His other books address DNA and the Periodic Table in similar fashion. As someone with a great appreciation for science concepts made accessible as explained by history, I very much look forward to Sam Kean's next book.
Our host Juan Carlos Andrade, Project Managerat INNOVEC with American author Sam Kean
But I digress. After much anticipation and preparation, Monday, December 8th arrived and the institute began! Representatives from seven Mexican states attended the week-long workshop, and I was immediately impressed by their commitment to broadening access to an inquiry science education for their students. In the United States, time is so hard to come by that leadership teams often find it hugely challenging to get their high-level administrators and key decision makers to spend a week away from school. While time is certainly an issue in Mexico as well, the commitment from those high-level authorities to be present and involved for the entire week was inspiring. What's more, an inherent culture of pride in one's work and sharing that with colleagues was particularly evident. Every SPI incorporates many opportunities to develop knowledge by sharing out and discussing with the group but I have never seen such enthusiasm to participate in the sharing of ideas and experiences.
Representatives of Tamaulipas pause while investigating a lesson from the STC™ unit Floating and Sinking.
In the end, this institute was a fantastic opportunity for me to see the LASER model in action beyond our borders and experience our SPI from the perspectives of participant and presenter. More importantly, however, it convened seven Mexican states at varying points of implementation to gain and share new tools for moving their work with inquiry science forward. We offer a huge thank you to INNOVEC and FUMEC for making this event and the SSEC's participation possible. Muchas gracias!
Strategic Planning Institute
Katie Gainsback
As a Program Specialist in the Professional Services division at the SSEC, Katie coordinates events promoting inquiry-based learning and STEM education across the United States for science teachers, administrators, and community partners.


Our Limelights are an Australian native and come in two forms; as a standard and a bush.
Both forms are very low maintanence and are perfect for pots.
Their foliage is lime green throughout the year.
Our standards are approximately at 1.2 metres tall and the bush can grow up to 1 metre x 1 metre.


Details:- Located in a quiet residential gated community is this beautiful house, which sits on a gorgeous lot right on the Tamarindo Estuary. The house is very spacious and welcoming. The entry way opens up to an enormous living room with high vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling windows which let in a perfect amount of natural light. The windows are south facing, so it's perfect for not getting too much direct sunlight.
The sliding glad doors open up to a lovely patio with outdoor shower, covered BBQ area, and a fantastic swimming pool.
The kitchen is well equipped with granite counters and overlooks the immense living room. It's a really great house for entertaining because of the spacious area here.
Each bedroom has generous closet space and private bathrooms. All the rooms are very spacious and comfortable, with tall ceilings, and plenty of windows.
The master bedroom has a private covered patio space as well.
There is a half bath as well as a large laundry room which can double as a storage room for surf boards, bicycles, kayaks and other fun play things.


text:
Q: Most optimal way for element-wise multiplication of arrays I have an array f of shape (n,N) and an array w of shape (n,n). what is the fastest way to obtain an array fw of shape (n,n,N) whose elements are  where  and . I see that this is similar to np.tensordot over the axes 0 and 0 but without actually summing in the end and contracting the dimensions. Also I would like to be generalizable to any dimensions i.e. to start with A of shape (n_1,n_2,n_3,...) and B of shape (n_1,m_2,m_3,...) and obtain from it an array
AB of shape (n_1,n_2,..., m_2,m_3,...). I know one way would be to perform the outer product of A and B and then just select the elements where the  index is the same but I don't believe it is the most optimal way.

A: For 3d arrays, you can use broadcasting to add another dimension to both arrays:
f = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]])
w = np.array([[7, 8], [9, 10]])
r = f[None, ...] * w[..., None]
print(r) # [[[ 7, 14, 21], [32, 40, 48]], [[ 9, 18, 27], [40, 50, 60]]]
print(r.shape)  # (2, 2, 3)

I leave it to you to figure out if this works in the more general case and ask another question if not!


text:
function [freqs,units] = freqcheck(freqsLHS,unitsLHS,freqsRHS,unitsRHS)
%FREQCHECK  Check compatibility of frequency vectors, considering units.
%           If either system has units of rad/s, return frequencies in
%           rad/s, otherwise, return frequencies in Hz.

%   Author: S. Almy
%   Copyright (c) 1986-98 by The MathWorks, Inc.
%   $Revision: 1.3 $  $Date: 1998/08/25 22:08:25 $

freqs = freqsLHS;
units = unitsLHS;
reltol = 1e3*eps;

% Unit alignment
if ~strcmpi(unitsLHS,unitsRHS)
   % Convert units to rad/sec
   if strncmpi(unitsRHS,'h',1)
      freqsRHS = freqsRHS*2*pi;
   else
      freqsLHS = freqsLHS*2*pi;
      freqs = freqsRHS;
      units = unitsRHS;
   end
end

% The frequency points in FREQLHS and FREQRHS should now match
% up to round-off errors of level RELTOL
if length(freqsLHS) ~= length(freqsRHS)
   error('Size mismatch. Length of frequency vectors must match.')
elseif any(abs(freqsLHS-freqsRHS)>reltol*(1+freqsLHS))
   error('Frequency points don''t match (taking units into account).');
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: SELECT procedure requires INSERT INTO? I have this simple SELECT procedure:
create or replace PROCEDURE CST_FEEDBACK
(
  LineID IN Integer
) AS
BEGIN

SELECT
    T1.*
--  ,   Mgr.UserName as UserName
FROM F_Feedback T1
--LEFT JOIN tblUsers Mgr
--ON T1.EmpID = Mgr.EmpID

WHERE
    T1.Line_ID = LineID

ORDER BY T1.Comments_TS DESC;

END CST_FEEDBACK;

I am an Oracle n00b, we were using SQL Server in our shop but were suddenly forced to switch to Oracle.  I'm getting this message when I try to compile it:

Error(7,1): PLS-00428: an INTO clause is expected in this SELECT
  statement

Can anyone tell me why this is happening, and if there's some way to get around it?

A: if you call a select inside the PL/SQL you normally do this to calculate with the results inside the procedure. You have two ways:
Select ... into ... from ...

if you want to select one row.
or you declare a cursor as select and loop through it.
But I think, you want a stored procedure, that calculates a result as table.
It seems you want to do something like
SELECT * FROM MyProcedure(12345);

So you probably should look here oracle procedure returning table of custom data type record


The HTB18 features a Stylish Delta Form Design for attractively simple living room use and a 2.1-channel High-Quality Sound System. It also offers Bluetooth® compatibility and, in addition to movies, it lets you enjoy music from your smartphone with truly dynamic sound.
The ALL Connected Soundbar ALL70T, which is a 3.1-channel high-quality sound system, provides versatile, multi-room playback of music sources. When combined with the ALL2, it delivers 5.1-channel surround sound.


Please allow spoilers to introduce themselves.
In a quick revision of the intended goal, we're now talking about three components to make the sword whole. I also hope that we get an actual sword in the end rather than three trinkets glued together. Anyhow, Lucifer's goal is actually not the essence of the show, but the small sparks that occur while the fate of the universe is being decided. Yeah, we've now backed away from the romantic angle and we're just in sitcom mode, but I think that's where the show can shine.
The show and titular Lucifer, has been postponing a confrontation between Lucifer and Maze for more than a few episodes now. Their inevitable clash takes place with almost gusto. It's just a violent exchange of blows, the worst of it kept away from our eyes. We see it start, cut to commercials, and then we see it finish with broken mayhem all around as evidence. That's actually a refreshing way to approach it.
Another refreshing take is Dr. Linda Martin coming to the end of her rope, as her ethics are called into question. She may lose her practice. Maze feels more like a friend here than Lucifer has been. He's been careful of aligning events to his benefit, but careless with other people's loyalties and feelings. He's the Devil. It's his schtick. But even once in a while, he's gotta take stock and update his allies on what's going on.
Charlotte is getting close to Daniel. She's also featured prominently in this case as she's employed by the main baddie. That also means that Chloe and Daniel has questions about her involvement until she finally confesses to a partial truth. She's come out as the ex-wife of Lucifer's father. Clever, so the ages don't have to match. At least that allows Charlotte to be present in both Lucifer and Amenadiel's life without raising suspicions.
I'm glad the show finally addressed Dr. Linda Martin's past indiscretions with Lucifer. That was a past action without consequence that now feels planned.
The last component is a book. Or not. It's not a book? Then is the book real? And yes, I know Amenadiel ends up having the final part of the Sword. Good on him to get a compliment from his father. He so desperately needed one.
C.I. Ella Lopez muttering out of the side of her mouth, "hey perhaps Ella should go to the party!" That just cracked me up.
I'm glad that Charlotte doesn't need a reason to hang out with the gang anymore, and that she might be developing some empathy for Chloe.
At the same time, I think that Lucifer and Maze were really growing apart, so this cathartic and over the top confrontation might mean they'll be, if not in the same page, not in completely disconnected.
Dr. Linda Martin telling Lucifer that Maze is pissed because he used her.
Daniel Espinoza is not only still being sought by Charlotte, he's actually connecting with Amenadiel. These extra connections are making a tighter cast of characters and allow for more storyline angles.
Maze's protectiveness (misguided and all) of Linda might cause some damage but if there's really nothing else to do, she's still going to make something happen. Perhaps she'll find something to blackmail the head of the committee with. Or take his head.
Is it wrong to say that among all the great shows I watch, this one is consistently entertaining? Yeah, it also the one that has the tackiest moments on heaven and hell, but still one I have to keep watching.
Next Next post: Superhero Weekly's Finale Thoughts: Supergirl persists. The Flash's finish line. Arrow returns to Lian Yu.


This women's top from the Queen of Darkness brand of gothic clothing features a combination of printed safety-pins and real ones, British Union Jack flag and skeletal hands and ornamental zippers.
This gothic long-sleeve shirt from the women's clothing line by Queen of Darkness pays tribute to the roots of the dark scene by incorporating iconic punk symbols into it's design, notably the many safety-pins and the UK flag, the birthplace of goth. What we particularly like about this top is the clever combination of printed and real safety-pins, creating a remarkable optical illusion.


Who in the heck purposely goes to Erie, Pennsylvania? Well, we do. And guess what. It has been a neat experience. The photo in the header above is Erie from Presque Isle Bay.
Our home for several days is a municipal RV park on the shore of Lake Erie. We pulled in Friday night and were treated Saturday morning to a parade of boats going through the cut between the mainland and the tip of Presque Isle peninsula.
Erie is still in some tough times as a city of the Rust Belt, but they sure are making an effort to re-create their waterfront. The bay shore has been remade into a bit of a destination with shops, restaurants, a Sheraton hotel, marinas, an amphitheater, a maritime museum, and a replica of Commodore Perry's ship, the Niagara. Saturday night it was hopping.
This famous phrase was on the battle flag of Commodore Perry who heroically won the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. While the actual battle took place at Put-In-Bay, Ohio, everything began and ended in Erie.
Perry was sent to Erie to build a fleet and use it to protect our interests in Lake Erie. There was little in Erie, a town of less than 400 when Perry arrived. The ships had to be built of green lumber and then floated across a sandbar to get them from the bay into the lake.
Niagara Rigging -- You Wonder How They Kept It All Straight.
The peninsula that forms the safe harbor of Erie is Presque Isle. Pennsylvania, with some unusual foresight for a state, has made the entire peninsula a state park with wonderful trails, wetlands, beaches, and marinas. It is a unique and beautiful treasure. The houseboats you see below are "grandfathered" and must remain in the family. There are 24 of them and originally they were scattered about, but the creation of the state park put them all in one little cove.
The Presque lighthouse is a charming thing. It is on the lake side of the peninsula. I am sure that when it was built it was on the shoreline, but now it is nestled back in the trees a bit. It is one of three lighthouses close to Erie, and by far the most picturesque.
The North Pier (really the bulkhead of the cut between Presque Isle and the mainland is busy with fisherman at all hours of the day. Its mainland counterpart is just as busy. It is fun to walk out and chat with the fisherfolk along the way. At the end of North Pier is another lighthouse, not nearly as picturesque as the one above.


text:
PM Welcomes Regeneration Masterplan Expected to Bring Thousands of Jobs to the Tees Valley
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE
Ground-breaking devolution deal leads to 25-year project to transform 4,500 acre area, including former Redcar steelworks and surrounding sites
PM to meet South Tees Development Corporation board and confirm government's support for region's growth plans
Hundreds of businesses in the Tees Valley will be able to benefit from a major regeneration expected to create thousands of jobs and significantly boost industrial growth in the North East.
During a visit today (23 August), Prime Minister Theresa May will officially launch the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), which has been working on plans to redevelop a 4,500-acre stretch of land on the south bank of the River Tees.
As the first Mayoral Development Corporation outside of London, the STDC will become a flagbearer for major business growth across the region and will work with industry to take advantage of opportunities in the area – part of which was formerly the SSI steelworks.
Prime Minister Theresa May said:
"I want every part of the UK to reach its full potential and the regeneration of South Tees is a crucial step to stimulate economic growth across Tees Valley.
"The South Tees Development Corporation – the first of its kind outside of London – is a prime example of how placing power in the hands of local communities can drive growth.
"To deliver a strong, outward-looking Northern Powerhouse, part of an Industrial Strategy that works to improve productivity, we have to see all corners of the North reach their full economic potential.
"This long-term plan being led by Mayor Ben Houchen will bring great new opportunities for South Tees, helping to create the conditions where successful businesses can emerge and grow, and in turn provide high-quality jobs for local people."
In the coming weeks the corporation will publish its draft plans, outlining that it will work with investors and cutting-edge industry from across the region to transform South Tees and the wider area.
Teesport is the largest exporting port in England and is also the deepest on the east coast of the UK. Placed in the heart of Tees Valley's industrial zone, the area already enjoys unique exporting potential and the STDC plan will seek to further spur these opportunities.
Chaired by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, the project is a key part of the Tees Valley's Devolution Deal.
Through the deal, powers have been handed from Whitehall to local leaders and coupled with hundreds of millions of pounds of government investment into the Tees Valley Combined Authority over 30 years, these plans can help bring about a lasting economic boost to the area. On top of this, the government is providing Tees Valley with Local Growth Deal funding of £126m up to 2021.
Shortly after taking office, the Mayor used his powers to create the corporation, and today the members of the STDC board will also be announced. He has appointed board members from a variety of backgrounds, who will bring their experiences of industry and knowledge of the area to boost commercial interest in the site.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said:
"This is an historic moment for the Tees Valley – nowhere else outside of London has a Mayoral Development Corporation. It is a sign of the government's commitment to our region and I am delighted the Prime Minister will see first-hand the opportunity we have to turn this local site into a national asset.
"I urge companies that are looking to invest in the UK to come up to Redcar and see for themselves the fantastic infrastructure, good transport connections and local highly-skilled workforce within its catchment area.
"As we negotiate our exit from the EU, our plans offer an exciting opportunity for Teesside to access new international markets, bringing inward investment into the area. This has the potential to create more than 20,000 high quality jobs for local people over the lifetime of the project.
"British Steel has already made a commitment to the site and the world's largest dedicated biomass energy plant, MGT Teesside, is being constructed. These projects, and many more in our inward investment pipeline, demonstrate the level of our ambition for the area and are tangible evidence of the economic benefits that devolution is already bringing to Tees Valley."
A full masterplan detailing the corporation's aims will be launched in the autumn. A formal consultation will be published at the same time, giving communities and businesses in the area a chance to put forward their views on the project.
The STDC's plans are a prime example of the government's ongoing Northern Powerhouse drive to strengthen trade and investment, support innovation and growth in Northern hubs, improve transport links, and boost skills and education.
Northern infrastructure is a huge priority for the government and we are delivering real change through record investment.
Transport for the North has been given £60 million to develop plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail to better link the great cities of the North and they are due to submit their proposals later this year.
By 2020 the government will have invested £1 billion to upgrade one of the largest rail networks in the country through the Great North Rail Project. The Northern and TransPennine Express franchises are providing new trains, including more than 500 new carriages, room for 40,000 extra passengers and more than 2,000 extra services a week, including new fast services right across the region.
And on roads funding, there has been £128 million to widen sections of the A19 to relieve congestion and promote growth in the Tees Valley, as well as £380 million to upgrade the A1 and improve links between London and Newcastle.


text:
Agnès Constant, née Berthomieu le , est une femme politique française, devenue sénatrice de l'Hérault à la suite de la démission de Robert Navarro, sénateur privé de ses droits civiques le .

Elle a été maire de Saint-Pargoire de 2008 à 2019, et vice-présidente de la communauté de communes Vallée de l'Hérault (CCVH), vice-présidente au syndicat intercommunal des eaux de la vallée de l'Hérault (SIEVH).

Biographie
Née à Madagascar, Agnès Constant est viticultrice, et sapeur-pompier volontaire dans la commune de Saint-Pargoire depuis 1984.

Elle a passé son enfance entre la Côte d'Ivoire, à Bouaké puis à Bingerville (1968-1973 puis 1976-1980), et la Nouvelle-Calédonie à Nouméa (1973-1976), avant de rejoindre la métropole pour suivre des études à l'Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier (1980-1984).

Elle est mariée avec Jean-Pierre Constant, chef de corps de la caserne de pompiers de Saint-Pargoire. Ils ont trois enfants.

Au Sénat, elle est membre de la commission permanente des affaires économiques à partir du .

Liens externes
 Sa fiche sur le site du Sénat

Notes et références

Femme politique française
Sénateur de l'Hérault
Naissance en mars 1962
Naissance à Madagascar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia