text:
It Doesn't Have To Be Right…
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Recentest readings
September 20, 2013 by iansales	2 Comments
Time for another report from my ongoing mission to read every book I own. There is no five-year plan – actually, there is: A Five Year Plan, a thriller by Philip Kerr, which I read back in February 2005… What I mean is, there is no end in sight – in fact, it recedes further from me with each passing month. Must. Read. More. Books. (Yes, yes, I know: I could also try: Must. Buy. Fewer. Books. But don't be silly, that'll never happen.)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming (1963). This is the one where Bond gets married, and then his wife is killed soon afterwards. The woman he marries is the daughter of a Sicilian mafia boss, but she's been to finishing school and her previous husband was a wastrel Italian count so she's now a contessa; and, of course, she's beautiful. And suicidal. The book opens with Bond rescuing her from a suicide attempt when she throws herself into the sea. The actual plot concerns a fiendish plan by Blofeld to destabilise the UK by destroying its agriculture. There's a mountain-top health centre in Switzerland run by a mysterious scientist – who may or may not be Blofeld – and Bond infiltrates it in the flimsiest of disguises. He finds it populated by a number of young English women, all there ostensibly to be cured of phobias and allergies. But they're actually being brainwashed into performing a series of tasks to poison British agriculture. When Bond meets the centre's owner, Comte Balthazar de Bleuville, he just knows he's Blofeld, even though he doesn't resemble Blofeld at all. Plastic surgery, you see. Anyway, Bond foils Blofeld's fiendish plot – the English women are caught before they can cause any damage, and British forces launch a raid on Blofeld's health-centre but Blofeld escapes. Afterwards, Bond gets married, Blofeld attempts to kill him, and his wife dies in the attack. There's a good sequence when Bond escapes from Blofeld's hideaway by skiing down the mountain – bizarrely, it reads more like the cinematic Bond than Fleming's original. The science practiced by Blofeld is completely bogus, and the only connection between the villain of this book and the villain of Thunderball is Bond's conviction that they are one and the same man. Fleming's treatment of Bond's father-in-law, the Sicilian capo, is deeply racist; and it goes without saying that the women throughout the book are little more than plot tokens or adjuncts to Bond's masculinity. This is actually one of the better Bond novels I've read so far, though I still don't think they deserve their immense popularity. I'd always assumed their success was due to the films, but apparently there was a James Bond strip in the Daily Express, which ran from 1958 to 1983. While the hardback of Casino Royale apparently sold out three print-runs within thirteen months in the UK – but flopped in the US: they retitled it You Asked For It, and even renamed 007 as "Jimmy Bond" in the paperback reprint – I do wonder if it's the newspaper strip which, by bringing the character to a much larger audience (under Beaverbrook the Daily Express had the largest circulation of any newspaper in the world), really made Bond a twentieth-century cultural icon.
A Man Without Breath, Philip Kerr (2013). That's me completely up-to-date on the Bernie Gunther novels, at least until a new one appears. In A Man Without Breath, Gunther has moved to the War Crimes Bureau, and is sent out to Smolensk because several buried bodies have been found in a nearby wood by German troops. The Germans suspect the bodies belong to Polish officers, killed by the Russians, who had allegedly shipped the Poles they had captured off to POW camps. The wood is Katyn Wood. When a pair of soldiers from a nearby signals detachment are found murdered in Smolensk, Gunther is asked to assist by the local field police. The more he investigates the double murder, and the circumstances surrounding it, the more he's convinced there is some sort of conspiracy in place among the senior German officers in Smolensk. Meanwhile, other War Crimes Bureau investigators have found yet more murdered Poles buried in Katyn Wood… If Prague Fatale was a piss-take of a country house murder – including a locked room mystery! – A Man Without Breath is pure World War II behind-the-lines thriller. The plot hangs from two very real atrocities committed during the war – the Katyn Massacre, and another performed by the Germans (revealing it would constitute a spoiler, so I won't). Kerr places Gunther firmly in the middle as all these events come to a head, and while he's not responsible for resolving them, he is certainly the one who makes sense of them and puts the pieces together for the reader. One of the difficulties with writing historical fiction involving well-documented people and events is that everything must end up as it does in the history books. This is not Inglourious Basterds, Hitler and the Nazi bigwigs do not get gunned down before 1945. The larger events depicted in A Man Without Breath are actual history, and you can read about them on Wikipedia. The same is true of the movements of the more important figures. So when Hitler makes a flying visit to Smolensk in the novel, that's what he actually did in the real world. Kerr does this really well. And having read science fiction for so many years, I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to fiction which includes elements I can go and look up afterwards. In fact, that's something I try to write myself – even though what I write is science fiction…
Three Marys, Paul Park (2003). After writing four excellent science fiction novels, one of which remains my favourite sf novel of all time, Park decided to write a couple of books set in Biblical Palestine. The first was The Gospel of Corax, a sort of alternate life of Jesus, in which he wasn't crucified but wanders eastward, dispensing magic and theosophist philosophy. Three Marys is a more historical novel and, as the title indicates, takes as its protagonists three women called Mary who each knew Jesus – Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany and Jesus' mother, Mary. I'm a big fan of Park's writing, but first century Palestine is not a place and time that especially interests me. I've read one book set there this year, Philip Boast's Sion (see here), but that was quite a strange book. Park's is far better historically-grounded, and reads much more convincingly than Boast's did. The three title characters are also beautifully drawn. But… I don't find Jesus interesting as either a historical or a religious figure, and I struggled to gain purchase on Three Marys despite its lovely prose. I suspect I may have to reread it one day, but for now I'd say it was a book I admired far more than I enjoyed.
Kingdom of Strangers, Zoë Ferraris (2012). The third book in Ferraris' Jeddah-set murder-mysteries. A body is found in the desert after strong winds have blown sand from a dune by a road. The body is that of a young woman, has had its hands removed and appears to be several years old. The police investigate and eighteen more bodies are found in the area. It looks like Jeddah has a serial killer on its, er, hands, and no one knew about it. This is not unexpected: given the frequent abuse and mistreatment of female expatriate maids and nannies – many of them run away and the police rarely bother to look for them. Meanwhile, the Filipina mistress of Imbrahim Zahrani, the policeman in charge of the serial killer investigation, has gone missing, and he's worried that knowledge of his affair will leak out and torpedo his marriage and career. Forensic pathologist Katya Hijazi is also keen to get involved on the serial killer case, but most of the police officers don't want women working on it. She has also agreed to marry her fiancé, which creates a bit of a problem as the police think she is already married (and she wouldn't be allowed to work there if she were unmarried). The setting of Ferraris' novels makes for interesting reading, and while the crime aspects of the plot often seem incidental to documenting the lifestyle of the Saudis, it all hangs together entertainingly. I never actually lived in Saudi myself, only on the Gulf coast, but Ferraris' portrayal does match what I know of the country and its inhabitants. She has a group of sympathetic and well-drawn protagonists, handles her supporting cast well, and I think I'm going to continue to read the books as they're published.
Slow Apocalypse, John Varley (2012). I fell in love with Varley's short fiction when I first read some of it back in the 1980s, and his The Ophiuchi Hotline remains a favourite sf novel. I even sort of like Millennium, the film adaptation of his short story 'Air Raid', which he then novelised as, er, Millennium. Since 1998's The Golden Globe (which I really must reread one of these days), I've bought his books in hardback on publication – he's no longer published in the UK, so I've had to order them from the US. Sadly, none of his recent novels have quite matched up to those earlier works. And, unfortunately, Slow Apocalypse is more of the same. A Hollywood-based television writer, Dave Marshall, learns from a secretive ex-military contact that the US experimented with a bacteria to render enemy oil fields unusable, but that the scientist responsible turned rogue and released the bug into the wild. Marshall thinks the story is excellent material for a movie, one that will reinvigorate his stalled career. Then oil wells around the world start to explode… Soon, there's very little petrol available, and other resources – such as food – which rely on petrol for transportation also become scarce. A huge earthquake then strikes Los Angeles, near-destroying the city, and society collapses. Marshall and family join together with their neighbours in the canyon in which they live to safeguard their houses. Because he heard the story early, Marshall has managed to stockpile plenty of supplies, but he's afraid his neighbours may soon want to him to "share". Also, their current redoubt is unsustainable for much longer – especially after a huge brush fire sweeps out of the hills and renders most of the city uninhabitable. The government is proving no help, and aid is virtually non-existent. So Marshall agrees to travel south with a group of close friends and colleagues, in search of somewhere sustainable to settle. It's plain that Slow Apocalypse was written as a commercial disaster novel, and if it gives Varley's career a boost than that's all to the good. But. I found it really dull. Much of the book consists of Marshall – with wife or daughter – driving about LA and witnessing the damage done to it by the quake and subsequent breakdown of law and order. The whole thing reads prescriptively. There are a number of quite good action set-pieces, but they're not enough to enliven the narrative. There's also a Heinlein-esque mouthpiece character, but Varley has always been able to make such characters more palatable than Heinlein ever did. The plot is as predictable as a Hollywood movie, and might well follow Hollywood's over-used three-act arc. Disappointing.
The Silkie, AE van Vogt (1969). Sometimes I wonder if something in my brain doesn't work quite the way it should. I have very little time for Golden Age authors, but for some reason I keep on fooling myself that I have a soft spot for the works of one of them: AE van Vogt. I think his The House That Stood Still is very nearly a bona fide sf pulp classic, and some of his other novels can be entertaining in a not-quite-coherent way. But. He made his career out of the advice given in a how-to-write book, which basically said to break any narrative down into 800-word sections which must always end on a cliff-hanger. And it's pretty clear in most of van Vogt's fiction that when he finishes a section, he's no real idea of what's going to happen next. It's often plain he's no idea what's going on within sections. His prose is competent at best; he mangles science, philosophy and history at will; and he has fixed-up and expanded so many of his stories, it's impossible to say where some begin and others end. The Silkie is a fix-up and it reads like one. The book opens with a prologue, and it's actually not that bad. It's set in the present day in the Caribbean. A scientist and his daughter have been invited to the island of a secretive scientist who claims to have discovered immortality. Instead, the daughter meets a Silkie… a human capable of metamorphing into a seal-like creature which is equally at home underwater. And then the story completely changes, and we're in outer space and Silkies apparently have a third form, which allows them to live, and move about, in space. There are also Variants, who are the products of Silkies and human women – all Silkies are male – but are not full Silkies. But they get written out of the story once van Vogt has finished with them. Which is pretty quickly. There's a Variant boy who has astonishing mental powers and may be a threat to the Silkies, so the hero defeats him. Then it turns out there's an alien attacking the Silkies, so the hero defeats it. And then it turns out there are bad Silkies who live in an asteroid inside the orbit of Mercury. So they weren't invented by the scientist in the prologue after all. But they're not really bad because they're actually unknowingly under the control of a giant alien blob that's older than the universe. But the hero defeats it. And discovers everything is all part of a plot by yet another alien race. So he defeats them… And it's one damn thing after another, and each threat is written out of the story as soon as it's vanquished, and its presence and/or defeat has no repercussions or ramifications on later parts of the story. The Silkie reads like the science-fictional ramblings of a drunk who has no grasp of plot, story-arc, continuity or rigour.
Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear (2010). I stumbled across a copy of this in a local charity shop, and bought it because it was on the Clarke Award shortlist last year. So it must be good, right? I generally have a lot of time for the Clarke Award juries' choices, although every now and again they pick books which to my mind don't seem to be award-worthy. This was one of them. A man wakes on a giant spaceship, with no memory of who he is or what he is supposed to do. All he can remember is that he is a Teacher, and will be needed when the generation ship reaches its destination and begins the settlement of a new world – information he chiefly recalls from a dream fed to him while he was in cryogenic hibernation. He ends up running around the ship with a bunch of strange people – not your normal-type humans – encountering monsters and such, and eventually discovering why he was woken and what has happened to the ship. All the time I was reading this book, I was thinking: why is this spaceship so bloody huge? There's one scene where the group enter a vast room with a catwalk across its middle and an enormous window in its floor. Why is it so big? If it's an observation room, it doesn't need to be so huge. It makes no sense – enormous chambers need more steel to build, more air to provide a breathable atmosphere of the required pressure, and more energy to heat. It's stupid. The whole spaceship seemed to have been designed by a production designer for a B-movie. As, in fact, did the story. Systems aboard a generation starship come to blows over one of the mission's objectives… monster movie in space results. I couldn't see why Teacher specifically had been woken, why the generation ship had been designed in such a stupid manner, and by the end of the book I no longer cared. Bear has written much better than this, and this monster movie book didn't deserve to be on the Clarke shortlist.
Categories: book review, books, science fiction | Tags: ae van vogt, greg bear, ian fleming, john varley, paul park, philip kerr, zoë ferraris | Permalink.
2 thoughts on "Recentest readings"
robertday154
Apparently, OHMSS was written by Fleming specifically with the film in mind. Revisionist Bond film fans are now acknowledging the film to be one of the franchise's better outings; a lot of the best one-liners in it came from Lazonby himself, and his failure to go on to make 'Diamonds are Forever', which he was contracted to do, is down to his agent inexplicably giving an interview to a Sunday paper saying that George wasn't going to do any more Bond films, which came as a surprise to him. One assumes that the agent was sacked very shortly afterwards…
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In 1980, committed atheist Lee Strobel took on the case of his life.
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Rats! I've got nowhere to leave my rodent these holidays
Click for more photos
The Australian Rat Fanciers Society, no seriously
The Australian Rat Fanciers Society, no seriously Photo: James Boddington
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Australian Rat Fanciers Society president Julie McInnes, who owns, rescues and breeds rats, said family members were not always keen to sit for the not-so-popular rodents.
Illustration: Matt Golding.
"They say: 'I'll not having a rat running around in my house'," she said. "There is never anywhere for people to take their rats.
"Unlike birds where you can leave a big bowl of water for a week, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs need daily attention."
This is why the society began a minding service which connects holidaying rat owners to its members, located all around Melbourne, she said.
This school summer holidays, the society's members are minding around 20 pet rats.
Ms McInnes said she had heard horror stories about people's rats dying when left at home.
"Rats are especially prone to heat stress; as well as rabbits and guinea pigs," she said.
However, rabbit and guinea pig owners had it a bit easier, she said, as family and friends were a bit more forgiving.
Sonia Mattei bought her "cute" but "cheeky" dwarf rabbit just a week ago.
But she is not concerned about leaving "Juve" – named after an Italian soccer team because of its black and white colouring – when she goes on holidays.
"I'll leave her with my parents. They have an active part in her little life," Miss Mattei said. "My dad adores her."
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Q: How can I exclude a folder from indexing in Sublime Text, while still showing it in the sidebar? For a large project with many dependencies e.g. in the node_modules/ folder, I noticed frequent CPU spikes because of Sublime indexing all the files in the folder.
I know I can hide files and folders using the folder_exclude_patterns setting, but I still want the folder to be visible in the sidebar.
How can I keep e.g. node_modules/ in the sidebar, but exclude it from indexing?

A: Doesn't work in ST3 (Build 3126).
You can show node modules folders in sidebar and hide files inside this way :
"file_exclude_patterns":
[
    ...,
    "node_modules/**"
]

If you want to hide subfolders from each node module :
"folder_exclude_patterns":
[
    "node_modules/*/**"
]

All files inside node_modules will be removed from search, but each node_module subfolder will be still visible in sidebar.

A: You can change your personal settings, in Preferences -> Settings - User, add:
{
    "folder_exclude_patterns":
    [
        ".svn", ".git", ".hg", "CVS",
        "node_modules",
    ],
}

A: To exclude files from the index but keep them in the sidebar, use the binary_file_patterns setting in your User Settings, for example:
"binary_file_patterns": [
  "*.jpg", "*.jpeg", "*.png", "*.gif", "*.ttf", "*.tga", "*.dds",
  "*.ico", "*.eot", "*.pdf", "*.swf", "*.jar", "*.zip",
  "node_modules/**",
  "bower_components/**"
]

Make sure to copy the values from your Settings - Default preferences (here shown as "*.jpg" etc.), or you will start indexing binary files.

A: Sublime Text 3 now provides a way to exclude files and folders from indexing while keeping them in the sidebar:
  "index_exclude_patterns": [
    "*.log",
    "node_modules/*"
  ]

On my project I observed the following improvement in the indexing status menu after applying changes:
Before:
index "MyApp" collated in 0.70s from 73934 files
index "MyApp" is using 15167488 bytes for 54234 symbols across 1357673 locations

After:
index "MyApp" collated in 0.00s from 137 files
index "MyApp" is using 61440 bytes for 730 symbols across 4763 locations

A: I thought binary_file_patterns wasn't working, because I am in the habit of right-clicking my top level folder and choosing "Find in folder". folder_exclude_patterns works with this but binary_file_patterns still searches everything - because the "Where" field overrides the setting.
So you can either use the menu option Find > Find in files OR right click-your top level folder, choose "Find in folder" and then delete the text in the "Where" field so it shows the placeholder text "Open files and folders".
Obviously you still have to add this to Preferences/Settings:
    "binary_file_patterns": [
      "node_modules/",
    ],

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
OLD Press Releases
Leading women unite to launch #ThisBookClub from the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
Stars including Emily Blunt, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Mary Portas encourage book fans to come together with friends and talk about the novels they love
New #ThisBookClub campaign celebrates the diversity of modern day book clubs and showcases the power books and stories have to connect us
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction publishes The Brilliant Woman's Guide To A Very Modern Book Club featuring original articles from leading writers and reading notes to the 2015 Baileys Prize shortlisted books
The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the UK's only book award for fiction written by a woman, today announces #ThisBookClub; a campaign to celebrate the modern day book club and the myriad ways that novels can bring people together.
To launch the initiative, the Baileys Prize invited three pairs of inspirational women – actress Emily Blunt and her sister, literary agent Felicity Blunt; writer Janet Ellis and her daughter, the singer and songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor; and retail marketing consultant and television presenter Mary Portas and her wife, fashion editor Melanie Rickey – to reveal the novels written by women they most want to share with one another.
Their selections are designed to inspire book lovers across the nation to get together to talk about books and highlight the evolution of the traditional book club.
Literary agent Felicity Blunt selected Kate Atkinson's bestseller Life After Life to share with her sister, celebrated actress, Emily Blunt. Speaking about why she made this choice and how the book resonated with her, Felicity said: "It's a story of life's infinite possibilities and the idea of many lives lived and [as an actress], my sister lives many lives!"
Emily Blunt chose A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and commented: "I just felt like my hair was blown back by it. I believe that a great book can change your life in a way that I don't think cinema can – a book can resonate with you in such a way, it shifts you forever".
Fashion editor Melanie Rickey picked The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy to share with her wife, Mary Portas: "It has one of the very best first pages of a book, and I've re-read that first page so many times. It's like you just dive in to another world. When you come out blinking, it's like 'am I actually here?"
Mary Portas selected Jeanette Winterson's Written On The Body. Inspired by the writer's fearlessness she commented: "I strive to push boundaries and to be fearless in that way, and I'm always trying to give that to Mel.
Presenter, writer and actress Janet Ellis chose The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. Commenting on the power of novels, Janet said: "The best books are like falling through a portal into another world and you're there."
Renowned singer songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor shared Emma Healey's debut novel Elizabeth is Missing with her mother Janet. The book had been recommended to Sophie by her younger sister Martha and she in turn shared the "pacey, quirky and entertaining" read with her mother to connect the three women in the shared story.
To support the campaign, a series of portraits of the celebrity duos have been commissioned by eminent photographer Rebecca Miller as a visual record of their choices.
Novelist Kate Mosse, Co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction: "This is a wonderful way to bring together books and readers, to celebrate twenty fabulous years of the Prize and to share favourite novels, past and present, with friends, readers and writers."
As part of the #ThisBookClub campaign, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction has created The Brilliant Woman's Guide to a Very Modern Book Club – a book club Guide featuring articles from leading writers, tips for making the most of even the most informal of book-inspired gatherings, and reading notes to the 2015 Baileys Prize shortlisted books.
A series of #ThisBookClub Live events will also take place across the country as part of the campaign. Kicking off in May, the events will take the form of literary-inspired quiz evenings celebrating women's writing with teams competing to win copies of the Baileys Prize 2015 shortlisted books.
The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Now in its twentieth year*, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women from throughout the world.
Established in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. Any woman writing in English – whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter – is eligible.
The winner of the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction will be announced on Wednesday 3rd June 2015.
For more information on #ThisBookClub, to view full interviews and portraits, to download The Brilliant Woman's Guide to a Very Modern Book Club or for more information about the #ThisBookClubLive events, visit ds.carswellgould.co.uk.
For press enquiries, quotes and imagery from #ThisBookClub celebrities, please contact the team at freuds:
Baileys@freuds.com / 0203 003 6300
The Brilliant Woman's Guide to a Very Modern Book Club can be downloaded from http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/thisbookclub-guide
The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction #ThisBookClub events in partnership with All Bar One and Grazia will take place in Liverpool, Leeds and London in May. For further information and tickets, go to womensprizeforfiction.co.uk
BAILEYS Women's Prize for Fiction
In June 2013, the prize announced a new three-year partnership with Baileys and from 2014 the prize has been known as the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
The Prize's patrons are; Dame Gillian Beer DBE, Professor Lisa Jardine CBE, Jude Kelly CBE, Helena Kennedy Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws QC FRSA, Sue MacGregor CBE, Dame Jenni Murray DBE, Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE, Rosie Boycott, Liz Calder, Fi Glover, Daisy Goodwin, Muriel Gray, Bettany Hughes, Paula Kahn, Martha Kearney, Kirsty Lang, Sheena McDonald, Penny Perrick, Baroness Gail Rebuck DBE, Miranda Richardson, Gillian Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, Ahdaf Soueif, Sandi Toksvig OBE, Polly Toynbee and Joanna Trollope OBE.
The Prize's board comprises of Kate Mosse OBE (Chair), Clare Alexander, Felicity Blunt, Jane Gregory (Company Secretary), Harriet Hastings (Managing Director), Karen Jones, Baroness Lane Fox of Soho, Nicola Mendelsohn, Joanna Prior and Carole Welch.
The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction was known as the Orange Prize for Fiction between 1996 and 2012.
About BAILEYS
BAILEYS and the Prize share a mutual purpose, to celebrate brilliant women and their shared ambition is to bring the best women's writing and female storytellers to ever-wider audiences.
In November this year, BAILEYS launched their latest campaign celebrating the power of female friendship and the great things that happen when girls get together. The campaign sees the introduction of the brand's new endline 'Here's to us', which invites women to get out there with their girls, wherever they are in the world, and toast them with a Baileys.
BAILEYS was the world's first cream liqueur, the perfect balancing act of aged Irish whiskey woven with fresh Irish dairy cream, a hint of cocoa and vanilla. It's also the world's biggest seller, with over 82 million bottles sold world wide each year. Every minute of every day over 2000 people around the world are enjoying a BAILEYS.
The BAILEYS word and associated logos are trademarks.
About Diageo:
Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business. With its global vision, and local marketing focus, Diageo brings to consumers an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across the spirits, wine and beer categories including Smirnoff, Guinness, Johnnie Walker, BAILEYS, J&B, Captain Morgan and Tanqueray, and Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards wines. Diageo trades in some 180 countries around the world and is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE). For more information about Diageo, its people, brands and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com.
Diageo is committed to responsible drinking through: setting world-class standards in responsible marketing, promotion and innovation; promoting a shared understanding of what responsible drinking means, and working with others to combat alcohol misuse.
Watch the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Awards Ceremony Live
#THISBOOKCLUB


text:
« The Bliss of Connection with Others … But There Is a Pain in Unexpressed Love: A Foray Into Cellular/Transpersonal Consciousness, Part Six — Womb with a Review
You Say You Want a Revolution? »
The Priests in the Church Were Keeping Out All the Screaming People, Forcibly Repressing, Refusing to Acknowledge It: A Foray Into Cellular/Transpersonal Consciousness, Part Seven
(continued from The Bliss of Connection with Others … But There Is a Pain in Unexpressed Love: A Foray Into Cellular/Transpersonal Consciousness, Part Six — Womb with a Review [Footnote 1])
More Nestling Up With the Implicate, Or
Before and After the Western Fall (Split) (June 19, 1992)
This is a holotropic session of this day:
It started out when the music was very rhythmic, and the hands were doing a lot of fertilized-egg kinds of movements and embryonic kind of stuff. And sometimes I was having images of Prague and of inside the city—especially Old Town Square and the towers. [Prague is where the holotropic workshop was being held.]
And I kept having pictures of people who had lived here, and all the suffering that had gone on here, and the striving. I kept picturing the people who had lived and written books and everything, plays and philosophies, inside their little rooms—all the different kinds of lives that people had here [Prague].
I kept picturing Swami [Sathya Sai Baba] and kept saying: "Oh Swami," as if I were feeling and acknowledging what had gone on here: the feelings and desires, the struggles and the yearnings, and all those human things and feelings that had passed through this place. And I felt sad for all these people, the hardship they had gone through and all the feelings. And then I got up and went to the bathroom.
And when I came back it was just very peaceful. The drumming and everything was just something that was there. And I enjoyed parts of it: There were African parts, and they would have drumming and I would understand what it would be like to be an African person in a tribe.
At one point, however, the African tribe music sounded different or not good. And I had the feeling that this was singing from another tribe, not my own, an enemy tribe or something; I didn't like it.
And then as it went off into different phases of music I would often feel very good—very interesting and beautiful in a certain way. And then it went into Native American chanting; and I thought that was incredible, that I must have been an indigenous American at one time … just wonderfully beautiful.
And it was either just before or just after that there was this Gregorian-type Church music. And one of the things that I kept having—scenes from Prague going through my head the entire time—and one of the scenes was the inside of a church.
And when the Gregorian music came on, I pictured the inside of that church again. And one of the interesting things was I realized at a certain point that people in the room around me were screaming [they actually were, in reality]—and there was a lot of that going on—and I had this feeling as if—when the Gregorian music was on—that the people in the church, the priests that is, that they had this reality going on in which they were keeping out all the screaming people, they were keeping them all outside the church, trying to repress that, trying to deny the reality of that. And so I felt like I was tuning into the reality of this place: That they [the priests and ecclesiasts] would forcibly try to repress this other element and keep it out of their consciousness, would refuse to acknowledge, let alone deal with it.
An Afterthought
As many as 30 million women were murdered horribly over a period of 300 years during the middle ages for having any trace of free-mindedness. This was done under the direction of the Catholic Church. They were often burned at the stake.
It is no coincidence that what followed for next four hundred years of Western "civilization" was a pall of Stepford wifery unparalleled among the cultures of humans, which we are only with great difficulty over the last hundred years awakening from.
Yet these forces of repression and murder continue with us today wishing to take us back to such middle age benighted views. They exist in the anti-abortion movement, even among mainstream Republicans, again with women as the direct target. And they exist in the tea party and conspiracy circles, even among some progressives, where feminism and progressive-liberal ideas are called "illuminati" — showing again that free-thinking women and enlightened views will not be tolerated … and will be scapegoated for all the horrors of the 1% and the powers that be, just as they were in the times of Catholic tyranny.
By the way, I've been misunderstood if anyone thinks this is just an attack on the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was the primary evil then. I mentioned Western civilization. There are many more evil perpetrators today. It is not about blaming any institution. This is a product of our "civilization" and its anti-body, anti-sexual, anti-Nature insanity and the inherent evil of hierarchical societies in general.
Continue with Biology as Metaphor and Mythology, Part One: "The Map Is Not the Territory" and Biological Phases As Levels of Consciousness
Return to The Bliss of Connection with Others … But There Is a Pain in Unexpressed Love: A Foray Into Cellular/Transpersonal Consciousness, Part Six — Womb with a Review
1. Cellular/ Transpersonal Experiences
Having established the legitimacy of transpersonal aspects of prenatal, and especially cellular, re-experience, it remains to be seen what light this new perspective throws upon traditional formulations. I suggest to you that this perspective is a catalyst to a radical reformulation of traditional concepts of consciousness and development. My understanding is that it supports a view compatible with Eastern, Platonic, and "primitive" philosophical renderings—which can be characterized as Emanationist —and completely undermines the dominant Western evolutionary paradigm. I delineate such a perspective, which I call the Falls from Grace Theory, beginning in the next chapter.
However, let us first take a look at a sampling of the kinds of experiences and perspectives that are possible at this cellular and prenatal level of re-experience before attempting to see deeper into the structure of consciousness and development, presented immediately afterwards, which contains and makes sense of them. The current chapter—A Foray Into Cellular/Transpersonal Consciousness—contains transcripts of cellular/transpersonal experiences I had through the modality of holotropic breathwork. In order to retain the flavor and potency of the raw experience itself, these transcripts are only slightly edited and are from the descriptions of my experiences I recorded immediately after having them.
To Read the Entire Book … on-line, free at this time … of which this is an excerpt, Go to Falls from Grace
To purchase any of Michael Adzema's books, available in print and e-book formats, go to Michael Adzema's books at Amazon.
60s, America, apocalypse, Birth, Catholic Church, climate, Consciousness, culture, current-events, death, die, Earth, Environment, extinction, fetus, filthy rich, generation, God, Gregorian music, health, hell, human-rights, humans, Levels of Consciousness, life, matrix, Nature, occupy wall street, ows, pain, perinatal, Philosophy, planet, Politics, Prague, prenatal, Psychology, Religion, Republicans, science, sixties, society, species, trauma, truth, unconscious, womb
This entry was posted on January 7, 2014, 7:27 pm and is filed under activism, authenticity, being yourself, Class, Culture, economics, Generations, globalrevolution, History, individualism, life, meaning, nonconform, occupywallstreet, philosophy, Politics, psychology, science, spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
RT @sillymickel: "Of course, brutal initiation rituals, rites of passage, are seen in their worst form in the indoctrination a youth must g…@sillymickel	31 minutes ago
RT @sillymickel: "Which is [ie., with individual as well as Divine aligned,] the way it was 'decided' before this life...in the very decisi…@sillymickel	31 minutes ago
RT @sillymickel: "*Naked God* "You're thinking, "What does God look like naked?" right? Shew.. I knew it...." READ (&/or download) ENTIRE…@sillymickel	35 minutes ago
RT @sillymickel: "*The Questions* "I know I haven't addressed the two questions in your mind...er, actually...three. I know what they are.…@sillymickel	36 minutes ago
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RT @sillymickel: *Dance of the Seven Veils II:* *Prenatal/Perinatal Psychology, Mythology, & Your Divine Self* The Path of Ecstasy Series…@sillymickel	39 minutes ago
RT @sillymickel: "It is the ideal way to handle this, for then the 'experiment in truth' that one actualizes in life is decided not by anot…@sillymickel	41 minutes ago
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text:
Q: Tools to debug Ruby on Rails slow performance I have built a ruby on rails application. Problem is when I click on button in the webpage, the load time is very slow. I'm not able to find the root cause of why my page time is slow.
One thing I noticed is After I clicked the button, Its taking time to even change URL path on browser, So I assume issue is there .I would like to get an idea on how I can debug the issue.
sorry if question is too generic.

A: If you run it on Linux, you can try to use tool strace or sometimes ltrace. But the easiest way is to run the code from the command-line, for example:
strace -fttt ruby website.rb
If you can't run it from command line, you can attach to the process which is already running or to parent process:
strace -tttf -p <pid of your web ruby process server>
You can also use tool called rbtrace

A: I would look into using Meta-Request.
By utilizing this extension and this gem you can track down any issues that might be degrading performance in your app (i.e inefficient db queries)


text:
Choose from 5 pictures in our Images Dated 1986 collection for your Wall Art or Photo Gift. Popular choices include Framed Prints, Canvas Prints, Posters and Jigsaw Puzzles. All professionally made for quick delivery.
Music-Prince
New Zealand-Pope Kisses the Ground
France-Music-Prince
France-Us-Entertainment-Music-Prince
This photo taken on August 25, 1986 shows musician Prince performing on stage during his concert at the Zenith venue in Paris.
Pop icon Prince -- whose pioneering brand of danceable funk made him one of music's most influential figures -- died on April 21, 2016 at his compound in Minnesota. He was 57. The announcement came just a week after the Grammy and Oscar winner was taken to hospital with a bad bout of influenza, although he made light of his health problems after the scare.
/ AFP PHOTO / PASCAL GEORGE


text:
Q: How to get the spacing right with multiple underbraces within parentheses? This question is a generalization of
How to nicely lay out a parentheses-enclosed overbrace/underbrace?
Now we have parentheses with some parts of the content, of different heights, having an underbrace. Example:
\documentclass{minimal}
\begin{document}
$\left( 1 \cdot 2 \cdot \frac{3}{4} \cdot 5^2 \right)$
$\left( \underbrace{1}_{x} \cdot 2 \cdot \underbrace{\frac{3}{4}}_{\int y} \cdot 5^2 \right)$
\end{document}

produces:

which is very ugly. How can I make the underbraces ignored for the purposes of sizing the parentheses, but count for the space to the next line of text? The solution must allow me to write something like
$\magicparens{%
underbrace{1}_{x} \cdot 2 \cdot \underbrace{\frac{3}{4}}_{\int y} \cdot 5^2%
}$

and have it work. No manually specifying any sizes or lengths.
Bonus points for a second version which make all the underbraces vertically aligned.

A: Here is a version of \magicparens that sets both \left( and \right) using a \overbrace- and \underbrace-free makeup:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath}

\newcommand{\noubob}[1]{{
  \def\underbrace##1_##2{##1}% Remove subscript associated with \underbrace
  \def\overbrace##1^##2{##1}% Remove superscript associated with \overbrace
  #1}}
\newcommand{\magicparens}[1]{%
  \left(\vphantom{\noubob{#1}}\right.\kern-\nulldelimiterspace
  #1
  \kern-\nulldelimiterspace\left.\vphantom{\noubob{#1}}\right)
}

\begin{document}

$\left( 1 \cdot 2 \cdot \frac{3}{4} \cdot 5^2 \right)$

$\left( \underbrace{1}_{x} \cdot 2 \cdot \underbrace{\frac{3}{4}}_{\int y} \cdot 5^2 \right)$

$\magicparens{
  \underbrace{1}_{x} \cdot 2 \cdot \underbrace{\dfrac{3}{4}}_{\int y} \cdot 5^2%
}$

\end{document}

Since $\underbrace{\frac{3}{4}}_{x}$ prints the \fraction in \displaystyle while $\frac{3}{4}$ sets it in \textstyle, I've added amsmath and forced a \dfrac.
Also, the redefinition of \underbrace/\overbrace inside \magicparens requires you to necessarily use _ and ^ with the respective definitions, even though \underbrace/\overbrace can naturally be used without them. Of course, one can improve on the redefinition and peek ahead to accommodate for those situations as well.


text:
REQUEST FOR REFERENCE OF AUDITOR GENERAl/S REPORT TO COMMITTEE On the orders of the day:
Gordon Graydon (Leader of the Official Opposition)
National Government
Mr. GORDON GRAYDON (Leader of the Opposition):
I should like to ask the Prime Minister if at an early day he will be willing to move that the auditor general's report be referred to the public accounts committee. This committee has not met since the war
Office Economies Control
began, and while perhaps the whole house must to some extent share responsibility for this situation, I believe the Prime Minister and all hon. members will agree that in view of the huge increases in governmental expenditures the country will expect the fullest possible scrutiny of these outlays, in the public interest. In my opinion the reference of the auditor general's report to the public accounts committee should be an annual automatic procedure in the same fashion that the annual report and accounts of the Canadian National Railways are referred each year to the railway committee.	[DOT]
Topic: PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister; Secretary of State for External Affairs; President of the Privy Council)
My impression had been that every year the auditor general's report has been referred to the public accounts committee. No motion in that regard has been made thus far, but I shall undertake to see that the report tabled this year is referred to the committee.
REFERENCE TO PRESS REPORT AS TO STATEMENTS OF COLONEL JOHN THOMPSON
I should like to direct the attention of the Prime Minister to a press report appearing in last evening's Ottawa Journal, in which Colonel John Thompson, director of government office economy control, is reported to have said that he found it increasingly impossible to cope with all the crazy waste and extravagance, and that evasion, subterfuge and outright trickery are being used to nullify his work. When the public accounts committee is convened I would ask that Colonel Thompson be summoned as a witness.
Topic: OFFICE ECONOMIES CONTROL
Subtopic: REFERENCE TO PRESS REPORT AS TO STATEMENTS OF COLONEL JOHN THOMPSON
The words quoted by my hon. friend make it appear as though he were seeking to give information rather than obtain it. However I shall leave it to my colleague the Minister of National War Services to reply to his question.
Hon. L. R. LaFLECHE (Minister of National War Services): I may tell my hon. friend that I did not hear of the subject matter of the newspaper article in question until late yesterday afternoon, when I immediately instituted inquiries. When I did so I had in mind that it would not be fair to take for granted everything stated in the article. The director of economies has already informed me that he does not give statements to the press. I also had in mind [Mr. Graydon.l
that members of the public service of Canada generally would feel that they had been condemned publicly without being given the opportunity to state their side of the case to the responsible officials, or to the ministers of the several departments of government in question.
I also had in mind that the best, if not indeed the only method of effecting economies is to explain new and cheaper methods of administration and to try for cooperation which, in my opinion, is always forthcoming when a reasonable and timely appeal is made to our loyal and patriotic service, known as the civil service body.
It also came to my mind that the government itself, in desiring to practise economy, had been responsible for setting up the directorate in question. I also remembered having offered to give my support to the director to the end of helping him to make a success of what is indeed a very difficult task, due to the very great variety of questions and problems which must be, and are, brought to his attention. It was also borne in upon me that should there be any evasion, subterfuge or trickery the Minister of National War Services should be the first person to hear of it. I also realized that the heavy work of the war-time departments cannot be done without the necessary tools. Modern administrative practice demands certain information, office appliances, equipment, plans, and means of communicating rapidly sometimes, and sometimes to large numbers of persons concerned.
I think the proper objective is to help in such way that the work can be done well, smoothly and at a minimum of cost. I believe I may add that it is well known to the director of economies that if he needs additional staff he has but to ask for it, when I will immediately take up the need with the civil service commission.
John George Diefenbaker
Mr. J. G. DIEFENBAKER (Lake Centre):
I should like to ask a question of the Minister of National War Services in connection with the statement made by Colonel Thompson, the government economies director. I read this for the purpose of asking the minister whether the rather astounding allegation made is in accordance with the facts.
The minister has dealt with that already.
Mr. DIEFENBAKER:
It has not been
dealt with and that is the reason I am bring-
Alaska Highway
ing it up. It is the question of setting up the [DOT]committee of public accounts that was dealt with.
This reads:
Thousands of dollars had been spent on office *supplies, furniture and equipment, he charged, without the requisitions ever having been submitted to him for approval.
I think the house and the country should know from the minister whether those allegations are in accordance with the facts and, secondly, whether or not a complaint, either verbal or in writing, was ever made to the minister by Colonel Thompson against unapproved or unauthorized expenditures being made.
Hon. L. R. LaFLECHE (Minister of National War Services): Mr. Speaker, perhaps the hon. gentleman was not in the house when I made my statement.
Mr. LaFLECHE: May I say that I have already given an answer to the first question.
Some hon. MEMBERS:
Mr. LaFLECHE: I think I did.
Richard Burpee Hanson
Mr. HANSON (York-Sunbury):
No, you just travelled all over the lot.
Mr. LaFLECHE: In regard to the second question, the answer is, no.
In other words, be covered the ground.
STATEMENT IN QUEBEC LEGISLATURE RESPECTING SINKINGS IN ST. LAWRENCE RIVER


Looking for a piano school convenient to the Maryville area? Look no further than Bill Jones Music for not only piano lessons but also guitar lessons, violin lessons and voice lessons. It is worth the short drive from Maryville to attend the Knoxville piano school at Bill Jones Music. The piano school teachers are extremely talented and love working with students of all ages.


text:
apres-holiday three-way, pt. 3
Where Hoagland concerns himself with the operation of three poetic tools—image, diction, rhetoric—at work in the poem, Stephen Dobyns advocates analyzing three different contexts—emotional, intellectual, and physical—in a poem in his essay, "Metaphor and the Authenticating Act of Memory."
I thought of applying Dobyns's approach to this poem after reading Hoagland's analysis. They are two different approaches, but complementary. And this poem lends itself well to both.
Dobyns begins his essay with a definition of art. "A work of art, such as a poem, seeks to communicate with a reader," he says. He contends that an understanding of artistic communication can be reached by thinking about the relationship between the three types of context and the events in a poem.
Just as Hoagland contends that extraordinary poems employ all three altitudes—image, diction, rhetoric—Dobyns contends they employ a balance of emotional, intellectual and physical contexts. He argues that when one of these contexts is exaggerated, the poem breaks down. "For instance, when the intellectual context is exaggerated, the poem tends to become emotionally barren; and when the emotional is exaggerated, the poem becomes sentimental."
Goodman's "Birthday Cake" employs all three contexts in a balanced way, just as the poem employs the tools of image, diction and rhetoric in what Hoagland calls a "fluctuating alloy" in its "savagery and sophistication."
The poem shifts from a predominantly emotional context in the first stanza to one that is predominantly intellectual in the second, and then predominantly physical in the third. I say predominantly because, in each stanza, there is also another (sub)context at work.
Now isn't it time
when the candles on the icing
are one two too many
too many to blow out
too many to count too many
isn't it time to give up this ritual?
The first stanza of the poem has a strong emotional context. Hoagland identifies strong emotion being conveyed in the rhetorical questioning here, as well. However, I read the poem differently than Hoagland; I don't see the emotional tone as being childish and resentful as he does. Rather, I read the tone as being one of frustration, not resentment—the tone of a stammering old man, who could just as easily be complaining about the number of stairs up to his apartment as the number of candles on his cake, for example.
There is also a physical context to this stanza which, as Hoagland points out, is conveyed through the poet's diction. He argues the poet's repetition, and his decision to break the lines unevenly, support his reading of a childish, resentful speaker in the poem. However, I think the stanza's diction better supports a reading of the tone as an older, frustrated one. Its language re-enacts the heaving of one's lungs, huffing and puffing, in an effort to blow the candles out, and being unable to. Because they are too many, too many, too many… What is implied here is that a task that the speaker used to master—the task of blowing out candles at a birthday—is now one that has mastered him. This physical re-enactment of breaths being taken in the poet's speech supports a reading of the emotion being expressed here as frustration.
With this frustrated, breathy first stanza, the poet turns us neatly into a second, entirely different context in the second stanza, turning on the word "although" where the speaker seems to catch his breath.
although the fiery crown
fluttering on the chocolate
and through the darkened room advancing
is still the most loveliest sight
among our savage folk
that have few festivals.
As Hoagland notes, the words flow lucidly and articulately here where they were broken and underscored through repetition in the first stanza. This gives the stanza an intellectual context; the speaker is speaking authoritatively in making judgments about "our folk." It states we are "savage," have "few festivals," and judges emphatically that, of these few, the birthday cake celebration is the "most loveliest" of them.
There's also an emotional (sub)context here. I disagree with Hoagland's reading of the speaker's emotion shifting here from being childish and frustrated to being sympathetic and culturally-minded. Here I believe Hoagland is stretching in his perceived resonances and associations in making this claim.
I don't see a shift in tone here, except for a brief moment with the judgment of the cake; the double-superlative "most loveliest" does stick out here. Here the speaker sees the cake with a childish wonder, as if it were his first memory of a birthday cake. However, it is a fleeting memory; it stands in contrast to the rest of the poem's tone. The final few lines suggest this. As readers, we can't get too enthused about the "most loveliest" sight of the birthday cake because it's only the best of the "few festivals" our "savage" people have to offer. It's as good as it gets, but it ain't that good.
Where Hoagland reads the beginning of this stanza as being evocative of a communal, tribal scene, I read it as being wickedly ominous. The "fiery crown …through the darkened room advancing" is downright spooky, especially if you read it as not the fiery crown advancing, but rather the darkened room advancing, shadow encompassing, the symbolic advancing of the ultimate darkness that terminates old age—death.
After pausing to give us the only bright spot in the poem, the speaker returns to the frustrated tone of the poem in the first stanza.
But the thicket is too hot and thick
and isn't it time, isn't it time
when the fires are too many
to eat the fire and not the cake
and drip the fires from my teeth
as once I had my hot hot youth.
The image of the "fiery crown" that the speaker pauses to praise in the second stanza is now a "thicket" that is "too hot and thick." The repetition of thick in this line, and isn't it time in the next, re-establishes the emotional context of the first stanza.
However, the speaker's frustration finds a resolution here where it was previously unresolved. The first stanza ends with a question mark, as if the suggestion to give up this ritual was a matter of debate. This stanza ends in a period, implying there is no debate. It is time "to eat the fire and not the cake."
The emotion is acted upon here, and the act of consuming the fire gives this stanza a predominantly physical context. The line "and drips the fires from my teeth" suggests an animal hunger motivates this act, the fire dripping (like blood) not burning (like fire) from his teeth. It's primal, and as such, a fitting act for "our folk" who the speaker earlier characterized as savage.
By consuming the candles on his birthday cake, the speaker succeeds in resolving the conflict underlying the frustration expressed in the first stanza. He can't blow them out; they are too many; he's too old to perform the task required of this ceremony. But, by eating the fire instead of cake, he symbolically devours his old age. Paradoxically, the speaker consumes what is consuming him.
And if we read the poet himself as the person who is speaking in the poem, then we can read this poem itself as an absurd, virile act that defies old age. Here, at its conclusion, I find myself in agreement with Hoagland when he says "the aging king of his ego eats his own crown, affirms his virility and concedes his absurdity all at once."
However, in the savage act of eating the fire, it is not "his absurdity" that he concedes, but rather the absurdity of "our folk." Our absurdity. Humanity's. It is the finite aspect of our human existence, and our unwillingness to accept youth's loss, to be mastered by mortality, that is being defied by this poem.
Through a balance of emotional, intellectual and physical contexts, "Birthday Cake" effectively does what Dobyns says a poem should do—effectively communicate with a reader. It communicates a metaphysical truth about humanity, and the reader recognizes it in the poem, even if he or she cannot articulate why. Not until I sat down (and labored) to analyze this poem could I begin to articulate why I liked it. I could only say, "this poem fucking rocks."
This is what great poems do.


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pentoxifylline is a topic covered in the Davis's Drug Guide.
Quiring, Courtney, et al. "Pentoxifylline." Davis's Drug Guide, 16th ed., F.A. Davis Company, 2019. Nursing Central, nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51597/all/pentoxifylline.
Quiring C, Sanoski CA, Vallerand AH. Pentoxifylline. Davis's Drug Guide. 16th ed. F.A. Davis Company; 2019. https://nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51597/all/pentoxifylline. Accessed April 22, 2019.
Quiring C, Sanoski CA, Vallerand AH. Pentoxifylline [Internet]. In: Davis's Drug Guide. F.A. Davis Company; 2019. [cited 2019 April 22]. Available from: https://nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/51597/all/pentoxifylline.


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Funeral directors are having to compete like never before for their share of the funeral market. In response, SAIF has developed a 'communications toolkit' to help you better promote your business and secure your future. We explain the fundamental requirements of marketing: getting your brand right and how to talk about your brand to potential clients. This underpins everything you do to promote your business and should be your starting point.
We then explain the digital / online media landscape, and show you the importance of social media and an appealing web presence. We also provide instructions on how to use the different social media channels, what kinds of things to post and when. There's also information about the traditional media and how to get the most out of the platform they provide to your business.
All SAIF Members are welcome to join our PR Consultant, Mark Binnersely, for this informative online presentation on Wednesday 13th February at 2 pm. Register your places here.


Motorola/Lenovo is doing great things of the mobile industry, but it seems they are not doing well at marketing the little guys.
When I first got the Moto G4 Play, I was pumped…it gave me so much for the money. Now I have the Moto E4, which is their new line they brought to the US. This phone offers more than the G4 Play, and does it better with some new features. For starters, let's take a quick look at the specs.
Those are the ones I feel need to be highlighted, but the phone overall has been great. The screen on this phone is well, very good. It's crystal clear in my usage, and looks good at most angles. When watching videos, it looks really nice. The speaker on the Moto E4 is really loud, and not just because it's facing you. It is really a good speaker, those that have it can agree more than likely.
The build quality on the Moto E4 is nothing short of Motorola/Lenovo, as we know them today. It's the same design, but it just works. The phone feels great in the hand, and also looks really sleek compared to other phones in this range. It fits good in any pocket/purse (ladies), and will not take up much room at all. It's small enough, but also big enough for regular use daily.
The fact that this phone has a fingerprint reader, is something to be excited about. While it's not the fastest, it's still there. I don't need the fastest fingerprint reader, I need one that works. And this is one that does what it's supposed to do.
The phone has Moto Gestures, and they are very handy. Double clicking the power button will turn on your camera, unlock some other Moto phones that you can just twist your wrist. The screen briefly comes on when you get notifications, and when you pick it up they will show as well. There is no chop for the flashlight feature, but at you still have one. The phone also has an FM Radio, which something most smartphones should have. Why they don't, I have no clue. Plug in your wired headphones, and BOOM…local radio stations right there on your phone. Nothing else needed.
Cameras on the Moto E4 surprised me, as they are really good for a phone of this price range. Motorola has done well with putting good cameras in most all of their phones, and this one is no exception. It really does have good cameras, (see below).
Battery life on the phone is nothing short of good, taking you though several days on a single charge depending on your usage habits. The phone has a 720p display, and should last you all day. With heavy use, you can grab more than 6 to 7 hours of screen on time with a single charge. Stretch that over 3 to 5 days, and you are looking at about 3 to 4 hours of screen on time. Now that is great battery life considering it only has a 2800mAh battery inside. Also, the battery is removable. So if you have a Moto G4 Play sitting around, you now have a spare battery. They are the same size.
Overall, this phone can easily be used as my daily driver, because I'm doing it right now. It's a great option for everyone, of all ages I say. Very affordable, and checks almost all the boxes for daily use of a smartphone by today's standards.
I've got my first impressions, and some video on the cameras below. Check them out, and stay tuned for more on the Moto E4 soon.
Camera review, front and rear.
Where do you go to unlock the verizon version of the Moto E4?


Capacity License —The VM-Series firewall requires a base license, also called a capacity license, to enable the model number (VM-100, VM-200, VM300, VM-1000-HV) and the associated capacities on the firewall. Capacity licenses can be perpetual or term-based: Perpetual License —A license with no expiration date, it allows you to use the VM-Series firewall at the licensed capacity, indefinitely. Perpetual licenses are available for the VM-Series capacity license only. Term-Based License —A term-based license allows you to use the VM-Series firewall for a specified period of time. It has an expiration date and you will be prompted to renew the license before it expires. Term-based licenses are available for the capacity licenses, support entitlements, and subscriptions.
Further, capacity licenses are available as an Individual version or an Enterprise version. The Individual version is in multiples of 1. The orderable SKU, for example PA-VM-300, includes an auth code to license one instance of the VM-Series firewall. The Enterprise version is available in multiples of 25. For example, the orderable SKU PAN-VM-100-ENT has a single auth code that allows you to register 25 instances of the VM-100.
Support—In addition to the capacity license, you need a support entitlement that provides access to technical support and software updates. Subscriptions—Optionally, you may purchase one or more subscription licenses for Threat Prevention, URL Filtering, AutoFocus, GlobalProtect, and WildFire. These subscriptions allow you to enforce policies that safely enable applications and content on the network. For example, the Threat Prevention subscription, allows you to obtain content updates that include the most up-to-date threat information for malware detection.
One bundle includes the VM-Series capacity license (VM-1000-HV only), Threat Prevention license and a premium support entitlement. Another bundle includes the VM-Series capacity license (VM-1000-HV only) with the complete suite of licenses that include Threat Prevention, GlobalProtect, WildFire, PAN-DB URL Filtering, and a premium support entitlement.
Bring Your Own License (BYOL) —A license that is purchased from a partner, reseller, or directly from Palo Alto Networks. Capacity license, support license, and subscription licenses are supported for BYOL. With this option, you must apply the license after you deploy the VM-Series firewall. Usage-Based License —Also called a pay-per-use or pay-as-you-go (PAYG) license. This type of license can be purchased from the AWS Marketplace and the Azure public Marketplace. Usage-based licenses are not available on Azure Government Cloud.
AWS supports hourly and annual PAYG options; Azure public Marketplace supports the hourly PAYG option only.
For usage-based models of the VM-Series firewall in AWS, the longer AWS instance IDs are not supported; use the shorter 8‐character instance ID format.
With the usage-based licenses, the firewall is prelicensed and ready for use as soon as you deploy it; you do not receive an auth code. When the firewall is stopped or terminated on the AWS or Azure console, the usage-based licenses are suspended or terminated.
Bundle 1: Includes the VM-Series capacity license (VM-300 only), Threat Prevention license that includes IPS, AV, malware prevention, and a premium support entitlement. Bundle 2: Includes the VM-Series capacity license (VM-300 only), Threat Prevention (includes IPS, AV, malware prevention), GlobalProtect, WildFire, PAN-DB URL Filtering licenses, and a premium support entitlement.
If you have an evaluation copy of the VM-Series firewall and would like to convert it to a fully licensed (purchased) copy for the same license type (BYOL to BYOL) , you can deactivate the evaluation license and activate the purchase license in place. For a different license type ( PAYG to BYOL) clone your VM-Series firewall and use the instructions to register and license the purchased copy of your VM-Series firewall. For instructions, see Upgrade the VM-Series Model.
You cannot switch between the PAYG and the BYOL licenses. To move from PAYG to BYOL, contact your Palo Alto Networks channel partner or sales representative to purchase a BYOL license and get an BYOL auth code that you can use to license your firewall. If you have deployed your firewall and want to switch the license, see Switch Between the BYOL and the PAYG Licenses.


While I was away this weekend I came home to a lovely package of new goodies to play with off Ciaté. Ciaté is a nail brand that I actually really like, but hardly have any of their nail polishes. I find their polishes have wide brushes and dry super quickly! The first thing I grabbed out the bag was this a Ciaté Caviar Manicure set. I'd heard a bit about these kits on various beauty blogs when they came out a few months ago but never tried one. Ciaté Caviar nails are basically little micro beads that are placed onto the nail to give a 3d look on the surface of the nails. Much to my surprise I found it very quick, easy to do and the effects look very striking. They aren't even too annoying once applied, I feel like they are pretty secure and I don't have tons of beads falling off as I do things. I have been taking a little bit of extra care when typing this post (I normally type at 100mph) Just so I don't get too much tip wear. Ciate claims this nail effect last around 48 hours, which I think is a fair claim as it doesn't sound unrealistic like what some nail polishes claim!
The Red, White and Blue edition is a jubilee special, but would also work well with this summer of British patriotism that seems to be happening! Caviar nails are suspriingly easy to do and Ciaté make it easier because they include a tray and a little funnel to get the beads back into the bottle. All you do is paint your nails with two coats of the polish, then sprinkle over the micro-beads. Gently press down on the nails to make sure the beads are in place and then wait 15-20 mins before resuming normal tasks!
As there is no time like the present, I heard that this limited edition set is only available until tomorrow at Selfridges but you can pick it up on their website if you don't live near one. But I'd highly recommend going out and hunting some of Ciaté's regular (non limited edition) Caviar manicure sets. They are a perfect way to jazz up your nails with minimal effort and minimal mess! It's super fun and unique and worth snapping up if you're a nail art junkie! I think this would look great as an accent nail too!
I love your photography by the way, your photos are gorgeous.
Looks so good and their packaging is so cute!
polishes are so creative now!
It's such a good idea! Like loads of hundreds and thousands! I love the little bows on the bottles too.
This is the first on that I've liked! Cheers!
I do love the look of this, definitely can't see it lasting too long though. I'm impressed that it was quick and easy though.
I love how this looks, so cool aha!
It looks so cool and pretty!
I look this effect, its a shame they don't last longer though!
This surely looks like something I'd love to own but it's a tad bit expensive for my pocket!
don't think i've ever seen anything like this before! it's amazing! bet you'd get a million people complimenting them and asking where you got it from!
Looks so cool! Reminds me of sweets!


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> News > Social Work Advocates > 2022 February - March > Schools of Social Work: February - March 2022
Schools of Social Work: February - March 2022
By Peter Craig
Immigration Social Work: Big Ideas From Texas
If there was ever a perfect place to study immigration social work—especially in light of the ongoing influx of migrants into the U.S.—it would have to be Texas. So how are different social work schools there addressing this increasingly important subject area?
University of Texas at El Paso social work students volunteer at a Health Opportunity Prevention Education (HOPE) fair for members of the homeless and immigrant communities.
Special coursework on immigration would seem a natural, but the subject is already baked into the curricula at most Texas social work schools. At the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), in an area that's 85 percent Hispanic, the BSW course "Introduction to Social Work" includes a heavy dose of "U.S.-Mexico border realities," says Eva M. Moya, interim chair and associate professor of the Department of Social Work—and "Social Work in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region" is a required course. Moya's own MSW class "Macro in Multicultural Practice" features "a lot of immigration/migration and human rights content," she adds.
Associate professor Karina A. Gil, director of Hispanic-serving Our Lady of the Lake University's Worden School of Social Service in San Antonio, says, "Immigration has been one of the issues that affect the Hispanic population, so it is embedded in our courses, from policy to case management." The same goes for the School of Social Work at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where Dr. Luis R. Torres-Hostos, founding dean and professor, calls both the region and school curricula binational. "In many of the courses in family therapy, individual therapy, etc., the assignments are focused on understanding the immigrant experience, particularly trauma—not only back in their countries of origin but on their way here as well."
At the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and the Salvadoran Lutheran University (SLU) in September, Ada Ruth Gonzalez (center), SLU director of international relations, presents a commemorative gift to Dr. Luis Torres-Hostos, founding dean of the UTRGV School of Social Work, and Dr. Janna Arney, UTRGV deputy president and interim provost.
Up in the Panhandle near Amarillo, Margaret L. DeJong-Shier, field director for the MSSW program and social work instructor at West Texas A&M University, is also heavily focused on immigration in managing field practicums. DeJong-Shier, who at one point was an immigration case manager in New Jersey, has set up numerous partnerships with organizations like the Refugee Services of Texas, the Texas Panhandle Center and Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle. Students help refugees, undocumented individuals and clients in the process of getting a green card, she says. "Amarillo is one of the places where Texas will relocate refugees, so right now we have a very high population of Thais and also Somalis." (See also "West Texas A&M: Internships in the Panhandle," below.)
A number of years ago, UTEP suspended on-site social work internships in Mexico, says Moya. "But even if we cannot go to Mexico, Mexico is here. Whether it's the office of a senator, a nonprofit entity, a school or probate court, you're going to be working directly and indirectly with individual migrants and migrant families across all age groups." Recent partner organizations have included Las Americas Immigration Law Center, Hope Border Institute and Diocesan Migrant Refugee Services.
As COVID restrictions have eased in Texas, the UTRGV School of Social Work has revved up immigration-related fieldwork opportunities with such organizations as Catholic Charities, Proyecto de Desarrollo Humano (Human Development Project) and the American Red Cross of South Texas. Now the school is working on setting up field assignments in consulates, says Torres-Hostos, who has met with consuls from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. A lot of what these consulates do, he points out, amounts to social work: helping people obtain services, renew their passport or contact family back home.
BSW students at West Texas A&M get information from agencies about internship opportunities during last semester's field fair.
But Torres-Hostos and his school are going even further in the study of immigration by planning to cross the border—in fact, a number of borders. UTRGV has been signing memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with universities like the Salvadoran Lutheran University, National Autonomous University of Honduras and National Autonomous University of Mexico to establish faculty and student exchanges, joint research and other projects. "We want to provide our faculty and students opportunities to work with these communities, to understand why people leave their country, what they're looking for, what challenges they face along the way and once they get here."
Our Lady of the Lake University, too, has worked overtime to enhance immigration social work by holding panels on immigration issues with advocacy groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens and conducting a mini-conference called "The Dream Zone" to help bring awareness to the needs of DACA students. And UTEP has social work students volunteering at Doña Ana Village, run by Fort Bliss, to help Afghan refugees. As West Texas A&M's DeJong-Shier puts it, "Regardless of their current [immigration] status, these people need our help right here, right now. How can we serve that?"
Our Lady of the Lake University students at an immigrant advocacy event conducted by the student-led Worden Social Work Organization.
San Diego State University: Redressing Genocide Through Education
2018 Warrior Spirit Conference and Ceremony SERVE panelists Tamara Strohauer (left) and Shurene Premo, then a BASW student and an NASW Native American Birdwoman Scholar at San Diego State. Premo later earned her MSW there and became chair of the NASW Native American Council in California.
As part of San Diego State University's increasing emphasis on JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion), the School of Social Work there has developed a program focused on the effects of California's history of genocide against American Indians and dispossession of their land, says professor David W. Engstrom, Curriculum Committee chair and Graduate Program director. (The university itself, he says, is on Kumeyaay Nation land.)
Lecturer and field faculty member Tamara L. Strohauer, MSW, ASW, says that "the first governor of the state put up over a million dollars for hunting [indigenous] people, and 90 percent of California Indians did not survive the Gold Rush and the mission system here."
Strohauer is one of three coordinators of the California Social Work Education Center's SERVE: Indigenous Social Workers for Change, involving 20 social work schools. Its purpose is to "decolonize curricula" and recruit Native BSW and MSW students into Title IV-E programs, in which students get annual stipends in return for two years' work in child welfare following graduation. Recent internships have been with the Pala Band of Mission Indians and the Southern Indian Health Council.
In addition, Strohauer developed an upcoming course—"Decolonizing Social Work with Indigenous Communities" —that will be for her school's BASW and MSW students, and possibly American Indian Studies students as well. It will examine California's scarred history, the Indian Child Welfare Act and the sovereignty of the state's numerous tribal nations, culminating in a novel study-abroad experience on a reservation, potentially in partnership with Humboldt State University.
West Texas A&M: Internships in the Panhandle
West Texas A&M University MSSW students Karen Bider and Samantha Gonzales discuss the rewards and challenges of their current internships in Amarillo.
Please describe your MSSW internship, including what your host organization does and your role there.
Bider: At Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, 13 lawyers handle everything from taxes, to immigration, to family law, to housing for the homeless. They may be lawyers, but because of how much they commit to outreach, they're doing a lot of social work, too.
For my internship, they have me doing anything and everything—typing up drafts so we can get medical releases or calling people to get information, stories of what has happened, such as with domestic violence or sexual assault. We work with everybody from law enforcement to doctors. Anything that comes up, they're like, "Karen can handle that."
Gonzales: Texas Panhandle Centers assist individuals with mental health needs through therapy groups, counseling, housing and employment help. In my internship I support several departments. We do a needs and strengths assessment with every individual who comes across our caseload. Then the computer system will generate a level of care for them.
Separately, I work on staff as a case manager on our mobile crisis outreach (MCO) team, handling crisis calls. We'll do a crisis assessment on whether the person may be suicidal or homicidal and often refer them to a hospital. We deal with social workers when we're working with the Pavilion—a psychiatric hospital here in Amarillo. We'll do a lot of back and forth on a client's discharge planning to see what their next step is.
Social Work Advocates Flipbook
NASW members, sign in to read the February - March 2022 issue as a flipbook


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Tag: wellness fair in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Community Improvement: The 20th Annual Spring Holistic Health Fair, Nicole Walton
Can you feel it? The slightly tingly energy beginning to build?
You're not imagining things. It's simply the hearts, minds, and intentions of everyone involved with the Natural Connections Holistic Health Fair revving up for the annual event.
Now a hallmark of Marquette's spring calendar, the fair had more modest beginnings at the Ramada Inn in 2000 under the guidance of a handful of people who wanted to bring holistic practitioners together in one place so residents could see what's offered in the holistic/alternative medicine scene. It's now sponsored by the nonprofit group Natural Connections (previously Integrative Health Resources)—a volunteer organization formed in 2005 dedicated to connecting the community with integrative services and information.
Former NC board president Diana Oman says in the early years it was exciting to offer massage therapists, reiki practitioners, healing touch, nutritionists, and chiropractors in one place to those who were interested in various healing modalities. It opened attendees' eyes to other methods of getting—and staying—healthy. "One location, several practitioners, several modalities, several products, so if a person is a little bit curious they can go there and gather a whole bunch of information on one day," she says.
Yet finding a place to hold the fair wasn't always easy. Organizers moved it from site to site in an effort to find the perfect niche: Upfront & Company, Northern Michigan University, the Holiday Inn, the Marquette Armory, even the lower level of the Masonic Square Mall. NC struck gold when it found its current home, the Masonic Center in downtown Marquette. The space has allowed the fair to grow by leaps and bounds says Roslyn McGrath, current Natural Connections president. When it first began, about 100 people walked through the fair. Last year more than 600 people attended. "I've seen a huge increase in the amount of interest in the fair, both by vendors and community members, as well as those coming from a distance to the fair," Roslyn says. The number of vendors showcasing their services has increased, as well. Over the last several years anywhere from 40 to 45 different vendors have participated at a time. "It's still scratching the surface, because not everybody who offers a holistic modality is at the fair," Roslyn notes.
But why are so many people being drawn to the fair? "I think there's a lot to a human being," Roslyn states, "and as time has gone on, people have realized more and more that medical offerings alone are not fulfilling all of their needs for health and wellness. They are looking for more or a different approach to integrate with what they're already doing or looking for something that's going to jumpstart them, motivate them, help them stay on track, perhaps, with those medical and non-medical choices for their wellness and health."
Fair attendee Sally Moilanen agrees. "One thing I've learned with attending these types of things [is] it's so overwhelming to learn that there is so much more natural healing we can do for our bodies and our minds versus going to a pill and using pharmaceuticals," she says, "and that's a really big eye-opener. And I think more people need to be aware of what else is out there besides your traditional medicine."
Acupuncture has made its way into the fair, along with personal fitness trainers, healing art, yoga, Emotional Freedom Technique, energy field healing, intuitive counseling, sound healing, yoga therapy, Ayurvedic medicine, reflexology, and astrological counseling.
And under the nurturing of Natural Connections, the Holistic Health Fair has grown to offer more than just services. Vendors now also sell essential oils, organic food products, soaps, nutritional supplements, natural body care products, jewelry, and much more. Presentations on various topics are held throughout the day to more thoroughly explain different modalities, and several door prizes are given away each hour.
Sally Moilanen says she was incredibly impressed with last year's fair. "Everybody took their time with you and made you feel special and made their time with you all about you, which was amazing," she says. Now that she's had a taste, she's coming back to Marquette for the 2019 edition. "I wouldn't miss it. I think that's just something that's going to be on my calendar going forward, for as long as they're going to have it. It was amazing."
Roslyn says the Holistic Health Fair has become a unique part of a distinctive region. "I think it's important that all the community really know how special this area is for having so many truly sincerely committed, skilled people who are willing and able to help them feel good, enjoy their lives more, be more fulfilled, and make strides with health issues that they may have going on, as well as helping to prevent future ones," she says. "People often say what a special area this is and how wonderful people are overall, and that's true, and that's also reflected in this microcosm of the holistic community."
Norway Springs is providing water for attendees free of charge this year, and Travel Marquette is helping to sponsor the fair, financially and marketing-wise. "We are beyond grateful that they recognize the value of what we offer and how it is bringing more people into Marquette for the event, and that this is something important for our community," says Roslyn.
The 20th Annual Spring Holistic Health Fair will be held Saturday, March 23rd, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the third floor of Marquette's Masonic Center, next to the Masonic Square Mall. For more information or to pre-order a fair T-shirt, go to http://naturalconnectionsmarquette.com or http://Facebook.com/ncmarquette.
Nicole is a writer and radio host who loves living in Marquette.
Adapted with permission from the Spring 2019 issue of Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine, copyright 2019. All rights reserved.
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