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The Backstory

The Changelog’s roots go back to November 2009. It was a happy accident turned obsession. We started out with a few episodes of the podcast, and then we started the blog. It was a Tumblr blog back then. GitHub was young then too (just 2.5 years old). Our aim was to shine a spotlight on the fresh and new of open source, and that’s where things began for us. It was about more than code and tech, it was about the people behind it all, and how it all ticked.

For the next two years Wynn and I, as well as other Changeloggers, poured labor and love into the podcast and blog, covering OSS as weekly as we could maintain. Guess what? Everyone loved it. We got tons of support from the community, and even worked with GitHub to become their unofficial podcast and was syndicated on

In October of 2012, Wynn resigned from his role at The Changelog to focus on his work at GitHub, I obliged. But I was at a crossroads with what to do with The Changelog. I knew I needed to do something. Operating solo wasn’t ideal, and I knew I couldn’t just let The Changelog die.

I began to rethink the business model, or lack there of. The Changelog hadn’t made more than $8,000 in all its years. Hardly minimum wage for the amount of time any of us had put in. No excuses, but we didn’t really try to make money. It was a side project, and we were just digging covering OSS.

It became clear to me that the only way for The Changelog to be successful long-term was to generate revenue and become sustainable. So I became completely focused on that goal. I started looking at membership models, sponsored options, taking on partners, you name it, I was considering.

It was the “how” that was the hard part. Isn’t it always?

The Relaunch

In late January 2013 a new version of The Changelog was launched.

We moved from Tumblr to WordPress for greater editorial control and the extensibility WordPress offers.

We launched the blog and membership first. At this point, the podcast had been on hiatus since August 2012, so I knew any start towards consistency was going to be good for us. We needed to have a solid website, and clear editorial guidelines for the content we would produce. Jerod Santo joined the team as a writer, and stepped in as Managing Editor by the end of the year.

On April 22, 2013 we relaunched the podcast. It felt good to be back. Andrew Thorp joined as the co-host and we began to quickly build a backlog of guests and shows.

We were back.

Fast forward to today – it’s the month of February 2015, just over two full years after our relaunch, we’ve added 1200+ posts to the blog, started a weekly email, released 58 new podcast episodes, added $3000+ dollars of offers and discounts for our members, moved to 5by5

…and I’m now coming on as the first official full-time employee at The Changelog.

I stepped away from a great comfortable job at Pure Charity, a Nonprofit I deeply love.

This once fledgling passion project that barely paid minimum wage is now sustainable to the point where I can step out into the unknown.

I must be crazy.

How Can You Help?

The best way to help us is to become a supporting member for $20 a year.

That’s like buying us a $1.67 cup of coffee every month.

Our membership is our version of Patreon, but directly integrated into everything we do here at The Changelog. Your money will go directly to support myself and and team here at The Changelog in the mission of supporting OSS, and its phenomenal community.

It’s powered by Memberful and Stripe to make sure our integration with WordPress is seamless and our billing is fully secure.

Our supporting members will be first in line to get access to new features and a behind the scenes look at how we make The Changelog work every day.

Our membership has its benefits too. You get access to our members-only Slack room, specially negotiated offers and discounts from trusted partners like DigitalOcean, Rackspace, Codeship, MaxCDN, TravisCI, MotionInMotion screencasts, and many more.

We’re adding new partners and discounts every month too.

You can also share projects, news, feedback, or help us by suggesting a show idea at our Ping repo on GitHub.

What Can You Expect by Me Going Full-Time?

In the audio at the top of this post, Jerod and I share some of the deeper details of what’s to come, but a quick summary here is fitting as well.

  • We’re starting a new email newsletter called Changelog Nightly (more on that in the very near future, but you can subscribe now)
  • Changelog Weekly will continue to get better and better, plus we’ll be inheriting some design updates from Nightly
  • The future of The Changelog is investing in our loyal member base, and we’re inviting our Partners do the same with us
  • Members’ Slack Room is open for members
  • More focus on new benefits for members
  • Sustainability and consistency in all we do
  • Deeper relationships with our partners
  • Better ads on the show - we’ve been experimenting with more produced spots that are entertaining to listen to and valuable for the sponsor — win, win!
  • We’re producing a new mini series called Beyond Code! Video is a bigger play for us this year and we’ll be at more conferences to meet all of you

If you’d like to have a say in which conferences we attend this year, chime in on this GitHub issue at the Ping repo.

Last, but not least, there are so many people to thank for getting us to this moment.

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Charm Club Virgo silver charm

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text:
Charlotte's Web

Blogging my world since 2006

Hunger For Books

While Robert Mugabe is performing crocodile smiles in Lisbon, Doris Lessing accepts her Nobel Prize for Literature and describes the hunger for books in her homeland. Read the entire speech here. It is extremely moving. Here is an extract:

We have a bequest of stories, tales from the old storytellers, some of whose names we know, but some not. The storytellers go back and back, to a clearing in the forest where a great fire burns, and the old shamans dance and sing, for our heritage of stories began in fire, magic, the spirit world. And that is where it is held, today.

Ask any modern storyteller and they will say there is always a moment when they are touched with fire, with what we like to call inspiration, and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, to fire and ice and the great winds that shaped us and our world.

The storyteller is deep inside everyone of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is attacked by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise . . . but the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us – for good and for ill. It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative.

That poor girl trudging through the dust, dreaming of an education for her children, do we think that we are better than she is – we, stuffed full of food, our cupboards full of clothes, stifling in our superfluities?

I think it is that girl and the women who were talking about books and an education when they had not eaten for three days, that may yet define us.

Hats off to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, for publically rebuking Robert Mugabe for the human rights atrocities in Zimbabwe at the Lisbon summit. She said time is running out for the country, and that the terrible situation is ruining the image of the new Africa. While I support Gordon Brown’s boycotting the summit, I think Merkel’s is the braver and more proactive approach: taking him to task in public, while his crony Thabo Mbeki doesn’t even mention the Zimbabwe crisis in his speech.

Author: charlotteotter

Novelist, feminist, crime writer

5 thoughts on “Hunger For Books

  1. Thank you for pointing us to that speech. I would have missed it otherwise.

  2. This is so Roger Irrelevant but I love your new banner! That is sooooooooo cooooooooooooooool! It looks like Kiko’s Boobah doll.

  3. What’s the banner derived from? Gordon Brown – a deep disappointment to me so far – Merkel seems made of sterner stuff.

  4. I heard an interview with Doris Lessing on Radio 4’s Front Row last night.
    It may be available on Listen Again.

    The subject of computers and the internet came up during their discussion. She was less than complimentary about blogging – obviously hasn’t come across some of the really good blogs, like this one, yet.

  5. My pleasure, YogaMum.

    Hi Helen, glad you like the picture, and to answer you and Mr Dad, it is part of a photo of Ariel (mermaid) taken by Daisy (5). Talented, no? My last banner was a picture drawn by Lily. I guess the next one will be a picture of a car by Ollie.

    Ms Teuchter, thanks for the big compliment! I am aware that dear Doris doesn’t like the internet and makes that clear in her speech, but we have to give her credit for being 88. An early adopter she just ain’t gonna be! Thanks for the link – I’m definitely going to listen. I do love Radio 4.

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text:
The Editors

Developmental Editing
The Editing Skills that Every Writer Needs

Saturday January 30, 2016, 10am – 4pm

The editors taking part in the critiquing programme for this workshop are as follows:

Deb Donnell — Keswin Publishing Ltd
Deb Donnell is the founder of the Diamond Publishing System™, Writing Diamonds Ltd and Keswin Publishing Ltd. She is the author of several best-selling non-fiction books, and mentor to several more. Deb is a GIA Diamonds Graduate (Gemological Institute of America), professional editor and publisher. Writing, editing and publishing is a lifelong passion. Her mission is to help over a million authors release their trapped books before they die. Will yours be one of them?

Jenner Lichtwark — Millwheel Press Ltd
Jenner Lichtwark is the editor/owner of Millwheel Press. Trained as a journalist and sub-editor, Jenner worked in newspapers and radio for over 20 years. She has been a freelance writer of articles, stories, books, and poetry for longer than she cares to remember and has a B.A. in French Medieval Literature. Jenner writes contemporary murder mysteries, urban fantasy, and stories for children under the penname J.L. O’Rourke. In 2012, Jenner established Millwheel Press Ltd, to publish her own works and to offer editing services to other writers.

Judy L Mohr — Black Wolf Editorial Services
While Judy L Mohr’s writing training was initially in scientific writing and publication, her real passion is for fiction, where a writer can sometimes take liberty license to break those oppressive grammar rules. She has a poem published in Reflections, an anthology published by the Christchurch Writers’ Guild, and several academic credits to her name in leading scientific journals, including Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Now Judy writes science fiction and fantasy, but has edited other genres, including political thrillers and woman’s fiction. In December 2015, Judy launched Black Wolf Editorial Services.


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Raloxifene belongs to a family of medications called selective estrogen receptor modifiers (SERMs). It is used to treat and prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

SERMs are not hormones. However, raloxifene acts like estrogen in some parts of the body (including the bones), but not like estrogen in other parts of the body.

Raloxifene works by slowing the breakdown of bone and promoting the building of new bone. Bone density improvements and declines can be detected within one year by a procedure known as a bone mineral density test.

This medication may be available under multiple brand names and/or in several different forms. Any specific brand name of this medication may not be available in all of the forms or approved for all of the conditions discussed here. As well, some forms of this medication may not be used for all of the conditions discussed here.

Your doctor may have suggested this medication for conditions other than those listed in these drug information articles. If you have not discussed this with your doctor or are not sure why you are taking this medication, speak to your doctor. Do not stop taking this medication without consulting your doctor.

Do not give this medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms as you do. It can be harmful for people to take this medication if their doctor has not prescribed it.

What form(s) does this medication come in?

Each white, elliptical, film-coated tablet with "R60" on one side contains 60 mg of raloxifene hydrochloride. Nonmedicinal ingredients: citric acid, dibasic calcium phosaphte, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, lactose monohydrate, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, poloxamer 407, polyethylene glycol, sodium starch glycolate, and titanium dioxide.

How should I use this medication?

The recommended adult dose of raloxifene is 60 mg daily at the same time each day, with or without food.

Many things can affect the dose of a medication that a person needs, such as body weight, other medical conditions, and other medications. If your doctor has recommended a dose different from the ones listed here, do not change the way that you are taking the medication without consulting your doctor.

It is important to take this medication exactly as prescribed by your doctor. If you miss a dose, take it as soon as possible and continue with your regular schedule. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and continue with your regular dosing schedule. Do not take a double dose to make up for a missed one. If you are not sure what to do after missing a dose, contact your doctor or pharmacist for advice.

Store this medication at room temperature, protect it from light and moisture, and keep it out of the reach of children.

Do not dispose of medications in wastewater (e.g. down the sink or in the toilet) or in household garbage. Ask your pharmacist how to dispose of medications that are no longer needed or have expired.

Who should NOT take this medication?

Raloxifene should not be taken by anyone who:

  • is allergic to raloxifene or to any of the ingredients of the medication
  • is breast-feeding
  • is pregnant or could become pregnant
  • has had thrombosis (blood clots)

What side effects are possible with this medication?

Many medications can cause side effects. A side effect is an unwanted response to a medication when it is taken in normal doses. Side effects can be mild or severe, temporary or permanent. The side effects listed below are not experienced by everyone who takes this medication. If you are concerned about side effects, discuss the risks and benefits of this medication with your doctor.

The following side effects have been reported by at least 1% of people taking this medication. Many of these side effects can be managed, and some may go away on their own over time.

Contact your doctor if you experience these side effects and they are severe or bothersome. Your pharmacist may be able to advise you on managing side effects.

  • flu-like symptoms
  • hot flashes, including sudden sweating and feelings of warmth

Although most of these side effects listed below don't happen very often, they could lead to serious problems if you do not check with your doctor or seek medical attention.

Check with your doctor as soon as possible if any of the following side effects occur:

  • leg cramping
  • swelling of hands, ankles, or feet
  • symptoms of high blood sugar levels (e.g., weakness, increased thirst, increase urination)

Stop taking the medication and seek immediate medical attention if any of the following occur:

  • signs of stroke (e.g., sudden or severe headache; sudden loss of coordination; vision changes; sudden slurring of speech; or unexplained weakness, numbness, or pain in arm or leg)
  • symptoms of blood clots in the lungs (e.g., sudden chest pain or shortness of breath)
  • symptoms of blood clots in the veins (e.g., redness, swelling, heat or pain in your legs and calves)

Some people may experience side effects other than those listed. Check with your doctor if you notice any symptom that worries you while you are taking this medication.

Are there any other precautions or warnings for this medication?

Before you begin using a medication, be sure to inform your doctor of any medical conditions or allergies you may have, any medications you are taking, whether you are pregnant or breast-feeding, and any other significant facts about your health. These factors may affect how you should use this medication.

Blood clots: A blood clot in the vein is a possible side effect of raloxifene. If you have a history of blood clots, including in the legs, lungs, or eyes, taking this medication may increase the risk of getting blood clots. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns. If you experience any symptoms of blood clots (see "What side effects are possible with this medication?"), stop taking the medication and contact your doctor as soon as possible.

Calcium and vitamin D: It is important that you are receiving the recommended amount of calcium and vitamin D each day. If you are not getting enough from your diet, your health care provider may recommend you take vitamin D and calcium supplements. Talk to your health care provider about the amount of calcium and vitamin D you should be receiving.

Effect on uterus, breast, and mental function: Raloxifene is not associated with side effects on the uterus, breast, or mental function. Therefore, if you experience unexplained uterine bleeding, breast pain, breast enlargement, changes in mood, or deterioration of mental function, contact your doctor as soon as possible.

Liver: People who have liver disease should discuss with their doctor how this medication may affect their medical condition, how their medical condition may affect the dosing and effectiveness of this medication, and whether any special monitoring is needed.

Men: This medication is not for use by men.

Prolonged inactivity: Because of an increased risk of blood clots, raloxifene should be stopped at least 72 hours before and during long periods of inactivity (e.g., after surgery, prolonged bed rest).

Stroke and heart disease: Women taking raloxifene and who have had a heart attack or are at risk for a heart attack may have an increased risk dying from stroke. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.

Women who have not reached menopause: The safety and effectiveness of using this medication have not been established for women who have not reached menopause. This medication should not be used by premenopausal women.

Pregnancy: This medication should not be used during pregnancy.

Breast-feeding: It is not known if raloxifene passes into breast milk. This medication should not be used by women who are breast-feeding.

Children: The safety and effectiveness of using this medication have not been established for children. This medication should not be used by children.

What other drugs could interact with this medication?

There may be an interaction between raloxifene and any of the following:

  • cholestyramine
  • estrogens
  • levothyroxine
  • warfarin

If you are taking any of these medications, speak with your doctor or pharmacist. Depending on your specific circumstances, your doctor may want you to:

  • stop taking one of the medications,
  • change one of the medications to another,
  • change how you are taking one or both of the medications, or
  • leave everything as is.

An interaction between two medications does not always mean that you must stop taking one of them. Speak to your doctor about how any drug interactions are being managed or should be managed.

Medications other than those listed above may interact with this medication. Tell your doctor or prescriber about all prescription, over-the-counter (non-prescription), and herbal medications you are taking. Also tell them about any supplements you take. Since caffeine, alcohol, the nicotine from cigarettes, or street drugs can affect the action of many medications, you should let your prescriber know if you use them.

All material copyright MediResource Inc. 1996 – 2018. Terms and conditions of use. The contents herein are for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Source:


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Cheesecake Dessert Bar for Wedding

Discussion in 'Pastries & Baking' started by katest, Dec 9, 2012.

  1. katest

    Likes Received:
    At home cook
    I am looking for any advice on making cheesecakes for a wedding dessert bar.  I would ideally like to have miniature cheesecakes or small bite size pieces, however I'm not sure the best way to do this.  I love to make the typical 9" springform size and everyone loves how these taste.  Should I buy a square springform and then cut these into smaller squares or buy a smaller 4" springform so that the typically pie cut would leave smaller pieces?  Again any advice would be great.  I also plan on freezing these ahead of time and defrosting for the wedding.  I would love to make cheesecakes and mini cupcakes ahead of time and then hire a friend to put the finishing touches on the day of/ day prior to the wedding.  I hope this isn't too ambitious of an idea.

    Thank you
  2. petalsandcoco

    Likes Received:
    Private Chef
    You don't need springform pans to make the mini's, simply take a 24 cup muffin tin (I don't know how many you have to make) and line paper cups in them, make your crumb mixture, pat the mixture down , pour batter,  cook. Toppings and or decorations can all be done the day of the wedding ( as you said )

    When making these its always good to double up on your papers. When done you can gently remove the papers. What is nice about these little cakes , there is no mess. They are eaten in 5-7 bites. No waste of cake.

    Here is a pic off google. You can make various bases , oreo, graham, ginger...etc. the toppings are endless. Just a thought.

  3. chefross

    Likes Received:
    Former Chef
    Great idea Petals.

    I make cheesecakes in half sheet pans. After making the crumb crust and evenly spreading it into the pan, I'll use a large can or heavy bottle to push the crust down and flatten it. I will bake this for about 7-10 minutes to set, remove from oven to cool for a moment before I pour in the cheesecake batter. The baking time for such a pan is relatively short in comparison to the spring form pans.

    Also if you use the mini muffin tins.....many of these are non stick so the crumb crust can go directly into the cup without having to use a paper liner.

    As for the bar idea......what I have done in the past is serve slices of plain cheesecake and have a variety of toppings both warm and chilled available for the guest to choose from.

    I have done:  warm peach filling, cherry filling, blueberry, chocolate, lemon curd, Creme Anglaise, chilled strawberries, bananas foster, the list is endless. Hope this helps.
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2012
  4. missyd

    Likes Received:
    Professional Baker
    I have done graham bases as above.  I use the bottom of a shot glass to press down the mixture as I find it binds tighter and is also more consistent than using fingers.

    Then again I have larger hands than most girls and found it really awkward to finger press.

    I also bake this for 5 minutes before filling w/ anything else.


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Showing: 14 of 377 mentors

Jeffrey Crawford
Winona Lake, IN

1978-1980 with the Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa.  1981-1989 with Chase Bank, in NY, NY - Columbus, OH - and Monrovia, Liberia.  1999-2015 with CTB, Inc., Milford, IN

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Mike Crumbo
Greenwood, IN

An extensive career in operations management, including temporary assignments in Mexico, Japan, China and Hungary.

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Steven P Cummings
Portage, MI

My background is from 30+ years in manufacturing businesses.

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Richard Thomas Dan
Pierceton, IN

Career Employment History > 1970-71: Engineering Co-op at Union Carbide Corp., Linde Division > 1972: Munster Indiana School Systems, Mathematics Instructor;

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Lyle R Crouse
Anderson, IN

. Work experience has been 33 years with GM component division, supervising and managing plant operations in Indiana and start-up plants in Mississippi.

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Fort Wayne, IN

General Electric - Manager Materials, Sales & Operations Planning USAF/IN Air National Guard - Lt. Col, Flight Commander, Pilot Sheridan Court Apartments, Inc.

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Fort Wayne, IN

38 years at GE with increasing levels of responsibility in factory supervision, manufacturing engineering, quality control, product planning, sales and marketing, profit and loss r

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Fort Wayne, IN

 For the last 34 years of my career, 24 were first spent with General Electric and the last 10 with Regal Beloit who purchased most of the electric motor business from GE.

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Monica Hernandez
Sunset, LA

I have an extensive background in operations. Store operations, hands on marketing, sales, P & L experience. I am very attentive to clients needs and requests. Great listener.

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Vince Livingston
Prospect, KY

Vince Livingston is a retired Supply Chain and Logistics leader with over thirty five years of diverse experience from the ground up in international and domestic transportation, p

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Lafayette, LA

Let me help you start up or grow your business. I am experienced in marketing both luxury goods (jewelry) and consumer-packaged goods (food) with manufacturing companies.

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Louisville, KY

IT Management,   Supply Chain Management,   Quality Management,   Process Control,   Inventory Management,   College Professor

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A results-oriented and enterprising General Manager , Corporate Executive and Start Up Advisor, with extensive domestic and international experience.  Main specialty is in New

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text:
So many news!!

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

07/04 – Jump SQ #08 – Chapter 5.
08/04 – Jump SQ #09 – Chapter 6.
09/04 – Jump SQ #10 – Chapter 7 – Color page(s).

• Comic:

Here is the cover of Kobato. #6:

I love it! I think it’s my favorite cover! It screams HAPPINESS =D

It will be released on August 26.

• Feature:

To celebrate the series’ conclusion, there is going to be a large feature in the upcoming Newtype issue (out 08/10). Also, information about a new CLAMP series will be announced in the same issue! A campaign will be followed as well (but I don’t know if the campaign will be related to Kobato. or the new series).

So excited about this new series! Could be the revival of an old series as well (it’s alright to hope!). I don’t think it’ll be running in Newtype, though. They will most likely make the announcement to hook all Kobato. readers into this new series. I think it’ll run in a different Kadokawa magazine. Anyway, it was about time for CLAMP to work on another manga apart from GATE 7!

Looking very much forward to thissss!

• Book:

Here is the cover of the XXXHOLiC POST CARD BOOK:

I REALLY liked it! Even though there is little CLAMP illustration on it, I loved the design! I wonder if it was designed by CLAMP…

This postcard book will have illustrations from the covers and title pages of all 19 volumes of XXXHOLiC. It will be released on September 6.

BLOOD-C DVD & Blu-ray:

The official BLOOD-C website has updated with the cover of the limited edition of the 1st DVD/Blu-ray. The jacket features a new illustration drawn by CLAMP!

It will be released on September 28.

The limited first editions of all 6 DVDs/Blu-rays will have jackets illustrated by CLAMP. Check out the release calendar for them at the CLAMP Widget at the top of my livejournal.

BLOOD-C Manga:

Here is a drawing + message by CLAMP that came with the 1st volume of the manga adaptation of BLOOD-C:

Click to enlarge it.

So nice! CLAMP could draw the entire BLOOD-C anime and I wouldn’t mind =)

Thanks syaoranmew for letting me know about this!

BLOOD-C in Newtype:

The upcoming Newtype issue (out 08/10) will be a BLOOD-C special issue.

The magazine will have:

– Cover illustration drawn by CLAMP;
– Special talk between director Tsutomu Mizushima and Nanase Ohkawa about the birth and future of BLOOD-C;
– Inside stories;
– Interview with Nana Mizuki (Saya’s seiyuu);
– After recording reports.

• Featuring CLAMP:

CLAMP drew an illustration and wrote comments for the current Young Magazine that is celebrating the 500th chapter of Fukumoto Nobuyuki’s gambling manga Kaiji:

Idol Nakagawa Shouko (aka Shouko-tan) has been added to the festival’s line up as a special guest.

33 thoughts on “CLAMP NEWS !!

  1. Oooh, a completely new series or the revival of an old one? I have my preferences! *Cough*LegalDrug*cough*

    The Kobato cover is lovely; so much energy and colour! Ioryogi’s expression is so exuberantly joyful that it makes me smile ^_^

  2. ZAWA Z AWA!
    Kaiji-kun you look prettier than normal xD

    I love that Saya illustration from the manga, so lovely.. I got flashbacks to Rayearth era for some reason. Maybe it’s the pose and school uniform. I didn’t know there was a manga adaption though, gotta go look it up now/

    nthing the hope the ‘new’ series is Legal Drug too. God I’m still hooked on that one.

    Thanks for all this cool news!

    • Kaiji-kun you look prettier than normal xD

      YES! Some people say it looks like a shoujo version of Kaiji XD

      The BLOOD-C art by CLAMP is really great! So much better than P. IG’s!

  3. New CLAMP series? @A@

    …………………………………… (*w*)“ ´´(*w*)
    *Very excited*

    It gives me new hope… Even if I want to give GATE7 a try when it comes out in Spain, I really want a series from CLAMP I might enjoy from the beginning.

    We’ll find out in a few days then? I can’t wait! ♥

  4. Kobato’s ending were very touching, but kind of abrupt. Stupid Magazine issues… I bet Clamp were fed up with them too.

    waah, new series ^^ wonder what they’ll churn out this time

  5. I thank you for all the wonderful info!

    … and I know I should be excited for the new series but actually I’m disappointed. I was hoping now they’ve finished holic, TRC and Kobato they would consider continuing X… since previously they said they were too busy for this, but I guess it was just a foolish hope. A new series to join Gate 7 will only means soon they’ll get really busy again so no chances to see more X for the next… 6 years? More? if we even have a chance… *sighs*

    • If they don’t continue Gouhou Drug, I’m going to conclude that it’s CLAMP who doesn’t want to continue with it at the moment. The timing is perfect, and they will be in Kadokawa (aka Gouhou Drug’s home).

      If they don’t continue it, I don’t think we can keep on thinking that it’s a publisher issue… it must be CLAMP’s own decision to not continue it right now =_=

      As for X, I have little hope for it due to the March Earthquake… but we never know.

      • I would like more for them to finish X since we’re almost at the end but a continuation of GD would be apprecciated as well and a lot less troublesome than X…

        The fact we’re close to 2012 would have been a nice connection for ending X though…

        Honestly I fear it’s CLAMP’s lack of interest that keep those series on hold though miracles can always happen (Yami no Matsuei Vol 12 had been printed after a LOOOOOOOONG time so maybe CLAMP too might feel like printing a new X volume?)

  6. The Kobato cover is gorgeous!! I’m so excited about a new CLAMP series! I just hope they don’t leave Gate 7 behind, I’m really enjoying it.

    BLOOD-C art is really pretty, that manga illustration looks exciting and amazing, I just wish the series would live up to the beauty of the art 😦

  7. Thank you so much for the news Chibiyuuto-san! =D

    I would like if CLAMP continues an old series (Lawful Drug please! *___*) but it can be a not so unexpected thing like Blood-C (CLAMP version) XD All that Blood-C content on Newtype is just the beginning of the announcement XD Anyway, since Gate 7 is the big spot then if there is a new series, it could be a minor one. Let’s see what CLAMP is preparing us.

    • Could be a BLOOD-C by CLAMP too.

      There is a new Kadokawa magazine starting soon, it will run a BLOOD-C manga adaptation. I wonder if it’s the same one that is currently in Shonen Ace (that would mean it would move to the new magazine), or a completely different one (by CLAMP, maybe?).

      I’m very excited for whatever it is =)

  8. I wonder if the earthquake involving plot is really the issue at this point… I mean… there are almost no more Kekkai, Tokyo is almost a deserted city and we’re likely at the final battle… unless they plan to end the serieswith an earthquake destroying the world is there really time for another earthquake? Sure, one might be triggered by Sorata’s death, since Sorata is fated to die but considering the city is already nearly empty the drama of the scene would be Sorata’s death, not the earthquake.
    But that’s after all just speculation. CLAMP might have planned something completely different…

  9. Ah, the postcard book cover is beautiful! O_O

    I wasn’t originally planning to get it, but if it’s got the title page illustrations I think I’ll have to! Especially as there’s still no sign of the artbook…

  10. Kobato’s cover looks good, I like her outfit a lot! And Ioryogi seems totally happy gor once. ^^
    Although I still like the 4th book’s cover better.

    The xxxHolic postcard book cover looks quite good, I’m looking forwards to own it.

    The two Clamp illustration of Blood+C looks good, a shame we don’t see anything this good in the actual episodes.

    > So nice! CLAMP could draw the entire BLOOD-C anime and I wouldn’t mind =)

    Oh yes, you would mind, because they wouldn’t have time to do actual manga. T_T

    Kaiji’s illustration looks so much more human and good looking when Clamp do the drawing. lol

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How to Avoid Jail Time for a DUI

Published: Feb 17, 2017, by admin in DUI, Legal Blog

There are a number of criminal penalties that you face when charged with a DUI in Illinois, including the loss of driving privileges and heavy fines. However, the possibility of jail time is likely the most intimidating penalty. Not only does it cost you your liberty, but being locked behind bars carries a stigma that isn’t associated with a suspended driver’s license.

If you’ve been arrested for drunk driving, it is important to be represented by an experienced Chicago DUI lawyer who can help you avoid jail time. Contact O’Meara Law today at 312-909-0706 to let us evaluate your case for free.

Potential Jail Sentences for Drunk Driving

Even a first DUI offense in Illinois can potentially lead to time in jail, and the sentences quickly become more severe for repeat offenders. A first DUI in Illinois is considered a Class A misdemeanor, which can lead to a sentence of up to one year in jail. The second DUI offense is still considered a Class A misdemeanor, but the penalties become harsher and include a mandatory five days in prison or 240 hours of community service.

Any offenses past a second DUI offense lead to felony charges. The third offense is considered a Class 2 felony, which carries a prison sentence of not less than three years and not more than seven years. Further DUI offenses lead to more severe felony charges and even more mandatory time in prison.

Avoiding Jail Time by Avoiding Conviction

The surest way to avoid jail time if you’ve been charged with a DUI in Illinois is to avoid being convicted of the charges. An experienced Chicago DUI attorney will know the numerous ways that a charge can be challenged. If the evidence against you includes field sobriety testing, it is important to remember that the three most commonly used tests have been found to be less than 90 percent accurate when used individually and still only 94 percent accurate if all three are used. Chemical testing evidence can be challenged based on the timing of the test, violations of testing procedure or possible contamination of the testing samples. Even your original arrest can be challenged if law enforcement cannot establish probable cause for pulling you over in the first place.

Court Supervision is an Option

If it is not possible to challenge your DUI charge or avoid conviction, Illinois provides for the potential of court supervision as an alternative to the criminal penalties. Under court supervision, the imposition of any criminal penalties is withheld for a set period of time. The court will instead impose conditions such as drug treatment, and if you meet the court’s conditions while avoiding any further legal issues during the supervision period your DUI can be dismissed.

Court supervision is a one-time option, however. According to the Illinois Secretary of State, judges are allowed to grant court supervision only once in a lifetime for a DUI offense and it can only be granted if there have been no prior convictions.

Plea Bargaining to Avoid Jail Time

If court supervision is not an option in your DUI case, another option would be to negotiate a plea bargain where the sentence does not include jail time. Illinois prisons are some of the most overcrowded in the United States and the state is seeking to reduce its prison population by 25 percent, so a prosecutor may be open to recommending a sentence that keeps from adding to the prison population. The judge still has final say on sentencing, but Illinois provides for the option of what is called a 402 conference that would include the judge in the plea bargaining process and would provide more certainty on the final sentence in your case.

How a Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyer Can Help

Drunk driving puts the lives of everyone on the road at risk, and the potential for time in jail on a first offense reflects how seriously it is viewed by law enforcement. There are options for avoiding jail time if you’ve been charged with a DUI, but you will want the assistance of a knowledgeable Illinois DUI attorney who will be able to make the most of all the options that are available.

Attorney Michael O’Meara has more than 20 years of legal experience and has defended many of clients on DUI charges. O’Meara is a former Cook County prosecutor, so his experience on both sides of criminal cases can help to provide you with the best defense possible. Call O’Meara Law today at 312-909-0706 for a free and confidential consultation regarding your case.


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Introducing short interviews with SSCIP members featuring bioarchaeologist Neha Dhavale

I just posted a short interview on the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past website with my PhD student Neha Dhavale researching infant and child growth during the intensification of agriculture in Southeast Asia:

To showcase the research and the multidisciplinary nature of SSCIP we will be featuring short interviews with our members. Our membership’s research covers a variety of approaches to the study of childhood in the past, from osteology, archaeology, history, literary studies, sociology, psychology and more, and includes all different time periods and places in the world. In these interviews we aim to cover the breadth of our members from postgraduate students to senior academics in the field.

Our first interviewee is Neha Dhavale, who is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Otago and has very recently joined the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past.

Q. Tell me a little bit about your research?

For my PhD I am investigating childhood skeletal growth at the prehistoric site of Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand. I am interested in exploring the question of health change with the intensification of agriculture over the time period from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Infant and child growth is a particularly sensitive indicator of health or stress in the past of whole populations. The general bioarchaeological model of health change with the intensification of agriculture posits that there was deterioration in health over time. I am particularly interested in this research question as recent work by my supervisor (Sian Halcrow) and others have found that in Southeast Asia there is little evidence for deterioration in health during the intensification of agriculture.

Q. How did you get into your field of research and why?

As a part of my Master’s degree in Archaeology at Deccan College in Pune, India, I focused on assessing the health and disease of a medieval Indian skeletal sample from Hansi, North India. While assessing the children from this site, I developed an interest in exploring childhood health in prehistoric contexts.

Q. Why did you join SSCIP?

As a young researcher in the field of childhood bioarchaeology, membership of SSCIP provides me with a good platform to engage with scholars from different disciplines researching children.

I have already gained benefits from SSCIP through attending the recent ‘For the Love of Death’ conference, Philippines, which was partly sponsored by SSCIP (see previous story here). At the SSCIP session on the osteoarchaeology of juveniles, I had the opportunity to share my work with other academics researching children from archaeological contexts, and got very useful feedback from people in the field.

Q. What is on the future horizon for your research?

After I finish my doctoral study I intend to continue studying childhood health in the past. In particular I would like to explore how the changing social definition of childhood and cultural behaviour affected children in the past.

Source: Introducing Short Interviews with SSCIP Members

I think the reason why I am scared to write this story on gender discrimination in academia is precisely why it is needed

—– Since posting this I’ve been asked by numerous people for a hashtag so they can share their own stories: #NoMoreAcademicSexism —–

I’ve been thinking and worrying about how to write this story for quite some time.

This is for fear of backlash from writing a personal story for lack of anonymity and from general anxiety about my particularly bad experience of discrimination over the past couple of years. I also fear negative responses to writing a feminist story or critique, which I have experienced in the past when posting online. Gender- or sex-discrimination and sexism are important issue is in academia, and have been highlighted recently through major news stories of overt discrimination and sexism, especially in science. An example of a story that has received major attention is Nobel Scientist Tim Hunt stating in his keynote for a conference that women in laboratories “fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.” Gender-related discrimination is not the only type of bias that plagues academia, and discrimination related to age, colour, sexuality, and disability exist, and often intersect with each other.

There is a general consensus that women are underrepresented in academia in senior positions because of sexism and sex discrimination. Many women (and men) in academia also feel that if they speak up about sex discrimination that it will have negative repercussions for them. But why should it? Feminism isn’t a dirty word. Feminists do not hate men, they are not “feminist killjoys” whining about every good thing that may happen to men. Feminists are aware that there is inequality between the sexes and attempt to resolve this. Full-stop.

I have forced myself to get over this anxiety of doing this story, or more correctly to “feel the fear and do it anyway”. To offset this fear somewhat, instead of writing about my experiences in story form and therefore risking anonymity, I want to share a list of observations and events that have occurred to others and myself in academia, which indicate gender-discrimination or sexism, and sex-related bullying. These instances happened at academic institutions in New Zealand and internationally. A lot of these revolve around pregnancy, and motherhood, a time when sex discrimination becomes most apparent for women. I am not including all of the stories I have heard as it would make this piece too long! So although stories on sexism in academia such as that of Tim Hunt may seem like isolated events, they are not. I haven’t gone out and asked for these stories, these have simply been relayed to me in passing, so I don’t think that I have a biased view of gender-bias! Interestingly, for a lot of the cases it is women who are being discriminatory.

Some experiences of sexism and sex discrimination in academia:

  • A woman kicked off a large research fieldwork project for being pregnant.
  • Someone putting a cover over a women breastfeeding in an academic common room without her approval.
  • A woman being discouraged to make a complaint when she felt sex discrimination was occurring.
  • Being called a bitch for not smiling and saying hello to a male work colleague and getting no apology because there was “no evidence that it happened”
  • A woman told to step down permanently from an academic committee because of maternity leave.
  • A candidate being asked her marital status during an interview for a postdoctoral position.
  • A woman being continually asked if she wanted to continue on an external university women’s organisation committee after having a baby.
  • Having a Departmental ‘policy’ without wider consultation of staff inhibiting children entering the premises.
  • A woman being discouraged from bringing children to a marae (Māori meeting place) visit, when it was culturally totally appropriate.
  • Women being called unkind and rude for behaviours that are tolerated if men do them.
  • Junior male colleagues with little track record being given precedence for academic committee positions over women who do have the track record.
  • Women at a University women’s leadership course being told, “you need to shake hands [at upcoming event] as this is what men do”.
  • People gossiping that a potential candidate for a job may have been in the early stage of pregnancy, and this was viewed negatively in terms of her ability to do the job.
  • A colleague of a pregnant academic informing the Head of Department about the pregnancy before she was required to do so based on her work contract.
  • A PhD student being asked to finish her degree before her baby was due when she was only very early in her candidature and hadn’t completed her required one year long clinical postings.
  • A female student hearing sexist and homophobic jokes most days during a long period of fieldwork.

I want to say that I am very thankful for very supportive mentors, and many good colleagues and support staff. My PhD supervisor was extremely supportive of my family and I during my studies and later as a colleague. I have also seen very good practice by some leaders at my University. For example, a job selection panel chair reminded people to allow for “breaks” in people’s career related to childcare responsibilities and that this should not be held against them when assessing their ability for the job. I have also had good support from a couple of senior academic men in the Department, who sympathise that being a parent and an academic is not the easiest of tasks.

If only the good experiences outweighed the bad. My hope is that in the future my daughters don’t have to experience this type of discrimination in their careers.

The baby ‘helping’ me clean and reconstruct a late Iron Age burial of a newborn infant, from the site of Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand (taken by my 10-year-old daughter)

SSCIP session on the osteoarchaeology of juveniles at the recent For the Love of Death conference, Philippines

Simon Mays and I just did a short story on the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past sponsored session on juvenile bioarchaeology at the For the Love of Death conference held at the University of Philippines. Here is a synopsis of the conference and session, which included my PhD student Neha Dhavale’s work on infant and child growth and the intensification of agriculture in prehistoric Thailand.

Dr Simon Mays has just come back from a successful osteoarchaeology conference organised by the University of the Philippines. We share his comments about the conference and the SSCIP sponsored session.

“Last week I attended a two-day conference in Manila, entitled ‘For the Love of Death: Human Osteoarchaeology in South-East Asia and the Pacific’, organised by Rebecca Crozier and the Archaeological Studies Programme of the University of the Philippines.  There were 20 oral presentations and eight posters from workers from nine different countries. SSCIP sponsored a session of four oral presentations on the osteoarchaeology of juveniles. The first of these, authored by Natthamon Kongkasuriachai of Chang Mai University, dealt with an important group of prehistoric cave burials from Thailand. Jessica Pena, of the University of the Philippines, studied taphonomic changes in immature skeletal remains from a cave site in the Philippines. A paper authored by Adam Lauer, of the University…

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There needs to be a cultural shift to accommodate children at conferences, and here are some ways to achieve this

Why are children at conferences such an important issue?

It is well known that women are disadvantaged at conferences. Women are generally underrepresented at academic meetings, and research has shown that they are less likely to be invited speakers and in other positions of leadership such as chairing sessions, due to their inaccessibility into men’s research networks.

Recently I have seen an increasing number of stories and comments about the problems that caregivers face when going to academic meetings, and some suggestions to create opportunities for caregivers to attend local and international conferences. Clearly accessibility of conferences is an equity issue, with the ‘burden’ of childcare often falling on women. You may find that your parental leave is over (if you are in a country or institution that has maternity leave), however, it remains very difficult for caregivers to leave their infants and children until they are older. Being unable to attend conferences is extremely disadvantageous for women in their academic progression. Conferences are a way to promote your research, to get feedback on your work, to explore the latest advances in the field, and most importantly to engage with colleagues and form relationships that can often lead to collaborations and other research and service opportunities.

Although this equity issue is becoming more visible, in reality, we have a long way to go to break down the barriers for caregivers to attend conferences.

The best conference attendance with one of my children was a small Wenner-Gren supported workshop on Childhood in the Past held in Galway, Ireland. When I received the invitation to be a participant I told the organisers that I was expecting a baby in three months time and she would be 6 months old when the conference came around. This was no issue and the workshop organisers were very supportive.

Logistically and financially conferences are very difficult for caregivers. In my excitement on the invitation to the Wenner-Gren workshop I didn’t quite remember the challenges I had traveling with the first baby on my own. It was a total of 45 hours of travel from New Zealand to Ireland, with about 30 hours being in the air. Unfortunately, Emirates did not seem to give preference to babies being in the seats that bassinets can be attached, and for some reason unbeknown to me the travel agent had not requested that seat, and I was told at check-in that these were not available to me. At least I had a sling that my baby could sleep in on my front. Needless to say I am NEVER flying with Emirates again.

The conference was amazingly inclusive of me my baby. I think this worked for two main reasons: it was small and I could look after her while being in the workshop room with her, and the group of women were all very supportive.

Our Wenner-Gren Workshop Attendees, Ireland, October 2014, Photo courtesy Jaime Koshyk

The ‘grandmother’ of the Archaeology of Childhood, Kathryn Kamp, with my daughter at the Wenner-Gren Workshop, Ireland, October 2014, photo courtesy Jaime Koshyk

When my youngest daughter was about 12 weeks old I attended the inaugural Early Career Meeting and workshops organised by the New Zealand Royal Society in Wellington, about a 2 hour flight from my hometown. Personally I gained got a lot out of the conference through the interactive workshops and discussions. I must admit that during the keynotes and lectures when the baby was awake I spent a lot of time standing in the corridor peaking through the backdoor of the conference room swaying a windy and unsettled baby. Other than one well-known woman in the New Zealand science community who approached me and gave her form of ‘support’ by simply saying “well done” and walking off, what struck me was that during all the workshops we had on mentoring, research development, and the research journey, with prominent people talking about women in science and academia in general, it was only at the end of the second day that one of the speakers dared to talk about the “Elephant in the Room” and referred to the baby in the audience. This woman talked about her “broken career” with multiple maternity absences and childcare responsibilities and the obstacles that this posed for her, including the fact that she didn’t have a chance to attend many conferences for years.

Traveling and attending conferences is hard with children and it is a gender equity issue that isn’t recognised enough. Although inclusive conferences won’t cause an overall cultural shift in sexism within academia, there are certain ways to lessen this significant obstacle for women and caregivers. Here are some points that conference committees and organisers may consider:

  • Have your conference on weekdays. This has also recently been proposed by Victoria Bateman an economics historian using the #endweekendconference hashtag. Having a weekday conference means that for the local participants their normal childcare arrangements are available.
  • If you are organising a bigger conference look into offering free or user-pays childcare at or near the venue. Also make sure that the burden of other babysitting duties doesn’t fall on female graduate students. This is an equity issue in itself, with the burden of care and pastoral roles in academia being held by women. Also as a conference goer don’t be afraid to ask about childcare options.
  • As well as offering student awards and grants for conference attendance, offer family care grants to help researchers offset the cost of childcare. An excellent example of this has been instituted by the American Association of Physical Anthropology’s Committee on Diversity Women’s Initiative offering the Family Care Award Committee for Diversity for their 2016 conference.
  • Include in your advertising and programmes that you are a baby and family-friendly conference. This is a very simple, but effective way that you can encourage the attendance of caregivers.
  • Make sure that the accommodation you recommend is family friendly.

A couple of years ago, I was staying with my eldest daughter who was eight years old in Manchester, UK,  at the recommended conference accommodation, which was a Hall of Residence. After staying there for 2 nights I was told by management that I had to leave as they didn’t allow children in the building due to “safety issues”. I could only find alternative accommodation miles away from the University so I couldn’t interact with any of the other conference goers in the mornings or early evenings and ended up paying over 600 pounds for alternative accommodation and transport to and from the conference. I’ve have, however, had very good experiences at other University Halls. For example, Grey College at Durham University was very accommodating of my daughter and I when I stayed there while on a research visit.

  • When organising a conference venue consider their facilities for babies, e.g. are there baby changing facilities or separate areas that can be used for caregivers and babies?

Infanticide in the archaeological record: sense or sensationalism? (Or: No, I’m not an ‘over-emotional’ mother and archaeologist)

A cursory look through the bioarchaeological literature for explanations of infant death in the past may leave you with a view that infants were being purposefully killed and buried in community cemeteries or simply tossed away in high numbers (e.g. Mays 1993, Mays and Eyers, 2011, Smith and Kahila, 1992).

But what is the likelihood that these accounts are accurate? Here I want to take an analytical look at the bioarchaeological evidence and arguments for infanticide. Some of my views on childhood in the past have been criticised for being clouded by my status as a mother within a ‘Western’ culture. Sometimes I feel that my interpretations are dismissed and put down to my ‘personal’, ‘irrational’, ‘hyper-emotional’, ‘ethnocentric’ thoughts on infancy. One example of this type of experience was at a conference when a senior academic after viewing my poster ‘mansplained’, “you must realise that childhood wasn’t a rosy experience like it is now where you come from. They weren’t wrapped up in cotton wool!”. I wonder if he would have said that if my infant wasn’t attending the conference, the result of no childcare options for participants (dockristy touches on this issue of inclusive conferences for caregivers in her recent blog post).

Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants. Legally, “infanticide” can refer to the deliberate killing of any infant under the age of 12 months (Kellet, 1992). Here I use the term for intentional infant killing around the time of birth, as this is the time in which it usually occurs. Infanticide has been practised in a wide range of cultures through time, and has been argued in some anthropological texts to be an adaptive strategy to environmental, economic, and social circumstances since the Pleistocene era (Hausfater and Hrdy, 1984:xxix).

Common methods for disposing of unwanted children in non-Christian cultures were exposure or drowning without subsequent burial or with covert burial (reviewed in Gilmore and Halcrow, 2014). Some of the motives documented for infanticide include poverty, and if a baby was born with a physical deformity or was “weak”. The sex of infants was also an important factor in infanticide practice for many cultures.

What evidence are these bioarchaeological studies using to inform their interpretations of infanticide? For most papers their main evidence cited for infanticide is a peak rate of mortality around the age of full-term gestation (the perinatal period of about 38-41 weeks gestation) (e.g. Mays 1993, Mays and Eyers, 2011, Smith and Kahila, 1992).*

However, we know from modern age-at-death information that it is normal to see a high rate of infant death at around full-term gestation (see Halcrow et al. 2008 for a review of this evidence). Birth is the most crucial time in a baby’s and mother’s life. Birth and the first few days of life are a dangerous time for a baby with the risk of mortality being extremely high (Kelnar et al., 1995:1). Birth complications, maternal health factors and the risk of disease are likely to have increased the incidence of perinatal deaths and stillbirths in the past. Postpartum dangers include trauma, pneumonia due to infection of the amniotic cavity (Redfern, 2007:185), and respiratory distress syndrome, particularly for pre-term or low birth-weight perinates, owing to the immaturity of the lungs. Environmental hazards for the newborn include infections, bathing in contaminated water, and tetanus due to the use of dirty instruments (Kelnar et al., 1995:6-8, Redfern, 2007:185).

Unsurprisingly, this high rate of infant death around the time of birth has also been found in the archaeological record throughout the world and during different time periods. In the majority of the prehistoric Southeast Asian sites I have worked on we find a high peak of mortality occurring around the time of birth. Other sites with this type of age distribution include Argolid in the Aegean (Angel, 1971), Roman period Britain (Mays, 1993), Southeast Europe (Boric and Stefanovic, 2004), mediaeval and post-mediaeval England (Lewis and Gowland, 2007), post-contact indigenous populations in North America (Owsley and Jantz, 1985), Roman period Egypt (Tocheri et al., 2005), and many more. Were all these cultures at these different time periods killing their infants and then burying them overtly within community cemeteries? I think not. I am not arguing that infanticide never existed in the past. However, these were often discrete events with the dead babies disposed of covertly.

IMG_0879Probable mother and newborn death from the ‘Neolithic’ site of Khok Phanom Di, Southeast Thailand. This site had a infant death representation of over 40% of the cemetery sample.

P1010598A ‘foetal’ (preterm) birth from the site of Ban Non Wat, Bronze Age, Northeast Thailand. If a live birth, this baby wouldn’t have lived for long after birth because of its immaturity.

One of these bioarchaeological papers that has interpreted the practice of infanticide is based on the Yewden Roman villa site at Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, England, which became somewhat of an archaeological “celebrity”, showcased by the BBC in 2010 (Mays and Eyers, 2011). The Hambleden site has been identified as a sophisticated “two corridor” Roman villa (Percival, 1990:531). It was first excavated in 1912 by Alfred Heneage Cocks, who reported the discovery of 103 burials, 97 of which were small infants, buried under courtyards or walls on the north side of the site (Cocks, 1921). The infant bones were recently rediscovered in a museum archive after almost a century.

Mays and Eyers (2011) have compared the perinatal age-at-death distribution pattern to other sites that have been interpreted to have an ‘infanticide’ type mortality profile. Other than that there is nothing in the mortuary or archaeological information to suggest that infanticide was probable. The burials at Hambleden are inconsistent with what is known about Roman infanticide practices. As discussed, exposure or drowning were the most usual methods employed, in which case we might expect to find infant bones as haphazard scatters in middens, remote areas of the landscape, or in wells or waterways as has been the case in Scandinavia (Wicker, 1998:215).

An understanding of the historical and ethnographic information on infanticide practices and burial, the historical or other contextual information associated with the site, infant burial practices, and mortality pattern data information is essential for assessing the likelihood for infanticide. It remains that the most parsimonious explanation for cemeteries with a peak of infant death around full-term are the result of a normal age-at-death pattern.

Why then is there a preoccupation or fascination with this idea of infanticide in the past? Were people in the past seen to be of lower moral status and therefore more likely to kill their babies? Could this continued focus on arguments of infanticide stem from an anthropological legacy of the 19th century of exploring ‘dark’, ‘primitive’ cultures, who were seen to lack intelligence and emotion?

Certainly more critical engagement with the literature on infanticide motives, practices, contextual burial information, and medical literature on the causes and timing of normal infant death offers a good approach to review evidence of infant death in the past. Even a mother with a mind ‘clouded’ by breastfeeding hormones and a ‘rosy’ view of childhood can look at the empirical evidence.

*Smith and Kahila (1992) also include preterm and post-perinatal infants in their “perinate” age category. The preterm infants probably died a natural death, as is likely without modern medical intervention. In historical and modern accounts, infanticide often occurs soon after birth, so the individuals who died in the post-perinatal period were also less likely to be the victims of infanticide.

NOTE: Part of this blog post has been taken from our work in the following papers (all references cited can be found within these publications):

Gilmore, H. and S. E. Halcrow (2014). Interpretations of infanticide in the past. J. Thompson, M.P. Alfonso-Durruty and John Crandell (eds). Tracing Childhood: Bioarchaeological investigations of early lives in antiquity. Florida: University of Florida Press. 123-138.

Halcrow, S. E., N. Tayles and V. Livingstone (2008). “Infant death in prehistoric Southeast Asia” Asian Perspectives. 48 (2): 371-404.

See also Gowland et al. (2014) who offer an excellent re-evaluation of evidence for infanticide in Roman Britain.

Gowland, R. L., A. Chamberlain, & R. C. Redfern (2014). “On the brink of being: re-evaluating infanticide and infant burial in Roman Britain” Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 96: 69-88.

My work with babies – today and from prehistory

I often hear phrases such as: “I don’t know how you do it” and “your children must be very flexible with your job”. These well-meaning remarks often play on my anxiety as a mother and an academic who has the added challenge of having to undertake fieldwork and data collection overseas. I study human remains from archaeological sites and have worked in Thailand since 2002 and also in Laos, Cambodia and Chile. Because all the skeletal material from these projects are curated locally I do most of my fieldwork and data collection overseas.

I have just come back home to New Zealand after a stint in Northeast Thailand doing data collection from infants and children from an Iron Age site with my two children in tow, a 22-month-old and 10-year-old. Most of my research in bioarchaeology involves working with infants and children. Just as this age group are sensitive indicators of population health today, so too are they good indicators of cultural and health change in the past.

As a parent, I need to balance my professional work with childcare, which for me means packing up my two children for weeks or months on end and re-introducing them to the different languages, cultures, foods, smells, and exotic flora and fauna!

This really is a great opportunity for my children to experience other cultures and languages, but presents some rather major challenges for both me and them. This means leaving family and friends and sometimes missing school, and sporting and our own cultural events. For example, this year we spent Christmas in Thailand, which was of a non-event in a way.

Here are some photos from the early days of my fieldwork in Thailand at the archaeological site of Ban Non Wat, Non Sung Province, Northeast Thailand, which has an unusually long time span from early agricultural development through to the late metal ages (3,800-1,500BP).

Excavation of a ‘Bronze’ Age child from Ban Non Wat, 2003

Excavation of an ‘Iron’ Age adult burial, 2003

Over several excavation seasons at Ban Non Wat a total of about 700 individuals were excavated with about one-third of these aged less than 15 years. This site is very important for documenting the biological and demographic changes that were occurring in the region with the intensification of agricultural practices. The general bioarchaeological model of health change posits that with the introduction of agriculture there is a deterioration of health as a result of the increase of sedentism and population density, leading to more insanitary living conditions. However, my work and others from mainland Southeast Asia is challenging this Neolithic Transition model, which is mainly based on bioarchaeological investigation in North America and Europe. What we are finding is evidence for a very late and swift heath and demographic transition in the Iron Age. This is particularly exciting as it fits nicely with archaeological evidence at this time period for an intensification of wet rice agriculture, and changes in water management and socio-economic systems.

My recent data collection season was focused on the the site of Non Ban Jak, which is geographically very close to Ban Non Wat. This site is particularly important because it presents the best preserved collection of Iron Age burials in the region and has a very large proportion of infants represented (potentially half of the skeletal collection). At present we have over 145 individuals represented at this site, and have just secured significant funding for future excavation and analyses of the human and cultural material at this site.

The baby was petrified of the nanny for much of the time this season working on these remains, so my work plan had to be flexible. I worked solidly during her afternoon naps and the evenings, and when she was distracted by the 10 year-old. Sometimes she ‘helped’ washing stones beside me.

The baby ‘helping’ me clean and reconstruct a late Iron Age burial of a newborn infant from the site of Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand. Photo by Paige Halcrow (10 years old).

With the extension of research at this site, and further research opportunities planned in the region, my fieldwork with infants and children – both past and present – will continue into the future.

Over the years I have developed a general response for when people ask me how I do it. I reply: “It is challenging, but I wouldn’t change my family or my work for the world.”


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Power Like It’s 1949: Xi Revamping Party Authority

China’s slowing economy, currently illustrated by unpredictable stock market volatility and deepening industrial over-capacity, has been cause for concern among Chinese and foreign investors alike. Annual growth rates—once in the double digits—have more recently decreased to about 6.5 percent and will surely continue to dominate media coverage from around the world about the Eastern giant.

Facing this nationwide economic structural shift, Beijing is striving to establish renewed stability and secure enduring prospects for China’s national economic development. However, while the economy grabs headlines at this pivotal moment in China’s story of unprecedented modern development, a less obvious—and perhaps even more consequential—phenomenon is simultaneously taking hold of the country from behind the scenes.

Chairman Mao’s CCP commanded great respect, and even fear, from the masses

As the country braces for an uncertain economic future, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is furiously ushering in a pro-government campaign—enacting new laws and regulations that provide the Party a rejuvenated degree of authoritarian influence over society and the economy. A totalitarian regime once respected and greatly feared by the masses during the era of Chairman Mao, the CCP has gradually and subtly loosened some of its social and economic grip within China since the early 1990s to allow for foreign investment and domestic business interests to drive economic development throughout the country.

The current leadership, however, has showed fearful signs that the increasing “openness” of the past 20 years has posed a threat to the present legitimacy and future longevity of the Party. As economic slowdown in China becomes noticeably more certain, the CCP is shifting toward a more hard-lined approach to its contemporary governance in an effort to reconsolidate its power and authority. Yet, perhaps the most distinct aspect of this movement has been the vivid face of this reconsolidation campaign—the face of the Party leader himself, Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Since assuming the presidency in 2013, Xi and his administration have undertaken a series of new laws and initiatives to reinsert deep influence over the people. These have most notably included an anti-corruption campaign targeting a wide range of government officials—at both the national and local level—throughout the country; a crackdown on the publishing rights of foreign media in China; heightening surveillance in China’s ethnically disputed Xinjiang and Tibetan regions; state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform that has, to the surprise and chagrin of many, increased government grip over domestic industry; new licensing and registration measures that create further barriers for foreign companies wishing to operate in China; and intensified surveillance of dissident activities and sentiments among the national population—with harsher punishment for objecting to the absolute rule and direction of the Party.

In so doing, President Xi has established a level of authority over the Chinese people not seen in more than a generation. Yet, what makes this new era of reconsolidated power so interesting—and, in many ways, so important—is Xi’s constantly evolving and strengthening political persona. Already deemed the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, Xi’s leadership has included an element of personal identity that has eluded each of his post-Mao predecessors.

Declaring himself as China’s “core leader”, President Xi has garnered a level of authority not seen since Chairman Mao

Nicknamed “Papa Xi” among a large number of citizens—many of them young Chinese with a slowly renewing sense of Party affiliation and pride—Xi has been promoting himself as China’s “core leader”. This celebration of Xi the individual, a symbol of a “new-and-improved” CCP leadership that promises to show stronger accountability toward the masses, is attempting to close what has become an enormous gap between the Party and the people. As the government strives to improve connectivity with its citizens, this movement is, indeed, enabling Beijing to gradually regain the trust and respect of the masses it had lost in recent decades. For the first time in many years, growing numbers of Chinese appear to admire their foremost leader—allowing President Xi to guide the CCP as it marches forward into an uncertain stage within China’s complex modern story.

His efforts to reconsolidate power—which, to date, appear rather successful—have also come at an interesting time in the history of China’s economic and social development. Many believe that China’s previous two presidents, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, were the catalysts behind the period of economic “openness” that permitted the influence of business interests in China to spiral out of control. While Jiang and Hu’s policies allowed the middle class to grow from virtually non-existent into a stable core in China’s contemporary consumer economy, they also enabled excessive greed and egregious corruption among the politically connected in China. These individuals include a newly formed class of influential—and often arrogant—Chinese millionaire and billionaire elites, many of whom are the sons of former Party leaders that presided at the top of each respective industry pyramid as the government chose to scrap the socialist economic agenda of Mao and embrace a market-oriented approach to national growth and development.

Many in China are increasingly disturbed and turned off by the arrogance of the rising millionaire and billionaire elites

However, prior to President Xi’s ascendance, the biggest fundamental problem for the CCP was that the only people more greedy and corrupt than China’s wealthy elites were Party officials themselves. Rampant corruption within the Chinese government—from no-name local officials to well-known and influential national party leaders—was eroding trust among Chinese citizens toward the non-democratically elected Party officials whose power these citizens had for so many years permitted. The recently published Panama Papers, which include family ties to secret offshore accounts among several members of the Politburo Standing Committee—the most powerful governing body of the CCP—are evidence that corruption still remains a considerable problem for the Party.

This excessive corruption within the Party, which had grown steadily more apparent and egregious over the course of the past 20 years, has also coincided with other grave national problems enabled by CCP-led economic development. A rapidly expanding wealth disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” of China has caused greater dissatisfaction among those being left behind by the present structure of China’s economic growth; suffocating and never-ending pollution throughout the country has reached such dire conditions that anyone of means is emigrating China for a cleaner and healthier lifestyle; increased use of social media and access to Western cultural products and experiences have made ordinary Chinese more aware of the shortcomings of 21st century Chinese society—which is limited by heavily censored media and a complete lack of creative channels within Chinese educational and professional environments.

Corruption at every rank of the Chinese government has enabled income inequality to widen dramatically in recent years

These issues have grown more complex with each passing year and are currently intensifying the friction between Chinese citizens and their government. Increased dissatisfaction among the masses in China serves as evidence that these pivotal issues are disrupting the smooth path to modern development desired by China’s leadership.

Acknowledging the notable economic slowdown already underway in China—the implications of which will have literal material impact on year-to-year rise in living standards among Chinese—the Xi administration has embarked upon a major crossroads stage. When the new administration was announced in 2012, many Western political and social theorists predicted that President Xi’s leadership would represent an important transition—the beginning of a structural transformation that would usher in the foundation of an eventual democratic system. If one were to take into consideration the trajectory of China’s economic liberalization from the 1978 Opening and Reform movement through the present era, these predictions would have appeared to hold great weight.

However, entering the scene during this unique period, the current leadership has all but put these theories to rest. Understanding the drastic impact a slowing economy would inevitably have on rising Chinese living standards—an impact potentially significant enough to serve as the final straw for a society already suffering from vast income inequality, severe environmental degradation, and noticeable creative deficit—President Xi realized that the Party needed to take swift action to address these issues or else run the risk of being undermined by a potential call for democratization among the people.

Recognizing an underlying strategic necessity, President Xi appears to have seized this make-or-break moment in modern Chinese political history to determinedly reestablish CCP authority. Inserting a forceful line of power and surveillance increasingly absent in the years prior to his presidency, President Xi now presides as a new-wave Mao-esque symbol of “core leadership” upon the top rank of China’s Communist political rankings.

President Xi has grown increasingly close with Chinese media outlets, using them to help circumvent opposition and advance his reconsolidation campaign

Using the media as the mouthpiece of his marketing pitch to the masses, Xi’s political rhetoric invokes the nostalgia of Maoist ideological values, while his promotion of propaganda-infused online rap videos draws disinterested millennials to reengage the contemporary Party. His military posturing in the East and South China Seas instills a self-perception of confidence and pride among Chinese in their worldview, while his crackdown on Party corruption rebuilds trust and support from powerless citizens. Calling for increased censorship and absolute loyalty from Chinese media in their portrayal of CCP impact on the country’s political, economic, and social development, China’s core leader is advocating Xi-style Maoist ideological principles as the guiding prescription to a prosperous national future.

As President Xi champions this carefully crafted and ever-evolving power-reconsolidation campaign, the CCP is striving to reaffirm an impressive 21st century-style authoritarian control over a country that is home to the world’s largest population and second largest economy. As the administration attempts to accommodate China’s slowing—yet still dynamic—economy through heightened censorship and political control, a new era of uncertainty and ambiguity now surrounds the future direction of the world’s first economically capitalist, politically Communist, regime.

Yet, while the external view of Xi’s growing power appears quite clear and very real, it also portends a potential sense of vulnerability within the Administration. During this uncertain time in China’s growth trajectory, President Xi’s efforts to push this increasingly aggressive agenda may be an attempt to control not only the Chinese people, but also the Party itself.

Xi’s takedown of Zhou Yongkang proved to the public that even China’s highest ranking national-level officials are not safe from his determined crackdown on corruption

Xi’s campaigns, particularly his unparalleled efforts to crackdown on corruption, have antagonized many within the Party. His takedown of former Party security chief Zhou Yongkong proved to both the Party and the world that no CCP official is safe. Certain officials who had made their names and achieved their wealth through China’s impressive economic development—and accompanying off-the-books financial benefits—are now suffering mightily under an anti-corruption campaign that has lasted far longer than most anticipated. The President’s ideological movement, too, is creating enemies within the Party, from certain factions who would prefer that Beijing focus on economic restructuring instead of the resurrection of Maoist political thought. Xi’s recent efforts to further promote his brand through increasingly cozy relations with the national media hint that the administration wants to make its agenda as public as possible in order to outmatch—and even circumvent—various Party naysayers.

Resistance toward Xi Administration power reconsolidation efforts, however, has not been limited merely to dissatisfied cadres within the Party. These increasingly hard-lined CCP campaigns and policies have also steadily garnered growing resentment from the international community. Diplomatic concern about China’s political direction has not been this high since Beijing’s appalling response to the famous 1989 Tiananmen protests. The United States, European Union, Canada, and Japan—among other influential Western countries—have coalesced in recent months to express a collective disdain for many of Xi’s aggressive policies on both internal and external issues.

These countries are resorting to united advocacy toward China, expressing that the country is taking a wrong turn as it explores the next stage of its political, economic, and social identity. This coalition has been formed in an effort to demonstrate how seriously the West views this political and ideological shift in China. Until establishing this unified voice, there had been growing frustration that China was ignoring individually raised concerns from many of the world’s most powerful countries. Time will tell how China responds to expanding diplomatic resentment—and if its internal agenda continues to put a strain on its external relations.

Regardless of both the influences and outcomes of this unexpected trend in China, Xi appears committed to cementing his growing authority. He will continue to promote his carefully crafted ideology-infused agenda to persuade an apprehensive Chinese people that his approach to reform holds great promise. In this generation of Chinese politics, merely consolidating power within the Party is no longer enough—that era has come and gone from history. Demonstrating an ability to use this power to achieve progress and prosperity for the people is now the standard. To this end, now comes the important test of whether this charismatic ideological leader can convert his influence into a successful future for China amidst slowing economic growth and accompanying social dissatisfaction.

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