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Healing The Emptiness Inside You

There’s a saying about bowls. It comes from an ancient text, but maybe it’s just as applicable today (bowls haven’t changed much in that time…).

It’s about the fact that the absence of bowl is just as important as its presence. That the emptiness inside it is crucial to its nature. The emptiness makes it possible – is its essence, in a way:

“Mould clay into a bowl.

The empty space makes it useful…”

Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching

Perhaps there’s something to learn here…

So often, when there’s emptiness around, especially when it’s an emptiness of the heart, it’s tempting to try to fill it.

To stuff it with comfort food.
Or fill it with distractions.
Or cover it over with the boards of boredom and looking-the-other-way.

Harder just to sit with it and let it simply inhabit you for a while, perhaps…

But if you automatically cram the emptiness full and evade the anxiety that it can bring, do you also bury the lessons that it can teach?

Perhaps, a little like the bowl, emptiness is sometimes part of our essence?
Perhaps it’s important to be ‘blank’ for a while? Resting, before you move into the next phase of your life.

Which reminds me of another expression that I’ve heard wandering some artistic circles: “the creative void.”

A blank space between projects, the creative void can seem like a vortex of nothing at all, at first. It can look like writer’s block. Or the drying up of artistic impulse. Or an absence of anything ‘good’. It can be unnerving and even frightening.

But from it, eventually, new and rich creativity can spring. If it’s allowed to just be empty and do its mysterious work for a while…

So how does it feel when emptiness comes to visit you?

Do you find yourself reaching for something – anything – to fill it as soon as possible?

What might it be like just to sit with it for a moment?
(And how long might you choose that moment to be?)

What lessons or messages or possibilities might the emptiness have for you?

And if you listen to it closely, what advice might it have on how to heal?

(And is the emptiness, itself, sometimes a crucial part of that healing process?)

Photo: Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar
Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar (Grad Dip Counselling & Psychotherapy) is a writer, blogger and Sydney psychotherapist in private practice at One Life Counselling & Psychotherapy. Gabrielle also facilitates telephone support groups for people who are living with cancer, for their carers, and for people who have been bereaved through a cancer experience. She was the former editor of a journal on counselling and psychotherapy and she provides regular therapeutic updates on facebook and Twitter @OneLifeTherapy.
Healing The Emptiness Inside You

APA Reference
Gawne-Kelnar, G. (2011). Healing The Emptiness Inside You. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 18, 2019, from

Last updated: 23 Jul 2011
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 23 Jul 2011
Published on All rights reserved.


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Dear Parents,

You may have recently received our letter about the school laptop program for students in Year 9 to year 13.

Students will be required to bring a laptop device to school every day for use in the classroom. This scheme will provide our students with instant access to a huge range of online information, tools and resources accessible across all subject areas. In the 21st Century, the need to be digitally literate and competent in the use of technology in all areas is of paramount importance. We believe that this scheme will help to ensure our students have the confidence, knowledge and digital skills to thrive in higher education establishments and the future workplace.

Students coming to the end of Key Stage 3 and preparing for externally examined courses at Key Stage 4 are increasingly expected to produce documents, reports and presentations to a high professional standard. To this end students need to use software tools to enhance clarity, purpose and effectiveness. Such skills are highly valued by universities and employers. Regular access to laptop devices across all curriculum areas will allow students to develop and refine these skills on a regular basis, allowing us to replicate workflows and best practice from modern industry.

We hope that this website will address any questions that you might have about the laptop scheme and how the school intends to support you and your family through the process of purchasing and managing your computer.

If you do have any further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch using the website’s “Contact” form.

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Southern Baptist Bible Translation as Resistance: An Example in the Bible Belt

October 15, 2012

When it comes to our histories of the Septuagint, we have legends and speculation.  Not infrequently here at this blog, I’ve imagined and postulated with others that this is Jewish Bible Translation as Resistance, and I’ve tried to give an example or two in the Diaspora.  The Greek translation of the Hebrew contains at times what expert Albert Pietersma calls literary sparks and translational spins.  I’ve tried to show my readings of what these might be.  Above all, they seem personal, political, rendering of common language among the highly educated and the highly holy to subvert the dominance of the powerful over the other.

When it comes to our histories of the New Testament translation of a certain Southern Baptist, then we have amnesia.  It’s only been 100 years since the births of Florence Kroeger and Clarence Jordan.  It’s been fewer than four score years since they met at Southern Seminary and married there, and it seems that current president of the school, Albert Mohler, would just as soon they have never been; the prolific blogger ( and public speaker has not remembered them.  Nonetheless, four hundred people or so, including President Jimmy Carter, did honor the Jordans this summer.  “Life has been transformed — secular life and Christian life — because he lived,” said Carter of Clarence Jordan, and it is reported that the one keeps the New Testament translation of the other on his desk.

The translation by Dr. Jordan, a Southern Baptist, Southern Seminary Ph.D. in New Testament Greek, was personal.  It was political.  It was the 1930s.  It was the Bible Belt, where whites and blacks were segregated, in church, by church goers.  It was a coming alongside the efforts of American Baptists Martin England and Mabel Orr England and, later, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  It was an effort to change.

So here’s a snippet from the gospel of Luke, his retelling in Greek of that story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus presumably told in Hebrew Aramaic.  Here’s the Southern American pre-Civil Rights era English, the conclusion of the parable:

“Now if you had been the man held up by the gangsters, which of these three—the white preacher, the white song leader, or the black man—would you consider to have been your neighbor?”

The teacher of the adult Bible class said, “Why, of course, the nig—I mean, er … well, er … the one who treated me kindly.”

Jesus said, “Well, then, you get going and start living like that!”

And here’s a bit of Dr. Jordan’s own story, his practice, which seems to have some intersected with that bit of translation above.  Sara M. Owens remembers:

In 1946 Clarence led a week of Study and Renewal at the Woman’s College in Greensboro North Carolina where I was BSU Secretary. The students, as always, were mesmerized -he was so clear and honest. I shall always remember a story he told out of his experience with peaceful non-violence. There was a large group of young black men who were justifiably angry because some white man had raped one of their sisters. They were on their way to “kill some white man”. Clarence asked if they knew who was guilty. They said “No, we are just going to kill somebody” Clarence said, “I understand how you feel and if any white man will do, here is one.” Whereupon he knelt before them with his head bent to receive their blow. Of course their anger came under control. Some of the students asked “But what if they had hurt you?” Clarence: “But they didn’t”.

And here’s a little note of the translation philosophy, the political personal practiced philosophy, of this New Testament Greek translator:

I readily admit, then, that my attempts to find present-day equivalents to many New Testament expressions and concepts are often strained, crude, and even inaccurate.  For example, there just isn’t any word in our vocabulary which adequately translates the Greek word for “crucifixion.”  Our crosses are so shined, so polished, so respectable that to be impaled on one of them would seem to be a blessed experience.  We have thus emptied the term “crucifixion” of its original content of terrific emotion, of violence, of indignity and stigma, of defeat.  I have translated it as “lynching,” well aware that this is not technically correct….

Likewise, there is no adequate equivalent of “Jew and Gentile.”  My translation as “white man and Negro” is clear evidence of super-imposing my own personal feelings, which is the unpardonable sin of a self-respecting translator.  But in the Southern context, is there any other alternative [for me]?

Read more here of the history of the Jordans, the translation, their integrated farm in segregated America.  And hear Jordan read from his translation here.

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Home Dominion Power VA Tech Professor Who Heroically Locked Herself to Pipeline Construction Equipment Says...

VA Tech Professor Who Heroically Locked Herself to Pipeline Construction Equipment Says It’s “Insane” to Build Fracked-Gas Pipelines; Urges Northam, Legislators to View Damage Firsthand, Get Accurate Information

"Southwest Virginia does not want the  pipeline. No one wants the pipeline"; It is "insane" to build it.

See below for an interview with Emily Satterwhite, the Virginia Tech professor (key area of expertise: Appalachian studies), who locked herself to construction equipment near Blacksburg on Thursday as a protest against fracked-gas pipeline construction. This interview, by David Pratt of Thunderdome Politics, was conducted at last weekend’s Women’s Summit. As Pratt writes:

“I had no idea that in just a few days she would demonstrate her absolute fierce determination to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline by chaining herself to one of the construction backhoes ripping through Virginia’s mountains. She stopped construction for 14 hours, and today DEQ stopped the MVP construction temporarily due to mudslides and other massive construction failures.”

Also see below the audio for a partial transcript from the interview (bolding added by me for emphasis). Note to everyone who claims they simply “haven’t had time” to learn about this issue: the interview with Emily Satterwhite hits all the main points and is only about 16 minutes long (a lot less if you listen on YouTube and speed it up to 1.5x, which I often do). So no excuses; as Lauren Ober of “The Big Listen” likes to say, “have a listen!” And learn why so many of us are so vehemently opposed to these pipelines.

David Pratt: So tell us about that  organization; what does it do?

Emily Satterwhite: The organization is really just a name, a banner for those of us who are fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline, especially in the Jefferson National  Forest, but throughout West Virginia and Virginia. We’re working together to stand up and say the pipeline is unnecessary, it’s unneeded, it’s dangerous to our water. So it’s a loosely organized group of water protectors.

David Pratt: It’s a tough battle right now because we don’t have the governor’s support.

Emily Satterwhite: It’s really disappointing to not have the governor’s support. I’m afraid that he doesn’t understand  how much Democratic enthusiasm he’s losing on the part of potential Democratic voters by not standing up for clean water in Virginia and for the health of our children and our future. He’s a doctor and he understands how toxic the chemicals are involved in fracking…and basically laying bombs in our backyard is really concerning. I’m very disappointed, I’m sorry I voted for him. And I’m afraid that if our Democrats don’t come out strong to tell him we’re losing the next generation of Democratic  voters, then we’re going to lose the next generation voters of Democratic voters…Because the young people see it seems to be only about Dominion’s money and cozying up to corporations rather than protecting us.

David Pratt: …If the governor’s getting his news through aides, they’re misinforming him.

Emily Satterwhite: When he was on the campaign trail, he said he was going to come and talk with us, have focus groups and do stream-by-stream and he has not followed through on those campaign pledges. And you’re absolutely right; a lot of our Democratic senators and delegates are getting information about the pipeline from the wrong sources right now and they not coming to talk to us and see the damage...

David Pratt: …the lobbyists get that access and the grassroots can demand it by going there and trying to get in, but it’s very hard to get a meeting with the governor…I  would ask Dr. Northam to check his moral compass, make some time on his calendar to meet with you. Would you be willing to  meet with him?

Emily Satterwhite: I would absolutely be willing to meet him. I think he needs to go to Union Hill and talk to  people in Buckingham County about the environmental racism that his own Environmental Justice Advisory Committee told him this is a racist pipeline…choosing to place compressor stations in a freedman’s legacy town…He’s not been there yet. And when he came to Virginia Tech to speak  at our graduation, he did not come and see those of us that were directly affected by the pipeline and did not address the pipeline and did not talk to anyone about our concerns about our water.

David Pratt: And and there’s a coalition around Union Hill…and I don’t think they have had access either, so let’s encourage that access.

Emily Satterwhite: Absolutely. And now that MVP  has announced the Southgate extension from Franklin County through Pittsylvania County and into Western  North Carolina, again the environmental  justice issues are even more glaring. Obviously, the pipeline route they chose was to pick off people who are elderly or poor or unable to fight. In all the  counties, but especially when you get into more heavily African-American counties in the southern part of that route

David Pratt: It’s also the idea of  corporate eminent domain…and even Republicans, people on the right, don’t like you taking the land that’s been in their family for generations…

Emily Satterwhite: For no public necessity, no public need. They should not be allowed to use eminent domain unless there’s public need. And there’s been no established public need. FERC bought hook line and sinker the line from MVP that…because Roanoke Gas is gonna buy a little bit of the gas. But again, as far as I know, Roanoke Gas Company is the only Virginia destination for any of this fuel from the Mountain Valley Pipeline. It’s all destined for  New York City and for export to India, possibly China….Eminent domain should not be used to take  people’s property for corporate profit and that’s what the governor is allowing  to happen.

David Pratt: And it smells of the  deal made by the last governor.

Emily Satterwhite: It does. It’s very sad to know that we came to find out after McAuliffe left office that he had written off all liability, anything that needs to be fixed from the mess that this pipeline is making for maybe just a few million dollars. And Roanoke City alone is gonna have to spend $36 million to deal with the sediment load that’s coming in from the construction of this pipeline. So that’s four times as much as Gov. McAuliffe agreed to, to fix the whole state after pipeline construction.

David Pratt: …there’s a Chinese company wanting to build  an enormous petrochemical hub in West Virginia…

Emily Satterwhite: Absolutely. If people think that MVP and ACP are the last ones, they are sadly mistaken. We’re setting a precedent. If we don’t fight to stop these two pipelines, how many more people gonna have to deal with…So you might not think this affects you, it’s not in your backyard…but no one is safe from this eminent domain if we allow  them to get away with this. Anybody’s land is vulnerable to this kind of corporate land grab…

I don’t know how many  people saw the footage of the latest pipeline explosion; there have been eight in Marshall County. But that pipeline has been supposedly best-in-class Transco  pipeline that only went into service six months ago. But the thing that really struck me is looking at that pipeline route, supposedly we’re not going to know it’s there after it’s in the ground. But this was six months out, and when you look at that drone footage, you can see that that is still an incredibly ugly scar with no sediment and erosion control, and that there’s no way that Marshall County’s water quality is not affected by that in West Virginia.  And that’s what we’re gonna see in Giles County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Virginia and Roanoke County, Virginia and Franklin County, Virginia.  We’re already seeing it. And the level of malfeasance of the contractors guarantees that any promises that they’ve made about, oh you won’t know this is even here, are just absolutely absolutely false.

And  that’s one reason that Dominion and Precision Pipeline are in this lawsuit over the fact that Precision Pipeline had built a 55-mile stretch of  pipeline, had 50 mudslides. Then they said Dominion you didn’t pay us enough. And Dominion says well you had the mudslides. And precision says, well then you didn’t tell us how tought the terrain was. And that was flat terrain. We’re talking about mountainous terrain, with caves…seismic zones…If Precision and Dominion can’t build 55 miles of pipe in a flat terrain, how are they going to safely build 303 miles in our Appalachian Mountains. It’s not possible. The hubris of it is just incredible.

David Pratt: Well, the corporations have  been raping West Virginia for hundreds of  years…our environment is really under assault…I feel like not everyone is aware of it, it’s almost out-of-sight, out-of-mind, it’s taking place hundreds of miles away. You live in Loudoun County, it’s beautiful, sunny, suburban, trees and parks…

Emily Satterwhite: What does it have to do with me? It becomes a sacrifice zone.  Appalachia has become a sacrifice zone; first coal and now it’s fracking and natural gas transmission.

David Pratt: …What can [we] do to reach the  awareness of the average person across  the state?

Emily Satterwhite: I think that one one thing  that we really need to understand is that lobbyists are trying to convince our delegates and senators that Southwest Virginia wants and needs this pipeline for economic development and jobs – and that’s a bald-faced lie.  Southwest Virginia does not want the  pipeline. No one wants the pipeline…I’ve never seen so much unity on any battle I’ve ever been involved in. No one wants the pipeline. So why don’t we want it? We don’t want it because there’s no economic benefit for us: 34 permanent jobs total – that’s it…It’s a falsehood [to say there are a lot of jobs from these pipelines]. About 90 percent of the jobs are, all the license plates we see down there are Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, some  Kentucky, Arkansas…so the the jobs are temporary jobs and they’re out-of-state jobs. And they’re only 34 permanent jobs.

We can do better. If we can invest in renewable energy and if we can invest in energy efficiency initiatives, we can have long-term permanent jobs that are closer to home that people won’t be dragging their families all the way across the country from pipeline job to pipeline job.

David Pratt: And if people care about climate change; people get confused that natural gas is cleaner.  But it’s burned and carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere.

Emily Satterwhite: And it leaks; the methane leaks from natural gas are far more potent than carbon dioxide. So we did think briefly that natural gas could be a bridge fuel and we thought that it might be a better choice than coal. And the more we learned,  the more we discovered that fracked gas is a step backwards, not a step forwards. Not just because of the methane and the leaks in the transmission, but the fracking process itself is toxic…the fracking process is poisoning livestock and it’s poisoning Americans.

David Pratt: Right. And when you build infrastructure like this, it’s gonna last 30 to 40  years, you almost feel there’s pressure to use it and to not abandon it, and to stick with fossil fuels for a long time…It seems almost insane to be investing in horses and buggies when we’ve got solar panels.

Emily Satterwhite: Exactly, it is insane...There are already more pipelines than gas.  I mean we don’t need the pipeline’s; existing pipelines are running at like 50% capacity. The only reason these pipelines are being built is because investors are guaranteed a 14 percent rate of return – and because Dominion wants one. Those are the only reasons. These pipelines do not help any Virginians in terms of economic benefit, in terms of health, in terms of providing energy…We do not need and will not, even if we did need it, the energy produced by the fracked gas slated to go through these pipelines.

David Pratt: We have to keep in mind how politics and money works. Dominion Energy doesn’t necessarily make as much money through solar panels…so that they don’t have the incentive to push renewables, because it makes less money for them. Then they have billions of dollars to spend in the political process right to mislead our representatives…a lot of them are good folks…[need to] get the money out of our politics.

Emily Satterwhite: Get the money out of the politics, and as you’re saying, make sure our elected representatives are well informed, not misinformed because of the influence of money.

David Pratt: I can see coming out of this conversation that we’ve got to work on access. We cannot be, like some of these good women here, on the curb with signs and doing die-ins to get the  attention of our representatives. They need to invite them in for coffee in  their office and then it lessens the need to be on the street.

Emily Satterwhite: I would love to see our candidates and elected representatives come down and let us show them what kind of job Mountain Valley Pipeline contractors are doing, the way they’re destroying Virginia...And if anyone wants to come out, Appalachian Pipelines can help them take a tour of the counties and see the destruction that’s happening. And then they can lean on their their delegates and Senators themselves, that they have seen it firsthand, it’s not right. Back to your moral compass point; this is an injustice that Virginians are allowing to happen to Virginians.


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  • Software
  • Open Access

Multiple sequence alignments of partially coding nucleic acid sequences

  • 1,
  • 2Email author,
  • 3 and
  • 3, 1, 2, 4
BMC Bioinformatics20056:160

  • Received: 03 February 2005
  • Accepted: 28 June 2005
  • Published:

High quality sequence alignments of RNA and DNA sequences are an important prerequisite for the comparative analysis of genomic sequence data. Nucleic acid sequences, however, exhibit a much larger sequence heterogeneity compared to their encoded protein sequences due to the redundancy of the genetic code. It is desirable, therefore, to make use of the amino acid sequence when aligning coding nucleic acid sequences. In many cases, however, only a part of the sequence of interest is translated. On the other hand, overlapping reading frames may encode multiple alternative proteins, possibly with intermittent non-coding parts. Examples are, in particular, RNA virus genomes.

The standard scoring scheme for nucleic acid alignments can be extended to incorporate simultaneously information on translation products in one or more reading frames. Here we present a multiple alignment tool, codaln, that implements a combined nucleic acid plus amino acid scoring model for pairwise and progressive multiple alignments that allows arbitrary weighting for almost all scoring parameters. Resource requirements of codaln are comparable with those of standard tools such as ClustalW.

We demonstrate the applicability of codaln to various biologically relevant types of sequences (bacteriophage Levivirus and Vertebrate Hox clusters) and show that the combination of nucleic acid and amino acid sequence information leads to improved alignments. These, in turn, increase the performance of analysis tools that depend strictly on good input alignments such as methods for detecting conserved RNA secondary structure elements.

  • Secondary Structure Element
  • Nucleic Acid Sequence
  • Nucleic Acid Level
  • Overlap Reading Frame
  • Codon Table

Multiple sequence alignments are a crucial prerequisite for a diverse set of methods ranging from the reconstruction of phylogenies and the quantification of adaptive evolution, to the detection of conserved RNA secondary structures and protein motifs. In this contribution we present a novel alignment tool that has been developed primarily with the aim of improving multiple alignments of viral genomes. The genomes of RNA viruses often carry conserved RNA structures that perform vital functions during the life cycle of the virus. In many cases only a small part of the viral genome is functionally relevant at the level of RNA. Algorithms for the systematic search of conserved secondary structure patterns in large RNA, such as QRNA [1], alidot [24], RNAz [5], and RNAdecoder [6] are based on the observation that a small number of point mutations is very likely to cause large changes in the secondary structures [7]. Secondary structure elements that are consistently present in a group of sequences with less than, say, 95% average pairwise identity are therefore most likely the result of stabilizing selection, not a consequence of the high degree of sequence conservation.

A comprehensive analysis of the genomic secondary structure features using alidot is available for Picornaviridae [8], Flaviviridae [9], and Hepadnaviridae [10, 11]. A preliminary survey across a large subset of the available sequence data was presented very recently [12].

The comparative approach to detect conserved RNA structures is obviously dependent upon high-quality multiple alignments: even a relative small number of alignment errors, which act like randomly placed mutations, will obscure the signals from consistent and compensatory point mutations and, hence, decrease the sensitivity of the RNA detection algorithms. While we eventually need an alignment of the genomic nucleic acid sequence, we observe that an overwhelming part of a viral genome codes for one or more proteins in one or more (overlapping) frames.

In contrast to the protein sequences, which are often easily alignable, the sequence similarities are drastically reduced on the nucleic acid level due to the redundancies of the genetic code, see Fig. 1. It is desirable, therefore, to utilize the amino acid sequence when aligning coding nucleic acid sequences with higher sequence divergence. This is sometimes done by aligning protein sequences and subsequently back-translating to nucleic acids. In many cases, however, only a part of the sequence of interest is translated in vivo. In addition, there may be alternative proteins encoded in overlapping reading frames within the same nucleic acid sequences. Such overlapping reading frames are best known from viruses, including Hepatitis B [13, 14], Influenza [15], and Umbraviruses [16]. Recently, however, examples have been found in prokaryotic [17, 18] and even in eukaryotic genomes [19, 20].
Figure 1
Figure 1

Example for the higher sequence heterogeneity on the level of nucleic acids. A hypothetical amino acid alignment on top represents a high degree of similarity. See the same sequences below on the level of nucleic acids with very low sequence similarity. The pairwise identity is only 33%, just slightly above the 25% identity expected for two random nucleic acid sequences.

In this contribution we describe a progressive alignment tool that implements an extended scoring scheme to incorporate simultaneously information on translation products in one or more ([partly] overlapping) reading frames which allows the user to combine all information from both the nucleic acid and amino acid sequences (if any). It makes explicit use of information about overlapping open reading frames, as they occur in many functional sequences, and allows arbitrary weighting for almost all scoring parameters, in order to gain more reliable scoring at certain regions of the nucleic acid sequences where additional amino acid scoring of underlying protein sequence can be utilized.

The codaln program implements Gotoh's algorithm for pairwise sequence alignments with affine gap cost functions [21]. The only change compared to this standard recursive algorithm for nucleic acid sequence alignment concerns the (mis)match score σ(x i , y j ) of position i from sequence x with position j from sequence y. Instead of taking into account only the nucleic acid letters, each position is considered as a vector containing the nucleic acid letter and the amino acid that would arise from translation in each of the three possible reading frames provided the frame in question is actually translated. Thus, we have

σ(x i , y j ) = β0σ n (x i , y j ) +

β1σ p (π[x i xi+1xi+2], π[y j yj+1yj+2]) +

β2σ p (π[xi-1x i xi+1], π[yj-1y j yj+1]) +     (1)

β3σ p (π[xi-2xi-1x i ], π[yj-2yj-1y j ])

where π[uvw] denotes the amino acid corresponding to the codon uvw. Here β k = 1, k = 1, 2, 3, if both x and y are translated in the k-th reading frame, while β k = 0 if the k-th reading frame is not actually translated in either x or y (or if one chooses to ignore a particular reading frame). β0 is the relative weight of the the nucleic acid match score, usually 1. In non-coding (untranslated) regions we therefore retain only the nucleic acid score. Fig. 2 gives an example. Further, it is possible that one gives different weights for alternative reading frames, maybe dependent upon parameters such as preferred codon usage. Default is no preference.
Figure 2
Figure 2

Application of the scoring model to a hypothetical alignment. Note that there are no amino acid contributions in the right hand part of the example because of the single indel that causes a frameshift. For illustration we show BLOSUM62 scores and simple scores for nucleic acids and gaps rather than the rescaled default values (His/Gln has score 0).

The score model is much simpler than the one proposed by Hein [22, 23] and implemented in combat [24] and CAT [25]. In contrast to these approaches, which enforce gap lengths that are multiples of three in order to maintain the reading frame, codaln does not use special gap penalties at all. Instead, it relies on the match scores from the coding regions to guide the alignment back into the correct reading frame after a frameshift insertion or deletion. This results in an algorithm that is both faster and able to handle overlapping reading frames.

In its current implementation codaln can deal with 18 different codon tables, including the standard genetic code (default), various non-canonical tables for certain groups of organisms, and 11 distinct codon tables for mitochondrial genomes.

The codon tables link the nucleic acid triplets with their encoded amino acids. They are used both for an automatic search for start and stop codons and for translation in the scoring function; see Tab. 1.
Table 1

18 codon tables can be utilized by the program for linking the nucleic acid triplets with their corresponding amino acids.

organism featuring this codon table

universal genetic code (default)

Candida cylindrica

Tetrahymena, Paramecium, Oxytrichia, Stylonychia, Glaucoma

Micrococcus luteus

Mycoplasma, Spiroplasma

canonical mitochondrial code

Vertebrates – mitochondrial code

Arthropods – mitochondrial code

Echinoderms – mitochondrial code

Molluscs – mitochondrial code

Ascidians – mitochondrial code

Nematodes – mitochondrial code

Plathelminths – mitochondrial code

Yeasts – mitochondrial code

Euascomycetes – mitochondrial code

Protozoans – mitochondrial code

The program furthermore provides a flexible scheme for modifying the scoring model. Both amino acid and nucleic acid scores can be either taken from built-in defaults or read in from parameter files. A number of scaling factors can be specified in order to determine the relative weights of nucleic acids and/or amino acids in all the different reading frames. Tab. 2 summarizes the most important defaults. The program reads sequences in Pearson's (FASTA) format, GenBank file format, ViennaRNA format as well as completely unformatted sequences in any combination.
Table 2

Default scoring parameters (can be arbitrarily weighted or changed by user defined settings).

default value

protein scores

BLOSUM62 ×50

nucleic acid scores

identity 1000, else 300

gap open penalty

gap extension penalty

Remark. The effect of the positive default score for nucleic acid mismatches is to reduce the influence of nucleic acid mismatches relative to the amino acid and gap scores.

The program uses the information about translated regions, if contained in the input file. Alternatively, codaln attempts to detect all theoretically possible open reading frames which have a user-defined minimal length. Exons and fragmented coding regions are joined, translated, and the resulting amino acid sequences are then used for the scoring function in addition to the nucleic acid sequences. The program can optionally regard a sequence as circular so that a coding region can wrap around the ends of the sequence and is still scored correctly. An intermediate output reports the structure of annotated and inferred exons and open reading frames both in a text and in PostScript format, Fig. 3. At this stage, the user can stop the process, edit the annotation file, and restart the alignment procedure with the modified annotations. The coding regions that are used for scoring can be automatically defined, user defined, modified, or eliminated. Before restarting the alignment process, codaln again provides a text and PostScript output summarizing the modified annotation. If necessary, this process can be repeated. Multiple alignments are built from the pairwise alignments using the same progressive scheme that is used e.g. by ClustalW [26]: A guide tree is inferred from the pairwise distances and determines the order in which profiles are constructed from alignments of two sequences, a sequence and a profile, or two profiles.
Figure 3
Figure 3

Reports on the annotated and inferred structure of the input sequences are automatically generated by codaln, respecting all user intervention.

The profile alignments respect the full model of both nucleic acid and amino acid (mis)match scores. In the present implementation, the sequences within a profile are unweighted; it would be straightforward, however, to include a weighting scheme that takes the relative distances of the sequences into account to reduce the weight of very similar sequences, as implemented e.g. in ClustalW.

More plausible alignments

Not surprisingly, we observe that codaln multiple alignments of coding DNA sequences have a much larger fraction of gaps with a length divisible by three than ClustalW multiple alignments. This is the desired effect of including amino acid-based scoring contributions since it reduces biologically implausible frameshifts. In itself, this is of course not a direct evidence for real improvements of multiple nucleic acid sequence alignments, but it is a good indication that, in coding regions, codaln preferentially makes insertions and deletions at the protein level.

Unfortunately, good hand-curated multiple alignments of partially coding sequences do not seem to be available, so that a systematic quantitative analysis (using, e.g., the BAliBASE tools [27]) could not be performed. Pairwise alignments of coding DNA sequences are barely distinguishable from those obtained with combat [24] provided the amino acid contributions dominate codaln's scoring function. We therefore concentrate on a qualitative assessment of codaln alignments in particular application contexts.

Hox genes and their genomic neighborhood

Hox genes were first described in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. They code for homeodomain containing transcription factors [28] and are characterized by a 60 amino-acid helix-turn-helix DNA binding homeodomain. This domain is highly conserved on the level of protein, but can be quite variable at the DNA level.

Vertebrates, in contrast to all invertebrates examined, have multiple Hox gene clusters that have arisen from a single ancestral cluster in the most recent common ancestor of chordates [29, 30]. This ancient cluster in turn evolved through tandem gene duplications from a more ancient hypothetical protohox cluster [31].

We applied both ClustalW and codaln to the genomic sequences at the Hox4 locus. Exon 2 of Hox4, which contains the homeobox, is highly conserved also on the level of nucleic acid, while exon 1 has a well-conserved amino acid sequence but exhibits high variability at the nucleic acid level. The non-coding sequence in the intron and the flanking sequences are highly variable. Thus, this example is a hard test case for our approach. Fig. 4 summarizes the gap lengths in the Hox4 alignments. A comparison of the number of gaps with a length divisible by 3 with the other gaps of other lengths is a useful indicator whether coding regions are reasonably aligned: Base triplets preferentially should not be disrupted as amino acids within a protein sequence cannot be disrupted. In this example, codaln produces 436 gaps with a length divisible by 3 (ClustalW: 330) and 797 others (ClustalW: 1113). While codaln produces a significantly higher fraction of gaps that are a multiple of 3 and correctly aligns the coding sequences in both exons, ClustalW only treats exon 2 correctly, which is highly conserved on the level of nucleic acids. The nucleic acid alignment for the more variable exon 1, in contrast, is much more divergent.
Figure 4
Figure 4

Relative distribution of gaps in an alignment of genomic Hox4 sequences. The alignment is essentially gap-less in exon 2. ClustalW (above) returns a very poor alignment of exon 1 in which gaps occur with a broad distribution. In contrast, codaln respects the coding region so that almost all gap lengths in this area are divisible by 3.

Conserved RNA secondary structures in Levivirus genomes

Virus genomes serve as an ideal test case for a procedure that makes explicit usage of information about (overlapping) coding regions to improve the resulting alignments. Improved alignments, as we shall see, increase the sensitivity of the detection of secondary structure elements.

The members of the genus Levivirus infect eubacteria (Procarya). All members of the family Leviviridae (Levivirus and Allolevivirus) are ssRNA positive-strand viruses. The replication cycle includes no DNA stage. The virions are neither enveloped nor tailed with nucleocapsids that are isometric, 24–26 nm in diameter. The total genome length is 3466 up to 4276 nucleotides depending on type of strain. Most Levivirus species have four (partly) overlapping genes, while some exceptions exist which contain only three open reading frames [32, 33].

We have investigated 8 complete genomic sequences of the Levivirus genus: The Enterobacteria phages MS2, KU1, GA, and fr. Alignments of the genomic sequences were prepared using codaln and scanned for conserved RNA secondary structures using the alidot method [3]. The results are compared to earlier studies based on ClustalW alignments [10, 12].

The two different alignment processes produce results that seem to be similar at a first glance: The number of gaps and a visual interpretation of the quality of the alignment only does not already announce the significantly different results when further processing the alignments by alidot. Interestingly, the combination of codaln and alidot produces a weak signal at the basis of the Hogeweg mountain plot (see Fig. 5).
Figure 5
Figure 5

Hogeweg mountain plots of conserved RNA structures in Levivirus genomes. Above: ClustalW, below: codaln. Colors indicate the number of consistent mutations: red 1, ochre 2, green 3, turquoise 4, blue 5; Saturated colors indicate that there are only sequences that are compatible to the structure prediction. Decreasing saturation of the colors indicates 1 or 2 non-compatible sequences. The thickness of the slabs is proportional to the average frequency of the base pair in the thermodynamic equilibrium. For further details see [3].

Long range interactions, so called panhandle structures, are known to play a role e.g. in the replication of Bunyaviridae [34] and Flaviviridae [35]. It will be interesting to see if the long-range interactions can be experimentally verified in Leviviridae as well.

At the 5'-terminal end of the Levivirus sequences we furthermore detect a short GC-rich hairpin(tetraloop) adjacent to an unpaired GGG element, see Fig. 6. This feature is probably the analogon to the recognition signal site for the RNA replicase in Alloleviviruses. This stem-loop-structure is well known and defined in Qβ (Allolevivirus).
Figure 6
Figure 6

The 5'-terminal hairpin in Levivirus (left) is probably the analogon to the recognition signal site for the RNA replicase in Alloleviviruses which is well analyzed in Qβ (right). In Qβ the replicase amplifies RNA templates autocatalytically with high efficiency. This recognition element in Levivirus likely has a similar function.

The Qβ replicase amplifies RNA templates autocatalytically with high efficiency, and the recognition element, consisting of a hairpin and a short unpaired region at the 5'-terminus, is essential for recognition [36, 37].

Algorithms for the the automatic detection of biologically functional secondary structure elements, such as the ones used here, are dependent upon accurate alignments. Clearly, the quality of alignments can be enhanced by including additional biological information. In the case of codaln, we make use of the information on the coding properties of a nucleic acid sequence into the alignment process. We demonstrate this in the case of alignments of the Hox4 genomic region which consists of non-coding regions and two coding exons, one containing the highly conserved homeodomain, while the other exon is poorly conserved on nucleic acid level. As expected, the quality of the alignment in the coding region can be increased significantly.

Virus genomes can serve as an ideal test case for a procedure that makes explicit usage of information about various (overlapping) coding regions. Above we have seen that additional conserved secondary structure elements become detectable with the improved alignment. Leviviruses are, despite their short genome, a quite complex example. The sequences are at least in part highly divergent at the nucleic acid level, so that the information on the coding sequences in codaln significantly improves the quality of the alignment. Using codaln instead of a purely nucleotide-based alignment program, we found a putative recognition signal site, analog to the one for the RNA replicase in Alloleviviruses.

The codaln program was specifically developed for applications to genomic sequences of RNA viruses with their partially overlapping reading frames and untranslated regions. The Hox gene example shows, however, that codaln is also applicable to other partially coding sequence data. The recent discovery of ORFs that overlap with different reading directions [3840] suggest to extend codaln to such cases as well. Our framework makes such an extension straightforward.

Availability and requirements

C source code and documentation may be downloaded from or

Hox4 data sources

The Hox4 sequences are taken from GenBank for Homo sapiens (HsA join(AC004080.2rc+AC010990 [201-6508]rc+AC004079 [75001-end]rc) [125253 126761], HsB NT_010783 [5306154 5309021]rc, HsC NT_009563 [586220 584941]rc, HsD NT_037537 [4224691 4225996]), Mus musculus (MmA NT_039343 [3862302 3864022]rc, MmB AC011194 [114551 116043], MmC NT_028016 [137212 139414], MmD AC015584 [164151 165456]), and Morone saxatilis (MsA AF089743 [29109 30386]). For Danio rerio the sequences are retrieved both from the web server of the Danio rerio Sequencing Project [41] and GenBank (DrAa AC107365rc [61628 62827], DrBa AL645782.2 [33537 35809], DrCa ctg23.10700001-10870000 [75679 77005]rc, DrD ctg13407.19000-191000 [61789 63580]rc).

rc = reverse complement; sequence intervals are listed in brackets.

This work is supported by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Project Nos. P-13545-MAT and P-15893, and the German DFG Bioinformatics Initiative.

Authors’ Affiliations

Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics, University of Leipzig, Haertelstraße 16-18, D-04107 Leipzig, Germany
Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstraße 17, A-1090 Wien, Austria
Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Leipzig, Haertelstraße 16-18, D-04107 Leipzig, Germany
Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA

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© Stocsits et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2005

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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How To Make A Quad-fold Board

When designing games it often becomes helpful or necessary to have a quality prototype, which often includes a quad-fold board. There are easy ways to do it, like taping a few pieces of paper together. And there are more difficult ways to make them. I usually only make them when I would rather have it fold to fit in a box. Today I want to share my method for producing a decent quad-fold board for your game design purposes.

Here are the components I use when making a quad-fold board:

  • Matte board (I buy bulk scrap matte board at Hobby Lobby since it is so inexpensive)
  • Photo Paper (I use Kodak Glossy Photo Paper)
  • Glue Stick (Or adhesive of your choice)
  • Tape (I prefer masking tape)
  • Rotary Cutter (I use this one)

The methods in this article are based on the fact that I have a 12 inch rotary cutter that cannot cut through two pieces of matte board at the same time. If I could cut through two matte board pieces at a time then I would probably use a different method.

My assumption here is that you already have artwork you’ve created. If you have the artwork ready, then here are the steps I follow to make my quad fold boards…

Print the Artwork

When I work with larger sized images I usually print them from either MS Publisher or MS Powerpoint. Publisher will require you make a larger template, but that is pretty easy to do. When you print this way you will print on several sheets of paper.

Once they are printed I will cut off the white margins for all the interior edges that will join up together. You can see an example of the cut photo paper above in the image with the glue stick.

Glue the First Two Pieces

Depending on whether you want your board to fold with the artwork out (unusual) or inward (common) you will either have to do one or two of these procedures respectively.

As I mentioned earlier, you will do this once if you don’t care that your artwork folds outward. If you prefer your artwork to fold inward, then repeat this process with the other two pieces of your quad-fold board.

Before moving on I always like to check how smoothly the board folds. Here’s my example:

Completing your Board

With a set of two pieces taped together you are now set to complete your board. This step is pretty simple. With all four pieces laid out, flip them all over together. Make sure they go into the correct places when flipped. You don’t want to flip them where they are but rather flip them and swap them horizontally. Before I start I put a piece of tape in the corners that line up in the middle of the board. This helps me know that I have the pieces together the right way.

With them in the correct locations, all you need to do is apply two more pieces of tape as seen here:

Completed Quad-Fold Board!

And there you go! You now know how to make a quad-fold board for your game designs. Just keep in mind that if you would prefer the artwork to fold inward then do the “Glue the First Two Pieces” process twice. Then flip them and use only one piece of tape on one of the seams.

Here’s is my completed board for this article:

And here is the quad-fold board I made for a high quality prototype of Scoville using Joshua Cappel’s artwork:

Another Option

If you are not equipped with printing capabilities or if you would prefer to not do this on your own, then feel free to utilize The Game Crafter as they can create a quality quad-fold board for you. You just upload your artwork in the correct size and pay a little money and they’ll make your board and mail it to you.

They have the following options available:

Horizontal Rule

So how do you make your quad-fold boards? Do you use a different method? I’d love to hear if there is a better way (I’m sure there is).

Posted on August 12, 2016, in Game Design, Lessons Learned, Prototyping, The Boards and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.

  1. Another commercial option is Print & Play Games. They can make multi-piece boards in a head-swimming variety and virtually any size. I have used them for several years and am very satisfied with their work. I also source my boxes, cards, etc., with them, as they handle it all.

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Keto Sugar Cookies Featured Image
, , ,

Keto Sugar Cookies

Keto sugar cookies recipe provided by Tara Wright, Whole Body Living

Keto sugar cookies with only 1 g total carb per cookie! Merry Christmas to YOU!! Oh yeah…these melt-in-your-mouth keto sugar cookies will satisfy your Christmas sugar cookie cravings.

At least if my 6 year old nephew is any judge of sugar-cookie awesomeness. We were sitting around together playing a board game and my nephew (age 6) asked for a snack. I asked him if he wanted to try my new sugar cookies and he said, “Yeah, I’ll tell you if they are as good as mom’s.”

I chuckled a little and handed him a cookie. His eyebrows went up and he said “YUM”… chew…bite…chew…“These like…melt in your mouth.” Chomp, chomp, chomp.

“Can I have another?”

There’s not a better compliment!!

Keto Sugar Cookies

Start to Finish: 25 minutes

  • 1 cup coconut oil, softened (209g)
  • 1/2 cup BochaSweet
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 tablespoon beef gelatin
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups almond flour (224g)

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Prepare baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Cookies are soft and difficult to handle when they come out of the oven so you’ll want to use parchment paper so you can easily slide them off the sheet onto your counter/cooling racks. Soften your coconut oil so it mixes easily.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together softened coconut oil, and BochaSweet.
  4. Mix in vanilla extract, almond extract and beef gelatin. Mix in your egg.
  5. In a separate bowl, weigh out your almond flour. Then mix in salt and baking soda and stir to combine.
  6. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  7. Scoop with a cookie scoop onto your parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
  8. You can roll the sugar cookies in extra BochaSweet if you wish.
  9. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. NOTE: Cookies will seem not quite set up in the middle. The cookies will be quite fragile when they come out of the oven. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before using the parchment paper to transfer them to a cooling rack.

Serves: 32 cookies

  • Calories: 101
  • Total Fat: 10g
  • Saturated Fat: 6g
  • Cholesterol: 5mg
  • Sodium: 78mg
  • Total Carbs: 1g
  • Fiber: 0g
  • Sugar: 0g
  • Protein: 1g
  • Vitamin A: 0.1%
  • Calcium: 1.5%
  • Iron: 1.6%
  • Potassium: 1mg

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November 02, 2019 - November 09, 2019

Gratitude Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica 2019

Taught By: Marie Green & Dawn Ibis

Bodhi Tree is a world class yoga resort with lots to offer and is nestled in the jungle by Nosara, within walking distance to Playa Giones, known for its surfing and a perfect beach to enjoy your swim/walk/run between yoga classes and activities. Bodhi Tree Yoga Resort lays also within the healing energies of The Blue Zone , the presence of its healing properties are palatable on the Nicoya Peninsula.

We will offer you 2 daily yoga classes. The morning practice will be a vigorous asana practice interwoven with learnings about the main 7 chakras of the body, including mantras,mudras and meditation as well as journaling.

Restorative afternoon Yoga class with the assistance of yoga props, and will be the perfect way to wrap up your daily activity at the resort and to gently stretch and rejuvenate for the night.

The Yoga Retreat room pricing includes a 7 night stay with of twice daily yoga classes, lodging, meals, access to pool as well as beach, are included in the retreat price. Prices starting at $1222 for a shared lodge and goes to $2222 for  private suite.

  • Additional activities that can be booked at Bodhi Tree Yoga Resort, is as follow:
  • Immersion in Spanish for the week
  • Surfing lessons
  • Massage/Spa appointments
  • Pilates
  • Spinning

We look forward to spending an unforgettable Yoga vacation at Bodhi Tree Yoga Resort in Costa Rica with You.

For more info and booking visit:

Marie & Dawn


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Cover Reveal: FROSTBITE ( BearPaw Resort #3 ) by CAMBRIA HERBERT @cambriaherbert @XpressoReads

Cambria Hebert
(BearPaw Resort, #3)
Publication date: August 3rd 2018
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense, Thriller

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

What if we lose everything?

It was a question that had haunted me even after I spoke it aloud.

Turns out one loss—one profound loss—is enough to put everything else at stake.

What a house of cards life can be. How easily everything ices over.

We’ve survived an avalanche, made it through a blizzard, but now a chill has set in. A cold so deep it reaches beyond bone.

The end of the storm provided a new beginning, but we can’t start over while we’re still frozen in the past.

How can I face a man who’s lost so much because of me? How can he face me?

This powerful secret between us grows with every breath I take. Will it pull us closer or sever a bond I once thought unbreakable?

The threat to my life is gone. Yet I’m still terrified.

Cold has laid claim to Liam. Whenever we touch, the bite of frost nips at my heart.

His obsession for revenge grows, hurling him further from me and closer to the frostbite taking over.

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Previous books in the series:

Author Bio:

Cambria Hebert is an award winning, bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair.

Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house).

Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many paranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: The Hashtag Series, Text, Torch, and Tattoo.

Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

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Winding up the Week #50

An end of week recap

Winding Up the Week #11This will be the fiftieth and final time we wind up the week in 2018.

I can’t resist mentioning here that in The New Year’s Honours List, which recognises the achievements of a variety of extraordinary people, The Queen will award my favourite author, Margaret Atwood, the Order of the Companions of Honour “for services to literature”. Well done, Madge – it was long overdue!

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and wish you a peaceful, contented, book-filled 2019. Have a very Happy New Year!

Look out for my review of Philip Ardagh’s The Moomins: The World of Moominvalley, the ultimate guide to Tove Jansson’s magical land of the Moomins.

Next up is a short story collection I have been waiting to read for a long time: Public library and other stories by Ali Smith.

Coming soon is Intimate Ties, Robert Musil’s second book consisting of two novellas first released in 1911. It is due to be republished by Archipelago in March 2019.

* Looking Back at 2018 *

The past twelve months have been filled with dazzling debuts and dearly loved classics. I share with you my favourite reads and biggest literary disappointments of 2018. >> Read: 2018 Reading Year in Review >>

* Join the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-Along *

NICKS READALONGFollowing the success of his 2018 Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, Deacon Nick of One Catholic Life has announced he will be hosting another in 2019. He hopes to encourage participants “to read books they might not otherwise read because of their length or age” and has therefore selected four books with chapters adding-up to 365. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Lilith by George MacDonald and The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens are the chosen titles. You are invited to “participate as much or as little as you like”. Please check out Nick’s introductory post, which has probably been posted by now. For further details you should download a pdf of the entire year’s schedule at Nick’s Chapter a Day Reading Schedule 2019.

* Lit Crit Blogflash *

HOMEGOINGI’m going to share with you six of my favourite literary posts from around the blogosphere. There are so many talented writers posting high-quality book features and reviews, it was difficult to limit the list to only these few – all of them published over the last week or two:

234 Homegoing – The latest title in Veronica’s The Thousand Book Project is Yaa Gyasi’s 2016 historical novel, Homegoing. She found it to be “thoroughly researched, eloquently written [and] eminently readable”.

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay – Nirmala at Red Lips and Bibliomaniacs could feel herself “being drenched in Paris, breathing in its nauseating foul-smelling air”, in de Rosnay’s first new novel in four years.

2018 in bookish moments – Emma shares her “literary snapshots of 2018” at Book Around The Corner.

Dark Emu – Angharad at Tinted Edges thinks Bruce Pascoe’s 2014 non-fiction book is “an excellent and necessary addition to Australia’s literary scene”.

‘And the Wind Sees All’ by Guðmundur Andri Thorsson (Review) – Tony Malone from Tony’s Reading List has “a bit of a soft spot for literature from Iceland”, and although he’s “a little unsure” if the book should be classed as a novel, he declares it “an excellent work”.

The Shepard Touch: Drawn from Life – In her review of Drawn from Life, the second volume of memoirs by Ernest H. Shepard, Lory from The Emerald City describes it as offering “a priceless glimpse of an endlessly fascinating era”.

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting my favourite finds (or adding them to our Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, here are a handful of interesting snippets:

BBC News: Books 2019: Which top fiction picks will you choose? “Each new year brings a frisson of excitement among book lovers as they anticipate the happy hours ahead absorbed in a library’s worth of fresh reads”, writes Rebecca Thomas.

The Arts Society: A dog’s life – Emily Brontë’s furry friend – Emily Brontë had a rather large bull mastiff called Keeper.

Literary Hub: Notable Literary Deaths in 2018 – Emily Temple says, “a last goodbye to the authors, editors, and book people we lost this year”.

World Literature Today: World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2018 – Michelle Johnson lists 75 of the year’s most memorable English literary translations.

The Observer: The Observer Best books of 2018Observer critics pick their favourite reads of 2018.

Electric Literature: 8 Books About Women and Addiction That Are at Least as Good as Bukowski – Nikki Darling believes that addiction narratives about women “deserve a spot next to male gonzo antiheroes”.

The New Yorker: The Best Facts I Learned from Books in 2018 – Some of the most interesting facts Kathryn Schulz picked up from books this year.

JSTOR Daily: Is Fan Fiction a Helpful Literacy Tool? – Livia Gershon discovers that some teachers are “adapting to the internet age by trying to understand the ‘new literacies’ of today’s students.”

Lapham’s Quarterly: The Lady Is a Detective – Olivia Rutigliano traces a Victorian literary trend: detective novels – but with women.

Literary Ladies Guide: The Literary Magic of the Mary Poppins Books by P.L. Travers – “If Mary Poppins brings to mind Julie Andrews’ portrayal of her in the 1964 film, you’ll be surprised by how she’s depicted in the books”, writes Nava Atlas.

Words Without Borders: Another Country: Afro-Brazilian Writing – A selection of literature from Afro-Brazilian writers who explore questions of identity, inequality and resistance.

BBC News: The booming trade in second-hand books – “The rise of online has helped revive the second-hand book market, but what impact has it had on traditional, second-hand book shops?” asks Lucy Hooker.

If there is something you would particularly like to see on Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.

NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this expression, there’s an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.

Categories:Literature, Winding Up the Week

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22 replies

  1. Thanks for mentioning my billet.

    I don’t think you can read Le comte de Monte Cristo one chapter a day. It’s a page turner, you’ll never be able to stick to only one chapter when you start reading it.

    That said, I think it’s a great idea to tackle daunting book one chapter after the other.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Thanks for the link! I look forward to checking out the others that you included.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. The New Yorker piece about the best facts she learned in books this year is excellent!! Wish you a happy and healthy 2019 and a great start into the new year, Paula!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Thank you for the mention! I wish you many happy reading adventures in 2019. I’m not going to join the whole readalong, even though I would like to read all those books … but I may join in for some part.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Lovely round up Paula. I confess to being very tempted to join in with the Don Quixote chapter a day but fear I lack the discipline…

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I’m looking forward to your review of the Moominvalley book. Jansson is great 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  7. As always, some great links. Happy New Year! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Such a great reference source and wrap-up, Paula! Happy New Year!!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Thank you so much for the mention, Paula. And for sharing the BBC article on books coming out in 2019. I hadn’t heard about McEwan’s new book, and he is one of my favorites! 🙂 Wishing you a fabulous new year!

  10. Thank you so much for featuring my review! Loving the winding up the week, it’s such a great idea.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Great post to close 2018 with! : ) Happy 2019!

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The Borzoi College Reader

Front Cover
McGraw-Hill, Dec 1, 1991 - Fiction - 864 pages
1 Review
This highly regarded, thematic reader for freshman composition offers students an introduction to issues in the arts and sciences. It includes a good balance of classic and contemporary selections from mixed genres and provides a wide range of viewpoints and voices. The readings are supported by introductions to each theme and individual headnotes.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - AlexTheHunn - LibraryThing

This is a freshman level college anthology. Any anthology of course suffers from having to include too much, to having to exclude other items. This one seems quite workable. Read full review

On Writing
William Zinsser Simplicity
Robert Grudin Ideology and Moral Philology

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About the author (1991)

Charles Muscatine is Professor of English Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught for forty-three years.

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Thrifty Thursday: Call to Honor by Tawny Weber @tawnyweber @HarlequinBooks #ThriftyThursday

Posted November 23, 2017 by Anne in Book Review, Thrifty Thursday / 0 Comments

The purpose of Thrifty Thursday is to read a book which was free (at some point).

Kindle freebie on July 2, 2017  (currently $5.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble as of writing this post)

Overall rating 4.24 with 224 ratings and 101 reviews

Thrifty Thursday: Call to Honor by Tawny Weber  @tawnyweber @HarlequinBooks #ThriftyThursdayCall to Honor by Tawny Weber
Series: Team Poseidon #1
Published by HQN Books on January 31, 2017
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 448
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
AmazonBarnes & Noble
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

The Poseidon team are hard-bodied, fiercely competitive navy SEALs. But when a sensitive mission goes disastrously wrong, three of the team's finest will have to trust their hearts and instincts to uncover the truth

"No man left behind" is inscribed in the DNA of every SEAL and Lieutenant Diego Torres is no exception. But with a team member killedand the body missingDiego's honor is sorely tested. Now his career and reputation are on the line, and a traitor is hiding among them. Diego wants answersand only one woman has them.

Single mom Harper Maclean has two priorities raising her son Nathan and starting a new life. Her mysterious new neighbor may be impossibly charming, but Diego asks too many questions about her past and about the father of her child. Questions she fears will reveal her burning attraction for Diego, and ultimately put them all in danger's path.

I don’t always expect much of these freebies, Call to Honor is a really good one! Often the best for this feature are the first book in a series by a known to me author, which this is. Romantic suspense is a favorite genre for me, also.

The characters here were what I enjoy most – strong, realistic issues and lives, and honest with themselves. I loved their growth as people during the situations and as they dealth with their personal issues. I adored the child, Nathan; he added so much emotion to the story. The friends and coworkers of the main couple were also well developed, feeling like real people instead of quick, flat details. The dialog was great with sassy and smart bits.

The layers of the story made it especially fun. There was the military aspect, the mission, and the action of the team. There was the life of Harper and Nathan. The two layers get woven together and romance comes along for the ride. The characters have to deal with the situations and their feelings. My emotions went all over with fear, worry, lust, mischief, thinking and love.

The first in the Team Poseidon series has everything I need for an awesome read. It had the intellectual aspects in solving things and the crazy feels. I definitely want to continue with this series. There are 2 more books and 2 novellas already available. Highly recommended.

About Tawny Weber

New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling author of more than forty books, Tawny Weber loves writing about sexy heroes, most notably her popular Navy SEALs series. Her sassy, emotional romances are filled with men dedicated to being the best—and women determined to have the best. Tawny credits her ex-military alpha husband for inspiration in her writing, and in her life. The recipient of numerous writing accolades, including Romantic Times Reviewers Choice and in addition to the NY Times and USA Today bestseller lists, Tawny has also hit the number one spot on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A homeschooling mom, Tawny enjoys scrapbooking, gardening and spending time with her family and dogs in her Northern California home.

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I can't really remember any time when I wasn't reading. I LOVE books and what they give me. It's an opportunity to learn new things, see new places,live different emotions in a "safe" way. It lets me live in a new world.

I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • Anne: 2017 New Release Challenge

Posted November 23, 2017 by Anne in Book Review, Thrifty Thursday / 0 Comments

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Business » Corporate

Bleisure Travelers Are Hungry for Sunshine, Sightseeing and Cuisine

Wednesday May 16, 2018

New insights released today by Expedia Group Media Solutions reveal that domestic and international bleisure travel is booming, and business travelers are invested in making the most of their time away from home.

The findings, from a multi-national study commissioned by Expedia Group Media Solutions and conducted by Luth Research, spotlight the behaviors, influences, resources, and preferences of American, British, Chinese, German, and Indian bleisure travelers - or business travelers who extend their trip for leisure.

Unveiled today at Phocuswright Europe, Unpacking Bleisure Traveler Trends shows that on average, across the five countries, bleisure travelers take more than six business trips per year, and more than 60 percent of business trips during the last year were extended for leisure purposes. In the U.S., bleisure travel conversion is consistent with the multi-national average of 60 percent, revealing a nearly 40 percent increase in American bleisure travel since 20161.

On average, 72 percent of bleisure travelers said there are destinations they have visited or will visit in the future for business that they would like to extend for bleisure, but what makes a destination appealing for bleisure travel?

Fifty-six percent said they are more likely to consider a bleisure trip in a destination with great food and restaurants, closely followed by approximately 50 percent influenced by beaches, weather, nature, historical monuments or sightseeing. This further validates the importance of experiences and activities for all travelers, and illustrates an opportunity for marketers to attract bleisure travelers from around the world.

"The study provides a deeper look at the influences and motivations of the growing and valuable bleisure audience, and the actionable insights will empower marketers to strategically target and convert these travelers within the condensed research and booking window," said Andrew van der Feltz, Senior Director, EMEA & APAC for Expedia Group Media Solutions. "By showcasing unique experiences and activities, which are influential factors during the decision-making process, every destination, hotel, restaurant, attraction, airline, and more, can entice business travelers to extend their trip for leisure."

Converting to Bleisure
Business trips lasting 2-3 nights are most likely to result in bleisure trips (50 percent), as are trips where the business destination is far away, or more than 400 miles from home (49 percent).

Leading factors that influence bleisure travel decisions include traveling to a destination with great entertainment (48 percent) and visiting an iconic or bucket list destination (43 percent); easy-to-navigate destinations, proximity to the weekend and additional personal costs required to extend the trip for leisure are also influential factors.

Bleisure Research & Booking Resources
Approximately 80 percent of bleisure travelers spend 1-5 hours on research during both the inspiration and planning phases, which is more condensed than more traditional leisure booking windows.

Before deciding to bleisure, 68 percent of travelers conduct research using a search engine, 47 percent use travel-related websites - including OTAs, airline and hotel sites, and review sites - and 44 percent use destination websites.

Most bleisure travelers personally research and book accommodations (61 percent), airfare (42 percent) and dining (38 percent) for the leisure portion of their trip.

Willingness to Travel for Bleisure
Two-thirds of past bleisure trips were in the same city as the business trip, but more than 80 percent of bleisure travelers are willing to travel from the business destination for leisure.

On domestic and international trips, more than 50 percent of bleisure travelers are willing to travel 1-2 hours via car from the business destination for the leisure portion of their trip, and more than 28 percent would travel 1-2 hours via plane.

When traveling domestically between the business and leisure destinations, 38 percent of bleisure travelers are unwilling to travel via bus and 25 percent are unwilling to travel via plane.

Bleisure Budgets & Payment Preferences
Compared to a typical vacation, 57 percent of bleisure travelers spend the same amount of money or more on a bleisure trip, and more than 75 percent save money specifically for bleisure travel.

When on a bleisure trip, credit cards are the leading preferred payment method (69 percent), followed by cash (47 percent) and debit or ATM cards (44 percent).

More than two-thirds of bleisure spend is allocated to hotel, airfare and dining for the leisure portion of the trip.

Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Top 5 Weekend Getaways in Boston

top 5 weekend getaways boston

Nov 2

By: Demetrios Salpoglou

Boston is one of the few places that enjoy an incredible location in the heart of New England which offers residents and visitors plenty of quick weekend getaways options. In fact, one of the reasons why living in Boston is so incredible is how easy it is to leave the city and quickly be surrounded by beautiful scenery and fun small towns.

It is also a couple of hours away from some of the best vacation destinations on the East Coast. You can plan a relaxing weekend trip to Nantucket, head to Rhode Island or explore the beautiful coast of Maine. Here are the five best weekend trips and getaways from Boston.

1. Provincetown, Massachusetts

It will take you approximately one and a half hours to reach Provincetown via the Boston Harbor Cruises Ferry. Although the town is part of the larger Cape, it deserves special recognition since it boasts a wide range of exciting attractions. First, if you choose P-town (as it is commonly referred to) for your weekend getaway, there will be no need to drive. The beautiful ferry that departs from downtown Boston offers you a perfect opportunity to skip all that pesky Cape traffic. Provincetown is also an excellent night life destination that is worth your time. If you are looking to combine the big city life and the beach town charm, P-Town is the place for you.

2. Newport, Rhode Island

Newport has a beautiful shoreline where captains of sailboats and captains of industry still congregate. Located about 80 miles from Boston, this gorgeous getaway offers ample romantic attractions that will keep your weekend lit. Something that you will definitely want to do is to visit one of the fantastic Newport mansions where the uber wealthy businessmen used to live many years ago. The 3.5-mile-long Cliff Walk also offers great exercise and views of the bay. You should spare some time to visit the International Tennis Hall of Fame that is more than a museum and the beautiful Museum of Yachting which serves as a repository of classic wooden boats that their rich history at Fort Adams State Park.

3. Berkshires, Massachusetts

The iconic Berkshire Mountains have always been the center of attraction for city-slickers, especially during the fall foliage season. This amazing region strategically located in Western parts of Massachusetts is popular for its famous dweller Norman Rockwell, a talented artist, who lived in Stockbridge for more than 25 years and has been honored with his own museum that contains more than 1,000 original painting and drawings which is the artist’s most extensive collection in the entire world. You can also tour Herman Melville’s former home or the extensive Arrowhead farm in the region. There are also lots of affordable hotels where you can check-in and spend a few days as you tour the Berkshires.

4. Portland, Maine

There are lots of reasons to leave Boston for another smaller city that is especially known for its exquisite culinary experience and ambience. Make sure that you plan your tour on a long weekend so that you have enough time to explore the many wineries, breweries, and distilleries, in the beautiful city of Portland. You can only take breaks to try the delicious food at the numerous incredible restaurants. And since it is Maine, don’t leave without ordering lobster at one of the Portland hotspots.

5. Burlington, Vermont

Did you know that much of Burlington’s design and feel mimics that of the famous Boulder in Colorado? However, the good news is that you can enjoy everything without getting on a plane. Burlington also embodies the incredible outdoor culture and unique lifestyle that you will love. Make sure that you climb the nearby Mt. Mansfield, kayak Lake Champlain, and bike the Island Line Trail all in one long and exciting weekend.

About Demetrios Salpoglou

Demetrios Salpoglou is the CEO of which is an information and technology based services company that provides cutting edge resources to real estate companies. Demetrios has developed over 90 real estate related websites and owns hundreds of domain names. Demetrios also owns and operates six leading real estate offices with over 170 agents. Demetrios has pulled together the largest apartment leasing team in the Greater Boston Area and is responsible for procuring more apartment rentals than anyone in New England – with over 100k people finding their housing through his services. Demetrios is an avid real estate developer, peak performance trainer, educator, guest lecturer and motivational speaker.

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Fun in 4a

Last week we learnt about Hanukkah and made dreidels.

In Science we started looking at electricity. We went on an electricity hunt around the school. We made light bulbs light up by making a circuit with the new electrical packs and batteries.

On Friday we had a Christmas open morning. We made angels, stars, paper chains and candles. We also made houses for our Bethlehem display in the hall.

Today we have been designing Christmas cards and WOW cards for Mr Matthews. Also, we watched Pre School, Seals and Penguins nativity. It was good.

Amelia, Toyah and Saariyah have been chosen to be in the choir for the carol service and Harry is our narrator.


text:
Carbon Icon DLX

We have taken our lightest, strongest offering and made it even better. The new Carbon Icon DLX has been infused with industry leading premium accessories and new color options creating a look and feel unlike anything on the market.
We’ve combined sleek looks and killer performance, by teaming up with industry titans, Black Gold, TightSpot, and RipCord to deliver a knock out package that is sure to turn heads on the range and in the field.

EXCLUSIVE American Made Carbon Icon DLX accessories:

Black Gold 5 pin Rush sight – Durability you can trust alongside easier and more secure adjustability

RipCord “ACE” rest – Fall-away optimization to stack the deck in your favor

TightSpot 5 arrow quiver – Move the quiver in tight to your bow to eliminate accuracy-robbing bow torque

Bow Type Hunting
Draw Length 26.5-30.5"
IBO Speed 335 FPS
Mass Weight 3.2 LBS
Axle to Axle 31"
Brace Height 7"
Draw Weight 50, 60, 70
MSRP $999
Effective Let-off 80%
Kinetic Energy 87.2 ft-lbs

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#BowtechLIVE Content Series
Looking for some technical information? Have a question for our factory pro shop staff or even our engineers? Well #BowtechLIVE has you covered. You can browse our library of tech tip videos + Q&A sessions with customers like you getting guidance on their bow needs. Watch some videos now and be sure to sign up for our text alerts. You’ll get an alert and link via SMS message to join us next time we go LIVE!