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Tag Archives: Alton Sterling

The plumb-line, the cross, and the circle

A parishioner reminded me earlier this week that I sometimes get political in my sermons. That was before two black men were killed by police and before five Dallas police officers were killed and seven others wounded by a lone shooter, a veteran who had served in Afghanistan. This morning I promise not to get political.

First of all, I am not a black man. And I am not a police officer. And I am not a military veteran. And I do not want to presume to speak about their frustration or their suffering or their families’ grief.

Instead I must offer some prophetic and pastoral words today. I am a Christian and an ordained minister, and the words of the Scriptures are directed at me, at us. It is my responsibility not only to heed the words of the Scriptures but to help you heed them, too.

We cannot judge,

            we must not justify ourselves,

                        but we can act like neighbors.

But first, let me start with a joke.

The Plumb-Line

I spent six hours driving back and forth from Charlotte through the mountains of western North Carolina for a business meeting on Friday. As I drove, I couldn’t help thinking of George Carlin’s observation that “anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac.”

This is precisely the kind of “judgment” that the Scriptures condemn, the judging of other nations as good or bad, the judging of other religions as right or wrong, the judging of other people as worthy or worthless.

The prophet Amos shows us, in a vivid image, why our judgment is flawed.

He sees in a vision “the Lord standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand … then the Lord said, ‘See, I am setting a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by’” (Amos 7:7-8).

A plumb line, for those who may not know, is an ancient tool to help builders make their work straight and level. The heavy weight at the end of the line was originally made of “plumb,” or lead (that’s why the chemical symbol for lead is Pb).

But that’s not the point; the point of Amos’ vision is that only God’s judgment is perfect, and when he holds a plumb line up to humanity everything is crooked in comparison.

Every nation, even our beloved America, is crooked.

Just last Monday – it hasn’t even been a week! – we prayed on Independence Day to the “Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace.”

Righteousness and peace? What a crock! What a self-righteous, violent, chaotic nation we are proving to be, if we could only see straight!

Just like the king of Israel, our nation won’t stand for judgment. And too often, our denominations and we religious leaders do just as Amaziah did and turn away the prophets for disturbing the peace. “Go somewhere else with your protests and activism; stop calling into question our righteousness and peace.”

Just like the priests of Israel, compared to God’s plumb-line, every denomination, every religious leader, is out of true. We offer our “thoughts and prayers” again and again and again, but we don’t get political in our sermons because we don’t want to rock the boat or offend anyone. Or we do get political in our messages, teaching (whether we mean to or not) that power and politics and success are what really matter.

But every person, every single one of us, is at least “half a bubble off plumb,” too. And here’s where it gets personal. What’s really happening when God’s plumb line hangs beside us is that we are ashamed. We see ourselves clearly, and we are ashamed.

Reflecting on “Dallas and American Contradictions,” Alexandra Petri wrote in the Washington Post on Friday that,

Being told that you aren’t living up to your own standards is an uncomfortable thing. …. [T]hat is an unpleasant thing to discover about yourself. So a lot of the anger in America now resembles the anger that you have at your mirror. ‘This isn’t what I look like,’ you say. ‘I look much better than that.’ It hurts to realize that the only reason you thought you didn’t have wrinkles was because the lighting was poor. But it’s not the fault of the light.

We cannot judge,

            we must not justify ourselves …

The Cross

We see ourselves clearly, and we are ashamed. The plumb line just hangs there, but we feel like we are being sentenced. Because we are ashamed, we try to deflect attention away from ourselves, to justify our behavior.

The lawyer came back at Jesus with a second question “wanting to justify himself.”

That’s an important “hinge word” to pay attention to. Because our behavior – our living up to our national ideals or our keeping the commandments – has been called into question, we are ashamed and we try to justify ourselves.

“Our nation is not so bad.” At least America is not a warlike country invading other sovereign territories at will and destroying people’s homes and cities.

“Our political candidate is not so bad.” You know, the other ones misbehaved, too.

“Our religion is not so bad.” At least we’re not preaching violent fantasies and subjugating women and minorities.

So much of what we say and share on social media serves this self-justifying need – “I’m not so bad.” Other people are much worse.

At least I’m not like other people.

Does that sound familiar? It should, because it was the punch line of another parable Jesus told, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other.” (Luke 18:9-14)

Justify is a hinge word because it has two meanings – we justify ourselves because of our shame, but the Gospel tells us our shame has been lifted and we have been justified by the grace of God through Jesus’ self-offering on the cross.

Paul writes that

while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

We must not try to justify ourselves – we must not try to take away our shame by deflecting attention onto others. We ourselves are the ungodly, the sinners for whom Christ died on the cross.

But do you hear the good news? We cannot justify ourselves, because in Christ we are justified by grace, through faith.

In the Advent season, the priest prays right before Communion that “we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold Christ at his coming.” Christ’s self-offering on the cross is the hinge that turns our self-justifying into justification.

The cross, standing stark and upright, takes up the plumb-line of God’s judgment and transforms it into the symbol of God’s grace, erasing our shame and fear.

We cannot judge,

            we must not justify ourselves,

                        but we can act like neighbors.

 The Circle

One of the loveliest prayers in the Book of Common Prayer is this prayer for mission:

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP 101)

What could you accomplish if you could act without shame or fear, without the need to judge others, without the need to justify your actions?

You could accomplish just what the Samaritan man did in Jesus’ parable. You could stop focusing on yourself as better than anyone else, you could stop justifying your action (or inaction), you could see someone hurting and stop and help them.

The “Good Samaritan” is not actually the focus of today’s parable – even the way we talk about it shows that we miss the point. The Samaritan man focuses on the one in need, cares for him without judging him, and doesn’t have to spend any time justifying his inaction.

The Samaritan man – and us, if we follow Jesus’ invitation to “do likewise” – doesn’t waste any time deciding whether the man is worthy or deserved what he got, or should have given the robbers what they wanted. He simply binds his wounds and takes him somewhere safe.

My wife recently had tears in her eyes as she described to me how one father of an Orlando shooting victim refused to claim his son’s body — he hadn’t known his son was gay until he was killed — and how a local Seventh-Day Adventist Church offered to hold funerals for victims of the massacre who had no other place to go. She grew up in the SDA church, and had given her denomination up years ago for their judgmental attitudes, but here they showed that their focus was on the victims and their hurting families.

What Jesus says to the lawyer is that inheriting eternal life has nothing to do with judging others wrong. God’s plumb line makes clear your own crookedness.

It has nothing to do with justifying your actions by deflecting attention onto the sins of others; the cross casts its long shadow on your own sinfulness, at the same time taking away your shame and freeing you to act without fear.

Inheriting eternal life, according to Jesus, has to do with lessening the suffering of the people in your path. You don’t have to care for everyone, but you do have to respond to those who cross your path who are hurting.

Whether people meet you online or in person, on social media or in social settings, you create the circle of Christ’s outstretched arms of love; you bring people into Christ’s saving embrace.

Alongside the cross and within the circle of Christ’s love, the new plumb-line hangs as straight and true as ever: Did you lessen the suffering of the people you encountered today?

We cannot judge,

            we must not justify ourselves,

                        but we can act like neighbors, for God’s sake.

Go, and do likewise. Amen.


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Wordcount – an overrated measure of progress?

As writers it is natural that we look for some measure of our progress, day to day, when it comes to the work of writing. And make no mistake, writing is work. Yes, it’s inspiration also. But in truth, most things worth doing require some element of inspiration. And they also all require work, the uninspired, often mundane act of placing one brick on top of another until the wall is built, and the great palace of the imagination completed.

So it seems like common sense to use a wordcount as a measure of work done on a piece of writing. From one perspective the word is the basic building block of writing, the brick from which we build our walls. It’s a common sense assumption popularised by the pulp writing ethos where words written literaly equated to pennies earned, and by participatory writing programmes like NaNoWriMo where just getting the words down on paper is the goal. I’ve grown up as a writer with the pulp ethos, and will continue to fail at NaNoWriMo as long as my fingers are able to type, but increasingly I wonder if wordcount is a counterproductive way of measuring our progress as writers.

In fiction at least, it is not the word that is the basic building block, but the scene. When I’m writing well, I’m not thinking about how many words I’m putting down on paper, any more than a draughtsman counts the number of strokes in a drawing. I’m thinking about what I need to do to make the scene at hand live and breathe. What do I need to say about the location? What narrative information do I need leading in to and out of the scene? What do the characters want, and what is going to change for them as the scene turns? Beat by beat the scene plays out on paper, and scene by scene the story is built.

Now I can sit down and write two thousand words and not write a single scene. Alternatively, I might spend the same amount of time and only write two lines of dialogue, but if they are two lines that turn a pivotal scene and bring the sory to life, I’ve made more progress. Or in the time taken to write that two thousand words, I might just sit and let my imagination flow and discover a wonderful new level of depth in one of my characters which I then capture in two hundred words and again, though the wordcount is less, the progress is greater.

Wordcount satisfies our most literal need to feel we have made progress with the work of writing fiction. But in satisfying that need, in pushing through to some arbitrary wordcount it is easy to neglect the space that the imagination needs to do the real work of creating a rich and meaningful story.

As alternatives to a wordcount I use two things. The first is a scene count. If I write a full scene in a sitting, including dialogue, description etc ec then I am happy. Alternatively, I like to put aside a block of time, usualy two hours, during whch I will work on the story. I might write three thousand words, or I might find the deep motivation of a character, or might just draw a little doodle. Its amazing how many times the doodle ends up as something more important than the three thousand words!

The imagination works in mysterious ways, and it’s wonders are not always best measured by counting words.

4 thoughts on “Wordcount – an overrated measure of progress?”

  1. I agree with you, Damien. It’s all too easy to be a slave to the word count. That said, I do count words myself. It’s an easy way to track progress … but I think the key word here is ‘track’. When I’m rewriting, the word count frequently goes down. This is as satisfying as seeing it go up when I’m composing. Fewer words means (I hope) a sharper, tighter MS. Counting can have a purely practical, commercial function too. If you’re ghost-writing a novel to a detailed outline, with a specified final word-count in mind and a really tight deadline, it’s imperative you keep tabs on things. That said, when the creative juices are flowing, I do believe word count should be the last thing on your mind!

  2. I find it interesting that I have just read this. I am engaged in an exercise with a friend where we mimic NaNoWriMo in Feb – I’ve been calling it FebWri. What I’ve discovered is that a deadline target of X has been a certain way of killing off my imagination. Having said that when I am not focused on word count then writing is that much easier and I can easily set down a few thousand words in an evening.

    I’ve been listening to authors speak about the craft and, on this topic, it appears there are two camps: those that are happy with a high word count and those that aren’t bothered. I think it boils down to what works for you.

    It’s interesting that the most strident advocates of word-count appear to be those people who are quite prolific and I wonder what aspects of their own psychology play a part in that.

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The hacker and the shaman, travelers of the black box

Was so good to present at HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth), at first I was super skeptical thinking that my research wouldn’t fit with the conference’s audience but the people who went to see me were so nice and supportive, many new ideas emerged, even one of my idols of posthumanist studies was watching me on the streaming. I’m super grateful for that experience.

This is a sort of transcription of my presentation, part notes, part slides, part video.

Hello all, thank you for coming to my talk “the hacker and the shaman, travelers of the black box”, this is a comparative analysis between these two figures, I will talk about their similarities and how their exploratory approaches can be related to the concept of “black box”.

-about me-

First, I would like to introduce myself very briefly so you know where I’m coming from. I’m a working-class feminist writer, I was born in Chile and in 2012 moved to the UK to study at the University of Bristol, now I live in Rotterdam where I’m a postgraduate research student on literary studies. The topics of my research are posthumanist literature, altered states of mind and the cyberspace.

But to study all this stuff I needed money since my family is poor and they were never able to afford this kind of elitist education, that’s why I’ve been working since I was very young, first as a web developer in Santiago and then as a project manager and researcher in advocacy organisations dedicated to the internet and human rights in Chile and in Brazil. Now I’m working at the Mozilla Foundation and I’m also a member of the Riseup Collective where we provide secure communications channels for social justice.

This is my second time at HOPE.

It hasn’t been easy but I think that after all these years I learned a thing or two about the internet. And I’m progressively more interested in its artistic, literary possibilities and how it can become a source for posthumanist thinking rather than this boring completely surveilled space that is today.

-this research-

Now let me tell you about how this research originated. This started as a masterclass project at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the topic of this seminar was the black box, in a group of four researchers each of us explored one aspect of the subject, this also involved a plan for an artistic exhibition.

I’m telling you this so you know that this is an academic effort with a visual art component, but for this talk I’ll try to adapt my language and perspective to this tech-audience, also please bear in mind that I’m not a technologist and that my main intention is to invite you to look at this with a literary-artistic lens.

-what is a black box-

So let’s start.

This diagram is vastly used to explain what a black box is. We have an input that goes to the black box, then in the black box something happens and we get an output.

If I send a text message to a friend I don’t really now what happens in the middle but he or she will certainly receive the message in her cellphone, also without knowing exactly what happened in the middle. This obscure set of transmission between devices is the black box.

But many researchers for example Peter Sloterdijk use the concept of black box not just for complex machines, the human soul and the human body could be considered a black box too, for instance I can watch a fantastic film like Andrei Tarkovksy’s Andrei Rublev, which I watched last week and can’t stop thinking about it. I cannot explain very well all the emotions that the film provoked in me, also the viewing experience I had in this big beautiful cinema in Berlin, I really think it changed me as a person. In this case the film is the input, my mind is the black box and the output is the new me and all the stuff on image and emotion that I keep talking about to my friends

-latour and sloterdijk-

I selected two quotes from scholars who have been studying the topic of the black box, both refer to the black box using the example of the complex machine.

The first one is a quote by Bruno Latour about blackboxing:

“the way scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. when a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become.”

And the second is by Peter Sloterdijk which is very complementary to the previous one, he speaks about:

“users who are happy with being just users (…) be smart, be an idiot, this is the motto of the new black box ethic”

At some point in history we stopped understanding how technology works, I think my mother can explain to me the way photography or analog cinema work, it’s relatively easy to understand what a light-sensitive photo paper does, but probably not the operations of a digital camera with all its circuits within.

-the human consciousness and the complex machine-

So here we are with these two black boxes: the human consciousness and the complex machine.

Some men, maybe in this very room could say “but I know exactly how a computer works, that’s not a black box for me”, some psychologists could say the same about the human consciousness, that they know every detail about it

Well, I prefer to have an approach in which we admit that we do not know everything, that our life is full of black boxes, full of obscurities. And that it is through a hacking approach how we travel, never fully decipher, these obscurities. To me, hacking has to do with playing within these black boxes and eventually alter the expected outcomes.

Hacking is a knowledge production system and could be applied to any kind of black box.

Probably there’s some people who thinks that someone who studied computer science and know how digital devices work is a hacker, it’s alright for them but for this particular project of mine I will consider hacking everything that, with a sense of play, alters the obscurities of our environment, this is why the concept of black box is useful.

-magic, the mother of technology-

When hacking happens, the final result looks like magic isn’t it? And here’s where I connect the figure of the shaman with the figure of the hacker.

In shamanic sessions weird stuff happens, when the human being is in an altered state of mind, the things you see do not look rational.

Same with hacking, if a website is hacked, the visitors, even the sysadmins will not understand easily what happened there.

I’m not afraid to use the concept of magic, because it allow us to be imaginative on what we can do through a hacker-shamanic approach.

So let’s go to the core of this comparative analysis.

To do this study I used the following books: Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by the Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade, this is considered the largest and most validated study on shamans, and for the case of hackers I used the excellent book Coding Freedom by Gabriella Coleman.

And these are the most relevant comparative points between these two figures and their practices:

(the image below is the hacker zodiac and i was so lucky to meet the author at HOPE :) )

I don’t want to tell you what to think anymore, now I only want you to look at these images and hear these sounds, also look around you and see if this way of thinking make sense to you, if magic, if the idea of magic inspires you to hack everything around you

And I want to finish this presentation with a quote of Nani Balestrini about code, it can be found in the catalogue of Jean Francois Lyotard’s exhibition Les Immateriaux.

tout corps de simulation entre désir et réseau
tout espíe de nature entre flou et lumière

To hack is to travel through obscurity, to melt within the light, to embrace blurriness.

Hacking is

One thought on “The hacker and the shaman, travelers of the black box”

  1. amiga: el capítulo del cine chamánico de ruiz, un amigo, me llevó a esta persona, que habla de los mundos “imposibles” como alternativas epistémicas para gente que se la puede con sus lenguajes. también habla de leibniz, otro amigo. te dejo el link.

    pero en verdad vine a esta black box a decirte que son las 4 de la mañana en chile, que se raja lloviendo y yo me rajo llorando porque no puedo ser tu vecina.

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Posts Tagged ‘novels’

I first met John Macgregor about ten years ago. Turned out he lived down the street from me. John’s over in Cambodia now, having adventures, while I, ever unadventurous, am still in the same street. (Anyone who’s read my trip to NZ post will know that I’m not a traveller, never was.)

 John has recently put his award-winning novel, Propinquity, up on the web. I asked him to write a few words about the book and how he felt about it after all these years. This is what he wrote:

Propinquity cover

I tend to think of the 1980s as being quite close in time – a bit like Now With Bulky Devices. But exhuming Propinquity, my 27-year-old novel, revealed just how much Australia has changed in the few years since then.

Propinquity was disinterred for publication as an e-book. This meant I had to read the thing – for the first time since I was a young lad of 36 who regarded it as reasonable behaviour to wear black all the time, and smoke a lot.

I knew I had changed. And I knew my alter ego narrator would have changed (had I attempted anything so gauche as a sequel). Australia was the character which provided the surprises.

To get the difficult bit over with first: during the Mullumbimby section of the novel, my narrator, Clive, regularly goes swimming naked with two girl children (his girlfriend’s kids). That would probably be out these days. Indeed I’m nervous about even mentioning it. I suspect the way this passage was received in 1986 (not a single comment from a reader or reviewer) is different to how it will be read now.

But far more interesting (to me) is that Clive habitually tends to put a negative spin on things. I did not know in 1986  that this “pessimistic explanatory style” is the leading cause of depression. After 35 years of the black dog I was very happy to put it down about ten years ago, thanks to some learned optimism training. Many others have done the same. In my opinion we’re in something of a Golden Age of psychology – an age which lies in Clive’s future. So seeing his episodic gloomfulness now – from that future – is a bit like observing a gloomy adolescent: you feel he’ll grow out of it.

Small, linguistic things have changed too. There are no “awesomes” in the book, but one “whatever”, and one line that made me LOL:

“She laughed out loud.”

And what is it with all these hyphens? Back-drop? Match-box? Stick-figure? Plaster-board? Sun-tan? Heart-beat? Switch-board? Did we ever spell like that? If so, two and a half more decades of Americanisation have ended it.

It’s not just language that’s changed, but diction. After the Loyal Toast at a Melbourne wedding reception, Clive tells us: “The toasting done, assumed English accents at neighbouring tables began to rise again in volume.”

This alludes to a generation of Melbourne society women, who are now all dead. No-one thinks a fake English accent is sophisticated any more, even in Toorak. (One also suspects the Loyal Toast has gone the way of the Divine Right and Charles I’s head.) But it’s remarkable how recently these faux Englishwomen walked (and talked) among us. I can still hear the terrifying, brittle voices which cut the air before them them as they beelined toward you at a party, like the Queen with an icepick behind her back.

The book also suggested how our views on alcohol, diet and health have changed in scarcely a generation. Clive drank a real lot (“we spent a month drinking beer in the Portsea pub”; “The wine was tolerable too, the second bottle tasting better than the first.”), as did his friends. They even did this at breakfast. I don’t drink at all these days, and if I had anything to do with it (which I would) neither would Clive.

And to think that this young idiot also drank iced coffee and ate camembert! Didn’t he know coffee crashes the adrenals, and that dairy is the world’s number one allergen? To make matters worse, on page 126: “I consumed mountains of garlic bread.” These grain foods were the very thing that would soon make me sick for an entire decade, till the arrival of the Internet enabled me to learn that we’re not a grain-eating species. D’oh.

But Clive is incorrigible. He seems determined to submerge himself in over-work, coffee, tax evasion, alcohol, grand theft, garlic bread, procuring perjury and eating dairy – all the vices, not just a few:

“The meetings and telexes and coffees and cigarettes had been endless.” Unspeakable.

Indeed, after he has discovered the divine female at the heart of Christendom, exposed a 2,000-year Church conspiracy, fled Westminster Abbey, been chased by the authorities across the globe, and is finally nabbed by the law in Byron Bay, he tries to makes his escape by slugging a policeman. These days police are armed, and he’d be shot.

The foregoing also reminds me how radically the way people think about God has shifted. Propinquity is saying that everything we have been taught about God is nonsense – a fringe view in 1986, which is now mainstream. The old structures totter on, but the cynicism about them is total.

Finally, for all his sins, my hero Clive was right to suggest a post-revolution firing squad for Rupert Murdoch, for it is his ilk who have ensured that “the old is dying, and the new cannot be born”.

“In this strange interregnum” (to complete the quote from Antonio Gramsci) “many morbid symptoms arise”. Looking around me now at 61, he wasn’t wrong about that.

In 1986 it was thought that we were in with a chance to save civilisation, and the planet that gave rise to it. The ensuing quarter-century saw the ideas and structures by which that could have been done steadily abandoned. Now we’re down to a series of rear guard actions. The emphasis has shifted, with a slow, intricate subtlety, from preventing disaster to adjusting to it. None of that was visible when I was 36, and wore black, and smoked a lot.

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Martin Shaw of Readings Monthly described this novel as ‘gutsy, moving, beautifully wrought and utterly compelling’.  In this memoir-as-fiction, first novelist Michael Sala recalls his early life in Holland and his life in Australia after his family immigrated here in the 1980s. In compelling detail, he describes his dysfunctional family: the fragile mother he loves, her penchant for moving house and for picking the wrong men; his glamorous, estranged Greek father, his older brother Con and his relationship with his cruel stepfather Dirk. The family has secrets, things some of the older members of the family did during WWII in Holland to survive.

The first two-thirds of the book are consistent in style, tense and point of view. However, in the last third, which depicts the family’s life in Newcastle, a looser technique prevails. I found myself wishing it had been written in the same consistent style as the first two-thirds. But as the author had to jump many years to when he, himself, is a father, and his mother and estranged father are old, perhaps this did not prove possible.

Essentially, Sala is a painter with words rather than a storyteller. As each scene unfolds, it’s like watching a master painter apply brush stroke after brush stroke to a canvas until the whole comes together.  The sense of cohesion the reader is left with, despite the apparent randomness of the third part of the book (the timeline is disjointed, there are flashbacks and changes of tense and point of view), is due to Sala’s deeply felt emotion and the high level of technique he employs in describing these emotions and the interactions between family members.

Sala’s prose is impeccable. I note that Chapter 9 appeared previously under the title ‘The Men Outside My Room’ in The Best Australian Stories 2011 and Chapter 10 appeared under the title ‘Like My Father, My Brother’ in the anthology Brothers and Sisters. This is no surprise: Sala has a wonderful ability to write between the lines and is a master of the fine detail so beloved by the Australian literary establishment. At present, he lacks the polish of a Thomas Shapcott and the strong storyline structure we have come to expect from Tim Winton. But that will come.

An interesting read, though perhaps not traditional enough in form for some. I found myself looking forward to his next book – one that has a simple timeline and is, perhaps a little less ‘literary’.

Make no mistake. Sala is here to stay.

Readers can purchase a copy of The Last Thread from almost all independent Australian bookstores, as well as A&R and Dymocks etc. The e book is available from Booki.sh and Kobo.

Danielle de Valera

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With the rise of digital technology, mainstream publishers became deluged with manuscripts. Today, more and more emerging writers are taking to self-publishing as a way of getting their work out there. Below is one writer’s journey into publishing with the UK Arts Council funded site Youwrite on.  It’s a happy story.

Self-publishing with Youwriteon by guest blogger: Louise Forster

After 11 years I’ve finally cracked it, I’m published. Okay, not in the usual sense with an agent and publisher, but as a self-published writer. I’ll cut to the chase and give you the facts.

I published with YouWriteOn, a UK Arts funded site that anyone can join. Basically it works on a bartering system. You read someone’s work and, at random, someone reads yours. You receive reviews from cold readers who don’t know you. The down side is, sometimes you’ll get a reader who’s not familiar with your genre. Then you need to shrug and say to yourself, what the heck. Of course there are times when a reviewer will say, ‘I wouldn’t normally choose this genre and I almost deleted your piece, but I’m glad I didn’t because I really enjoyed it.’ Check them out at www.youwriteon.com. If the above doesn’t appeal to you, they also offer publishing without peer review at:  www.FeedARead.com

Nearly 2 years ago I paid £58.99 (A$89.77). With this fee I’m published, and printed by Lightning Source, who have Print on Demand (POD) facilities all over the world, including Melbourne (important for me, as I’m in Australia). My book is beautifully presented in paperback, glossy cover, good quality paper and lovely, easy-to-read font. Recently I paid £34.94 for 6 of my books in hard copy; that comes to about A$5.50 per book, and that includes postage!

My book is available on as many online stores you can think of and some you wouldn’t know existed, like www.flipkart.com  in India — I’m waiting for an Indian director to read FINDING VERONICA and love her so much he wants to turn it into a Bollywood movie! (Bring it on.)

• It’s free to set-up your book for sale through FeedARead.com
• You set your own book price and royalty
• Full bookseller distribution service. You can also choose to make your book available via the major online outlets, including Amazon, and for major bookshops to order. The fees for this are as follows:

UK Authors: £88
US Authors: $79
Australian Authors: $140
European Authors: E100
All other authors: £88 UK.

FeedARead’s distribution service places your book into the world’s most comprehensive distribution channel. With over 30,000 wholesalers, retailers and booksellers in over 100 countries your book will gain the maximum exposure possible in the market today. This includes your book being available to order through all of the following: Amazon and Barnes & Noble (US); Amazon, WHSmith and Waterstones (UK); Amazon Europe; and TheNile.com (Australia).

My book is also available on Kindle through Amazon. On 18 December I joined Amazon’s new program for Kindle users called Prime. It was a little scary, but looking into it, I discovered that subscribers to Prime pay $78.99 annually. This enables them to borrow 12 books per year from the Prime Kindle list. Why would readers want to go this library route when it actually costs more per book? It saves the reader from making PayPal transactions every time they want a new book. Amazon currently sets aside $500,000/month for distribution to authors. After the 90-day trial period, my book continues with Prime for another 90 days, and so on unless I inform them that I don’t want to continue. Every 90 days, I am given 5 days for promotion, during which your books are available for free, and I can choose the dates — which is most useful if you want to coordinate it with your local book launch and local PR. I had one on the 18th another on the 21st of December.  (Normally, the ebook sells for $2.99; I receive 70% of this. )

Your share of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) Fund is calculated based on a share of the total number of qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles. For example, if the monthly fund amount is $500,000 and the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 100,000 in December and if your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 1.5% of $500,000 (1,500/100,000 = 1.5%); that is, $7,500 in December.

The sudden rise in sales happened AFTER I joined the KOLL. I believe that, had I not joined Prime, FINDING VERONICA would have been lost among the millions of books available. However to be fair, I have to say that I also began tweeting a few weeks ago as part of my PR program. Whether the suddden rise in my sales was due to twitter or to joining the KOLL, it’s simply too soon to know.

Whatever it is, it seems to be working!

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finding 27.2 : key-message-27-2

Pacific island ecosystems are notable for the high percentage of species found only in the region, and their biodiversity is both an important cultural resource for island people and a source of economic revenue through tourism (very high confidence). Terrestrial habitats and the goods and services they provide are threatened by rising temperatures (very likely, very high confidence), changes in rainfall (likely, medium confidence), increased storminess (likely, medium confidence), and land-use change (very likely, very high confidence). These changes promote the spread of invasive species (likely, low confidence) and reduce the ability of habitats to support protected species and sustain human communities (likely, medium confidence). Some species are expected to become extinct (likely, medium confidence) and others to decline to the point of requiring protection and costly management (likely, high confidence).

This finding is from chapter 27 of Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II.

Process for developing key messages:

To frame this chapter, the regional leads wanted to maximize inclusiveness and represent the key sectoral interests of communities and researchers. To select sectors and a full author team, the coordinating lead author and regional chapter lead author distributed an online Google survey from September to October 2016. The survey received 136 responses representing Hawaiʻi and all the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) jurisdictions; respondents identified which of the National Climate Assessment (NCA) sectors they were most interested in learning about with respect to climate change in the Pacific Islands and suggested representative case studies.884675c9-3e31-483d-b6b9-fd53b99875ae The five top sectors were picked as the focus of the chapter, and a total of eight lead authors with expertise in those sectors were invited to join the regional team. To solicit additional participation from potential technical contributors across the region, two informational webinars spanning convenient time zones across the Pacific were held; 35 people joined in. The webinars outlined the NCA history and process, as well as past regional reports and ways to participate in this Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4).

A critical part of outlining the chapter and gathering literature published since the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3)dd5b893d-4462-4bb3-9205-67b532919566 was done by inviting technical experts in the key sectors to participate in a half-day workshop led by each of the lead authors. A larger workshop centered on adaptation best practices was convened with participants from all sectors, as well as regional decision-makers. In all, 75 participants, including some virtual attendees, took part in the sectoral workshops on March 6 and 13, 2017. Finally, to include public concerns and interests, two town hall discussion events on March 6 and April 19, 2017, were held in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and Tumon, Guam, respectively. Approximately 100 participants attended the town halls. Throughout the refining of the Key Messages and narrative sections, authors met weekly both via conference calls and in person to discuss the chapter and carefully review evidence and findings. Technical contributors were given multiple opportunities to respond to and edit sections. The process was coordinated by the regional chapter lead and coordinating lead authors, as well as the Pacific Islands sustained assessment specialist.

Description of evidence base:

Projections of sea level rise have been made at both regional and local scales (see Traceable Account for Key Message 3). Based on these projections, the effects of sea level rise on coastal ecosystems have been evaluated for the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.8fd88741-58fd-4753-ae35-af3a2ed38915,cd76b4d4-a868-4324-abb1-3400e5f19618,ae901019-a648-4f5b-b572-1c3e4da60da2,e0d5406b-6d06-4ba7-9419-f44e1feeb5c8,eb2800b8-395d-44cf-90cd-2f9f3abcc9de,44466960-d3a9-4374-b1cf-893bb8a476f0 There has also been an assessment of the effects of climate change to many small islands across the Pacific Islands region.0b9752b8-62d7-40e2-becc-1f2877d2ac27 The effect of sea level rise (and global warming) on mangroves has also been evaluated.e0d5406b-6d06-4ba7-9419-f44e1feeb5c8,160c86ad-71ad-4ea3-bfc7-7ad79026b886,6b60f34d-c84f-4bdd-84a8-78ff37ea2b2e,3bffd087-0af7-47d7-8a00-a21f0fc63569

Forecasts of how climate change will affect rainfall and temperature in the main Hawaiian Islands have been based on both statistical and dynamical downscaling of global climate models (GCMs; see Traceable Account for Key Message 1). Statewide vulnerability models have been developed for nearly all species of native plantsc0eb08ae-6725-4e68-b99e-1f2cef382c25 and forest birds,f483b8cf-8401-40ec-9001-23466261d5fa showing substantial changes in the available habitat for many species. More detailed modeling within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has suggested that rare and listed plants being managed in Special Ecological Areas will experience climate changes that make the habitat in these areas unsuitable.5eac12ba-e664-4eb2-aa66-18d9067566d8

Effects of climate change on streamflow in Hawaiʻi will largely be driven by changes in rainfall, although geologic conditions affect the discharge of groundwater that provides base flow during dry weather.381cc925-f22b-46a5-8a36-3e99bbd52635 A regional watershed model from the windward side of Hawaiʻi Island suggested that control of an invasive tree with high water demand would somewhat mitigate decreases in streamflow that might be caused by a drier climate.e69ceccd-2c27-48f0-b3fe-46ce1b67f636 Finally, it has been suggested that ocean acidification will decrease the viability of the planktonic larvae of native Hawaiian stream fishes.0c523a5a-213e-491a-9dcf-0a2c7eb05d77

New information and remaining uncertainties:

The timing and magnitude of sea level rise are somewhat uncertain. There is greater uncertainty on how climate change will affect the complex patterns of precipitation over the high islands of Hawaiʻi. There is also high uncertainty about how plants will respond to changes in their habitats and the extent to which climate change will foster the spread of invasive species.

Assessment of confidence based on evidence:

It is very likely that air and water temperatures will increase and that sea level will rise (very high confidence). Research indicates that global mean sea level rise will exceed previous estimates and that, in the USAPI, sea level rise is likely to be higher than the global mean (likely, high confidence). As a result, it is likely that climate change will affect low-lying and coastal ecosystems in Hawaiʻi and other Pacific islands, with medium confidence in forecasts of the effects on these ecosystems.

There is low confidence as to how rainfall patterns will shift across the main Hawaiian Islands. It is considered likely that changes in rainfall will result in ecologic shifts expected to threaten some species. However, there is low confidence in specific ecologic forecasts because the direction and magnitude of rainfall changes are uncertain, and there is a lack of robust understanding of how species will respond to those changes. It seems as likely as not that the responses of terrestrial biomes and species to climate change will result in additional complexity in the management of rare and threatened species.

References :

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Lindsey Poulter Bio Lindsey Poulter is a data visualization and Tableau enthusiast. She enjoys combining business strategy with design best practices to build innovative dashboards. Currently, she works at Wells Fargo as an analytics consultant, where she is responsible for creating dashboards for executives and customers within the IT department. She has been using Tableau […]

Readers: Today, I am blogging my interview with Ken Flerlage, one of the most creative creators of Tableau data visualizations in the industry today. Ken has worked in information technology for nearly twenty years, doing everything from application development to database and ERP administration. While he loves IT in general, Ken found his true passion about five […]


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David Bowie Albums: My Reviews Ranked From Least to Most Favourite Album

I’ve started a new blog where I’ll focus on the one and only David Bowie. I’ve been a massive fan for nearly 40 years, starting way back in 1979 when I first saw Bowie performing “Boys Keep Swinging” on the Kenny Everett Video Show. Since then, I’ve been hooked and what an amazing journey it has been. He may no longer be with us, but his music will always live on.

Each week or so, I’ll review and discuss a different David Bowie album ranked from my least favourite to my most favourite. So I’ll cover my least favourite album first and work my up to my all time favourite David Bowie album. No doubt the order will be a source of some annoyance to many (how can you possibly put Lodger in from of …), but that’s the beauty of music, everyone has there own tastes and favourites.

With each album, I’ll discuss what I like, what I don’t, some interesting things around the recording of the album and (hopefully) if you haven’t yet had the joy of listening to the particular album, maybe convince you to give it a listen or a re-listen if it’s been gathering dust in your record collection. Feel free to join in on any discussions.

I’ll only focus (initially) on David Bowie’s studio albums, I’ll review live, compilation, soundtrack, etc. albums later. I have included however “The Buddha of Suburbia” as it’s more studio album than soundtrack.

Picking these albums in some kinda order  of favouritism has been really really difficult, almost as difficult as picking your favourite child, but it’s been a fun exercise and I’m content enough with my selections. I would state that even a “poor” David Bowie album would be regarded as a near masterpiece if recorded by most other artists so everything is relative…

For those not fully acquainted with the vast workings of the great man, here is the full list of his studio albums in chronological order:

1. David Bowie (1967) – Ranked 24th.

2. David Bowie / aka Space Oddity (1969)

3. The Man Who Sold The World (1970)

4. Hunky Dory (1971)

5. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

6. Aladdin Sane (1973)

7. Pin-Ups (1973) – Ranked 19th.

8. Diamond Dogs (1974)

9. Young Americans (1975) Ranked 20th.

10. Station to Station (1976)

11. Low (1977)

12. “Heroes” (1977)

13. Lodger (1979)

14. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)

15. Let’s Dance (1983) – Ranked 27th.

16. Tonight (1984) – Ranked 23rd.

17. Never Let Me Down (1987) – Ranked 28th.

18. Tin Machine (1989) – Ranked 21st.

19. Tin Machine II (1991) Ranked 25th.

20. Black Tie White Noise (1993)

21. The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) – Ranked 26th.

22. Outside (1995)

23. Earthling (1997) – Ranked 17th.

24. Hours (1999) – Ranked 18th.

25. Heathen (2002) Ranked 16th.

26. Reality (2003) – Ranked 22nd.

27. The Next Day (2013)

28. Blackstar (2016) – Ranked 14th.

I’ll discuss the first album, my least favourite David Bowie album in the coming days. Stay tuned !!

7 responses to “David Bowie Albums: My Reviews Ranked From Least to Most Favourite Album

  1. Excellent reviews, Richard. I can’t agree with “Never Let Me Down”, though. I have always had a soft spot for it. It is nowhere near as bad as the perceived wisdom says it is, neither is “Tonight”. Prefer both to “Let’s Dance”, but there you go…

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Hi Paul

    Thanks for your feedback !!

    Yes, everyone has different views and each view is as valid as the next when it comes to musical opinions. Each album will be someone’s favourite and someone’s least. I’m sure many will disagree with my assessments as I go up/down the list 🙂

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Wolves of Vengeance

There are creatures in this world born of vengeance, tempered in blood, with a lust for killing, and an insatiable appetite for death. They have come through a rift that bridges the earth with the underworld. And now that they are here, they will kill anyone who tries to send them back.

A reformed drug addict and criminal, a high school bad girl all grown up, a detective with a troubled past, an occultist turned martial artist, and a female Special Forces soldier will band together and risk everything to stop them. On holy ground they will make their final stand, but before the night is over these unholy creatures will drag two of them to hell.

My novel is out! Buy the Kindle edition of Wolves of Vengeance at Amazon for only $2.99!

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Welcome to davidrobatin.com

Emotionalism as art

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Uptown Gallery All Members Show

1305 W Main St, Richmond, VA 23220

January 4 opening

Gallery Edit

8E Braod St, Richmond, VA 23219

February Opening

 Zero E. Fourth St., Richmond, VA 23224

March 22 Opening

Louisa Arts Center

212 Fredericksburg Ave, Louisa, VA 23093

March 23 Opening

Find out more

About Me

I studied communications and art at Denison University and have been painting for quite a long time. I have only recently started to share my work more widely and continue to progress as a thinker.

I use mostly acrylics on art boards and canvas, and have explored pushing the boundaries within my specific style. I have been influenced by everything from chiaroscuro to color field, from Dali to Rothko.

Emotional connection is the reason why I work in the style I have developed. I want the viewer to find themselves in my paintings and apply their own story. I explore the positive and negative feelings that we all go through...and I want to find a common experience.

Contact Me

Get in touch ... I'd like to hear from you. I'll send you exact dates, times and locations for shows. And whatever else you want to know.

Shoot me a text 216-978-4382 or email drobatin1@gmail.com


text:
« Survey Around the Globe | Main | Sec Rice endures European Grandstanding »

December 05, 2005

Excellent and well rounded coverage. The significance of events and challenges such as this are largely unreported - and, unfortunately, when covered are done so in a way that does not lend to broader understanding. It's good to see some are framing the discussion in proper context with regard to the real exports of the developing nations should we fail to provide alternatives in the form of free trade.

Bill Rice

You said in a much more concise way my point. If I could get my posts down to your level of terseness and clarity, I could cover so much more!

Thanks for your kind comment.

Kind regards,

Bill Rice
Dawn's Early Light

Dan tdaxp

A very solid piece. A very dangerous form of protectionism.

Наш сайт создан для Вашего удовольствия, здесь Вы можете расслабиться, отдохнуть не только душой, но и телеом, все самые мыслимые и не мыслимые удовольствия исполнят наши элитные индивидуалки,
Заходим сюда, звоним http://tinyurl.com/6aoezad
Наслаждаемся ))))
Вас ждет масса незабываемых впечатлений и ощущений )))

Вебмастера, кто желает хорошо зарабатывать, участвуем в партнерской программе,
до 60 центов за 1 клик http://tinyurl.com/5r2vr3w

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GodBlogCon '06

The Influentials

  • Coming Anarchy
    A brilliant 3 blogger site with a global perspective and sound thinking on events of the day.
  • Hugh Hewitt
    Radio Host, Intellectual, Conservative, Evangelical, Blogger
  • InstaPundit (Glenn Reynolds)
    The central blogosphere source
  • James Lileks
    Family Man, Inspired and Witty Columnist, an Inspiration and Patriot
  • Mickey Kaus
    Center Left, Connected, Blogger, Took the Boeing
  • Powerline
    Keeping the MSM in check, Smart Intelligent Political Analysis
  • Publius Pundit
    The single best place on the web for a democracy roundup of world events.
  • Real Clear Politics
    Center Right, best political website, Election polls & Analysis
  • Roger L. Simon
    Center Left, Supporter of the GWoT
  • Simon's World
    "East Meets Westerner" - Simon, an Aussie living in Hong Kong has Asia covered with great links and commentary.
  • The Belmont Club
    Acute Analysis of the GWoT, America's Friend
  • Threats Watch
    Excellent analysis by Steve Schippert and Marvin Hutchens about national security issues around the globe.
  • Tod Bolsinger
    husband, father, pastor, author, professor, adventure lover, and triathlete (non political)
  • Winds of Change
    Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory. - The Vanguard on the GWoT

Blogs of Note

  • Between Worlds
    By blogger Bruce Chang, Between Worlds covers Asian-American relations with a piercing insight.
  • Blogs for Condi
    Interested in Condi Rice? This is the site for you with excellent links.
  • Citizen Z
    A centrist Democrat with sensible analysis of domestic and world affairs.
  • tdaxp
    Red State, National and Global Analysis from SD
  • EagleSpeak
    An insightful Milblog covering shipping, sea lanes and logistics and the war on terror.
  • The Adventures of Chester
    One of the finest MilBlogs with great links and indepth coverage
  • Little Red Blog
    Covering democratic movements around the world
  • MeiZhongTai
    An interesting blog on America-China-Tawain
  • The Acorn
    Indian foreign policy, and current affairs in the subcontinent
  • One Free Korea
    An opinionated blog on the need for regime change in North Korea with excellent analysis.
  • Quill News
    Editor, writer, ex-oil manager, ex-reporter with a good deal of thoughts on foreign policy
  • Election Projection
    Some of the best US domestic election coverage around run by a Scott a man of true character
  • The Word Unheard
    A former US Marine with a passion for "Foreign Policy, National Defense, Politics and the Media" living in NJ
  • The Red Hunter
    Covering Freedom & Democracy and America's interests in the War on Terror
  • WILLisms
    An extremely witty and beautifully presented poliblog on important issues of the day

Stats & Searches


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Latest news

October 09, 2017 - Bug fix version of DBF Sync program is released

We are proud to announce the bug-fix release of DBF Sync v1.9.

DBF Sync v1.9.631 changes:

  • Fixed issue with showing About program window
  • Improved work with Visual FoxPro 9 dbf files
  • Some minor fixes

You may download a program update at our download page

News Categories

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Exciting things happening. We are almost ready to roll out the selected film list! Excitement

January 27
We are virtually through with the selection process of selecting which films we’ll be screening for you. Think you can expect to see the information going up here in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Comments are closed.


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TNT has given a series order to Frank Darabont‘s period drama pilot L.A. Noir, which has been picked up for six episodes. Based on the book L.A. Noir: The Struggle For The Soul Of America’s Most Seductive City by John Buntin, the project chronicles the battle between Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of LA.s criminal world. The series is a fast-paced crime drama set in Los Angeles during the 1940s and ’50s. It’s a world of glamorous movie stars, powerful studio heads, returning war heroes, a powerful and corrupt police force and an even more dangerous criminal network determined to make LA its West Coast base.

Related: Frank Darabont’s ‘LA Noir’ Nears Series Order At TNT

Darabont, who wrote and directed the pilot, is executive producing with Michael De Luca and Elliot Webb for in-house TNT Originals. Alissa Phillips of Michael De Luca Prods co-executive produces. “This series is an intense, exciting drama that takes viewers back to a truly fascinating time in the history of Los Angeles,” said TNT’s head of programming Michael Wright. “Frank Darabont, Michael De Luca and Elliott Webb have delivered an outstanding opening episode that evokes the time and place in stunning detail.”

LA Noir stars Jon Bernthal as Joe Teague, an ex-Marine now working as an LAPD cop in an era rampant with police corruption. Jeffrey DeMunn plays Detective Hal Morrison, who heads the LAPD’s new mob squad, with Jeremy Strong as Detective Mike Hendry, Morrison’s second in command. Neal McDonough is Capt. William Parker, Teague’s boss who is determined to weed out corruption and bring down Cohen. And Milo Ventimiglia plays Ned Stax, who fought alongside Teague during World War II but who now works as a lawyer with connections to the mob. The project also co-stars Ron Rifkin playing Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, who makes it his mission to clean up corruption in city government; Pihla Viitala  as Anya, the head bartender at Bunny’s on Central Avenue, the West Coast center of the black jazz scene; and Alexa Davalos as Jasmine, a beautiful woman whose past has come back to haunt her.

The series pickup for L.A. Noir comes more than 10 months after the network greenlighted the pilot as Darabont took a long time to complete the final cut. His approach to his series as auteur-driven projects may explain the shorter-then-usual six-episode order. Before L.A. Noir, Darabont developed, wrote, directed and ran the first season of AMC’s blockbuster zombie drama The Walking Dead, before exiting early into production on Season 2. The L.A. Noir order falls into TNT’s strategy to expand to year-round original programming. It joins another new series picked up this year, medical drama Monday Mornings, from David E. Kelley and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Related: TNT To Develop ‘Frankenstein’ Drama Series Based On Dean Koontz’s Novels


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Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

For the length of 26 batters, from the moment the Indians chased CC Sabathia from the game in the fifth and got the Cleveland crowd back into things, until the moment Brett Gardner worked—and there is no better word than worked—an epic at-bat in the ninth, Game 5 of the ALDS was about as tense as games get: A one-run, winner-take-all game conducted by two of the best bullpens in baseball, brimful with strikeouts, base runners at a premium. There would be no dinger, no superheated single swing to break the K parade and either bring Cleveland level or buy the Yankees some relief. What there was was even more dramatic: six foul balls.

With two on and two out in the ninth, Gardner, who came to the plate with two hits already on the night, battled both Cody Allen and his own awareness of a notably vast strike zone for 12 pitches. Aaron Judge, who finished the series 1-for-20 with 16 strikeouts, was on deck, and the thought of walking Gardner to load the bases and pitch to Judge did cross Terry Francona’s mind, but not for very long. “If we walk him and Judge hits a ball 500 feet, I would have a hard time living with that,” Francona said. “No, that would be hard to do.”

What Cody Allen did instead, once he got Gardner to two strikes, was avoid giving him much to hit. Gardner saw a steady diet of chest-high fastballs on the outer half of the plate, strikes for sure (especially given how home plate ump Jeff Nelson, who might’ve had dinner reservations or something, had been calling just about everything a strike), but in the mid-90s and with Gardner worrying about Allen’s excellent curve—his swing-and-miss pitch—those outside fastballs weren’t anything that Gardner could do much with. So he fouled them off. Kept fouling them off. “I kind of laughed at him there after the 11th or 12th pitch,” Allen said. “And then, he got me.”

What Gardner got was an inside fastball, something he could get around on. He lined it to right, and one fielding miscue later, both baserunners were in and the Yankees had a 5-2 lead, and, ultimately, the series.

Here’s what Gardner saw. Pitches 1 and 3 were called strikes; all the other red ones he fouled off.

Working the count is an institutional Yankee strength, has been for the last couple of decades. (It’s a major reason Yankee games take so damn long.) This season, three of the top 13 MLB hitters in pitches per plate appearance are Yankees, and Gardner, despite a career-high 21 home runs, is just one of a couple slap hitters on that list. The ninth-inning AB was his second 12-pitch at-bat of the night. But this is how he’s always been, even when he came up in 2008 as a supposed weak-hitting, speedy, defensive-minded outfielder. It’s made him the longest-tenured Yankee on a team that’s now going to the ALCS.

As Cody Allen put it after the game, “every team in baseball could use a Brett Gardner.”


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Deano’s Koi Sticks 10kg

  • Highly Nutritious and Palatable
  • Developed specifically for KOI
  • Made in the UK
  • FREE UK Delivery
  • Added Spirulina for Koi colour enhancement
  • Discounted when buying more than 1 bag

SKU: KOS Category:

Deano’s Koi Sticks

Deano’s Koi sticks are specifically formulated to provide your Koi with a highly nutritious, balanced and colour enhancing diet.

Feeding your Koi with Deano’s nutritious Koi Sticks will help keep your precious fish in tip top condition

Deano’s Pond Fish Growth Pellets contain Vitamins A & D which is great for maintaining their health and Vitality.

We incorporate Vitamin C into our pond fish food to support and maintain a healthy immune system

This Koi formulation contains a full spectrum of essential vitamins and minerals that will provide your fish with all they need to keep them healthy.

Koi Sticks  shape and Size:

Shape is Round
14mm Length
4mm Width

Suggested feeding guide:

Feed at least two or three times daily, as much as the fish will consume within a few minutes. The metabolism of the fish is greatly reduced as the water temperature falls. Do not feed if the water temperature falls below 10c (50F)

Additional information

Weight N/A

Soya, Wheat, Meat & Bone Meal, Maize, Oats, Fish Meal, Lucerne, Minerals, Vitamins, Spirulina

Nutritional Additives

Colourants; Vitamins; Vitamin A (as retinyl acetate) 15,000 IU/kg, Vitamin D3 (as cholecalciferol) 2,250 IU/kg Vitamins C (as ascorbyl monophosphate) 1,400 mg/kg ; Trace Elements: Ferrous Sulphate Monohydrate 167 mg/kg (Iron 50 mg/kg), Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate 139 mg/kg (Zinc 50 mg/kg), Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate 109 mg/kg (Manganese 35 mg/kg), Cupric Sulphate Pentahydrate 60 mg/kg (Copper 15 mg/kg), Calcium Iodate Anhydrous 1.64 mg/kg (Iodine 1 mg/kg), Sodium Selenite 0.67 mg/kg (Selenium 0.3 mg/kg)

Bag Options

1 x 10kg Bag, 2 x 10kg Bags

Analytical Constituents

Crude Protein 30%, Crude Oil and Fats 5%, Crude Fibres
3.5%, Crude Ash 9.5%

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OUTLIER COUNTIES: Maricopa, Arizona—"Outrageously Exploited Power," "Crippled" Defense, and Five Exonerations

Maricopa County, Arizona imposed 28 death sentences between 2010 and 2015 and, as described in a BuzzFeed news analysis of a new report on outlier death penalty practices, "stands out for its stark examples of the problems found across the counties that most often sentence people to death." The report, Too Broken to Fix, by Harvard University's Fair Punishment Project, studied the nation's 16 most prolific death-sentencing counties and found that Maricopa County exhibited systemic problems with extreme prosecutorial misconduct, deficient defense representation, racial bias, excessive punishment, and innocence. The county's top prosecutor, Andrew Thomas, pursued capital charges at nearly double the rate of his predecesssor after winning election in 2004. His pattern of gross misconduct led a three-member panel of the Arizona Supreme Court to disbar him in 2012 for having "outrageously exploited power, flagrantly fostered fear, and disgracefully misused the law.” Three Maricopa prosecutors who served under Thomas accounted for more than one-third of all capital cases the Arizona Supreme Court has been called upon to review on direct appeal since 2006, "amass[ing] findings of improper behavior in eight [cases]." The excessive number of capital prosecutions in Thomas' tenure created a "capital case crisis" that "crippled the county's public defender system" and left a dozen murder defendants without lawyers. Four lawyers who were appointed accounted for nearly a quarter of all Arizona death cases that have reached the state supreme court since 2006. One Marciopa defense attorney, Herman Alcantar, represented five pretrial capital defendants at once, making it almost impossible for him to adequately represent his clients. In one of those cases, a month before trial, he had not filed any substantive motions or met with his client in over a year. Nathanial Carr represented four people now on death row, and spent less than two days presenting mitigation for each one. He wrote that one client, who had an IQ of 72, "looks like a killer, not a retard." In the six years covered by the Fair Punishment Project's report on outlier counties, 57% of Maricopa's death sentences were imposed on people of color. In that same period, no people of color were sentenced to death anywhere else in Arizona. Five Maricopa County death row inmates have been exonerated. Ray Krone (pictured) was convicted on junk science testimony after a prosecutor falsely claimed, "bite marks are as unique as fingerprints." He was later exonerated by DNA testing. Debra Milke spent 22 years on death row before her case was reversed and the state courts barred the prosecution from retrying her because of extensive official misconduct. An appellate court called her case, "a severe stain on the Arizona justice system."

This is the second in our 16-part What's New series on outlier counties that have sent the most number of defendants to death row since 2010.

("Too Broken to Fix: Part I," The Fair Punishment Project, August 23, 2016; C. Geidner, "Report Aims To Explain 'Outlier' Counties Imposing Most New Death Sentences," Buzzfeed, August 23, 2016, R. Smith, "The Worst Lawyers," Slate, November 4, 2015.) See Prosecutorial Misconduct, RepresentationInnocence, and Race


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VIDEO: 12-Year-Old Girl In Stolen Car Intentionally Runs Down Deputy

A 12-year-old girl stole her mother's car and led police on a chase that ended after she ran over a sheriff's deputy.

Meridian, MS – A 12-year-old girl stole her mother’s car and led police on a dangerous chase that ended when she ran over a sheriff’s deputy (video below).

The incident occurred at about 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 in Southern Estates trailer park off Valley Road, just inside the city limits of Meridian, The Meridian Star reported.

Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said that a 12-year-old girl got into a fight with her mother and stole the car. She was driving it in circles around the trailer park at a high rate of speed, endangering numerous children in the community, WTOK-TV reported.

Police responded to the scene, but the girl wouldn’t stop for them.

“This particular trailer court is a circle drive,” Sheriff Sollie told The Meridian Star. “The driver continued to make loops in the trailer court – that’s when deputies deployed spikes, more than once, striking the tires.”

“The last time through the trailer court, the operator of the vehicle struck a deputy,” the sheriff said.

A video of the incident, filmed by a bystander, was posted to social media and showed residents of the community cheering the girl on as she ran from police in her mother’s car.

In the video, an officer can be seen standing off to the side of the road in the dirt. The girl’s vehicle was headed in his direction on the road.

Then, all of a sudden, the video showed the girl turned the wheel and drove directly at the deputy.

The actual moment the car hit the deputy wasn’t shown on the video, but it was audible and made a huge thump as the girl literally ran the deputy down. Dust flew where the deputy hit the ground.

Then the video showed the deputy, flat on his back where he’d been run down, initially not moving.

Another police vehicle raced up to check on the injured deputy just as he appeared to begin moving and trying to sit up, the video showed.

But then the man filming the video took off running, in an attempt to follow the chase.

After she ran over the deputy, Sheriff Sollie said the 12 year old turned around and came back at the deputy, who was still laying on the ground.

She tried to use her car as a weapon, the sheriff told The Meridian Star.

At that point, a deputy fired his weapon to try to get the car to stop before anyone else was injured, he said.

A series of gunshots can be heard at the end of the video.

The deputy that was hit was taken to the hospital and treated for fractures and contusions. The sheriff said he had been referred to an orthopedic surgeon.

The 12-year-old girl who ran the deputy over was taken into custody and was being held at a youth detention center in the state, according to The Meridian Star. The girl was not injured during her dangerous rampage with her mother’s car.

The sheriff said there was dashcam video documenting the incident, in addition to the video posted on social media.

“Having seen the video of the incident – the deputy is extremely lucky to be with us today,” Sheriff Sollie said.

Watch a 12 year old intentionally run over a deputy in the video below:

No. 1-25

Let them hang out by a tree!

Time to bring back lynching!

Wow a 12 year old, what is going wrong with the youth of the country

Killeranmal said "2 days See racist ass holes like you is why shit like this happens,calling people animals."

Notice "killeranmal" cannot even spell his own street name correctly. Its "animal" there "killer". Now get back to working on the GED and stop trying to sound profound ....Not sure why most here who are supportive of the Police even bother trying to reason and have a rational dialogue with animals like ...ahem...."anmal". Think of it this way --you are trying to reason with someone with maybe a 5th grade education, who may be mentally ill, is likely on multiple drugs, maybe add in alcohol abuse as well , has no respect for themselves ( let alone others), likely has no parental guidance even if there is one parent still in the picture, has no plans for any constructive future past this current week, is an opportunist who literally takes anything they can to then pawn for a few bucks........Do I even really need to go on and give more examples? You are wasting your breath if you do think this time spent debating with animals will be productive. Better just to show support for the Police and Feds and let the "anmals" talk to a wall.


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Democrat flips to GOP to run for attorney general

Bernard Pepukayi (left), the Republican Party’s candidate for Delaware Attorney General, meets with Delaware Republican Party Chairman Mike Harrington.

DOVER — The Delaware Republican Party’s hopes to win the attorney general’s office now lie with a lawyer who was a Democrat for nearly two decades before Monday.

Bernard Pepukayi, a former Family Court commissioner and legal aide to Democratic politicians, has switched his party registration to Republican to seek the state’s top law enforcement job.

Mr. Pepukayi, 45, who once served as deputy legal counsel to then-Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and now works in private practice, rejected arguments his decision is simply a stunt or a move born out of desperation to win an election.

“I know on the streets of east side (in Wilmington), people are getting killed. I know there are a lot of people going into the criminal justice system,” he said. “I know that the people who are most directly affected by that criminal justice system happen to be black males, and I know what it’s like to be caught up in that system, so political opportunity, I think not. But concern of my community, I think so.

“And I don’t care about the politics of it if I’m helping the communities that need help, whether it’s in Laurel, Rehoboth, Wilmington, New Castle or what have you. But the bottom line is I believe I have something to offer that no one else does.”

Republican Peggy Marshall Thomas dropped out of the race last week about a month after filing, offering little explanation for ending her campaign. Mr. Pepukayi’s switch means the party is set to contest every statewide seat.

The party had been recruiting Mr. Pepukayi for about a year, according to La Mar Gunn, the party’s 2016 nominee for lieutenant governor.

Delaware Republican Chairman Mike Harrington gushed as he spoke about the GOP’s new candidate, calling the four Democratic hopefuls, who will square off in the primary Sept. 6, “not even close to” as qualified as Mr. Pepukayi.

The Democratic field includes three former high-ranking officials in the Delaware Department of Justice.

With less than three months to go until the general election, Mr. Pepukayi has a tight window to raise money and boost his name recognition. The GOP does plan to make a “substantial” financial commitment, Mr. Harrington said, and it held a fundraiser/rally event for him Monday.

If Mr. Pepukayi is to win, he will have to ensure plenty of independents and Democrats cast their vote his way: In Delaware, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 327,000 to 193,000. Another 173,000 voters are listed as independents.

Win or lose, Mr. Pepukayi claimed he would not flip his affiliation again.

“I have no intent to switch back,” he said. “That is not to say that … I mean, I didn’t anticipate switching to Republican. So, to me it’s not about the party. It’s about the purpose.”

He’s perhaps the first convicted felon to run for Delaware’s top law enforcement position, a unique experience Mr. Pepukayi believes makes him better suited for the office than any other candidate. At age 18, he was arrested and charged with delivery of a narcotic schedule, a felony. He was convicted but avoided jail time, instead receiving probation.

As the Delaware GOP put it, he then turned his life around, earning college degrees, becoming a lawyer and receiving a pardon.

His decision to run stemmed from a desire for change, which he believes the Democratic candidates don’t offer.

“When the finance reports came out … it just seemed like those in power wanted to keep the same type of people in power that would have changed nothing. That’s what I was fundamentally dissatisfied with, because something has to change,” he said.

In his criticism Mr. Pepukayi appeared to refer to former state prosecutor Kathy Jennings, who has raised nearly $411,000 this year and received support from many circles.

Asked what differentiates him from the Democratic candidates, he said voters should look not at their promises but their past actions.

He said the other four Delawareans seeking the post have emphasized lesser sentences instead of focusing on the root causes of crime and on keeping people out of prison. However, the Democratic hopefuls have all mentioned altering the system to be less punitive, and several have made it a core tenet of their campaigns.

Mr. Pepukayi said he does not support capital punishment but would be willing to seek it “if it’s a case that requires the death penalty.”

The state has been without a capital punishment statute since the Delaware Supreme Court ruled a portion of it was unconstitutional two years ago. Lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to restore it in 2017 and 2018.

He characterized himself as willing to consider marijuana legalization, which the Delaware House of Representatives voted down in June.

Asked about gun control, Mr. Pepukayi said he doesn’t “oppose the lawful possession of firearms” and would have to review any legislation limiting “assault weapons” before taking a stand on it.

A measure that would have banned the sale of such guns failed to pass this year, although the main sponsor hopes to bring it back in 2019.

Attorney General Matt Denn, a Democrat not seeking a second term, backed the legislation.

For the most plugged-in political insiders, Mr. Pepukayi’s announcement may have come as a surprise not just because of his changing affiliation but because state law forbids people from switching their party registration from the end of May until the September primary election.

However, it does contain an exception for candidates, allowing an individual to switch his or her affiliation by presenting an affidavit from the party and an affidavit from the person stating he or she plans to run for office for that party.

Staff writer Matt Bittle can be reached at 741-8250 or Follow @MatthewCBittle on Twitter.

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T2B Essex - delmorephotography

Welcome to the Delmore Photography & Couture Portrait
private gallery boutique. You may view &/or *order photos
from our professional printing lab here. We offer prints,
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*COUTURE PORTRAIT clients, please email regarding
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Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Centennial Memory #97: Mutual Respect Agreement

To celebrate the DeMolay Centennial, PA DeMolay will be counting down 100 memories worth celebrating that took place within the DeMolay Chapters and Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania DeMolay has always had a very successful relationship with the fellow Masonic Youth Organizations; Rainbow, Job's Daughters, Knights of Pythagoras and Ruth Mitchell Tucker Girls. At the 2006 PA DeMolay Convention, the relationship between DeMolay and the Knights of Pythagoras, a male youth organization sponsored by the Grand Lodge of Prince Hall, became a little stronger.

On July 15, 2006, Brother S. Alexander Fizz, State Master Councilor of Pennsylvania DeMolay, and Brother Terrence D. Green, Grand Master Knight of Pennsylvania Knights of Pythagoras, signed a document known as the "Resolution of Mutual Respect, Recognition and Fraternal Love" within the two organizations. The documents were signed and authorized by Pennsylvania DeMolay Executive Officer, Thomas R. Labagh and Worshipful State Youth Director for Pennsylvania Knights of Pythagoras, Kevin D. Mahoner. The signing was also witnessed by the Right Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Ronald A. Aungst.

"What exactly is a Mutual Respect, Recognition and Fraternal Love Agreement?" I'm glad you asked. The document not only expresses the mutual recognition and respect of the two organizations, which had already existed for years, but also encourages membership of the two organizations to visit each other. As stated below:

"NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT we, the members of The Order of DeMolay in Pennsylvania hereby adopt this resolution of mutual respect, recognition and fraternal love for our Brothers of The Order of the Knights of Pythagoras in Pennsylvania, and encourage visitation to stated and special meetings, as well as participation in shared programs of education, athletics, ritual and fun."

Up until that point, DeMolay and Knights of Pythagoras worked together as much as they could. They participated in Brotherhood Weekends, including the one taking place earlier that year entitled "Brotherhood Evolved: Road to Glory." DeMolay is proud of the ongoing relationship we have with the members of Knights of Pythagoras. I'm proud to say that I am still friends with Terrence, and a few of the other members I had the privilege to meet during my time in DeMolay.

Until next time - "Dad" Joe Pullin

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LGIM Real Assets

LGIM to fund development of Scottish student accommodation block

LGIM Real Assets (Legal & General) has agreed to fund the development of a new student accommodation block which has been pre-let to a top Scottish university.

It has announced this on behalf of its LPI (Limited Price Inflation) Income Property Fund and has completed the purchase from Lincam Pentland Ltd, a subsidiary of S1 Developments Limited.

The purchase of the proposed 315-room student residence was completed on a forward-funding basis for a price of around £35m.

The property will be leased to the university on a 20-year, full repairing and insuring lease on completion of the development.

The scheme is being carried out by S1 Developments and is scheduled for completion in September 2020.

Derek Gilby, senior fund manager of the LPI Income Property Fund, said: “The quality and affordability of accommodation can represent a large factor for students when deciding where they want to go to university.

“We believe that quality facilities that are affordable for students can help to provide a quality education.

“This is an excellent buy for the fund, offering a secure long-term income stream, which provides a hedge to inflation from a top investment grade university.”

Dan Teague of S1 Developments Limited, added: “We are delighted to have concluded this transaction with Legal & General, who are a perfect partner for ourselves.

“We will be providing exceptional accommodation for the university in time for the 2020/21 academic year.

“We are known for providing best-in-class housing and we hope for the same reputation within the commercial property world.”

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Contact us: +61 8 8226 8800

Department of Human Services

Elizabeth South Community Centre Op Shop volunteers

A Grants SA funded community building project in Elizabeth South is helping people experiencing social isolation and disadvantage build confidence and re-engage with their community.

The Elizabeth South Community Centre recently won Grants SA funding of $39,771 to employ a coordinator to work with volunteers and, with their help, establish an Op Shop for people in the northern suburbs. The centre has recruited, trained and supported 45 volunteers and the Op Shop is thriving and changing lives.

The Elizabeth South Community Centre is a community development project and runs through the hard work of dedicated volunteers. Its focus is to help the people in the Elizabeth South and surrounding area to help people help themselves.

For volunteers, the community centre is a safe place for people to interact, and experience kindness and gentle guidance.

Volunteers’ experiences

Kate* volunteers at the centre. Before her experience at the center, she was shy and often felt anxious. For the past 20 years, she mostly stayed at home because she was afraid to leave her house. Volunteering has transformed her into a more confident and sociable person.

She began sorting clothes in the rear of the shop, and with support and time, was able to engage with customers confidently. Centre staff supported Kate when she needed help and gave her opportunities to solve problems. She did well, took on more responsibility, and within three months, Kate was serving customers at the front of the shop.

Fellow volunteer Claire* experienced similar social isolation and low confidence.  She agreed to try a week volunteering with the centre, through an arrangement with UnitingSA, as a small step to help her re-engage with the community. With praise and gentle encouragement from staff, Claire began to feel more positive. She was happy to extend her volunteering on a weekly basis and after six weeks, decided she wanted to become a permanent volunteer.

Claire’s confidence and resilience are now very evident. Promoted to Facilitator after six months of volunteering, she began managing and supporting new volunteers and making operational decisions within the Op Shop.

The experience she gained through volunteering was the boost she needed to look for paid work. After proactively looking, she was recently successful in finding part-time work.

Local programs

The Elizabeth South Community Centre runs a number of programs. Crucially, these opportunities within walking distance for the local community, making it easy to get to.

Centre programs include:

  • a café offering low-cost food and drink
  • a Krafty Korner Group for adults/seniors
  • a Men’s Monday Morning Mayhem and friendship group
  • a Lego Club, and
  • Kids Club for children.

*Names have been changed.

State Government of South Australia © Copyright DHS .

Provided by:
SA Department for Human Services
Last Updated:
05 Jul 2018
Printed on:
18 Jan 2019
The DHS website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence. © Copyright 2016


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Type 2 diabetes programme ‘significantly’ improves health outcomes

By Editor
13th February 2018
Education, Research Type 2 diabetes Type 2 prevention

People who take part in a type 2 diabetes education programme say it makes them feel “empowered” to manage their condition better.

In a study looking at how people respond to the Diabetes Education and Self-Management for Ongoing and Diagnosed (Desmond) programme, researchers said it “significantly” improved people’s health after completing the course.

Launched in 2003, Desmond was designed to teach people who already have type 2 diabetes the skills necessary to live with the condition.

The research, led by the Leicester Diabetes Centre, showed that in over 1,670 people with diabetes who completed the course between 2014 and 2015 they had reduced HbA1c levels of about 1 per cent.

Lead researcher Professor Melanie Davies CBE, professor of diabetes medicine at the University of Leicester and director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, said: “Diabetes education and self-management programmes are an essential component of diabetes care, but we’ve found uptake is low. However, when we offered this course in Leicester in 2014-2015 the majority of patients took the opportunity to attend, and the results were really impressive.

“We believe figures could be significantly increased if doctors are trained sufficiently so they know more about how structured education works and how courses such as Desmond could benefit their patients.

“If not managed properly type 2 diabetes can lead to devastating complications, including blindness, a lost limb or an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack, which is why introducing people to Desmond is so crucial.”

Bernie Stribling, director of Desmond, said: “These findings are hugely valuable to us as a team, so it’s rewarding to know the programme continues to help people to control their condition. These are real people in a real-world setting in a multi-ethnic UK city.

“We’ve estimated that on average people with type 2 diabetes only see their healthcare professional for three hours a year, making Desmond even more vital to help and encourage people to manage, control and prevent type 2 diabetes.”

The study findings have been published in the Practical Diabetes International journal.

Desmond is the collaborative name for a family of group self-management education modules, toolkits and care pathways for people with, or at risk of, type 2 diabetes.

Most Desmond programmes are delivered in a group to increase healthcare professional contact time and also encourage positive interactions between group members.

To read the study, click here.

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