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Stealthy TrendKite unleashes new tool for companies to further manipulate the media

By Hamish McKenzie , written on August 21, 2013

From The News Desk

If you don’t believe that large companies pay serious heed to how the press reports on them, you need look no further than the media scoresheet that a Google public relations dude recently sent to journalists by mistake. The PR guy, as VentureBeat reported, had graded various news outlets according to the type of coverage they had previously afforded the company.* The AP, Wall Street Journal, and the New Yorker had all been awarded “A” grades for their work, while Reuters, ESPN, and Bloomberg each had to suffer the private indignity of a “B.”

That PR rep had gone to painstaking lengths to manually log his findings in spreadsheets. He might have had an easier time had he known about Austin-based startup TrendKite, which is today coming out of stealth with the launch of an analytics tool for press mentions. The company has also announced that it has raised a $1.2 million Series A round led by Silverton Partners, with participation from a group of angel investors and DreamIt Ventures, an accelerator it went through.

TrendKite’s defining idea is that it thinks quantitative data – counts of mentions, tweets, discussions, and the like – are not all that useful. Instead, it focuses on presenting qualitative data to clients, stressing themes, values, sentiments, and breakdowns by markets. That way, it can give its clients a better idea of what the media is saying about them, rather than just how often their name is cropping up in news stories.

Such an approach to qualitative analysis is effectively a way of automating that grading process that Google’s clumsy PR person went through in a spreadsheet. In that sense, TrendKite is of a kin with fellow early-stage optimization startups, Topsy (social media), ThinkUp (social media), and Spinnakr (website analytics), all of which want to show insight through intelligent feedback rather than raw numbers.

Like those companies, too, TrendKite  puts design on a pedestal, presenting its data in highly visual charts and a mobile-friendly layout, boasting all the requisite white space and rounded rectangles to place it firmly within the era of the design-centric Web. In that way, it’s also consistent the consumerization of enterprise software.

TrendKite’s founders, Matthew Allison and AJ Bruno, say the company’s main competition is actually Google Alerts, since it provides reports to clients on ongoing media activity. More realistically, it’ll face a serious tussle with the likes of the well-established Vocus and Cision, not to mention the hundred other startups about to move into this space. After all, in an increasingly social Web, sentiment analysis is hot right now.

TrendKite's platform is currently in beta, and it counts OpenStack and Nikon among its customers. Today, only its dashboard and reports features are available, but more granular functions – such as a Flipboard-like news page that displays all the stories relevant to the client – are on their way later in the year.

The seven-person company plans to use its funding to work on product and grow its sales team. It ultimately aims to integrate its system into other analytics tools, such as Marketo and Omniture, in order to track the true return on investment for a company's media efforts.

Google later clarified that the chart was a template from the PR person’s former job at an agency, but you get the point.


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References (42)

Citations (1)

Public Health in India: An Overview

Monica Das Gupta

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

December 2005

World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3787

Public health services, which reduce a population's exposure to disease through such measures as sanitation and vector control, are an essential part of a country's development infrastructure. In the industrial world and East Asia, systematic public health efforts raised labor productivity and life expectancies well before modern curative technologies became widely available, and helped set the stage for rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. The enormous business and other costs of the breakdown of these services are illustrated by the current global epidemic of avian flu, emanating from poor poultry-keeping practices in a few Chinese villages. For various reasons, mostly of political economy, public funds for health services in India have been focused largely on medical services, and public health services have been neglected. This is reflected in a virtual absence of modern public health regulations and of systematic planning and delivery of public health services. Various organizational issues also militate against the rational deployment of personnel and funds for disease control. There is strong capacity for dealing with outbreaks when they occur, but not to prevent them from occurring. Impressive capacity also exists for conducting intensive campaigns, but not for sustaining these gains on a continuing basis after the campaign. This is illustrated by the near eradication of malaria through highly organized efforts in the 1950s, and its resurgence when attention shifted to other priorities such as family planning. This paper reviews the fundamental obstacles to effective disease control in India and indicates new policy thrusts that can help overcome these obstacles.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Open PDF in Browser Download This Paper

Date posted: January 5, 2006

Suggested Citation

Das Gupta, Monica, Public Health in India: An Overview (December 2005). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3787. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=873895

Contact Information

Monica Das Gupta (Contact Author)
World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )
1818 H. Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States
HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/mdasgupta
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Citations:  1

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DSM-V Enters Final Public Comment Period – You Should Care

Just a quick note here, as psychiatry and psychology are not fields I engage with frequently (my last post on this topic was over two years ago).  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is undergoing the final public comment period for the new edition, targeted for a May 2013 publication.  This will be the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-V), and it serves as a guide toward defining and determining the presence of disease.  Comments are accepted until June 15th, and you must register at the DSM-V website.  The process is administered by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).  According to those with a greater knowledge of the changes being discussed (preview only, full article requires payment), DSM-V represents the most significant adjustments to diagnostic criteria in 30 years.

While not exactly a hot topic in general science policy circles, redefining diseases certainly has policy implications.  As many of the diseases considered in the DSM deal with mental illnesses, something for which there is still a serious stigma in society, the impact of changing what counts as autism (which may be folded into a broader autism spectrum disorder), or whether or not something qualifies as an addiction can be profound.  Insurance is affected, health care providers will adapt practices to the new criteria and/or the resulting changes in diagnoses.  It’s important that the changes have a reliable research basis underneath them – something that’s harder to accomplish in some mental illnesses as we still don’t know a lot about the brain.

So there’s a bit of concern over a report that some initial tests suggest that proposed changes may not prove particularly reliable in the field.  The concern is compounded by the relatively small window of time remaining for the APA to adjust and re-test criteria.  Yes, this revision has taken 11 years.  As it could well take that long to correct any problems that get enacted into the DSM-V, I’d rather a publication deadline slip and get things right (or at least better).

One thought on “DSM-V Enters Final Public Comment Period – You Should Care

  1. I’m waiting for the APA to revisit their decision back in ’73 to stop categorizing homosexuality as a mental illness. Back then 50% of gays had had more than 1000 sexual partners; 75% had more than 600. That’s normal????

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Roses revisited

part 1

Since I write about rosary beads, I do my share of myth-debunking, and like anyone else who has written about rosaries, I get a lot of questions about beads made of rose petals. As I've discussed in some detail here, modern rosaries made of rose-petal beads -- or imitations thereof -- are perpetually popular. And truly, it's a nice idea, at least when one is not smacked in the face with cheap imitation rose scent upon opening the box with the rosary in it. (I have such a rosary: I seldom open the box ;)

Nonetheless, there are some common myths about rose-petal beads, and the biggest one is that rose-petal beads have something to do with why this string of beads is called a "rosary."

I've gone into some detail here on exactly how the rosary got that name. Briefly, "rosary" began as a word for a garden in which roses are grown. From there, a few authors used it to refer to a collection of essays, such as the Rosarium Philosophorum, a 1386 treatise on alchemy by Arnaldus de Villa Nova. It was a short step to extend this from a book of written essays to a book of written prayers, and then to any other sequence of prayers, written or not. The name "rosary" for the devotion -- which dates back to the middle 1400s with this meaning -- was reinforced by the circulation of popular legends that envisioned each prayer said as a "rose" given to the Virgin Mary.

Petals, and indeed beads, are nowhere in this story.

(Incidentally, the author of the first rosary manual, Alanus de Rupe, hated the “rose” metaphor because he thought it far too evocative of sensual pleasure. But of course that may have been why it had such wide appeal. He preferred to call the devotion the "Psalter of Our Lady.")

The story is further complicated by a problem with dates. In order for rose-petal beads to have anything to do with the word "rosary," you first have to find out if rose-petal beads even existed at the time you're talking about. For rosaries, that would be the late Middle Ages, especially the first half of the 1400s when what we now know as "the rosary" was in development.

I've been looking for years for evidence of when rose-petal beads were first made, and so far, I have not found anything that clearly dates them any earlier than the 19th or early 20th century. Sources like a 1996 issue of "The Herb Companion" or Dover books' reprint of Rose Recipes from Olden Times by Eleanor Rohde, are quite willing to label rose-petal mixtures as "medieval," but without -- as far as I can tell -- consulting anything other than their own imaginations. (Typical quote: "Centuries ago, when knighthood was reportedly in flower, noblewomen made fragrant beads of petals plucked from castle rose gardens...")

It's quite easy to find multiple recipes for rose-petal beads (here's one) on the Internet: most of them involve putting rose petals through a blender and simmering the resulting mush gently for some hours. Some recipes add a binding material such as vegetable gum or flour and salt. Simmered in a cast iron pan, the mashed petals turn black, otherwise the color may be dark red, pinkish or orange. When the consistency is like clay, small amounts can be rolled into bead shapes and pierced with a needle before drying.

It was in following up another clue on this trail that I discovered something new this week (well, new to me, anyway). I discovered that a book that I'd dismissed as a figment of someone's fantasy actually does exist, and probably was written by the author it's attributed to. And while it still does not produce a recipe for beads made out of rose petals, what it does say is quite interesting.

The book is usually referred to in English by the title of a modern edition, The Elixirs of Nostradamus. To give him his proper name, Michel de Nostradame (known as Nostradamus) was a prolific French writer and professional apothecary who wrote at least two books in the mid-1500s on medicine, as well as a series of Almanacs and his famous collection of prophecies, first published in 1555.

The book usually called the "Elixirs" originally had a very long title beginning Excellent et moult utile opuscule..., but it's more usually referred to as the Traite des fardemens et des confitures (Treatise of Cosmetics and Preserves) and was first published in 1555 (or 1552, it's not clear). There doesn't seem to be any doubt that Nostradamus wrote it, although as was very common in those days, he takes a lot of his material from earlier published works. (Copyright in the modern sense did not exist back then.)

I doubt that I could have found this seven or eight years ago when I first became interested in this question, but there are now at least two places on the Internet where you can see actual facsimiles of Nostradamus's publications online. One is the Nostradamus library at Repertoire Chronologique Nostradamus but I prefer the images at the related site Prophecies Online which also contains a (partial) English translation.

The pages of interest are 55 through 59, which contain Part I, Chapter X and Chapter XI. Right there at the top of page 56, sure enough, is the word patinostres (his spelling) and the recipe that follows certainly starts with gathering a large quantity of roses. (It says "five or six hundred, more or less" -- de cinq à six cents tant du plus que du moins) (I get tired just thinking about this!)

However (and it's a big however) the recipes that follow are not your classic recipe for beads made out of mashed-up rose petals.

There are in fact two recipes: in the first (Chapter X), you are instructed to make an extract of the rose petals and then throw the petals out and boil down the liquid. One of my correspondents has tried this, and she says what it actually produces is a very concentrated, strongly scented rose oil. As Nostradamus wrote them, the instructions say the recipe produces a "sweet-smelling, long-lasting paste" (une paste laquelle sera d'une bonne odeur durant longuement), but in the end it is described as "as thick as boiled honey" (asses espes comme miel cuit).

This is the recipe I've usually seen mentioned as producing "rose-petal beads," but clearly that's not quite what it does. This is made clearer by the next recipe, which I'll discuss in a future article.

All posts in this series:

Part 1: Roses revisited
Part 2: Rose pastilles
Part 3: The beads of Nostradamus

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SinC25: Erin Kelly, #10 (and final) post of expert challenge

Having completed the Sisters in Crime book bloggers’ easy and moderate challenges, I have with this post reached the end of the expert challenge! The task:

write ten blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention three similar women authors whose works you would recommend.

I’m choosing Erin Kelly for my last post. Her second book The Sick Rose is a suspense novel told from the point of view of two characters, in two different time frames. Yet unlike many books that use the “switching time” device, Kelly writes with discipline and focus. Hence there is a strong framework for the story she tells to be revealed gradually to the reader. Kelly’s first book, The Poison Tree, was mainly set in London and concerned some young people who spent a lethal summer living in a big house owned by the father of two of them. The Sick Rose* is set in two contrasting areas of London for its earlier time frame, but in the present the action occurs in Warwickshire – at a castle not unlike Kenilworth, and in the town of Leamington Spa. Rather than recommend three authors who write similar novels to Kelly (who could be Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine, Morag Joss and Tara French), I am going to highlight three authors from, and who write about, the same midlands region of the UK, which is somewhat unfashionable in international, and even national, terms.

(*The Sick Rose is retitled as The Dark Rose in the USA, which is incomprehensible as the author explains the meaning of “the sick rose” during the book.)

Catherine O’Flynn has written two wonderful novels set in Birmingham. The first, What Was Lost, is a very different kind of detective story, a very sad one, featuring England’s first (real-life) enormous shopping mall and its effect on the lives of the characters. Her second book, The News Where You Are, has a detective story element (again very “different”), and conveys the same sense of sadness in human relationships. One of its themes is of the architecture of Birmingham, widely derided nowadays as a soul-less “concrete jungle” but in the eyes of its architect a marvellous vision of the future. The architect is loosely based on the visionary but misunderstood John Madin, who died earlier this year. Here is a Guardian profile of the author, written just before this novel was published.

Diane Janes set her first novel, The Pull of the Moon, in the countryside round Birmingham and Hereford. The main character, Kate, grew up in the city, went to college there, and as the novel opens is enjoying early retirement. The novel tells of a traumatic experience one summer in Kate’s youth. Janes’s second novel, Why Don’t You Come For Me?, is an excellent suspense novel in the Karin Altvegen mould, set a little further north in the Lake District.

Judith Cutler lived and worked in Birmingham for many years. Her first series of novels featured Sophie Rivers, a teacher at a college in the city. She has also written several other series, some of which are set in the region.

My previous posts in the SinC25 challenge.

The Sisters in Crime 25th anniversary challenge was started by Barbara Fister. Thank you, Barbara, for the fascinating journey – even though I completed it after the end of the official 25th anniversary year!

7 thoughts on “SinC25: Erin Kelly, #10 (and final) post of expert challenge

  1. Very interesting. I am always amazed at the number of crime fiction authors, especially women, whom I learn about from this post and the many before it in this series. I’m not sure that psychological suspense is my genre of choice, but it’s fun to learn more and hear of new — to me — authors.
    On an upbeat note, I have a very nice, helpful and kind neighbor from Birmingham and have met some of his lovely relatives, so it’s all good to me.

  2. Maxine – Excellent choice for this post! Kelly does have talent. And what a great idea to look at other writers whose stories are set in the same part of England. Very creative, and of course, that lets you mention Catherine O’Flynn, whose work I like so very much.
    On another note, congratulations on completing this challenge. Very well done and leaves me in awe.
    Oh, and don’t even get me started on why publishers inexplicably change titles of novels…

    • Thanks so much, Margot. Well, your own blog is a testament to your awesome qualities😉 Yes, title changes are so silly, especially here when there is a paragraph or two explaining the allegory, which won’t make sense to readers of the US edition (unless they happen to know the original title).

      • *Blush* Thanks🙂. And you know, I’ve never understood the need for most title changes. Rarely are they necessary and most of the time, they’re really distracting. More than once actually I’ve thought I was reading a new book by an author only to find out it was the same book by a different title. And in this case – where the allegory is explained – why bother!? Harrumph!😉

  3. Congratulations from me too Maxine. Towards the end of the challenge I was introduced to all sorts of writers I hadn’t heard of before. And good to get some suggestions for UK authors.

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May 19, 2013

STUART ROTHENBERG: Will Obama Administration Controversies Affect Democratic Recruitment? “There is no doubt that the three major controversies on which President Barack Obama finds his administration on the defensive — Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservatives and the subpoenaing of AP phone records — have changed the political narrative of the day. Instead of mobilizing all of his resources to promote his agenda, the president and administration officials are having to spend time and energy answering and rebutting Republican charges. . . . So far, Democratic strategists say that they have not heard from potential candidates who are worried about a deteriorating political environment or showing greater hesitancy about taking the electoral plunge this cycle. But at least it is worth watching over the next couple of months to see if often-mentioned potential candidates start jumping into races or removing themselves from consideration. Candidate recruitment, after all, can determine which states and districts are in play in November 2014 and which races have simply vanished from everyone’s scorecard.”

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Windows 10 – Technical Preview Coming To Lumia Handsets

Windows 10 - Technical Preview Coming To Lumia Handsets
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is one of the handsets set to recieve the preview

Microsoft is looking to release Windows 10 Technical Preview  on a broader range of the Nokia Lumia handsets. Initially the technical preview was only working on a small number of Lumia devices due to a technical issue with the OS Partition.

Microsoft have finished working on a feature known as Partition Stitching, this allows them to resize the partition on the phone dynamically, therefore opening the possibility of more handsets being able to recieve the Windows 10 Technical Preview update.

So far we have counted 36 Models, however Microsoft have been quick to add that the list of handsets is subject to change. This is dependant on any model specific bugs being located and subsequently fixed.

“We spent this week testing on individual devices, as well as providing the builds with this feature to our internal rings so that we all could test it on our own phones which had been previously not usable. I’ve been thrilled to get my beloved Lumia 1020 on Windows 10!”

“This testing will allow us to support A LOT more phones for the next flight. I get a ton of questions every day on Twitter about when your favorite phones will be usable, and I’m happy to report that the vast majority will be supported with the next flight”

This is good news for Lumia owners, for more information on the proposed handsets recieving the upgrade, you’ll need to check out the Windows Blogs page.

Source: Windows Blogs

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Classes for my graduate program start back up again in less than a week, which I suspect means that my days of focusing on Arabic are numbered (as well as my days of sleeping well, watching television, etc.)  Oh Arabic!  I don’t want to abandon you!  This summer I’ve been able to spend many happy hours studying this language I love so much.  I must say I haven’t studied very ambitiously, or aggressively, but I do know that I have progressed, and what’s more important, I’ve loved every minute of it.

As this summer draws to a close, I thought I would share with you some of the resources I’ve been using.  A couple of caveats: first of all, like I said, I haven’t been studying aggressively, and I’m by no means an expert.  If I’m being generous to myself, I’m sort of a high-beginner.  So take what I say here for what it’s worth.  Secondly, I am focusing exclusively on MSA.  Eventually I do want to study dialects, but I wanted to have a really solid foundation in Modern Standard before I ventured out from there.

So, with that in mind, here are some of my resources!

  1. Mastering Arabic – I’ve flirted with a few different textbook lines, both in formal classrooms and on my own, and this one takes the cake.  It is well-written, engaging, and clear; it’s also fun, with plenty of drawings and lighthearted practice, without any of the sacrifice of content that “fun” usually implies.  The audio on the CD is also very clear, and the authors stick to MSA, while also offering the occasional note about how the grammar might look in truly classical Arabic.  I’m almost done with Book 1, and I’m so happy they’ve come out with a Book 2 as well!
  2. Mastering Arabic Activity Book – I’m kind of obsessed with workbooks.  I’m a visual learner, so I really like having a lot of written practice to help me solidify what I’m learning.  I was thrilled to find that this textbook line offers a supplemental workbook.
  3. Easy Arabic Grammar – This is by the authors of the above two books, and it is absolutely perfect.  If you are under the impression, as I was, that the words “easy” and “Arabic grammar” are contradictory, you need this book.  It is so slim, just under 150 pages, but it makes everything crystal-clear and painless, and also includes some brief exercises.  It’s a great supplement to any textbook, as well as just being a handy reference.  (Obviously it does not cover every minute aspect of Arabic grammar, but it is perfect for what it is.)
  4. Build Your Arabic Vocabulary – Pretty straightforward.  Lots and lots of vocabulary sensibly organized and well-presented.  The words are presented in three columns: English, transliterated Arabic, and Arabic, and the audio CD reinforces the pronunciation, which is great for beginners.  The little pre-made flashcards at the back are a little silly, way to teensy for me and they aren’t perforated, but I don’t mind because I learn better when I make my own flashcards anyway.
  5. Arabic Pod 101 – how on earth did it take me so long to discover language-learnng podcasts??  iTunes has a plethora of free ones, in every modern language and some not-modern ones, and I’ve been voraciously downloading ever since this discovery.  For Arabic, this is my very favorite.  The two narrators speak clearly and each dialogue is quite short, is repeated multiple times, and is usually interesting and topical (for instance, learning how to make restaurant reservations, or how to buy a ticket to the Olympics.)  From what I can gather, most dialogues are MSA, but occasionally are Levantine or Saudi, and the narrators will be careful to point this out.  There is an associated website with additional content, including lesson transcripts, for a small fee, which I have not yet tried.
  6. The Arabic Student – This is a really, really fabulous blog, by a fellow American Arabophile who is very generous with his lessons.  Most of his content is in Levantine dialect, and is aimed at more intermediate-advanced learners, but he also occasionally posts MSA and beginner-friendly lessons, like this one for learning how to count and this one which features a simple Arabic proverb.
  7. Cairo: The City Victorious – Okay, so this isn’t strictly speaking a “language learning” resource, except in its motivational capacity :)  This lovely book did absolutely nothing to de-exoticize Cairo to me, and did quite a lot to keep me wanting to plug away at learning Arabic!

So those are some of the things I’ve used as a student of Arabic language.  I am lucky to be studying a global language with so many really quality resources out there.  If you’re studying Arabic as well, I hope these suggestions have been helpful, and if you’re studying something else, I hope that maybe you’ve gotten some new ideas or at least inspiration!

And if you’re not studying any language…well, why the heck not? 🙂


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C3 Computer & Communications Ltd Press releases

1 - 8 of 8 Press Releases

May 31, 2016
Computer telephony specialists C3 have announced further Payment Service Provider (PSP) integrations to their popular payments solution with direct integrations to Worldpay and Capita Software Services, a division of Capita Plc.

Dec 12, 2012
Cable & Wireless Communications, one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies, has added C3’s Network Conferencing platform to its existing C3 messaging platform.

Dec 05, 2012
Lookout Call has signed a reseller agreement with Redbrook Communications to sell its mobile-based lone worker safety system.

Oct 10, 2012
- Manx Telecom chooses Cambridge-based telecommunications specialist C3 to develop fully customised network messaging solution - The new platform has been fully integrated into Manx Telecom’s IMS Alcatel Lucent carrier infrastructure

Oct 02, 2012
Idox plc, a leading information management solutions provider, has chosen C3 as its telephony technology partner.

Aug 07, 2012
C3 has today released version 1.4.0 of its intuitive call handling platform Fusion IVR.

Jul 20, 2012
Hosted telecommunications business Sundial Telecom has slashed time to market by up to 50%, and plans to take on a range of new projects as a result.

Jul 11, 2012
Lookout Call, the highly regarded lone worker safety system operated by C3, has added GPS tracking capability to its latest release.

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Critical Thinking

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Transcript of Critical Thinking

Thinking Critical Have in Reason Independent Integrity Have Act towards others the way you want others to act towards you. Don't QUIT! Don't be afraid to work hard when you feel like giving up. There is always room for improvement. NEVER GIVE UP! Perseverance A Better You..
..A Better World Do your own thinking. Figure out things for yourself. Don't believe what you want to believe, and use Intellectual Standards when thinking. Be compassionate of other people's thoughts and feelings. Try to see their point of views. Courage Confidence Fairminded What
Farrukh Thanks for your time! Be Have Be Have Be Group Project Humble Be Recognize that you don't know everything. Most things you think about are not true. Always ask, How do I know that? How do you know that? Speak up when you believe its right but always be respectful. Develop the courage to look inside your mind and question everything that goes on in there. Make sure your information is accurate and relevant when solving a problem. Avoid superficial answers on complicated problems. Really see the different point of views. Trust evidence, facts and reasoning. does all of this make? What does it mean? Are you looking at another reasonable way to look at this situation?
Does your point of view seem to be the only correct one?
Do you try and enter and appreciate the point of view of others? Be fair in every situation. think about everyone else not just you. Be willing to give up needs to help other people in need. Put yourself in their shoes, but most importantly - Think Before You Act. Bye! Empathetic Group 3: Remember When deciding what to believe.. Be Accurate!
Correct, True, and Not Distorted. Be Precise!
Give Details to Solve the Problem Have Breadth!
Have a Wide Range of Views Be Logical!
Makes Sure it Make Sense, and that Everything Fits Together Be Relevant!
Relate it Directly to the Problem Have Depth!
Don't be Superficial, Deal with the Complexities Be Clear!
Make it Understandable Be Fair!
Consider the Thoughts and Views of Others Be Significant!
Focus on Important, not The Trivial
Full transcript


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Prophet, Priest, Martyr… God?

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Lives of Faith

US politics, and particularly US Presidential politics, is the stuff of great drama. Steven Spielberg’s latest blockbuster Lincoln, based on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and in particular his fight to end slavery and the US Civil War, was nominated for an amazing 12 Oscars this year. Daniel Day-Lewis, who had already won both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, took out Best Actor for his extraordinary portrayal of the 16th President.

A special aura surrounds President Lincoln in the US popular imagination. His herculean effort at ending slavery and the US Civil War has bestowed on him an almost godlike status in the eyes of many Americans. He is also a key figure that helps make sense of American “civil religion”, that is, a religion of the state, separate and distinct from traditional religions such as Judaism and Christianity, but nonetheless relying heavily on these traditions for images, narratives, rituals and rhetoric. As part of this civil religion, national documents like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence become ‘sacred’ texts; national days of remembrance, prayer services and presidential inaugurations take on the flavour of ‘religious’ rituals and memorials. Within this dynamic, the US President takes on the role of prophet, priest, martyr and sometimes even saviour of the nation.

Lincoln is arguably the first (and perhaps only) US President viewed in all these iconic roles. A hugely popular President, Lincoln is regarded by many as a visionary. His commitment to the abolition of slavery is not just something he sees as important for the nation at that moment, but forever. As his character states during the film “Abolishing slavery by constitutional provisions settles the fate for all coming time. Not only of the millions now in bondage, but of unborn millions to come.” While his advisors urge him to prioritize peace in the Civil War, Lincoln knows that without the question of slavery being resolved, this peace will only be temporary. For the future unity of the country, both the war and slavery must end.

In scenes such as this, Lincoln goes some way in portraying how the President is at one and the same time the High Priest of the Nation and its prophet, challenging it to continually progress towards higher and loftier goals, rebuking it for past failures, but always out of deep love and commitment. And always, the President is called on to make great sacrifices for the nation, sometimes even to give his own life. The assassination of Lincoln was portrayed in just such a manner – a martyr for the cause of the United States of America, with Lincoln paying the ultimate price for the unity of the nation, just as Christ paid the ultimate price for unity between God and His creation.1

At the very end of the film, we see Lincoln further fulfilling his role as High Priest of the nation when he delivers his second Inaugural Address. His incredibly short speech (only 700 words in total) concludes with something that sounds very similar to the conclusion to a priest’s sermon, or to a religious service:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.2

This is not just Hollywood prose, these words are taken directly from the original speech. There are numerous rhetorical resonances with Old Testament prophets particularly in God’s promises to bind up the injuries of his people (Isaiah 30:26).3

Numerous presidents have woven scripture into their speeches and Barack Obama is no exception.4 After the Newtown shooting incident, Obama’s words to the nation included references to Isaiah 61: “May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds”. His conclusion to his inauguration address is also worth noting:

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.

Here, like Lincoln, Obama assumes the role of High Priest of the nation. Just as at the conclusion of a church service, a minister calls members of the congregation to “go out into the world and live and work to [God’s] praise and glory”, Obama is calling American citizens to go forth into the world and serve the cause of the United States of America.

By referring to “ancient values” and “enduring ideals”, Obama imbues the idea of the US with a transcendent, almost eternal quality. This transcendence has been a critical component of US national identity since its colonization, at times endowing the US as a nation, not just its president, with Messiah-like status. Examples include the now famous speech by Jonathan Winthrop to the Puritan settlers likening the New World to the ‘City on a Hill’ Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:13-16 and the 19th century doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which assumed that the United States had a unique calling and purpose as a leader in international politics.5 Although not explicit within US political rhetoric today (though Obama’s reference to the “light of freedom” certainly conjures up images of the City on a Hill), these ideas still shape much of the political context, leading some commentators to argue that US foreign policy is a kind of “manifest theology” of the US civil religion.6

Whilst most US Presidents throughout history have assumed the role of priest and prophet of the nation, few have been martyrs and even fewer considered saviours. Perhaps more so than other presidents in recent history, Obama has, among his supporters, taken on an almost saviour-like quality. As the first African-American President and one who campaigned on policies encapsulated by his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama has certainly had a lot of expectations to live up to, with some more flippant social media commentary describing his first inauguration as “the inauguration of Jesus”. Posters produced for his second inauguration likened him to Jesus and even some mainstream news media used biblical metaphors to describe his election to a second term.7 Whether done flippantly or in all seriousness, these contribute to the superhuman aura that accompanies the figure of the US president in general, and Barack Obama in particular.

There is something bound up in US civil religion and the figure of the President as prophet, priest, martyr and perhaps even savior that attracts us. We yearn for someone more confident, more competent, more inspiring, more perfect than ourselves to lead us into a more peaceful, prosperous, compassionate and generous future. Perhaps that is why politics is so enthralling, yet ultimately also so disappointing. For in the end, political leaders, even the most charismatic, articulate and visionary, like Lincoln and Obama, are only human. If we are seeking a leader who will not disappoint us, we will have to look elsewhere.

Erin Wilson is the Director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen. The above is based on insights from her recently published book, After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics.

1. Cherry, Conrad. 1971. “Introduction”, in Conrad Cherry (ed). Religious Interpretations of American Destiny. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp1-24, see especially pp6-7, fn5
2. To view the entire speech, visit
3. For other examples, see Isaiah 61; Hosea 6:1. Psalm 147:3 is also quite similar.
4. Other examples include Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. For more information, see E.K.Wilson After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilln, 2012), esp Chapter Five
5. R. L. Coles, “Manifest Destiny Adapted for 1990s War Discourse: Mission and Destiny Intertwined” Sociology of Religion, Vol. 63, no. 4 (2002),pp 403–26
6. J. Galtung, “US Foreign Policy and Manifest Theology” in Jongsuk Chay (ed.). Culture and International Relations. (New York: Praeger (1990)) pp. 119–40
7. T. Starnes, “Inauguration Poster Likens Obama to Jesus” 20 January 2013. Available at Accessed 20 February 2013


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text:
China still a winner despite arbitral tribunal’s favorable ruling

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay’s pronouncement as ‘a great and resounding victory’ the arbitral tribunal’s favorable ruling in our dispute with China on the country’s claim of the West Philippine Sea is, to my mind, ambiguous at best and a sham at worst.

How can the country claim victory when China not only disrespects and dishonors the arbitral body and its decision but more significantly has not move an inch away from our own exclusive economic zone, which the country has the sovereign rights to explore and exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources, whether living or non-living, etc.

What is even disadvantageous is that China has not stop developing and strengthening militarily the disputed area, all to our dismay.

Most wanting yet is that the rich fishing grounds where our fisher folks used to go for a living continues to be off limits to them.

Yes, they call it a historic ruling by the arbitral tribunal but what impact has it made on the foreign powers, most notably the United States?

Nothing! Why? Because there is nothing the Western powers can really do directly about it. That is the long and short of it.

Yet Yasay says, “We are also getting the pressure on the part of the international community to urge China to precisely respect and recognize the decision of the arbitral tribunal. This pressure on the part of the international community is building up.”

If the most powerful country in the world and its allies can’t compel China to honor the decision of the arbitral tribunal, who are we to bulldoze this giant nation?

“We are trying to make China understand, especially when the dust settles, that unless they respect and recognize the arbitral tribunal, they will be the losers at the end of the day on this matter,” Yasay said in a congressional budget hearing.

Losers or is it that China just don’t give a damn and continue to have their aggressive winning ways?

For how else one should interpret what the Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua said in an interview with reporters on this matter:  “We cannot accept the arbitration award but we do look forward to talk to the Philippines bilaterally of the troubles we have.”

That is the reality we and the rest of the world have to contend with.

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Democratic U.S. Reps. Ron Barber and Kyrsten Sinema joined Republicans Monday in voting to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate provision, as part of a vote on the budget bill.

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz.
U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

They and all four Arizona Republican members of the House voted for the delay. Democratic Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, Raúl Grijalva and Ed Pastor voted against the delay.

Barber, in a statement issued late Monday, said his vote was intended to prevent a government shutdown.

"A government shutdown would hurt the economies of Arizona and our nation," Barber's statement said. "The American people deserve a government that can work together even when they disagree. This was not a perfect bill, but I voted for a reasonable solution to get things done."

Two Arizona Republican House members called Senate Democratic rejection of the delay unfair to millions of people, especially after implementation for businesses was delayed for one year.

“It seems that each day we hear about another delay or new exemption by the Obama administration," Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said in a statement. "This is not only unfair to the American taxpayer, but demonstrates this harmful law remains not ready for primetime."

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., told National Public Radio that fairness is at the heart of what he and his GOP colleagues are seeking in proposing the one-year delay.


text:
It is two hours past midnight, and you might wonder why I am not asleep like decent people with two brains and one kidney would be expected to. Did I get that right? Whatever.
Well, it’s a longish kind of story, intricate in its human situations. It needed a Tolstoy or somebody comparable to do justice to it, but please make do with me, okay? I will use my special editing and writing skull skill and make it just bearable.

Day before yesterday, I operated on an eighty year-old lady, Dadi, at a posh hospital (called Hippocratic Medical Center) in the grand old city called Unknown. The operation went smoothly, and I, the surgeon, modestly boasted to the two daughters of the lady that it couldn’t have been better done. Period. I am not known for beating about the bush with words. As the girls keep saying, “Give it to me straight and hard, baby!”

Yesterday, the old bird was smiling in delight. She apparently did not expect to survive my surgery. Not one to misunderstand such low expectations as a poor reflection on my reputation, I gave her a dazzling smile, and said she could go home the next morning. Which was today.

This morning, I started off early as usual, for I had a long operating list of seventeen cases, but at another hospital. Happily doing the chop-chop job that characterises the peculiar perversity of being a surgeon, I got a call around noon. It was the old lady’s son-in-law.

“Doc, she is feeling a lot of acid and is puking a fair bit.”
“Hmmn, that is not supposed to happen. Do one thing. Keep her in the Hospital for the day, for I don’t want you to take her home and then have problems. Later in the day, I will come in and look her up. In the meanwhile, let me send another physician to check her up”, I said.
“Okay, doctor.”

I tried calling the internist physician who had been treating the patient as part of my team. He was stuck in an angioplasty, and had loads of work. He couldn’t visit the patient right away, but promised to visit her later in the day.

Shila, the nurse looking after the patient, was a struggling young nurse. With an alcoholic gambler of a husband, she had to earn the bread for her little daughter, and save for her schooling as well. She had got this job of private nurse (where she gets paid for her hours of serving the patient in hospital) with great difficulty. For the few hours since morning that she had been with Dadi, she got paid for a full day. Now she was looking forward to another ‘case’ that would double her day’s income.

Shila did not have much trouble in reassuring the patient and her daughters to take the patient home. She said, “Everything will be alright. I have spoken to your doctor. I have given the anti-emetic as he has advised”.
She called me up and said, “Sir, the patient is feeling much better now. I have given her an injection for vomiting. Her discharge papers are all complete, and if you want to keep her today, she will have to be re-admitted, with extra costs. The relatives don’t want this. So shall I discharge her?”

I was operating while I got this call. I said “If this is what they want, then it is okay.”
Shila got paid twice today.

Back in the hotel (for the family was from another city), the patient continued to get sick, vomiting repeatedly. The family called me, and I assured them I would send my assistant at the earliest. However, with so many cases, he, too, would be able to come in only by late afternoon.

Around this time at noon, Dadi’s eldest son was shot dead. Dadi’s son was a rich businessman with no vices and an obsession to expand his business. In his hometown, he was the target of extortionists and kidnappers. Recently, Maoist guerillas had warned him to pay them three crores of rupees (around $800,000) or he would be killed. He had refused, and jacked up his security. Today, in spite of that, he was shot at from a hand shake’s distance and dropped, all life spurting out from his chest.

Dadi’s family of her daughters, sons and sons-in-law, needless to say, was shell-shocked. Not only was their beloved mother sick, but their own brother and family head had just died a brutal and unexpected death. Very few people live expecting death, very few. Immortality is an invisible stain inherent in human actions and thoughts.

The family privately held a conference, and decided not to inflict the sick old woman with the shock of her son’s death. They decided to leave one daughter-in-law with Dadi, and all of them left for their hometown.

My assistant, Parthiv, went to see her, and called me, giving me the picture of the patient. I ordered him to readmit the patient to Hippocratic Medical Center (HMC). Time: 7.00 pm.

I left my office, finishing off some consultations, and headed towards the hospital. Both Dadi and I reached around 7.30 pm. One immediate problem. The family had left for home in disarray. They had forgotten to keep any money for Dadi’s further treatment. The 40-ish daughter-in-law looked to be a housewife protected by her family from the vicissitudes of city life. I took the responsibility of the admission. My patient, after all.

I needed a set of x-rays, a few blood tests, and most importantly, a CT scan of the patient’s belly to find out what her problem was.

At HMC, the day technicians in charge of the blood and x-ray departments took off by 7 pm. The night duty staff came in only at 9 pm. This two hour gap could not be avoided at HMC because the trade union of the employees was very strong, and had strongly refused to extend their duty hours.

Therefore, I had to wait for two hours for the investigations to begin. I had already started an IV, put in the tubes and catheters that you don’t normally see in the hospital scenes in movies.
Work temporarily over and all alone, I wandered off into the narrow streets of Unknown city. I stopped at a corner tea shop, and had hot spiced tea served in an earthen mug (bhaanr). To keep busy, I bought and lit a smoke. I don’t generally smoke, but now seemed to be a good time. After an uneventful hour of this, I returned and waited for the tests to start.

After another hour or so, the CT scan was going to start now. A full two hours later, the cause has been found. Dadi has a temporary malfunction of her intestines. A couple or more days of treatment would likely see her through.

What struck me today was that I behaved the way I used to as a young resident doctor: taking risks for a patient, pushing the patient’s trolley, drinking tea and smoking (both without count), proffering a bowl to the retching patient, holding her shoulders and back to help her sit up, regularly asking how she was feeling and reassuring her that everything would be alright. She smiled sleepily at me, contented and relieved that she was not alone.

Today, I am reliving this feeling, this rewind of a life long past, and I can’t say I am not enjoying this. A consultant (at whatever humble level I practise) does not get his hands dirty. Today, I am not shy to say this, I had some of her puke on my hands. I must say that I have done far worse: shaved heads and pubes, pushed wheelchairs, got my dress mucked up with blood and pus, and removed thousands of maggots from the festering sores of drug addicts, beggars and alcoholics.

Thinking of all that, I can almost smell the old, smoky canteen of the medical college, and the anorexia which getting dirty used to generate. Today, I am not hungry. I have not eaten all day, and am going to be awake till morning. But I am not feeling dirty.

  1. This is a great post! Thank you for sharing it with us!

  2. I’ve been reading your blog off and on and must say have loved most of your posts. It’s really nice to see that this kind of doctor patient relationship still lives on!

  3. I’m suppressing the urge to use expletives to express my admiration for this post, and ofcourse, for you.

  4. Riveting doc – I love these kind of real life narrations. And yes – this again reminds me of the kinds of pressures doctors have to deal with day in and out. We sometimes forget that.

  5. Rambodoc;

    A moving story that share my reflections on the matter! Thank you! But although we are getting older, there is someting good that comes out of it! We are like bulls, and the older the bull is, the stiffer its horns get!

  6. nice writeup
    reminds me of kishore da s song
    zindagi kaisi yeh paheli haiii…………

  7. This is such a beautiful post, Rambodoc. I think it’s among your best.

  8. I agree: this post deserves a medal. I felt like I was right there, ten feet away, watching everything as it unfolded. I must say that at the end I wanted more, almost as if this were a chapter in a book.

  9. Isn’t there a “blog of the day award” somewhere? Does anyone know how to nominate a post for that award?

  10. This was very touching rdoc. thank you for sharing such a personal experience…
    and the whole thing with a little editing would make for a fantastic short story…you should seriously send it to a publisher.
    Or even better I suggest, you write a book on your experiences as a doc. non-fiction books of these kinds have a great market. send a few pieces to a publisher and they could give you a commission for a book. no I am not joking.
    the doc’s side of the story you know.

  11. Absolutely riveting doc.Brings back to mind memories of my internship days..OP poisoning ,diabetic foot cases..days spent assisting senior PG’s in OT’s up and dressing wounds in Ortho wards…Cup of tea with colleagues in the canteen with masks dangling around neck…

    Should take some time to read “The Scalpel and the Sword: The Story of Doctor Norman Bethune ” again.

    Thanks doc for the post

  12. @ Rambodoc: I second Nita’s idea/ suggestion. Do consider an entire book. I have found Atul Gawande’s writings very interesting for the same reason of authenticity, which come from the coal face of medical sciences and services. Good reflective post!

    @ Prax: Isn’t it Manna Dey?

  13. Now, it actually gives us insights in to a doc’s life. Never saw it with this intricate detail. And more so never thought that docs too would have to dealing with muck and puke. Strange but it never crossed my mind.
    Thank you all you docs for being there. And you Rambodoc for making me thank them.😉
    Now get some sleep. It would be a well deserved one.

  14. Amazing post!

    Thank you Doctor.

  15. Doc, thanks for sharing a multifaceted life, from the various points of view. Couldn’t help but think of a song currently listening to, esp. the re-living of the experience.
    Haunting listen here: (Coldplay, The Scientist)

    Come up to meet you, tell you I’m sorry
    You don’t know how lovely you are.
    I had to find you, tell you I need you,
    Tell you I set you apart.

    Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions,
    Oh lets go back to the start.
    Running in circles, Comin’ up Tails
    Heads on a science apart.

    Nobody said it was easy,
    It’s such a shame for us to part.
    Nobody said it was easy,
    No one ever said it would be this hard.

    Oh take me back to the start.

    *I was just guessin’ at numbers and figures,
    Pulling your puzzles apart.
    Questions of science, science and progress
    Do not speak as loud as my heart.*

    And tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
    Oh and I rush to the start.
    Runnin’ in circles, Chasin’ up Tails
    Comin’ back as we are

    Nobody said it was easy,
    Oh it’s such a shame for us to part.
    Nobody said it was easy,
    No one ever said it would be so hard.

    I’m goin’ back to the start.

  16. Gosh! I didn’t expect a post filed in the bleary hours of dawn would evoke such approval from my critically sensitive readership.
    To all of you, thank you for your comments. I value them more than I may show.
    To those of you have commented here for the first time, please feel welcome to continue participating here.
    Jackie, that song is one of my favorites.
    I am bushed today (6.30 pm now). Had another long day. I think I am gonna crash pretty soon. Please don’t mind my not replying to each of you individually as I normally do. My patient is doing well so far….

  17. Oh wow. No wonder they made shows like ER. You handle things so calmly, like it’s just another day at the hospital. And the best part is, you don’t judge anyone. Like Nita said, you have to write a book one of these days.

    Hey, thanks, Marc!

  18. jaage hain deer tak
    hamen kuch deer sone do
    thodi se raat aur hai
    subah to hone do

  19. beautiful. touching. fascinating. brilliant.

    just some of the words that come to my mind. you just restored my faith in the nobility of the medical profession.

  20. Excellent post rambodoc. I agree with Paul this is your best post. It seems to have come straight from the heart.

  21. You did an awesome job, doc! Immense gratitude that your patients must have for you is a source of serenity for you and them as well!!

  22. Damn, THIS is why I regret not being a doctor.

  23. Prerna, Xntric, Anand, AD and Lakshmi,
    Thanks for the kind words.

  24. For completion sake, is dadi alright now? Has she been given the bad news about her son?

    She is much better now. No, she has not yet been told….

  25. Excellent post Rambodoc! Being an engineer, I always wondered how the life of a doctor is..and I think I got an answer now. Thanks for the post..

    BTW, is the dadi’s son the businessman shot dead in Jamshedpur?

    Thanks, Harsha!
    This case may, for the sake of propriety, be properly considered as a hypothetical case unrelated to any actual event.
    I hope you understand that confidentiality issues prevent me from revealing anything further beyond this disclaimer.

  26. Thank you, Rambodoc, for such a moving story. Truth is, indeed, sometimes stranger than fiction. I wonder if lawyers have similar experiences to share.

    Thanks, Vivek, for taking the time to go through my old posts!

  27. Nice post surgeonji, now if you could please scan a copy of your feet and put them in your next post!

    You say this to everyone, don’t you?🙂

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Posts Tagged 'Mariclaro'

Mariclaro Upcycled Bags: Made from Airbags, Car Upholstery and Other Weird Stuff

I never thought about reusing a spent airbag for much of anything, but it does make sense to upcycle this kind of durable material if you can. Toronto-based Mariclaro makes them all into backpacks and carryalls that are quite different from others that I’ve seen.

mariclaro airbag backpack 01

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Patshull Park Hotel + Country Club Pattingham

  • Please select a date to see the proper prices!
  • Meal can be requested on the spot
The price has been calculated by the best price of the next 90 days.

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Best price of the next 90 days:
52.82 € / person / night, no meal
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  • Instant confirmation
  • Own restaurant
  • Number of rooms: 49 pcs
  • Spoken languages: English

Description of the accommodation:

Rooms, services Patshull Park Hotel + Country Club Pattingham is offering 49 tasfefully furnished, nice rooms for those looking for a place to stay at in Pattingham. If you feel like having a meal not included in your chosen type of catering, you can always taste local dishes in the restaurant of the hotel. Parking possibility for your vehicle is available nearby. Available wellness services will provide you the opportunity to refresh yourself, the solarium and indoor pool will also be waiting for you. If you want to stay in good shape during your holiday, you may also take the services of the local gym. The café and the bar are an ideal place to host a personal meeting or a pleasant evening talk. If you have a suitable portable device, you can connect to the Internet via a wireless network (WiFi) available at the hotel. An exact and detailed list of equipment in the rooms and of the services provided by Patshull Park Hotel + Country Club Pattingham you will find on the information sheet below, including any applicable additional fees.

Payment Depeding on the selected room, date and price, you may be asked to provide credit card guarantee or to pay by credit card in advance.

Arrival, opening hours The earliest time for arrival and check-in is 14:00, the latest time for departure and check-out is 11:00. The personnel is at your service in English.

WV6 7HR By Patshull Road , Pattingham, WV6 7HR (United Kingdom)
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  • Solarium
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  • Pet friendly (25 €/night), Garden, Bar, Cafe

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A Bully Gets a Smackdown

From my favorite site, Moonbattery.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Good Question…

Hat Tip, Moonbattery

Barack Is Sure Shoveling Something

Shovel Ready My Ass

Shovel Ready My Ass

Surely there are less expensive ways to learn that “shovel-ready projects” are a myth.

Back in early 2009, President-elect Barack Obama was asked on Meet the Press how quickly he could create jobs. Oh, very fast, he said. He’d already consulted with a gaggle of governors, and “all of them have projects that are shovel-ready.” When Obama revealed the members of his energy team, he explained that they were part of his effort to get started on “shovel-ready projects all across the country.” When he unveiled his education secretary, he assured everyone that he was going to get started “helping states and local governments with shovel-ready projects.”

In interviews, job summits, and press conferences, it was shovel-ready this, shovel-ready that. Search the White House website for the term “shovel-ready” and you’ll drown in press releases about all the shovels ready to shove shovel-ready projects into the 21st century, where no shovel is left behind.

Only now it turns out that the president was shoveling something all right when he was talking about shovel-ready jobs — a whole pile of steaming something.

In the current issue of The New York Times Magazine, Obama admits that there’s “no such thing as shovel-ready” when it comes to public works.

It’s not that Obama was lying when he said all that stuff. It’s just that he didn’t know what he was talking about. All it took was nearly a trillion dollars in stimulus money and 20-plus months of on-the-job training for him to discover that he was talking nonsense.

See Jonah Goldberg at the National Review for the whole story.

Moonbattery did find a shovel ready job that The Anointed Won created:

Sarah Palin Tired Of BHO’s Crisis Bullsh!t

And so am I! Where is the rest of the GOP?

H/T Gateway Pundit

There’s A Commie In The White House

I think there’s more than one, but I’ll go with that.

H/T rayra @ GCP

“The Won” Proves My Point

I’ve been saying it all along, you can’t control mother nature. Now learn from your new found intelligence Precedent Obama, and stop this “Man-Made Climate Change” crap.

H/T Gateway Pundit

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text:
Happy birthday dearest daughter. We wish you happiness and good health for ever. May you grow up to be the person you always dream to be (not sure about becoming a fairy though, you might be a bit disappointed ;-)). And always remember that we will always unconditionally love you no matter what.

The birthday song from yesterday.

Layan gambar Miss 5 from birth to now, from bald headed baby to the mass of curly-haired girl she is now. From a wrinkly ‘ugly’ baby to a gorgeous adorable girl (we think so anyway, hahaha). From a baby who couldn’t sleep unless held to a girl who loves sleeping in her own bed. From a baby who used to suck her 2 fingers to a girl who still sucks her thumb! From a cry baby to a still occasionally ‘gembeng’ baby🙂.

A few hours after she was born.

At 3 months, sleeping soundly when held.

At 9 months, a cheeky little baby.

At 1 y.o. – Go all Blacks!

At 1 1/2 y.o., one of the pictures taken for her passport photos. Sikit punya susah dah nak suruh dia duduk diam!

At 2 y.o.

At 2 1/2 y.o. -still cheeky as anything.

At 3 – posing for a family photo, hahaha.

At 4, one of her wishes is to be a fairy, kids!

10 Responses to “”

  1. Intan Rosnitta Says:

    Happy 5th Birthday Zahra dearie.

    Stay cute always!

  2. Mommy Lily Says:

    Happy birthday sayang yg cute…

    semoga membesar menjadi anak yg berguna dan baik2 saje…:-D

  3. sheri Says:

    Happy Birthday dearest little Zahra, mommy and daddy must be very proud of you. They grow soo fast don’t they..?

  4. lemongrass Says:

    Thank you Intan, Mommy Lily n Sheri for the wishes. Zahra was so happy to be a big girl already! Hehehe…. She’s been waiting for this moment since Alya had her b’day party, sikit nya lama ke dia tunggu🙂.

  5. Flower Says:

    Love her sleeping photos. Very angelic. I think semua baby looks so angelic masa diaorg tidur. Samalah ngan my anak2. Tapi bila diaorg jaga, tu lain cerita. Kkdg boleh giller kita dia buatnye…

  6. apple Says:

    selamat hari lahir zahra. semoga membesar n jadi anak solehah ye..
    p/s: LG, kite nak pinjam rambut zahra, bagi kat ziya.. boleh? hihi

  7. Tulip Merah Says:

    happy birthday dari nabeela dan nadeea… birthday nadeea sehari sebelum raya.. sibuk suruh nenek buat kek…

  8. lemongrass Says:

    masa tidur mmng baik kan,hehehe….bila dah bangun, bnyk2 sabar aje lah🙂.

    Skrg snng nak dpt rambut mcm tu, masuk aje salon n keluar duit, terus dpt rambut curly mcm maggi, hehehe….

    nenek buat kek apa utk nadeea? sudah semestinya kek coklat ye,hehehe…. Happy belated bday to Nadeea, nanti Mummy angah simpan dulu hadiah nya ye🙂.

  9. Hazel Says:

    Happy belated b'day to Lil'Zahra.Fm Aunty Hazel & Family.

  10. lemongrass Says:

    TQ so much Hazel,
    She said she’s not little anymore, hehehe.

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What Is This Life?

According to a recent science article at the Huffington Post, Sara Walker, an astrobiologist at Arizona State University, along with some of her colleagues, has arrived at a fresh definition of life as seen through the prism of information processing:

Walker’s team created a simple mathematical model to capture the transition from a nonliving to a living-breathing being. According to the researchers, all living things have one property that inanimate objects don’t: Information flows in two directions.

For instance, when a person touches a hot stove, the molecules in his hand sense heat, transmit that information to the brain, and the brain then tells the molecules of the hand to move. Such two-way information flow governs the behavior of simple and complex life forms alike, from the tiniest bacteria to the giant humpback whale. By contrast, if you put a cookie on the stove, the heat may burn the cookie, but the treat won’t do anything to respond.

Another hallmark of living beings is that they have different physical locations for storing and reading information. For instance, the alphabet of letters in DNA carries the instructions for life, but another part of the cell, called the ribosome, must translate those instructions into actions inside the cell, […]

The new model […] lays out the behavior needed for a system […] to be considered living, Walker said.

I like this definition a lot, and would put it in my own words this way: life is a gatekeeper; it means saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to things. To indiscriminately go with the flow means death. Flow must stop, be evaluated, and sometimes get sent back, via force, to where it came from. That’s life and power–the will to power. Yes, I’m thinking of Nietzsche here.

But I’m also thinking of President Obama. Life is a president with veto powers. The buck stops at its desk, its bar. Stimuli, like bills from Congress, receive evaluation and response. They get ping-ponged back to where they came from if the president reads them and doesn’t like them, or they are dealt with in some other way (as when a president sets forward his hand to sign a bill). In either case, information is received by life, processed, moved about among its “staffers” (synapses, protein machines, ribosomes, etc.), and acted upon.

Here’s another metaphor. If going with the flow means death, life is “a river that flows uphill.” You don’t defy entropy (the river flowing downhill) without some DNA, some blueprint, some plan, some information processing. That information processing runs on energy, so you’ve got to capture energy, store it, and enlist it in the communication and carrying out of your plan. That’s what it means to be alive: to defy entropy; to move information about so as to put your plan in effect with the energy you’ve managed to corral.

Here’s yet another metaphor. Life, like Iago in Othello, reads its situation, puts its ducks in a row, and acts.

Here’s still another way to put it: life receives (notices) messages, interprets them, and sends them back or otherwise reacts to them from an interested vantage. By an “interested vantage,” I mean the one that concerns you, as to your own curiosity, desire, aversion, preservation, or growth.

You may also be given over to the concerns of another. That too is life. But now I’m thinking of Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic. Life is Master to its own purposes or Slave to other purposes–the purposes of some more complexly organized, stronger, or greater life (as when the ribosome, as part of the larger cell’s “team,” reads off the DNA, translates it, and sends that information off and into the service of making protein machines for that team’s greater good).

A living thing, in short, is always identifiable and situated in time and space–not nowhere, but somewhere, and it’s always seeking to increase its range; its power. If it’s not doing this, it’s being enlisted into the service of some other power. But so long as it is alive, it is motivated, interested. It has some interest at stake (its own or that of a greater life).

And this brings us to the definition of consciousness. Like life, consciousness too is a gatekeeper; a locus for attention, discrimination, translation, interpretation, judgment. It arrests the flow of habit and says ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to things. It’s selective; both a witness and an actor. Attentive to the theatre of passing forms, it has preferences. It receives and sends information, makes plans, and executes them.

Consciousness, in other words, is also a river that flows uphill, dependent on capturing and using the body’s stores of energy against the easy entropic dissipations of nondiscrimination, habit, instinct, and sleep. Maintaining conscious attention and purpose, like maintaining life, is work. Work against entropy. And like life, consciousness can associate itself with narrow boundaries or expansive ones, with competition or cooperation. Consciousness, as it were, is spiritual life; a realm of selfish memes, not genes; of qualia, not unconscious and mechanical stimuli and responses.

Consciousness sometimes (often?) functions as a counterlife to your long evolved instincts, checking them, vetoing their impulses. It’s as if, being both a conscious being and a biological being, that you are a mini-Congress; a divided government. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

David Goodsell, a molecular biologist at The Scripps Research Institute in California, in his introductory text to molecular biology, The Machinery of Life (2nd edition, Springer 2010), which Scientific American calls “an impressive and original book,” offers the following definition of life (29):

In 1944, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger presented a very simple definition of life that has withstood the test of time. He identified one property that all life shares: living things avoid decay into equilibrium.

I like this, but it sounds a bit conservative to me. Life, after all, isn’t just about checking the flow of energy to make sure it isn’t causing the status quo to fall apart. It’s also about growth and expanding power (and yes, I’m back to Nietzsche again). A DNA program’s mission is biased to expansion; to exploiting resources wherever possible; for getting what it wants. It is not merely in the business of survival. Grow or die.

I suppose this post has been a kind of sermon to my soul (and to any soul that made it this far with me). So I’ll wrap it up like a preacher, pointing to a bit of verse. This is the opening couplet to W. H. Davies’ poem, “Leisure” (1911):

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

I read the poet’s provocation this way: sometimes you should use your veto powers; sometime the life of consciousness checks the urgent missions of its biological life, preferring visual pleasure–the aesthetic consciousness–to the urgent and evolved agendas of the instinctual organism. Consciousness is a life form that frequently hijacks the body’s mission of growth and survival to other purposes (or tries to). This makes for the dance–sometimes harmonious, sometimes not–of will and instinct (Nietzsche yet again).

This is life. The buck stops with you. How will you fashion and command, and to what purpose?

About Santi Tafarella

I teach writing and literature at Antelope Valley College in California.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to What Is This Life?

  1. I think Nietzsche gets a bad rap that he doesn’t deserve.
    On a similar vein, the simplest definition of intelligence that I could come up with is a ‘thing’ that can react to changing input. A kind of primary intelligence would be a thermostat with slightly more intelligence being the act of a flower opening it’s petals and turning toward the sun and so on.

    If defined well, life then would be anything with at least primary intelligence. To quell the obvious question, non-life with primary intelligence would lay life-less in the absence of changing input where life attempts to change its environment to achieving changing inputs that can be used by its intelligence.

    If you place a flower in the shade, it will grow itself toward sunlight. If the temperature stays static, the thermostat will simply sit there.

    Or something like that.

    • Santi Tafarella says:

      Your distinction between a thermostat and a flower is interesting, but where do the intricate and purpose oriented mechanisms–the entropic resistant mechanisms–come from? In the case of the thermostat, they have a human mind behind them. In the case of the flower, natural selection. Anything humanly manufactured that resists or shapes or manipulates the course of things is a sign of life (as a termite mound is a sign of life). The life is in the telos, purpose, blueprint, DNA, genius. The products of that genius manifest in the environment, in the swerve from entropy. If life (that is, a blueprint) hasn’t placed something in the environment, chance has.

      And life needs information to flow between the blueprint and its body, as well as between its body and the environment.

      So the primary intelligence is not in the thermostat or in the movement of the flower toward light. These are displays of mechanisms born of intelligence of some sort. The primary intelligence is in God (if God exists, making life blueprints), natural selection, or the human mind.

      This raises questions about where the cell wall and skin really stop and start. Marshall McLuhan famously called human artifacts like media and tools the “extensions of man.” All of life is an extension of some purpose from some blueprint or genius (contained in DNA or a mind).

      Sometimes there are happy coincidences born of life’s activity that aren’t explicitly written anywhere, but born of competition by natural selection (the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere is regulated by life; ecosystems cannot be traced to a blueprint, but are balanced by natural selection, etc.). In this sense, planet Earth is an extension of life in a way that Mars is not. Does this mean Earth itself is Gaia–a living mother?

      Where are the boundaries in a web of relations driven by blueprints?

      • I call primary intelligence that minimum ability of being able to react to changing input data. Neither the thermostat nor the flower will move if you place them on a hot stove. They are not mobile intelligence in any short term meaningful way. They are simply examples of that primary intelligence. This then adds a caveat to minimum definition of life if we consider that a plant’s ability to spread it’s countenance in different directions and its seed to the wind then a plant’s resistance to entropy moves on a much slower time scale. Giant tortoises move at a much slower time frame but are indeed conscious life. Time frame must be considered.

        This resistance to entropy is perhaps not defined as well or as simplistically as it need be? Some examples are extensions of life/living while others are constructs to preserve life. Perhaps there are classes or types of resistance to entropy where one is a resistance and the other a reshaping of entropy. A termite mound is one kind while the pyramids at Giza are another type. A glove is the extension of the skin which protects the human skin while a ring does not, yet both can be signs or indications of life. It was, after all, 40,000+ year old cave paintings which gave indication of intelligence in some human species. These did not protect or extend life yet are visible outward signs of life and consciousness.

        Perhaps the class distinctions lay in how we define entropy that is resisted. The pyramids resist the entropy of the desert physically and the entropy of death in conscious thought. The ring on a finger can resist some forms of entropy. Do the signs of resistance need to be so permanent or long lasting? Even the smallest of birds build nests.

        You seem to be striving to use the word design but restrict yourself from using it. I.E. the flower moves but not by a design of it’s own. This might also imply conscious intelligence. We can agree that plants, except in bad movies, do not have conscious intelligence of any kind that we would consider here. They have the primary intelligence but not much more.

        The mention of a cell wall drags us kicking and screaming into biological processes to discover how cells interact with one another. At the moment the most pertinent example that I can think of is the experiment of cutting a sponge into its individual cells and watching it reform.

        The basic cell has both primary intelligence and mobility. It has processes which give it abilities we are still discovering. The argument that we mobile life forms are merely collectives of cell colonies has some strengths to it. This would make all life (as we know it Jim) an extension of the basic or primary life: DNA and of course evolution. This then makes a glove, car, hammer, and the pyramids signs of DNA. It is DNA and the various expressions of DNA that instills or places design and pattern in the way of entropy. Certainly everything that meets both our criteria contains DNA.

        The exact origin of DNA is not understood, though we have learned much in recent years as to the possible ways to form a cell wall and how proteins can occur naturally etc. It should be noted that DNA is one form of this expression. It should not be long before we find or create other forms in which to express DNA’s essence. AI might yet find a form of expression that works.

        On reflection, this seems to be what you were driving at: DNA
        It is central, for life as we know it, to the resistance of entropy and to conscious intelligence. I’m kind of okay with being the result of a hive mind collective of cells designed to perform given tasks so that the trillions of cells in the colony that we call me can survive and thrive.

      • Santi Tafarella says:

        That video is interesting, and yes I’m insisting that entropy is not resisted unless there is some DNA or mind causing and directing the “river to flow uphill.”

        In a sense I’m arguing for Aristotle: there is some form (a formal cause) through which matter (material causes) manifest. That form that draws the seed into a tree, a baby into a woman, etc. is tugging at matter, as it were, like a magnet tugs iron shavings into a pattern. Iron shavings will not come into the magnetic pattern of forces absent a magnet and neither plants nor animals will come into their forms absent a formal cause (DNA). Sponge cells do not come together absent DNA either.

        Likewise, the DNA must have some final cause, some telos or governing principle (God, mind, or natural selection) bringing it into being. Otherwise, matter would fall into randomness (a river that flows downhill).

        Science has long ignored all but Aristotle’s efficient cause (immediate cause and effect). But really, life cannot be fully thought about without resort to information and information processing (wherever it comes from).

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Google Makes SketchUp Free

Remember last month when Google bought SketchUp and everyone was like why? Well, they bought them to make it free for people to use for personal reasons. Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has announced that Google SketchUp launched a free version for “for personal use.” So you can use it to quickly make remodel your “houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects,” etc. Download it here.

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