text:
Steve Thomas: Elena, Bharat, and Margaret, welcome to the show.
M. Elena Lopez: We're glad to be here. Thank you for inviting us to share our book, a Librarian's Guide to Engaging Families in Learning.
Bharat Mehra: You're very excited to be here. Thanks a lot. And looking forward to having a engaging discussion about various aspects of the book.
Margaret Caspe: Absolutely. Thanks for having us.
Steve Thomas: How did each of you experience libraries early in your life and then come to libraries as part of your work as adults?
Margaret Caspe: Yeah. You know, Steve, when we, over the past few years have been doing professional learning workshops for librarians and family engagement professionals, we often start with that question of, think back about your first memory of a library or, what was your first experience in a library?
So very early on in this writing process, Elena, Bharat, and I surfaced some really nice conversations and a real connection, I think, among the three of us, I shared the story about how, when I was really little growing up, my grandmother would take care of me while my parents were working. And she grew up during the Depression and you know, didn't go more than eighth grade. So taking me to the library every day was really important to her, but I have this very strong memory of going to a card catalog, which I always loved and pulling out all of the cards to her dismay and probably every librarian's dismay out there, but it just was a really fond memory that I have of my grandmother and in sharing that story, it invoked stories from Bharat and Elena about their experiences, as well.
Steve Thomas: Yeah, we all know those kids that go into all the cards out, pull all the books off the shelf and pile them up.
Bharat Mehra: Yeah, for me, if a human being is supposed to be a coming together of who we are, based on our genetic understanding, interacting with the social, cultural, environmental aspects to our lives. For me, if one looks at looks back at my own life experiences, coming from India, as an immigrant, social justice flows in my veins. And so for me, emerging from a home of child abuse and domestic violence, knowledge, education, literacy, libraries were my go-to places. And that's where I was able to get away from the dysfunctional life experiences in one's family environment.
And then growing up in a middle class family in India, I knew that education and knowledge and libraries were my mechanism to escape and establish a life for me, myself. Actually, I remembered a significant time. I also was born with club feet, so I had physical deformities when I was younger. So I remember when I was in class eight, in the middle school, I had to go through a particular surgery to get my feet operated. And so in that for six months, I had to wear a plaster. And in some ways that became my saving grace, because what else could I do was us to go and find haven in the libraries and study, and that's the time that I kind of was able to establish my desire to educate myself and find my learning and get away to get out of some of the environmental aspects that I had experienced. So coming to the United States in 1994 as a graduate student, I was able to find opportunities to be able to integrate social justice aspects, working with various minority and underserved populations. And through that time, working with Puerto Rican community in Chicago, looking at the library as a place for community mobilization of working with African-American women in Champaign-Urbana and where the library became the place for helping to build connections between the women and healthcare information providers, looking at working with LGBTQ+ people in the area where libraries were the haven that they would go to and find a safe space. Through some of those experiences libraries became the venue for being able to kind of make a change in society, working with underserved populations and those who are disenfranchised. And I was then able to weave those collaborations and partnerships with libraries throughout my time as a faculty member at the University of Tennessee. So that's how I came to my respect and collaborations and partnerships with libraries.
M. Elena Lopez: When I came to the United States and was introduced to a public library system and entered the library here for the first time, it was like being in a toy store or candy store, and that's because I love books. I grew up in the Philippines where there is no public library system. However, my parents really encouraged us to read. I remember my mother talking to my godmother and saying for Christmas, give Elena books. So I had every Christmas something to anticipate: new books. And my father was an avid reader, everything from sports to political news and to best sellers. And so when I came here to the United States, I was really impressed with the public library system because they provide books for everyone, not just for those who can afford to buy books.
Steve Thomas: Thank you all for sharing your stories. That's great so what brought the three of you together to edit this book?
M. Elena Lopez: Well, Margaret and I worked together doing research on public libraries and we had an opportunity to contact Bharat and interview him for an article that we were writing. And that's how the three of us came together, found out that we shared a common interest, and then after that article was published, we decided that we wanted to create this book because there was hardly anything in the field available to librarians and others about this particular topic, about engaging families and communities to support children's learning as well as lifelong learning.
Bharat Mehra: I was really excited when both Elena and Maggie reached out to me because we found some synergy amongst ourselves in terms of, as Elena mentioned, the aspect of reaching out and engaging with libraries and families and children, especially from underserved populations.
So the elements of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, the aspect of social justice and engagement through our organization, this was a great opportunity to be able to bring together case studies and promising practices from a wide variety and aspects of ways libraries are making a difference. Through my understanding, some of the people who I had been part of working with in the Southern and central Appalachian region, rural communities, through those networks when I was able to get some collaborators and contributors in the book.
Margaret Caspe: And I can add that as part of the research that Elena was alluding to before, we heard so many stories and so many powerful examples of the ways that libraries were creating opportunities for families to come together, and really build relationships with their children around learning. And we really wanted to capture those stories in the book. So it was a really nice opportunity to go back and think of all the people we had heard about and reach out to them.
Steve Thomas: So for the purposes of a foundation for the conversation, can you define what family engagement is?
M. Elena Lopez: Family engagement is a shared responsibility for children's learning and for families, it is about activating their knowledge, their values, their relationships to enable children to be motivated and enthusiastic and successful learners. It's also about learning for all members of the family and really the process of lifelong learning. And because it's a shared responsibility, we look at libraries and their roles in supporting and guiding the parents and other extended family members to draw upon their strengths and the love that they have for their children or other family members to really create opportunities for learning and learning that is a fun and joyous experience, as well as contributing to everyone's personal growth and development.
Margaret Caspe: And if I could just add to that, both Elena and I come from the discipline and the field of family, school, community engagement. And I think often, when we say the word family engagement, most people think of schools and specifically they tend to think of parent-teacher conferences or back to school nights, and very early on in the process of speaking and learning from librarians from across the country, we really heard about how we really need to expand how learning doesn't just happen in schools. Learning happens everywhere, all the time and libraries or one particular space in our communities where there's so many resources for that learning to take place and so many experts in the library itself to support that learning.
One of the huge benefits of libraries is unlike schools where an individual teacher sees one child at a particular age, and then there's another teacher at a different age, libraries see the whole family across the trajectory of their entire family's life and librarians always come back to this notion of lifelong learning and family learning. And that's why when we titled the book, we actually wanted to make sure that the word family learning was in there, because it's important that we center the whole family and that we really develop family learning opportunities based on the knowledge, the skills, the culture, the context of all families bring to their everyday lives, and that for us is really at the center of what this book is about.
Bharat Mehra: Yeah, for me coming as a critical scholar and activist and advocate, my understanding of family engagement and learning was in shifting the lens and perspective in library and information science professions from the past in recognizing the constructive asset based understanding of families as they engage and involve them in the various activities, rather than the past, where there was a tendency towards deficit models of helping people. And in the recent years, we found a shift towards helping people help themselves and engaging with them as equals while bringing in their own knowledge, experiences, realities into the interactions that the library can provide. So to me, this is a great opportunity to be able to then document those constructive, positive examples that we of course have been able to include in our collection as compared to the past.
Steve Thomas: Yeah. And you talk about equity, diversity, and inclusion in the book. How can libraries make themselves a welcome place for constructive dialogue with our families and with our communities?
Bharat Mehra: Yes, in the past, libraries have been tiptoeing around these matters. Whereas now we are seeing, again, as I mentioned, a more progressive contemporary shift towards playing a more proactive and more than the past passive roles of neutrality and hanging on to outdated notions. I think we are seeing them step out of their comfort zones and reaching out and building collaborations and partnerships with external key stakeholders. So, that action-oriented aspect, we will continue seeing that, moving forward. Some of the themes related to this are important as we look forward. The whole lip service business that has happened in the past, but current contemporary, performative politics that we find, I think libraries also recognize that's important because public libraries and others are public entities. They are politically, they are right in the crux of the attention and the visibility in the political forums. But they're also now realizing that they have to make efforts to actually make changes and address some power imbalances that are part of our society and our community. So I think we are moving in those positive directions.
M. Elena Lopez: We also see that libraries are going outside their walls and reaching out to the community and forming partnerships with other agencies and nonprofits in order to reach those families that typically don't come to the library.
Steve Thomas: And how can libraries come to know the families in their communities?
M. Elena Lopez: I think there are both informal and more formal ways. It begins with listening and learning from families, having conversations with them, something as simple as, "how can we help you? What do you need from the library?" And then there are more formal ways that we describe in our book. There are focus groups, usually those are held before the library embarks on a new program or initiative. And it's an effort to get feedback from families, from community members.
Another way of knowing families is to network with those serving children, youth, and families in the community. There are several different types of employment, social service agencies, nonprofit organizations, ethnic associations. It's connecting with them that libraries are able to reach out and know families that are not too familiar to librarians.
Steve Thomas: In the book, one of the chapters or several of the chapters, you talk about different types of families and different ways that libraries need to be creative and engaging with those kinds of families. Can you all talk about some of those and how libraries can best serve those communities?
Margaret Caspe: Yeah. So one of the themes that comes across in maybe all of the chapters is association of engaging families is really about reaching out to families, raising up their voices and consistently building relationships among families within the communities.
And in one chapter, Elena and I interviewed a number of Latina mothers to understand, and really build our knowledge about their perceptions of the library, what the library has meant to them. And we heard just these really robust and vibrant themes of the library being a place for education and learning. The library being a place to meet others, the library being a place to build one's own knowledge about the United States perhaps, or English or other types of digital skills or things of that matter. And also the library, as Bharat mentioned before, just becoming like a really calm and soothing place to be with the family. One of our hopes is that by listening to these stories, how can libraries listen to what they hear from families, and then build that into their programming, build that into the types of climates that they create.
And then the other thing, we reached out to the Brooklyn public library to share a little bit about their TeleStory program, one of the things that they had heard from a number of constituents who come into their libraries, the difficulties in communicating with loved ones and how difficult it is sometimes to travel to see them. So they created this wonderful program where families could come to the library, and talk by video chat or talking to other ways, to loved ones who are incarcerated. So it's that process of deep listening and building what families are saying into the programming and into the services and that really makes that difference. And Elena, do you want to share a little bit about the chapter about Reading is Grand?
M. Elena Lopez: Sure, so we talk about family, we also mean extended family and the Reading is Grand program really brings the wisdom of grandparents on the forefront. It is about grandparents being honored and sharing their oral histories with younger generations and also extending even the notion of family to those who are not biologically related in Reading is Grand. They've got seniors and elders in the community to share their stories and really transmit what they know, what they've learned, to the younger generation.
Bharat Mehra: I would then add further, as my colleagues have mentioned that libraries have to venture out of their comfort zone, into the external environment. They have to also then be able to recognize, what is the pulse of their communities, which are the populations which are getting left out and not getting served with the appropriate resources, information, knowledge, literacy, and other aspects. So to explore, what are the populations that they can collaborate with in a participatory manner that you are involved together to make a difference in addressing some of the marginalizing circumstances that certain populations might be encountering.
I had a chance to be funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in rural communities. And recognizing that the rural communities, low-income families, other underserved racial, ethnic minorities within the rural setting, children and parents with different forms of abilities and disabilities, looking at low-income families, LGBTQ populations, how can they connect with them in ways where the key people about the policies and procedures that they have.
And so we saw the example at the San Diego Public Library with discarding the notion of fines. We saw the matter in the Nashville Public Library, the aspect of homelessness. And getting out of the comfort zone into areas which have been stigmatized and not been able to have appropriate resources because of biases and prejudices, to be able to then establish ways that they can collaborate together in order to make a difference.
Steve Thomas: And what are the benefits of creating partnerships with families and communities?
M. Elena Lopez: I think the benefits are for libraries, for families, and for communities. So let's talk first about libraries. Through these partnerships, libraries are able to fulfill their mission, their mission of being sources of information, sources of connection with other members of the community, and being a place where people can find inspiration and new ideas and also be creative.
For families, not all families can afford to send their children after-school programs that are fee-based and libraries are a free resource for the community. They have lots of after-school programs for teens and for children. So families then know that their children are in a safe place where there are rich learning experiences.
And for communities just as Bharat mentioned earlier, when libraries and other agencies go beyond their comfort zone, then you're able to reach out and provide services to all community members. I think we have one example from the Nashville Public Library where different agencies come to the library once or twice a month, and that's a place where people who have specific needs can go and the libraries are non-stigmatizing institution. So people can go there to find out about services that are available in the community, legal help, whatever they need. So the library connects the community in terms of providing the resources that are of interest to individuals and families.
Bharat Mehra: And for libraries to make a difference and make an impact in meaningful ways, in recent years, we've seen, they've seen the potential of collaborating with underserved populations and becoming the beacons of EDI and social justice matters. And it's through these kinds of partnerships that they are able to extend their impact and inform and change misperceptions that the public might have had of them in the past. They're the only white middle class neutral passive agents, and so, through these kinds of opportunities, we are finding libraries to be able to extend their roles and be able to make a difference in reality and shaping public perceptions who and what they are.
For families, in some of the rural areas, it has meant recognizing that the library is a potential agent that can help support them in various aspects of their lives, and education and health and helping them get established financial outcomes, any aspects of community life.
Libraries have never been part of the community's understanding that they can help assist to make a difference in their life. And so that reality and understanding has emerged only in the recent years, and then of course, in the communities, it is coming together of various stakeholders in resource sharing and libraries are then an important part in that process of disseminating information, and sharing within the limit, especially in rural areas, when there has been such challenges in terms of resources, libraries are beginning to prove that about themselves that they are important partners with other stakeholders in order to be able to collaborate together to make a difference.
Steve Thomas: Are there any other examples of partnerships that are discussed in the book that you found particularly inspiring or creative?
Margaret Caspe: We spoke with some university researchers at University of Maryland, and they have partnered with a number of libraries using participatory action research methodologies. So these are specific tools and ideas that librarians can use, which is not creating the programs that we think families and youth want, but actually working with families and youth together to create those programs using different types of co-design methods. So starting from ideating and starting from really from scratch and building those programs so that they really fit what families are looking for. We spoke with a number of librarians who are partnering with schools, and really collaborating with schools in vibrant ways. We have one chapter where a fairly rural community that was somewhat homogenous, really wanted to explore how to bring about a better understanding of different experiences that different families have. So they created an entire community wide project around the book "Refugee" where children in schools were reading it, adults were reading it and it really culminated in a vibrant community celebration and sharing of the book together.
We have another example from Ricarose Roque, who is out in Denver, and she's using computational literacy, digital coding, in libraries. So using Makey Makey or Scratch Jr., she'll partner with libraries to really enhance the types of opportunities that they provide families and their children together to tell stories using those types of digital media. So there's so many examples out there that are really exciting.
Steve Thomas: That's great. How can libraries generate impact and make a difference in the lives of families? You have a whole section in the book addressing homelessness un- leveling the playing field and eliminating fines, IMLS grants, stuff like that. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Margaret Caspe: I could start off, but I would love Elena and Bharat to jump in.
When we think about impact, impact for families in particular, there's so many levels and there's so many ways that we think about the impact on families that libraries can have. I think on one hand, We talk about the impact that libraries can have just in a relational parenting- like way providing that context, that safe space to just enjoy and spend time with your child in a learning environment.
So one direction that's in a very micro level way but libraries also through their programming, through the resources that they offer, grow parents' own knowledge, their own skills, their own abilities, which we know is directly linked to both family wellbeing, increasing family resources, and increases in student achievement.
We also know that through the connections that families are meeting in libraries, they're really also creating that vibrant, social, emotional connections that are so important for all of us, especially when you think about the pandemic and how isolated everyone's been, just to be able to come together in a community space again. It feels wonderful. And then there's also an advocacy level that, that libraries provide for families. The ways that families partner with libraries and advocate for libraries within their communities really builds families' own strength and families' own agency in the community.
Bharat Mehra: Building on what Maggie said, libraries have not been very effective in the past of telling their own stories. And especially in national, state level associations and forums, the focus has only been on the Northwest, and Northeast, Midwest, and urban metropolitan areas. So I think what is found through some of the community engagement initiatives in the rural communities that within the constraints of the limitations of resources and other constraining factors, they are making such remarkable efforts in reaching out and making partnerships and collaborating and making a difference in their rural areas.
But their stories have never been told. They themselves have not played a more proactive role in telling what they are doing and being able to reach out to the people who are in charge of the financial purse strings in order to be able to tell their stories and be able to convince them that they are making a difference. That same aspect of representation, of storytelling in the libraries, libraries themselves have to understand the aspects of equity instead of equality, and that there are different community members and within that, individuals coming with their own life experiences and social cultural aspects of the underserved and marginalized in different ways and still be able to recognize what those inequities are, through an asset-based framework. What strengths are these communities bringing to the table in being able to then build on them and facilitate that growth and opportunities in that manner. And several references to it, but one of the chapters on the Family Learning Place that it's a national level network of library organizations and systems who are establishing and developing creative, innovative ways of learning while engaging with children and their parents recognizing the equitable nature of what the different individuals and children bring to the conversation.
M. Elena Lopez: You also wanted to portray in the book, the several levels of the library system that can have an impact on family. So we do have a chapter written by somebody who talks from the federal perspective and how, for example, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS, supports the cultural identities and revitalizes library programs that transmit the values of different cultural groups to the next generation. In particular, this chapter looks at or provides examples of what's happening in Native American communities, as well as in Hawaii.
We also look at what's happening at the state level and state libraries systems are also important in providing the resources, especially for early childhood programs and ensuring that those that cannot afford childcare or preschool have opportunities for early literacy and early math through their Storytime and other programs that are available through the libraries.
And then we also have the aspect of associations. There are many different types of library associations, and how associations can also. So have an impact on families. We talked earlier about the Reading is Grand program. That actually is part of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and it's a national program that supports literacy mainly through the contributions that grandparents and seniors in the community have.
Steve Thomas: And in this section, Bharat, you actually co-wrote a chapter about rural families. Could you talk a little bit about that?
Bharat Mehra: Sure. Yes. Several projects thanks to the funding of the Institute for Museum and Library Services. And it started with training of paraprofessional librarians in the Southern and central Appalachian region. And how one would bring in into the curriculum aspect of rural management and information technology, which thanks to taking online courses in a synchronous model, students were able to partner with families and children through developing course projects, which were leading towards actual, tangible deliverables within the community libraries that they were working in.
And so it started with two grants that were funding about 29 ,30 students in the various states in the Southern and central Appalachian region. From there, one was able to propose a research-based project, but action research in building partnerships between smaller businesses and public libraries in Tennessee and small businesses involve individual entrepreneurs, families in terms of different types of small business and how the library could then facilitate providing appropriate resources and support. So through that process, we ended up collaboratively in participatory design, getting the families and the small business owners and the librarians together developed a blueprint design of a public library, small business toolkit, and which had different components of information related offerings. And we then got some support from the local government in strategic planning session where we will be able to get some resources to support operationalizing and implementing some elements of the blueprint design of the toolkit that we had developed.
And then the most recent one was on looking at the whole notion of community engagement in relation to rural libraries, again, in the Southern and central Appalachian region and in various aspects of their work including starting from diversity, talking about education, health, social welfare, there were 11 different domains that we picked up in terms of aspects of community life and the identify what the rural libraries were doing in relation to partnering with external stakeholders in these different sectors and what challenges were they encountering? And then what outcomes we're getting generated through the collaborations and initiatives that they developing. So through that process, we were making the rural libraries the spotlight of the positive initiative that they're making and of course leading towards development of roadmaps and strategic action plans of how that would move forward.
Steve Thomas: Given the long timelines of publishing, I imagine when you were first putting the book together, you maybe didn't have the last chapter planned, which was about adapting in times of crisis. Can you talk about why you wanted to include something about that in the book?
Bharat Mehra: It started off when I moved to Alabama in 2019, but it was around that time too, it started with the opioid crisis and I was looking at rural communities in the region in how they were developing partnerships, collaborating collaboration to address the high rate of the opioid problems that we had found in the region. But of course it made sense to include something related to the whole pandemic. And since then the challenges and shifts in our whole life realities that have happened. And so, that's how we ended up recognizing the need to the current circumstances and mittens how libraries are then playing a role in helping their families and communities and including children through innovative new ways of delivery of services, which has now of course shifted online, but many other ways helping the supporting the first responders and other aspects there. But that's where the chapter came about.
Margaret Caspe: And Amber Brown is our colleague who wrote that chapter and she serves on the Public Library Association Family Engagement Group, and as part of that chapter, what she did is she talked to a number of librarians and she really tried to raise up the ways that libraries had adapted and pivoted and transformed during the pandemic, you know, I'm just looking at some of them now, how access to online resources, libraries shifted very quickly to make everything more accessible. I know my own public library, suddenly it was very easy to reserve a book and have that book reserved, in ways that it hadn't been before.
Libraries are expanding digital resources, really using library staff to help in frontline ways, which is really a powerful idea. And then, one of the things that we've heard as we come out of the pandemic, is how many of these innovations that needed to take place really quickly have sparked lasting change.
Steve Thomas: And so if a librarian is reading this book, what's your advice to them for getting started with engaging with families?
M. Elena Lopez: It goes back to listening and learning from families, gathering that type of data, both through informal as well as formal means. And then really stepping back and reflecting. What do you want to accomplish given all this information and really do something that is realistic within the resources that the library has? And so it means also going back and looking at what library services, programs, collections already exist. So it's about building on a library's assets.
One of the chapters in the book that features the Benson Memorial Library. It's about collaborating within departments of a library. So here we have a situation where the adult librarian gets together with children's librarian and develops this program for the whole family. And so libraries can do that if they're wanting to serve children and families, they can collaborate within their departments to come up with something that addresses the interests as well as the needs of families. And then there's of course, networking within the larger community to find out how you can put either a program or a set of collections together that has the input of these agencies that work with directly with families because they have contacted families again, that may not always come to the library. So it's having these networks and connections, but always being clear about what you want to accomplish and how you can use the library's assets, as well as its connections within the community to make something really tangible and valuable and meaningful for children and families.
Margaret Caspe: One thing we started with at the beginning of this conversation was the definition of family engagement and family learning. And we always say that family engagement is a process. It's not a program, so there's no need to create a whole new program. Just like Elena was saying, sometimes minor tweaks to existing services can go such a long way. So if you have a story time group, take a few moments for the families and caregivers who are together in that storytime group to perhaps share cell phone numbers or share something about themselves to build that social connection. Or if during summer programming, provide some additional opportunities to have families come in and participate jointly. So it's not just a youth program. There are so many ways to just tweak ever so slightly what's going on to make them more family centered.
Bharat Mehra: Yeah. One step at a time and reaching out of course is a key element there that in your local communities, do some environmental scanning and see who are the different organizations and agencies, those populations that are being left of the distribution of resources and power and information and others. And through that process of environmental scanning, recognize those potential partnerships and collaborations and venture outside our comfort zones to see how one can work together in participatory engaged manners to facilitate the goals or aspirations of those communities might be.
And so that kind of involves as my colleagues have mentioned, the element of impact and outcomes. Outcome based assessment needs to be integrated into the type of work that libraries are doing in telling their stories. Outcomes means, what difference does it make in real ways in someone's political, economic, financial, educational realities, and documenting those elements in there.
And my last thought that as Elena and Maggie, both said, there are potential partners and collaborators out there. And so one doesn't have to start from scratch. One can find those allies and alliances at different levels, local level, state level, national level, and even internationally in terms of continuing to help support each other towards making a difference in our communities.
Steve Thomas: Well, Elena, Bharat, and Maggie, thank you so much for talking to me for the show today and to your contributors, obviously, for writing some of the chapters there and good luck with the book in the future!
Bharat Mehra: Thank you for having us today.
Margaret Caspe: Thank you so much.
M. Elena Lopez: Thank you so much, Steve.


text:
Reserve HIRPB Builder in My Trip
If you are on reserve, you should input your HIRPB options every day. HIRPB Builder makes it easy. No more searching through multiple displays to find open time, and then fill out a complicated and tedious DECS form. HIRPB Builder does it for you. Just drag and drop, and Submit. HIRPB sorts and submits both sequences (pairings) and RAPS. Super easy.
HIRPB is part of the My Trip web app.
Just open My Trip, and choose Options -> Reserve

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Have you ever thought to your self, "I should buy a Russian wife intended for my kid, " or any type of additional kind of man for that matter? In the event that so , maybe you should rethink that. It is hard to assume why anyone would want to be committed to a female who does abuse him and maltreatment his children, and it is also very easy to believe that this is an extremely difficult circumstance to escape.
Actually Russian girlfriends or wives do have some serious complications and abuses in their marital life. https://www.gamespace.com/members/williamuhoga/activity/65407/ Initial, they may not really actually know how to treat their very own husband the way a normal adoring husband would deal with his partner. Second, it is not unusual for people women to obtain affairs and hack on their husbands. Third, many of these women of all ages are so brainwashed and addicted to their particular power that they can not handle the truth of being a wife within a Russian household.
The ultimate way to avoid buying a Russian wife should be to simply not marry one whatsoever. In fact , there are numerous men so, who do not even go through the means of getting married since they are really afraid that they may end up with an european wife. Whilst it may be an extreme case in point, it can be used to assist explain order russian wife why this may not be a wise thought. This would incorporate women who became addicted to power or the power of money, and who may have a lot of money which she feels she should keep their self under http://www.dolittleyoga.com/selecting-perfect-better-half/ control.
There are also Russian wives who all are just certainly not that good in raising their particular children. If your goal is to train your children the best way to be father and mother and also help them to increase up as well, then you need to be certain your wife is definitely the right person for the effort. In addition to that, Russian women frequently have a very tough time dealing with their children. It is very very likely that your spouse may not be what kind of parent that your children would really like at all, and that she might even harm them. It is just a good idea to ensure that your wife is certainly someone that you are feeling comfortable with, so as to relax about her and become happy with her.
Finally, many Russian wives turn into alcoholic and wrap up committing chaotic crimes against all their husbands and resistant to the children. There are plenty of reasons for this kind of, but if you are looking for a fresh family member, among those reasons may be what you are looking for. Of course, you would not want someone that mistreated your children or perhaps committed violent offences, would you?
It is easy to find out for you to buy an eastern european wife if you want in order to avoid abusive circumstances in your existence, but you also have to make sure that you do not purchase a Russian partner because you believe that it is a good idea or perhaps because of some sort of fantasy. fake promise. Make sure that you happen to be completely satisfied along with the woman before you make any commitment.


text:
School's officially out and summer has begun. Every year I live for summer. This summer is no different. The masks are going away and people are getting out again. California summers are a part of who I am. I have so many great memories of spending time at the beach, then bbqing with friends. Here's what I love about CA summers:
- Riding bikes on the boardwalk at Newport/Balboa beach. The weather is perfect, everyone is happy and the fresh air is amazing.
- Sitting outside on the patio on a warm summer night.
- Being able to go to Disneyland anytime you want and going on The Pirates of the Caribbean or Splash Mountain to cool down.
- Grilled artichoke with butter as a snack.
- Salted watermelon as a sweet treat.
- Hanging out by the pool all day without a care in the world.
- Staying up late watching tv and working on needlepoint.
- Wearing shorts every day and being able to go anywhere without putting on bug spray or worrying about ticks.
- Spending time on Big Bear Lake.
- Playing cards at night with family and friends.
- Reading on the porch in the early morning or late evening.
- Wearing no shoes most of the time.
What do you love about summer where you are?


text: We arrived in Reykjavik yesterday, where we're spending the rest of our time in Iceland. I was tempted to turn a lot of these to black and white but decided not to….yet. I prefer black and white almost always, so I might work on that when I get home and post some in the next week or so. Enjoy!


text:
You can rely on the team at Rosco Electrical Ltd for a prompt and friendly response. Our NZ registered electricians and trainees are reliable, trustworthy, multi-skilled and experienced. On-going training is encouraged to keep them up to date with the latest techniques and technologies.
"We highly recommend Rosco Electrical Ltd for providing prompt and professional services, with excellent workmanship. Josh was great to work with and totally helpful in making suggestions for the further improvements we require. We originally contracted Rosco Electrical to remove and replace an oven and cooktop and he was able to do the job promptly, and with no fuss which was immensely appreciated. The small things were taken care of, such as rubbish cleared away and certification provided. We will certainly be using them again for any future projects"
Hi Josh
I just wanted to thank you and the boys for a fantastic job done today. Both Dana and I appreciate the quickness of completing the electrical work for our carport conversion and how the boys left the place in a nice and tidy fashion also.


text: I just recently got back into doing yoga after taking a few years off and I'm loving it. It has improved my mood, it has improved my flexibility, and it has improved my running. I really need a new mat because I've been using the same one for about a decade and I would love love love to get this gorgeous one from Anthropologie. But, can I really justify spending almost $100 on a yoga mat? Probably not, but boy do I want it!


text:
Vaporesso GEN 220W Preview
Here comes a promising new TC kit from Vaporesso that wants to take your whole vaping experience to a new level! The kit consists of the Vaporesso GEN 220W TC mod and the SKRR-S tank.
Vaporesso developed the AXON chipset for this, which brings many new features such as the PULSE mode, the Smart TC Mode, the DIY Mode and the Power ECO Mode. The SKRR-S is a tank with very large e-liquid capacity featuring a new type of coils: the QF Mesh Coil and the QF Strip Coil. Coming from Vaporesso you can expect these coils to be made to enhance the flavour coming out of your drip tip. Sounds tasty, right? Well… let's look in more detail then!
Unboxing the Vaporesso Gen 220W Kit
Vaporesso offers the mod alone or a full kit including the tank. In this case, we have our hands on the full kit that comes in the typical stylish packaging from this brand. Inside the box, you will find the Gen Mod, the SKRR-S tank with a pre-installed QF Meshed Coil (0.2Ω), an extra QF Strip Coil (0.15Ω), a glass tube replacement (5ml), two extra O-Rings, a USB Cable, a manual and a warranty card. You need to have a pair of 18650 batteries at home as they are not included.
Vaporesso Gen 220W Build Quality and Specs
According to the manufacturer, the idea behind the GEN is making "high power device more accessible to people than ever before". Hence the slogan in the boxing: "Power isn't just for the pros." For achieving this goal, Vaporesso indeed came up with a powerful device able to reach 220W with dual 18650 batteries, all that in a box mod weighing 107 grams that feels smooth and durable.
Thanks to the Axon Chipset, those 220W can be easily handled by both experienced and new vapers. Under the pulse mode, you will experience the same throat hit not just at the beginning, but throughout your puff.
Vaporesso also tried to make the TC mode (Temperature Control) more accessible for those who are not vape masters. The device recognizes the type of TC coil you are using, proving the optimum settings. All you have to care about is deciding how hot you want your vapour!
Last but not least, the Axon Chipset features a smart ECO power mode. When turned on, the device will optimize your battery energy to give you those extra puffs we always need.
The Gen has 3 small buttons located right under the 0.91 OLED screen to switch between the 3 modes mentioned before.
The SKRR-S Tank
The full kit comes with the SKRR-S tank, a sub-ohm tank with 8 ml capacity featuring a top refill system. The tank is available in 4 different colours at the moment and has adjustable bottom airflow.
The SKRR-S tank is an upgraded version of the Vaporesso SKKR sub-ohm tank which still keeps the QF coils. Therefore, the coils of this tank are compatible with the previous version.
The tank comes with 2 types of coils: the QF Mesh Coil and the QF Strip Coil. The first one is designed to bring "insanely rich flavour", while the QF Strip coil is designed for longest-lasting and has been updated with a better structure for a richer flavour. Both coils feature an improved secondary air flow distribution. The tank provides you with a leaking free experience with no spit back.
Vaporesso has become a leading manufacturer in the vape industry. The Vaporesso GEN 220W is not a cheap kit ($85) but if you don't mind paying some extra bucks for a well-built and reliable kit, then this can be the one you are looking for. The user-friendly settings it offers are definitely a big pro as they make the latest vape technology accessible to many.
Have you ever used any vape device from the Vaporesso, dear Vapers? Will you give the Vaporesso GEN 220W a try? And why? Just leave a comment below to let us know and we will be very happy to hear from you.
Alfonso Melero
Content creator and marketer. Originally from Spain, I lived a few years in Scotland and China where I started to work for the vaping industry. Vaping is not only a profession for me but also a passion. I quit smoking thanks to vaping almost 3 years ago. I helped many smokers to switch to vaping since as I am convinced vaping is a much healhier alternative to tobbaco smoking.


text:
Munaris, Munaris and Agung Abadi Kiswandono, Agung Abadi Kiswandono and sumiharni, sumiharni and Yulia Kusuma Wardani, Yulia and siswanto, Heni (2020) PELATIHAN EKOWIRAUSAHA PRODUK DETERGEN DAN EDUKASI HUKUM DAGANG DI DESA AIR NANINGAN. APTEKMAS : JURNAL PENGABDIAN KEPADA MASYARAKAT, 3 (1). ISSN 2622-5646
Other (Artikel Pengabdian Pada Masyarakat)
1935 - Published Version
Download (25kB)
Download (477kB) | Preview
Air Naningan is a village in the district of Air Naningan that has strategic access to the business center (the Air Naningan market). The location of business and marketing for local products can also be found along the road after Pringsewu to Wonosobo, Semaka towards Pesisir Barat and Lampung Barat. It provides benefits to the community to increase entrepreneurship into an eco-entrepreneurship-based. One of the products which is needed by many people and easily made with cheap capital is detergent. Although this product is easy to get, most people consider to buy the product at a cheaper price. The main objective of this community service activities is to assist PKK group of Air Naningan village for producing detergents. In addition, this activities also make the assistance to partner groups in the form of training and practice, brand counseling and labeling and trade law education. It is found that the result of the dedication can increase the participant's knowledge by 65.5% (21.08% to 86.58%). Moreover, the partner group has the ability to make detergent products.
|Item Type:
|Q Science > Q Science (General)
|Depositing User:
|Date Deposited:
|28 May 2020 11:48
|Last Modified:
|28 May 2020 11:48
Actions (login required)
|View Item


text:
There is a real energy about the album West Meets East from the Adam Shulman Septet, and that energy is firmly rooted in the legacy of the golden age of jazz. Adam Shulman wrote seven of the eight tracks that feature on the album (track five was written by Lennie Niehaus):
1. Nickel and Dimed, 2, Manne-Splainin', 3. Lean and Mean, 4. Mingus Dream of Billy Strayhorn, 5. Whose Blues, 6. Jack's Basket, 7. Heart of Winter, 8. Central Avenue Rundown
The front line is impressive with Joe Magnarelli on trumpet; Steve Davis plays trombone, Ian Hendrickson-Smith blows alto saxophone while Stephen Riley does the same on tenor sax. The rhythm section of pianist Adam Shulman, bass player David Wong and drummer Rodney Green are equally impressive.
The album is put together like a well thought out set list and opens with the wonderful 'Nickel and Dimed' and its clear nod to 'Pennies from Heaven'. Joe Magnarelli's trumpet is bright and joyful, and this picked up by the playing of Adam Shulman at the piano. 'Manne-Splainin'' pays homage to the great drummer Shelly Manne while also recognizing that wonderful George Shearing tune 'Lullaby of Broadway'. The horns are terrific on this number and I particularly enjoy the breathy quality of Stephen Riley's tenor playing.
Tracks three and four have a big band sensibility about them. 'Lean and Mean' has a wonderful melodic line that is a joy to follow as each of the horn players picks up the tune as they work through the number. 'Mingus Dreams of Billy Strayhorn' is the standout track of the album for me with its 'Duke Ellington's Sound of Love' referenced melody and relaxed playing style that gives the tune space to breathe.
'Whose Blues' picks up the tempo and allows drummer Rodney Green to trade phrases with the horn section. This is an energetic track that put a smile on my face and clearly emphasised the quality of the playing from this septet. 'Jacks Basket' gives another opportunity to hear traded phrasing but this time between the two sax players and then between the trumpet and trombone with terrific support from the rhythm section.
'Heart of Winter' is a beautiful ballad played with a full-bodied tone. Trombonist Steve Davis plays a gorgeous solo on this number and Adam Shulman's touch on the piano is particularly enjoyable. West Meets East rounds out with 'Central Avenue Rundown', an up-tempo bop number where the players get to take their final opportunity to solo and emphasise just how good a septet this group really is.
At a time when veneration for jazz music's bygone days seems to have become passé, Shulman and his blue-chip ensemble make no bones about their desire to use the best elements of the tradition to enlighten their own creative forays. The results are fresh testimony that everything old is new again.C. Andrew Hovan in album liner notes
West Meets East is a terrific album that pays its respects to the jazz legacy with well-written new tunes. This is an excellent reminder of just how good that mid-century age of jazz was, and Adam Shulman achieves this by using first rate players who know how to put a good melody across to their audience.
West Meets East is available on the Cellar Music record label via Bandcamp.


text:
Leadership Unleashed – Today's global leaders need to be authentic and resilient
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Learning to embrace change and develop resilience in the face of personal and professional adversity is a key skill for any leader. On this show, Lesley talks to Mike Smith about his experience of working with Management Research Group to support senior leaders in Europe, USA and the Middle East as they promote and lead cultural change in some of the world's largest organisations. Mike explains why it is important for leaders to be authentic and resilient as they face the complex challenges of today's global workplace.
As he shares his insights through his own personal journey, Mike will also introduce you to Alfie – his six year old Golden Retriever – who has been a constant source of inspiration and support in his own development as an authentic and resilient leader.


text:
Ellicott City MD Home Contractor, Deck and Addition Construction, Exterior Repair, and Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling
Green Solutions Remodeling is Ellicott City Maryland's top home remodeling company. We are a family-owned and operated, full-service home improvement contractor who specializes in updating kitchens and bathrooms; installing windows, doors, and siding; and in building roofs, additions, decks, and sunrooms.
We are proud to have Maryland's oldest active home improvement license number, MHIC #3. Our work and experience speak for themselves, and we make it easy for you to feel confident about improving your home with us:
Our licensed, bonded, and insured team will provide you with the highest quality service available. Some of the many home remodeling and repair services we provide include:
- Custom door installation
- Window installation
- Vinyl siding installation
- Gutter repair
- Kitchen updating
- Deck building
- Roof construction
- Custom cabinets
- Kitchen remodeling
- Roof repair
- Bathroom remodeling
- Sunroom construction
- Addition construction
- Gutter replacement
Google Review, Tee, "Green Solutions has done several jobs for us. One was a wrap-around porch and the other major job was a new roof. Both jobs were done beautifully. The workers were friendly and punctual, the job was done well and the price was right! We will use them again."
If you are searching the internet for "best deck contractor near me" or "best home remodeler near me," Green Solutions Remodeling serves all of Ellicott City (21041, 21042, 20143) and its neighboring towns and cities. Get in touch with us today!


text:
Vijay Shekhar Sharma has resigned as director, Paytm Financial Services. Rohit Lohia, who joined Paytm in June, 2019, as vice president of Paytm's lending business, will be stepping into Sharma's shoes.
Although Sharma has submitted a letter of resignation to the board, he will continue to be the chairman and CEO of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm.
In his letter to the board, Sharma has cited 'other preoccupations' as the reason for his resignation. But according to media reports, his resignation came in the wake of Reserve Bank of India's regulation that prohibits a chairman of a payments bank to also hold a directorial position in an NBFC (Non-banking finance services) unless it is the subsidiary of the bank.
Lohia was the chief digital officer at CoinTribe Technologies, a credit-based SME lending marketplace.
Paytm Financial Services was launched two months after Paytm Payments Bank was launched in 2017. Since then, Sharma was holding a directorial position at Paytm's financial services business. Though this resignation is a good sign in terms of governance and compliance by the Company, it also indicates that the Company was not following the regulations laid down by the RBI.
Comment on the Article
Value our content... contribute towards our growth. Even a small contribution a month would be of great help for us.
Since five years, we have been serving the industry through daily news and stories. Our content is free for all and we plan to keep it that way.
Support HRKatha. Pay Here (All it takes is a minute)


text:
Congratulations to Sofie Montti and Ruthie Weinbaum, who were accepted into the Massachusetts All-State Chorus! They scored high enough on their video auditions that they will now be participating in a virtual choral piece conducted by Dr. Jeffery Redding, 2019 GRAMMY Award Music Educator of the Year.
Search the Parent News
Helpful Links
Parent News Feed


text:
'The year of that Slovay Congress, was, it is well to recall, the year in which Heisenberg gave his derivation of the principle of indeterminacy concerning measurements in physics. One can therefore in a sense understand Einstein's tactics in taking on the Copenhagen interpretation at its nerve center, which consisted in the insistence that measurements were inconceivable without someone doing them. Thus it would be argued that the act of measurement, which in one way or another implied pointer readings and therefore a reliance on light quanta, deprived the measurement of absolute precision. Such insistence when elevated into a first principle became equivalent to withdrawing into a citadel. Once confined to measurements within that citadel, one could declare that physical theory was limited to the measurable and therefore had no need of hidden variables. Withdrawal into that citadel also meant the the viewing of anything outside it as unreal. It was such a citadel that Einstein wanted to conquer from within, by trying to devise a thought experiment in which absolute precision was in principle possible. He was bound to fail for the very reason that no measurement is possible without observation. But it did not follow from this that knowledge of reality was equivalent to measuring it with absolute precision. Philosophically the citadel in question did not represent the full range of man's knowing reality, and it certainly did not represent the full range of modern physics. Einstein's own theory of relativity was a case in point, and all members of the Copenhagen school could have been forced to admit that it was a telling case.' (Stanley Jaki, 'The Road of Science and the Ways to God', p. 209)
Stanley Jaki on the Copenhagen Theory
'Whatever the distance of human passions from atomic physics, the real question was whether one's epistemological attitude was truly general, that is, consistent or not. The impression Bohr gave was that one was to have two kinds of epistemology, one for atomic phenomena, another for everything else, but it was still to be explained whether the understanding, or episteme, could be split in two. On this decisive point Bohr gave at best an impression which was vague and superficial. Staying with superficial impressions means staying on the surface, and this in turn implies the avoidance of deep questions. Typically enough, Bohr completed the final review of his epistemological conflict with Einstein with the remark that "through a singularly fruitful cooperation of a whole generation of physicists we are nearing the goal wheere logical order to a large extent allows us to avoid deep truth." The most obvious of such deep truths should have been for Bohr the truth of the complementarity of matter and light, waves and particles, atomic stability and indeterminacy. The truth that they were complementary to one another was not a matter of observation, but an inference, and a genuinely metaphysical one, which had no justification in the Copenhagen theory. The truth in question was about the truth of a reality which had complementary aspects. These aspects could really complement one another only if they inhered in a deeper reality, about which Bohr could only be agnostic. A harmony of relations or aspects, complementing one another, such was Bohr's epistemological message, a message void of reference to the ontological reality of anything harmonious. About the entity which embodied the harmony of relations he was not permitted by his own premises to make any claim and he carefully avoided doing so. In a truly pragmatist way, which he learned from Hoffding, a forerunner of William James, Bohr could speak of fruits, though not of their harmny (which is never a matter of direct observation) and certainly not of the tree which produced the fruits, to say nothing of the soil which supported and nourished the tree. For Bohr the deepest aspect of existence was pragmatic fruitfulness, the rather shallow perspective in which he saw physics itself: "Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the present position of physics is that almost all the ideas which have ever proved to be fruitful in the investigating of nature have found their right place in a common harmony without thereby having diminished their fruitfulness."
As will be seen shortly, this was not even true of quantum mechanics, a fact which should surprise no one. The really creative elements of quantum mechanics are not the data observed by physicists bu the marvelous ideas formed in their heads. Of those heads few were as impressive as that of Bohr, who for many was a twentieth-century Moses with two flaming horns on his forehead. The horns were the horns of complementarity, but as interpreted by Bohr they could not secure reality to the atomic realm, to say nothing of Moses or Bohr himself. Bohr's pairs of complementarity resembled pairs of horns from which one could not even infer unambiguously that they were rooted in the same head and thereby truly complementary or that the head itself was real, and even more fundamentally real than the horns themselves.' (Stanley Jaki, 'The Road of Science and he Ways to God', p. 205-206)
A Few Good Links
I've been in a bit of a blogging slump, so in lieu of a post of my own here's a few good links I've found today:
A few 3:AM interviews:
'Philosophy of mathematics is a large and fascinating area about which I have had nothing at all to say. I am a mathematical Platonist in the simple sense that I believe clear, unambiguous mathematical propositions (e.g. Goldbach's conjecture or the Axiom of Choice) to be either true or false independently of whether or not they can be proven. Indeed, it seems obvious to me for many different reasons (including, of course, Gödel's theorems) that infinitely many mathematical truths are not theorems of any intuitively acceptable proof system. So I believe in a "world" of mathematical fact in virtue of which clear mathematical propositions are either true or false. But I do not take these mathematical facts to be materialist or naturalistic in any interesting sense. I would not, myself, regard this as a "counterexample" to naturalism or materialism, because I never thought of those doctrines as making any claims about mathematics. But perhaps I am idiosyncratic in that regard.'
'What I am against is the idea that in the search for the correlates of consciousness, we already have a clear idea of what we are looking for, and we have to find the neural correlate of that. I don't think we are in this situation: we are fundamentally confused about what consciousness is. For instance, we have no proper understanding of the relationship between conscious thought and conscious sensation. The various forms of thought and sensation are underpinned by very different neural mechanisms; so how can the neural correlate of their conscious natures be the same? I don't think we are yet in a position to make such speculations. To make progress, we have to have a good conception of the phenomenology of consciousness, among other things. I think we are very prone to errors about this, for all sorts of reasons…'
'Anyway, I am indeed saying that it is necessary what there is. Necessarily everything is necessarily something. There could not have been more or fewer things than there actually are, and which particular things there are could not have been different. What is contingent is only what properties those things have, and what relations they have to each other. I call that view necessitism. Its denial is contingentism.'
'Wittgenstein could indeed have had a daughter. But no past, present, or future person could have been a daughter of Wittgenstein, at least not in the biological sense (obviously he could have adopted many actual women). Nor could any actual sum of atoms have been identical with a daughter of Wittgenstein, it could only have constituted such a daughter, and constitution isn't identity. Rather, for a necessitist, something that could have been a daughter of Wittgenstein is a merely possible person, and a merely possible concrete object. It is neither concrete, a person, nor a daughter of Wittgenstein, but it could have been all three. Similarly, there could have been no tigers, if evolution had taken a different turn. In those counterfactual circumstances, all the actual tigers would have been merely possible tigers—non-concrete non-tigers that could have been concrete tigers. So it is contingent what kinds of thing are instantiated.'
aeon's David Dobbs on why the selfish gene needs to die –
'It's a gorgeous story. Along with its beauty and other advantageous traits, it is amenable to maths and, at its core, wonderfully simple. It has inspired countless biologists and geneticists to plumb the gene's wonders and do brilliant work. Unfortunately, say Wray, West-Eberhard and many others, the selfish-gene story is so focused on the gene's singular role in natural selection that in an age when it's ever more clear that evolution works in ways far more clever and complex than we realise, the selfish-gene model increasingly impoverishes both scientific and popular views of genetics and evolution. As both conceptual framework and metaphor, the selfish-gene has helped us see the gene as it revealed itself over the 20th century. But as a new age and new tools reveal a more complicated genome, the selfish-gene is blinding us.'
A really cool chart on the philosophy of science –
(I'd probably put myself between scientific and structural realism, leaning a bit closer to structural realism, while recognizing that no one position here can do science justice. Some theories are purely instrumental – some are much more realist.)
A great Russell quote:
"I still think that truth depends upon a relation to fact, and that facts in general are nonhuman; I still think that man is cosmically unimportant, and that a Being, if there were one, who could view the universe impartially, without the bias of here and now, would hardly mention man, except perhaps in a footnote near the end of the volume; but I no longer have the wish to thrust out human elements from regions where they belong; I have no longer the feeling that intellect is superior to sense. I used to think of sense, and of thought which is built on sense, as a prison from which we can be freed by thought which is emancipated from sense. I now have no such feelings. I think of sense, and of thoughts built on sense, as windows, not as prison bars." ('My Philosophical Development' (1959), p. 213)
And, on the topic of Russell, An Aristotelian-Thomistic response to Russell's problem of induction –
'And so to respond to Russell's claim: what is existential or particular or singularcan refer either to the thing understood, or the way of understanding. If the latter, it's false to say that experience is particular; if the former, then the particular is no more opposed to the universal than it is to the particular.'
Reading Notes
I just recently got 'Jesus is Lord, Caesar is Not', and am about 80% of the way through. The primary goal of the book is to basically say, 'whoa, slow down there, sonny', to the anti-imperial/postcolonial readings of the New Testament, especially Paul's letters. I've read it quickly, so I'm sure I'll come back to it for further reference, but so far the standout sections deal with Luke, Acts and Romans – the anti-imperial/postcolonial readings of these texts are taken to task for a few different things, such as the use of very modern methods in reading ancient texts, importing modern concerns to ancient texts, poor handling, both historical and exegetical, etc. Not to say that such readings are condemned – the anti-imperial character of New Testament writing is something that's proven to be a pretty important aspect of the New Testament, and for bringing that out we should be thankful to those who advocate such readings. When the meaning of the NT is reduced to anti-imperial rhetoric, however, then there's a problem.
I also got Peter Leithart's 'A House for My Name', and started reading it (I'm only a few pages into it so far). Good so far – lots of tying together the symbolism that saturates the Old Testament – specifically the three-layer cosmology of Genesis. Good stuff.
Today I bought three more John Grisham books – 'The Partner', 'The Chamber', and one other I forget the name of. I also got a Father Brown story by Chesterton.
This last week I spent re-reading parts of Tim Maudlin's great book, 'The Metaphysics Within Physics', which I wrote a post on that generated some good discussion (see that post for some of my criticisms with his methodology) . His criticism of Humean-ism is pretty good – even though it basically boils down to, 'why would anyone be Humean?'
On that same note, I read more of Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', as well as renting the NOVA documentary of the same name. The experimental aspect is definitely where string theory lacking – but empirical testing would require a particle accelerator roughly the size of the milky way galaxy. But the math more than hold true, it basically units quantum mechanics and relativity theory in a way that was impossible before. Most physicists will tell you that the experimental data is the most important part of a thrust, however, and there won't be any for string theory for a while if ever.
Continuing that same note, I picked up Timothy Ferris' absolutely brilliant book, 'Coming of Age in the Milky Way', which remains one of my favourite science books I've ever read. As far as history of science goes, this is probably as good as it gets – I've yet to read a volume which explains and expounds the ideas as well as the thinkers behind them so clearly and delightfully. Yes, reading about Kepler's calculations for elliptical planetary orbits, Newtons theory of gravity, the quantum revolution and particle physics can, in fact, be great fun.
Reading Notes 7/14/2014
I'm nearing the end of Wright's 'Simply Jesus', and so far, the most interesting part has been his placing Jesus in the tradition of failed Messiah-kings (Wright cites Judah the Hammer, Simon the Star, Bar-Kosiba and Herod as examples of failed Messiah-kings, then shows how Jesus is the actual king who inaugurates both the new creation and the coming of God's kingdom on earth (as it is in heaven). Interesting fleshing out of this idea. A lot of the book is fairly basic Wright themes – if you've read his weightier books, then this one will seem pretty repetitive.
I've been reading more closely Paul Tillich's 'The Courage to Be', and aspects of it are very interesting. As far as a survey of various strands of existentialism throughout history, it's a great book, but his theology, if you can call it that (it's more of trading theology for ontology, and ontology of existential psychology) isn't really worth much. He strikes me as fairly Wittgensteinian in his 'theology', which upon close examination, turns out to be more of a semiology than theology. So basically, he goes from theology to ontology, from ontology to psychology, and then from psychology to semiology. A note I found very interesting was his classifying Plato as existentialist, on account of (for Tillich) Plato's philosophy ultimately showing that man is estranged from his essential essence.
I started going back over some of Brian Greene's physics books – 'The Hidden Reality' and 'The Fabric of the Cosmos', to learn more about inflationary cosmology. What a fantastic teacher of physics – it took a minute of reading, but he broke down IC in such an easy way that even I was able to grasp the broader principles behind it. His use of analogy and metaphor in place of dense mathematics is brilliant. I tried reading Susskind's 'The Theoretical Minimum', and there was just too much math – for someone as terrible at math as me, that's basically a non-starter.
Bruggemann's 'Old Testament Theology' is continuing to be a solid, challenging book. I disagree with his methodology, almost in its entirety, but a lot of his conclusions and exegesis is pretty solid. His emphasis on the rhetorical nature of the OT as well as thinking of the OT in solely in the category of 'witness' is a very fruitful avenue. His flippant dismissal of Christian interpretations of the OT isn't as fruitful, though. It's odd (I mentioned this in an earlier post on this book) that someone so willing to interpret the OT along post-modern/critical lines (which is fine – I'm not one of those anti-PoMo Christians), which is a very foreign category to the OT, simply dismisses Christian interpretations (for example, the OT being a 'pointer' or 'witness' to Christ) as wrong.
Kenneth Kitchen's 'On the Reliability of the Old Testament' is a tour de force of OT archaeology and interpretation. While the style is as engaging as the nutrition facts on a cereal box, the content is fantastic and the attention to detail is rigourous to a fault – I read through half a dozen pages comparing styles of architecture among ancient near eastern temples, grain prices, slave prices, etc. Great content, terrible style.
Physics, Metaphysics, Physics
I'll be the first to say that a lot of physics and a lot of metaphysics goes right over my head. Whoosh. Modern analytic philosophy, which is what most folks mean when they say metaphysics, is about as comprehensible to me as advanced mathematics (I'm terrible at math). A lot of modern physics, at least the mathematical parts (which is a lot) is the same – whoosh.
However, I do try and keep up at least somewhat with the latest developments of the broader ideas and underpinnings of metaphysics and physics – especially physics, which is way more metaphysical than a lot of folks think it is. Philosophy of physics and the broad metaphysical ideas behind and under modern cosmology are just as important, and in my mind way more interesting, anyway.
I say all this to pick a fight with something Tim Maudlin says in his great book, 'The Metaphysics within Physics,' :
'Metaphysics is ontology. Ontology is the most generic study of what exists. Evidence for what exists, at least in the physical world, is provided by empirical research. Hence the proper object of most metaphysics is the careful analysis of our best scientific theories (and especially of fundamental physical theories) with the goal of determining what they imply about the constitution of the physical world.' (p. 104)
Now, it should be fairly obvious the issues here: the definition of ontology. Ontology is not the study of what exists, ontology is the study of being, or existence (you can be real anal and dispute whether or not those two words mean the same thing. I'm not going to). Being as such, not this or that particular thing that has being – or existence as such, not this or that thing that happens to exist. Being qua being. This is a pretty significant thing to get wrong.
A more concrete example: metaphysics studies how it is that change is possible (Parmenides, Heraclitus, Aristotle) and not this or that example of change (a chemical reaction, for example). What Maudlin does is to shift metaphysics from being the study of the absolute fundamentals of reality to a slightly more abstract form of empirical science, which analyzes various empirical theories. That isn't metaphysics, that is just normal thinking.
In a nutshell, Maudlin's scheme is that we derive metaphysics from physics, and further, ontology from physics. Our notions of existence comes from physics. Earlier in the same volume:
'First: metaphysics, i.e. ontology, is the most generic account of what exists, and since our knowledge of what exists in the physical world rests on empirical evidence, metaphysics must be informed by empirical science.' (p. 78)
I'm tempted to say that simply knowing what exists gives us no knowledge past bare sensory knowledge of particulars, which doesn't really lead to knowledge of any kind, which is what Maudlin is setting out to do by analyzing various theories. But why restrict our knowledge of what exists to the physical, as Maudlin implicitly does? Twice above he says that whatever exists in the physical world is supported by empirical, or physical evidence. But that's only trivially true – obviously, if something exists in the physical world, it will have physical evidence. But it doesn't follow from that that the only notions of existence, or what exists comes from the physical world.
This seems to be a tangled way of thinking, which has its origin in Maudlin's confusion of what metaphysics is. Now, as I said above, this isn't my game. Analytic philosophy ain't my thing, so it's possible I'm quite wrong in my analysis. But what I see, in another nuthsell, is (a) a confusion of terms (ontology as the study of what exists), which leads to (b) the idea that our only knowledge of what exists is physical. To make ontology the study of what exists is to make metaphysics and ontology, as stated above, a slightly more abstract brand of empirical science.
Reading Note 12/5/13
I've been reading Brian Greene's 'The Fabric of Reality', and all I can do is heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in contemporary physics and cosmology. I'll post some specific quotes and thoughts in the near future, but for the moment, I'll simply say that it's so far been the best book on space, time and cosmology that I've yet read. Clear, lucid, non-dogmatic writing that makes the learning fun. Do yourself a favour and get this book.
Random Study Notes
Current cosmology: focused on information, holographic principle and black hole event horizons. Lots of conjecture but not as much empirical evidence in favour of one over the other. Importance of mathematics cannot be overestimated in current physics, but seems very easy to mistake the mathematical formulas describing phenomena for the phenomena itself. See Bertrand Russell on the mathematical skeleton of reality.
Idealism: in its classical form a powerful metaphysic, in theology, seems to border on heretical (ie Edwards, Berkeley). Similar to pantheism and emanation and poor distinction between thought, being and reality. Having a mental picture of an object is not grounds to assert that all reality is mental even though the mental plays an obviously key role in our perception of reality.
Hegel: powerful thinker whos ideas, to paraphrase That Individual, would have been brilliant had they been posited as an elaborate theory, but Hegel's assertion that his philosophy was reality turns his ideas from interesting to absurd and even mad. Chilling ideas on the state, freedom and morality which laid the groundwork for a very bloody 20th century. Thoughts on the nature of reality similar to Heraclitus IE all is flux. History, the Real, Absolute Spirit all powerful ideas that need to be taken seriously as a system of thought.
Critical realism: primary viewpoint of Christianity – God exists independently of our thought or perception of Him. Stratification of truth (T.F. Torrance) distinguishes between kinds of truth IE truth of being, truth of relation, truth of statement. Operation of the human mind naturally realist – the words we employ point to the reality for which they stand rather than themselves. Our mind does not create reality but rather accepts the reality forced upon it, either in natural science or theology.
Note on John Philoponus
I've been reading some Philoponus lately, as well as a couple of different articles on his thought and its relation to theology and physics. Here's one article (I'm not sure where the other is, but its by the same author):
Some interesting thoughts are to be found in this sixth-century thinker – including dynamic and relational views of time, space and a theory of light that really is ahead of its time. But its his christological thought that I find the most interesting, because he bases his 'philosophy of nature' (for lack of a better term) directly on his christology and doctrine of God, or at least that's how I read it. To quote a couple good bits from the cited article above:
'John the Grammarian labored at its Academy purged of pagans by the Emperor Justinian. There he attempted to think together the theological and physical significance of the Word of God in relationship to the world. Because of John's belief in the teaching of Moses, that the Creation was created out of nothing by the Word of God, he could argue at crucial points with the Master of Greek Philosophy and Physics. Against the Greek vision of the world and the kind of necessities it had posited between the Creator and the Cosmos, Philoponus sought to argue for the rational contingency of the intelligibility of the cosmos based upon its creation out of nothing by the speaking of God in the Beginning. The contingency of the world's Beginning out of nothing was transcendently grounded, independent of God's nature, in God's divine freedom to speak into existence all of created reality, the heavens and the earth, its mankind as His Image, and His Sabbath relationship with them in the Creation. [7] The Cosmos was given existence and motion by the Creator in the Beginning with the divine freedom of His holy love and will and as such was absolutely dependent upon Him for its independent nature and being. As such, it possessed in and of itself no necessity for its existence and subsistence. It could not have been or it could have been something other than it is. The Creation possesses actuality and potentiality that is something out of nothing, the impossibility for Greek thought. But because of the speaking of the divine and sovereign will of a free God, the world is what it is with its mankind in it. It possesses neither an arbitrary 'nature' nor a necessary 'nature' in its relationship with its Creator. It is what it is in its independent 'nature' dependent absolutely upon the divine will for being what it is. It thus possesses a contingent necessity in relation to God, the rationality and intelligibility of which reflects the created and creative freedom of the will of the freely speaking God. The nature of the universe is a contingent nature utterly different from God's nature and yet absolutely dependent upon Him for its being.'
He was a pretty controversial guy, though – his christological thought landed him an anathema, but I'll wait for the nxt post to draw that out in a bit more detail.
On Modeling Divine Action
In 'Where the Conflict Really Lies', Alvin Plantinga draws up a model for divine action using quantum mechanics. It's one of the most creative projects in the world of philosophy/theology/philosophy of science world, in my opinion, and I think it merits some serious attention. Some of my questions are: is such a project necessary? Is it genuinely useful? Is it relevant? Does it make sense? Is this trying to assign God a place in the world? Other questions will surface, I'm sure (for the sake of brevity, I'm going to avoid going into huge detail regarding the background information of the topic of quantum mechanics – high-quality information on this topic is readily available online).
Plantinga's thesis is made in the context of a discussion on divine action in general – the thesis is basically trying to solve some of the problems posed by thinkers on the topic of divine action. Some folks (Plantinga cites the 'Divine Action Project', whose most prominent member is John Polkinghorne) have a problem with typical accounts of such action and have raised important objections – this thesis is an answer to those objections.
Briefly, the objections amount to this: if God acts specially in the world, His actions would be a violations of the laws of nature – God's acting in a special way entails a suspension of the natural order, which, so the story goes, then entails that the regularity of nature, which allows for inquiry into nature, can't be counted on. If God makes and upholds the laws of nature, He can't also go against them or break them. This is a broad stroke, and there are different opinions and distinctions to be made, but the majority of Plantinga's thesis deals with 'hands-off theology' objections. The goal, then, is to answer these objections.
After an account of classical science and contemporary physics, Plantinga goes in-depth with quantum mechanics, setting his sights on various collapse-interpetations. After spending some time expounding the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber collapse interpretation, Plantinga goes on to apply it to divine action. One reason Plantinga picks up on this interpretation is that it avoids some of the uncertainty of, say, the Copenhagen interpretation:
'The Copenhagen interpretation is a collapse interpretation; but there are other collapse approaches. For example, there are spontaneous collapse theories, including in particular the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) approach. On these collapse approaches, collapses are not restricted to measurements; they occur spontaneously, and at a regular rate.' (p. 115)
'On this approach we could think of the nature of a system as dictating that collapses occur at the regular rate they in fact display. What is presently of significance, however, is that on these approaches there is no cause for a given collapse to go to the particular value (the particular position, for example) or eigenstate to which it in fact goes. That is, there is no physical cause; there is nothing in the previous physical state of the world that causes a given collapse to go to the particular eigenstate to which it does go. But of course this state of affairs might very well have a nonphysical cause. It's wholly in accord with these theories that, for any collapse and the resulting eigenstate, it is God who causes that state to result. Perhaps, then, all collapse-outcomes (as we might call them) are caused by God. If so, then between collapses, a system evolves according to the Schrodinger equation; but when a collapse occurs, it is divine agency that causes the specific collapse-outcome that ensues.' (p. 116)
Pretty interesting stuff. My first thought on reading this was 'is this just god of the gaps?' I don't think so. A god-of-the-gaps account would be something along the lines of 'we don't know how it works, therefore, god', whereas Plantinga's model is an answer, a scientifically grounded answer, to various objections raised against divine action.
'How can we say that God intervenes in our scientific world?'
'Well, here's an account of how, given the scientific data available, we can model divine action such that the objections you raise are answered.'
So, to conclude this first post examining Plantina's DCC theory: I would say that such a project is genuinely useful and is definitely not a god-of-the-gaps argument.


text:
The first step in intraday trading is identifying the stocks to trade. Focus on stocks that are not too volatile. The second step is to determine the levels of entry and exit. These have to be set based on technical levels and monitored based on news flows. Finally, you need to place the actual intraday order, which must be accompanied by the stop loss and profit target at the time of order initiation itself.
Setting Out on the Intraday Trading Journey
Your existing equity trading is good enough and you can execute intraday trades in your existing trading account itself. The question is whether you require a demat account since intraday trading does not require delivery of shares. The answer is that SEBI regulations require that any form of equity trading cannot be done without a demat account. The only thing you need to remember is that when you place an intraday trade, clearly mention that it is an intraday trade as your will then be margined accordingly.
Steps to take before Intraday Trading
- You must begin by identifying a list of 10 stocks that you will trade intraday. What should be the criteria for selecting these stocks. Firstly, they must be companies with quality management so that there are no negative surprises for you. Secondly, ensure that these stocks are liquid enough to enable entry and exit without any risk. Lastly, these stocks must be high beta names that react to technical triggers and to news flows. That is when you make money! Above all, keep this list small such that you can closely track these stocks.
- Once the stocks are identified, you must set out the framework for trading intraday. Define the support and resistance levels where the stock can be traded long or short. Deicide on the stop loss levels and the profit target levels. Once the complete framework is set, only then you must venture to trade these stocks.
- Order placement is very important. Don't jump in and buy or sell the stock. Check if you can get a better price in a market order or a limit order and then take a final call on order placement. After all, you only have around 5 hours to close out the position profitably.
- Profits and losses are part of the intraday trading game. When stop losses are triggered don't spend time analyzing the stock. Stick to your discipline. When the profit target is achieved don't spend time worrying whether the stock can give more profits. Discipline is the key.
- Ensure that all positions are closed out by you before the end of the day. Even if you have the ability to put full margin, don't convert an intraday trade into a delivery trade. Keep it separate. Be very careful of open short positions because if you don't close them it could result in short delivery and lead to auction losses. Keep a complete checklist of open positions and reconfirm it with your order book and trade book to ensure that there are not open positions.
3 Things to Ensure when you Start Intraday Trading
Success in intraday trading is contingent on a variety of factors including the market volatility, cost of trading and your trading strategy.
- When you are trading intraday, your cost of trading matters a lot since there are two legs to each trade on the same day. When you add up brokerage and statutory costs, the cost can add up to quite a bit and make a difference to your break-even. Ensure to get the best deal on brokerage to be profitable in intraday trading.
- There are 3 decisions in intraday trading viz. buy, sell, do nothing. You will find that quite often doing nothing in a highly confusing market is the best trading decision. You can actually save yourself even as other traders may be losing money in the midst of all the volatility and confusion. Use the volatility but stay out if the market is confusing.
- In intraday trading you are as good as your last trade and you must keep that in mind when you start intraday trading. The trick lies in learning from your bad trades and using it to better your future trades. What you can do is a lot more important in intraday trading than what you have already done.


text:
No one likes being stuck because of a dead battery. Fortunately, there are different devices that can bail you out and get your vehicle moving again. A car battery charger is great for reviving your vehicle as quickly as possible. Sears has a large selection of chargers and car battery maintainers from quality brands like Die Hard, Schumacher Electric and Rally. You'll find different models able to jumpstart any type of car, truck or SUV battery.
Each car battery charger comes in various sizes and has different uses. Some are a bit smaller to fit in your car or on your workbench while others are on wheels and can be plugged into your garage outlet. The two most popular car battery maintainers and chargers are fast and trickle models. Fast-battery models are meant to power up a battery in an emergency while trickle maintainers are designed recharge a battery for a longer period of time. A trickle car battery maintainer is perfect for charging your recreational vehicle's marine battery while it's away in storage. This allows your RV to handle a major road trip after sitting idle for long period of time.
Most battery chargers can be used to charge equipment and machinery other than cars. You'll find chargers that can boost up drained batteries on your boat or ATV or motorcycle when it's idle. Worried about having a dead riding mower or garden tractor battery once winter is over? Sears has car battery maintainers that can also jolt any lawn and garden battery so you can continue maintaining that beautiful lawn once again.
A drained battery can usually be restored with the help of maintainers, jumper cables and other devices. However, if you notice your car frequently struggles to start or the electrical equipment sporadically gives out, your battery might have already run its course. Typically, you should be thinking about replacing it every three to five years. When the time comes to replace it, Sears carries a wide range of car batteries and battery installation accessories to help you get the job done as quickly as possible.
Your car or garden equipment shouldn't sit dormant forever. Make sure it's battery is receiving the right surge of power with a reliable car battery charger. Whether you're looking to sustain a charge or provide emergency power, Sears has a wide variety of car battery maintainer and chargers to get the job done.


text:
This is a Valmont Microflect passive repeater
station in Potter County, Pennsylvania that's part of a 6 GHz fixed
point-to-point link. When this repeater was originally installed, the
link probably carried an analog TDM signal. Since it was upgraded
recently (2018) it's now carrying a SONET digital backbone connection
capable of operation at up to OC-12 speeds using Alcatel-Lucent (now
part of Nokia) MPR-9500 radios. One end
of the link is a gas company
compressor station called Greenlick Station, 1.5 miles away, call sign
KWR65, visible as a complex of white buildings in one of the photos
below, and the other end is at an active repeater station called Cherry
Springs 13 miles away on the horizon, call sign KGM76. Transmitter
power is 1¼ W.
The cool thing about passive repeaters is that they
don't need any kind of maintenance, or modification or adjustment when
you do upgrades. The un-cool thing about passive repeaters is that
they're usually used in places that are hilariously difficult to get
to. I was doing work on the endpoint radios for this link, and I didn't
actually have to visit the
repeater, but I finished early and thought it would be cool to see if I
could make it up there.
I'm in pretty good shape, but after making it up that
mountain I kind of just wanted to lay down there and die. The satellite
photos really don't do justice to just how remote this site is and how
rugged the terrain is. I had my car instead of my normal 4WD pickup, so
I had to hike straight up a mountain. I don't know how far I walked,
but it was over a mile because it's impossible to tell if you're on the
right path and I hit a lot of dead ends before I finally found a way up
there. It took about two hours.
Anyway, the first nine pictures are of the Greenlick
passive repeater. I tried to get some close-ups of the linkages, so you
can see how the reflector is dialed in. You'd have a technician on
either end with power meters, and a third technician at the repeater.
The jack screws allow the reflector to pivot up, down, left, and right
a few degrees. As to how long it's been there, I'm gonna say late 80's,
but that's just a guess.
The first picture in the last column is the view from
the front of the reflector. You can see the compressor station to the
The last two pictures are of a smaller, tower-mounted
passive repeater that's part of the same network, connecting the Cherry
Springs active repeater to the Leidy compressor station via an Alcatel-Lucent MDR-8000 carrying 16 T1
lines (24.7 Mb/S).


text:
Emyria have received an Australian-first, Class IIa "software-as-a-medical-device" (SaMD) registration with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for a unique smartphone-based, medical-grade, heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV) and atrial fibrillation (AF) monitoring application using only a smartphone camera, powered by Happitech.
Openly is Emyria's remote Real-World Evidence (RWE) technology platform and was initially developed as a contactless, remote COVID-19 screening and management tool using just a smartphone. Now by leveraging the capabilities of an individual's smartphone, one can overcome the significant challenges of obtaining, distributing and maintaining stand-alone medical hardware.
The TGA assesses medical devices before they can be approved for use in Australia. Devices must be included on the ARTG before they can be lawfully sold in Australia. Emyria's Class IIa classification applies to the unique software development kit (SDK), developed using Happitech technology.
A Class IIa classification applies to software that is intended to provide information used to make decisions with diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Successful classification as a Class IIa device requires passing detailed verification and clinical evaluation procedures.
Happitech will continue working with partners such as Emyria, the exclusive sponsor for this registration, to develop additional medical-grade cardiovascular and respiratory monitoring functionalities across various applications and platforms.