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A long way down November 13, 2014Posted by dolorosa12 in blogging, reviews, television.
Tags: blogging, reviews, the fall, the millennium trilogy
2 comments
This post will contain spoilers for Season 1 of The Fall. It will also involve discussion of misogyny, rape culture, sexualised violence and murder.
The first episode of Season 2 of The Fall will air tonight. The release of the new season has prompted a flurry of discussion of the same elements certain critics disliked in the first season: the show's perceived sexism and voyeuristic attitude to gendered violence. While I understand where such criticism is coming from, I think it is misguided.
The Fall is the story of the hunt for a serial killer in Belfast who targets victims of one demographic: attractive, young, single professional women. It's an unusual show in that we know who the killer is from the first episode, following him as he goes about his daily life as husband, father and grievance counsellor, and as he goes about his hidden life as a misogynistic, unspeakably cruel killer. As such, the focus and point of view of the show is split evenly between that of Paul, the killer, and Stella, the police officer leading the investigation into his crimes. It is this focus on Paul and insight into his mind that has led, in part, to condemnations of the show for misogyny. The other problem is that in making Paul a viewpoint character, his murders are shot through his eyes, and so the audience sees the women he kills as he sees them: helpless dolls whose murdered bodies are his to handle (the way he bathes and lays out his victims' bodies in their own beds — in which he has killed them — is one of the most horrifying aspects of the show).
That being said, I think it's very clear that the show is condemning such actions. We are not voyeurs gazing on the dead women: we are voyeurs gazing in horror at the workings of Paul's mind.
The show's broader context supports such a reading. This is due in great part to the character of Stella, who repeatedly condemns Paul's actions as the work of a misogynist, who is herself a sexually independent woman, and who calls out the wider culture as supporting the extremes of Paul's actions in refusing to condemn smaller, more everyday forms of misogyny. The writer has also stated in interviews his insistence on portraying Paul's victims before he murders them, so that the viewers can see them as human beings with jobs, friendships and familial and other connections. This acts as a sort of direct refutation of Paul's perception of them.
Most importantly, it's one of the few shows to receive mainstream acclaim I've seen to include an explicit discussion of rape culture and the ways it enables murders like those of Paul's victims to take place. Stella has several conversations with her (female) colleague Reed about the ways women and girls warn each other about male violence, and about the way that they must be constantly guarded against a culture that will try to blame them for their own abuse. Stella also shuts down a male colleague describing one of Paul's victims as 'innocent'. What if his next victim is a sex worker? she asks. She refuses to let any discussion of innocence or blame enter the narrative of the case.
There is one final, and most horrifying, example of the show's condemnation of society misogyny. Paul's pattern in his murders is to build up to them by initially sneaking into his victims' empty houses and moving their belongings around in subtle ways in order to assert his control and unsettle them. His second victim notices that her belongings have been moved and calls the police. Rather than believing her, they try to deny her own experience and knowledge of her own space. There's no sign of a break-in, they say. Could her things have been moved by her cat? She is sure that this is not the case, but their words put doubt in her mind, so that when they ask her if she could stay with her sister, she feels as if her fears were unfounded and decides to stay put. Of course, after the police leave, Paul sneaks back in and murders her in a way designed to cause maximum, drawn-out terror and trauma. In this way, although Paul is the one to actually kill the women, The Fall shows how damaging, misogynistic societal attitudes (particularly the refusal to believe women when they say they feel unsafe) contribute to and enable his murders.
In this way, The Fall, while heartbreaking, terrifying and harrowing to watch, is much less harmful than, say, the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, which purports to be a series condemning violence against women, but which actually engages in a great deal of victim blaming. While it is not enjoyable to watch women killed in situations of extreme psychological torment, it is satisfying for once to see the blame for their deaths put where it truly lies.
'Mars is there, waiting to be reached' March 28, 2014Posted by dolorosa12 in books, fangirl, reviews.
Tags: books, children's dystopian fiction, children's literature, children's science fiction, mars evacuees, science fiction, sophia mcdougall
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'It's like Pacific Rim, only with the characters as twelve-year-old girls,' said my partner, who had snatched up Sophia McDougall's Mars Evacuees and read it before I had a chance. Coming from him, this was high praise, and I opened the book expecting great things. Be warned, this review contains some minor spoilers.
I wasn't disappointed. Mars Evacuees is McDougall's first children's book, and it is set in a dystopian future in which Earth has been partly colonised by the Morror, an alien people who have transformed the climate to such an extent that it is becoming too cold to support human life. As an endless war rages on, groups of children are being evacuated off-planet to Mars, which has been partially terraformed into a climate that can sustain a human population. Their rescue comes at a price: all evacuees will be trained, and then conscripted into the military and expected to join the fight against the Morror. The narrator, Alice Dare, is the daughter of Stephanie Dare, a famous war hero. Although she struggles with the weight of expectation that this troublesome heritage causes, Alice is an essentially pragmatic child, and she spends most of the story putting any angsty feelings aside to be dealt with at a later, more convenient time. This is because she is preoccupied for most of Mars Evacuees with staying alive.
Although the colony on Mars seems at first to be a utopian safe haven, in which children from every corner of the world are given a multilingual education in everything from algebra to flying spaceships, its peace is shattered when all the adults disappear. At this point, schoolyard politics come into play: the strongest, meanest bullies take control, claiming most of the food supplies and the best quarters, terrorising the other children into submission. Alice and her friends – quirky, introverted Josephine, outgoing Carl and his younger brother Noel, along with one of the robots from the Martian colony – set out to find help. What they discover on their journey allows them to save not only the Martian colony, but also Earth itself.
Much of the charm of Mars Evacuees lies in its little details – Carl, like any sensible Australian, insists on taking a final swim in the ocean on Earth before the flight to Mars, and invents a game of 'Getting Around As Much Spaceship As Possible Without Touching the Floor', an unnamed tabloid newspaper lurches between praising the 'plucky children of Mars' and whipping up hysteria about social issues, a teddy-bear-shaped robot designed to teach the younger children is unintentionally terrifying. All these struck me as being very much the sorts of things that would be noticed by, and would matter to, a twelve-year-old child. Another brilliant touch is the moment when Alice, incensed at the bullying that Josephine is facing from some of the other children, explodes in anger. 'It is not because of what you're like, it's because of what they're like,' she shouts. This needs to be printed on every classroom wall. The book does not delve too deeply into the interior lives of its characters, and so it is in these little details that we come to know their personalities.
At many times in the novel, I found myself tearing up. Not because it's a sad story – rather, my tears were caused by the overwhelming sense of inclusiveness and hope Mars Evacuees inspires.* The main quartet of children is truly representative – Carl and Noel are Filipino-Australian, Josephine is African-Caribbean-British, and Alice is white British – and the broader group of evacuees comes from every corner of the globe. Their education is in the four most widely-spoken languages – English, Hindi, Mandarin and Spanish – and every child who already speaks one of those as a first language is required to be taught through the medium of another. Mars Evacuees is science fiction at its best: looking to the stars and imagining a better future. Like Pacific Rim (and unlike most recent dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction), the stakes feel truly global, and the effort to save the world is undertaken by people from every nation on the planet. The apocalypse is averted not by violent, selfish individualism, but by compromise, communication and empathy. Mars Evacuees tells us, again and again, that if we share, rather than take, pool our respective strengths rather than devalue some qualities as weaknesses, and, above all, if we listen rather than reach for weapons, the future of the world will be bright.
*I must admit that one such moment was when Carl described Sydney. It's so rare to read a (non-Australian) children's book that mentions Sydney's beaches, walking through Chinatown, and Darling Harbour and its amazing fountain (although I must say that most residents of Sydney would probably avoid such a touristy area). But it's nice to see yourself represented, you know?
Oh, the humanity! February 2, 2014Posted by dolorosa12 in blogging, fangirl.
Tags: cyborgs, fantasy literature, girls and monsters, paranormal romance, robots, vampires, ya paranormal romance
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This blog seems to go through phases in terms of content, and its current incarnation appears to be Narrative Tropes That I Like (and Why Most Authors Do Them Wrong). This post is an attempt to unpack one such narrative trope, and to explain why, when done right, I love it so much. And that theme is non-human beings and the humans who love them (and why and how they love humans). I'll accept pretty much any twist on this formula. Gods and humans? Vampires and humans? Angels and humans? Demons and humans? Fairies and humans? Sentient robots (or cyborgs, or androids or whatever you want to call them) and humans? Pencil me in! I love them all. The basic requirement is that at least one character is an entirely mortal human being (although they may have supernatural abilities of one kind or another) and at least one other is completely, utterly inhuman.
I like this particular (rather broadly-defined) theme because it has the potential to go almost anywhere, but, when done right, gives yet another answer to that all-important question: What does it truly mean to be human? And, in answering this conundrum with this particular set of tools, storytellers open up a whole new range of questions: If humanity equals consciousness plus emotions plus social cooperation plus empathy, what does that make a conscious, cooperative, empathetic robot? If vampires can feel love, what does that make them? Is human morality based entirely on human mortality, and, if so, what is the morality of immortals, and can it ever be reconciled with that of human beings?
And that's before you've even got on to the fun bits of human-inhuman character interaction. One of the most pleasing things about shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that the forced proximity and shifting alliances of the human characters and supernatural beings causes a sort of blurring of the lines between humanity and inhumanity. The vampires become a bit more human, and Buffy herself becomes a bit monstrous, but this all happens so gradually that it appears entirely natural and understandable. The same goes for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Sarah's very success in her life on the run from murderous cyborgs necessitates thinking like them, feeling like them, and so the woman becomes a little bit like a machine. The Terminator Cameron Phillips is a foil to Sarah – a machine who discovers her own humanity.
But as much as I love Buffy and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, neither goes quite far enough in this direction (although the cancellation of T: TSCC means that we'll never know if this was a deliberate narrative decision or not). I want women who walk with monsters and become monstrous but always remain human, and monsters who love humanity but remain monstrous. I want machines who gain consciousness and emotions out of love for human beings but remain strictly machines, and I want humans whose love for machines forces them to question their beliefs on personhood but never cease to be human themselves. I want humans who tremble at the reality of what their demon lovers are, but walk into their arms with their eyes wide open. I want demons who find humanity terrifying and humbling and disarming, and can do nothing but love before its power. In short, I want stories about human and inhuman characters who know exactly what each other are, and love each other for it.*
What I don't want, however, is Twilight. You may think this is kind of a low blow – picking on a story that is almost universally loathed and considered to be of very poor quality, but I actually have a lot of time for wish-fulfilling paranormal romance stories aimed at teenage girls. I think they do a good job of exploring the way love feels at that age – overwhelming, all-consuming and full of terrifying transformative potential. I am probably odd in that it wasn't the cliché-ridden prose, nor was it the glamorizing of abusive relationships (although I did hurl New Moon at the wall when it was blank for a few pages to indicate Bella's catatonic state at being left by Edward) that made me give up on the story. No, I gave up on it when I realised that Meyer was going to turn Bella into a vampire so that she could live together, forever, with Edward. The most interesting thing about fictional relationships between mortals and immortals is that one will eventually die, and one will live on forever! (The other imbalances of power in the relationship are interesting too, because in the hands of a competent author, it's possible to present the ostensible weaknesses of humanity as a kind of power too.) I need my mortals and immortals to be secure enough in their identities to allow themselves to change one another – but only up to a point. In other words, if such characters are a metaphor for anything, they should be a metaphor for the way the most important real-world relationships change people, but also make them more secure in their identities. True love – familial, romantic or platonic – gives people the space to grow and to be themselves more completely.
This particular metaphor, however, should only ever whisper in the margins. The worst thing a writer can do is saddle the relationship between humans and supernatural (or robotic) characters with too much real-world metaphorical baggage. A particular gripe of mine is the tendency to use the struggles of paranormal beings as an analogue for real-world civil rights movements. (Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood, I'm looking at you! Harry Potter is a culprit of this too.) So, your vampires have just come 'out of the coffin' and want to be accepted by human society? Don't layer on the similarities with the LGBT rights struggle! Vampires – even if, as in the case of True Blood, they eventually are able to replace human blood with a synthetic alternative – kill people. At the very least, they hurt and exploit them. The analogy with LGBT people (or any other group that experiences real-world discrimination) is offensive.**
I'm for the gods, monsters and machines, the humans they love and who love them back. I'm for misfits of all types, who feel uncomfortable in their own skin (or metal, or whatever material angels are supposed to be made out of), and who cling to other misfits in the face of everything. I'm for the human and inhuman coming together and making each other whole.
*I am not talking only about romantic love, although it's true that in a lot of these stories, that it is the kind of love being explored.
**One of the many things I love about Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon trilogy is her acknowledgement and aversion of this analogy. One character is gay. He also happens to have magical powers. Magicians in the world of this series enhance their power by feeding people to demons. The character (who at that point has done no such thing) hid his magical abilities from his sister. When she angrily confronts him and says, 'but you told me straight away when you realised you were gay', he replies that his being gay doesn't hurt anyone, but that being a magician is a potentially harmful thing.
On wish-fulfillment fantasies January 15, 2014Posted by dolorosa12 in blogging, books, childhood, reviews.
Tags: books, daughter of smoke and bone, fantasy novels, laini taylor, memories, nostalgia, paranormal romance, reviews, ya literature, ya paranormal romance
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When I was in the early years of secondary school, I invented a character called Amber. She was short, slender and pale, with a cloud of dark hair and one bright blue and one bright green eye (in other words, what I considered the epitome of beauty at the time). She lived in twelfth-century Ireland. Her father was the illegitimate son of an Irish ruler, and her mother was the daughter of a Japanese nobleman. Her Irish grandfather had five children by his first wife, seven by his second, and six illegitimate children, and the entire family had basically carved up the entire west coast of Ireland among themselves through a combination of ruthless diplomacy and strategically tactical marriages. Amber was married to Pagan Kidrouk (that is, she was married to the fictional character on whom I had a massive crush), and they had an ever-increasing brood of perfect children. Pagan had hitched his star to Amber's family's cause, and the two of them spent their time riding from relative to relative, keeping the whole family's quest for political power afloat, forging alliances and seeing off competition. Amber's younger sisters were in her social circle and they all treated one another with complete respect and love at all times. Even the backstory of how Amber's parents got together was over-the-top: her father, despairing of ever finding his One True Love™, had mournfully cast a multilingual message in a bottle into the sea in the hope that whoever found it would seek him out and agree to marry him. The bottle wound up in Japan, and Amber's mother's decision to marry her Irish father essentially saved her from the events of the Genpei War. The entire story was completely ludicrous.
In other words, she was my teenage wish-fulfillment fantasy. Amber joined an existing and ever-expanding cast of alter egos whose stories I recorded in diaries over a series of years beginning in early childhood and continuing for the duration of my time in secondary school. Sometimes I didn't commit their stories to paper, but rather narrated them to myself in my head as I went about my daily life. They all existed in a range of time periods – some belonged to families of witches in pre-Christian Ireland, others had been captured by Vikings and lived in exile, while others were my contemporaries in late-'90s Australia. These alter-egos shared certain key characteristics and experiences: they were the best at everything they did, they (mostly) had perfect husbands or boyfriends who fell in instant love with them and whose identities were entirely subsumed by the causes that were important to the characters and their families (in other words, they were love interests who required no sacrifices or effort because they existed only to support the characters' lives), they shared a social circle with their siblings (who were usually younger sisters whose interests aligned perfectly with those of my characters), and they were valued and rewarded for their competence and hard work with acclaim and adoration.
A lot of people treat the wish-fulfillment fantasies of teenage girls as something inherently damaging, ridiculous and embarrassing. I cannot bring myself to participate in such blanket condemnation. I'm much more interested in working out why particular fantasies (especially published fantasies such as the Twilight or Hunger Games series) gain such traction in particular instances. My own (unpublished) fantasies are pretty explicable: I wanted to be loved but feared having to change anything about myself in order to attain it, wanted to be admired and rewarded for what I perceived as my talents, and wanted the kind of relationship with my sister that I saw happening among siblings in my favourite stories. To put it more bluntly, I felt uncomfortable and powerless in my own skin and set about creating stories in which I had power and control. I cannot regret or feel embarrassed about doing so. My alter egos made my teenage years infinitely easier. Whenever I felt frightened or sad, I was usually able to lift my spirits by imagining a better world, and I was able to motivate myself to work or continue at things I found boring by telling myself that my idealised characters wouldn't give up in the face of boredom or difficulty.
This is not to say that wish-fulfillment fantasies aimed teenage girls should be above scrutiny. Although I believe that they are treated with scorn to a much greater degree than the fantasies aimed at teenage boys or adult men (I don't see, for example, Batman or James Bond receiving the amount of contemptuous vitriol aimed at Bella Swan or her fellow YA paranormal romance heroines), nothing is above criticism, and reviewers and bloggers should be honest in pointing out things that bother them in media that they encounter. It is with this in mind that I turn to a book that has been receiving a lot of internet buzz among YA reviewers and commentators, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
The main character in this work, Karou, lives a carefree existence as an art student in Prague, flitting from cafe to cafe and hanging out in an interestingly bohemian circle of friends. She has a secret existence as a messenger for the shadowy, supernatural figure Brimstone (who raised her), which enables her to travel instantaneously anywhere in the world. Her position as Brimstone's protege grants her certain privileges – as long as she has enough currency, she can wish for whatever she wants, even the impossible (such as dyeing her hair permanently blue). In other words, Karou can do what she wants, go wherever she wants, and has a real-world existence that is already pretty cool. However, secrets from her unremembered past slowly begin to catch up with her, and as she is drawn more and more into Brimstone's world, she realises she is in deadly danger, and that her identity as seventeen-year-old, human Karou is a lie.
So far, so harmless wish-fulfillment. The world Taylor has created is quirky and engaging, and great fun to hang around in. However, there is one element of Daughter and Smoke and Bone that bothered me so intensely that I had to devote the remainder of this blog post to it. Karou has no female friends.
This is not entirely correct. Karou has one female friend, Zuzana, who is a fellow student at the art school. However, Zuzana is marked from the start as being no equal to Karou: she is an ordinary human girl and knows nothing about Karou's supernatural adventures. And, most importantly, she is already safely paired up with a boyfriend.
Literally every other young female character is portrayed as competition for Karou. Her human ex-boyfriend Kaz (whom Karou doesn't even much like) acquires a new girlfriend whose sole characteristic seems to be jealousy of Karou. Even Zuzana admits to finding Kaz attractive and castigates Karou for giving him up. And a major plot point hinges on another female character being jealous of Karou's appearance and envying her the (unwanted) attention she receives from another male character. In this way, Karou is marked as being both more desirable than all other female characters (because multiple male characters pursue her, and her alone) and more discerning (because she rejects the affections of those would-be love interests due to character flaws which are portrayed as being obvious only to her). So not only are the other female characters in competition with Karou, Taylor gives us the impression that they are stupid for doing so, because they appear blind to the flaws in the male characters which only Karou perceives. This is a sadly familiar pattern in wish-fulfillment fantasies aimed at women: we find it in Twilight and its imitations, as well as in a lot of paranormal romance aimed at adult women (such as The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series).
As someone who wrote a story about her book boyfriend being in love with her idealised character, I have a lot of sympathy for teenage (and not-so-teenage) wish-fulfillment fantasies depicting their protagonists being pursued by a multitude of love interests. It's a powerful trope for girls who may be feeling unlovable or simply baffled at how to have romantic relationships. However, this desire to be desired should not be portrayed at the expense of functional friendships among teenage girls. Portraying all female relationships as inherently competitive and antagonistic creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in the real world whereby girls and women view all other girls and women with suspicion, undermining one another instead of supporting each other. I can say from personal experience that it has been extremely rare, from adolescence onward, that my close female friends and I were in competition for the same things (apart from, on occasion, the best grades in class).
I am not saying that there is a moral imperative for YA authors to write every relationship between female characters as being devoid of competition or even hostility. However, when every single such relationship fits this paradigm, I fear we have a problem. It's the main reason that I will be much more cautious in seeking out works by Laini Taylor in the future. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. It has the dubious honour of being the narrative which caused me to evaluate every text (particularly those aimed at teenage girls) against whether or not its protagonist has (non-antagonistic) female friends. This has become my version of the Bechdel Test. It's not a perfect gauge of a story's quality, but it goes a long way towards creating a favourable impression.
Dreamtrails paved with bones November 15, 2013Posted by dolorosa12 in books, fangirl, reviews.
Tags: alt-history, books, fantasy novels, reviews, samantha shannon, the bone season
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I write fairly frequently about the fact that reading habits change over time, and that I feel things differently as an adult (by which I mean from about the age of 25 onwards) to how I did as a child. I seem to keep coming back to this issue again and again in my writing, worrying away at it. Because when I say I feel things differently, I suspect I mean that I feel things less. It's as if every book, every show, every song is an attempt to regain a sort of childlike or adolescent intensity. And when I feel it, I am loquaciously grateful.
I sit here, having just finished Samantha Shannon's debut novel The Bone Season and I am quite literally exhausted with feeling. My mouth is dry, my breathing is shallow and my heart hurts with how much I loved the book. I am astonished by it. It is as if Shannon made a list of everything I personally want in a story and then went away and wrote it for me. As you can imagine, therefore, this review will not even attempt to be objective. I will, however, attempt to explain why The Bone Season hit me in the id quite so hard.
It's getting to the point where I should have a tag or list named 'the rubbish I will put up with in order to get stories about humans interacting with angels, demons, or other terrifying supernatural beings'. It will be a long list. I should have a second list, named 'Things I wish authors of stories about angels, demons and other terrifying supernatural beings would include in their stories'. It would include: a realistic dystopian setting, an extensive criminal underclass which resists passively, a heroine who hates The Oppressive System but also possesses a healthy degree of fear for it that prevents her from fighting it directly, a heroine who has a support network and preferably other female friends, and a recognition that rebellions are likely to be messy and will involve moral greyness.
In other words, the second list would describe The Bone Season. From here on, assume spoilers.
The book is the story of nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney, who lives in an alternate version of our own world in which humans possess a variety of paranormal abilities, all of which have been outlawed by an oppressive totalitarian government. The only legal way to exist as a 'voyant' (short for 'clairvoyant') is to do the government's dirty work and hunt other voyants, a deal which provides security at the expense of longevity. However, as would be realistic in such a setting, an extensive underground network of criminal voyant gangs has sprung up, each operating in its own patch and forming a dual function as a grey market in less than ethical commerce and a community in which fugitive voyants can attain a sense of family and acceptance. Unbeknownst to her father, who works for the government as a scientist, Paige leads a double life in one of the gangs, based in Seven Dials in London. (And can I just go off on a slightly gushing tangent and say that another reason why I adore this book so much is that all the cool people hang out in my favourite parts of London, namely Soho and Covent Garden?)
The inevitable eventually happens, and Paige is captured. Rather than being executed, as she feared, she's brought to Sheol I, a vast, secret penal community built over the ruins of Oxford. There, Paige learns the truth about her powers and her world. She and the other voyants captured are assigned to Rephaim, extraordinarily powerful supernatural beings who reveal that the totalitarian government under which the voyants have been suffering is the puppet of the Rephaim, and that the voyants have been recruited as foot soldiers in a terrible, otherworldly battle. In Sheol I, voyants are safe to reveal their identities and hone their clairvoyant powers under the tutelage of their assigned Rephaite guard. The only catch? The voyants are prisoners, and completely at the mercy of their Rephaim captors in a profoundly unbalanced arrangement. They are expected to become ruthless soldiers, betraying their fellow voyants if necessary, and treated with utter contempt by the Rephaim, even though the latter rely on them for their existence (the Rephaim feed of the auras of voyant humans). Paige is assigned to a captor called Arcturus, whom she addresses as 'Warden' (as this is his position in the Rephaim hierarchy), and who begins to train her in using her abilities. He is a confusing and enigmatic force in her life, both terrifying her and on occasion betraying extraordinary vulnerability and secrets in her presence.
One thing that I really appreciate about The Bone Season is the fact that Paige is understandably wary about her safety, both in London and in Sheol I. She is not reckless, but instead makes all sorts of compromises and sacrifices in order to carve out a space for herself in two extremely dangerous situations. Far too often in stories of this kind, the heroine is overly principled and uncompromising. Paige remains an appealing, but realistically terrified individual. She is very slow to trust Warden, and makes him earn her empathy through openness, genuine and concrete support and the recognition that she possesses power and agency in her own right.
By the same token, I really dislike dystopian novels in which the heroine is completely without a support network and all other characters (especially other female characters) are indistinguishable minor jealous antagonists. Shannon avoids this pitfall admirably in The Bone Season. Paige already has her friends in the criminal voyant underworld, who, while looking out for their own interest, seem to genuinely like her and care about her and provide a space where she is accepted and valued for her abilities. Once she gets to Sheol I, she finds friends and allies among its human and Rephaite inhabitants, all of whom are three-dimensional characters in their own right. And there is no love triangle!
But the best thing about The Bone Season? It's the first of a seven-book series.
Review of The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature January 13, 2013Posted by dolorosa12 in books, reviews.
Tags: academic books, books, cambridge guide to fantasy literature, edward james, fantasy novels, farah mendlesohn, reviews
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Every year, the Cambridge University Press has a book sale of 'damaged' books (in actual fact, most are not damaged at all beyond having a stamp inside saying 'damaged'). My boyfriend is a CUP sale veteran, and prides himself on coming away with daily hauls of books not only for himself, but for many of his friends. This year, he bought me The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn. I devoured it in two sittings.
I've found most academic writing on fantasy to be deeply disappointing, partly because it tends to spend too much time arguing that Tolkienesque heroic/epic fantasy is not all the genre has to offer, and partly because the examples tend to be drawn from books that are not to my taste or bear no relation to where the fantasy field is today. But the Cambridge Companion suffered from none of those problems.
It's divided into three sections. The first looks back at fantasy's origins in various 19th-century writings (such as Gothic, adventure stories and children's fiction). The second outlines various critical approaches (Structuralism, Freudian readings, postmodernism, thematic criticism and so on) that can be used to interpret fantasy literature. The third picks up where the first section left off, and outlines later developments within the various fantasy subgenres. I was particularly impressed at the inclusion of urban fantasy, magical realism and paranormal romance, as the latter in particular is often scorned as a slightly embarrassing relative that it's best not to mention. I also applaud the inclusion of a chapter by Nnedi Okorafor on fantasy literature by writers of colour, although it saddened me that very few of the works she discussed were mentioned in the other articles (N K Jemisin's work is important as the work of a writer of colour, but it is also in keeping with certain trends in fantasy literature as a whole and could have been included in chapters on, say, urban fantasy or fantasy grappling with issues of religion and psychology, for example). Chapters on, say, issues of gender and sexuality could have also been interesting to read and it's a shame none were included.
One of the problems with reviewing a book of this nature is the patchy quality of the chapters as a whole (inevitable when they are written by many different authors). Thus, the chapter on recent developments in children's fantasy by Catherine Butler was sharp, well-researched and made some excellent points (her observation that one of the major changes in children's fantasy over the past forty years has been the shift in attitudes towards parental – and other forms of – authority is one I've noted myself and really must follow up on in the future), while W. A. Senior's chapter on quest fantasy is extremely disappointing, doing little more than summarising a few examples of works in this subgenre. As such, the book will be of only mixed use to the students who are its intended audience: while some chapters offer rich, meaty analyses of trends in, and critical approaches toward, fantasy literature, others do little more than point the reader in the direction of particular books or series without explaining why such texts are worthy of discussion in the first place. Veronica Schanoes' chapter on historical fantasy was also a disappointment, due mainly to the inaccuracy of its title. Rather than being about the subgenre of historical fantasy (books which are set in the past and add fantasy elements to our own world), it was about books with scholarly protagonists and where scholarship and study were the subject. This was very interesting, but it was not about historical fantasy, which was not covered – an odd omission in an otherwise comprehensive survey.
The book's true value to students of literature lies, I feel, in its extensive bibliography of both key fantasy texts from the past two centuries and critical scholarship on these works. As an introduction, it is weakened by the weaknesses of several of its contributors. However, its intention (and bibliography), if not its execution, do a good job of outlining the wide variety of writing under the fantasy umbrella, as well as its value as a subject of academic research.
The heart is hard to translate; it has a language of its own December 9, 2012Posted by dolorosa12 in books, reviews.
Tags: books, fangirl, guy gavriel kay, review, reviews, the lions of al-rassan
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I kept flipping incredulously back to the publication details when I was reading The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. I couldn't believe it was published in 1995. It was so perceptive, so prophetic in what it was saying, that I was shocked that it had been written in a pre-9/11 world. I guess it confirms what we've known all along: that there is nothing new in history, and that people have been fighting and losing the same battles over and over again.
Kay's books tend to be set at turning-points, at times and in places where a small event sets off a chain reaction and leaves the world an entirely different place. Thus we have The Sarantine Mosaic, set in an imaginary Byzantium around the time of the sixth century AD, and The Last Light of the Sun, set in an imaginary Britain during the time of the Viking invasions. The Lions of Al-Rassan takes place in a part of this imaginary world modelled on Moorish Spain in its dying days.
Just as in our world, Al-Rassan, and the neighbouring kingdoms of Esperaña, are inhabited by people of three different religious faiths – the Asharites (standing in for Muslims), the Jaddites (Christians) and the Kindath (Jews). And just as in our world, people of all three faiths exist along a spectrum of tolerance and extremism (although with the Jewish analogue group, as in Moorish Spain, enjoying a much more precarious existence than their Muslim and Christian counterparts). When life is comfortable, tolerance holds sway, but as soon as things start to get difficult, the extremists find their voice. And things are taking a turn for the worse in Al-Rassan.
We are guided through this this world by representatives of all three faiths: Jehane, a Kindath doctor, Rodrigo, a Jaddite soldier, and Ammar, an Asharite poet, courtier and assassin. For various reasons, all three find themselves exiled to the Al-Rassan kingdom of Ragosa at the same time, and their lives – and the lives of the peoples and kingdoms for whom they are representatives – intertwine in various ways. All three exemplify what is best about their respective peoples, as well as demonstrating the value of the world they inhabit. And all three are powerless to stop this world ending, becoming swept up in the collapse of Al-Rassan and the Esperañan reconquest.
All this makes The Lions of Al-Rassan sound very cold-blooded and distant, and yet reading it is an intensely emotional experience. This is, in part, due to the quality of the characters, who are vividly alive and accessible. But it's also due to the conflict Kay sets up, and how invested the reader becomes in it. This is not a conflict between Al-Rassan and Esperaña or between Asharites and Jaddites, although some characters think or pretend that it is. Rather, it is a conflict between two world views, which are represented on both sides of the Asharite-Jaddite divide.
'What is worse than ugliness?'
'You do not really mean that,' Rodrigo said. 'I have part of an answer, though. Worse, is when what little space there is for men to move back and forth between worlds disappears because the worlds are lost to hatred.'
On the one hand we have the historical Al-Rassan, a beacon of science, literature, art, culture and education, and people – both in Al-Rassan and Esperaña – who see these things as valuable. On the other, we have intolerance, greed, anti-intellectualism, and people who hate and fear plurality and empathy. The main characters know that this struggle is at their doorsteps, but they are like driftwood caught up in a flood that they cannot control.
Even if you do not know the history of Moorish Spain, it is inevitable from the beginning of the book how things are going to end. In spite of this, The Lions of Al-Rassan is incredibly tense reading. And while the ending is bittersweet rather than depressing, there is something incredibly hurtful about watching people desperately try to save all the things you hold dear from utter destruction at the hands of people who cannot see their value.


text: On Nov 20, 2007 11:33 AM, Jean Paul de Sens <jeanpauldesens at gmail.com> wrote: > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiergrrrl/2050576856/in/set-72157603246017396/ > > > "Okay, Okay! Your right it was Good!" Simone -- Muirenn ingen Senáin uí Dúnlaing. --------------------------------- We will be with you in the fellowship of the spirit, and you will surley meet some of us as you TRUDGE the road of happy destiny--bigbook 164

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Dehydration: When Water Isn't Enough
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Beating Holiday Stress for People with Diabetes—and Everyone Else
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Heart Health: What Is Target Heart Rate?
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To Be Fit – or to Lose Fat? That Is the Question
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The Graduate College Handbook of Policy and Requirements
for Students, Faculty and Staff - 2014
D. Tuition Waiver Policy
Tuition rates for graduate students are recommended by the Office of the Provost and approved by the Board of Trustees. Tuition remission rates charged to research grants are determined by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Full-time employee waiver policy is set by the Board of Trustees and administered by Academic Human Resources. The Graduate College reviews changes to the assistantship tuition waiver levels that are requested by disciplinary colleges, as dictated by the Tuition Waiver Policy.
Authority to waive tuition for graduate students with assistantships is vested in the Graduate College as a unit of the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The Tuition Waiver Policy document presents an explanation of the campus tuition waiver policy for graduate students, including information specific to graduate assistantships, information specific to fellowships and traineeships, and provisions that apply to all waiver-generating graduate appointments. Questions can be directed to the Graduate College Fellowship Office, (217) 333-0036 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
- Graduate Assistantships:
Waiver-generating assistantship appointments are defined as appointments ranging from 25 percent through 67 percent time (based on a forty-hour week) for at least three-quarters of the academic term. The academic term is the period starting on the first day of classes and ending on the last day of final examinations. For fall and spring terms, three quarters is defined as 91 days. For summer term, it is defined as 41 days. A teaching assistant appointment between 25 percent and 67 percent for at least 21 days in Summer I (four-week part of Summer term) will be considered a waiver-generating appointment.
The tuition waiver policy for graduate assistantships is established by the campus, with certain provisions tied to the graduate program in which the student is enrolled (as identified by the graduate program code). Before units can elect to make any changes to their tuition waiver policy, they must seek and receive approval from the Graduate College and the Office of the Provost. Students are governed by the waiver policy in effect at the time of first enrollment in the program as long as they are in good academic standing and are making proper progress toward graduation in that program.
- College/School assistantship Tuition Waiver Policy.
A table of the policies for all graduate programs listed by college or school can be found at:
- Applied Health Sciences
- Aviation
- Business
- Education
- Engineering
- Fine and Applied Arts
- Graduate College
- Labor and Employment Relations
- Law
- Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Library and Information Science
- Media
- Medicine
- Social Work
- Veterinary Medicine
- Cost-recovery and self-supporting programs. Students in approved cost-recovery and self-supporting programs are not eligible to receive tuition and fee waivers except statutory waivers. For example, these students may not hold waiver-generating appointments, receive stand-alone waivers or receive employee waivers. However students are eligible to receive tuition scholarships.
- Full waivers. Waiver-generating assistantship appointments provide waivers of all assessed tuition for students in certain curricula. Depending on the student's program and residency status, tuition assessment may include an in-state assessment, a non-resident assessment and a program-specific tuition assessment.
- Base-rate waivers. In certain curricula, students with waiver-generating assistantships receive base-rate waivers. A base-rate waiver covers only the resident portion of the Graduate Base Rate Tuition. The student is responsible for paying the remaining tuition, which may include a non-resident assessment and a program-specific assessment.
Units may use their funds to pay any portion of the remaining tuition for assistants enrolled in base-rate waiver curricula. An appropriate source of funds must be used and appropriate account codes specified so the transactions can be properly tracked. Grant or contract funds may not be used for direct payments to students for tuition.
- Reimbursement. Under the current budget policy, each disciplinary college receives the tuition income from graduate students enrolled in its programs; that income forms part of the college's operating budget. Therefore, an assistantship, through its associated tuition waiver, represents a reduction in potential income for the student's disciplinary college. Some colleges have received approval to demand reimbursement from an appointing unit outside the college for the value of the tuition income lost through the outside assistantship.
A unit considering appointing a student to an assistantship is strongly advised to check the student's curriculum for the possibility that a request for reimbursement of the value of the assistant's tuition waiver might be forthcoming. There is no mechanism for automatically charging the appointing unit. The student's disciplinary college has the responsibility for requesting reimbursement, and the policy requires the appointing unit to pay if requested. The reimbursement sought will be the value of what is waived, except when seeking reimbursement from units appointing assistants paid from research grants and contracts. (See provision #5 for more information about reimbursement from research grants and contracts.)
- Reimbursement from research grants and contracts. Currently, a provisional rate of 64% of a graduate assistant's stipend is charged to research grants and contracts as tuition indirect cost on all projects that have the full, negotiated indirect cost rate. The tuition indirect cost funds do not get processed into the campus tuition fund, but rather are processed as ICR funds. Therefore, the amount of reimbursement that can be sought due to an assistantship tuition waiver is limited. The amount of the reimbursement is limited to the amount of tuition ICR collected by the appointing unit and appointing disciplinary college. No tuition indirect cost is currently charged to projects that have an approved indirect cost rate lower than the full, negotiated rate.
- Reimbursement for assistants with multiple appointments. In the event of split appointments, units should agree in advance as to the responsibility for the value of tuition waivers for students in curricula that seek reimbursements. Where there are no advance agreements, the default arrangement is that the unit providing the percentage of the appointment that moves the assistantship into the eligible range of 25% through 67% (usually the unit last to add the appointment to the payroll) is responsible for the value of the resulting waiver.
- Exceptions for early termination of appointment. A student who resigns a waiver-generating assistantship appointment or whose appointment is canceled before service is rendered for at least three-fourths of the academic term (91 days during a spring or fall semester, 41 days in summer term, or 21 days in summer 1 term for TA appointments) loses the accompanying tuition and fee waiver. This means that the student would be required to pay the full amount of appropriate tuition and fees for that term. There are two exceptions. The waiver remains in effect if the student withdraws from the University (see chapter VIII.C) on or before the last day of the assistantship appointment, or resigns from the assistantship and completes all degree requirements for graduation within seven calendar days of the resignation. See chapter IX.A.7 for more information about resigning assistantships.
- College/School assistantship Tuition Waiver Policy.
- Fellowships and Traineeships:
A fellowship is defined as an award providing a stipend for living expenses at the established minimum or higher and demanding no services in return. Fellowship appointments are reviewed in the Graduate College, and the Graduate College decides whether an award is a fellowship.
Traineeships are research fellowships that are awarded to provide educational training in particular disciplinary areas and provide a stipend for living expenses.
The principal provisions of the policy specific to fellows and trainees include:
- Cost-recovery or self-supporting programs. Students in approved cost-recovery or self-supporting programs are not eligible to receive fellowship or traineeship waivers. This means the student may receive an award that provides:
- stipend only, or
- both a stipend and full payment of tuition, or
- both a stipend and a tuition scholarship that covers some portion of tuition.
- Tuition coverage. Eligible fellows and trainees receiving the established minimum or higher stipend receive coverage of full tuition during the tenure of the award, regardless of whether the student's program is base-rate or full for assistantship waivers. The coverage is provided through payment by the funding agency of all tuition assessed, or payment of a negotiated institutional allowance in lieu of full payment, or a full waiver provided by campus. The Graduate College negotiates the institutional payment with the sponsor. Any exceptions to this policy must be granted by the Graduate College. Tuition income lost due to fellowship or traineeship waiver is not reimbursable. This applies to awards originating on and off-campus.
- The minimum fellowship/traineeship stipend amount sufficient to generate a waiver is listed below by academic year. By November of each year, the Graduate College in consultation with the Fellowship Board and approval of the Provost establishes the minimum fellowship/traineeship stipend sufficient to provide a waiver for new awards for the following academic year. For students with multi-year awards, the minimum stipend amount sufficient to generate a waiver is established in the initial year of the award and remains constant for the duration of that award.
Academic Years Minimum Stipend per Year Minimum Stipend per Semester Minimum Stipend for 12-month Appointment Minimum Stipend for Summer 2001-2010 $6,000 $3,000 $8,000 $667 for 2 months 2010-2011 $10,000 $5,000 $13,333 $1,111 for 2 months 2011-2012 $10,000 $5,000 $13,333 $1,111 for 2 months 2012-
$10,000 $5,000 $13,333 $1,111 for 2 months 2013-
$10,000 $5,000 $13,333 $1,111 for 2 months
- Campus fellowships and traineeships. Awards funded by campus units must be sufficient to generate a waiver or supplement a waiver-generating appointment.
- External agencies providing fellowship or traineeship support are required to pay the University for the fellow or trainee's full tuition or pay a negotiated institutional allowance in lieu of full payment. The Graduate College negotiates the institutional payment with the sponsor. Any exceptions to this policy must be granted by the Graduate College. The Graduate College decides whether an award is a fellowship.
- Endowment based fellowships established Fall 2010 or later that provide a stipend sufficient to entitle the fellow to a tuition waiver will be required to fund the health service fee and the covered portion of the cost of the health insurance fee.
- Courtesy Fellowship Waivers. Departments may request waivers for individual students who receive a fellowship from outside the University only in cases where the stipend is paid directly to the student, the stipend meets or exceeds the campus established minimum, and the award has no funding for tuition and fees. The student must be in good academic standing. Requests for courtesy waivers must be submitted by the student's graduate program (on a Rating Form) and must include specific information on the financial support the award provides. The Graduate College will review the information and determine the eligibility for a courtesy waiver. Courtesy fellowship waivers may include a waiver of all tuition assessed, as well as the service fee, the health service fee, the AFMFA fee, and the Library/Technology fee. They also provide vision insurance, dental insurance and partial payment of the health insurance fee. Students receiving courtesy waivers are not required by the Graduate College to be enrolled full-time in the terms in which they receive a courtesy waiver.
- College of Medicine. Students in the College of Medicine, except those in the Medical Scholars Program, must obtain written approval from the College of Medicine before accepting a fellowship or traineeship, and subsequent tuition waiver, controlled by another campus or university unit. Should a student in the College of Medicine, not in the Medical Scholars Program, accept a fellowship or traineeship without the approval of the College, the College may request that the Graduate College remove the related waiver.
- College of Veterinary Medicine. Effective Fall 2007, students in the College of Veterinary Medicine, except those in the Veterinary Medical Scholars Program, must obtain written approval from the College of Veterinary Medicine before accepting a fellowship or traineeship, and subsequent tuition waiver, controlled by another campus or university unit. Should a student in the College of Veterinary Medicine, not in the Veterinary Medical Scholars Program, accept a fellowship or traineeship without the approval of the College, the College may request that the Graduate College remove the related waiver.
- Cost-recovery or self-supporting programs. Students in approved cost-recovery or self-supporting programs are not eligible to receive fellowship or traineeship waivers. This means the student may receive an award that provides:
- Other Provisions:
For all waiver-generating appointments (assistantships, fellowships and traineeships), other provisions include the following.
- Selection Documentation. The Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR) requires tuition and fee waiver records to be maintained for a minimum of five years. Therefore, awarding units should retain records pertaining to application, evaluation, and selection, including records for rejected applicants for tuition and fee waiver support (waiver-generating fellowships or assistantships, courtesy waivers or stand-alone waivers). The full JCAR document can be found at www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023parts.html.
- Fee waivers. Most waiver-generating appointments include coverage of the service fee, health service fee, AFMFA fee and the Library/Technology fee, along with partial payment of the health insurance fee, and full payment by the University for the University vision insurance and dental insurance plans. Note: Some fellowship and traineeship appointments provide coverage of all mandatory fees.
- Waiver priority. The campus has established a priority system to guide the work of the Office of Student Financial Aid in processing waivers in cases where students have more than one waiver-generating appointment or are eligible for waivers from multiple sources. If a student has a waiver-generating fellowship and a waiver-generating assistantship for the same term, the fellowship waiver (full waiver of tuition) will take priority. It is not possible to combine a base-rate graduate assistant tuition waiver with other partial tuition waivers (such as a waiver of non-resident tuition) to obtain a more complete waiver of tuition. Questions about the waiver priority system can be directed to the Office of Student Financial Aid.
- Summer Automatic Waivers. Students without summer waiver-generating appointments who held waiver-generating appointments for the previous spring semester are eligible to receive summer automatic tuition waivers if they choose to enroll in the summer semester. The summer automatic waiver provides the same tuition waiver as that granted during the previous spring. However, it does not provide a waiver of the same fees as a waiver-generating appointment. Only the service fee, AFMFA fee and the Library/Technology fee are included. The health service fee and health insurance fee are not covered. Students with dental and vision insurance coverage from a waiver-generating appointment in the spring term continue to have dental and vision coverage through August 31. Authorized disciplinary colleges may request reimbursement for summer automatic waivers from an appointing unit if that unit was billed for the waiver in the spring semester.
- Stand-Alone Waivers. At their discretion, disciplinary colleges may elect to grant a stand-alone waiver to a student who has no waiver-generating appointment. The tuition waiver may be a base rate or full waiver depending on the graduate program in which the student is enrolled. Stand-alone waivers also include the service fee, AFMFA fee, and Library/Technology fee. No other fees are covered in this waiver nor does it include dental and vision insurance coverage. Colleges may limit the number of stand-alone waivers they will grant.
- Taxability of tuition waivers associated with assistantships and fellowships. All Graduate tuition and fee waivers are considered taxable income unless exempt under the Internal Revenue Code. Current tax law exempts the tuition and service fee waivers for teaching assistantships (TAs), research assistantships (RAs), and most fellowships. For graduate assistantship (GA) and pre-professional graduate assistantship (PGA) appointments, only $5,250 per calendar year is exempt. If the amount of the tuition and service fee waiver exceeds $5,250, the excess is deemed income under the IRC and additional withholding may be applied.
Each semester, GAs and PGAs whose tuition and service fee waivers to date are valued at more than $5,250 will have withholding on the amount exceeding $5,250. The withholding tax is applied to the student's earnings (stipend or hourly pay).
For more information, students may contact the University Payroll Service Center at firstname.lastname@example.com or the Academic Human Resources Office at 217-333-6747 or the IRS Publication 970 www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf, chapters 12 and 13.
Related Materials
- Selection Documentation. The Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR) requires tuition and fee waiver records to be maintained for a minimum of five years. Therefore, awarding units should retain records pertaining to application, evaluation, and selection, including records for rejected applicants for tuition and fee waiver support (waiver-generating fellowships or assistantships, courtesy waivers or stand-alone waivers). The full JCAR document can be found at www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023parts.html.


text:
(moo-l): A pre-mole skin lesion - a small flaky area on the skin, which can sometimes be confused with insect bites especially because these lesions itch. The moule stage lasts approximately 3 months.
Maybe I have a moule, a small area that I thought was a bug bite, it itches but it has been here for a while.
by helene17 December 29, 2007


text:
Experts say PSU warning appropriate
PHILADELPHIA -- An accreditation warning issued to Penn State is serious and necessary given the issues raised by a recent child sex-abuse scandal, but the school is unlikely to lose the all-important designation, experts said Tuesday.
They also expect the university to comply quickly with demands to show that its governance, finances and integrity meet standards set by its accreditation agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
"This is an entirely appropriate and anticipated action by Middle States given the strategic importance of voluntary peer review," said American Council on Education president Molly Corbett Broad. "It's really the basis on which public accountability is achieved in American higher education."
The Philadelphia-based Middle States Commission issued the warning last week based on the school's handling of molestation allegations against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys.
Concerns include whether Penn State trustees provide sufficient oversight of the administration, the strength of the university's ethical standards and the school's compliance with government policies, such as those requiring campus crime reports, said Middle States spokesman Richard Pokrass.
The commission also wants the school to address its financial status in light of a $60 million penalty imposed by the NCAA and any lawsuits from Sandusky's victims.
Penn State must submit a report to the agency by Sept. 30. A small team of accreditors would then visit the school in State College.
"The university has been very cooperative," Pokrass said Tuesday. "The leadership of the university is aware of what the concerns are and have been taking very positive steps."
Penn State is now one of about 15 schools in the Mid-Atlantic region with a warning.
Most institutions work their way off warning status within a year to 18 months, Pokrass said. Those that don't are put on probation.
Schools lose accreditation after two years of noncompliance, starting with the warning. Students cannot use federal funds -- including Pell grants and government loans -- to attend unaccredited schools.
Penn State stressed that it remains accredited and that academic programs are not being questioned.
"This action has nothing to do with the quality of education our students receive," Blannie Bowen, vice provost for academic affairs, said in a statement.
Judith Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, said Tuesday that Penn State has the reputation, strength and resources to rebound from this setback. It's "highly unlikely" the school will end up on probation, let alone lose its accreditation, she said.
Still, accreditation warnings are important tools because governments typically don't take action against colleges and universities, Broad said. Accreditation agencies provide accountability through standards enforcement and peer evaluation of academic programs, university leadership, financial stability and institutional honor.
"This is serious both for our own sense of integrity and well-being within higher education," Broad said.
The school that most recently lost its accreditation from Middle States was Baltimore International College, a culinary school in Maryland.
Pokrass said it lost its accreditation about nine months ago because of finances, a lack of assessment of student learning and issues regarding student services. It is now owned and operated by Stratford University, an accredited for-profit institution based in Virginia.
Middle States accredits more than 525 colleges and universities in five states plus the District of Columbia, two U.S. territories and several international locations.
Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
- CFP: First four unchanged, but Ole Miss falls
- Meyer's message: OSU better behave vs. U-M
- Hundley indicates he won't return to UCLA
- Big Ten denies appeal of Buckeyes' Spence
In continuing fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child abuse conviction and Freeh report, Penn State removed the statue of Joe Paterno and accepted "unprecedented" penalties from the NCAA. Penn State sanction coverage »
• Van Natta: Inside the NCAA/Penn State deal »
- Spanier's lawyer blasts Freeh report »
- Paterno family seeks sanctions appeal »
- Shower abuse victim to sue »
- PSU prez: we faced 4-year death penalty »
- Sanctions: $60M, 4-year bowl ban, wins »
- Fish: PSU investigation different from start »
- Q&A with Oregon State president Ed Ray »
- Spanier wants his voice heard »
- Dosh: True costs to be determined »
- Consent degree signed by PSU, NCAA »
- Statement by president Rodney Erickson »
- Statement by AD David Joyner »
- Statement by coach Bill O'Brien»
- Paterno statue removed at stadium »
- Top recruit in holding pattern, father says »
- Report: Sandusky accusers date to '70s »
- Freeh report: PSU failed to protect children »
- MacGregor: Where's the reconciliation? »
- Haney: Will PSU suffer SMU's fate?
- Schlabach: O'Brien's Penn State plan »
- Maisel: Sanctions don't scare O'Brien »
- Bryant: Focus can finally be on victims »
- Keown: NCAA missed on solution »
- Wojciechowski: Culture of deceit »
- Maisel: Hoping intentions don't get lost »
- Schlabach: All quiet in State College »
- Shanker: Where PSU recruiting stands
- Van Natta: Unprecedented in every way »
- Rittenberg: Scholarship penalties crushing »
- Sherman: Recruiting impact is huge »
- O'Connor: College football's No. 1 fraud »
- Rittenberg: Statue removal right call »
- Reilly: Regretting his role in myth-building »
- Bill O'Brien ready to push forward
- Bill O'Brien vows to fight
- OTL: Emmert on sanctions
- OTL: Reporters' roundtable
- OTL: Weight of sanctions
- PSU brass responds to ruling
- OTL: Spanier critical of Freeh report
- Luginbill: Recruiting impact
- Fowler: Devastating blow to PSU
- Howard: No problem with sanctions
- Holtz: NCAA sends message
- Paterno statue removed Sunday
- Sandusky juror on statue
- Musburger: NCAA went too far
- Former FSU coach Bobby Bowden
- ESPN analyst Bobby Knight
- Board of Trustees member Lubrano
- ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit
- Fowler on PSU sanctions
- Former Penn State DT Brandon Noble
- StateCollege.com's Ben Jones
- Trevor Matich: NCAA went too far


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Contact: Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Public Library of Science
Caption: During hibernation, non-REM sleep is absent in the lemuriform primate Cheirogaleus medius.
Credit: Mackenzie Wing
Usage Restrictions: All figures and photographic images will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), which allows them to be freely used, distributed, and built upon as long as proper attribution is given.
Related news release: Only known hibernating primate has unique sleep patterns


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Hey sorry didn't get back, trying so hard to sell your car, but it wont work. I will keep trying.
No prob i will know in a little whats up. I am still working it. I will let you know soon.
About your subie, Please contact me I need vin. Number and all the modds you have done and amount spent. I might be interested. How fast do you need to sell it?
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Dual leadership for LUG aircargo handling GmbH
The shareholders of LUG aircargo holding GmbH have nominated Patrik Tschirch (42) and Lutz Schmidt (42) as members of the management board effective January 1, 2013. Patrik Tschirch will be speaker of the board, CCO, and COO. Lutz Schmidt will be responsible for finance and controlling, contracts and real estate management.Tschirch and Schmidt take over from Wolfgang Korte (63) who has been managing director and COO of LUG for the past twelve years. He will remain in the company in an advisory capacity to accompany the changeover until March 31, 2013 when he will retire.
Lug aircargo handling, one of the most innovative, independent ground service companies, has operated at Frankfurt/Main airport for more than 40 years. The firm is also one of the leading ground handlers in Munich. Patrik Tschirch joined LUG as Manager Key Accounts and Business Development two years ago. Besides Wolfgang Korte he has been responsible for customer acquisition and retention amongst other things. Lutz Schmidt has been with the company for some eight years responsible for finance and controlling as well as real estate management. Both are well known personalities in the international airfreight industry with some twenty years experience.
'Our company expanded considerably in the past twelve years. We have more than trebled our covered warehousing space in Frankfurt from 10,000 to 33,000 sq. m. And we continue to grow. We will sign a lease for an additional 800 sq. m. in Munich shortly,' says Wolfgang Korte. 'Our customer portfolio is also getting bigger continually. LUG aircargo handling has set itself ambitious goals for the next few years. The dual leadership is a clear signal that we are aiming for strong growth and expect extra drive from this young management team.'
'I am delighted that I am allowed to shoulder these additional responsibilities as a member of the management board after only two years with LUG aircargo handling. I am convinced that I will justify the trust placed in me by the advisory board,' says Patrik Tschirch.
'My responsibilities at LUG have grown continually in the last eight years. Controlling has a special role to play to drive a business forward and facilitate cost effective growth, especially in economically difficult times. I am delighted to take on this new challenge', says Lutz Schmidt.
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Now almost all the rooms or the room in the house has a TV. To just please yourself, watch the latest news, follow the TV series, watch a favorite movie or to play games. By not filling the room with a conventional TV is large and heavy, the latest innovation from the digital world out of thin TVs (Flat TV) to save space and to overcome problems of conventional TVs. With the Flat TVs in the market such as LCD TV and Plasma TV, interior design tr…read..
Archive for: Janine Gutierrez Latest News
Three Dimensional Dome Audio
…a set of 3D video file format option in the Video On Demand (VOD) and various other applications in it. Included in the suite of applications on the feature, users can enjoy a variety of live music videos along with latest news from a variety of musical groups from South Korea (K-Pop) favorite. This can occur through the application called K-Pop Zone. Through Smart Share feature also a convenience for home theater users to share movies and m…read..


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Coral Springs — The Taravella girls' soccer team has traditionally struggled to shake off the rust each season after the holiday layoff.
So Trojans coach Albert Caroccio couldn't be more pleased with how his team has responded following its 18-day holiday break.
Powered by a pair of goals from sophomore forward Alissa Lawson, the Trojans edged Coral Glades 3-2 to hand the host Jaguars their first loss of the season in a District 10-6A contest played in frigid weather Tuesday night.


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Physical Therapy
Physical Therapy is a form of health care that identifies, corrects, and prevents acute or prolonged impaired functions of movement of an anatomic or physiologic beginning.
Disabilities may be due to injury, strain, disease, or to the normal wear and tear of age leading to weak muscle disorders.
Years of poor posture can also contribute to muscle disorders, which result in pain and restricted movement. Physical Therapy can often prevent permanent damage and relieve pain as well as discomfort if started in time.
Physical Therapy is the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and disability through physical means. Whether you have an acute back injury, balance problems, have just had surgery, or have chronic knee pain, our physical therapists can help you address your problem and improve your level of function and activity.
We are experts in human movement and can help through hands-on manual techniques, instruction, exercise, and listening and acting on your goals.
Commitment Physical Therapy is your premier full service physical therapy private practice. We rely on evidence-based physical therapy. Our staff is trained to efficiently rehabilitate a variety of conditions. Our licensed physical therapists provide unique, individualized care to treat and aid patients with any of the following conditions:
The above is a partial list of the conditions
for which we offer treatment.
A physical therapist assists in the recovery process by:
- Decreasing Pain
- Increasing Strength and Flexibility
- Providing Necessary Education to Prevent Future Injury/Re-injury
Our goal is to utilize leading-edge technology to provide quality, convenience, and compassionate care to assist patients in returning to loving and living life. Commitment Physical Therapy uses a multidisciplinary and innovative approach to patient care that yields exceptional results. These distinguishing characteristics are not only why doctors refer their patients to Commitment Physical Therapy, but why so many of our patients recommend us and entrust us with their friends and family.
We help our patients achieve the highest level of functional independence by improving strength, mobility, balance and coordination. This is accomplished through:
Expected outcomes of general rehabilitation programs include:
- Better Pain Management
- Increased Range of Motion
- Reduced Soft Tissue Tension
- Elimination of Joint Inflammation
- More Joint Mobility and Stability
- Restored Movement Patterns
- Improved General Fitness
If you feel that you may be in the need of physical therapy and you do not have a referral, you may make an appointment for an assessment only. After the assessment, your physician will be contacted for an appropriate referral, if deemed necessary.
After every evaluation, a plan of care is dictated and sent to your referring health care provided that will include our evaluation findings, goals to be met, planned treatment ideas, and frequency of visits. This plan of care is a regulatory component of the rehabilitation services and also serves as documented communication between health professionals.


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Six plays from scratch in 24 hours means no sleep and lots of laughs.
Joe Adler murders kittens and makes you like it
Neil LaBute's Fat Pig is a pointless provocation
Albee's tragicomedy puts everything else on-stage to shame
City Theatre's energetically varied program of shorts marks the changing of the seasons
Nilo Cruz's award underscores the high and low lights of South Florida
Few questions asked, little revealed in these productions
Neil LaBute once again looks at the shape of ugly things in a funny way
What's the future look like? Only our theater critic knows for sure.
No one should be, when it's done this well
Tricky Dick takes it on the chinny-chin-chin at GableStage, while Teatro la Má Teodora smuggles a swine into its new digs
Look! Up on the stage! It's absurd.... It's a play.... It's Edward Albee!
Joe Adler
Or, The Life of the Underappreciated Man Who Brought Us Life and Liberty
Dissecting the American dream: red, white, and Jew
Want real alternative theater? Take a walk on South Florida's wild side.
Local theater leaders bemoan their most persistent obstacles
Four thespian kingpins reveal their most elaborately staged fantasies
One of the best plays this year tackles the funny topic of sex and violence
Dougherty's South Florida finale


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Weekly update for Xbox 360 for June 1st, 2012 SuperCheats News
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Schilling's 38 Studios in Financial Difficulty, Circling the Drain
The revelation this week that video game studio 38 Studios -- the love child of gamer and retired Boston Red Socks pro baseball player Curt Schillin.. Read More
Of Orcs and Men - Of Orcs and Men charges into battle in screenshots
Of Orcs and Men, the grand role-playing game jointly realized by Spiders (Realization and Development) and Cyanide Studio (Concept and Production) f.. Read More
Pro Cycling Manager 2012 - Pro Cycling Manager 2012: new screenshots and a website
Pro Cycling Manager/Tour de France 2012 , the definitive cycling simulation series and best seller every summer in Europe, today unveiled 6 new scre.. Read More
The Secret World - The Secret World to launch July 3rd, Beta Weekend roadmap revealed
Funcom today announced that the company has made a small adjustment to the release date for The Secret World. Due to market reasons, the ship date h.. Read More
Dead or Alive 5 - Two New Combatants Announced for Dead or Alive 5
Game developers Team NINJA have revealed that two new combatants will be joining the fighting roster for Dead or Alive 5, which is headed to the Xbo.. Read More
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier Now Available, Launch Trailer Released
After several delays and months of hearing about the advanced, futuristic (and entirely possible in real life) warfare that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.. Read More
MiG Madness - MiG Madness - Jet Fighter Arcade Game Released
Xbox Live Indie game MiG Madness now available in USA, Uk, Canada, Italy, Spain, Japan, Singapore & Germany. Inspired by the classic Time Pilot, MiG.. Read More
NHL 13 - New NHL 13 Trailer Emphasizes That 'Every Stride Matters'
Those who previously believed that ice hockey was all about body checks, winning on-ice fistfights and slapping the paint off of tiny black pucks wi.. Read More
Of Orcs and Men dislocates jaws in a new video
Of Orcs and Men, the grand role-playing game jointly created by Spiders (direction and development) and Cyanide Studio (concept and production) for .. Read More
wwe 13 - WWE 13 in Development, Confirmed by THQ
As a gaming franchise that has been around for over a decade, the WWE games are some of the most popular in their their sports gaming market. It's v.. Read More
Prototype 2 - Prototype 2 'Excessive Force' DLC Now Available
Activision Publishing have released Prototype 2's second DLC pack, Excessive Force. This new DLC pack gives fans key add-ons to their arsenal of des.. Read More
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Warner Brothers announces Injustice: Gods Among U
What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat? Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today announced Injustice: Gods.. Read More
Quantum Conundrum - Square Enix Confirms PC Launch Date for Quantum Conundrum
Square Enix today announced Quantum Conundrum will be available June 21st exclusively for Steam on PC. Developed by Airtight Games, the first-pers.. Read More
Posted: 1st Jun 2012 by CMBF
Tags: Risen 2: Dark Waters, Xbox 360, news summary


text: Actually it was posted the other day that the new Oracle is up on the Baronial website. Oracle can be found here: http://bonwicke.ansteorra.org/oracle/Oracle.pdf The announcement about Populace is in both the Seneschal's report and on the calendar. Your humble servant, Sir Chiang, who is not on Facebook either ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Schalles To: bonwicke_archery at yahoogroups.com ; Barony of Bonwicke - SCA, Inc. Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 8:45 AM Subject: [Bonwicke] Barony of Bonwicke Populace Meeting tonight at HomePlate Diner 7 PM Bonwicke! For those in the Barony who are not members of the Bonwicke (?) Facebook page: Tonight is the Barony of Bonwicke's populace meeting where the Barony's business is discussed. The Populace is encouraged to attend and voice their ideas and thoughts. You never know what what might happen, or be discussed at Populace! It is being held at the Home Plate Diner on South University, south of Loop 289 at 7 PM. Come early and sup with Nobility, rub elbows with the Officers, wear and show off your latest new garb! Wearing garb is encouraged. Yours In Service, Francois ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Bonwicke mailing list Bonwicke at lists.ansteorra.org http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/bonwicke-ansteorra.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.ansteorra.org/pipermail/bonwicke-ansteorra.org/attachments/20121214/364bcd1d/attachment.htm>


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Has anyone else had conversations at school about the new ISA scheme which is going to run along side CRBs?
For anyone that doesn't know. The Independent Safeguarding Authority scheme is a register which holds convictions, allegations or suspicions of illegal activity on the registered members. The scheme is more proactive at contacting the organisation (schools, colleges, nursing homes etc.) as soon as information comes to light rather than waiting for the next round of CRB checks.
We had a presentation about it yesterday and it looks like it will become an absolute mine field.
Basically as I understand it, people who are not already employed directly by the organisation who make frequent (once a month or more) or Intensive (activity takes place on 3 or more days in any one 30 day period) visits will need to be ISA registered. There is no pre-registration before the law comes into power on the 12th of October. Registration will normally take 4-6 weeks. Current CRB'ed employees have up to 5 years to get on the ISA register. Interestingly, it's the individuals who are responsible to pay the £28 one off lifetime registration fee.
So currently, our contractors may not be able to work on site between October 12th and possibly the end of November (assuming they are on site once a month or more) until their ISA registration number comes through.
The major problem I have is me and the rest of the team work in primary schools in the area. We are contractors to these primaries, and technically won't be able to visit until our ISA registration is complete even though we can work at our high school.
I understand why this has been brought in, but it scares me that it's more a case of guilty until proven innocent.
Has anyone else had this scheme pointed out to them? More info is available at Independent Safeguard Authority - Home
Last edited by IrritableTech; 2nd April 2009 at 05:01 PM.
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New Orleans Pelicans / Hornets
Marco Belinelli is 'European Sneaky', at least according to Nick Young
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 4, 2011
Limbs get tangled all the time in the NBA. But for some reason, when it involves tangled arms, you can depend on a two things: arms from two opposing players will...
From The Other Side: Second Half Adjustments From New Orleans
►Rashad Mobley | Jan 2, 2011
I've been a Philadelphia Eagles for over 25 years. I've endured ups, downs, mediocrity and everything else associated with loving a team too much. But because I've lived in Washington for...
What Is Andray Blatche Doing Here?
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 2, 2011
Andray Blatche's play is becoming a thorn in the Wizards' side. Sure, he puts up numbers here and there. Sure, he's only whatever young age people keep citing as an excuse....
ShareBullets: Hilton Armstrong on Offense, John Wall and Chris Paul
►Kyle Weidie | Oct 17, 2010
A D.C. pic, commentary and links … Michael Lee has a good feature piece in the Post about Hilton Armstrong. Armstrong also spoke...
The Wizards Run-Down: R.I.P. 16-Game Losing Streak
►Kyle Weidie | Apr 2, 2010
This is Capt. Jeff Bower, been with the 'force for years … too long to count. He was a Lieutenant forever, but then finally said, "I'm getting too old for this...
Wizards Stung By Turnovers, Lose to Hornets 115-110: The Run Down, Locker Room Portraits and Quotes
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 11, 2010
Well, the Wizards lost again on Sunday, nothing new. Thing is, they actually looked decent, as they did on Friday, but shot themselves in the foot, if you will, with 19...
Washington Wizards at New Orleans: Game 30 in Pictures
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 2, 2009
Well, I'm not doing a game blog for the Wizards-Hornets match-up……which was soooo last year……because I actually attended the game. I'm down South visiting family for the new year, and my...
Previewing The NBA's Southwest Division According To Bloggers
►Kyle Weidie | Oct 12, 2008
Jeff from CelticsBlog.com is doing the grunt work to put together a comprehensive NBA preview from bloggers 'round the 'sphere. The Atlantic Division Preview was first, and now the Southwest Division...
Well, Go Ahead and Give Kobe the MVP
►Kyle Weidie | Apr 12, 2008
What up gang-sta? Before last night….I was all about Chris Paul for the NBA's Most Valuable Player award. And if I had to vote right here, right now, it would still...
Game 59 Blog: Washington Wizards vs. New Orleans Hornets
►Kyle Weidie | Mar 3, 2008
Back in the country, but taking more flights to more places, I was unable to catch the Wizards-Hornets rematch live or on TV. Thankfully, my friend Chris the Hockey Fan picked...
Commentary on the World Wide Web of Sports 'n' Stuff
►Kyle Weidie | Jan 10, 2008
Links I like from the past week or so…… Pat Forde of ESPN.com writes a pretty nice article about New Orleans and the continuing recovery process (pre-BCS national championship game). I...
Hornets v. Grizzlies: What We Know About Chris Paul and Pau Gasol.
►Kyle Weidie | Dec 8, 2007
What do we know about these two? Well, judging by the game between the Grizzlies and the Hornets last night, Chris Paul is a superstar and Pau Gasol is a chump....
Chris Paul Is Better Than Jason Kidd AND Steve Nash
►Kyle Weidie | Nov 13, 2007
No….not really. Wait, what I truly mean is, not yet. Ok, what do you think of when you hear the name Jason Kidd? Great passer (career 9.2 assist per game average)....


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Contact our free concierge and we'll make a vacation work for you. (877) 372-5877 | Email Concierge
This property is not currently offering Luxury Link vacations, please let us know that you are interested in a vacation experience at Villa del Palmar at The Islands of Loreto.
We also invite you to discover unparalleled experience at similarly extraordinary properties below.


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Sales doesn't get along with Marketing. Marketing can't talk to IT. IT doesn't have a clue how to sell, but they are in charge of the company's Web initiative. Sound familiar?
It's turf wars. It's misunderstanding about roles. It's failure to communicate. It's lack of information. It's different modes of thinking. It's absence of objectives. It might even be sun spots for all I know. But I can tell you this much: If I read one more article on the subject, I think I'm gonna scream.
Doesn't it make you want to stamp your foot and say, "Come on, guys. Can't we all just get in the same sandbox and play nice?"
We've been working with a well-known vehicle manufacturer. Do you know how much effort goes into getting a new car on the road? Car companies invest tons of money creating computer-generated models and prototypes, which makes sense given the high cost of retooling a factory to produce a new car line. Car companies can't afford to get it wrong too many times. Better to sacrifice a few good concepts than let a bad concept make it to market.
Our CTO, John Quarto-vonTivadar calls this "hurdle clearance."
"The fundamental problem with most aspects of current Web sites is the hurdle they need to reach to be released is so incredibly low. It's probably measured in inches rather than meters. For too many companies, the ease of putting up a Web site -- any Web site -- ends up fogging the true goal of creating the right Web site that actually accomplishes corporate goals such as persuading visitors to take action.
"If the cost to market of a Web site were several magnitudes higher, the companies would take a longer, deeper look at both their Web site initiatives and the professionals involved in the process, and hold [them] responsible for accomplishing concrete measurable goals. And as with any hurdle, often the goal seems only to meet it with little regard to how far it could be exceeded."1
We think we ought to understand how to conduct business on the Web, and yet we are constantly presented with information that reveals it's sort of like the real world, and it's sort of not. Some key features make the Web unlike other business venues:
No single department in your company is going to be able to address these issues comprehensively – it's going to take the combined, cooperative effort of Marketing, Sales, and IT, using a structured process to make the persuasive architecture of your Web initiative structurally sound.
When the hurdle's low, there's less incentive to treat your project with the seriousness it deserves. So raise your hurdle and get everybody working together. Really, guys. It's the same sandbox. Climb on in. Oh, and here's a shovel.
1 "How High is Your Hurdle?" Bryan Eisenberg. ClickZ. May 2, 2003. Yes, I know many of you read Bryan's ROI column for ClickZ, and I apologize for the repetition. But I didn't want those who don't to miss this!
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Vote on this week's styles, including Emma Stone, Heidi Klum and more stars! You decide – are they fashionistas or flops?
Credit: Jordan Strauss/WireImage
Updated: Saturday Sep 03, 2011 | 06:00 AM EDT
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Also at the House of Hype-hosted VMAs after-party, the actress wears an understated long-sleeve Alice + Olivia mini and peep-toe Camilla Skovgaard booties, allowing her vampy red lips to take center stage.
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- You are here:
- paul delong
paul delong
In the fall of 2009, a big idea using little cars got its US start in Austin, TX. That's when Daimler's Car2go carsharing program first came to North America after its global debut in Ulm, Germany. The idea was simple: let people rent a car for just a few minutes at a time, and let them end their ...
Does your car think about kissing? Can you leave it wherever you want without paying for parking? Do you share it with over 15,000 other drivers? Is it actually not a single car but one of about 300 identical vehicles that wait for you all over town? You could answer yes to all of these ...