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Created by
foretrentyUploaded by
foretrentyVirus scan
About this mod
Edit every NPCs in the game. Change their hairstyle, beards, eye color, skills, inventory, etc.
- Permissions and credits
Verion 0.75.1 **Please read FAQs below, most questions are answered there, read first!**
.Net Framework 4.0: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718
XNA 4.0 Refresh: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27599
Release Version 0.75.1
NOTE: If you want your language added, send me all the files in the STRINGS folder.
Added Features:
- ***0.75.1 Fixes placement ID conflicts causing NPC not to show up.***
- ***0.75 Other minor bugs fixes.***
- ***0.75 Fixed Nif File's NPC face mesh texture path.***
- ***0.75 Fixed crash bug when using the Default Race and other facegen races without a head mesh.***
- ***0.75 Fixed unable to find mesh issue when loading previously saved New NPC.***
- ***0.75 Added support for Windows-1251 encoding. (Languages that use Cyrillic script: Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian Cyrillic and others)***
- 0.74 Fixed FormID Conflict when having more than one New NPC
- 0.74 Fixed crash when loading certain plugins that are incorrectly formed
- 0.73 Added New NPC Placement Selection
- 0.73 More bug fixes
- 0.72 fixes a few bugs, otherwise it is the same as 0.71
- NPC Renaming and New NPC Creation. (See FAQs below for New NPC issues)
- Warpaints/Makeups/Skintone Editing.
- Perks Editing.
- Relationship editing.
- Leveling and stats mechanics editing.
- Load plugins (.esp) and master files (.esm) data.
- Editable plugins load order for editor, include/exclude setting page.
- Saving textures and meshes to BSA files.
- Fixed several bugs.
Additional Info:
- Not compatible with Extended Color Sliders. Not recommended to include this mod in the plugin load list.
Features not implemented and known issues:
- Problem rendering hair and facial hair with tranparency. (See Technical below)
Despite the name, this program is actually a NPC mods generator. Mods generated by this program are modified copies of existing NPC records in the Skyrim game data.
NPC record holds data for a multitude of NPC attributes such as A.I. behaviours, skills, hairstyles, eye color, factions, inventory content, spells, abilities and many more.
By overriding original records with mods, you can actually make changes to NPCs in game.
This program strictly produces mods and do not alter you original Skyrim data in any way. Further details are illustrated below:
When playing the Skyrim game, it often requires information of NPCs to do various tasks such as displaying an NPC that just appeared or when the player start a conversation with the NPC.
The game will first try to get that data from your save game (loaded when you starts the game) and when it cannot find it, it retrive the info from Skyrim's data files. This is illustrated below:
In Game ------> Save Game ------> Skyrim Data
This program creates mod files with extension .nif and .esp. When you these files are put in the right place, the game will use info in these files instead of Skyrim Data.
In Game ------> Save Game ------> Mod Files ------> Skyrim Data
Finally, if the desired info does not exist in the Mod Files, the game will continue to look for it in the Skyrim Data as shown.
In case you are wondering, the game must always try to get the data from Save Game first before the Mod Files. (Otherwise all your game progress such as NPC stats increase, new locations, states, equipements etc will always be fixed by the Mod Files and cannot be altered by the player everytime the game loads.)
As you can see, the Save Game might hold NPC data the game needs before it can get to the Mod Files. To force the game to retrieve data from the Mod Files, several console commands can be used.
(~) Commands: disable, enable, resurrect, player.placeatme, markfordelete, recycleactor.
The general idea is to get the NPC to be erased from the game and force the game to load the NPC anew. Note that NOT ALL NPC information will be refreshed. And sometimes the information loaded will be immediately altered by game scripts.
Relationships, Stats, and Leveling mechanics will not be loaded from plugins once the NPC is saved in your savegame.
For more commands and what they do see here: http://mod.gib.me/skyrim/functions.html
Or a less complete but more friendly source: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console
Using Mod Files is a safe way to alter NPC information. It will not break your savegame (mostly) and Skyrim Data will not be changed in ways you might regret. Remember - by default there is no Skyrim Data backup and who wants to backup a > 2 GB file anyways?
Consider then when the Mod Files are then removed:
In Game ------> Save Game ------> Skyrim Data
Will all the data you edited be safety removed? - Not quite.
If you save the game (autosaves included) when Mod Files are active, the new Save Game will still hold some information that is altered by the Mod Files even when they are removed. You might need to refresh the NPC again using the aforementioned console commands. Some information such as factions might need to be manually removed. See 'removefaction', 'removeallfactions' and 'addfaction'. PLEASE be careful when you change NPC factions. As mentioned, not all data altered can be removed.
To be safe, DO NOT save your game if you are not happy with your mods. Or at least have a previous save to revert to.
KEEP IN MIND: I only provide the tools and will not be held responsible for how the tool is applied - YOU ARE.
Extract and run setup.exe and follow on screen instructions.
This editor requires XNA 4.0 framework and .Net framework 4.0. This will be automatically installed if your system does not already have them.
You also need Skyrim game installed on your machine. If the program cannot find your Skyrim Data files, it will prompt you for it.
If you encounter a 'File In Use' alert, please close any programs that is using Skyrim's data files at the time. This can include other modding tools such as nifskope and FOMM or even the Skyrim game itself. After the data files are released by other applications and data is retrieved, you can re-launch those application again.
Making changes to the NPC should be intuitive enough.
To load a previously saved .esp file click on the button labeled "Load from File". To load another file, first click "Restore Selection" to switch back to Skyrim Data and then "Load from File" again.
To switch the selected NPC's entire head to match another, use the Head selector under the Appearance tab. i.e. making Aela look like Lydia. After the new defaults are loaded, you can make changes to the new head again.
To create Mod Files, click on the button labeled 'Create Mod'.
It is recommended to have 'Save to BSA' checked so that the mesh and texture need by the NPC is saved onto a BSA file. If 'Save to BSA' is not checked, the texture and mesh will be created and place correctly structured into meshes and textures folders.
If you want to make a new NPC, check the 'Save as New NPC' checkbox. You will see no change to the old NPC because you are creating a new one.
Please put ALL FILES AND FOLDERS CREATED to you skyim game's Data folder. If there is a BSA file, both .esp and .bsa must be moved to the data folder. If 'Save as BSA' is not checked, please move the .esp, meshes folder and textures folder to the data folder instead.
If you use 'Save as BSA' (which is recommended) you might need to remove mesh and textures overrides that 'override' your .bsa and everything else.
For example - if the NPC is AelaTheHuntress, her FormID is 0001a696 - You need to remove:
From your Skyrim's Data folder. Otherwise these files will keep overriding your new mesh and texture in the BSA file and you get discolored heads.
Usually you get these files from older versions of this editor or other NPC or Companion mods. **If you are a modder I seriously advice you not to use overrides anymore, it stays (and keeps overriding) even when the plugin is disabled - unlike BSA file which is disabled when plugin is disabled.**
NOTE: At this time, the editor will only generate Mesh and Texture for the current NPC only. If you have more NPCs in the created plugins, you need to merge those mesh and textures into the BSA file as well. You can use Archive.exe that came with the CK to do this. Weapons meshes and textures are usually overrides, but if you intend to distribute your NPCs with custom weapons and armors, then you might need to add those meshes and textures as well.
The .esp file can also be conflicted by another .esp file or mods you have already placed in game which cause the data mismatch with the .nif file. For best results separate your NPC's .esp to one for each NPC, preventing and showing conflicts at once. It is also much easier to remove mods for one particular NPC when desired. Note that you can name the .esp file to whatever you like, but the .nif file must not be moved or renamed.
TO REMOVE MODS, REMEMBER to remove the .nif file in the meshes folder with the .esp file. The .nif file is named according to the NPC's FormID. i.e. type 'help aela 0' at the console. It will show you that Aela the Huntress have the ID of 0001a696. Therefore the .nif file is 0001a696.nif. Be careful not to remove the whole meshes folders when you havemore than one NPC modded. This applies to the texture .dds file too. If you are using BSA, just remove both BSA and ESP file.
Use the game launch to register the Mod you just added. Click on 'Data' on the launcher and make sure .esp file is 'ticked'. You only need to do this once for each new .esp.
If the 'Data' folder is greyed out. Go to <your drive>:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim.

Inside you will find SkyrimPrefs.ini. Open it make sure there is a line under [Launcher] that says

bEnableFileSelection=1

If not, change or add it.

If you do not see your NPC changes, see HOW DOES IT WORK? above.

----IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. BSA files vs. Overrides

If you place files in textures, meshes or scripts, those are overrides. At the same time, those file can be archived / 'zipped' in Bethesda's BSA. The game will look for overrides FIRST, if not found - look in <pluginname>.bsa - IF - <pluginname>.esp is enable. You can see why .BSA files are recommended over overrides.

2. NPC textures and meshes filenames and locations

Meshes and Textures are named according to NPC's FormID. AelaTheHuntress is 0001a696.

So the mesh is 0001a696.nif, the texture is: 0001a696.dds

 Default NPCs meshes goes in: meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\skyrim.esm\
 Default NPCs textures goes in: textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\skyrim.esm\

 New Created NPCs meshes goes in: meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\<plugin name or>\
 New Created NPCs textures goes in: textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\<plugin name or>\

3. Discolored NPC heads are caused by the Game not able to match the .esp's description of the NPC to the meshes or textures. Or some 'visual' entries in the NPC record is incorrect.

So if you use BSA files, you need to remove the older meshes and textures overrides or they wont match. Remember that the game will look for overrides first. If you are going to transport your plugin to another machine, make sure they remove those overrides too.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

----The Editor crashed or is stuck at the loading screen, what can I do?----------------------------------------

Close and start the editor again. The plugin screen will show up again and lets you choose which plugins to load. At this point you need to remove the plugins and try to figure out which plugin is causing this issue.

Remove suspect plugins and try again with a different plugin list.

Let me know which plugins are giving you problem, I will attempt to fix the editor. Most of the time it is not the plugin's fault but the editor's bug.

***Please know that you only need to load plugins you needed to edito the NPC, you can leave non-related plugins out. You also do not need any color selection plugins as the editor allow you to customize your own colors.

----The loaded hair looks weird and out of place, help!----------------------------------------------

You can adjust hair position and scale using the Hair Fix controls.

----The CK complains about multiple master files when loading the plugin created, help?--------------

Add bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1 under [General] in SkyrimEditor.ini in your /Skyrim folder

----Why is custom mods (i.e. hair) not showing up?---------------------------------------------------

Make sure the plugins are included in the Load Order section of the plugins settings page. Click on 'Plugin Settings' on the top right corner of the editor.

They will automatically show up in drop-down menus after loading.

----When I edit a NPC, his/her head is browned/discolored in game.. why?-----------------------------

Discolored NPC heads are caused by the Game not able to match the .esp's description of the NPC to the meshes or textures. Or some 'visual' entries in the NPC record is incorrect.

See Instructions above. And 'IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW'.

----Why is the skills and stats changes I made not reflected in game? (Including Weight)-------------

Many reasons. Your savegame overrides some stats data. There might be another script that control the stats in game. Previous commands, such as setav or forceav might force the stats to a different value. Another mod (i.e. body mod) might have overriden the values.

Relationships, leveling mechanics and stats are ignored once the NPC is saved to your savegame. Going back to an earlier save or starting a new game will cause the game to load the NPC stats from the plugin as it cannot find it in your savegame.

This makes sense because NPC will not remain as described by the plugin or master file, but will be altered by events in the game. If the game loads the data from the plugin instead of savegame, your NPC will never grow in Stats or Relationship with the player.

See HOW DOES IT WORK? above.

Your best bet are setting them manually using console commands.

Commands listed here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console

----Why does my NPC start punching instead of using weapons?-----------------------------------------

Thanks to thediddy:

Do not delete the standard weapon the NPC's inventory.

----The edited NPC or new NPC will not start dialog with me, why?------------------------------------

You have selected a Voice Type that does not have the required voice files for that particular conversation. Becareful which NPC you change voicetypes as some quest might become broken because the quest NPC could not start his/her conversation.

----How do you fix the neck seam that appeared after some editing?-----------------------------------

The NPC weight might be altered in your savegame, by another mod or by yourself using console command. Whatever the altered value is, it needs to match the one you set in the editor. If you have this problem i.e. you set the weight of the NPC to be 75, and a neck seam appears in game - you must then use the console command setnpcweight to set the NPC weight to 75 to match it. This will make the seam go away.

If you notice a slight texture mismatch between the head and neck, it is probably the texture of a body mod not match the head's textures. Remove the body mod and it should go away. I believe you can also look for head textures mod that provides matching texture to the body mod.

----Why dont the NPC casts higher level spells I gave her?-------------------------------------------

Thanks to samsingletree:

The NPC need higher skills level. You might need to set the skill level using console. Put those spells higher up in the list too.

----What does weight do?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weight affects the NPC's appearance in girth / bust sizes. The more weight, the larger ...

----After I set the NPC's scale to 50, he disappeared!?----------------------------------------------

Look up, way up.

----How do I enable an NPC to be a spouse or follower?-----------------------------------------------

There are two conditions to be met. First add the NPC to the Marriage / Follower faction. Second, the NPC's disposition rank must satisfy certain levels.

If the relationship rank is alter changed by the save game, this editor cannot change it.

If this NPC is not saved in your savegame, you can set relationship levels in the relationship tab.

If setting relationship to 'Ally' or above doesnt work for you, click on the NPC in console and type:

player.setrelationshiprank 3 (or 4 if you really want to be sure) 4 is usually auto-set after marriage.

----How do I change the NPC's fighting style to exactly what I want?---------------------------------

I cannot give you the correct answer. The best approach is to observe the settings of another NPC whose fighting style you want to emulate. i.e. Mercer Fey has been mentions in the comments for people who want to dual-wield.

----Why don't the NPC use the weapon/magic I gave him/her?-------------------------------------------

Know that usually it is better to a more generic weapon to an NPC with enemies fighting style. Thats because the programmed A.I. do not expect the NPC to have that 'unique special bow' and is not programmed to equiped it. Stick to using Hirelings/Housecarl 's AI /Combat Style because they are programmed to expect the player to give them better weapons. For magic they need Magicka to cast spells, not forget stamina too for special moves. Won't work if they run out too. Finally please ask around and experiment.

You might also try to set the Combat Style to NONE. This may in fact be better in some cases.

----Why is some features I want not added?-----------------------------------------------------------

Some location for those values are as yet known.

See: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes5Mod:Mod_File_Format/NPC

Or the data is saved in the save game which this program do not cover.

Or let me know if I missed anything.

----What does Energy do?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In previous Elder Scroll games, it was the frequency of how often the NPC check for a reaction. Setting this value high to many NPCs will decrease CPU performance because the NPCs will now 'think' more often.

----Why isnt the NPC equiping the armor I gave him/her? / How to change outfit?----------------------

NPC other than Hirelings and Housecarls usually wear what is selected at Default Outfit at the Info tab. If the default outfit does not have what you want, you can always create new outfit sets in the CK and load the plugin with this editor for it to be available.

----Why are .net framework 4.0 and XNA 4.0 needed?---------------------------------------------------

.Net framework is used to make time to deploy this program much faster than any other winforms platform API out there. Know that large part of this program are window forms objects. 4.0 is used because I need it to run XNA 4.0 which powers the model preview. Again the reason is speed and productivity.

Remember that I made this program in 3 weeks with starting with no knowledge of Bethesda's NPC record format and no idea of 3D and shaders programming. All this with a job and leisure time to spare.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 TECHNICAL STUFF:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I need help from people with good XNA and HLSL shaders knowledge. There are current rendering problems with NPC's translucent hair and beards. If you think you can help, please contact me, foretrenty @ skyrimnexus.com

I shader I wrote is a 2 pass shader that takes textures, bump, and specular maps.

First pass renders solids, second pass renders transparents.

Culling is set to CW because, Skyrim meshes are made in left-handed coordinates where XNA is in right-handed coordinates.

Also, I want to especially thank the people at www.uesp.net who documents an incredible amount of Bethesda's file format. No small part of the data used in making this program comes from them. Great job guys!

Please help and contribute if you find out / know more about Bethesda's file format here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes5Mod:Mod_File_Format

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

All bug reports, suggestions, comments welcomed at:

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4554

foretrenty @ skyrimnexus.com </plugin></plugin></pluginname></pluginname></your></your>


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This article is more than 1 year old
Snowden leak: GCHQ DDoSed Anonymous & LulzSec's chatrooms
'I plead guilty to 2 counts of conspiracy and these b*st*rds were doing the ... same thing?'
British intelligence ran denial-of-service attacks against chatrooms used by Anonymous and LulzSec, according to an investigation by NBC News involving Snowden confidante Glenn Greenwald.
Documents leaked by the NSA whistleblower record how a GCHQ unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, or JTRIG, used a packet flood operation dubbed Rolling Thunder to "scare away 80 per cent of the users of Anonymous internet chat rooms," NBC reports.
Intelligence agents also infiltrated chatrooms in an operation that successfully identified a hacktivist who siphoned off confidential data from PayPal and also picked up another who had participated in attacks on government websites.
The leaked slides from GCHQ boast that the operation allowed the authorities to identify Edward Pearson (aka GZero), 25, from York, who was convicted and sentenced to 26 months in prison for stealing information from 200,000 PayPal accounts. Pearson and his then girlfriend were both convicted of using stolen credit card details to pay for a hotel stay.
Details of how the g-men's evidence against Pearson was put together were among two case studies included in the leaked GCHQ presentation. The other case cited is partially redacted.
The whole GCHQ counter-offensive operation took place in September 2011, around two or three months after malicious activities spearheaded by LulzSec and other hacktivists reached their zenith.
Hacktivists from LulzSec launched DDoS – as distinct from your common or garden denial-of-service attacks – on the website of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency in June 2011. They also ran a DDoS attack against the US Central Intelligence Agency at around the same time. It's hard to believe either of these actions had much of an effect on the agencies concerned beyond possibly slowing the delivery of emails, and even that's a bit improbable.
A greater concern ought to have been boasts by LulzSec that it had hacked into InfraGard chapters' websites, a non-profit organisation affiliated with the FBI. These claims were supported by the leak of InfraGard member emails and a database of local users.
An attack on Senate.gov that reportedly led to the leaks of internal data ought to have also ought to have set off warnings.
Members of the wider Anonymous movement ran DDoS attacks as part of online protests against the WikiLeaks banking blockade against PayPal and Mastercard as part of OpPayback in late 2010.
Responses to DDoS attacks normally involve setting up mitigation technologies on a technical level while using law enforcement to identify and arrest the perpetrators. The GCHQ division seemingly decided to fight fire with fire by launching a packet flood at IRC servers used by Anonymous.
Security experts, such as Robert Graham of Errata Security, have slammed NBC by confusing Distributed Denial of Service attacks with Denial of Service attacks.
"Assuming the target was an IRC server in a colo, then it's trivially easy to DoS with a SYN-flood without effecting nearby machines," Graham writes.
The leaked (partially redacted) slides - put together for a presentation delivered by GCHQ in 2012 - do contain a page about Rolling Thunder headed "DDoS" (page 13 of 15) but Graham's explanation makes more sense from the technical point of view.
"The GCHQ doc admits doing "denial of service", but then later uses the DDoS acronym as a title," Graham said in a Twitter update.
Security advocates had already begun questioned the legality of GCHQ's ops against LulzSec and elements of Anonymous.
Spyblog tweeted:
Did #GCHQ have ISA warrant for DDOS attacks on #Anonymous ? http://t.co/JMB1QoYhaz else 10 yr prison offence Computer Misuse Act s3 /3A
— Spy Blog (@spyblog) February 5, 2014
Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Corero Network Security, said that since some of the victims of LulzSec's attacks included the CIA and SOCA, it is not altogether surprising that the hacktivists would themselves become a target.
"We have to remember that cyber-spooks within GCHQ are equally if not more skilled than many black hat hackers, and the tools and techniques they are going to use to fight cybercrime are surely going to be similar to that of the bad guys," Miller said. "Legally, we enter a very grey area here; where members of Lulzsec were arrested and incarcerated for carrying out DDoS attacks, but it seems that JTRIG are taking the same approach with impunity."
Convicted LulzSec hacker Jake Davis (Topiary) has reacted with disbelief to reports of GCHQ's shenanigans. "I plead guilty to two counts of DDoS conspiracy and to my face these GCHQ bastards were doing the exact same thing," he said in an update to his personal DoubleJake Twitter account.
Security experts, more personally removed from the situation, have used the whole business as an opportunity to crack some funnies, as well as making more serious points questioning the thinking behind the operation.
"This is what happens when you staff your cyber ops group with ex-hackers," wrote thegrugq. "They go back to their old tricks, ddosing IRC channels and doxing."
"Remember how outrageous it was when China used their control over their citizen's Internet infrastructure to stifle dissent?" he later added. ®

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Before World War 2, the middle-class in the developed world struggled to afford basic needs. In the post-war boom, standards of living rose dramatically, and people consumed far beyond what they needed. It was the age of conspicuous consumption: a race to own bigger cars and houses, and accumulate more stuff. The mean income in the developed world became sufficient to provide for a comfortable life.
Today, people increasingly realize they own more than enough stuff, and don't want to pay for feature-rich versions of that stuff. Four blades in your razors are enough. In the language of Clay Christensen's disruptive innovation framework, the product economy overshot the mass market's needs.
An economy of experiences is emerging in its place. Experiences make people happier than products (a fact that scientific studies support). The popularity of experiences like music concerts has skyrocketed compared to corresponding products like music recordings. Apple, the most valuable company in the world, maniacally focuses on product experiences, down to minute details like the experience of unboxing an iPhone. Customers want to know where their food and clothes come from, so they can understand the experiences surrounding them. The emphasis on experiences also helps explain other large trends like the migration to cities. Cities have always offered the trade-off of fewer goods and less space in exchange for better experiences.
The trend toward experiences is important for technology startups. The era of competing over technical specifications is over. Users want better experiences from devices, applications, websites, and the offline services they enable. It is no coincidence that interaction design is replacing technical prowess as the primary competency at startups. People who create great experiences will be the most valuable to startups, and startups that create great experiences will be the most valuable to users.


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Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(AP) - Cold weather has forced thousands of flights to be cancelled or delayed across the country, leaving many travelers frustrated for yet another day.
The tracking website Flightaware.com estimates more than 2,000 flights were cancelled nationwide as of Sunday afternoon and more than 6,000 flights were delayed. That follows two days of similarly difficult travel conditions.
Cold weather has affected much of the country, but hit Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport particularly hard. The airport said more than 400 departures were cancelled for the day. It is also still trying to clear out thousands of travelers who have been sleeping at the terminal or in nearby hotels who have been waiting for a flight out since Thursday night.
To ease the pain, the airport has been giving away free coffee, sandwiches and other treats. It also has brought in entertainment to the terminals, including musicians, comedians and balloon artists.
"We are trying to keep the mood light and do everything we can to make sure that our passengers have as good an experience as possible given the situation," airport spokesman David Magana said.
Cold weather turned the region into an "ice rink" Thursday night, he said. That forced 3,000 people to stay the night Thursday, which swelled to 4,000 Friday. As flights began to slowly resume, that figure dropped to 2,000 for Saturday night.
Magana said Sunday is the first day that temperatures will rise above freezing for a few hours, giving staff there a chance to work on improving paved surfaces there.
American Airlines, which has its main hub in Dallas Fort Worth, said it had 1,100 cancellations across its system Sunday. It expects 550 cancellations for Monday, the bulk of which are at the Dallas Fort Worth airport.
The airline has updated its travel policy due to the tough weather, allowing passengers who have trips planned through affected areas to change their flights at no charge to avoid some of the complications.
The problems weren't contained to Texas though.
Delta Air Lines reported delays stretching from the Tennessee Valley to the mid-Atlantic region. The airline estimated it cancelled 20 to 40 flights Sunday.
Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Stacey Jackson said there was much more snow and ice than originally anticipated for its area. Initial forecasts of one-half to two inches of snow have been upped to four to six inches. That led to a temporary ground stop on Sunday, which halted any runway activity until the afternoon.
The airport is also expecting a number of passengers to stay there overnight as area hotels have been full for several days. Jackson said staff will hand out pillows and blankets to make them "feel at home even though they are not."
Airlines and airports alike urge passengers who are trying to travel to regularly check in on the status of their flights as conditions may change. They expect weather-related delays should persist through Monday at least, but may ease later in the week as conditions improve.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Dancing their falls away
Foxtrot, salsa, rumba! Twice weekly ballroom dancing classes for senior citizens could bring back the balance and strength needed to prevent falls in elderly Australians, according to University of Sydney researchers.
A multi-centre project titled The effectiveness of social dancing as a strategy to prevent falls in older people: a cluster randomised controlled trial has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and will be led by Dr Dafna Merom, an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health and co-appointee at the University of Western Sydney.
Dr Merom says it is widely acknowledged that falls are one of the most common health problems among older people, and this study has the potential to reduce the incidence of falls for elderly Australians by as much 37 percent.
"We know that formal exercise programs, particularly those that include balance challenging training, can help prevent falls, but formal training exercises may not be the best way to optimise results. There are promising alternatives," she says.
Dr Merom is aiming to introduce classic ballroom dance routines including the rumba, foxtrot, salsa, the waltz, and even some 'rock n roll' as twice-weekly recreational activities at 13 aged care centres and retirement villages across Sydney.
Often described as 'old time dancing', Merom says these classic dances have the right moves and more.
"Dance is a complex sensory motor rhythmic activity. It also has cognitive and social dimensions. This package as a whole can simultaneously address a wide range of physiological and cognitive risk factors that contribute to falls."
"Evidence from preliminary study showed what a promising, sustainable alternative to formal exercise programs social and ballroom dancing can be."
"Small-scale randomised controlled trials have shown that all sorts of dance styles can improve measures of balance and mobility in older people."
"Studies have shown that seniors who do some type of dancing have better balance and gait characteristics than people of a similar age who don't, including those who exercise. Social dancing or ballroom dancing is enjoyable and already available in the community," suggests Dr Merom.
The study will be the first of its kind internationally to test the effectiveness of typical community social dance programs on falls and cognition in older people.
The researchers are aiming to recruit 450 older adults who will be engaged in the dance program, which will run for a year.
The multi-centre study will include researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, Australian National University, and the University of Hong Kong.
(Source: The University of Sydney)
Created by:


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Make a pom pom sea anenome
Pom poms are a fantastic craft basic. If you can make a pom pom, you can turn it into all sorts of fun craft activities for kids. Try turning yours into a pom pom sea anenome for your octopus's garden. Watch the video tutorial below for how to make a pom pom.
What you need:
- A ball of red wool
- Cardboard
- Sharp scissors
- 1 x egg cup from an egg carton
- Our FREE pom pom printable
OR something round to trace an 8cm circle and something round to trace a 3cm circle (a full roll of electrical tape is the perfect shape)
Number of players:
Here's how to make a pom pom sea anenome.
Use our pom pom printable to trace two small pom pom discs out of your cardboard, or freehand trace an 8cm circle with a 3cm circle in the middle. Cut out your discs.
Put the two discs together.
Now wind the red wool around and around the discs, through the centre and around the outer edge.
Keep going until you've covered the entire disc surface. It's a good idea to cut off a manageable length of wool, wind it into a smaller ball that will pass through the centre of your disc and work with that until it runs out. Reload it when you run out.
Now you will need to cut the wool around the edges, your scissor blade should eventually pass between the two discs of cardboard. Just cut a bit at a time, holding it together with your other hand, until you have snipped the entire perimeter.
From your ball of wool, cut off a length about 30cm. Use that to tie off the pom pom. Do this by passing the string between the two cardboard discs and then tightening it around the centre of the pom pom bunch. Tie it up nice and tight.
Once you've secured it, slide the two discs out of place, off the pom pom.
You should now have a beautiful red pom pom. Just 'froof' it a bit to get it into a circle shape.
Now get the egg carton cup and pop your pom pom in.
You have made a pom pom sea anenome for your Octopus's Garden.
Hints and tips:
- To make a larger pom pom trace around a CD for the pompom disc.
- Use two or three different coloured wools to make your pom pom more colourful.
- Thanks to our sister company Kidspot Australia for creating the instructional video.


text:
1 | A Psalm. Of David. Lord, I have made my cry to you; come to me quickly; give ear to my voice, when it goes up to you. |
2 | Let my prayer be ordered before you like a sweet smell; and let the lifting up of my hands be like the evening offering. |
3 | O Lord, keep a watch over my mouth; keep the door of my lips. |
4 | Keep my heart from desiring any evil thing, or from taking part in the sins of the evil-doers with men who do wrong: and let me have no part in their good things. |
5 | Let the upright give me punishment; and let the god-fearing man put me in the right way; but I will not let the oil of sinners come on my head: when they do evil I will give myself to prayer. |
6 | When destruction comes to their judges by the side of the rock, they will give ear to my words, for they are sweet. |
7 | Our bones are broken up at the mouth of the underworld, as the earth is broken by the plough. |
8 | But my eyes are turned to you, O Lord God: my hope is in you; let not my soul be given up to death. |
9 | Keep me from the net which they have put down for me, and from the designs of the workers of evil. |
10 | Let the sinners be taken in the nets which they themselves have put down, while I go free. |


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Proceedings Front Matter: Title Page and List of Organizers | Table of Contents | Message from the Program Co-Chairs| Errata Slip
Complete Proceedings (PDF)
NEW! E-Book Proceedings: Read the proceedings on the go in iPad-friendly EPUB format or Kindle-friendly Mobipocket format.
Wednesday, February 15
Opening Remarks and Best Paper Awards
FAST '12 Program Co-Chairs: William J. Bolosky, Microsoft Research; Jason Flinn, University of Michigan
View the Video
Implications of New Storage Technology
Session Chair: Raju Rangaswami, Florida International University
De-indirection for Flash-based SSDs with Nameless Writes Yiying Zhang, Leo Prasath Arulraj, Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau, and Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/7/12
View the Video | Slides
The Bleak Future of NAND Flash Memory Laura M. Grupp, University of California, San Diego; John D. Davis, Microsoft Research, Mountain View; Steven Swanson, University of California, San Diego
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/6/12 | Updated full paper, 2/8/12
When Poll Is Better than Interrupt Jisoo Yang, Dave B. Minturn, and Frank Hady, Intel Corporation
Read the Abstract | Full paper
Back It Up
Session Chair: Arkady Kanevsky, Dell
Characteristics of Backup Workloads in Production Systems Grant Wallace, Fred Douglis, Hangwei Qian, Philip Shilane, Stephen Smaldone, Mark Chamness, and Windsor Hsu, EMC Corporation
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/7/12 | Updated full paper, 2/9/12
WAN Optimized Replication of Backup Datasets Using Stream-Informed Delta Compression Philip Shilane, Mark Huang, Grant Wallace, and Windsor Hsu, EMC Corporation
Power Consumption in Enterprise-Scale Backup Storage Systems Zhichao Li, Stony Brook University; Kevin M. Greenan and Andrew W. Leung, EMC Corporation; Erez Zadok, Stony Brook University
Presentation of the 2012 FAST Test of Time Award
File System Design and Correctness
Session Chair: Atul Adya, Google, Inc.
Awarded Best Paper! Recon: Verifying File System Consistency at Runtime Daniel Fryer, Kuei Sun, Rahat Mahmood, TingHao Cheng, Shaun Benjamin, Ashvin Goel, and Angela Demke Brown, University of Toronto
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/16/12
Understanding Performance Implications of Nested File Systems in a Virtualized Environment Duy Le, The College of William and Mary; Hai Huang, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center; Haining Wang, The College of William and Mary
Consistency Without Ordering Vijay Chidambaram, Tushar Sharma, Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau, and Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Flash and SSDs, Part I
Session Chair: John Bent, EMC
Reducing SSD Read Latency via NAND Flash Program and Erase Suspension Guanying Wu and Xubin He, Virginia Commonwealth University
Optimizing NAND Flash-Based SSDs via Retention Relaxation Ren-Shuo Liu and Chia-Lin Yang, National Taiwan University; Wei Wu, Intel Corporation
SFS: Random Write Considered Harmful in Solid State Drives Changwoo Min, Sungkyunkwan University and Samsung Electronics; Kangnyeon Kim, Sungkyunkwan University; Hyunjin Cho, Samsung Electronics; Sang-Won Lee and Young Ik Eom, Sungkyunkwan University
Poster Session and Reception I
The poster session will allow researchers to present recent and ongoing projects and will include posters for today's papers. Enjoy dinner and drinks while chatting with poster presenters and mingling with other attendees, speakers, and conference organizers. Find out how to submit a poster here.
Thursday, February 16
OS Techniques
Session Chair: Lakshmi N. Bairavasundaram, NetApp
FIOS: A Fair, Efficient Flash I/O Scheduler Stan Park and Kai Shen, University of Rochester
Shredder: GPU-Accelerated Incremental Storage and Computation Pramod Bhatotia and Rodrigo Rodrigues, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS); Akshat Verma, IBM Research—India
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/5/12
Adding Advanced Storage Controller Functionality via Low-Overhead Virtualization Muli Ben-Yehuda, Michael Factor, Eran Rom, and Avishay Traeger, IBM Research—Haifa; Eran Borovik and Ben-Ami Yassour
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/2/12
Mobile and Social
Session Chair: Daniel Peek, Facebook
ZZFS: A Hybrid Device and Cloud File System for Spontaneous Users Michelle L. Mazurek, Carnegie Mellon University; Eno Thereska, Dinan Gunawardena, Richard Harper, and James Scott, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK
Awarded Best Paper! Revisiting Storage for Smartphones Hyojun Kim, Nitin Agrawal, and Cristian Ungureanu, NEC Laboratories America
Serving Large-scale Batch Computed Data with Project Voldemort Roshan Sumbaly, Jay Kreps, Lei Gao, Alex Feinberg, Chinmay Soman, and Sam Shah, LinkedIn Corp.
Work-in-Progress Reports (WiPs)
Session Chair: James Mickens, Microsoft Research
WiPs are the traditional short (5-minute) talks that expose a new idea or project. See the accepted WiPs.
Session Chair: Theodore Wong, IBM Research
BlueSky: A Cloud-Backed File System for the Enterprise Michael Vrable, Stefan Savage, and Geoffrey M. Voelker, University of California, San Diego
Rethinking Erasure Codes for Cloud File Systems: Minimizing I/O for Recovery and Degraded Reads Osama Khan and Randal Burns, Johns Hopkins University; James Plank and William Pierce, University of Tennessee; Cheng Huang, Microsoft Research
NCCloud: Applying Network Coding for the Storage Repair in a Cloud-of-Clouds Yuchong Hu, Henry C.H. Chen, and Patrick P.C. Lee, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yang Tang, Columbia University
Poster Session and Reception II
Join us for a second evening of dinner, drinks, and the opportunity to learn about new or ongoing work. This second poster session will have different posters from last night's session and will include posters for the Thursday papers and WiPs, providing an opportunity for follow-up with speakers. Find out how to submit a poster here.
Friday, February 17
A Little Bit of Everything
Session Chair: Randal Burns, Johns Hopkins University
Extracting Flexible, Replayable Models from Large Block Traces V. Tarasov and S. Kumar, Stony Brook University; J. Ma, Harvey Mudd College; D. Hildebrand and A. Povzner, IBM Almaden Research; G. Kuenning, Harvey Mudd College; E. Zadok, Stony Brook University
scc: Cluster Storage Provisioning Informed by Application Characteristics and SLAs Harsha V. Madhyastha, University of California, Riverside; John C. McCullough, George Porter, Rishi Kapoor, Stefan Savage, Alex C. Snoeren, and Amin Vahdat, University of California, San Diego
iDedup: Latency-aware, Inline Data Deduplication for Primary Storage Kiran Srinivasan, Tim Bisson, Garth Goodson, and Kaladhar Voruganti, NetApp, Inc.
Read the Abstract | Full paper | Updated full paper, 2/10/12
Flash and SSDs, Part II
Session Chair: Mark Lillibridge, HP Labs
Caching Less for Better Performance: Balancing Cache Size and Update Cost of Flash Memory Cache in Hybrid Storage Systems Yongseok Oh, University of Seoul; Jongmoo Choi, Dankook University; Donghee Lee, University of Seoul; Sam H. Noh, Hongik University
Lifetime Management of Flash-Based SSDs Using Recovery-Aware Dynamic Throttling Sungjin Lee and Taejin Kim, Seoul National University; Kyungho Kim, Samsung Electronics, Korea; Jihong Kim, Seoul National University


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1) Tibco RV is proffered choice for high speed messaging e..g publish of market data etc while Tibco EMS which is based upon JMS implementation is mostly used for more reliable messaging e.g. Order and trade and mostly work on acknowledgment .
2) Also topic and queue created on Tibco EMS are static in nature and they get created on Tibco EMS Server while Subject of Tibco RV is dynamic in nature.
3) Tibco RV works on Bus model every node connected to bus have RVD running so no single point of failure if one node goes down other can still communicate with each other while in case of Tibco EMS work on Hub and Spoke model where Tibco EMS Server is Single Point of failure because all topics and queues were created on this and publisher and subscriber connects to it , so if it went down all traffic will be stopped , though Tibco EMS Server could have another failover instance which can become primary in case required.


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According to the accompanying family tree, the surname Freud is derived from Freide. This was the name of an important woman and the family adopted her name.
In 1812 an Austrian government official arrived in Buchach in order to fulfill a law requiring that all inhabitants have official surnames. Thus was born the surname Freud.
The accompanying family tree was prepared in 1914 on the basis of the gravestone inscriptions in the Buchach cemetery and other documents. Its preparation took several years and the genealogy was approved by the Freud family.
Translators (NP) note. The above account contains numerous errors:
Sigmund Freud was actually the oldest of Jacob and Amalias children. He was born May 6, 1856.
Freide was the name of Schlomo Freuds great-grandmother, a resident of Buchach.
Photo Captions:
Sigmund Freud's family tree
I gave one of the lectures to the humanist association Vienna. It dealt with the controversial drama Yohanan by Zoderman. This drama deals with the negative attributes of orthodox Jews from the viewpoint of their religious practices rather than with the antagonistic political attitudes towards them, which were already widespread at the time. In my lecture I criticized the position of modern Jews who tolerated such criticism, the negative attitudes that they displayed towards the Orthodox, and their indifference to the harassment of orthodox Jews.
Following my lecture we all sat down to a friendly meal. Freud acted as the host of this gathering. He expressed various thoughts about the subject of my talk and made several jokes related to religion. He suggested that many Jews resembled Yohanan the Convert: shaggy coats, unkempt hair, mysterious face. Freud preferred the man in the elegant tuxedo to the one dressed like a prophet. I thought to myself: how far has this man drifted from Jewish life that he cant accept the oriental trappings of his ancestors? I was not surprised, however, as it was known that in these circles, in which Freud was the leader, rabbis were not welcome at lectures. This organization did not want to appear to be too religious in order to be able to participate in the activities of the more liberal circles of the land. However, we cannot think of them as being truly anti-religious. Thus, Freud undoubtedly had an encounter with the Rabbi of Vienna, although it was only on paper in the form of a cartoon that appeared in the most important humorous newspaper in Vienna. In this cartoon Freud appeared in the guise of Rabbi Gidman out on his daily walk. The legend below said Guy de Monpassant and this statement certainly did not convey an impression of preaching in the desert. I thanked Freud and gave him the greetings from Hamburg.
After working for several years in Vienna I once again attended a lecture to the above group. Freud was the lecturer and his topic was Hamurabi, the ancient codifier. Now I could understand why Freud was so successful in academic life. He did not issue pronouncements and spoke not dryly but in an interesting manner that really struck home. The audience at this lecture was small although Freuds voice was best suited to this rather intimate setting. I had been told that Freuds lectures in North America were not very successful because he spoke in a low voice. Most of the audience could not hear him and there were those who attributed this problem to an illness. I was happy to note that all these tales were not true.
Freud utilized a type of trick in the above lecture that was widely used at that time. He said: I have just remembered that I forgot to bring from home the pictures of the Hamurabi tablets that I wanted to show you. After the lecture I told him in a jocular manner: You used the evidence of our Torah. I didnt find his approach to be reasonable. It was historically inaccurate as it elevated Hamurabi at the expense of Moses. On top of that, I said,you forgot the pictures at home!
Freud was at this time at the peak of his fame. He received many honors in America. What do you know about Freud? was the first question New York reporters asked visitors from Vienna. His theory was considered to be the most important discovery of the time, or at least the most important one made in Vienna. Nonetheless, the number of his American patients decreased substantially owing to the poor social conditions that developed first there and then in the rest of the world. Jokingly, but not happily, Freud spoke of the American millionaires who were coming to Vienna to shake his hand.
Some more time passed and I once again gave a lecture to the Vienna group, this time about the history of Jewish education. An interesting discussion took place at the reception which followed the lecture. Freud argued insistently that Jews had not made any significant contribution to knowledge. While stating that in medicine one certainly recognizes the well known Mendelsohn, the friend of Lesing he indicated that this was neither here nor there. The well known dermatologist, Prof. Shlema Arman, a colleague of Freud at the University, then took advantage of the deadly silence that followed Freuds attack on Judaism to reply. I was not surprised by Freuds attack since in certain circles in Vienna Jews without any respect for their ancestors amused themselves in self-destructive activities. Arman stated that while we Jews perhaps did not invent the generator or the auto, we did give to the world the Tanach and with it God. In my final summary I stated that I would go even further than Prof. Arman: I promised to gather proof that we Jews also invented the generator and the auto.
I kept my word and presented a carefully researched proof in a lecture entitled Jews as inventors and discoverers, which was partially published in the newspapers Ost und West and Algemeine Zeitung das Judentum. In my lecture I spoke of Poper-Linkaus, inventor of the electric carriage, and of Sigfrid Marks, inventor of the first gasoline powered auto.
After several years Freud sent me his family tree and history and the preparation of this manuscript confirms the thoughts expressed here. I had no further contact with Freud until I visited Judge Julian Mak in New York. Maks family members were friends of Freud.
While Freuds position on Judaism seemed pretty clear to me, I was surprised by the indications of his support of Zionism. I was further surprised when I learned that Freud was an honorary member of the Vilna organization for the preservation of Yiddish.
Freud's father moved to Vienna from the Galician town of Buchach. From Vienna he moved to Freishtad in Moravia. In Vienna, Freuds father was a commission agent, that is, he traveled to make purchases on behalf of Viennese merchants. His famous son, who was well aware of his exalted status, joined in his old age an organization that supported the language of his native land.
Dr. M. Grinwald
(Based on an article published in Haaretz on September 21, 1941.)
However, in time the numbers of listeners grew and a movement arose that led eastern Galicia to a spiritual awakening. In her deepest recesses there was a longing for some sort of change. The air was still suffused by the spirit of the R'nk (Rabbi Nachman Krochmal), Shy'r (Shlomo Yehuda Rappaport), Yosef Perl, Shimshon Bloch, Yitzchak Arter, Latris and others.
Their books were found in attics, and they were read clandestinely. In the library of the old beis medrash [house of Torah study], in Buczacz, these people's research books stood in one row, and on the same shelves, as the books written by the pious and the followers of musar [moralists].
The R'nk was not held in higher regard than the Rambam, nor were 'Duties of the Heart' and 'The Akeda' given more recognition than 'The Eternal Paths.' The crown which had been removed from the head of Galicia decades earlier, still sparkled in a remote corner and awaited the hand that would return it to its former glory. The confidence in self which had faded, began to come to light and to reveal itself.
Indeed, the revival came about through physical and spiritual labour, because decades of inaction, the conservative way of life, and the strong attachment to tradition did their damage. Opposition to everything new, and to any attempt at innovation, was very great.
A war between fathers and sons was spreading. Religion struggled with knowledge, 'light' with 'darkness,' enlightenment with conservatism.
All these events, that were common at the time in the whole Jewish world, occurring on a large, or smaller, scale in different locales, were charged with dramatic tension in Galicia as well. Yet, as a result of these struggles there arose cells of revival, and corners of renewal, and leaders of an awakening, who unleashed a torrent of innovation in the frozen life of the Galician people of Israel.
Yitzchak (Itzi) Fernhof lived in these twilight years, when the creative powers of Galicia were awakened, and the light of YLG and Mendele and Achad HaAm began to appear from afar.
He was not a high priest in the temple of creativity, but rather a Levite. He accompanied the great ones, and carried their musical instruments. But while accompanying them he also used to play his own music. His melody was unique, and at times even pleasant to the ear. There are times when he surprises with an original theme, and with sparks of true creativity. And he also had a measure of humility.
He spreads his wings and tries to fly, and more than once we even hear the wings flutter, but he cannot stay too long in that sublime air. He is drawn to the soil, to the earthly ambiance, which he captures in a realistic manner. And his Hebrew language is fresh, with striking expressions and innovations, even if here and there traces of the florid style of the haskala language remain.
An example of his linguistic talent can be noted in his article, Two Imaginations, which appeared in the second volume of the Book of Delights, in 1896. In that article we find several expressions that demonstrate Fernhof's original, and profound linguistic perceptiveness.
Describing how moved he was by Herzl's Judenstaat, and the dreams which reading this book gave rise to, he presents us with a vision of a kind of minor utopia. In this vision the names and the language used reflect a unique prescience. The word 'Judenstaat' is translated by him several times as 'the state of Israel,' whereas all the translators to this day have called the book The State of the Jews.
When he imagines the state of Israel rebuilt on its original site, he says, among other things: And my eyes will behold rabbis elected to the assembly houses, ministers of the interior, and ministers of foreign affairs, and ministers of the treasury. Ministers in the state of Israel are called by him: 'Sarim' [just as they are currently called in Israel translator].
Surely, this linguistic
intuition is not incidental for Fernhof. He dreamt a great deal about the
state of Israel, and that dream is clothed in an original, prescient, Hebrew
He gave private Hebrew lessons in Buczacz [*]. Afterwards, when he was hired as a teacher at the Baron Hirsch school, in Zlochov (thanks to the recommendation of the linguistic scholar, David Zvi Heinrich Miller), he achieved part of his goal.
However, his success was short-lived. The Baron Hirsch schools, whose aims were admirable, were not welcomed by the Jews of eastern Galicia. Only a few of 'the enlightened', were happy to welcome them. The majority looked at them with disfavor. In their eyes the teachers, the students, and the parents, were regarded as 'destroyers of the covenant,' as instigators and agitators.
This kind of school was regarded as tantamount to a nest of heretics, a schoolhouse for the 'sinners of Israel.' Fernhof, who worked so hard to be accepted as a teacher at that school, where he hoped to broaden his activity and influence, was bitterly disappointed. He did, however, enter into the town's enlightened society, the society of maskilim, but he remained a pariah in the eyes of the pious, the zealous, and their followers. His plans became less ambitious. His dream evaporated.
A better fate was reserved for his second love, Hebrew literature. He loved the Hebrew writers, those from far and near, and cultivated an ambition in his heart to summon them all to one gathering place. He wanted with all his being to establish a place of honor for Galicia in the Hebrew literature that was undergoing a revival. He knew that the center of literary creativity was not in Galicia, but he wished to transform Galicia into an auxiliary center of literary creativity.
With this plan in mind he did two things: He himself wrote as much as was possible, and published his writing in different publications. In this way he acquired fame for himself and for his region. However, because he possessed a large measure of self criticism, he understood that his contribution, and that of others, were not sufficient to achieve his goal. He therefore established a journal in Buczacz by the name, 'The Books of Delights.'
This was supposed to attract the writers from other major Jewish centers and to publicize the special character of Galicia, since the stars of Galicia would shine alongside the bright lights of Russia Indeed, this was a minor platform that resembles somewhat the 'penny books' of Ben-Avigdor. But despite everything it was an independent platform.
This minor platform succeeded so well that its few issues featured a concentration of famous writers, and those who were to become famous. Tchernichovksy published there one of his first poems, 'Let us go out, let us dwell in serenity;' Berdichevsky published a piece about the four leaders of the world of the chasidim, which enraged Galicia for a short time; Breinin contributed his sketch, 'My Grandfather;' Klausner offered an article on 'Original Literature' and on the quality of translations.
Even Sh. Ben Zion figured among the contributors. Needless to say the writers of Galicia brought their own spirit to this forum. With all the flaws that plagued these thin journals, they also represented the promise of a new era.
The new generation was
influenced by them, and their simplicity was in a sense a novelty for the
yeshiva students. However, these little journals ceased publication, and then
re-emerged in Zlochov. But even there only two issues appeared. At this
juncture Fernhof experimented with his friends by establishing new (literary)
forums like 'The Jordan,' and 'The Young Hebrew.' He had a great desire to
create, edit, and to include himself, as well as the writers of Galicia, in the
new Hebrew literary life.
All his life he reflected on his abilities and his talent. He experienced doubt, meditated and then wrote. It is especially these struggles, this self-searching, that touch the heart and make him an interesting subject. Today, about 30 or so years after his death, we know that there was a good and healthy kernel (of talent) in him, but it was wrapped in many shells. He was a writer with a soul and with insight, who used to tell it straight and simple. Of course, not all his stories are good, and the good ones are not all of equal value.
His first published book, 'From the Legends of Life,' was not well received by the critics. Brenner, Berdichevsky and others subjected him to severe criticism. Perhaps they were right, for in this work the lines were blurred between adaptation, translation and the original source. His style here showed negligence, and his ultimate purpose was unclear.
However, there is no doubt that the harsh critique was also influenced by the traditional bias toward the writers of Galicia, that was a type of convention in those days. This criticism hurt him very much, for it came from writers whom he admired a great deal, and whom he held in such high esteem. But this criticism also had a positive impact, and led him toward greater creative efforts, and toward better results.
Henceforth we see him in another light. In the series of stories that he wished to publish in a special volume, titled 'Mitnagdim' [**], we sense a greater self assurance and a more mature power of expression. Here his soul as a writer found some comfort, and he was able to appropriate for himself an honorable and original place in our literature.
Chasidism and the chasidim were fortunate in having writers who depicted them either in their poems and prose, or in a serious, or amusing, story. There were many important figures who honored the chasidim with songs and praises, and there were others who poured their anger and their mockery on them. They were a worthy target for all.
This was not true for the mitnagdim, the brothers and opponents of the chasidim. The mitnagdim remained in the shadows. They were neither studied nor investigated. They were usually described as being of secondary importance, as dull, as obscure, as adversaries, whose purpose was to serve as a foil for the chasidim. They were incidental types, fleeting images, who do not live and exist in the story in their own right.
Then Fernhof came along and wrote a whole book by the name 'Mitnagdim.' Only two or three stories from this book were published in his lifetime. Most of them were found among his papers and are being published here for the first time. And here is what constitutes the book's innovation. In this book the mitnagdim and their movement are the focus of the stories. Here the chasidim serve only as background props. And this is not surprising.
In Buczacz, where the fundamental impressions of Fernhof's life were carved out, chasidism did not strike deep roots. In Buczacz he observed the mitnagdim on the street, in the study hall, during their conversations, during their Talmud study, during their quarrels, and during their peace making.
He grasped their world vision and understood their spirit and temperament. By delving into their soul, and analyzing their speech, he revealed a wonderful secret: Nothing separates the mitnagdim and the chasidim except their belief in the 'tzadik' [righteous leader, or rabbi, head of the chasidim translator].
In essence, they resemble each other in their nature, and in the depths of their souls. The mitnagdim are opposed to the chasidim with a passion that is chasidic. They negate the teachings of the chasidic rebbe with the same fanaticism with which the chasidim absorb these teachings. Moreover, they are ready to punish the members of the 'cult', in the same manner that the 'cult' members are ready to punish their opponents.
In his description of these opposing images Fernhof rises many a time to the level of an artist, who sees into the hearts of his heroes and paints them with a skillful brush. For this purpose he has at his disposal various talents and abilities: A sharp vision, a fine style, mockery, humor, caricature, restraint and involvement in the lives of his heroes. These, and similar, means make the description simple, straightforward and exciting.
We feel that the mitnagdim also need 'tikkun' ['spiritual improvement' translator], and Fernhof provided them with it. These characters are carved from the reality that existed in his day, and are not figments of his imagination. In the margins of the manuscript are listed names of people, residents of Buczacz, who served as prototypes for the characters in the stories.
It is evident that he did not invent 'acting figures' from his imagination, but took them from his own surroundings. First he studied the people whom he encountered, followed their movements and learned their traits, and only after he learned to know them very well, did he begin to shape and create them in the framework of his stories.
However, for all their realism, Fernhof was able to pour into these characters his own spirit, and to create them according to his own vision. Rabbi Moshe Baruch Hindes, the pedantic Rabbi Shlomo Zeev, Kalman Berish, and many others, are interesting types, whom Fernhof captured in both a realistic manner and through allusive references.
For him the subject of the mitnagdim became a type of citadel, the central focus of his creative ambition. After a period of struggling with writing, creating and publishing, it was as if he finally had found his literary path.
He wrote these stories with a passionate soul, for he saw his destiny in them. This was not another capricious undertaking, or a light diversion, but a mission.
In one of the drafts there is a short preface to this book. The preface is signed: 'Fernhof, Stanislav, winter of 5671' [1911 translator] and here is what it says: 'Many have written, even in the last years, about the chasidim and the tsadikim, and have forgotten the typical mitnagdim who are fast becoming extinct. In the future our writers will be held accountable for the neglect and abandon of these figures.
The author of this book on the mitnagdim was raised at the feet of the mitnagdim and knows their nature, character, inner world, obstinacy, persistence in defending their existence and their disdain and scorn toward the tsadikim and chasidim and that which he knows, he will attempt to convey.'
Here we see that it is not by chance that he wrote the stories about the mitnagdim, for he felt a need, and the ability, to write about those, whom Hebrew literature had disenfranchised and left to their solitude. He wished to remove the slander which had been attached to the mitnagdim, the allegation that they were dry, and limited to the study of Talmud and the performance of mitzvot.
In Fernhof's stories the mitnagdim are revealed as persons of understanding, who have a lyric vitality about them. Their exterior may be dry, but their inner self is the opposite. Try to deepen your contact with them, he wrote, and at once you will encounter vital Jews, with a rich spiritual life, marked by contradictions and an abundance of energy.
The mitnagdim are, as he noted in the margins of his draft, chasidim who do not believe in 'tsadikim.' Only this one point divides them.
Fernhof identified with them. His spirit clung to theirs, and it shaped their images from the inside, with a measure of loving kindness and grandeur.
Fernhof was not the founding father, but he was one of the builders (of the new) Hebrew literature. In several periods of our literary creativity, and in several chapters of its history his contributions are firmly established, as an editor, an intermediary, or narrator.
He left his imprint on the process of renewal of literary Hebrew creativity in Galicia and elsewhere. He included in his journals Hebrew writers from other countries. Among them were those from Galicia, who became later the support columns of Hebrew literature - Agnon, Barash, Rabbi Binyamin, Lifshitz and others.
Even if they belong to a higher sphere, and to another generation, they had, in their early years, basically absorbed the literary atmosphere created by Fernhof, Gershon Bader, Graber and others like them.
They took leave of him and moved on to greater depth and greater height, but they read Fernhof's work, collaborated with him, and absorbed the good that he transmitted to them as an intermediary and writer.
Israel Cohen
* | S. Y. Agnon recalled for me a witty, and fitting, expression that he heard from Fernhof, in which there is a word play on opposites. When guests came to visit him, and he was in the midst of a private lesson, he would say to them [in Yiddish translator]: Wait a minute, I just have to give a (one hour) lesson Return |
** | This book was published in 5712 (1952) by the Writers Association at 'Dvir.' Return |
Father was in the habit of speaking to us as he would to equals. He would share with us his impressions of things, his ambitions in life, and that which his eyes observed. He shared with us the beauty of nature, taught us how to enjoy life in its fullness, and how to endure life's difficult moments.
I shall never forget the hikes, during our summer vacations, on which father took us through the pine forests of the Carpathian mountains. He taught us how to climb the mountain cliffs, encouraged us to reach the peaks, and to observe the beautiful landscapes which unfolded before us. Father used to enthrall us with his poetic language, and therefore, it is no wonder that we, the children, were in the habit of expressing our feelings in a poetic, childish language before we even learned to write. Father enjoyed very much recording our rhymes on paper. He saved them, and even showed them to us when we grew up.
Only my big brother (Moomi) was to continue writing, while the rest of us were to become submerged in the practical world. Father was the embodiment of goodness; he never punished any one of us. However, the very fact that he was angry with us, or that his mind was not at ease, was in itself a great punishment for us.
With the help of my elderly mother, who survived the Nazi slaughter and lives with me, and with the help of a few of my father's friends, who are still living, among them Gershon Bader, Dr. Shimon Bernshtein, and Dr. Louie Launer, I am attempting to write a biographical sketch, that would be combined with my own memories of my father.
My father's birth date is the subject of controversy. According to the marriage certificate he was born in l866. However, in his death certificate the date given is l867, while according to the file card of the New York Public Library, which lists all of my father's books in its holdings, his birth date is l866. This date seems acceptable to my mother, who wishes with all her heart to be regarded as a little younger than my father, at least on paper.
He was the son of Israel Fernhof, and Chaya, whose maiden name was Fliegler. They lived in Buczacz, Galicia.
Father lost his mother when he was seven years old. She was soon replaced by a stepmother. However, luckily, he was taken to the home of his uncle Fliegler, who actively supervised his studies. There he acquired a thorough mastery of the six books of the Mishnah, and its commentaries. He excelled in these studies, and also acquired a very good knowledge of the Hebrew language. Secretly he used to read anything he could lay his hands on, in Hebrew and in Yiddish. He studied German literature in the same clandestine manner. Before long he became an expert in the classic literature of Goethe, Schiller and Heine. His knowledge of written and spoken German was very good, even though he had to conceal this from his teachers and educators, lest he be caught in the act of pursuing these forbidden studies.
Even in the later years he was a controversial figure in the community, since he dared to publish in his "Sifrei Sha'ashu'im" (Books of Delights) a chassidic sketch by Micha Yosef Berdichevsky, who was still a young man at that time. Soon the young intellectuals of Galicia gathered around this brilliant autodidact. He became the head of a literary circle and began to write. His articles and poems were printed in the Hebrew periodicals which were appearing in Europe at the time. With these writings he became one of the founders of the new Hebrew literature in Galicia.
I should like to bring here a short biographical sketch, which had been printed on a postcard, with my father's photograph. This postcard, along with postcards of other well-known Hebrew writers of the day, was distributed by the publishing house of Abraham Robinson in Stanislav. The text of the postcard reads as follows:
"Yitzhak Fernhof was born in Buczacz (Galicia) in the year l865. A man of diverse talents. In his childhood he recited many poems, and in the end he began to write stories, and sketches, which are characterized by their sharp observations and gentle humor. He was the first to lay the foundation of Hebrew literature in Galicia.
He skillfully edited the "Sifrei Sha'ashu'im", which helped greatly to spread the Hebrew language in Galicia, and to attract to it the young men whose learning had centered around the 'klois' (small synagogue and house of study). He was also the editor of "Ha-Yarden" (The Jordan), and "Ha-Tsair" (The Young Person). Several years ago his stories and sketches appeared in a collection called "Me-Aggadot Ha-Chaim" (From the Legends of Life). At present his book, "Ha-Mitnagdim" (The Opponents of Chassidim), has been submitted for publication. It is unique in its new approach, and is highly regarded by those who have read the manuscript.
As far as I can recall the original version of the book, "Ha-Mitnagdim," was submitted to "Ha-Olam" (The World), which was edited by Mr. Moshe Kleinman (may he rest in peace) in Moscow. However, during World War I this book, already in print, was lost during the chaos that reigned in Russia in those days, and its traces were never found. Fortunately, a damaged and imperfect copy of the original manuscript was found by my brother in the wreckage of our old home in Stanislav, and it was sent to me before the Nazi invasion, which reduced this city to rubble. Thirty five years later I see it as a debt of honor to assist with its publication in the state of Israel.
I also know that this would have been the fondest of father's dreams, who was one of the earliest pioneers of Zionism, a contemporary of Theodor Herzl. No matter where my father lived he was the head of the Zionists and Hebraists, and he filled our hearts, the hearts of children, with a love of Zion. Were it not for the wars we would have made aliyah to Israel as chalutzim, or pioneers.
His work in literature did not provide sufficient income to support my father and his family. There was the constant pressure of worrying about earning a livelihood for the family. My father thus became a flour merchant, and managed his father-in-law's flour mill, and the enterprises connected with his warehouse. However, in the meantime he acquired a reputation as someone proficient in Hebrew and German, and as an expert in the literature of the humanities. That is when the foundation established by Baron Hirsch invited him to join the teaching faculty of its schools, first in Zlochov, and ultimately in Stanislav.
After my second brother, Shmuel, was born, in l894, and after I was born, in l897, my father's financial situation became difficult, and he was forced to give private lessons, in order to support us, and in order to provide the best education for us. It was an education that he himself had never been given; he was obliged to acquire it through his own efforts, and under enormously difficult conditions subjected to terror and fear lest his teachers catch him, for they regarded any time spent on secular studies as heresy.
How I admired my father when I'd see him tired from his teaching day at the school, and yet still playing with us and telling us wonderful legends, which he himself had created for us. Or he would read to us his own poems and sketches.
I also remember that father invited to our home people such as Sholom Aleichem, Reuven Brainin and others, who would be visiting our town as public lecturers. He would describe to us the greatness of those people, and it would leave a strong impression on us. Incidentally, he always used to serve as chairman at these public lectures. He would introduce them to the public in a beautiful and polished Hebrew, which was envied by many. Our home was always a meeting place for the leading figures among the Hebraists, for my father's pupils, and for his followers.
It was a great event in my father's life when he purchased his own home in the beautiful section of Stanislav, on Lipova Street 88, close to the magnificent gardens of the Elizabeth promenade. In this house he set up his library, of which he was so proud, and for which he was envied by all the book collectors.
All this was destroyed and demolished by the invasion of Petlyura's bands during the upheavals that followed World War I.
When that war broke out we, like many others, left our home in Stanislav, with our little sister, Klara, who was only a few years old. She was father's joy, and he saw in her the personification of beauty and charm. We fled from our town in a wagon, and on foot, through the Carpathian mountains to Hungary, and we were subjected to all the trials of the war. We wandered from town to town, and after many hardships arrived in Vienna.
Worries about making a living drained father's strength. He gave private lessons, worked for the Joint as a researcher, and did not shirk from any work, as long as he could feed his family. During that long war all his sons were drafted into the Austrian army and even he himself wore a uniform, despite the fact that he was already over 50 years old.
After the war he was again unemployed. He was promised the position of librarian at Vienna's Jewish community library. However, as on many previous occasions, he was now also obliged to face one disappointment after another. The Baron Hirsch foundation, which paid a low salary, warned father that they would cut off that salary if he did not agree to return to Stanislav to begin teaching at the school. It would be under the conditions of chaos and destruction which prevailed after the war. Since he always worried first about his family's welfare, he left his wife and his children to enjoy the comforts of life in Vienna, while he himself returned to the region of ruins that was now Stanislav.
All the communication lines to that city were broken, and only by chance did we learn about his death, six months after he had passed away. His death occurred on February 23. He died from a typhoid infection, in an isolated cubicle of the Stanislav hospital, far from his family, in his effort to spare us his painful suffering and loneliness. On his dying lips he uttered the name of his beloved daughter. At his grave site all his students and friends were present, but not one member of his family was there. Before me lies a copy of the Juedische Volkszeitung, of February 28, l9l9 which contains an obituary for my father. I bring it here just as it appeared: "The new Hebrew literature, and Yiddish literature in general, have suffered an irretrievable loss. Yitzhak Fernhof is no more!
He was about 51 at his death. He was buried with his people, far from his family, a martyr of the great art of teaching, a martyr of his passionate love for his family, and his people. He labored some thirty years without a break, as a pedagogue and Hebrew-Yiddish writer. As a teacher at the local school, established by Baron Hirsch, he was one of its first founders and leaders, and he was the guiding light of the local society, "Safah Berurah" (Pure Language).
From l896 to l898 he published the periodical "Sefer Sha'ashuim." Among the first participants in this literary undertaking were such great writers as Shaul Tchernikhovsky, Mikhah Yosef Berdichevsky and Reuven Brainin. In l906 he published here, in Stanislav, the Hebrew periodical "Ha 'Yarden". One also has to mention his book, "Me'aggadot Ha'chaim." His last big book contains stories, some of which had already been printed, about the lives of the mitnagdim. He composed several excellent textbooks for the teaching of Hebrew. He also contributed to various Hebrew periodicals.
Being that he did not have the means to bring his family from Vienna to Stanislav, after four years of wanderings, he ended up here living a lonely, isolated life from the end of August of the previous year.
Loved and honored by all the different classes of the Jewish public in Stanislav, he stood firmly by his duties until his last breath.
In the hearts of the young, who were undergoing a renaissance, and who felt gratitude toward him, he built for himself an eternal monument. May he rest in peace!"
Beneath this obituary appeared a poem, by the editor, Herbert Sfondson, which expressed the love of all my father's students and friends, in German. The Hebrew translation is given below:
on the death of the teacher and unforgettable friend
Yitzhak Fernhof
On the day he was lowered into his grave
A clear and pleasant day in early spring,
the light of sunshine softened the earth
but a striking thunderbolt from the great heavens
stunned the hearts of all your students.
We rushed in shock to the graveyard
to the source of our friendship, the creator.
We followed you to the cemetery in tears
To a grave site narrow and dark.
The man who awoke our spirit is gone
His words stirred our hearts.
In the black dust, oh our teacher, you shall rest
You were the crowning glory of our soul
May your sleep be sweet! As in the past, so at present
We shall honor everything you have commanded us,
In the heart of the youth, whom you have taught,
An eternal monument you have built for yourself.
About 20 days before his death, on January 3, l9l9, the same paper printed the following announcement:
"On Saturday, December 28, l9l8, there was held at the local "Pure Language" society, a public examination of the 50 students in the first course that had been capably directed by the renowned Hebrew writer Yitzhak Fernhof. From the midst of the parents group, which was on this occasion moved to the point of tears, one father presented Mr. Fernhof with a silver cup, made by a craftsman, as a token of appreciation and thanks."
My brother, Dr. Moshe Fernhof, a writer and poet and known especially to the Yiddish writers of his time, has written a moving poem, in which he asks father's forgiveness. "Forgive us, father" that we were not able to stand by your bedside during your last days. The poem was published in a German newspaper in Vienna.
In his last letter to my sister, who was still a little girl and was making her first efforts at letter writing, father begged her to write him long letters. "What a beautiful thing it is when a father and his daughter understand each other well, and they discuss everything by means of letters, at a time when a person to person conversation, to my regret, is not possible."
Most of the things that father wrote in his youth were signed with the name Itzi, until professor Yosef Klausner convinced him to change his name to Yitzhak.
In the spring of l938 I visited my father's grave at the old Jewish cemetery in Stanislav. It was an attractive stone structure, designed and built by a mason. This was a short time before Hitler's invasion, and my heart told me that this was the last time that I was going to have the privilege of visiting that site. Now, after the horrendous tragedy that fell upon the Jewish communities of Europe, when all the sacred sites of Judaism were destroyed, there is no more hope of seeing that grave.
This book, which contains the best of my father's writings, will serve as a monument to his memory. His words they are his memorial.
William Fernhof
Woodridge, New York, l949.
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