In this poem bursting with nature imagery, Sandra Beasley channels the perspective of an old piano that is woken back to life by a master like Erik Satie.
Inspiration and claiming your passion
In this poem for her mother, Diane Wakoski expresses gratitude for her childhood piano lessons that provided a respite from the ugliness of life.
Learn how to use power poses, posture, and other bodily strategies to take on the challenges of piano practice, through applying principles from Amy Cuddy.
In this piece of short creative nonfiction, the author’s out-of-tune piano brings up everything from the elephants’ ivory to her current family dynamics.
This insider’s guide offers 10 holiday gift ideas, from silly to practical to beautiful, for the adult piano student or classical music nerd in your life.
The sooner you admit to being a full-on piano nerd, the sooner you can start to appreciate the unexpected benefits it brings to the rest of your life.
After reclaiming her passion for playing piano, this writer’s fear of submitting essays for publication diminished and her writing career began to blossom.
A film director and amateur pianist describes the making of American Grand, a documentary depicting the drama of taking apart and rebuilding a grand piano.
In this literary short story by Christi Craig, a piano tuner reluctantly turns up at the house of a flighty woman who has no appreciation for her Wurlitzer.
This amateur pianist received a valuable life lesson from her concert pianist grandfather, but his words didn’t sink in until many years after his death.
Mary Jo Balistreri, who has a hearing loss, writes of the piano as an honest friend and lifelong teacher in this uplifting poem dedicated to Nancy Williams.
Studies show that music lessons are good for your brain as a child or an adult. An adult student wants to see if studying the flute will improve her memory.
An adult piano student has detected an unintended consequence of her passion for piano: becoming a piano nerd. Here’s a list of the top 10 warning signs.
After her workshop, Claiming Your Passion . . . Despite a Hearing Loss, Nancy M. Williams reflects on reasons to jump into your passion or ease in slowly.
An impromptu sing-along to Joni Mitchell helps this classical piano student find voice, emotion and fluidity when practicing the Chopin Nocturne in E Minor.
During a performance of the Chopin Prelude in E Minor, the feeling of fear brought poet Mary Jo Balistreri’s memory back to a childhood drowning incident.
After playing piano for a century, Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer looks back on her life in the Oscar-winning short documentary The Lady in Number 6.
Practicing the Debussy Clair de Lune just doesn’t fit one day, so although this piano student only has an hour to play, she sight-reads a new piece instead.
After an adult music student agrees to play a flute and piano duet with a friend, insecurities bubble up, especially when she learns of the expected tempo.
Abstract painter and amateur pianist Leya Evelyn keeps representational images out of her art in order to explore deeper qualities of the human experience.
Watercolor artist Annika Connor, whose work has enhanced essays and poems on this site, explains why she considers herself a Contemporary Romantic painter.
This video of an adult piano lesson and interview with Cosmo Buono provides tips on finding your own musical interpretation and remembering to be grateful.
In her poem Fantasy Impromptu, Mary Jo Balistreri writes of playing Chopin on the piano as temporary relief from the pain of loneliness, envy, and longing.
Flute lessons bring out the inner child in this adult music student, who’s jealous of the attention her teacher gives a blonde, seven-year-old star pupil.


The rumbling shook the sleeping boy’s father from his fading half-sleep on the berth of their single-masted sailing boat. Bolting up and looking out the window, his eyes widened as he saw the still waters of the Alaskan inlet churn and rise into a monstrous, debris-strewn wave, easily fifty feet in height and heading straight toward their tiny craft. The father tossed a life preserver at the groggy boy and said, “Son, start praying.”
After the 1918 armistice ended the fighting of World War I, the Australian government instituted a program to buy and provide farming land for its returning soldiers, in order to reintroduce them back into civilian life. In Western Australia, the government established 48 farming estates totaling almost 90,000 hectares, a little over 200,000 acres, in an area northeast of Perth, in the southwestern corner of the nation. Years later, the Great Depression of 1929 hit the area particularly hard, and when the land was invaded by a relentless and destructive pest, the Minister of Defense in Perth dispatched a machine gun crew, with less than stellar results.
By 1812, Jakob Walter, although only 24 years of age, had already served in two campaigns as a foot soldier for the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Jakob and many other conscripts in the Grande Armée were ordered to undertake the famously ill-fated march on Moscow, after which the devastated remnants of Napoleon's fighting force were left to return to their homes on their own power. Jakob's meticulous diary tells a tale of survival and perseverance during this nightmarish march against staggering odds.
By the early 1860s, the British and Russian Empires simultaneously attempted to spread their influence into Tibet, a region which was at the time still tenuously under the control of the fading Qing Empire in China. Tibetan leadership, in an attempt to forestall culture erosion and retain its connections with the Chinese, closed its borders to Europeans of all sorts on penalty of death. Captain Thomas G. Montgomerie of the Royal Engineers, tasked with the exploration and mapping of Tibet, developed a plan to use trained natives to surreptitiously take the measurements for which British agents, regardless of their talent or preparation, would be much more vulnerable to discovery. After being asked for recommendations of loyal and talented locals who could be taught techniques in infiltration and surveying, British Education Officer Edmund Smyth suggested to Montgomerie a 33-year-old local schoolteacher named Nain Singh.
Aware that they were essentially invading and poaching on enemy land, Corps of Discovery veterans John Colter and John Potts remained hidden during the day in order to escape detection, setting their traps at night and gathering up their proceeds as the following dawn broke. One morning, as the two men canoes up the Jefferson River, they heard a commotion above the elevated riverbank to the east. Colter claimed that the noise was caused by Indians, but Potts insisted it was just buffalo, so they persisted up the river, whereupon they came face-to-face with a party of approximately 800 Blackfoot.
On Saturday, July 25, 1959, USMC Lt. Col. William Rankin and Lt. Herbert Nolan of the US Navy, flying from Weymouth Naval Air Station in Massachusetts to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina, encountered an unusually high cumulonimbus cloud, or ‘thunderhead’. As experienced pilots, Rankin and Nolan both knew the unmistakable dangers of the tall, powerful storm clouds; their classic anvil shape and furious natures are commonly associated with pounding rains, destructive winds, and tornadoes. However, having previously confirmed with meteorologists that there was no frontal activity in the area, the two pilots climbed up to 48,000 feet to fly over the isolated storm.
On the night that John Wilkes Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, the legislation to create the United States Secret Service sat on the President’s desk in the White House. At first, the organization primarily pursued counterfeiters, which at the time accounted for as much as 1/3 of all paper bills in circulation, and over time also combated other federal crimes including murder, robbery, and racketeering. After the assassination of President William McKinley in September of 1901—the third Presidential assassination in less than forty years—the Secret Service also undertook the responsibility of providing personal protection for the Chief Executive, his immediate family, and visiting or foreign dignitaries.
In the years before the transcontinental railroad spanned the nation, the quickest and safest method of travel between the west and east coast occurred by sea, with a short land connection across the Isthmus of Panama. On August 20, 1857, newlyweds Ansel and Addie Easton boarded the SS Sonora in San Francisco, bound for Panama; between his burgeoning furniture business and her family inheritance, Ansel and Addie could afford an expensive whirlwind tour to Panama, New York, and eventually Europe. After the Sonora landed, the couple embarked on a short train ride to the Panamanian city of Colon, and then boarded the SS Central America, whose itinerary included a short stop in Havana before heading to its ultimate destination of New York City.
In order to establish the right to vote for women in the United States in 1920, the suffrage movement required 36 of the 48 states to ratify the proposed amendment that read, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." The campaign carried a sense of urgency, because if suffrage was not solidified before the Presidential elections in November, the movement would likely lose urgency and wither on the vine. After Maryland voted to decline ratification in February, West Virginia and Washington both approved the measure, but after Delaware declined in June, the number of states agreeing to ratification remained at 35. The suffrage campaign knew that the last vote would be the most challenging; eight southern states consistently expressed definite objection to suffrage, and attempts in Connecticut and Vermont, while home to strong pro-suffrage lobbies, were both stymied by anti-suffrage Governors who had stated that they would refuse to call the vote to their floors. The fate of the suffrage campaign therefore hung solely on the vote of one lynchpin state: Tennessee.
On January 3, 1762, Samuel and Esther Ransom of Canaan, Connecticut, had a son, and they named him after Samuel's best friend and neighbor, George Palmer. In 1773, the family—both parents and eight children, including 11-year-old George—emigrated as part of a widespread migration of Connecticut settlers to what is now northeastern Pennsylvania, settling near the town of Wilkes-Barre in Wyoming Valley. In September 15, 1776, 14-year-old George enlisted with his father and brother-in-law into the 2nd Westmoreland (Wyoming) Independent Company to fight in the American Revolution. His first position there was to bury the dead.


The Souls of White Folk
“On the pale, white faces which the great billows whirl upward to my tower I see again and again, often and still more often, a writing of human hatred, a deep and passionate hatred, vast by the very vagueness of its expressions”
— W.E.B. Du Bois, 1918
“The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people will ever know and understand themselves.” — James Weldon Johnson, 1912
This is part 1 of a series on white supremacy and patriarchy. After you read this check out the sequel, Abolition of Whiteness.
In 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois wrote his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk, a sociological analysis of the conditions of black people in the 20th century. He discussed the problematization of blackness and the psychological angst and dissonance that black people experience trying to be both American and Black — a concept he termed double consciousness. Over 100 years later Du Bois’ ideas and theories continue to provide a poignant, relevant framework through which to interpret the black experience in America. Black academics, activists, and artists from Farah Jasmine Griffin to Molefi Kete Asante, to Talib Kweli continue to draw from his work.
But what of the white psyche? Is it too in a state of unrest? How has centuries of seeing one’s self as savior but operating as oppressor shaped white identity? These are questions that are neither a major part of public discourse nor on syllabi under the course description in sociology departments. The award winning author and poet Claudia Rankine said in an interview recently that part of the reason for this is how much white people have been centered throughout American history. She argues, though, that we need to study white identity and draws a distinction between making it subject versus object:
“I think that it’s been centralized in order to continue its dominance, and…


guidelines_0.4.4.tar.gz HTML for offline reading.
wxguide-demo_1.2.3.tar.gz Platform in dependent source. Don't forget to look into the BuildInfo.txt.
wxguide-demo_1.2.3.zip Windows/win32 binaries.
wxguide-demo_1.2.3.tar.bz2 Linux/i386 binaries.
wyoeditor_2.2.6.tar.gz Platform in dependent source. Don't forget to look into the BuildInfo.txt.
wxscintilla_1.62.5.tar.gz Platform in dependent source. wxScintilla is needed for building.
wyoeditor_2.2.6.zip Windows/win32 binaries.
wyoeditor_2.2.6.tar.bz2 Linux/i386 binaries.
Besides the direct links below, any file can be downloaded from sourceforge.net.
You can also get all the sources through CVS (see development).


Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Aileen: Life and Death of Serial killer is a riveting look into the life of Aileen Wuornos, murderer of seven in Florida. Directed by Nick Broomfield, this documentary takes you into the court room and into one on one interviews to have a first person look at Aileen. He tells the story of her life from many angles, sometimes frightened of her and sometimes emphasizing with her. Broomfield is able to reveal Aileen's story without relying on shock factor and still manging to please a culture addicted to violence and death.
Monday, September 8, 2014
The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology is a unique and thought provoking documentary about the many hidden messages and connections to real life we can find in modern cinema. Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian Marxist philosopher and main character of the film, has put together many thoughts and ideas and communicates them flawlessly throughout. Throughout the documentary, Zizek is presented in a way that makes him appear to be in the environment of whatever film he is discussing. He transitions flawlessly from set to set, one minute being in Robert De Niro’s apartment in Taxi Driver, to the record store in A Clockwork Orange, to even holding Rose’s hand, swimming in the icy waters of The Titanic. Zizek always brings his thoughts full circle while also filling the stories with plenty of comical relief, as to never giving the audience an opportunity to be bored.


[生活美語] Origin of Halloween (萬聖節的由來)
Learn some fascinating facts about the history and origin of Halloween!
dates back to… 可追溯到…
ancient Celtic festival 古代凱爾特民族的節日
Samhain 薩溫節; 古代凱爾特民族的死神
mark the end of… 標記…的結束
associated with death 與死亡有關
the boundary between the worlds 世界之間的界限
commemorate the event 紀念活動
druid 德魯伊, 凱爾特民族的神職人員
sacred bonfires 神聖的篝火
tell each other’s fortunes 幫彼此算命
honor the dead 紀念死者
church-sanctioned holiday 教會批准的假日
colonial America 殖民地時期的美國
mesh with… 與…緊密配合, 互相協調
begin to emerge 開始出現
popularize the celebration of Halloween 普及萬聖節的慶祝
a secular holiday 一個世俗的, 非宗教的節日
in theory 理論上
commercial holiday 商業節日
Halloween’s origins date back to (標記…結束) the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (古代凱爾特民族的「薩溫節」的傳統節日). This day marked the end of the harvest (標記收穫季節的結束) and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds (世界之間的界限) of the living and the dead became blurred (變模糊). On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth (死人回到人間). To commemorate the event (紀念活動), Druids (凱爾特民族的神職人員) built huge sacred bonfires and host a huge celebration in which the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes (幫彼此算命).
In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead (紀念死者). The church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday (教會批准的假日): All Souls Day, which people also celebrated with big bonfires and parades (遊行).
In colonial America (殖民地時期的美國), the immigration of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed (互相協調), so a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. In the second half of the nineteenth century, America ‘s new immigrants helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween (普及萬聖節的慶祝). Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular (世俗的), but community-centered (以社區為中心) holiday, with parades and town-wide parties.
Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism (故意破壞公物的行為) began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. The centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating (不給糖就搗亂) was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory (理論上), families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second-largest commercial holiday (商業節日).
Full article: http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
Image source: http://halloweenroad.com/halloween-origin-history/


|This tutorial is for users that would like to learn how to improve the digital accuracy of the Shabad OS database. This tutorial will show how to proofread and publicly log differences between different sources and the Shabad OS database.|
The Shabad OS database contains bani (hymns) from the Sikh Gurus and various writers of the time and place. Upon this there are translations, expositions, and descriptions from various authors whose work is potentially copyrighted.
|Our proofreading effort is to accurately capture these works as they were written without modification.|
It is difficult to choose one "correct version" with multiple saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji having slight differences from one another. As such we are currently logging these differences and setting a "basic truth" upon which future discussions can take place.
The Shabad OS database viewer helps submit differences between bani that is digitally stored and physically printed or electronically published.
Proofreaders cannot change the Shabad OS database.
Proofreaders cannot modify bani — whether accidentally or maliciously. Proofreaders cannot spoof sources — images and publishing details of sources are required. Proofreaders cannot act alone — our process requires a second, trusted party to verify and enact changes.
Anyone can note deviations between two passages, safely and easily, helping improve the accuracy of Shabad OS.
To proofread, you need two things:
|Any verifiable source can be used if given proper attribution of it’s publishing. (i.e. edition, author, publisher, website origin, etc).|
We are calling, for example, the PDF document consisting of physical page images showing what was actually published in print a "proof". For this example tutorial we will use Kabit Sawaiye Bhai Gurdas Ji Steek 3.
The database viewer shows what is digitally saved and is shown on projectors or mobile phones with Shabad OS. Conversion mistakes caused by human error or computer OCR (optical character recognition) are some of the reasons we must do proofreading. The goal is to make sure the digital version is accurate.
Click on "Kabit Savaiye Bhai Gurdaas Jee".
Use the left and right arrows or the "seekbar/trackbar" at the bottom of the page to choose a "page" or, in this case, a kabit pauri.
Use the <Tab> key to highlight the next line, and <Shift+Tab> to highlight the previous line.
Click a line (or hit enter) to open an issue on GitHub.
As you can see from the last step, we use GitHub to submit any proofreading differences. See an example issue.
In this example there is a link to the database viewer and an image of the physical proof. This lets others see how the bani is digitally displayed in Shabad OS and also see what is physically printed in the published volume.
Furthermore, the image of the physical proof highlights the relevant area to help others quickly spot the difference. And captures the page number and contextual bani to help others fact check the proof with other printed sources.
It may help to dock both the web browser containing the database viewer and the pdf reader containing the proof on both halves of your screen.
The short version is to document any differences and open an issue on GitHub for reference. Here is an example difference spotted between the database (browser) and the proof (PDF reader).
Take a screenshot of the PDF reader containing the printed page number and difference.
|Windows 10 users can open “Snip & Sketch” from the start menu or with the Win+Shift+S hotkey to capture images. See here for more help.|
|macOS users can read this article to get help on capturing images.|
Click the thumbnail of the screenshot which briefly appears in the corner of your screen.
Highlight the difference.
Copy the marked up image.
In the database viewer (Figure 1), click the highlighted line or hit enter.
Click the last empty line in the textbox (after the words Add details & attach image(s) below), so that the blinking text cursor is at the very end.
Paste the marked up image.
Click the green button "Submit new issue".


NAACL 2022 is committed to ensuring that everyone, especially disabled & neurodivergent individuals and those who have changed their name, both within and outside the ACL community, enjoys, benefits from, and is not harmed by conference proceedings. As such, all authors should ensure that their publications are accessible, high-quality, and inclusive.
Below, we outline best practices to ensure publication accessibility, quality, and inclusivity. They apply to all materials you publish, including your main paper, supplementary material, poster, slides, and talks. Some of the text is similar to and borrowed from ICML 2022’s “Making ICML Papers, Talks, and Posters Accessible and Inclusive” guidelines and ACL 2020’s “Accessibility for Camera-Ready Papers” blogpost. The authors of this blog post contributed to ICML 2022’s guidelines. We credit Miro Dudik, Sushant Kafle, Masoud Rouhizadeh, Naomi Saphra, and Matthew Wang for some of the content below.
While we worked to make these guidelines comprehensive, we encourage authors to engage critically with these guidelines and to go beyond what is suggested where possible. We are always looking to improve and add to these guidelines; if you have comments or suggestions, please email us at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Having an accessible publication means that your work can be reviewed by all of our reviewers and enjoyed by the broadest possible audience, including disabled and neurodivergent folks. We would like to highlight the following items:
- Create figures that are high-contrast and high-resolution.
- Use color palettes that are accessible to people with all kinds of color vision (see How to Design for Color Blindness for further details).
- Do not rely solely on color to convey a message. As per How to Design for Color Blindness, “use not only different colors but also a combination of different shapes, positions, line types and coloring patterns.”
- Visuals should be interpretable in grayscale. Many popular visualization libraries provide easy-to-use colorblind-friendly palettes (e.g. seaborn or bokeh for Python, ggplot2 for R). You can use Color Oracle to check how your images will appear to readers with impaired color vision.
- Make sure to consider the actual lighting conditions and environment in which your figures will be consumed.
- You can use Contrast Checker to check for different foreground/background color combinations that may be preferable. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is in the process of releasing an enhanced color contrast standard called APCA; you can use a beta checker here and consult this tweet thread for further details.
- Make sure that all text is readable and accessible.
- Ensure that fonts are sufficiently large, especially in figures. In particular, the font size in figures should be no smaller than the font size of the caption of the figure.
- Where applicable (e.g. in figures), use minimal text (with spaces between lines of text) and equations, large and sans-serif fonts, and bold for emphasis (instead of italics, underline, or capitalization), and avoid special text effects (e.g. shadows).
- Notably, screenreaders can struggle with non-standard unicode text, which can include math symbols generated by tex, emojis, other notational symbols, and non-English text. To ensure that screenreaders are compatible with all the content of your paper, please use the axessibility package, which provides workarounds like glyphtounicode.
- Ensure that the PDF of your publication is accessible and that it works with a screen reader and automatic content translation tools. Follow the steps in the SIG ACCESS guide and WebAIM’s PDF Accessibility Primer. In particular:
- Check that all fonts are embedded in the PDF by following the instructions here.
- Set the title and language for the PDF by following the instructions here.
- Add tags to the PDF. Tags capture the underlying logical structure, reading order, etc. of the PDF. You can follow the instructions here. You may alternatively use the accessibility package or axessibility package with LaTeX directly to prepare tagged documents.
- Add alternative texts to your PDF for all tables, charts, images, diagrams, and equations to convey their visual content in plain, concise language. Follow the instructions here to do this. Alternative texts should highlight the aspects of the visuals that are salient to the publication, rather than merely describing the visuals or repeating their captions. This is critical to ensure that blind and visually-impaired individuals can engage with your figures when using a screen reader. For good examples of how to write alternative text, see Appendix F of 2kenize: Tying Subword Sequences for Chinese Script Conversion and ACM SIGACCESS Describing Figures.
- Set the tab order for the PDF by following the instructions here.
- Mark table headers in the PDF by following the instructions here.
- As a final check, we highly recommend running your PDF through a screenreader. We suggest NVDA on Windows, and Adobe and Chrome both have screenreaders built into their applications.
Author Names and Citations
You show respect to and protect the privacy and safety of the authors whom you cite by ensuring the usage of correct author names. Keep your bibliography up-to-date and cite peer-reviewed versions of papers (not just arXiv versions), when peer-reviewed versions are available. Here are specific steps:
- Many authors (in particular, transgender, non-binary, and/or gender-diverse folks; married and/or divorced individuals; etc.) can change their names during their academic careers. We recommend ensuring that you are using their updated names by checking their website or Semantic Scholar page. Not using their updated names produces ongoing harms, such as a violation of privacy, denial of credit, denial of dignity, ongoing corrective epistemic labor, epistemic exploitation, and exposure to abuse and trauma, and constitutes hate speech.
- Please note that author names in Google Scholar may not be up-to-date.
- Use tools such as Rebiber and manually check your work to spot and fix outdated bibliographic entries and in-text citations.
- For works that include examples from citation networks, academic graphs, etc., manually check that none of the examples contain incorrect names. Publicly-available academic graphs can contain incorrect names for authors.
It is critical that you follow the above steps in all drafts of your publication, not just in the camera-ready version. Any version of your publication that you upload to arXiv or your website, or submit for review, can be indexed or scraped, and if it contains incorrect names, it can yield the aforementioned harms. If you discover or are notified that any of your current or previous publications contain incorrect names, make the appropriate corrections immediately.
Use inclusive, respectful, and appropriate examples, graphics, and language throughout your publication:
- Use examples that are understandable and respectful to a diverse, multicultural audience. However, it is acceptable to include offensive content when it is relevant to the focus of your publication (e.g. to provide examples of toxic data). In this case, we highly recommend including a trigger or content warning at the beginning of your publication; for an example, refer to Harms of Gender Exclusivity and Challenges in Non-Binary Representation in Language Technologies.
- When talking about people and their individual characteristics including age, caste, disability, gender, neurodivergence, racial and ethnic identity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc. consult the APA style guide.
- Avoid inherently sexist language, such as generic “he” and gendered professional titles (e.g. use “firefighter” instead of “fireman”). Also, avoid using combinations such as “he or she,” “she or he,” “he/she,” and “(s)he” as alternatives to the singular “they” because such constructions exclude individuals who do not use these pronouns. See the RECSYS guidelines for additional recommendations.
- If your publication discusses accessibility issues or refers to people with disabilities, please consult the ACM SIGACCESS Accessible Writing Guide for guidelines.
- Consider adding your pronouns (if comfortable) under your name in your camera-ready copy to ensure that you and your co-authors are referred to appropriately when your publication is being discussed. This practice additionally normalizes pronouns, which creates a more welcoming environment for trans, non-binary, and/or gender-diverse folks. For an example, refer to Harms of Gender Exclusivity and Challenges in Non-Binary Representation in Language Technologies. If you are not familiar with pronouns, consult this guide.
- Ensure that your citations are comprehensive, crediting not just relevant papers with well-known authors but also relevant papers written by underrepresented authors.
- The official language for publication at NAACL corresponds to scientific writing in English. Authors that would like to improve their scientific writing skills in English can get writing mentorship from our programs: ACL year-round mentorship (for students), NAACL pre-submission mentorship (for workshops), and ARR mentorship (for reviewers).
Lack of compliance with accessibility, quality, and inclusivity guidelines can be brought up during publication review, and we will check for compliance before proceedings are published. Be sure to budget time to follow these guidelines, particularly if you are not used to going through these steps.
We thank you for your cooperation in creating more accessible, high-quality, and inclusive publications in our field! A future blog post will detail how to make your pre-recorded and live talks more inclusive.
NAACL 2022 D&I Accessibility and Publication Chairs
Arjun Subramonian (they/them), Divyansh Kaushik (he/him), Jiacheng Xu (he/him)


SQL Pocket Guide is a very sensible deskside reference for developers and database administrators. If you are experienced in Structured Query Language (SQL) and can use occasional refreshers on commands and syntax, this is the perfect helper book for you.
Reading the SQL Pocket Guide from front to back is a little bit like reading the phone book, but I did so anyway. I have been using SQL for many years but managed to learn a number of new things from the Guide. SQL Pocket Guide is organized logically, and the SQL statement examples in each command entry are very helpful and clearly laid out.
I liked this guide for its inclusion of the particulars for the most popular database management systems. This makes the SQL Pocket Guide universally helpful without being too generic to be useful for specific needs. If you develop apps against multiple vendors’ databases you will appreciate the specific vendor command implementation details, as the author has done that homework for you.
SQL Pocket Guide is a very handy reference, and having already implemented optimizations to my embedded SQL app code I can highly recommend it.


Existing content solutions do not provide easy access to, or tools to efficiently research and navigate, legal and regulatory content and internal records at any point-in-time.
When researching or accessing historical content users are faced with a number of challenges:
- Access is to individual versions of content only, rather than the complete content set at the selected date
- Broken Links
- links do not work
- links that do work might link to the current version of related material rather than the version that existed at the selected date
- Historic content is not readily available and may be stored on legacy formats that require time and a break in workflow to access
- Changes to content over time are not easy to identify
Propylon's point-in-time technology provides:
In TimeArc, users navigate the complete library of content as it appeared at any selected point-in-time. By selecting any date the user is presented with a complete view of the content set for that date, all related and linked content is also as it appeared at that selected point-in-time. By presenting users with a timeline of their content, they can select any two versions to visually compare the changes between them.
TimeArc's ‘time-ware' links are permanent, active links. When a user clicks on, or copies, a TimeArc permanent URL, they will always be taken to that version of the content as it was at that point-in-time.
When a user selects a date in TimeArc and performs a search on the content, they are assured they are searching the complete library of content as it was for their selected date.


9781427715142 | Guide to Passing the PSI Real Estate Exam, 7th Edition
This variant is currently sold out
*3 month minimum on all rentals
by Lawrence Sager
Textbook, 292 pages, 2015 copyright, 8½ x 11”
This book offers the latest and most comprehensive information available to help students prepare for the PSI Real Estate Exam. Based on the latest content outline, this text simulates the style, difficulty, and content of the PSI exam and offers more questions and answers than any other PSI exam prep book. Includes three practice salesperson exams, two practice broker exams, matching exercises in each chapter, and a self-scoring tool to chart progress.
FEATURES: • Based on the latest PSI content outline • Features essential study tips and test-taking guidance • Includes typical PSI-style questions • Self-score feature included in each chapter to chart learning progress • Appendix of mathematical formulas for easy reference • Over 800 questions and rationales • Three practice salesperson exams and two broker exams • Matching exercises for every chapter, covering key terms and concepts


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This chapter sets out the background to and vision for the programme
This chapter explains how the programme seeks to radically transform the digital justice ecosystem in Europe.
Without imagination, there is no liberation, and without theory, there is no radical change. This chapter sets out a vision for how knowledge production will happen in the digital justice ecosystem.
This chapter envisions new infrastructures for organising and solidarity to ensure that communities primarily affected by technological harm set the agenda of digital justice work and can build solidarity practices amongst those with a shared interest in collective liberation.
This chapter envisages the need for structural changes in the way resources are allocated in the ecosystem, new roles to better connect and support movements, and internal decolonising processes in organisations in the field.


Rocks, Minerals and Gems
Beautifully illustrated, with snappy text written by Miranda Smith and me. Nominated for a Gold Award in the 2016 California Reading Associations’ Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Awards. Published by Scholastic USA.
Nature’s most deadly
As the human population grows, how do we live alongside deadly animals? How have we treated them in the past? What are the new ethical issues? I found this a really thought-provoking book to research and write. Published by OUP for the Project X series.
Tour de France
I was surprised no one had written a book for children about this amazing event. Many kids love bikes and races, and this is the biggest bike race of them all. I teamed up with top British cyclist Geraint Thomas to mix in a real rider’s experience with the information. Published by Collins in the Big Cat series.
Rocks and minerals
Rugby World Cup 2015
Branches of the military
These are three books from the Extreme! series, which aims to make science interesting and accessible. Published by A&C Black.


Books have an exceptional ability to take readers to different locations through the views and interactions of the main character. Their experiences will soon feel real as we move on and see what comes next. Here are 10 books every teen girl should read:
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
After growing up listening to his grandfather’s wild story of the supernatural, Jacob Portman discovers that everything he said was true. Jacob accidentally uncovers the mysterious world of enchanted children trapped in time for a holiday to Wales with his father. Follow a gripping tale, illustrated with the odd and unusual vintage images the photographer has discovered.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Since the tragic loss of her father, Julia tries to hold her family together and to live up to her father’s legacy. Help her as she attempts to find herself and cope with the pressures and demands of growing up in the Mexican-American culture.
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
See a lot of dragons in this lovely novel. Two childhood friends must come to terms with their history and possible future as they fight each other to lead their city ‘s army in this riveting and eye-opening tale.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
You’ve seen a sinsational presentation before, but the book on which it’s based is a must-read one. Like a novel, it tells the story of two teens who aspire to live their lives to the fullest, even though their time is dwindling. It’s beautifully planned and the heart-breaking, memorable romantic story would leave you in tears.
RELATED: Where To Get Meal Prep Delivery in Westfield, NJ
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
A life-changing event causes Annabel to lose all her friends before her senior year, making her a loner in one of the most important years of her life. However, someone new comes to town and gives her the chance to finally share her side of the story.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Junior is an up-and-coming Spokane Indian Reservation cartoonist. He decides to take care of his career, travel out on a reservation from his school to attend nearby an all-white high school. The book is based on real-life experiences of the protagonist as he tries to liberate himself from the world into which he was born.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Today, the teacher asked the students in my writing class to rewrite the book over and over again. Half the class said that a Wallflower is a Facilities. The novel depicts life for young people so poignantly that it’s a must for all teens. Go with Charlie as he attempts to find love, make friends and recover from a traumatic infancy.
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Crank is an eye-opening documentary about how drug use can destroy the lives of a person and the people around him. It’s one of the most realistic examples of violence that leaves you on the edge of your seat, trying to find out what’s next.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
You’ve learned about this book from all of your colleagues, and for good cause. It is a timeless teen film, watching Simon journey through high school life, marriages, and his own greatest secret — that he’s gay. When a friend finds out accidentally and attempts to get him fired, Simon must come to terms with who he is, while striving to win back the man of his dream.
RELATED: 5 Life Quotes To Inspire Teenagers
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares
This coming-of – age series follows from high school to college a community of childhood best friends. Girls share their ups and downs as they move from teenager to adult, catching everything on a pair of pants ideally tailored to each child.
Have an issue with this article? Request immediate removal by contacting firstname.lastname@example.org.
The views, information, or opinions expressed by Teen Blurb contributors are solely those of their own and do not necessarily represent Teen Blurb.


|Object Name||Print, Photographic|
|Collection||Barry and Sandee Lever Papers|
|Description||Color photograph of children sitting on the floor wearing costumes, n.d.|
Schools, Chizuk Amuno Early Childhood Education Center
Chizuk Amuno Early Childhood Education Center
A large stack of unwanted photographs and negatives of various school events were returned to the donor in November 2003. A representative sample of photographs was kept and is now part of MS 129.
Materials pertain to Sandee Lever's involvement as the director of the Chizuk Amuno nursery school, and to Dr. Barry S. Lever's involvement as the chairman of the Chizuk Amuno Day School, 1984-1988. Logo for Goldmsith Early Childhood Education Center at Chizuk Amuno was designed by Amy Feinberg.
|Other number||MS 129|


- This event has passed.
A Free Community Screening of “The Pollinators”
September 4 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pmFREE
A free community film about bees, their work and what people are doing to save them. In collaboration with the Lone Cone Library, the Fresh Food Hub and the CSU Extension. 7:30pm seating and short talk with Yvette Henson at the CSU Extension office. Movie starts at 8pm, ends at 9:30pm. Subtitles in Spanish. Covid19 state guidelines for outdoor events enforced. The CSU Extension will have pollinator resources, along with information on how to order pollinator plants for your yard.
What: An Outdoor movie about bees.


Ludlum passed away in March, His novels have been translated into over twenty languages. Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village.
He and his wife, Victoria, have been residents of the South Fork of Long Island for more than fifteen years. Kyle Mills. Paul Garrison. Jamie Freveletti. Tom Clancy Support and Defend. Mark Greaney. Against All Enemies. Tom Clancy. Foreign Influence. Brad Thor.
Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Enigma
Threat Vector. Locked On. The Last Patriot. Act of War. The Apostle.
- Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Deception.
- Test Equating, Scaling, and Linking: Methods and Practices.
- Modeling for All Scales: An Introduction to System Simulation?
- One-On-One With Andy Grove: How to Manage Your Boss, Yourself, and Your Coworkers.
- Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Deception!
Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect. Full Black. First Commandment. Hidden Order. Days of Rage. Brad Taylor. Dead or Alive.
Enemy of Mine. The Polaris Protocol. Consent to Kill.
Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Enigma by Eric Van Lustbader | Hachette Book Group
Vince Flynn. The Widow's Strike. The Last Man. Memorial Day. Kill Shot. Separation Of Power.
Stone Cold. David Baldacci.
- What All the Worlds A-Seeking:: Or, The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness Power and Happiness!
- Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Dominion.
- City on a Hill: Reclaiming the Biblical Pattern for the Church!
- Hardback Editions!
- Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Bourne Deception (Jason Bourne series #7) | addeadchampposi.tk.
- Vibration of Structures and Machines: Practical Aspects.
Protect and Defend. Code of Conduct. No Fortunate Son.
Transfer of Power. Divine Justice. Executive Power. The Third Option. Ghost Ship. Clive Cussler. Poseidon's Arrow. Eye for an Eye. Ben Coes. Act of Treason. Devil's Gate. The Gemini Contenders. Robert Ludlum. Lee Child. The Janson Directive. Eric Van Lustbader. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal. Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered.
With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.
Genre: Thriller. Please email webmaster fantasticfiction.


The usual suspects showed up to speak in favor of Mike Pelfrey’s petition to withdraw from the Josephine County Community Library District during the December 6 Weekly Business Session of the County Commissioners. The county’s hard-right folks who show up regularly at city or county meetings to protest all things hinting of liberalism or taxes, were there to let the community know this issue wasn’t really about whether or not some obscure state statute allows the Pelfreys to opt out of the Library District. This was part of their on-going effort to keep Josephine County conservative even if it means depriving the community of nice things.
Commission Chair Herman Baertschiger and Commissioner John West listened politely to both sides of the matter but predictively voted to approve the petition even though there were more people at the meeting who opposed it than those who spoke for it. Commissioner Dan DeYoung voted no.
Pelfrey and Baertschiger set the stage the day before by calling in to KMED Radio’s Bill Meyer Show. It was obvious Baertschiger had already made up his mind to vote for the petition. Actually, if you listened to the commissioners during last week’s Legal Counsel meeting, that was already obvious as West and Baertschiger discussed the matter as if they’d discovered the key to getting rid of all the pesky taxes they’ve complained about for years.
During the 6 a.m. hour December 5, Pelfrey said his wife got the idea for the petition after attending Board meetings were the Commission approved people’s petitions to opt into the library district if they hadn’t been included within the original map. Pelfrey said his wife wondered if people could opt in, why can’t they opt out? He said they have a house on the river in Grants Pass where they get no benefit from being automatically included in the district formed in 2017. He said his tax bill for the library runs about $110 a year. The voter-approved property tax supporting the district is 39 cents per thousand. Pelfrey then went on about how horrible the library in Grants Pass was, full of offensive materials displayed right by the front door and homeless people sleeping in the aisles. He did admit he’d only been in the library once when he was running for the library board. He said he thought he ought to go see what it looked like then but hasn’t been back since.
During the 7 a.m. talk show hour Baertschiger went into some detail about ORS 198.870 he says indicates there are 29 kinds of districts people can opt out of. He blamed the statute for creating a situation that could end up gutting the library district, but seemed very pleased with himself when he reminded Meyer he’s already relieved the taxpayers of Josephine County of the 4-cent tax burden approved by voters to support the 4H and Master Gardeners programs. Meyer encouraged Baertschiger to let people opt out of the district, saying if it passes in Josephine County he’ll opt out of the library district in Medford where he lives.
The Library District’s lawyer, Mike Mayerle, said he was there to interpret the state statute the board found that seemed to allow people to opt out of special districts. He said the statute indicates a petition should be denied if it is feasible the property owner would benefit from the district. Mayerle said it is feasible Pelfrey’s property benefits from the district and used Mike Pelfrey’s attempt to get on the library board as an example of a benefit. The feasibility of a benefit is the only question the board should consider, he said. He warned the board about setting a precedent that could be a “real nightmare” in the state.
Speakers supporting the Pelfreys had all sorts of reasons why Commissioners should approve the petition, but feasibility of benefit seemed too confusing for them to follow. Victoria Marshall babbled on about how the system wasn’t a county system but a community system now so anybody can join and how the library wants a new building and they will probably come back and raise the district tax. Judy Ahrens complained about all the porn in the children’s section of the library and said libraries were getting very liberal. Cathy Millard asked why the opt out petition was such a big deal. A guy in a black cowboy hat complained about having to pay the tax when he doesn’t use the library. Another guy in a ball cap said he was offended because the library’s web site had a notice on it from a group giving away clean heroin needles. “That’s just wrong and conservatives of this county are against it.” Indra Nicholas said she would like to opt out of the library district because paying the tax is a burden and she doesn’t use the library anymore. In fact, she’d like to opt out of all the tax districts she finds bothersome, she said. Others complained the library was so full of offensive material they wouldn’t take children there. A high school student who seemed to have had his fill of this kind of thing got up and said libraries are places where free speech is protected and it’s up to parents to see that their children don’t get into materials too advanced for them.
Those speaking against the petition talked about the hard work it took to get the district on the ballot and passed, volunteers spoke of what an asset the library is in the community and a founder of the district said it breaks her heart to see this attempt to drain the library of resources in order to destroy it. Larry West reminded commissioners they have a charter that says the board “shall” support the library. Baertschiger asked what that means. “What does shall mean? Does that mean monetary? Or just that we support the district?” he asked flippantly.
An articulate opponent of the petition, Dennis Webber, finally got a turn at the podium. He said: “My comments today somewhat tangentially related to question of library viability in Josephine county. My concerns revolve around how the handling of this issue reflects the quality of governance in our county. I’m first of all concerned with the ex parte (with respect to one side only) communications between the commissioners and parties involved in the discussion today. It’s widely known that this is not a sudden issue of such critical nature that it needed to be added to the agenda literally in the last hour. This has been long talked about by commissioners and the plaintiff party in this case as part of a political playback move over a lost election bid. For those unfamiliar with Oregon’s ethics law, said ex parte communication is a violation of ethics rules for elected officials. Speaking of the plaintiff party contrary to one of our commissioners understanding of jurisprudence the burden of proof rests with the plaintiff, in this case Mr. Pelfrey and not with the defendant. which is the rightfully and legally voted on and approved Josephine County Community Library District. So while Mr. Pelfrey had prior knowledge of the communication about this hearing, those legally able to speak for the defendant, the Library District, did not receive that same prior notification regarding this hearing. The rules of jurisprudence in our country not only deem presumed innocence until proven guilty they also require adequate representation for any hearing regarding guilt or innocence. It’s a fearful thing for every life in Josephine County if the rule of law is thrown away so that a political crony can receive a $110 a year relief in his taxes. Speaking of which Mr. Baertschiger’s public statements regarding how many staff members and how much staff time has been invested in preparing documents for an agenda item added only yesterday. How many thousands of dollars has all of this staff work cost us so that Mr. Pelfrey can save his $110 dollars? In addition, Mr. Baertschiger provided us clarity to the logic upon which the presumed guilt of the library district which has been predetermined. It cannot be said that Mr. Pelfrey’s property does not benefit from access to library services. And by the way any benefit of service is not to the property but it is realized as a potential benefit to the owner of that property. This means that Mr. Pelfrey has had to make the case…. Baertschiger, growing impatient with the criticism, cut Webber off mid-sentence and closed the public hearing.
After closing the hearing Baertschiger denied he’d hurried up the hearing process and said “we had someone come up to the microphone to do some political gaffing and that’s not helpful at all.” It wasn’t clear if he was referring to Webber or someone else.
Winne Pelfrey, in making her case for opting out of the district, just told the board that the library district didn’t benefit her property. Mike Pelfrey said he’s paying a tax “that does nothing for me” and insisted his property got no benefit from a library district because unlike a fire district where firemen show up if you need them, no one from the library will come to his place and read to him.
Commissioners broke their own hearing rules by talking to speakers at the podium, which Baertschiger later said was OK because they needed “clarity.” There was very little clarity presented by people in favor of the petition, however, including Baertschiger and West. DeYoung said he never did get a good definition of how property benefits from a district and said without clarity concerning the state statute he wasn’t going to vote to allow the Pelfrys to opt out of the Library District.
West conceded “this issue isn’t very popular” but said he had no choice but to follow the state statute, which he clearly didn’t understand. He spent most of his time sputtering and stumbling over the statute’s wording but said he had to vote to let the Pelfreys opt out of the district because the statute made him do it.
Baertschiger, presenting himself as the calm intellectual on the board, bragged about his own personal library which contains rare editions and lectured those present about how times have changed and with the internet and a credit card you can join any library in the world so you don’t really need a local one.
After the hearing the board opened the session to general public comments. Some of the people who spoke in favor of the petition stuck around to complain that the Bible wasn’t being used to swear in people over in the court anymore, that the downtown tree lighting is called “holiday tree lighting now instead of Christmas tree lighting, and how Christ is being taken out of everything nowadays. The Board was asked to check into these things. Judy Ahrens stepped up again, this time with cupcakes, telling Commissioners….the chocolate cake part represents the sins of the world which includes spoiled children, abortion, schools that don’t say the pledge of allegiance, too much government, schools that substitute sex education for the ABCs and people who don’t invite their neighbors over for Thanksgiving. The Cool Whip topping represents redemption though so if you don’t scrape it off you’ll be on the path to Heaven, thanks to the blood of Christ represented by the strawberries on top. She gives these cupcakes to the Board at Fourth of July and at Christmas along with her story. It’s not clear if Board members have actually eaten any after her graphic description.


The Legend of Yim Wing Chun //
July 10, 2019
Written by Richard Block
Most martial arts take great pride in their history and many of them can be traced back several generations and some even hundreds of years. But they all have their own wonderful and mysterious stories that stretch back even further and are always popular tales to eager young student’s ears.
My experience in my art is no different.
There are many exciting stories of challenges won, combats survived and mysterious monks with secret teachings to be shared. Myself and my fellow students often enjoyed the moments when our teacher would take a few minutes in class to tell us one of these tales.
One of the most romantic is the story of Yim Wing Chun, the beautiful woman who our art is named after.
The legend goes - Yim was the daughter of Yim Yee, the owner of a small and very popular tofu shop in Guangxi. But Yim Yee’s past harboured a deadly secret – he was once a member of a secret organisation called the Red Sects who opposed the Ching Dynasty and who were responsible for many uprisings and assassinations.
When Yim Yee’s membership of the organisation was discovered, he fled, taking his young daughter into hiding with him and eventually establishing their new lives in Guangxi.
They both prospered and by day they would work creating wonderful dishes for their customers but by night Yim Yee would teach his daughter his closely guarded martial art.
As their shop become more popular, Yim Yee’s daughter caught the attention of a local bully, who became enamoured with her beauty. After she refused his advances, he swore he would return and force her to marry him.
When the bully returned with several friends, and she once again refused to marry him, he exploded into a rage.
Fearing that he might attack his daughter, Yim Yee gave her a slight nod and in the blink of an eye she advanced on the bully and effortlessly knocked him to the ground.
Red faced and in a state of shock, having seen how easily this small girl had thrown him off his feet, the bully fled with his friends and never bothered her again.
Because of the encounter, Yim Yee’s daughter gained the reputation as a fearless and strong woman, and the locals became a bit more wary of her. She remained un-married for many years, until Yim Yee took into hiding a young revolutionary named Leung Bok-Lao.
While Leung was living with them, Yim Yee noticed that there was a growing regard between Leung and his daughter. Eventually, after watching their love for each other blossom, he agreed to allow them to marry.
After her father’s death, Yim continued to hone and refine her skills and when Leung later learned about his wife’s martial prowess, he asked her to teach him. Yim did this until the day she passed away from a sickness.
Leung promised that her name would always be remembered and he named her art in her loving memory – Wing Chun.
Of course, this is just one of the many variations of this story, but it has always appealed to me for many reasons. One of which is the subtle hint that our art was indeed developed by a woman.
When you study Wing Chun you find that the concepts and principles in the teachings cleverly harness many of the natural attributes that women have.
I often say jokingly to my students, ‘I’ve spent the last twenty years learning to fight like a girl!’
We are told these stories to inspire us to protect and treasure our art. We do this in honour of our ancestors such as the inspirational and legendary Yim Wing Chun.


You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘COIN’ tag.
On the shelf next to my computer desk, I have within my reach two “must-have” overview texts on military-strategic thought: the 3rd edition of Michael Handel’s Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought (Frank Cass, 2001); and an older, pre-1986 version of Peter Paret’s Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Paret’s co-translated version of the “Bible” of strategy — Clausewitz’s On War — is also a key text for the strategist-in-training.
Looking over the latest offerings from Princeton University Press, I note that Peter Paret is at it once again. Paret, professor emeritus of European History at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, turned last year’s Lees Knowles Lectures at Cambridge into a full book: The Cognitive Challenge of War: Prussia 1806. Looking at the Franco-Prussian conflict, Paret provides (from the available excerpt) a very readable outline of how the changing character — vs. nature — of war precipitated new theorizing by Clausewitz and Jomini. Reiterating one of Clausewitz’s main points, Paret relates the following in his opening salvo –
The components of war—mobilization of human resources, discipline, weapons, tactics, strategy, and much else, the issues they raise, and the problems they pose—are timeless. But the forms they take and the social context that does much to shape them are always changing. (page 1, emphasis added)
As we all consider the back-and-forth over General McChrystal’s 66-page Commander’s Initial Assessment (30 August 2009) regarding the need for ISAF to adopt a more explicitly COIN-oriented strategy in Afghanistan, let us keep clearly in mind Clausewitz’s (and Paret’s) cautionary words about the unchanging, timeless components of warfare and the need to adapt to war’s chameleon-like, ever-changing forms.


How Corporate Foundations Could Inspire a Digital Renaissance in Malaysia
By Ainol Shaharina Sahar, Director of Yayasan TM
- Striking a balance between technology and humanities to bring about a digital renaissance for Malaysia
- Exploring the key component in driving a human-centred technology company
If you Google Yayasan TM (YTM), you may be puzzled by our focus on three pillars: education, community & nation building, and culture & heritage. You may wonder why would a technology company be actively engaged in areas that seem far removed from our industry? Aren’t some of these pillars polar opposites to what a typical tech company concentrates on?
To understand YTM’s choices, we need to step back and recall a much earlier form of technology, and how its emergence inspired a long revolution in society: the printing press.
In 1436, Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, modified a screw-type wine press to evenly squeeze down on inked metal types, and thus created a machine known as the printing press. This invention enabled the mass-production of books on diverse topics and saw humanity embarking on the first era of the mass dissemination of information. Viewed in retrospect, we can see that it kicked off the first global news network, comprising religious texts and breaking news, being carried port to port by ships, and recopied by local printers to be distributed across the towns.
This movement went on to jumpstart the Italian Renaissance into high gear by enabling public access, and consumption of the works of Aristotle and Plato, previously only available to the rich and elite.
LEONARDO DA VINCI AND TECHNOLOGY
When Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheym introduced book printing to Italy, young Leonardo da Vinci apprenticed under Andrea del Verrocchio. Over the next 30 years, printing expanded to 150 shops, producing nearly half a million books.
During this time, da Vinci created masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, reworked Vitruvius's drawings into the Vitruvian Man, and filled notebooks with innovative sketches and ideas.
Leonardo da Vinci's brilliance didn't solely arise from the printing press but was fueled by his innate curiosity, artistic eye, innovation, and thirst for knowledge, making him an enduring cultural icon of the Italian Renaissance.
Access to knowledge through the printing press laid the foundation for his remarkable intellect, and his diverse pursuits are now synonymous with his name.
Da Vinci's use of information through the printing press illustrates that the humanities and technology aren't opposing forces but mutually empowering. Technology can enhance our human traits, fostering curiosity, innovation, and culture, while opening doors to knowledge. Moreover, these human traits drive significant technological innovations, transforming our world.
Today, we wield an even mightier tool than the printing press: connectivity, granting instant access to the entirety of human knowledge at our fingertips.
HUMAN-CENTRED TECHNOLOGY AND THE THREE PILLARS
Akin to Pannartz and Sweynheym’s role in Italy, TM today is broadening access to connectivity throughout Malaysia and opening up the world for every Malaysian. At the heart of TM, as a human-centred technology company, is the deep drive to democratise access to the resources available through connectivity; by championing the power of technology to innovate and elevate our society.
Admittedly, the power of technology by itself has certain limits. To inspire and enable the next generation of da Vinci’s, we need the humanities as much as we need to tap the power of technology. It is unlikely that da Vinci would have reached the same innovation level if he perceived no value in the technology that made books accessible to more people. Similarly, he needed the balance of being trained by his mentor Verrocchio in the knowledge and appreciation of art. Indeed, Gutenberg’s printing press could not have brought value to da Vinci’s life if he displayed little interest in knowledge.
Appreciation of the essential balance of education, community building, and the arts - needed to fully enrich human life through technology - is therefore what motivates YTM’s focus on the three pillars.
With education as a key pillar, we actively acknowledge the value we see in investing in young minds and nurturing those with a passion for knowledge.
While TM focuses on broadening connectivity to include the underserved, YTM complements this initiative by providing access to educational opportunities and nurturing the right skills to better unlock the benefits of technology. To date, the foundation has helped more than 16,000 students, 80% of whom are among the B40 segment of the population, which typically has limited access to resources and educational opportunities.
YTM’s second pillar of community and nation building encourages enabling social impact at scale. The power of community has a long history. For instance, da Vinci surmounted his humble beginnings through the tutelage of a noted painter, Andrea del Verrocchio, within the Florentine community. This pillar upskills members within underserved communities through entrepreneurship and digital literacy, and by creating sustainable livelihoods through the use of technology. By empowering community members and creating initiatives aimed at spreading awareness, we have already witnessed the social effects at scale. Knowledge sharing and technology applications have uplifted the livelihoods of extended families and entire villages.
The foundation’s final pillar of culture and heritage is committed to elevating the arts through the use of technology with a special focus on the digital arts, creative multimedia, and animation. We envisage a vigorous and visible arts community in Malaysia, made possible by tech usage. We work to encourage artists who build digital experiences by showcasing their art and developing a strong online presence. One example is YTM’s sponsorship of Traverse: Motions Through Time, a digital guide by Muzium Telekom, which explores art-making through new mediums of telecommunications. The foundation has also invested in museum curation, the preservation of artefacts, in addition to funding local filmmakers, artists and musicians.
Although, we may be living in a dramatically different world to the Italian Renaissance, the human aspects have endured. Human ingenuity in combination with applied technology is illuminating the way ahead. With these two elements, the promise of fresh achievements is encouraging us to move onwards and upwards. As TM strides forward as a human centred technology company, YTM is working hand in hand to ensure that we do not lose sight of what makes humanity great – our thirst for knowledge, our appreciation for arts and beauty, and our ability to empathise and help those around us.
Yayasan TM (YTM) focuses on three pillars:
- community & nation building,
- and culture & heritage
These humanistic pillars may seem at odds with TM’s tech industry background. However, history has given us a strong example of the synergy between technology and the humanities; the Italian Renaissance is a prime example. with the invention of the printing press leading to a huge democratisation of knowledge.
This period of history gave us the hallowed works of Leonardo da Vinci, whose brilliance was fuelled by access to information. The invention of the printing press and the democratisation of knowledge that came with it may have been instrumental to his inventions, but it was Leonardo da Vinci’s uniquely human traits such as a thirst for knowledge, innate creativity and innovation which spurred him to create the inventions and artwork that live on to today.
Now, we have a much more powerful tool; connectivity, which grants instant access to the entire wealth of human knowledge at our fingertips.
Similar to the inventors and distributors of the printing press, we recognize our role in democratizing access to connectivity and the resources that come with it for Malaysians. However, YTM’s role is to complement this access by nurturing the uniquely human traits needed to create greatness. This includes empowering and supporting education, fostering social impact through community building, and elevating culture and heritage through digital arts. Together with TM, Yayasan TM works hand in hand to ensure that in all our efforts to enhance the advancements of technology, we do not lose sight of what makes humanity great – our thirst for knowledge, our appreciation for arts and beauty, and our ability to empathise and help those around us.


“News From Buick” was the official title on this 1981 Buick press kit folder.
Press kits were created specifically for the various media departments in the hopes that journalists would write informative articles about the new 1981 Buick vehicles for the year.
Hopefully these words of wisdom from the newspapers and other sources would garner some praise from the public about these automobiles.
These GM / Buick produced press kits were not really intended for the general public, making them mostly hard to obtain, since they were usually destroyed after the news writers were done with them.
1981 Buick Regal owners who have their own Buick literature collection about the specific vehicles they own may find this 1981 press kit collection a beneficial addition.
(we saw one for sale for round $30)


A six-week chronological study of the life of Christ covering the period from the beginning to Jesus at age twelve. In each session’s stories, the “speculative realism” storytelling style retains the biblical and historical information, yet gives you the kind of captivating experience you’d find in a bestselling novel. Follow the emotional journeys of many eyewitnesses. Walk with them through their struggles. Feel the pain of their worries. And share the joy of their victories.
Why should we commit to a plan that isn’t ours?
Society teaches the need for careful planning, as if we can control the forces that determine our future. Actually, well-laid plans frequently fail because we don’t have sufficient ability, resources, and foresight to guarantee our success.
We fare best when we’re not the ones in control, but we know the One who is. In following God’s plan, one step at a time, we experience the greatest successes.
The speculative realism of the Eyewitness Disciple life-of-Christ stories provides the next best thing to being there. Walk with those God touched, hear his voice, and see his miracles. Experience people’s thoughts and feelings as their lives are changed. And gain confidence in God’s plan for your own life.


“When I was born, the word for what I was did not exist.”
Circe, a retelling of the nymph and goddess of the same name, is a fantasy novel by Madeline Miller. Circe is the daughter of the sun-god Helios and the ocean nymph Perse who is a witch and sorceress.
In Greek mythology, the most familiar story of Circe’s life takes place in Homer’s Odyssey in which Circe uses her magic and herblore to turn wayward sailors on her island home of Aiaia into pigs. She meets and has an affair with Odysseus on her island before he returns to Ithaca following the Trojan War, bearing children by him. Another well-known story in mythology tells of her falling in love with the moral, Glaucus, and turning his love interest, the nymph Scylla, into a sea monster. In mythology, she is generally perceived as a predatory female and sexually promiscuous woman.
The novel Circe provides further background for these two events, telling the stories of the Odyssey from Circe’s own perspective. It follows her from her youngest childhood years in the halls of the Titans to her life on Aiaia; from her identity as a goddess to her identity as a witch and finally to her identity as a woman.
If you love Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series but find yourself wanting something geared towards adults, this retelling could very well be for you! While maintaining the structure of Circe’s story, Miller’s novel turns her identity as a predatory, sexually promiscuous goddess on its head, choosing to focus instead on her humanity: her strengths, her faults, and her growth.
“I looked at her, as vivid in my doorway as the moon in the autumn sky. Her eyes held mine, gray and steady. It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”
I found Circe to begin at a rather slow pace. The story begins in the halls of the Titans with Circe as a child sitting at the feet of her father, Helios, reveling in her godhood while also enduring the jabs of the other gods, goddesses, and nymphs. Circe is described as being less beautiful and less godlike than her siblings, possessing a voice like that of a mortal. My affection for Circe as a character waxed and waned a bit throughout the story. By the end of the story, however, I was rooting wholeheartedly for her. Miller sets up Circe’s character by forming a strong persona for the gods and a strong persona for mortals.
Miller depicts gods the way that many writers have: tumultuous, but ultimately unchanging. They are infuriating, but that’s the point. Each god is presented as stubborn and prideful, constantly wavering between joy and fury depending on whether or not they feel worshiped or slighted. They have their distinctions, of course; but, on the whole, the gods present a consistent personality type.
In contrast, we meet one of Circe’s mortal children by Odysseus, Telegondus, and Odysseus’s mortal wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus. Odysseus describes Penelope as “a fixed star, a true-made bow . . . she is steady.” Telemachus is similarly steady and their presence on Circe’s island in the story provides a needed counterweight to the chaos of the gods. Indeed, it is Telegondus that begins a change in Circe that reaches its completion after time spent with Penelope and Telemachus. What we gain from Circe and her interactions with both immortals and mortals is a sense of balance and perspective. Circe’s story is one of self-discovery and change. Beginning as a child begging at Helios’s feet and ending as a woman standing up to her father in pursuit of her own happiness, we bear witness as a god embraces the positives and negatives of her divinity and chooses to balance them against the positives and negatives of mortality. I had no idea where Circe’s story would lead as she was falling in love with Glaucus, being exiled to Aiaia, and meeting her lover’s family, but when at the end I saw her future unfolding, I wasn’t surprised. There was really no other path for a woman like Circe to tread.
Miller’s prose reads both ancient and modern, as perhaps it should for an ancient story told to us by the woman who would have lived then and could possibly still be alive today to share it with us. Moments of antiquity and moments of modernity weave together rather seamlessly throughout Circe’s narrative. It is familiar and easy to read, yet filled with enough bygone words and expressions to convince us that Circe is telling the story and that she did once walk in ancient lands.
In the end, Circe’s story left me with a curiosity to know what happened next (perhaps inevitable when reading the memoir of an immortal), yet satisfied that her story was going to end well. No longer would Circe quake under the eyes of Zeus and Helios, no longer would she be left turning men into swine, no longer would she carry the burden of her past mistakes. She would, I believe, be free.
“Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.”
While it’s not the most compelling work of fantasy fiction I read in 2021, reading Circe was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The novel grew on me as did Circe herself, providing a unique and needed female perspective on one of history’s most familiar stories.


What is Theosophy
The word Theosophy has been used for many centuries. It is of Greek origin (theo- ‘divine’, and sophia – ‘wisdom’) meaning Divine Wisdom. Please, click here to read more.
Leeds Theosophical Society possesses a comphrensive collection of books, booklets, journals, CDs and audio cassettes of lectures, and videos and DVDs on spiritual topics in its extensive library, which are available for study by its members. Please, click here to read more.
Freedom of the Society
The Theosophical Society passed the following resolution in 1924 and and 1949 respectively in order to express and to preserve the Freedoms that the society stands for. Please, click here to read more.


New Training opportunities!
- Implementing Reading and Writing Project in the Common Core for Veteran Teachers New to the Workshop Model - December 2 & December 9, 8:00 - 2:30, John Baldwin Library. Teachers who attend this workshop will be exposed to the structures, procedures, and philosophy of workshop teaching. They will study environment and architecture of the workshop together, as well as within practicing classrooms. Must be able to attend both session. There are 20 slots for Grades K-2 and 20 slots for Grades 3-8.
- Amanda Hartman Reading and Writing Workshop for K-8 Teachers - December 11 - 13, 8:30 - 3:00, Locations TBD. Details coming 11/15.
- Kate Roberts Workshop Teaching in Middle School - December 16 & 17, 8:30 - 3:00, Locations TBD. Details coming 11/15.
DataDirector 4.0 Videos


The University of Washington puts a makerspace in the dorms
Submitted to Show Off
Over the last several years we have heard more and more about the makerspace movement and in particular its progression into libraries and schools. The University of Washington has taken it one step further by putting a makerspace inside a residence hall so that all students have access to tools and are able to make things. This short video from the university shows how students are using the makerspace and what they are doing with the equipment that the school has provided. After viewing the video I’m sure that most will agree that it looks different from what many of us recall as the residence hall experience of even only a few years ago.
As you will see in the video, the Dremel brand is proud to say that the UW uses Dremel 3D45 3D printers and the Dremel LC40 laser cutter in their makerspace. Dremel is also pleased to be part of something which is directly contributing to the education and careers of these students and the future workforce and economy of this nation.