- Note from Moderator: I recently visited Richard Phillips’s blog, “N.C. Buffalo Soldiers,” and wanted to share it with readers
- Vikki Bynum
- N.C. Buffalo Soldiers: 1st and 2nd North Carolina Union Volunteers
- By Richard Phillips
- Hello, My name is Richard Phillips and this blog is an attempt to understand and learn about the men who served in the 1st and 2nd NC Union Volunteers. These men went against the tide of Confederate Nationalism. Their story has been ignored and forgotten by historians. Its time to set things right.
- My GG Grandfather, Edward Phillips was a soldier in Company F, 1st North Carolina Union Volunteers. Its interesting the different reactions my father and uncle had in regards to Edwards service in the Union Army. My father, Richard R. Phillips Sr. told me he was very proud of Edwards service in the Union Army. My Uncle, Grover C. Phillips said that Edward was a damn traitor.
One of the photos below shows Edward Phillips holding his great grandson, Grover C. Phillips.
Posts Tagged ‘civil war’
Posted in Mississippi, The Free State of Jones, tagged civil war, civil war dissent, ethel knight, free state of jones, guerrillas, john stauffer, jones county MS, ken welch, knight company, mississippi unionists, mixed race, multiracial, newt knight, rachel knight, rudy leverett, sally jenkins, serena knight, state of jones, tom knight, victoria bynum on July 3, 2009 | 20 Comments »
By Victoria E. Bynum, author of The Free State of Jones (University of North Carolina Press, 2001)
The State of Jones, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer (Doubleday, 2009), aims to please, delivering a stirring narrative, lively and passionate prose, and richly-detailed Civil War battle scenes. For many readers, particularly those drawn to Civil War battlefields, this book will make the past come alive. Others, particularly students of the “Free State of Jones,” will find problematical the authors’ stretching of the evidence to support highly exaggerated claims that Newt Knight “fought for racial equality during the war and after,” and “forged bonds of alliance with blacks that were unmatched even by Northern abolitionists” (pp. 3-4).
The history that Jenkins and Stauffer re-tell is well-known to Mississippians and familiar to many southerners and Civil War historians. It is certainly well-known to regular readers of this blog, for whom Newt Knight needs no introduction. As we all know, from October 1863 until war’s end, Newt was the leader—the captain—of the Knight Company, a band of deserters and draft evaders who led an armed insurrection against the Confederacy.
In this version of an old story, readers are treated to vivid depictions of Corinth, Vicksburg, and Kennesaw Mountain, all battles in which the 7th battalion Mississippi Infantry (in which the majority of Knight Company members served) fought. The final two chapters of the book recount the tragic history of Mississippi Reconstruction, an era riddled with violence and marked by the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist campaigns that brought an unrepentant slaveholding class back to power. The authors give special attention to carpetbag governor Adelbert Ames, from whom Newt Knight received several important political appointments, and redeemer governor Robert Lowry, the same Col. Lowry whom Newt battled during the war in the Leaf River swamps.
Stauffer and Jenkins also re-tell one of the most fascinating, if long-known, elements of Newt Knight’s history: his long and intimate relationship with Rachel, the former slave of his grandfather. After the war, Newt lived openly with Rachel and their numerous children, bestowing property and affection on white and multiracial kinfolk alike.
As I began writing this review of State of Jones, I quickly realized it would have to be written in installments, as I could never critique the book in one post. This then is the first installment of what will be an ongoing series of reviews and discussions of the book’s various themes, topics, and arguments. I hope the reviews will become interactive, with readers joining in to discuss what they like or don’t like about the book.
The obvious place to begin is by assessing the startling assertions by Jenkins and Stauffer that Newt Knight rivaled northern abolitionists in his views about slavery and that he forged “alliances” with slaves during the war. Due to a maddening endnote style, however, it is often difficult, sometimes impossible, to determine the source for a particular conclusion. Add to this the authors’ use of “parallel stories” to take fanciful journeys into what “might” have happened, or what Newt “likely” would have thought or done, and you have a narrative that allows readers to easily glide past what is documented history and what is pure conjecture (reminiscent of Ethel Knight’s Echo of the Black Horn, minus the racism).
Take, for example, the authors’ argument that Newt was likely raised a Primitive Baptist whose religious devotion led him to condemn slavery. Such conjecture is based on a single statement by Newt’s son, Tom Knight, who published a biography of his father in 1946. But Tom never stated that his father was raised a Primitive Baptist, only that he joined the Zora Primitive Baptist Church around 1885-86 (p. 14). Newt Knight may well have hated slavery, but the only definitive statement to that effect appears in Anna Knight’s 1952 autobiography, Mississippi Girl.
A problem that runs throughout this book is the authors’ uncritical use of Tom Knight’s biography whenever it suits their purposes. If there’s one thing that past historians of the Free State of Jones have agreed upon (including myself, Rudy Leverett, and Kenneth Welch), it’s that Tom’s words must be used with great care. Quite simply, The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight is shot through with errors. Tom’s determination to present his father as a devout Christian (like Tom himself), a loving father, and a sincere defender of the United States government led him to take great liberties with his father’s life story.
Yet Tom’s biography of Newt is the only source cited for many of the authors’ narratives about the activities of Newt Knight, particularly for the era of Reconstruction, for which archival records (with the exception of Newt’s multiple petitions for compensation as a wartime defender of the Union) provide only tantalizing glimpses of Newt’s political activities after the war.
Heavy reliance on Tom’s uncorroborated stories creates a problem for the authors that they are loath to admit.That is, if you’re going to use one Tom Knight story, why not another? Tom Knight certainly never presented his father as any sort of abolitionist, religious or otherwise. He also shared the common racist views of his generation and was deeply ashamed of Newt’s interracial relationships. As I have argued elsewhere, Tom’s shame may have motivated his claim that his father killed a slave while still a boy, or, even more shockingly, that Newt was responsible during Reconstruction for the disappearance (suggestive of a lynching) of a “young negro man” who was “slipping around the white women’s houses after dark,” (p. 37). For obvious reasons, the authors ignore this story. Their careless use of this deeply-flawed source is a luxury they cannot afford in a book that claims to be “Civil War history at its finest.”
To support their assertion that Newt formed “alliances” with slaves during the war, Stauffer and Jenkins leap far beyond his collaborative relationship with Rachel Knight. The authors provide an imaginative tale of Newt’s likely alliance with slaves while on the run from Corinth without a shred of concrete evidence to back them up. Appearing in the space of five paragraphs, the phrases “a fugitive slave who might well have stopped Newton as he groped his way,” (p. 146); or, “Newton would have come across men like Octave Johnson,” (p. 146); or, “Johnson could have shown Newton how to lure the dogs,” (p. 147); and “Newton would have learned how to hunt in the swamps,” (p. 147) are purely conjectural, drawn from published memoirs such as Rev. John Hill Aughey’s 1888 Tupelo (Aughey was a documented southern abolitionist), and Solomon Northrup’s Twelve Years a Slave, neither of which have any direct connection with Newt Knight. One can only hope that readers will turn occasionally to the vaguely-written endnotes at the back of the book to see that no primary sources are used to support what amounts to a subtle attempt to impose a northern abolitionist persona on Newt Knight.
Coming up in future reviews of State of Jones: Was Newt Knight at Vicksburg? What was the nature of Newt’s relationships with Serena and Rachel? And more–stay tuned!
Posted in North Carolina, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, tagged caroline hulin, civil war, civil war dissent, hiram hulin, Jesse Hulin, John Hulin, long shadow of the civil war, montgomery county NC, moore family, nancy sexton hulin, north carolina piedmont, north carolina quaker belt, north carolina unionists, randolph county north carolina, William Hulin on June 19, 2009 | 30 Comments »
Post by Victoria Bynum; quoted passages by Thoburn Freeman, grandson of Sarah Ann Hulin Moore and great-nephew of Caroline Moore Hulin.
Determining what made fierce Unionists of some southerners is not always easy. Was it class? religion? distance from the cotton belt? In the case of Unionists who lived on the borders of Randolph and Montgomery counties, in the North Carolina Piedmont, the answer is easy: it was all three. Several interrelated families in this region–principally the Hulins, Moores, Beamans, and Hurleys–were nonslaveholding yeoman farmers who lived in the heart of North Carolina’s Quaker Belt and outside the South’s plantation belt. They were also devout members of the antislavery Wesleyan Methodist Church, which grew in numbers throughout the 1850s (for more on this community, click here).
I wrote about these families in my first book, Unruly Women (Chapel Hill, UNC Press, 1992), and I return to their story in the forthcoming Long Shadow of the Civil War. Recently, I got in touch with Linda Beaulieu of the Montgomery Herald in Troy, NC, who graciously put me in touch with Elaine Reynolds, the keeper of the Hulin family papers. It was Elaine who generously provided me with the photos that accompany this post. She also sent me an essay written by Hulin/Moore descendant Thoburn Freeman, which was originally published in Winnie Richter’s Heritage of Montgomery County, NC (1981). I quoted from this essay in Unruly Women, and I am happy to quote from it again here on Renegade South.
The lives of these men and women differed greatly from those of wealthy slaveholders:
During the years before the civil War, the people lived quietly, going about their affairs with pride and purpose. The men were busy clearing land, building fences, homes, schools, and churches. The women were busy carding, spinning and weaving, not to mention cooking on open fire with coals on the hearth, tending children and house cleaning. Everyone worked in the fields. . . . In the fall, they would hold their Camp Meetings, when the families would move out and live in “tents” constructed of logs and later, boards.
“Everyone worked the fields” meant women and children as well as men. Making a living from the soil was a family endeavor that required the hard labor of all. Still, they enjoyed family visits back and forth, which included “quiltings, log-rollings, corn shuckings, spelling bees, and, in some communities, dancing.” Then came the war . . . .
During the war, most social activities, even hunting, were interrupted and came to a halt, except for some of the older men and young boys. All were afraid of the bands of Rebels that roamed the countryside. The church at Lovejoy was Wesleyan at the time, and their ministers preached against slavery. One preacher, Adam Crooks, was arrested in the pulpit. . . . Since most of the people in the area were opposed to slavery and not in sympathy with the Southern Cause, many men chose to hide out and were called “Outlyers” by the Rebels. Among them were 3 sons of Hiram and Nancy Sexton Hulin: Jessie, John, and William.
The men relied on the aid of women to elude capture by Confederate soldiers and vigilantes (Carolina Hulin, pictured above, was the wife of Jessie). One cold January morning, their luck ran out. . . .
Near the end of the war, the three Hulin brothers were arrested and held for several days in an old mill house near Uwharrie. Then without proper trial, in the early morning hours of January 28, 1865, with a light snow on the ground, they were taken to Buck Mountain and shot to death–less than four months before Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered. The bodies were loaded onto a wagon and taken to Lovejoy Church by their father, Hiram Hulin [for more on Hiram, click here]. . . . The only offense the boys were guilty of was: they obeyed their conscience, which is the only personal contact we have with God–
Posted in The Free State of Jones, tagged american civil war, bryant welch, civil war, civil war dissent, free state of jones, guerrillas, henry welch, houston longino welch, james norville welch, james welch, jones county MS, knight company, mississippi unionists, newt knight, ransom jay welch, richard thomas welch, sheri hilbun, Simeon Collins, Southern Unionists, state of jones, welch family, welch genealogy, william m. welch on February 28, 2009 | 20 Comments »
A few days ago, one of my new Myspace friends, Sheri Welch Hilbun, expressed an interest in knowing more about her Welch ancestors. Specifically, she asked me if I knew where Welch Landing is located. Since I don’t, I decided to put the question out to readers of Renegade South.
While we’re on the subject of the Welches, let’s remember that they, like the Collinses to whom they are closely related, were major participants in the Free State of Jones—just look at the Knight Company roster, and you will see four Welch men listed there: T.L. (Timothy); R. J.; H. R. (Harrison); and W.M. (William). I’m thinking that R. J. Welch, who is described on Newt’s 1870 roster as having fled to New Orleans and joined the Union Army in the wake of Lowry’s raid on Jones County, is actually Richard T. Welch, whose military records describe the same actions. Can someone out there help me with that identification?
Meanwhile, Timothy, Harrison and William Welch were all captured by Col. Lowry (as was Simeon Collins and his three sons), and forced back into the Confederate Army. Like Simeon and sons, they too fought at Kennesaw Mountain and ended up in Yankee prison camps.
According to the records and family histories I used to write Free State of Jones, Timothy L. and Harrison R. Welch were brothers, sons of John Ira and Catherine (Bynum) Welch. William M. was their cousin
one generation removed, and the son of Henry and Sarah Welch. and the son of James Richard and Mary Valentine Welch (thanks, Russell!). If my suspicions are correct that R. J. Welch is actually Richard Thomas Welch, that would make him the brother of William M. Welch son of Henry and Sarah Welch.
In 1895, William M. Welch gave a deposition in support of Newt Knight’s petition for compensation from the federal government.
But I digress. Back to the original question: just where is Welch Landing located?
Posted in North Carolina, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, tagged american civil war, civil war, Martha Sheets, north carolina piedmont, north carolina quaker belt, north carolina unionists, randolph county north carolina, renegade women on January 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The full title of this essay, which will appear in my next book, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, is “Occupied At Home: Women Confront Confederate Forces in North Carolina’s Quaker Belt.”
This history of North Carolina’s Randolph County area will certainly remind folks that the Free State of Jones was only one of many hotbeds of Southern Unionism during the Civil War. For several reasons, even fiercer inner civil wars occurred in NC than in Mississippi. For one, NC had fewer large slaveholders and more nonslaveholders than Mississippi; also, many more Confederate forces swept through the NC Piedmont on the hunt for deserters than through the Piney Woods of Mississippi.
Another difference between this inner civil war and that of Jones County, MS, was the presence of a small but devout Wesleyan Methodist community that opposed slavery as well as secession. Perhaps that is why women are particularly visible in the Randolph County area uprising–they shared their menfolk’s religious as well as political views.
If you read my “Renegade Women” post, you might remember Martha Sheets of North Carolina, who was arrested for threatening Sheriff Aaron Sanders with a visit from deserters if he did not provide corn for the starving women of her neighborhood. “You have told lies to get your sons out of this war,” she told the sheriff, “and you don’t care for the rest that is gone, nor for their families. . . . If you don’t bring that grain to my door you will suffer, and that bad” (spelling corrected).
Martha didn’t mince words.
In this essay, you will hear the voices of Martha Sheets and many other Unionist women from North Carolina.
NOTE: In addition to appearing in Long Shadow of the Civil War, this essay appears in the anthology Occupied Women, edited by LeeAnn Whites and Alecia Long, LSU Press, 2009.
Posted in North Carolina, Texas, The Free State of Jones, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, tagged american civil war, Big Thicket of East Texas, Bill Owens, civil war, free state of jones, guerrillas, jones county, mississippi unionists, newt knight, north carolina piedmont, north carolina quaker belt, north carolina unionists, texas unionists, Warren Jacob Collins on January 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This essay from my upcoming Long Shadow of the Civil War profiles the leaders of three guerrilla bands from three regions of the South known for Unionism and resistance to the Confederacy: the Randolph County area of North Carolina, the Jones County area of Mississippi, and the “Big Thicket” region of East Texas. The geographic and family ties that link the bands are fascinating. The parents of Newt Knight, leader of the Mississippi band, migrated west from North Carolina around the period of the American Revolution. The three Collins brothers who initiated the Texas band had North Carolina and Mississippi roots, and were the brothers of the three Collins brothers who served with Newt Knight back in Jones County!
Here are a few snippets from this chapter describing Bill Owen, Newt Knight, and Warren J. Collins, the respective leaders of the three renegade bands:
“Bill Owens . . . appears the most ruthless and least charismatic of the leaders. Owens’s Civil War exploits inspired no romantic tales of heroism.”
“Newt could be ruthless as well as charismatic. The cold-blooded murder of Major Amos McLemore, Jones County’s most powerful Confederate officer, is universally attributed to Newt.”
“Warren Collins . . . appeared more adept at eluding capture than murdering Confederate leaders. . . . An extensive folklore surrounds the life of this so-called “Daniel Boone” of East Texas.”
Posted in North Carolina, The Free State of Jones, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, tagged Alzade courtney, american civil war, civil war, free state of jones, george warren walters, guerrillas, Martha Sheets, mississippi unionists, newt knight, north carolina piedmont, north carolina quaker belt, north carolina unionists, rachel knight, renegade women, sarah collins, Sarah Parker on January 4, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I first discovered Southern Unionists while doing research on women in pre-Civil War North Carolina. Women, I soon realized, were central to the ties of kinship that bound together people who opposed the new Confederate nation. When I dug into the letter files of the state’s governors, I was immediately struck by how many women wrote to them during the Civil War: plaintive letters, desperate letters, angry letters.
As the long and bloody war dragged on, women’s letters became only more angry. Many of their voices appear in my first book, Unruly Women, and many more will play starring roles in my upcoming book, The Long Shadow of the Civil War. Martha Sheets, who lived on the border of Montgomery and Randolph Counties in N.C., is one of my favorite renegade women. In early 1865, Martha threatened Montgomery County Sheriff Aaron Sanders with a visit from deserters if he did not supply her family with corn, “and make that good corn,” she added.
When I expanded my research from the North Carolina Quaker Belt to Mississippi’s Free State of Jones, I was introduced to more extraordinary women–the fact is, renegade women existed in every state of the Confederacy. Many of them simply placed loyalty to family and neighborhood above all else, including the new Confederate government. Enslaved women, such as Rachel Knight of Jones County, assisted deserters and guerrilla bands in hopes of undermining the institution of slavery. Others came from Unionist families that had opposed secession from the beginning. I think of Sarah “Sally” Parker, the sister, aunt, or cousin of many stalwart members of the Knight Company guerrilla band. Sally was Sarah Collins before she married, and the Collinses were among the staunchest Unionist families of the Jones County region. She risked her own life to shelter the Knight Company from Confederate forces, even though her own son, George Warren Walters, fought and died serving the Confederate Army. The expert on Sarah Collins Walters Parker is her great great great grandson, Ed Payne. Watch for his biography of her in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of Mississippi History.
Alzade Courtney is another favorite of mine (see photo, courtesy of Ralph Kirkland). Separated from her husband, Alzade worked her fields alone during the war, and depended on the Knight Company for protection. She in turn opened her home to them. Alzade may be the longest-lived participant in the Free State of Jones. Although in her late nineties by 1934, she provided Tom Knight with a testimonial that year for his famous biography of his father, Newt Knight. You can learn more about Alzade–and the Free State of Jones–on the wonderful website administered by her great-great grandson, Ralph Kirkland: http://www.squidoo.com/freestateofjones
I ‘m sure many of you have Civil War renegade women in your family history. I hope you’ll tell us about them here!
When I decided in 1976 to pursue a degree in U.S. history, studying the American Civil War was the furthest thought from my mind. All that changed, however, during a long bus ride to my parents’ home during Thanksgiving break as I passed the time reading an assigned Civil War text. In a section devoted to white Southerners who opposed the Confederacy, I noticed a curious footnote. Jones County, Mississippi, the authors noted, had allegedly seceded from the Confederacy in the midst of the war after declaring itself the “Free State of Jones.”
A Deep South county that seceded from the Confederacy? What was this, and why had I not heard about it, especially given that my own father was born in Jones County? In this moment, I began dimly to perceive that the practice of history might as easily refute time-worn images of the South as reinforce them.
In the case of Jones County, located in the piney woods of southeastern Mississippi, history had first to be rescued from the realms of legend, myth, and folklore. Thanks to novelists, moviemakers, and a longstanding family feud, the Jones County uprising had remained a living story, but with pro- and anti-Confederate members of the family each presenting their “side.” Those who opposed the Confederacy were alternately presented as a gang of marauding outlaws, or as unionist heroes protecting families from harm. What was the “true” story of this region?
I was not prepared in 1976 to tackle so formidable a task. A junior in college, I had neither academic training nor funding. Still, I never abandoned my goal of researching the history of my father’s place of birth. Sixteen years later, as my first book (Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South) was being published, I began to investigate the “legend” of Jones County’s secession from the Confederacy. What I discovered during eight years of summer research trips, and after endless writing and rewriting, was a story that utterly confounded popular notions about a “Solid (white) South” that had supported the “Lost Cause” of a separate southern nation.
In December, 1860, Jones County voters expressed widespread opposition to southern secession by electing a pro-Union delegate, John Powell, to the Mississippi State Convention of January, 1861. At that convention, delegate Powell caved in to pressure and changed his vote to favor secession, outraging many folks back home. Confederate conscript laws passed the following year dictated that Jones County’s young men join the Army. Most did so, but many did not remain there long. The northern Mississippi battles of Iuka and Corinth, coupled with passage of the so-called “Twenty-Negro Law” in October 1962 (which provided military exemptions for the owners of twenty or more slaves), convinced many to leave the Army for good. Sometimes alone, sometimes in small groups, they straggled home.
Until the Confederacy organized troops to track down deserters, AWOL men merely resumed normal activities at home. But, as Confederate militia became active in the Jones County area, deserters from the region armed themselves and headed for the swamps. By late 1863, they had formally organized themselves, unanimously electing Newton Knight, a nonslaveholding farmer, as their captain, and naming their band the Knight Company. The Knight Company proceeded to wage war on the Confederacy.
By all accounts, “Captain” Newt Knight possessed a forceful, charismatic personality. Tall, eagle-eyed, and remarkably self-possessed, he had extensive family ties in the community and quickly rose to prominence among fellow deserters. Befitting the leader of a guerrilla band, he could be ruthless as well as charismatic. “Kill or be killed” was necessarily the motto of anti-Confederate guerrillas, who faced execution for treason if captured.
The cold-blooded murder of Major Amos McLemore, Jones County’s most powerful Confederate officer, is universally attributed to Newt, although he was never charged in court. By 1864, the Knight Company had crippled the government of Jones County, contributing to news reports of the county’s secession from the Confederacy.
There were many guerrilla bands that roamed the South during the Civil War. They commonly came from solid nonslaveholding majorities and drew on strong kinship ties and assistance from the civilian populations of their communities. Such factors were fundamental to the formation and survival of the Knight Company. Slaveholders were few, with slaves comprising only 12 percent of the county’s population, while the importance of family networks was demonstrated by the fact that twenty-six of fifty-five core members of the band shared six surnames.
Women and slaves were vital participants in Jones County’s inner civil war. In April, 1864, when Confederate Colonel Robert Lowry and his forces raided Jones County in search of deserters, they encountered fierce resistance from civilians as well as dissident soldiers. The Knight band’s female kin, as well as Newt Knight’s slave accomplice, Rachel, not only hid and fed the men, but also sprinkled red pepper and ground glass along the paths frequented by militia hounds who tracked down deserters.
Rachel’s alliance with Newt Knight bound her to him for the rest of her life. After the war, she gave birth to several light-skinned children reputed to have been fathered by him, and farmed ten acres of Newt’s 170 acres of land. By 1880, Rachel owned 126 acres of land adjoining the 320 acres owned by Newt. Together, the couple created a mixed-race community that endures to this day.
Although few would have predicted that Newt Knight’s crossing of the color line would be permanent, by war’s end, he had rejected southern racial mores altogether. Newt was active in Reconstruction politics until public knowledge of his interracial relationships made it impossible for him to win office. He also repeatedly petitioned the U.S. Government for wartime compensation for his Knight Company soldiers until those claims were once and for all rejected in 1900.
Rachel died in 1889 at age 49, but Newt lived to a ripe old age, remaining in his community and achieving legendary status in the process. He never repudiated his wartime behavior and rejected the New South’s glorification of the Confederate “Lost Cause.” Shortly before his death in 1922, an unrepentant Newt told reporter Meigs Frost, of the New Orleans Item, that “I guess we’ll all die guerrillas.”
Posted in The Free State of Jones, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, tagged civil war, dissent, free state of jones, guerrillas, jones county, mississippi unionists, newt knight, rachel knight, state of jones on December 14, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I wrote the book Free State of Jones for professional and personal reasons. As both a historian and an individual, I am on the hunt for ordinary people who commit extraordinary acts. I am especially drawn to those who confront systems of power in unlikely ways alongside unlikely allies. In Civil War Jones County, Mississippi, deep in the so-called “solid” South, some 100 ordinary white farmers banded together to fight against the Confederate Army (a few of my distant kin were among them). Doing so earned them the label of outlaws. But outlaw means different things to different people. To pro-Confederate Mississippians, these were cowardly deserters. The core members of the Knight band, however, viewed themselves as principled Unionists.
In my book, I struggled against writing a “Great Man” history; I did not want to portray Newt Knight as the “Rambo” of Jones County dissent. Rather, I dug deep into historical records from NC, SC, GA, and MS, to uncover the cultural and class roots of those families who contributed the greatest number of participants in the Jones County uprising. I emphasized how earlier historical events–for example, the American Revolution and the opening of the Southwestern frontier–shaped attitudes toward authority and government among these plain folks of the Old South.
The Civil War constituted a crisis of authority for many such Southerners, especially those who lived outside the plantation belt. Newt Knight did not singlehandedly create the Knight band, although he became its charismatic leader. By his own admission, the Civil War transformed his life and his character. Would Newt have developed an open relationship with his grandfather’s former slave, Rachel, one that led to creation of a mixed-race community that thrives today, had the war not erupted? Would he have become a New South Republican after the war? Like all important figures of history, Newt was as much shaped by his times as he in turn shaped them. I hope that you are as fascinated by the history of this renegade county as I am. (On Newt Knight, see also “Did Jones County Secede From the Confederacy?”


by yossi | May 17, 2017 7:07 am
This niggun was composed in memory of the holy Piaseczna Rebbe (Rav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira). He was named after his great grandfather, the Maor Vashemesh (Rav Kalonymus Kalman Epstein) who was the Rebbe of Krakow (and hence a hint to the Krakow niggun).
The Piaseczna Rebbe inspired thousands of people during the darkest times of the holocaust. He brought hope and light to everyone around him and inspired so many to serve Hashem (God) with simcha (happiness).
This music video is meant for educational purposes, namely to tell the story of the Piaseczna Rebbe. All known sources have been referenced.
Source URL: http://www.thejewishinsights.com/wp/derech-achim-piaseczna-niggun/
Copyright ©2020 Jewish Insights


Mapping Past Societies (MAPS), formerly the Digital Atlas for Roman and Medieval Civilizations, makes freely available on the internet the best available materials for a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to mapping and spatial analysis of the Roman and medieval worlds, and beyond. MAPS allows innovative spatial and temporal analyses of all aspects of the civilizations of western Eurasia in the first 1500 years of our era, as well as the generation of original maps illustrating differing aspects of ancient and medieval civilization.
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MAPS also seeks to further the development of scholarship by releasing free historical data in a variety of common formats including shapefile (.shp), and Excel (.xlsx). Scholars around the world are free to download and use MAPS data in their own work. Current offerings include database of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe between 0-1500 and a shapefile version of the Roman Road network based on the Barrington Atlas which can be integrated into existing historical GIS projects.
We hope that as MAPS grows over time, its contribution will be recognized as of a piece with the other signal advances of Harvard University’s Center for Geographic Analysis for the free flow of new scholarly and scientific data around the globe.


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You can install MiniBook by using the PV Application manager (or File Transfer Manager for PV-S1600). You need to install the MiniBook.bin (or MiniBook.pva for PV-S1600) to pocket viewer. For details of how to install PV application to pocket viewer, please read the manual of PV Application Manager/File Transfer Manager. PV Application Manager/File Transfer Manager can be found in the CD that comes with your pocket viewer. After installed MiniBook, you will find the MiniBook icon apears in your pocket viewer menu.
You can download MiniBook Partner free of charge. MiniBook Partner is needed to send e-books to pocket viewer. After you download it, extract the zip file to a folder (e.g C:\MiniBookPartner).
Double click the CReaderPartner???.exe (??? is the localized version you choose) to launch the MiniBook partner.
PartnerCL.exe is the command line edition of MiniBook Partner. You may need it if you want to create scripts to send book to MiniBook.
Resource file is used to translate MniBook menu to your preferred language. English and Chinese resource files are integrated in MiniBook, and will be created automatically the first time you run MiniBook. However, if you want the menu and messages of MiniBook to be displayed in other language, you need to install third-party resource file of that language.
Resource file is named as xx.res. xx is the two-letter lower-case code for the language, as defined in ISO 639. Please refer to Appendix A for the lanugage codes. e.g. German resource file is named as de.res.
You can also create your own xx.res file by translating all the strings at the right side of = in en.res and rename it to your language code. If you want to share your res file with other users, please send me an email
You need MFSTool and MFSClient to install the localized resource files to pocket viewer. Both of the packages are free of charge. Please read the MFS Tool/Client manual for details of how to install and use them.
To install resource file, follow these steps:
Launch MFSClient from Windows. Select COM/USB port that connected to your pocket viewer.
In MFS Client "Local Disk" file list, browse to the folder conatins the resource file (e.g. de.res) in your PC.
Launch MFSTool from your pocket viewer, touch "MFS Server" to start the file server.
Click "Connect" button of MFSClient. (The "Pocket Viewer" file list will be active if the connection is established. If the "Pocket Viewer" file list remains inactive for a long time, click "Close", and click "Connect" to try again.)
Brower to "/MiniBook/Res" folder in the "Pocket Viewer" file list of MFSClient.
Select the resource file (e.g. de.res) from "Local Disk" file list, and click "->" button.
After the transmission complete, click "Shtdwn" button of MFSClient to shutdown file server and disconnect.
Touch "Exit" of MFSTool to exit the MFSTool application.
Perform a "select language" operation in MiniBook
The external font comes with MiniBookParter is Chinese font GB2312X16.fft. You must install Chinese font before you can read Chinese (GB2312) e-book, or use Chinese resource files.
You may also want to install other external fonts. To install external font, just copy it to the "font" folder of MiniBookPartner. They will become availble to the MiniBookPartner. Once you select the external font and send a book to MiniBook, MiniBookPartner will transfer the font file to your pocket viewer, if it not already exists.
Just touch the icon of MiniBook to launch MiniBook in your pocket viewer. The first time you launch MiniBook may take a long time. Because MiniBook has to create file system(if not already exist), MiniBook folder, preference files and resource files.
A MFS icon will be displayed when MiniBook is performing file system operation. It may take a long time the first time you run MiniBook, please wait patiently.
After that several progress screens for resource loading may be displayed. If running MiniBook the first time you will be prompt to select language.
Touch screen to bring up the language list.
English and Chinese are integrated resources in MiniBook. However Chinese language may not be avaiable if you have not installed Chinese font. If you have installed resource files for other languages, these languages will be listed here also.
If every thing is OK, a welcome screen will be displayed. Touch screen or push action key to dismiss it.
You can pop up the menu of MiniBook by touching the "Menu Bar" hard icon or push the action key. For all menus in MiniBook, you can touch "ESC" hard icon to close the menu.
You can use either action key, or touch screen to access the menu.
Scroll up the key will move the highlight up 1 item. If it reaches the top of menu, it will jump to the last item of menu.
Scroll down the key will move the highlight down 1 item. If it reaches the end of menu, it will jump to the first item of menu.
Push action key will select the highlighted item
If the menu has scroll bar, touch scroll bar to scroll menu
Touch the menu item to select it.
To download book,
Connect your pocket viewer to PC.
Pop up MiniBook menu. Select "Book..." to pop up book menu.
Launch MiniBook Partner from PC side. Select serial/USB port that connected to your pocket viewer.
Input the book file name in Partner. You may click "Browse" button to browse to the file.
Input a name for the book. This step is optional, but strongly recommanded. If this step is skipped, the book name will be "Book"
Select the encoding of the file from "code page" combo box. (From MiniBook partner 2.40 on, you can select which font to use for the book. Refer to appendix B for sample)
Click "Send to pocket viewer"
In pocket viewer, touch "Download book..."
A progress bar will be displayed while transfering the book. And the new book will be open upon the transmission completes.
To cancel the download process:
Touch ESC hard icon
If no Partner is running, or Partner is not sending file, step 1 is not necessary. This can be used to quit the communication when "Download book..." is selected accidentaly.
Pop up the MiniBook menu, select "Book..." to pop up book menu. Select "Select book..." to popup the book list. After you selected the book, the book will be opened, and the page you read last time (if you are reading the book first time, the first page) will be displayed.
Pop up MiniBook menu and select "Current book information". The book name, total pages and current page number will be diplayed.
Touch screen, or push action key to dismiss it.
You can turn to next page by scroll down action key, or touch the lower half of the screen.
You can turn to previous page by scroll up action key, or touch the upper half of the screen.
If you want to turn to a specific page, pop up MiniBook menu, and select "Turn to page..."
Input page number and touch "NEXT". If you want to stay in current page, just leave the input box empty, and touch "NEXT".
To place bookmark, pop up the MiniBook menu and select "Book mark...".
The Bookmark menu will pop up.
Select "Place book mark..." to bookmark current page.
You will be prompted to enter the bookmark name.
Touch "NEXT" when you have done. If the input box is empty when you click "NEXT", the bookmark will be given a name "Unnamed".
To turn to a bookmarked page, select "Turn to book mark..." in the Bookmark menu.
All available bookmarks will be listed. Bookmark is listed as bookmark name followed by the page number of that book mark.
If the book is created by MiniBook Partner 2.37 or higher, there will be a menu item "Remove bookmark...". This item will pop up the bookmark list for you to select the bookmark you want to remove.
Beside the bookmarks above, there is an "auto bookmark". MiniBook will remember the page you are reading when you close the book (you close a book when you select other book or exit MiniBook). The next time you open this book, you will be taken to the same page you read last time.
To search a keyword, pop up MiniBook menu and select "Search...".
"Find down..." to search a keyword in down direction from current page.
You will be prompted to enter the keyword. Touch "NEXT" after you input the keyword.
"Find up..." to search a keyword in up direction from current page. You will be prompted to enter the keyword. Touch "NEXT" after you input the keyword.
"Find next" will be activated if you have searched a keyword before. Select this item will search the next occurence of the same keyword.
"Find previous" will be activated if you have searched a keyword before. Select this item will search the previous occurence of the same keyword.
"Find from begining..." to search a keyword in down direction from the begining of the book. You will be prompted to enter the keyword. Touch "NEXT" after you input the keyword.
When you select any of above item, a progress window will be displayed while pages are scaned. If the keyword is found, the page contain the keyword will be displayed, and keyword be highlighted.
And you are now in search mode. Touch lower half of screen or scroll down the action key will perform a "find next" action. Touch upper half of screen or scroll up the action key will perform a "find previous" action. Touch "ESC" hard icon, or push action key will take you out of search mode.
Since the search command will take you from current page to the page that contains the keyword, it is recommanded that you bookmark current page before you do a search. So that you can return to current page easily.
To cancel the search process, touch ESC hard icon.
To change the localization of menus and messages, pop up MiniBook menu and select "Select language...". MiniBook will scan for installed language resource files. Touch screen as promted to bring out the list of available languages to select from. After you selected language, all menu and message strings will be displayed in that language.
To delete a book from your pocket viewer, pop up MiniBook menu and select "Book..." to pop up book menu. Select "Delete book...". List of availble books will be listed, select the book you want to delete. As usual, you can touch "ESC" hard icon to close the menu, if you don't want to delete any book.
If you select to delete the book you are reading, after the book is deleted, the first book in the book list will be opened.
You can exit MiniBook in several ways:
Select "Exit Mini Book" in MiniBook menu
Touch "ESC" hard icon when you are in reading mode.
Touch "Menu" hard icon when you are in reading mode.
In reading mode, you can touch the light hard icon to turn on/off the back light. (For PV-S660/S460/S1600, left push the action key also toggle the light). The light will not automaticly turn off by time out.
Select Date/Time in MiniBook menu to display current date and time. You can also touch "Schedular" hard icon to do so. (For PV-S660/S460/S1600, right push action key also has the same effect)
You can touch "Memo(Sync Start for PV-S1600)" hard icon to display current book information.
When select book, the folder inside the /MiniBook (except Res) will also be listed. The folder name is enclosed by '[' and ']' in the book list. Selecting the folder name will take you to that folder, and all books inside the folder will be listed for selection. "[..]" is the parent folder, selecting this folder will take you to the parent folder of current folder.
You can create/delete folder by using MFSTool and MFSClient.
To download book to a folder:
Do a "Select Book" to browse to the destination folder. Then touch "ESC" hard icon to close the book list.
Download book from PC. The book will be stored in the folder.
If the book you are reading is in internal encoding (i.e. Latin1), "Copy to clipboard" menu item will be enabled. Selecting this item will copy current page to clipboard. You can then paste the contents to Memo, by touching "Menu Bar"->"Edit"->"Paste".
When flash if full, simply deleting files alone may not free up flash memory. Besides deleting unneeded files, you must do a "File system management" This item is available in the main manu
Since this process will take a long time, a confirm dialog will pop up, to perform the file system management, touch "Yes".
The management progress has two steps. The first step is to free up all deleted files blocks:
The second step is to perform a system memory managment:
You may touch the "ESC" hard icon at any time to terminate the process. If the process is terminated this way, it may not fully free up the memory, thus you may need to do it again later.
Please send your message to email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org
bn Bengali; Bangla
gd Scots Gaelic
he Hebrew (formerly iw)
id Indonesian (formerly in)
lv Latvian, Lettish
om (Afan) Oromo
ps Pashto, Pushto
yi Yiddish (formerly ji)


Pretty Things by Janelle Brown was published in April 2020 by Penguin Random House.
It’s a brilliantly written novel that sits in both the crime and suspense categories. To my mind, you can have a suspense novel without crime, but you can’t have a crime novel without suspense.
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
Reviews For Pretty Things
This novel is a recent publication, but has already garnered over 7000 ratings on Goodreads and outstanding reviews from critics.
Here’s a sample:
‘Pretty Things is awesome. Simple as that. I loved every page.’ (Crime author Harlan Coben)
‘Impossible to put down, Pretty Things is smart, seductive, and utterly captivating.' (PopSugar)
‘Full of tantalizing twists and shocking deceptions, this is an intelligent social commentary that is also deliciously fun to read.’ (The Week)
‘Fiendishly clever.’ (Kirkus Reviews)
Pretty Things Synopsis
Two wildly different women – Nina, a con artist and Vanessa, a self-absorbed heiress – are brought together when Nina and her boyfriend Lachlan carry out the scam of a lifetime.
Nina learned from the best – her mother is a scammer, the only way she knows to try and give her daughter the best life she can.
When she becomes ill, Nina pulls out all stops to get the money for her treatment, planning her most daring swindle yet.
Vanessa is a privileged rich kid whose life is lived on social media.
An Instagram influencer, she leads a life of travelling, modelling and hobnobbing with the glitterati.
But underneath the façade her life is marked by tragedy.
After a broken engagement she retreats to the mansion on her family estate on the shores of Lake Tahoe in California.
Janelle Brown's Writing Style
Brown’s writing style is flowing and easy to read. She does description well – succinct, with perfect cadence.
For example, the first line of the book:
‘The nightclub is a temple, devoted to the sacred worship of indulgence.’
And later, as Nina is driving into Tahoe:
‘Those lights, the way they dance like spirits in the wind-tossed trees. The mist, the way it reflects diamonds in our headlights. Something magical is here in this grove; all the possibility of my past youth gathering here again, feelings I’d along ago forgotten.’
The story is written from the alternating points of view of Nina and Vanessa, a few chapters of each before switching, which is an effective way of allowing you to get inside their skin.There are two exceptions – the opening chapter and the climax of the story are written in third person omniscient, which gives you an objective, bird’s eye view of the most important parts of the story.
Although some readers may find it jarring, in my opinion it works well
Each of the narrators, Nina and Vanessa, has a very distinctive voice. Vanessa’s voice is exactly the same as her over the top social media posts:
‘I'm as wired as a teenager on Ritalin, wound up by the prospect of human interaction (Giddy!, Practically bouyant!).’
But there are dark undertones:
‘How many times have I stood and chirped giddily at the camera, flipping my hair around like I’m in front of an industrial fan and grinning like a circus emcee, when inside all I wanted to do was drink a bottle of Drano?’
Nina has a more cynical tone of voice, often verging on bitter. This is how she sees Vanessa:
‘Her squeal of faux excitement makes me cringe. Good grief, I think, nothing about this woman is sincere.’
And the fact that the differences in their upbringing come down to circumstances of birth is a constant aggravation:
‘For most people not born into privilege, the playing field is a steep incline and you are at the bottom with boulders tied to your ankles.’
But to offset her cynicism, Nina has a pithy sense of humour.
Referring to Lachlan:
‘I’m surprised the treacle in his voice isn’t sending Vanessa into diabetic shock.’
Referring to Vanessa’s mother:
‘I felt like roadkill in her gaze, frozen in place, somehow compelled to stand there forever until she ran over me entirely.’
When you see each character through the other’s eyes, they’re not flattering. But Brown is excellent at fostering empathy.
Once you switch to the other’s point of view, you’re privy to their frailties and vulnerabilities and can understand why they act the way they do.
It becomes apparent as the story progresses that although their lives are very disparate, Nina and Vanessa have much in common.
They both suffer from feelings of inadequacy and are holding on to hurt and grief they’ve never come to terms with.
The plot keeps you engrossed with its many twists and turns, not so much from the action as from the psychology of the characters. It’s a story of secrets and lies and shocking revelations.It’s also an excellent satire on social media and how it distorts reality, as seen through Nina’s eyes.
‘It’s easiest to judge from a distance. That’s why the internet has turned us all into armchair critics, experts at the cold dissection of gesture and syllable, sneering self-righteously from the safety of our screens.’
‘On social media it's all or nothing: lavish praise or appalled outrage; sycophants or trolls. Caption-and-comment culture in all its brevity leaves out the middle ground, where most of life is found.’
About Author Janelle Brown
Brown was born in 1973 in Palo Alto, California.
‘I’ve known I wanted to be a novelist ever since first grade,’ she says. This was when she started writing and making her own books.
However, as often happens with authors, she took the circuitous route. After graduating from the University of California, Berkely, she became an essayist and journalist for a number of prestigious publications before publishing her first book.
Pretty Things is Brown’s fourth book. Her first book, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, was published in 2008 and became a New York Times bestseller.
Then came This Is Where We Live, published in 2010 and Watch Me Disappear, published in 2017, also a New York Times bestseller. Her books have sold in two dozen countries around the world.
Pretty Things has been named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon and is being adapted for TV by Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films.Brown lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Janelle Brown Interviews
On the Amazon Book Review blog she discusses her inspiration and writing process for Pretty Things. Interview with Chris Schluep.
Photo above courtesy of Penguin Books Australia.
Janelle Brown On Youtube
Here’s an interview with Brown at the Schaumburg Library in Illinois about Pretty Things.
Pretty Things Review Conclusion
If you enjoy twisty psychological plots and complex, unpredictable characters with an undertone of satire, you’ll love this book.Brown is currently writing her fifth novel, which I look forward to reading. Meanwhile I’m going to catch up on her previous books.


LEARN ABOUT SAFE SUBSTANCE USE
yes, it can be safe
User Friendly Guides are most concise, thorough, and reliable sources of drug safety and harm reduction information. although our guides contain information that is relevant to anyone and everyone, they are particularly useful for ravers, clubbers, and festival-goers looking to “augment” their experience with any sort of mind expanding substance.
our guides are filled with useful, actionable information that is based on the latest scientific and academic research. like the good school children we are, we cite all our sources so you can crosscheck all of the information in these guides and make the most informed decision for your mind, body, and psyche.
Without further ado....


As a Black woman of a certain age, how do you feel when you hear the plunky tinkle of a banjo? What associations does that sound stir in you?
Francesca T. Royster is a professor of English at DePaul University in Chicago. She is the author of several books, including Sounding Like a No-No: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era and Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon. Her latest book, Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions (University of Texas Press, Austin, American Music Series, https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477326497/), is an eye-opening challenge to how country music is defined, understood and received.
And, Dr. Royster plays the banjo.
The banjo is a direct descendant of about 60 West African instruments, including the ngoni, the xalam, and the ancestral instrument most closely resembling the modern banjo, the akonting. Just a few notes summon ghosts of Dixie. A white American man named Joel Walker Sweeney is credited with “inventing” the five-string banjo just prior to the Civil War, and Sweeney and his family created a popular traveling show that included rousing minstrel numbers performed in blackface. These associations understandably make many people cringe (plenty of white people included). The banjo, like all things associated with the American South, carries the scar and stigma of a past that much of America would rather forget, or simply deny. Points of reference included the movie Deliverance, and decades of television ads for Mountain Dew.
Just as Uncle Ben is now gone from his box of rice and Aunt Jemima has vanished from her syrup bottle, the banjo as talisman of country music was an early example of cancel culture. And yet, Royster’s book as well as her banjo-playing serves as a call to return home as well as a challenge. We caught up with Dr. Royster via Zoom where her office walls are poppin’ with the covers of classic R&B, soul, jazz, bebop, doowop, pop and funk LPs. With a warm smile, she said “Check out the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. It will blow your mind.” (She’s right: https://blackbanjoreclamationproject.org.)
“There is deep shame and pain that come up whenever we talk about the South,” she says, noting that her father, also a teacher of English, was a gifted percussionist who found his joy in patting out complex patterns on congas as a performer and session player in Nashville. “I picked up the banjo in the same spirit that I wrote this new book. It’s about exorcising that shame and pain. And also, it’s about excavating the truth, and reclaiming the African and African American contribution to country music.” There’s no denying the blues, she says, that emanated from the Mississippi Delta to lay the foundations for every musical form we identify as “American,” from ragtime to rap. Even the structure — what musicians call the 1, 4, 5, meaning the chord progression that forms the DNA of most contemporary pop music of all genres — is blues-based and thus inherently Black.
Royster writes, “The 1970s saw a kind of white backlash. Even when white country artists demonstrated a respect for Black music, they often left actual Black musicians out of the limelight. In this period, a new generation of white country artists who were interested in integrating soul, R&B, and funk into their music were credited for being experimental and expansive, while Black music was treated as the raw material for white creativity.”
In addition to the racial stigma, Boomers grew up with parodies of what being “country” meant. For a time, “country”-themed content dominated prime-time television, from the Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash musical variety shows, to the gently humorous regionalism of The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry, R.F.D., to the truly insulting Hee-Haw (although the latter did showcase major country artists of the era, including Buck Owens), Green Acres, The Real McCoy’s, Petticoat Junction, and The Beverly Hillbillies, although, truth be told, lots of us loved hearing The Ballad of Jed Clampett so brilliantly picked and sung by Flatt and Scruggs during the credits. Self-respecting liberals of every complexion distanced themselves from anything with a down-home twang, in the process turning away from the legacy of poverty, race violence, and backward ignorance of everything below the Mason-Dixon line. Mostly-white rock fans boycotted the 1969 single release of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band. Followers of Tom Petty protested the Florida rocker’s 1985 album release Southern Accents, which included the blistering cut called Born a Rebel, often performed against the backdrop of an enormous Confederate flag. (Petty later issued a formal apology for what he termed “a cracker relapse, and a lapse of sanity.”) And consider that, more recently, even The Dixie Chicks have dropped the “Dixie” from their band’s name.
Royster references historic field ethnographer Alan Lomax and other early 20th century music historians as creating an origin-story for country music that is misleading, misinformed, or at the very least, incomplete. What’s missing: the electrifying presence of Black musical genius. Lomax and his contemporaries focused on the deeply Anglo roots of many songs that found their way across the Atlantic to coal-mining country, relocating themselves in the isolated hills and “hollers” of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. While Scottish and Irish melodic structure permeates much early country music, especially the minor keys, lilting time-signatures, and nasal, modal tones that flavor bluegrass, country music is a far richer, funkier, more satisfying crazy-quilt hybrid than any single culture could have produced in isolation. The author also traces Tejano and Mexican rancheras and corridos, vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley song-making, and jazzy Jewish klezmer as still more bursts of flavor in this simmering cultural gumbo.
“Coming to terms with country music felt as dramatic as my own coming out as queer,” says Royster. “I understand why many Black people aren’t comfortable listening to, say, Merle Haggard’s Okie from Muskogee, or Lynyrd Skynyrd’s anthemic Sweet Home Alabama. But if we listen to country music as it is emerging today, there’s new spirit of inclusion and collaboration.” She’s an unabashed fan of Lil Nas X, citing the “yeehaw agenda” created by the young Black Dallas blogger Bri Malandro. “Black cowboys and Black cowgirls are talking back to present and historic erasure.”
Perhaps the sweetest re-introduction to country as one flowering of American roots music is the music of the incandescent Rhiannon Giddens, founding member of the Grammy-winning group, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. This Greensboro, North Carolina native plays banjo and fiddle as well as being a composer, songwriter, arranger, actor, and lead singer. In 2020, Giddens was named Artistic Director of the cross-cultural music organization Silkroads. Her 2018 album Songs of our Native Daughters on the iconic Folkways label is a painless (and illuminating) entry-point into what “country” music looks and sounds like today. Giddens has been quoted as saying, “People who have avoided country music all their lives sometimes think I’m Alicia Keys. Until they see my banjo, that is.”


Grief Works is a compassionate guide that will support, inform and engage anyone who is grieving, from the ‘expected’ death of a parent to the sudden and unexpected death of a small child. It also provides clear advice for those seeking to comfort the bereaved.
There are many books on the market written by bereaved people and academics but there is no one accessible, plain talking, informed, up-to-date book by a bereavement expert that helps the reader to process grief. ‘Grief Works is an intimate, clear, warm, helpful book that is as invaluable to those who are grieving as it is to those around them.
With deeply moving case studies based on real people’s stories of loss, brilliantly accessible and practical advice, Grief Works is the definitive guide for anyone who is grieving the death of someone they care about.
Death is the last taboo in our society, and grief is still profoundly misunderstood. So many of us feel awkward and uncertain around death, and shy away from talking honestly with family and friends. That ignorance means people don’t understand themselves and are often misunderstood, which aggravates their suffering.
Yet when someone is bereaved they are desperate to understand what is happening to them, and to know what will help them. And they are right to want to know, for how we think about loss and death, the choices we make, and the support we get, is the single most significant factor in a healthy grieving
The case studies in Grief Works enable readers to understand themselves, and illuminate the ways in which they can navigate their own path to finding a way of rebuilding their life. Each case study is based on what realistically happens psychologically when someone significant dies, through a variety of scenarios and circumstances within which deaths occur.
The commentaries after each section: (the death of a partner, parent, sibling, child and facing your own death) enables the reader to have a version of Julia Samuel through the book, explaining what has been happening, what is normal and in doing so informing and helping them.
If we think about how we respond to friends or family members when they are bereaved we often want to fix them, make them better – or we do nothing veering on the side of ‘what I don’t speak about, and don’t say won’t hurt me or them’. The opposite is true. People who are bereaved, on the whole prefer their loss to be acknowledged and to be allowed to feel their pain. The section What Friends and Family Can Do to Help is a brilliant guide in letting you know how to best respond in all circumstances - through the voices of people who have been bereaved.
The Victorians were very good at dealing with death, but terrible at addressing sex. The reverse is true now. Sex is discussed in every media portal in every way, and death is hidden away in mortuaries. This book makes death as easy to talk about as sex. Not to trample on fears and defences about death, but to be so accessible, practical and informative that people feel comfortable reading it and much more confident.
The aim of this book is to address the fear that surrounds death and grief and to replace it with confidence. People need to understand that grief is a process that has to be worked through – we know from experience that grief is work, extremely hard work; but, if we do the work, it can work for us by enabling us to heal. The natural process of grieving can be supported in such a way as to allow us to function effectively in our daily lives, and this book will come to play a useful role in providing this support.
This book is a resource that can be continually revisited. For people to understand their grief, or the grief of the people they care about. It will be used by friends and family to reassure the bereaved that lives can be rebuilt, trust developed, and we can dare to love again. We may no longer be innocently hopeful, and we may always have times when we feel the pain of loss, but the deeper understanding of ourselves that we have gained will, in time, feel like growth.


EPC.App and PCT.App will not render other commentaries on the EPC and PCT superfluous. Here are some books (by no means exhaustive) for looking-up valuable further details, whenever there is time:
- Visser's Annotated European Patent Convention by Derk Visser (EN)
- References to the European Patent Convention by Jelle Hoekstra (EN)
- Kommentar zum EPÜ 2000 by Hansjörg Kley and Harald Gundlach (DE)
- Europäisches Patentübereinkommen (EPÜ) by Margarete Singer and Dieter Stauder (DE)
- EPC 2000 Guide by Stéphane Speich (EN)
- The Cross-Referenced Patent Cooperation Treaty by Cees Mulder (EN)
- PCT Applicant's Guide and PCT References for EQE by Pete Pollard (EN)
- PCT-Handbuch by Malte Köllner (DE)
EPC.App and PCT.App are dedicated to be used when preparing for the European Qualifying Examination, however, not sufficient as sole means for passing the exam. Here is a list (again incomplete) of providers for additional training:
- EQELIBRIUM (EQE Mock Camps / EN) - In small groups and informal atmosphere, tutors assess mock papers and give detailed feedback as well as tips to each candidate.
- FILLUN (Online Training / EN) - Various online coaching sessions and resources by Zsofia Pintz.


ZPL II® - Volume 2 The second volume of the programming guide for ZPL II.
ZPL II – Volume 2 The first volume of the programming guide for ZPL II.
ZebraNet Printer Server II The complete user guide for the ZebraNet Print Server II.
GX420t/GX430t Feed Button Modes Pressing and holding the Feed button on the GX420t or GX430t printer will put the printer into different modes, based on the flash sequence displayed on the green status LED. This document explains what happens when the button is released after each specific number of flashes.
GX420t/GX430t The complete user guide for Zebra’s GX420t / GX430t desktop thermal printers.


Tyro (which means beginner or novice) was designed specifically for new 3D printer users of all ages. Tyro is made possible through a collaboration between NWA3D and Maker Made CNC.
Since 2015, the educational 3D printing experts at NWA3D have provided 3D printers, training, and support to schools and libraries across America. They have helped educators train a new generation of digital designers and manufacturers. The experts at Maker Made are focused on building the maker community by providing rugged and affordable CNC and 3D printing equipment.
The Key3D brand is owned and operated by NWA 3D LLC. Contact us for more information.


Book Review: Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
I recently had the pleasure and frustration of reading Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark.1 I think I first heard about it from the recent “Future of Intelligence” episode of Sam Harris’ podcast Waking Up.2 Robert Hanson also wrote a review worth reading on his blog OvercomingBias.com.3 From hearing about it there, I inferred I was part of the target audience. However, upon reading it, I found that I’m probably not. Indeed, I doubt that most of the rationality community is either. I previously read Bostrom’s seminal book Superintelligence and found it rather dense, dry and a bit of a slog even for someone interested in the topic.4 Tegmark instead wrote for a general audience and, to me, the book falls in the pop-science genre. It has many reader-friendly features. When appropriate, it includes helpful charts and diagrams, though these are sometimes cartoonish. Each chapter concludes with a bullet point summary. Perhaps most importantly, the book is written in an approachable, and engaging style. I found myself enjoying reading the book and curious where he would go next. At the same time, I found myself frustrated with the presentation of AI safety topics. Tegmark understands the issues and states each of them eventually. However, this often gets lost among the other topics and fictionalized accounts. I’m concerned the average reader may not come away with an adequate understanding.
The prologue gives a brief fictional account of the creation of a superintelligence, starting from an idealistic, secret team in an unnamed fictional tech company, all the way to global domination. By the end, the AI and the company control essentially a world government that has brought prosperity and happiness to most people and all but eliminated conflict and war. Fiction can make things that might have seemed implausible feel like tangible reality. By opening this way, Tegmark both engages the reader and creates a viscerally real sense of the possibility of superintelligence. In it, he illustrates a very plausible scenario for AI takeover and the creators’ concern for AI safety. However, I worry that it appears too easy to contain and control a superintelligent AI. Being compelling and coming as it does at the beginning of the book, it will be very memorable. While consciously people will remember that the message of the book was the dangers of AI, they may reason from the most salient example: the fictional evidence of an AI that was easily contained and brought enormous benefits.
In the first two chapters, Tegmark engagingly introduces the problem of AI alignment and the state of the discussion. He does this with plenty of charts and diagrams. The framing of discussing the various positions on the problem and of listing and addressing the most common myths works well. This section also has the first good illustrations of the problem, including the example that “humans control tigers not because we’re stronger, but because we’re smarter. This means that if we cede our position as smartest on our planet, it’s possible we might also cede our control.”5
Next, the book tackles the subject of near-term AI advances and issues. I found this section to be one of the most interesting and useful in the book, perhaps because I haven’t read much on these topics before. I would have liked to see more detail about some areas. Nevertheless, the survey was helpful. Tegmark first covers the state of the art in AI. From there he moves on to issues of software bugs and security. I was glad to see this put front and center. It doesn’t get adequate concern in our society. He then considers AI’s impact on law, weapons, and employment. Specifically, the question of whether large portions of the population might become not only unemployed but unemployable. I particularly enjoyed the end of the chapter about how to give people a sense of purpose if there is no work. That often gets glossed over in discussions of technological unemployment.
At more than one hundred pages in, Life 3.0 finally comes to the issue of the dangers of human-level AGI and superintelligence. This section is far too short. There isn’t enough space to adequately cover the issues and make clear how grave the threat is. He points out that an AI will be motivated to circumvent our control even if its intentions are good using a fun illustration involving a world of 5-year olds imprisoning you. The difficulties of containing or boxing a superintelligent AI are pointed out. Here, he returns to the fictional story from the prologue to describe several ways the AI might escape. While this illustrates possible escape paths, I worry that it will fail to convey the message. Coming in the middle of the book, separated from the initial story, it is less likely to be remembered. Also, specific scenarios often lead people to think they can address them with some easy fixes and the problem is solved. Tegmark tries to make clear that there are many other potential means of escape and that we, being less intelligent than the AI, may not even be able to imagine how it might escape. However, those are brief abstract arguments compared to the compelling fictional scenarios.
From issues of the dangers of superintelligence, the book moves on to future scenarios. It describes twelve different scenarios, giving each two to five pages of explanation. They run the gamut from very good to very bad. Some come off as if they aren’t genuine possible futures, but rather dreamed up by someone who is ideologically motivated in the first ten minutes of thinking about the problem. Even worse, the list is missing some essential ones. In two of these, AI truly tries to create human happiness, not by some person’s ideology-driven philosophy, but by doing what might genuinely make humans happy. One such scenario is where the AI creates for each human a separate virtual world optimized for their happiness. Perhaps there is still a way to interact between the worlds, to visit your friend’s world, but people spend the majority of their time in their own. The second is what I would describe as a true utopia. Where the AI tries to create the kind of world that would make humans happy. Eliminating suffering, but also creating situations where the humans are challenged to learn and grow. The closest he comes to that is his “benevolent dictator” scenario, but that seems more like a caricature of what someone who values “diversity” in humans might imagine. Perhaps the biggest oversight is ignoring transhumanism as both a likely occurrence and moral good. His “libertarian utopia” does include cyborgs and augmented humans, but there is no discussion of elimination of all disease, radical life extension, dramatically enhancing human happiness, enhancing human cognition, and ultimately giving humans godlike powers. This chapter is meant to be thought-provoking and raise in the reader’s mind the question of what kind of future they would want. It concludes by directing people to AgeOfAi.org where there is a survey covering when they think superintelligent AI might arrive, and which of the twelve scenarios they would prefer.
The sixth chapter felt out of place to me. Ostensibly about how we might acquire resource for the very long term future, i.e. 10 000 years, it reads like a tour of cool ideas from modern science about what might someday be possible. It describes ideas including Dyson spheres, nuclear fusion, evaporating and spinning black holes, quasars, exotic matter states, quantum computers and the limits of computation, nuclear rockets, light sails, the Kardashev scale, von Neumann probes, and wormholes. Then tackles the end of the universe and what might happen if we are not the only intelligent species in the universe. This chapter seemed to be there mostly for the gee-whiz factor, and I think the book would have better off without it.
At this point, Tegmark finally tackles the subject of aligning an AI’s goals with our own. This chapter should have come immediately after the one on the dangers of AI and the difficulty of keeping it boxed. It does, however, do a good job of laying the foundation of what goals are and why it makes sense to talk about machines and AIs having goals. Then of explaining some of the challenges in goal alignment. I was pleased to see his emphasis on the fact that “the real risk with AGI isn’t malice but competence” (italics in original).6 That is to say, that an AI that was excellent at optimizing something slightly different from what we wanted would be extremely dangerous even though it wasn’t intentionally programmed to harm us.
The final chapter of the book takes a strange turn into consciousness. Tegmark defines consciousness as having subjective experience. What philosophers would call qualia. As with the chapter on acquiring resources, this one seemed to be a tour of fascinating ideas. This time about the philosophy, neuroscience, and ethics of consciousness. The relevant point is that the AI’s moral worth may be determined by whether it is conscious. This part could have been omitted from the book, so the choice to use it as the official conclusion was strange.
After the concluding chapter, there is an epilogue. However, its length and presentation make it feel like a chapter. In my mind, this became the conclusion of the book. The epilogue describes the founding of the Future of Life Institute by Tegmark and AI conferences organized by them. It ends with an encouragement to develop positive visions of the future. One can understand why Tegmark wanted to include this material in the book somewhere, but the shift of topic and tone at the end was jarring. It further weakened the already weak ending created by discussing consciousness.
Altogether, Life 3.0 was engaging and readable. The chapter on the near term impacts of AI was the most interesting to me, in part because I haven’t seen this topic discussed as much. I also came away with some illustrations that will be useful for explaining the issues in AI safety to others. It seems Tegmark is hoping to create awareness of AI safety among the general populace by encouraging them to imagine their own potential futures. It may do that. However, an uninformed thinker’s ideas on the subject are more than simply unhelpful. Rather, they are often detrimental to launching a proper response. In trying to reach a broad audience, Tegmark has failed to convey the gravity and nuance of the problem. The many tangentially related topics covered obscure the vital message of AI Safety. I believe Tegmark’s contributions to AI safety through the Future of Life Institute are more effective than this book.
Tegmark, Max. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Knopf, 2017. ↩
Bostrom, Nick. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford University Press, 2016. ↩
Life 3.0, p. 44 ↩
Life 3.0, p. 260 ↩


We tend to think of the people of the past as a bit of a gloomy lot.
Maybe it is the old black and white photographs which give this impression – the people always look serious and stern.
But they enjoyed a good time just as much as we do, maybe more so.
In this story from the Sept. 15, 1904 Post-Standard, the good people of a North Side Turner Hall, got themselves pretty worked up over a secret wedding they had not been invited to.
Not so much because they wished to congratulate the happy couple, what they really wanted to do was go to the reception afterwards.
They decided to remedy this, and the results were pure comedy.
The story, reproduced as it was written in 1904, also remind all of us not to listen to rumors and gossip.
People on the North Side were talking about the secret marriage of George Boysen, a prominent member of several of the organizations of that part of the city, last evening.
In Turn Hall about fifty people had gathered to discuss the possibility of the mysterious affair. All agreed that it was about time that George tied the knot, but none could see how he had managed to keep the affair quiet.
One of the assembly had heard that he had been married in the afternoon and was then speeding on his way for a quiet honeymoon. “Ach, but dis’ is awful, vat fun ve missed und vy his broder Bill didn’t tell us I can’t see.”
Another had seen Bill on the streets during the afternoon in his working clothes and all were certain that even he was unaware of the great event. In spite of the rain the members of the drum corps were called together and the crowd shouted with joy when the music makers consented to march through the rain to the home of the girl who they knew must be the happy one.
With signs prepared which read in bold letters, “Just Married,” and a great collection of old shoes, the troop started out. There were a half dozen young women in the crowd who wanted to assist and, lifting their skirts about as high as the water stands in the numerous puddles on the streets of the North Side, they tramped after the corps.
When the band arrived at the supposed bride’s residence in Ash Street the leader gave the signal and the buglers let out a long blast of triumph. The boys with the flutes gave a blow and turning the corner at McBride Street, the troop ran squarely into the supposed-to-have-been married couple standing under an umbrella and silently mourning the fact that the stars were not shining.
The blast from the bugles and flutes suddenly died out when the crowd saw the two standing quietly there. One of the young women ventured to kiss the “bride,” who did not understand why she should be so honored by the maiden.
The serenaders soon guessed that it really had not happened and some started to run. In a moment the whole crowd was off, and the unmarried couple walked into the house to think it over.
FINALLY FOUND A WEDDING
The members of the drum corps did not tell anybody of the fact they had been beaten but rallied later in the evening at the home of Miss Elizabeth Emma Miller in Townsend alley, where a marriage ceremony was actually taking place. Miss Miller was married to Ernst Volkmann, one of the members of the drum corps, by Rev. U.J. Klingensmith.
The residence of the bride was decorated with palms and cut flowers. Miss Louise Volkmann of Tarrytown, Conn., a sister of the groom acted as bridesmaid and Henry Merle as groomsman.
The members of the drum corps serenaded the couple during the evening and gave them a royal send-off on their way to New York, Washington and Tarrytown where a reception will be held in the honor of the couple by relatives of the groom who formerly lived in that city.
Meet the Rev. Samuel Calthrop: A man, to put it plainly, did everything
1906-1918: Meet the former Syracuse teacher who married a miser then gave away a fortune
1909: Was this the worst umpiring performance in Syracuse baseball history
This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle at firstname.lastname@example.org or call 315-427-3958.
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Books authored by Lakshmi Vishwanthan
Bharatanatyam - the Tamil heritage
Kunjamma Ode to a Nightingale-biography of Bharath Ratna M.S.
Kapaliswara Temple and
Women of Pride - the Devadasi heritage
Lakshmi's earliest research project was the Temple Dance of Tamil Nadu.
She received a junior fellowship from Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India,
and used her study and field work to bring out the book "Bharatanatyam the Tamil Heritage"
in 1984. This is the only book to put the dance of Tamil Nadu in its
historic and socio-cultural perspective. The book continues to be in
Lakshmi received a senior fellowship to study "Comparative Abhinaya" in 1987. This study made a great impact on her new repertoire and her choreographic works of the decade.
The third research fellowship which Lakshmi received was for: "Ramayana in Performance in India and South east Asia".
Lakshmi prepared a voluminous illustrated report after detailed
observation and study of texts used in Ramayana shows in India and
countries like Java, Bali, Thailand and Cambodia.
Roli Books, New Delhi commissioned Lakshmi to write a biography of
Bharath Ratna M.S.Subbulakshmi. This was the first book on the great
vocalist, designed as a tribute to the icon of Karnatic music, with more
than a hundred photographs from her own album. Published during the
life-time of M.S., the book took her by surprise and delighted her.
Lakshmi received her affectionate blessings. With a fitting title - "Kunjamma-Ode to a Nightingale", this book published in 2003, continues to be a best-seller.
In 2006, Lakshmi authored the colourfully illustrated book "Kapaliswara Temple - the sacred site of Mylapore". A highly popular subject which Lakshmi has handled with great depth of knowledge. This book also is a best seller.
In 2008, Lakshmi released her latest book "Women of Pride - the Devadasi Heritage"
(Roli Books). An instant best-seller, this book has appealed across the
board to people from all walks of life. It is now in it's third
reprint and as a paperback version.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEWSPAPERS, JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES:
Lakshmi is a well known writer whose articles on Dance, Music and the
Arts are widely read. She is a long-time writer featured in The Hindu,
one of India's national newspapers. She has also contributed to the
Times of India, Indian Express and India Today. She started her writing
for the Madras based magazine - Aside, as early as the seventies. Lakshmi has
also contributed to the Journal of the Music Academy, Kalakshetra
Quarterly, Narthanam, and various other arts journals in India and
abroad. She also has a widely read column - Seen and Heard by Lakshmi Vishwanathan in Narthaki online, a popular
Currently Lakshmi Vishwanathan is the editor of the Kalakshetra Journal, which was originally published by the founder Rukmini Devi.
The Journal publishes articles and essays on Dance, Music, Sculpture,
Painting, Art history, and aesthetics. The first two issues of the
Journal published in 2014 feature eminent scholars like: Dr. Anila
Verghese, Dr. Amrit Srinivasan, Dr. Anna Della Piccola, Lakshmi
Vishwanathan, Ludwig Pesch, and others. Writers contributing to the
forthcoming issues include Michael Wood, Dr.Anne Marie Gaston,
B.M.Sundaram and others. The Journal is a flagship publication of the
institution and has been well received. Lakshmi' s role as editor has
been widely appreciated.
Lakshmi Vishwanathan's direct speak
Critique by Lakshmi Vishwananthan Lakshmi chooses artists of merit to endorse their work with her expert opinion
61/33 MGR road, Kalakshetra Colony, Chennai 600090
Tel: 91 44 24916219 / Mob: 09840916219


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- Librarian: Wanda Alston
- Library Assistant: Betty Mounts
- Phone: (757) 591-4900 x.22639
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Becoming information literate empowers us to read for pleasure, use information to explore questions and ideas, engage in the global community, and share our understandings in new ways.


2016-Nova Spivack creates the Arch Mission Foundation, spreading "Libraries" in the solar system
Date: October 2016, 24
The Arch Mission Foundation exists to:
- Educate & Raise Awareness of existential threats to modern civilization and the ephemeral nature of our technology. - Inspire ultra long-term thinking around what knowledge should, and will, exist in tens of thousands of years. - Ensure survival of knowledge and that it is written by the people, for the people.


Help Students Face Their Mental and Emotional Health Concerns With Care, Support, Strength and Resilience
Today’s students are struggling with a wide spectrum of issues, from anxiety to depression, eating disorders, loneliness, emotional intelligence, empathy and more. Some require counseling assistance while others are tied into the development of life skills to help students learn to contend with various issues.
This ready-to-use resource package will help you develop a caring and compassionate community where students feel supported.
4 resources in one! This cost-saving training package includes:
10 Life Skills Workshops to Support Students’ Mental and Emotional Health and Well-Being – this 135+ page printed resource is filled with 10 comprehensive workshops you can use to help students get the most out of their college experience so they will persist to graduation and thrive beyond (includes a license to share with your campus community).
25 Campus Retention & Persistence Initiatives – this 130+ page printed resource offers targeted strategies to engage and empower students through graduation (includes a license to share with your campus community).
The Well Student – this 8-page, full-color brochure addresses mental, physical and emotional well-being in non-threatening, student-friendly language. (50 copies included).
- The Anxiety Endemic – this 90-minute On-Demand Training offers evidence-based treatments, including alternative and creative options for addressing and reducing anxiety when treating college students.
Two Versions to Choose From
Printed with Digital Download – includes a printed copy of each binder (with digital access to the enclosed materials and accompanying license to share with your campus community), 50 printed copies of the 8-page brochure and immediate access to the on-demand training. Price includes shipping fee.
- Digital Download Only – includes digital access to both binders (with accompanying license to share with your campus community, 50 printed copies of the 8-page brochure and immediate access to the on-demand training.
Upon purchase, the instructions for downloading the binders and on-demand training will be immediately available. For questions, email email@example.com.
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DUDLEY DIX YACHT DESIGN
Published Articles - Now in Book Form
To help you through your decisions and problems
"Shaped by Wind & Wave" Paperback US$30
or web format e-Book US$20
2013 calendar of our designs US$17
I have authored articles that have been published in magazines worldwide. Most are of a technical nature but are written in laymans' terms. Some will be of use when making decisions about what boat to build and others may help during a construction project. I have consolidated the articles into a book, expanded and updated and with more illustrations.
Some of the original articles have been available here as a free service for a long time. They will continue to be available in their original form. The set of updated articles is now only available in my book, "Shaped by Wind & Wave". Buy now for $30 plus shipping or buy the eBook via the link at left.
I have added a chapter with advice for sailing safely around the Cape of Good Hope. This is the sensible alternative to taking on the Somali pirates by sailing the Red Sea route to the Mediterranean Sea. The route around the Southern tip of Africa is dreaded by circumnavigators due to heavy weather conditions. However, local sailors race and cruise those waters in good and bad weather. This chapter gives advice on where and what the dangers are and how to safely traverse those dangers.
Scroll down to access the free articles via the clickable links. The others are only available in the book.
Chapter 1. Nautical Terms and Coefficients Explanation and definition of boat design terms and values.
Chapter 2. The Argument in Favour of Lofting describes the reasons for and benefits of lofting and gives the basics of lines drawings and offset tables.
Chapter 3. Lofting the Hull explains how to do hull lofting with various methods.
Chapter 4. Transom Development covers how to develop transoms for various combinations of hull and transom styles.
Chapter 5. Hull Shapes and Sea-keeping explains the characteristics and consequences of choices in hull form.
Chapter 6. Power from Stability discusses principles of stability and how it affects performance, safety and other aspects of sailing boats of all types.
Chapter 7. Sailing Rigs. A review of sailing rigs, their strengths and weaknesses. This will help to clarify your thinking if you are unsure which sailing rig is best for you.
Chapter 8. Rudders and Steering. Steering systems and configurations for sailboats and how choices will affect handling.
Chapter 9. Choice of Construction Material. If you are unsure of the best choice of material for you, this will help you to make the best decision.
Chapter 10. Radius Chine Metal Construction describes this method of metal boatbuilding and how it optimises the conflicting needs of aesthetics, ease of construction, cost, performance and resale value.
Chapter 11. Rust Prevention for Steel Boats. Brief history of rust prevention measures for steel boats and guidelines to happy ownership of a steel boat.
Chapter 12. Plywood as a Boat Construction Material. Constructing a boat from a largely
forgotten hull material that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
Chapter 13. Radius Chine Plywood Boat Construction describes this method of plywood
construction as used by Dudley Dix for the Didi range of designs.
Chapter 14. Fitting Out Tips. Suggestions to aid fitting out a GRP, metal or wood hull, producing a better quality boat.
Chapter 15. Hull Turning describes methods used to turn hulls upright during construction, with diagrams and photos.
Chapter 16. Mindset & Goal Setting for Amateur Boatbuilders. Run out of steam in the middle of a building project and don't know how to continue? This will help you to get back on track and stay there till the end.
Chapter 17. Around Alone in an Open Boat. Anthony Steward is the only person to have sailed around the world in an open boat, a custom version of the TLC 19 designed by Dudley Dix. This is a review of his voyage and his motivations.
Chapter 18. Sailing the Cape of Good Hope Route. Many cruising sailors are still risking the dangers of piracy in the Indian Ocean instead of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. This chapter explains the dangers, where they are and how to cope with them for a safe passage.
Appendix 1. Basic Metric Boatbuilding explains the simplicity of the metric system.
Appendix 2. Conversion of Inch Fractions to Millimetres.
Appendix 3. Metric/Imperial Conversions.
Appendix 4. Conversion of Inch Fractions to Inch Decimals.
Appendix 5. Galvanic Series of Metals in Salt Water.
Appendix 6. Properties of Boatbuilding Timbers - Imperial.
Appendix 7. Properties of Boatbuilding Timbers - Metric.
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Rainbow Savior Study by Rev. William Monday
Rainbow Savior Bible Study is a study on how to address the issue of same-sex attraction (ssa) with a struggling soul (Part I) and with a congregation of God’s people who have a wide range of questions on the matter – from reaching loved ones struggling to interacting with people in the world embracing homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Lesson Topics: Part I: 1) A Godly Perspective on Souls Struggling; 2) “Judge Not”; 3) The Only Basis for Addressing Homosexuality; 4) Evaluating “Born that Way”; 5) Examining True Identity; 6) The Issue of True Love; 7-8) The Only Happy Lifestyle and No Greater Friend; Part II: 9-10) Who’s to Blame for this Issue in Society and Why the Church Is So Divided; 11-12) How the Christian Is to Operate in Society and The Issue of Same-Gender Unions; 13) The New Use of the Rainbow Symbol. Though this Bible study follows the outline and general content of the book, the book Rainbow Savior is not necessary for the class, though it serves as an excellent supplement. 10 Lessons. Easily 12 Weeks. Teaching Level: Difficult.


"In the famous Talmudic story of Hillel and the would-be convert, Hillel says to that man: what is hateful to you, do not do to others. (B.T. Shabbat 31)
We may ask why Hillel told the man the Golden Rule in these words. Why did he not use the words of the Torah, you shall love your neighbor as yourself?
It seems to me that Hillel responded as he did because he understood the spritual level of the man who came to him. The man was looking for easy answers; he was not ready for a challenge.
Hillel understood from this that the man was ready only for the ‘thou shalt not’ aspect of religion, which is the easiest part. The man was ready to refrain from doing evil deeds. He was ready to refrain from doing anything that would do direct harm to another human being.
The higher level of ‘love’ which is the essence of religion contains many obligations and responsibilities. These are expressed as ‘thou shalt’. Love your neighbor as yourself is a ‘thou shalt’ mitzvah, which requires the performance of many acts of tsedakah and hesed that go beyond refraining from murder and theft and other prohibitions.
Hillel wanted to bring this man under the wings of the Divine Presence, so he gave him only what he was ready for. But Hillel concluded: zil u’gmar - go and learn! Once the man had converted and learned much Torah he was ready to accept the multiple obligations which we call ‘the yoke of the Torah.’"
Hidushei HaRYM, grandfather of the Safat Emet (via svetlana-del-rey)
take note, frum mafia