text:
Monday, June 09, 2008
Banned books
Noodling around on the internet the other day, I discovered that one of my childhood favourite authors, Judy Blume, holds the status of one of the most banned authors in America. That's an odd kind of compliment, really, but it is a compliment if you've read her books: they raise issues that children really ought to think about, such as racism and sex, and deal with them intelligently. To take an example, Blubber is a book that covers bullying, but our narrator Jill is, in fact, one of the bullies. Not the ringleader, but an active lieutenant, who cheerfully believes the victim, Linda, 'deserves' her persecution - only to find herself under fire when she stands up to the class leader, and bullied by, among other people, her former victim. Jill's period of suffering is shorter than Linda's because she's more assertive and her tormentors eventually get bored, but there's no triumphant moral victory, just a broadening in the understanding of an unremarkable girl. Apparently the book is challenged for 'offensive language', by which I assume they mean an occasion when the class ringleader calls Jill's Chinese-American best friend a 'Chink'; now, Jill immediately yells 'Don't you dare call Tracy a Chink!', and we're clearly not supposed to approve of the word, but, looking back, I do think that was the first time I'd encountered the word as a child, so possibly censors are worried Blume might be teaching bad language. Frankly, that's a stupid idea: kids are going to encounter the bad words at some point, and for my part, encountering it first in a story where only the nastiest kid in school thinks it's okay to call someone that gave me a swift and thorough demonstration of why it was a word I didn't ever intend to say.
Similarly, Forever, the book that everyone passed around my class when I was about twelve - which is very likely how it was intended to be read - apparently remains a huge scandal, because it's frank about a sexual relationship between two seventeen-year-olds. Actually the book has a big invisible sign nailed to it that reads 'BE RESPONSIBLE!', because the plot details cover, as well as technical details about stuff like premature ejaculation and the non-inevitability of female orgasm, risk factors like STDs, unwanted pregnancy, infidelity and the effects of sexual pressure on, horror of horrors, boys as well as girls - one of the characters is an emotionally unstable and confused boy who, distressed at his girlfriend's continual attempts to coax him into a sexual normality he's not sure he's comfortable with, ends up making a suicide attempt. All in all, it's a guide to the pitfalls of sex as much as the pleasures - but, of course, it does present unmarried teenagers having sex as a perfectly normal event, and, well, you can imagine the consequences on an innocent mind.
Judy Blume deserves to be defended not just because censorship is a bad thing, but because she's an excellent writer. There's a reason why her books are so popular, and it's not just because she mentions masturbation. Her popularity made many adults in my day assume she was trashy, but kids are often more acute readers than adults, and Judy Blume is good. Her grasp of character is subtle and and acute, her ability to convey drama in small everyday details is striking, her insights are sharp, her dialogue is convincing and her views are humane. What she also is, as well as educational in the best sense, is a good start for kids who want to love literature. A tremendous proportion of children's fiction is fantasy fiction; magic and such is so common in them that you hardly notice it. But while many reading kids grow up to be fantasy readers, many more do not. Judy Blume, Jacqueline Wilson, Beverley Cleary, Anne Fine - all are, to a greater or less extent, 'issue' writers, but they're also mainstream books for kids. They're about everyday worries, and domestic frictions, and naturalistic crises, and social concerns - all the things that are the staple of mainstream adult books. Speaking from personal experience, I never had anything against books-with-magic when I was a kid, but Blume and Cleary meant a lot more to me than the more fantastical stories, and while I write fantastical stuff now, as a reader, my tastes still tend towards naturalistic drama. It's good to have access to books of that kind as a child: people's tastes begin quite early, and without writers like Blume and Cleary, I would have been missing out. These books are good for children artistically as well as socially; only one genre on the shelves is never good for anyone.
But the issue is wider than this. If you look at the list of the top 100 banned books in America, you'll notice something: an awful lot of them are really, really good. I'd actually call this list to the attention of anyone who has teenage kids or teaches English: it's got a lot of outstanding books on it. Mark Twain is on it. So is Toni Morrison. So is Margaret Atwood. So is Aldous Huxley. So is John Steinbeck. So is J.D. Salinger. So is Harper Lee. So is Maya Angelou. So is Isabelle Allende. So is William Golding. So is Kurt Vonnegut. These are authors that adults read and admire, never mind kids. There are a lot of teenage classics there too: S.E. Hinton, Lois Duncan, Lois Lowry, Paul Zindel. Anyone who makes it onto that list is in distinguished company; as a writer, it makes me wish more people were offended by my books, just so I could rub shoulders with so many people I admire. There are some horror stories there, plus a bunch of sex-ed books; my personal favourite juxtaposition is around the fifties:
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Major literary/political classic; sado-masochistic porn; educational guide; mass-market horror; charming children's classic; bomb-makers' manual. And the children's classic gets more complaints than the bomb-making book. Amazing.
What strikes me about this is that a lot of the books complained about have very little morally wrong with them. James and the Giant Peach, for instance, the only objection I can imagine is that James's horrible abusive aunts get accidentally squashed by the peach and nobody is sorry - that is, obedience and respect for your elders are not considered necessary if those elders are mean to you. It takes a profoundly authoritarian way of thinking to consider that idea one that children should be kept from. But book-banning is always authoritarian; that's what so bad about it. The idea that people should not be free to consider the world for themselves and make up their own minds, that they can't be trusted with that responsibility, is a terribly dangerous one.
Even so, the moral lessons of the books are often such that it's hard to see what the objection is. Hinton suggests that violence is bad. Duncan suggests that irresponsible malice leads to tragedy. Lowry suggests that secure conformity backed up with brutality is not worth having. Zindel suggests that you shouldn't manipulate people for fun. These authors depict kids who are cannot rely on authority for everything, who are free to make bad decisions and often do so. They suffer for it, they regret it, but they were free to do it in the first place. It seems like the complainers feel the idea that it's possible to do such things completely trumps the idea that it's wrong to do them. By this logic, kidnapping your teacher (Duncan) or lying your way into an old man's affections (Zindel) shouldn't just be bad, it should be inconceivable. Even countenancing the idea that real people might ever do such things is too close to an endorsement.
I wonder if the idea of Biblical inerrancy has something to do with it. A fundamentalist Christian - and I'm fairly sure that a big proportion of the complaints come from that direction - is, after all, someone who has an intense belief in the power of the written word. The Bible is infallible, the ultimate guide to everything in this life and the next, and you disobey it at your peril. That's attributing a lot of power to a book. And from there, it's perhaps easier to attribute tremendous power to books in general. If the Bible is infallibly true, then perhaps every book is making an equal claim to truth: if J.K. Rowling depicts wizards, it must be because she wants people to believe there really are wizards, rather than because she's asking them to suspend disbelief.
But it's even more than that, I think: a truly authoritarian Christian seems to have difficulty with the idea that, unlike the Bible, most books aren't primarily didactic. If an author is writing a story, it must be a parable - and not just a parable that the reader can consider and reject if it doesn't ring true, but a parable the author demands that they accept.
This, I think, is why so many Christian knickers are in a twist about Rowling. I used to assume that they thought, rather naively, that she was advocating black magic, and if they grasped that she was actually writing an epic of good versus evil that happened to be ecumenical in its religion, they might calm down. But actually, I now think that's the whole point. Rowling's good-versus-evil struggle is more threatening to a fundamentalist than a simple depiction of Sin. She's positing a world in which a struggle between good and evil can take place without reference to Christianity - and that's a massive, profound challenge to the fundamentalist worldview. A fundamentalist believes that only Christians can be goodies and tackle evil; Rowling invents a world in which not-particularly-Christian goodies tackle evil. To a fundamentalist, she's demanding that you give up the idea that you have to be a Christian to be good. There's a tremendous spiritual greed in such objections - basically, if you're not Us then you're not entitled to any moral claims at all, and anybody who says otherwise is evil - but it does explain why a book that portrays anything an authoritarian Christian dislikes sympathetically is such a big deal. Identifying writing and preaching as identical, and utterly opposed to their children hearing the preaching of other faiths, fundamentalists have to kick off about every book that presents a convincing and sympathetic depiction of human behaviour.
Hence, the banned-books list is a particularly good guide to anyone looking for challenging and well-written material. Odds are, if it's convincing enough to get a complaint, it's probably good, and if it offends authoritarians, it's probably got something sensible to say. Obviously not every protested book is a classic; the Goosebumps series gets a lot of complaints as well, and those are competent but undemanding spook stories rather than great works of literature - but it's notable what a lot of good stuff raises a fuss, and I, for one, feel motivated to check out some of the titles on that list that I haven't read, because I bet they're good. If we're Thinking Of The Children, obviously there's no need to forsake common sense; Anne Rice's erotica and the Anarchist Cookbook should not be on the same shelf as Roald Dahl, and if a librarian refused to check them out to a six-year-old, I doubt anybody reasonable would object. But to insist that such books shouldn't be available at all is not just Thinking Of The Children: it's demanding that adults can't read them either; it's asking that your library, which is supposed to be a cross-section of available literature, joins you in pretending that they don't exist at all. And that's a fantasy you've no business getting didactic about.
One of the things that interests me about lists of books that have gotten banned is that I never had any trouble getting my hands on them, at the appropriate age, which is a pretty ineffective sort of banning, to my mind.
I am curious to know how effective this banning is. Is it individual cities' or states' Boards of Education doing it, and does it stop kids from getting the same book in the public library, or from the store? (My experience of school libraries is that they were rarely open and rarely updated, due to the fact that I attended small religious private schools with little funding, so we were instructed to head on down the the main branch of the public library. There was a separate card for under-12s, if I recall correctly. But I'm aware that in some towns, public librarians get put under some pressure.)
I'm just wondering "aloud" here, not expecting you to do my research for me. :-D
What sorts of books have been on Banned lists in Britain? And what criteria drive this? (I wouldn't use "list" in the singular -- certainly there's never been one nationwide list for the U.S.)
@anthrophile, I don't know where you live, but in the United States, most book banning takes place in the "bible belt" southern states. It's a whole 'nother world down there, with fundamentalist beliefs getting in the way of civic life. In many ways it is as scary as the taliban.
Most book banning is local, done by a school district (parents pressure the school board, who are elected people) or a library. Rarely is it even town-wide, much less country-wide.
Because of that, it is pretty easy for someone to get their hands on a "banned" book. It might be banned from the school and local library, but freely available in the bookstores.
@Margaret Yang -- do you find that there are some situations where a kid would only have access to a school library? Okay, sorry, obviously there have got to be some situations where this is so, but is it really prevalent?
Or where a kid has access to a bookstore, but wouldn't read the banned book due to peer pressure? (Actually, I can see that happening pretty easily, never mind location.)
I'm from NYC and have absorbed, via location, a terrible phobia of everything below the Mason-Dixon line, which I'm trying to curb. We make a lot of wrong assumptions and generalizations up here. :-D (But I do have some friends who've told me some pretty scary anecdotes. But then, I have some of my own scary anecdotes.)
When I was a kid, we read Judy Blume and her ilk as a sort of group project -- we'd all be reading a paricular book at the same time or passing it around, but we never did it secretly. The concept of book-banning was always very esoteric to me. (Okay, so we didn't actually advertise that we'd gotten our hands on "Wifey" at age 11. But we did get our hands on it.)
In high school I remember the kids suggesting some books for class study and the teacher sort of shushing us ("Weeeeeeelll, no, we probably can't do that one") but not taking it away or advising us not to read it.
I did see some books confiscated as summer camp, though. Ha ha -- but as a nine-year-old I was mostly offended by the financial aspect of it. "They should pay her back her four dollars!!"
One of the reasons for outcry against Harry Potter/J. K. Rowling in the US is fairly similar to that against James and the Giant Peach. The idea that one must always "honor one's father and mother" no matter what - and, by extension, one's guardians, elders, and/or other authority figures - is skewered by Harry's relationship with the Dursleys. They mistreat him, they are indubitably in the wrong - yet a certain kind of Fundamentalist sees Harry's disrespect for them as a threateningly bad influence on their own kids. When Harry says of the Dursleys, "I don't think anyone could live with them without hating them," or when Harry lies to adults in order to protect his wrongly convicted godfather, Fundamentalist readers see a clear and present danger of attack on their traditional family values. Kids that disobey, hate, or lie to their parents/guardians/teachers! Why, it'll be witchcraft and homosexuality next! (Wait...)
(by the way, your "Macho Sue" analyses are being discussed over at Making Light, whose regulars are loving it. You should visit. :-)
Praline (this is Cactus Wren from Slacktivist), I appreciated the point that "a truly authoritarian Christian seems to have difficulty with the idea that, unlike the Bible, most books aren't primarily didactic." There's a prevalent notion among the would-be censors that if a book mentions X, it's necessarily teaching X: witness the notion that Professor Snape's line, "I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death" is intended to indoctrinate children about the pleasures of using illegal drugs.
There's also Lois Lowry's novel, "The Giver"; at one point in this book the young hero, Jonas, learns that his father -- a professional care-giver for newborn children -- regularly, as a part of his everyday duties, gives defective or undersized newborns lethal injections. This is possibly the most distressing scene in the book, where Jonas watches a video of his father euthanizing a newborn whose only "defect" is that it's the smaller of twins; Jonas is horrified, and the reader is meant to be just as horrified. But some would-be censors' interpretation of this scene, "How horrible! This book is teaching Our Children that it's good and important to kill babies!"
Ooh! Do you have a link to the Making Light thread? :-)
Yes, it's the denial of context that's so odd about the censorship attitude. That's why I wondered whether it might relate to an excessive reliance on the Bible for literal truths: if you believe that anybody in the Bible doing anything counts as scriptural precedent, and hence if a Biblical character did it, so should you, then that attitude might cut-and-paste over onto fiction: if Harry Potter does it, you must be supposed to do it as well (even if Harry Potter later concludes that he shouldn't have).
It's odd, though, because if you applied that logic, you could apply it to Christian polemics as well. The authors of Left Behind are encouraging adulterous thoughts! Jack Chick is encouraging - well, pretty much every sin he can think of! It's-teaching-our-children-to-sin doesn't seem to apply there, even though it's just as logical as applying it to the euthanasia scene in The Giver.
I suspect the real problem is that the books aren't written by People Like Us, but by authors who are a bit more prepared to be forgiving of human foibles. And that can be powerful.
Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians cites a study in which a teacher 'comes out' to homophobic authoritarian students (Altemeyer tried it - he was actually heterosexual and married, but the students didn't know that), and then later tests how their attitudes changed. Generally, their opinions of him have dropped a little, but their attitudes towards gay people in general have improved - because knowing a perfectly nice, normal-seeming person who does something you've always been told is the sole province of monstrous freaks can, if not change your ideas, at least loosen them up a little.
Which is one of the things that fiction does best. Seeing behaviour from inside characters' heads enlarges our sympathies: you may not approve of everything Lois Duncan's protagonists do, but you can see how they get there. If your attitude is 'We need to condemn a little more, and understand a little less' (thank you, John Major), then an insightful work of fiction is the last thing you want your kids to read.
Trouble is, the devil has all the best tunes. In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan points out that the standard of short stories in women's magazines had dropped sharply since the happy housewife became the icon of feminity, and comments:
Perhaps the new image ofwoman did not permit the internal honesty, the depth of perception, and the human truth essential to good fiction.
The idea that everyone who isn't exactly like you is bad is just nonsense, and there's a limit to how good a story you can write from a nonsensical starting point. It's building a house on sand. The authors who write from a solid foundation of human sympathy and open-mindedness are far more likely to write exciting and memorable stories. As long as kids have access to everything, the poor censors are fighting something of a losing battle: the didactic stuff they have to offer is simply not as good as the more compassionate stuff. That's why they have to remove them from the libraries outright if they want to stop kids getting their eager little hands on them: given the choice, kids will read the better stories.
One can only hope that the libraries are putting up a decent fight.
You're spot on about the authoritarian concerns. I read an account of a survey years ago that found that next to sex, the number one objection to books in school (whether taught or in the library) was that they showed kids making decisions independently of parents, solving problems on their own or (gasp!) parents being outright wrong.
But with Harry, it is most definitely the magic that's the issue (though the independent kids would probably bug some book banners too). Pretty much anything involving the supernatural is seen as coming between kids/people and God: Either it's "teaching" them magic (and some silly people do seem to think that Rowling's book is a reliable text on this point) or it's making them curious, but either way, it's making them think about the devil's stuff (Dark Shadows got a lot of this back in the day, too).
Similarly, the high school one county over had to cancel a student production of Blithe Spirit on the grounds it's a)anti-Christian and pro-magic (since the ghost is raised by a ouija board) b)anti traditional marriage; c)therefore a tool of Satan to corrupt innocent kids (no, that's not an interpretation, that's what some pastors said). Plus being full of darkness and despair.
Why yes, I do live in the Bible belt, how could you tell?
Lots of kids don't have ready access to public libraries, which often don't have that many open hours and which require a parent to drive them to. These are the kids who are unlikely to be able to afford new books either. "Freely available in a bookstore" is meaningless: the children for whom this is an issue won't know to look for banned books in general, even if they could afford to buy all the books their libraries didn't have.
There's a common theme I see running through, say, online reviews of quite a few children's and YA books that not only troubles but baffles me -- parents who don't want their kids (usually not tiny children, but 12-, 13-, and 14-year-olds) "exposed" to the behaviors laid out in books written expressly for this age group. Would these parents prefer that the kid confronts these behaviors for the first time in real life with no experience or knowledge of how or when to defend themselves, or refuse, or run away?
There's a book I read recently called "The Edification of Sonya Crane," which was possibly the best book to ever come out of the "Kimani Tru" line just for sheer writing ability, let alone the originality of the subject matter -- a young working-class white girl transfers to an all-black school and finds acceptance and popularity in passing for half-black. (The author, J Guilford, is a gay black man who has written profoundly on issues of identity envy, passing, and adoption of culture.) She's the daughter of an unstable single mom who's boyfriend attempts to assault her -- this is integral characterization, illustrating the life she has and why she wants to reinvent herself (not to mention, she gets away, which is a nice lesson in itself). In recasting herself as a black teen, she finds a nationalist boyfriend, dreadlocks her hair, weaves an ever-deepening tissue of lies about her background, and out-zealots even her new best friend (a black girl who conceals her high grades, college acceptance, and middle class background) preaching and supporting complicated -- and erroneous -- facts about African history. Finally, after a few serious personal disasters, one of which is not resolved by the story's end, she comes to a realization about her motivations in this cultural appropriation.
In the negative reviews, this plot is reduced to "a celebration of pedophilia, oral sex, and the n-word." I wonder if the posters of these reviews think that their teenage children have not already come into contact with these things in the real world? Surely confronting the negative in fiction, where it can be digested and discussed and -- to an extent -- planned for, is better than being flung out into life unprepared.
The kerfluffle over the word "scrotum" in Susan Patron's "The Higher Power of Lucky" is an ever sillier example. What would these detractors prefer it to be called? (I know, I know, they would prefer to leave it totally unreferenced...)
If everyone is doing the right thing, there is no story.
Would these parents prefer that the kid confronts these behaviors for the first time in real life with no experience or knowledge of how or when to defend themselves, or refuse, or run away?
I think the idea is that if nobody talks about them, nobody will know that they're possible, and everyone will behave impeccably. Not true, of course, but this is an attitude that seems to have trouble telling reality from fiction anyway...
Well... I do know some churchfolk who feel that people should not read fiction, any fiction, at all. (Because it is not real and therefore lies?) It makes it all the more significant, I think, that a study or two in Toronto found that fiction readers score better on empathy and reading people.
Just because I have difficulty NOT going off on tangents -- what does it say, though, that by far most of these "banned" books seem to be the most enduring, or at least popular? Do people just inherently ban quality; does banning (and the resulting controversy) drive sales?
(By the way, "WHOSE boyfriend." *facepalm* I hate that mixup.)
what does it say, though, that by far most of these "banned" books seem to be the most enduring, or at least popular?
I'd guess that it's partly notoriety: nobody tries to ban a book they haven't heard of. Also, popularity makes a book look more like a threat. Christians are far more worked up about J.K. Rowling than Dianna Wynne Jones or Jill Murphy or any of the other authors who write about witches and wizards, because they're only very successful rather than phenomenally, literary-landscape-changingly so. Rowling's sales figures make her look like a massive cultural movement on the march: she has the weight of numbers behind her, and for people who think very much in terms of social grouping, that's scary.
I actually live in the Bible Belt. I have read Harry Potter and found the books distracting, a fast read, and pretty darn formulaic. And I have yet to sacrifice a goat to Satan or do anything worse than wave my pencil about and make a fool of myself with Rowling's doggy Latin in the privacy of my own home.
I think that's doing more than a lot of people who are advocating banning the books. I think they're utterly ignorant of the Harry Potter phenomenon aside from what's on the tube and hung up in posters and such. They don't read Harry Potter because they don't read. But their pastor has told them everything they need to know about Harry Potter, just as their parents' pastor told them everything they needed to know about the Beatles and, later, Dungeons & Dragons. A lot of people around here put much of their faith in their pastor, trusting him to be correct because the Holy Spirit is working through him (or so he claims). Who are you to doubt the pastor's word?
So the whole thing is just more snake oil. The pastor tells you he's infallible, not directly, but by claiming a calling to minister from the Big G Himself. That sets up a big network of social pressure that is brought to bear on the congregant. If the pastor tells you that Judy Blume is an Awful Woman, then she must be.
I hope I'm making myself clear. This is a more complex issue than I thought it was when I began this post.
There are also issues with the stigma of being a reader. Reading is what they want you to do in school. Reading is what nerds do. I have encountered at least one person who was fiercely proud of his non-reader status and was obviously scornful of my own reading habits.
I suppose, too, if you're looking for a big enemy to bang the drum about, which seems to be a major part of such traditions, books are a pretty safe target. Authors are single individuals, and publishers don't sue because they believe in free speech and because the right to give a book a bad recommendation is the underpinning of the whole reviews system. If you declare that nobody should read this or that book, you can claim there's a tremendous danger in the air, but you're not actually endangering yourself.
You get the satisfaction of fighting a war, without the inconvenience of an aggressive enemy. Which, from the outside, seems to be something that many Christian fundamentalists are fond of: the appearance of courage and heroism without actually risking themselves. All you have to do is declare yourself under attack by the fact of other people living differently from you - even when they're not trying to make you live like them - and you're fighting a war that can never cost you any casualties. (You can claim people who stopped going to your church as casualties as well, rather than having to acknowledge that they lost faith in you, which is an added bonus.)
Aggressive cowardice tends to lead to making other people pay the price, though, as witness the current fondness for wars overseas. Please vote Democrat, everyone!
Because it is not real and therefore lies?
I believe that's the same view the Puritans of England had of stage-actors.
"The fiction writer is paid for his day-dreaming. But as far as the effect on the reade ris concerned, it makes little difference whether the day-dream is one's own, or whether it has been written down by somene else. Day-dreaming, whether original or second-hand, has the effect of taking a person away from the real world in which he lives. It causes him to live in a world of make-believe. This is the principal reason why the reading of fiction is not desirable."—"On Being a Woman," 1951.
More fascinating excerpts from this book (did you know that women who masturbate will lose bodily strength and cripple their immune system?) at blinkytreefrog's livejournal blog.
(Amaryllis on Slacktivist)
Hi Kit! I lurk on your blog occasionally, and just noticed this one. Interesting post.
One can only hope that the libraries are putting up a decent fight.
They are. That's a list of Challenged books, not Banned books. The ALA site confirms my impression that most of the challenges are unsuccessful. Of course, even one successful banning is deplorable, and these challenges need to be strenuously opposed so they go on being unsuccessful. As J.K Rowling would say in the person of Professor Moody: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
I live in a pretty liberal area of the US, where this kind of thing isn't much of an issue. In the rare event that someone tries to ban a book from the public schools or libraries, the general reaction is, "You've got to be kidding."
(Also, to confirm that "one man's meat is another man's poison," I notice that several of the challenged books had appeared on required or recommended reading lists at my daughter's schools. I didn't think it was possible to graduate from an American middle or high school without having read To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance. And if Where's Waldo is the picture book I'm thinking of, all I can say is, Huh?)
Which is one of the things that fiction does best. Seeing behaviour from inside characters' heads enlarges our sympathies
Exactly. In my own childhood and adolescence, I wasn't particularly fond of the YA problem novel. I read lots of fantasy and historical fiction, just to imagine lives far different from my own. Eventually, of course, I realized that everybody's lives were different.
magnet5: I remember reading in Gillian Gill's biography of Florence Nightingale that she regarded daydreaming (possibly erotic daydreaming, speculates the author) as her besetting, life-long sin. And no one could say that she has no real-world effectiveness! But apparently she was ashamed of herself anyway.
Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians cites a study in which a teacher 'comes out' to homophobic authoritarian students (Altemeyer tried it - he was actually heterosexual and married, but the students didn't know that), and then later tests how their attitudes changed. Generally, their opinions of him have dropped a little, but their attitudes towards gay people in general have improved - because knowing a perfectly nice, normal-seeming person who does something you've always been told is the sole province of monstrous freaks can, if not change your ideas, at least loosen them up a little.
I'm just curious, Ms. Whitfield, have you ever even met a "fundamentalist Christian" of the kind you regularly excoriate? Altemeyer, by the way, is pseudo-scientific rubbish as is, sadly, a great deal of psychology.
Just for the record, I'm an atheist myself.
Sorry to return to this thread so late!
1) Another actual Fundamentalist Christian reaction to Harry Potter (why yes, andrew stevens, I have indeed met real people who fit the description, although I'm not Ms. Witfield and thus not the person you asked the question of) that totally made my jaw drop: The Fundie quoted Voldemort talking about how drinking unicorns' blood had given him extra health points or whatever--therefore the book was promoting the killing of innocent creatures!
So once again the context is being omitted, resulting in the mistake of tasking the author for promoting the antagonist's agenda.
(I will not go into the absurdity of the conflicting issues the Fundie has about magic, to damn magic but defend magical creatures, etc.)
2) Since I'm so late seeing your question, I'm not sure how useful a link will be, but here's the thread.
3) Request! Can you enable your comments page to show date of post, not just time? I have no idea quite how outdated I am here, but I do know that andrew stevens posted at 11:07 PM. On some evening or other.
Even later addendum:
Quoth andrew stevens, Altemeyer, by the way, is pseudo-scientific rubbish as is, sadly, a great deal of psychology.
Quoth Orcinus: The bulk of [John Dean's] Conservatives Without Conscience is based on the research of Dr. Robert Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba, a social psychologist specializing in the psychology of authoritarianism. Altemeyer received the prestigious Association for the Advancement of Science prize for behavioral sciences for this research, and it is widely accepted in academia (though, as you might imagine, not so much among conservatives!).
It sounds like a large bulk of the academic and scientific community is in disagreement with this-here andrew stevens as regards Altemeyer.
Patrick Heaven in 1984 did a general population survey to find what peer-rated behaviors the RWA scale significantly predicted. It predicted submissiveness (r=.22) and authoritarianism (r=.20), but with very low levels of correlation. It much more significantly predicted conservatism (r=.51). So what Altemeyer was studying appears to be largely just some form of conservatism (though note that the r for conservatism isn't very high either). Oddly, though, it is a very strange type of conservatism. Altemeyer himself tells us on p. 239 of Enemies of Freedom that "Right-wing authoritarians show little preference in general for any political party." So the conservatism Dr. Altemeyer was studying doesn't even correlate with voting for the more conservative party. Moreover, RWA types in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe showed that high RWA scores were correlated with support for Communism. So this "personality type" he's studying is non-political in America, but Communist in Communist countries. Very strange for a "right-wing" scale.
Having failed to show that high RWAs are more likely to vote Republican, he then tries to show that Republican lawmakers are likely to be high RWAs. In Chapter 6 of The Authoritarians, he gives the results of his mailing out his survey to thousands of legislators and tabulating the results. Since most legislators didn't respond at all, you'd think this would cause his results to be far too subject to self-selection bias to be meaningful. You'd be right and Altemeyer acknowledges this, but then decides to draw conclusions anyway and bizarrely claims that the results are probably even more pronounced had he been able to do a genuinely valid study. (He presents no evidence for this assertion.) It turns out that the Republican legislators who answered did score higher than the Democratic legislators (hardly surprisingly since the test certainly does seem to test for "traditional values" as well as authoritarianism), though everyone was apparently below 140 and it seems pretty clear that none of them are actually "high RWAs."
Altemeyer then gives his bias away with the following quote: "evidence was piling up that the Republicans had stolen the 2004 presidential election through voter fraud and dirty tricks in Ohio." I myself voted for Kerry in 2004. Only cranks believe that Ohio was stolen by Republicans in 2004.
On the general research, there is significant evidence from studies done by Ray and Lovejoy that there is no such thing as a consistent or overall attitude to authority, for the obvious reason that people are discriminating about what authority they will accept, so the entire issue seems to be a non-starter.
It is true, of course, that Enemies of Freedom won the prize you mention. It's impossible for me to say how well accepted Altemeyer's work is since not very many people do research in that particular field. I have no idea how widely cited he is and I doubt Orcinus does either. As near as I can tell, Altemeyer isn't so much accepted as ignored except for those who wish to push their own ideological agenda, which unfortunately includes a lot of academics.
There is one good thing that can be said about Altemeyer's scale. He did seem to do a good job of showing that his test was reliable. It is about as reliable as the better IQ tests, so it's clearly measuring something. What he does not actually show is that his test is valid, that it is actually measuring what he claims it is measuring. To the extent that he was trying to show that authoritarians in American politics tend to be Republicans, he was a clear failure by his own admission. Altemeyer is very candid about his own confusion about what he's measuring in a footnote which appears in Chapter 1 of The Authoritarians. He writes, "When writing for a general audience, I bandy about terms such as 'conservative' and 'right-wing' with the same exquisite freedom that journalists, columnists and politicians do. It's actually very hard to define these phrases rigorously, partly because they have been used over the ages to describe such very different people and movements. But we're all friends here, so let's pretend I know what I am talking about when I use those words."
This sort of thing continues to be a problem: recently a teacher was suspended for teaching a book because a member of the local schoolboard objected to the swearing...
And I can't speak for Ms Whitfield, but I know that I have certainly met fundamentalist Christians of exactly the type she excoriates. (Which is not to say that I haven't met a few authoritarian atheists in my time as well...)
Have you looked at Slacktivist, Andrew? Fred Clark, the blogger there, dissects the "Left Behind" books and repeatedly points out what seem to me (at any rate) to be literary examples of authoritarian thinking...
Have you looked at Slacktivist, Andrew? Fred Clark, the blogger there, dissects the "Left Behind" books and repeatedly points out what seem to me (at any rate) to be literary examples of authoritarian thinking...
I haven't read the blog nor have I read the Left Behind series. The best selling book in that series sold 3 million copies. Now, that's a pretty high selling book, but ten times as many people watch American Idol. I have no doubts that the Left Behind series are terrible books.
In any event, the biggest problem to me is what crucial difference exists between those on the right who wish to dominate the political process and those on the left who wish to dominate the political process. Bob Altemeyer is every bit as "authoritarian" as the people he's criticizing. He wants to crush these people and he makes no real bones about it. Indeed, he's gone to a great deal of trouble to try to demonstrate that their political beliefs constitute a pathology and, presumably, we should lock them all up for the good of society. Those of us with a genuine, rather than feigned, distrust of authoritarianism find the authoritarianism of a Dr. Altemeyer at least as disturbing as that of his opponents. Perhaps Dr. Altemeyer will one day realize that he's looking into a mirror, though I doubt it.
I live and work among a great many evangelicals. They are, in general, lovely people, devoted to charity and good works. They have opinions about, for example, homosexuality that I find distasteful, but even there they adopt the view of "hate the sin, but love the sinner" and I have never met one who was anything less than polite to an uncloseted homosexual, though they can say truly offensive things about homosexuals as a group. (No more offensive than what many people on the left say about businessmen and businesswomen as a group, though.)
Forgive my preaching, though. Since you acknowledge the existence of authoritarian atheists (Richard Dawkins anyone?), I presume that we probably don't disagree on much. Evangelical Christians may be the most unpopular minority in America today (well, perhaps second to smokers) and, to a very real extent, I am probably more concerned about the authoritarianism of their opponents, especially after reading the disturbing lengths to which opponents like Dr. Altemeyer will go to convince us that they are "sick."
1. Yes I've met fundamentalists. Don't assume ignorance on my part just because you don't like what I'm saying.Post a comment
2. Bob Altemeyer is every bit as "authoritarian" as the people he's criticizing
'I'm rubber, you're glue' is not an argument I have any patience with. The word is very precisely defined in his book, and it does NOT mean 'holding a strong opinion'. It means a tendency to submit to authority, not to assert your own beliefs.
3. So this "personality type" he's studying is non-political in America, but Communist in Communist countries. Very strange for a "right-wing" scale.
Altemeyer clearly states that 'I'm using the word "right" in one of its earliest meanings, for in Old English "riht" (pronounced "writ") as an adjective meant lawful, proper, correct, doing what the authorities said' (p9). Hence, it's not a political term; RWAs tend to be on the right in America, the left in Communist countries, but the word 'right' as he uses it is NOT a reference to social policies.
4. He wants to crush these people and he makes no real bones about it.
This is so far from correct that it baffles me; either you haven't read the book properly, haven't understood it, or you're lying on purpose, and I honestly don't know which. He makes no bones about not wanting authoritarians of ANY political stripe to dominate the arena, but that's far from demanding their destruction. If you read the final chapter, his suggestions tend towards joining them in community projects and holding ecumenical services together. Read p 244: 'Don't use violence as a tool to advance your cause' is his explicit advice. Altemeyer smash!
5. Indeed, he's gone to a great deal of trouble to try to demonstrate that their political beliefs constitute a pathology and, presumably, we should lock them all up for the good of society.
Wrong. First, he's gone to trouble to demonstrate that it's a personality type, not a pathology. 'Pathology' implies mental illness; what he's talking about are people who are mentally well, but whose attitudes can have have negative political consequences no matter what their political stripe. But, as anyone who reads the book will observe, it's about how people relate to their political beliefs, not the beliefs themselves, that's the problem. And he never advocates violence or oppression of any kind. His suggestions, as I've said, tend towards befriending and gentle disagreement, not imprisonment.
Your implication is that Altemeyer is attacking conservative voters under the guise of psychological study to advance his own political beliefs. This is incorrect. He explicitly addresses his readers on p 247 as 'you, and other liberals, other moderates, other conservatives with conscience'. That covers pretty much the entire political spectrum. You cannot make a convincing case that his beef is with conservatism rather than with fanaticism. Altemeyer himself identifies as a political Independent.(p 196)
6. Talking about authoritarian fundamentalist Christians is not talking about ALL Christians, or even all evangelicals. I'm no enemy to Christians; I regularly post, for instance, on the blog Roger points out, Slacktivist, which is run by an evangelical Christian and an excellent man. I have Christian friends. I'm an agnostic myself. I'm not insulting your mates, I'm insisting that anyone who wants to ban books on religious grounds is entirely wrong on this particular issue, and I stand by that.
7. Don't charge in like the Light Brigade accusing me of ignorantly supporting violence and oppression. It's not true, it's aggressive, and it's rude. I'm always interested in hearing people's opinions, so there's no need to trump up enmity between us if you want to disagree, but I'm not interested in being insulted, nor am I obliged to put up with it. It you want to make a point, make it civilly.
<< Home
July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 March 2014


text:
Shoutcast streaming server, includes DarkIce for audio input (eg: mic).
Install notes:
- DietPi will attempt to detect mic input during installation, and apply to DarkIce. If a mic was not available, or you experience issue, check available mics with:
Code: Select all
arecord -l
- Then edit the device entry in /etc/darkice.cfg, or
- Simple copy and paste:
Code: Select all
sed -i "/^device[[:space:]]/c\device = hw:$(arecord -l | grep -m1 'card' | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/://'),0" /etc/darkice.cfg
- Restart services
Code: Select all
dietpi-services restart
- We created a SystemD service for DarkIce, DietPi will automatically start this:
systemctl status darkice -l
- url = http://192.168.0.100:8000
- source password = dietpi
- relay password = dietpi
- admin password = randomly generated, use code below to view:
Code: Select all
cat /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml | grep admin-password
This is disabled by default.
- A recording of the stream can be enabled by editing /etc/darkice.cfg, then un-commenting localDumpFile = /mnt/dietpi_userdata/darkice_recording.ogg
- Restart services:
Code: Select all
dietpi-services restart
- A recording will then be saved in the following location:
Code: Select all
>> Return to DietPi-Software List

subset: commoncrawl


text:
COVID-19: We can still offer delivery. Learn more +
Lanificio F.lli Cerruti Taupe Whipcord Suit
€299 €469
- 100% Wool Super 120'S
- Taupe Plain Fabric
- Single Breasted 2 Button
- 4 Button Flap Pocket, Side Vents
- Half Canvased
- Available In Slim And Contemporary Fit
All of our orders are shipped for €5 worldwide. We also offer an express courier service for €15 worldwide. Read more about shipping on our Shipping page.
Please note that we do not deliver to PO Boxes
Shipping costs are non-refundable.
Not happy with your purchase? It is very easy to exchange or return your item with Gagliardi. Check out the full returns process on our Returns page.
*Gagliardi will not accept any return on the below categories: shoes, accessories, underwear, socks and swimwear.
*You have 1 month from the date of purchase to return your item/s..


text:
Last Updated (Monday, 11 November 2013 16:48)
For the most part everyone is generating at any time thier own bio-energetic field. The body itself has its electromagnetic field (EMF), also known as the auric field. The brain's neurons operatate with its own electric system. The heart generates an EMF.
But few get to the point of actualy 'firing up' thier Light Body or maybe the same or very related is thier Core Being of Light.
At the point the pineal gland is de-calcified and activated, this ignites the fuse for enhancing the Light Body. There are many esoteric traditions of the Body of Light, the Garment or Cloak of light, or also is refered to as the Rainbow Body.
Tibetan 'A' (Aum/Om) - symbol of the Rainbow Body.
The main point here is that using the process of personal healing, "the work" - aka "the Great Perfection" (Dzogchen), and becoming a transpersonal being, the evolution of your being also entails enhancing your Light.
As your energy is healed and cleansed of past issues and raised integrity, the next phase is energizing your "Core", this is your Total Self in combination with igniting your Core Light. Personal responsability and empowerment over your energy, evolution and hence destiny.
Research of the last few decades has shown that the body has a field (e.g. Kirlian method), as well as cells and DNA emit and store photons. Although here I am focusing on beyond regular, physical light. The ability for DNA to store and transmit energy/light plays a key role in health, cancer, and nutrition.
Starlines and Starlines 2 (TMI)
Core Heart workshop :: Core Light Unity process
More on the heartspace as a portal: 3-aspect heart :: Opening the Way
WIlliam Henry's Site
Documentary: The Knowledge of Healing (1997)
Manna (light-body superfood)
Various chapters in The Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock


text:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Metro says travelers on the orange and red lines will wait longer for trains this weekend because of work.
Metro says that beginning Friday at 10 p.m. and continuing through system closing on Sunday, orange line trains will operate every 24 minutes.
On the red line, travelers will see trains every 18 minutes. There will be additional red line trains from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. between Van Ness and Judiciary Square.
On Saturday, green line trains will operate on a regular weekend schedule except for at the Greenbelt station, where trains will arrive and depart every 24 minutes between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Yellow and blue line trains will run on a regular weekend schedule.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


text:
March 23, 2015
John Eldredge is an author (you probably figured that out), a counselor, and a teacher. He is also president of Ransomed Heart, a ministry devoted to helping people discover the heart of God, recover their own hearts in God's love, and learn to live in God's Kingdom. John met his wife, Stasi, in high school.... READ MORE


text:
For More Information or to test the "Trading Robot" in a free Demo Account to practice trading in real market conditions using real market tools.
USA Citizens can now Trade Binary Options simply select "Empire Options" upon account opening.
Open your Account: Open your account
More Information: Get more information or speak with a Broker
Customer Support: having problems or need help click here
A Guide To Trading Binary Options In The U.S.
Binary options are based on a simple 'yes' or 'no' proposition: Will an underlying asset be above a certain price at a certain time? Traders place trades based on whether they believe the answer is yes or no, making it one of the simplest financial assets to trade. This simplicity has resulted in broad appeal amongst traders and newcomers to the financial markets. As simple as it may seem, traders should fully understand how binary options work, what markets and time frames they can trade with binary options, advantages and disadvantages of these products, and which companies are legally authorized to provide binary options to U.S. residents.
Binary options traded outside the U.S. are typically structured differently than binaries available on U.S. exchanges. When considering speculating or hedging, binary options are an alternative, but only if the trader fully understands the two potential outcomes of these "exotic options."
U.S. Binary Options Explained
Binary options provide a way to trade markets with capped risk and capped profit potential, based on a 'yes' or 'no' proposition.
For example: Will the price of gold be above $1,250 at 1:30 p.m. today?
If you believe it will be, you buy the binary option. If think gold will be below $1,250 at 1:30 p.m., then you sell this binary option.
The price of a binary option is always between $0 and $100, and just like other financial markets, there is a bid and ask price.
The above binary may be trading at $42.50 (bid) and $44.50 (offer) at 1 p.m. If you buy the binary option right then you will pay $44.50, if you decide to sell right then you'll sell at $42.50.
Let's assume you decide to buy at $44.50. If at 1:30 p.m. the the price of gold is above $1,250, your option expires and it becomes worth $100. You make a profit of $100 – $44.50 = $55.50 (less fees). This is called being "in the money."
But if the price of gold is below $1,250 at 1:30 p.m., the option expires at $0. Therefore you lose the $44.50 invested. This called "out of the money."
The bid and offer fluctuate until the option expires. You can close your position at any time before expiry to lock in a profit or a reduce a loss (compared to letting it expire out of the money).
A Zero-sum Game
Eventually every option settles at $100 or $0; $100 if the binary option proposition is true, and $0 if it turns out to be false. Thus each binary option has a total value potential of $100, and it is a zero-sum game – what you make someone else loses, and what you lose someone else makes.
Each trader must put up the capital for their side of the trade. In the examples above, you purchased an option at $44.50, and someone sold you that option. Your maximum risk is $44.50 if the option settles at $0, therefore the trade costs you $44.50. The person who sold to you has a maximum risk of $55.50 if the option settles at $100 ($100 – $44.50 = $55.50).
A trader may purchase multiple contracts, if desired.
Another example: NASDAQ US Tech 100 index > $3,784 (11 a.m.).
The current bid and offer is $74.00 and $80.00, respectively. If you think the index will be above $3,784 at 11 a.m., you buy the binary option at $80 (or place a bid at a lower price and hope someone sells to you at that price). If you the think the index will be below $3,784 at that time, you sell at $74.00 (or place an offer above that price and hope someone buys it from you).
You decide to sell at $74.00, believing the index is going to fall below $3,784 (called the "strike price") by 11 a.m. And if you really like the trade, you can sell (or buy) multiple contracts.
Figure 1 shows a trade to sell five contracts ("size") at $74.00. The Nadex platform automatically calculates your maximum loss and gain when you create an order, called a "ticket."
The maximum profit on this ticket is $370 ($74 x 5 = $370), and the maximum loss is $130 ($100 – $74 = $26 x 5 = $130) based on five contracts and a sell price of $74.00. (For more on this topic, see Introduction To Binary Options)
How the Bid and Ask are Determined
The bid and ask are determined by traders themselves as they assess the probability of the proposition being true or not. In simple terms, if the bid and ask on a binary option are at 85 and 89, respectively, then traders are assuming a very high probability that the outcome of the binary option will be 'yes,' and option will expire worth $100. If the bid and ask are near 50, traders are unsure if the binary will expire at $0 or $100 – it's even odds.
If the bid and ask are at 10 and 15, respectively, that indicates traders think there is a high likelihood the option outcome will be 'no,' and expire worth $0. The buyers in this area are willing take the small risk for a big gain. While those selling are willing to take a small – but very likely – profit for a large risk (relative to their gain).
Where to Trade Binary Options
Binary options trade on the Nadex exchange, the first legal U.S. exchange focused on binary options. Nadex provides its own browser-based binary options trading platform which traders can access via demo account or live account. The trading platform provides real-time charts along with direct market access to current binary option prices.
Binary options are also available through the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). Anyone with an options-approved brokerage account can trade CBOE binary options through their traditional trading account. Not all brokers provide binary options trading, however.
There are no commissions on Trading Binary Option, you can trade 1000 times a day and not pay a single penny in Commission
If you hold your trade until settlement and finish in the money, the fee to exit is assessed to you at expiry.
If you hold the trade until settlement, but finish out of the money, no trade fee to exit is assessed.
CBOE binary options are traded through various option brokers; each charge their own commission fee.
Pick Your Binary Market
Multiple asset classes are tradable via binary option. Nadex offers trading in major indices such as the Dow 30 (Wall Street 30), the S&P 500 (US 500), Nasdaq 100 (US TECH 100) and Russell 2000 (US Smallcap 2000). Global indices for the United Kingdom (FTSE 100), Germany (Germany 30) and Japan (Japan 225) are also available.
Trades can be placed on forex pairs: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, GBP/JPY, USD/CHF, EUR/GBP, as well as AUD/JPY.
Nadex offers commodity binary options related to the price of crude oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper, corn and soybeans.
Trading news events is also possible with event binary options. Buy or sell options based on whether the Federal Reserve will increase or decrease rates, or whether jobless claims and nonfarm payrolls will come in above or below consensus estimates. (For more on this topic, see Exotic Options: A Getaway From Ordinary Trading)
The CBOE offers two binary options for trade. An S&P 500 Index option (BSZ) based on the the S&P 500 Index, and a Volatility Index option (BVZ) based on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX).
Pick Your Time Frame
A trader may choose from Nadex binary options (in the above asset classes) that expire hourly, daily or weekly.
Hourly options provide opportunity for day traders, even in quiet market conditions, to attain an established return if they are correct in choosing the direction of the market over that time frame.
Daily options expire at the end of the trading day, and are useful for day traders or those looking to hedge other stock, forex or commodity holdings against that day's movements.
Weekly options expire at the end of trading week, and are therefore traded by swing traders throughout the week, and also by day traders as the options' expiry approaches on Friday afternoon.
Event-based contracts expire after the official news release associated with the event, and therefore all types of traders take positions well in advance of — and right up to – the expiry.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Unlike the actual stock or forex markets where price gaps or slippage can occur, the risk on binary options is capped. It's not possible to lose more than the cost of the trade.
Better-than-average returns are also possible in very quiet markets. If a stock index or forex pair is barely moving, it's hard to profit, but with a binary option the payout is known. If you buy a binary option at $20, it will either settle at $100 or $0, making you $80 on your $20 investment or losing you $20. This is a 4:1 reward to risk ratio, an opportunity which is unlikely to be found in the actual market underlying the binary option.
The flip side of this is that your gain is always capped. No matter how much the stock or forex pair moves in your favor, the most a binary option option can be worth is $100. Purchasing multiple options contracts is one way to potentially profit more from an expected price move.
Since binary options are worth a maximum of $100, that makes them accessible to traders even with limited trading capital, as traditional stock day trading limits do not apply. Trading can begin with a $100 deposit at Nadex.
Binary options are a derivative based on an underlying asset, which you do not own. Therefore, you're not entitled to voting rights or dividends that you'd be entitled to if you owned an actual stock.
The Bottom Line
Binary options are based on a 'yes' or 'no' proposition. Your profit and loss potential are determined by your buy or sell price, and whether the option expires worth $100 or $0. Risk and reward are both capped, and you can exit an options at any time before expiry to lock in a profit or reduce a loss. Binary options within the U.S are traded via the Nadex and CBOE exchanges. Foreign companies soliciting U.S. residents to trade their form of binary options are usually operating illegally. Binary options trading has a low barrier to entry, but just because something is simple doesn't mean it'll be easy to make money with. There is always someone else on the other side of the trade who thinks they're correct and you're wrong. Only trade with capital you can afford to lose, and trade a demo account to become completely comfortable with how binary options work before trading with real capital.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
2015 Powered By Iastra Broadcasting All Rights Reserved
Iastra Digital Entertainment Association (I.D.E.A.) Dismiss


text:
I have no clue what figure that is or when it was released. The helmet and legs are too skinny to be the seargent (CW SA EII) repainted white.My guess is that it's a prototype that wasn't released. The helmet kinda looks like the Evo helmet but not quite.
Page created in 0.063 seconds with 19 queries.


text:
- Font:
- +
- -
HANKSVILLE, Utah — While robots have been scurrying around Mars for months, researchers here on Earth have been trying to make a little bit of Utah seem more like the Red Planet.
Six-member teams have spent weeks in a silo-shaped module here trying to simulate what astronauts might endure should they ever wander Mars. Researchers even strap on air packs and 30-pound (14-kilogram) boots when they step outside.
The Mars Desert Research Station is one of two living laboratories operated by the Mars Society, an organization dedicated to Mars exploration. The society's other operating habitat is in an equally remote section of Canada. Another is planned for Iceland, and more could be in the works.
The society locates the habitats in areas similar to Mars — both in climate and geography. The Hanksville station stands in a vivid red landscape of cracked dirt, loose soil, rolling hills and jutting cliffs — bearing a striking resemblance to the Mars photographs retrieved from NASA's rovers.
"It looks alien, and it's in a desert with infrequent rain," said Tony Muscatello, project manager of the desert habitat. "Some of the land forms there are remarkably similar in a lot of ways."
Stimulating interest, doing science
The goal of the habitats, participants say, is to stimulate public interest in manned Mars missions by replicating the potential experience on Earth.
NASA doesn't directly sponsor or fund the habitats, but sends its researchers to participate. Habitat findings are offered to the space agency and other professionals to support exploration research.
During the roughly six-month testing season, the habitat is staffed by revolving six-member crews that spend two weeks apiece in "space." It plays host to working geologists, physicists, biologists and engineers from companies and colleges all over the world.
Crew members make outside contact with colleagues and family only through e-mail and online chat. Cell phones don't work on Mars, and the crew's satellite telephone hasn't lately, either. A delivery man from Hanksville, roughly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away, is the crew's sole link to packages and parts.
That remoteness, Muscatello said, helps make the simulation feel more authentic. It's part of the reason NASA is using the center to test communication systems for a Mars simulation.
Repairs needed
Parts of the $1.5 million facility appear to be deteriorating — and crew No. 27 is spending most of its time trying to fix and diagnose problems.
Many of the problems deal with communication. The cable connecting a satellite dish to the habitat module is frayed somewhere and routinely malfunctions. Plenty of dead spots exist in field communication when crew members are out exploring.
Crew members sleep in roughly 5-by-12-foot (1.5-by-3.5-meter) quarters, and spend most of their time in the habitat in one room which functions as a kitchen, computer lab and living room. There is a healthy collection of books and DVDs, including two copies of "Red Planet" — a 2000 science fiction thriller about Mars exploration.
Great lengths are taken to ensure that the simulation feels realistic. Crew members rarely leave the habitat module without full space gear. They spend 20 minutes before entering and exiting the module in a mock decompression chamber to simulate the routine they'd have to perform in space.
Gloves and green water
Besides upkeep, the current crew is working on new variations of space gloves and reducing algae in the water system.
"I came to get an understanding of how humans live in this type of habitat," Diaz said.
Jim Russell, who is pursuing a doctorate in aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado, has been overhauling the water system.
The problem: Water used in showers should be available for reuse in flushing toilets, but it always grew too much algae when placed in storage. So Russell is trying to develop bacteria in the water that will dissolve the soap and out-compete the algae for oxygen.
Watching the rovers
Researchers at the desert habitat keep a close watch on information retrieved by NASA's Mars rovers, and use it to compare the Red Planet's landscape with the barren desert surrounding them.
The fact that manned missions to Mars might not be feasible within the lifetimes of the habitat's workers doesn't seem to dim their ambition.
"Maybe 50 years from now, people will want to go and they'll just go," Diaz says. "It will be that easy."
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Filter Category / Location
Top Searches in Jobs in Johor - Malaysia
Gumtree Alerts
Get a daily email with the latest ads in your areas of interest. Free and easy to cancel.
Alert Filters:
By clicking "Create Alert" you accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice and agree to receive newsletters and promo offers from us.


text:
DePauw Rolls over Oberlin on Nick Mourouzis Field Dedication Day
October 12, 2013
Greencastle, Ind. - Freshman quarterback Matt Hunt threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score and helped DePauw to a 45-11 win over visiting Oberlin on Old Gold Day on the freshly dedicated Nick Mourouzis Field.
The Tigers improved to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in the North Coast Athletic Conference, while the Yeomen dropped to 1-4 overall and 0-4 in the conference.
In addition to the Tigers' first win of the day, the other highlight was the return of over 40 captains and many more former players to honor coach Mourouzis and his family with a halftime ceremony dedicating the new AstroTurf field on the location that has hosted DePauw football since 1921. Mourouzis known affectionately as "Coach Nick", directed the Tigers for 23 years (1981-2003) with a 133-82-4 record.
For the second straight week, the Tigers got off to a quick start as Cody Baker intercepted Oberlin quarterback Lucas Poggiali's pass on the third play of the game and three plays later Nikko Sansone put the Tigers on the board with a 17-yard run.
The Yeomen struck on their next possession as Erickson Andrews booted a 27-yard field goal to make it 7-3.
Hunt's 13-yard scamper early in the second lifted the Tigers to a 14-3 advantage and the drive was set up by Garrett Rice's interception at the DePauw 1.
After DePauw stopped the Yeomen near midfield, the Tigers took over on their own 9 and drove 91 yards in just six plays including a 71-yard pass play from Hunt to tight end Kevin Ude. Hunt's 7-yard scoring pass to Barry Flynn made it 21-3.
The Tigers tacked on seven more in the half after Oberlin pinned the hosts at their own 1-yard line on a punt. DePauw drove 99 yards in eight plays including a pair of Hunt-to-Flynn pass plays covering a total of 64 yards. Andrew Cusumano's 2-yard run made it 28-3 with just 47 seconds left in the half.
Hunt and Flynn teamed up one more time with a 1-yard pass play wiht seven minutes left in the third. The series was set up by Nick Freund's fumble recovery after Mitch Dwenger's hit.
Oberlin's final score came on a 28-yard pass from Poggiali to Blake Buckhannon with 4:15 remaining in the third. The Tigers quickly countered with a 66-yard pass from Hunt to Connor Jeffers.
Eric Malm booted a 23-yard field goal early in the fourth to round out the scoring.
The Tigers totaled 478 yards including 354 through the air as Drew Seaman connected on five of six. Flynn hauled in nine for 156 yards and two touchdowns, while Ude has two for 82. Sansone rushed for 60 yards on 17 carries.
Poggiali was 13 of 24 for 159 yards with one touchdown but tossed three interceptions. Adam Niec caght five for 72 yards with Buckhannon totaling four for 70 yards. Buckhannon also rushed for 75 yards on 16 tries.
Dwenger's 11 tackles led DePauw, while Adam Folta followed with seven. The Tigers also totaled 6.0 tackles for loss including three sacks. The defensive unit also forced Oberlin into four turnovers which the offense converted into 24 points.
Kirby Livingston paced the Yeomen with 10 tackles, while Adrian Kelly and Kyle Kessler each added six stops.
DePauw returns to action on Saturday, October 19, when it travels to Ohio Wesleyan for a 1 p.m. North Coast Athletic Conference game.


text:
Events Calendar
Accounting and Finance Career Fair
Interested in a career in accounting or finance? Spend some time at a career fair where you can explore all aspects of the industry!
Date: September 23, 2019 - September 23, 2019
Time: 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: Cleary Family Auditorium, Kearney Hall
Hosted by the Center for Career and Academic Planning
More than 30 employers will be on campus looking for interns and new employees in accounting and finance operations. Free and open to students.
Questions? Email Jean Skuse at email@example.com.


text:
This is my first post on this site, so - Hello everyone!
I've been wondering about the past month where I should go in C++. I've been doing it for about a year now, and I need something new. I've gone through about 6 books on all the basics, and all the basic tutorials on this site too. I'm comfortable with pointers and classes, and what have you.
I've wanted to get into graphical game programming, but it seems lke everything I find is either the same stuff I've been doing for a year, (text based games) or it seems way out of my league. (DirectX specifically)
If you have recommendations on what to learn, I'd love to listen. Don't think I'm only stuck on game making either; I just want to get out of this console based C++ world!
Thanks for any help,
Lorgon Jortle
EDIT: I got Volume I and II of: Thinking in C++
It looks like there is a bunch in there I can learn, but I'm still stuck on what to learn for GUI's.


text:
This is a game I've been working on for the last weeks. It's based on the old DOS game skyroads. It uses DirectX9 (required). Source code is also included, though it's not fully compilable (uses some external libraries, safely located on my HD).
Do not try to alt-tab, you won't be able to get back. I've had a problem with this, which can be seen in this and this thread.
The file is 1.5Mb so I could not upload it here. Get it here instead.
Have fun!


text:
Now I can accept orders from people who can pay travel expense and waiting charge!
They are event items, I can't accept any cancellation!
If you cancel, I never accept your order!
Please don't send me email from hotmail! YOU CAN'T RECEIVE MY MAIL!
Before you make an order, please read these articles.
In this event, you must pay item price + usual handling charge + international shipping charge (with paypal charge).
1 item price (expected price)
Please see the following page.
If you want to know the details, please feel free to ask me!
2 Handling charge
Please read this site. I can combine shipping, but you need to pay handling charge separately.
3 Dead line
Feb 21th
If you want all items which you want, please order as soon as possible!
4 Limitation
5 international shipping charge and paypal charge
I don't know the weight of each item, so I can't answer the international shipping charge now.
If you mind how much is the shipping cost, please don't order.


text:
776 Milwaukee Street
Denver CO. 80206 MLS 1128033 / PORCHLIGHT REAL ESTATE GROUP Data provided by REColorado
Our Certified Market Expert designation is the only one of its kind. Agents choose from three area-specific certifications—Central Denver, South Suburbs or North Suburbs—and become experts in that area.
Agents who earn this elite designation have not only completed our Market Ed courses—learning the ins and outs of their specialty area's cities and neighborhoods—but they've previewed dozens of homes in each area, giving them an insider's perspective on the nooks and crannies of the metro Denver area. They know what kind of architecture each area offers, and also know the special restaurants, shops, and attractions that make each neighborhood unique.
When you choose an agent with one or more CME designations, you know you're getting a trusted advisor who will guide you in making the smartest real estate investment possible while also finding the community that's the right fit for you.
Thanks for registering! Your new user account has been created.
You can either continue with what you were doing, or visit your Account Dashboard using the options below.
Your search has been successfully saved.
You can either continue your property search, or visit your Account Summary to view or modify your saved searches.


text:
This is a unique story set in 1953 Tehran against the backdrop of the Iranian Coup. It's about a young couple in love who are separated on the eve of their marriage, and who are reunited sixty years later, after both have moved on to live independent lives in America. It's a sweeping romantic tale of thwarted love amidst the chaos of unrest. There's really not enough information to classify it as historical fiction, although it does give a flavour of that place during that time.
The novel begins very effectively at the end of the story, when Roya and Bahman meet again, begging the question of what happened all those years ago. As the author flashes back, the story slowly unfolds. Why did these young lovers fail to meet up? How did they manage to find each other again so late in life? What was the truth in the tale and what deceptions may have been at play? Despite being a bit tedious and occasionally cliché, I really liked this book. I did feel hugely sorry for one character, and it's not who you might think.


text:
Program: Mathematics
It's no surprise that Kathy Nickell loves mathematics. You could say it's in her genes.
"My grandmother was a math major in college and actually taught Algebra at a small school in Texas," Nickell explained. "From a very early age, I was constantly encouraged to explore mathematics by her as well as my entire family."
She was also challenged by excellent mathematics teachers throughout her early academic life, providing the support and confidence she needed to succeed. Nickell provides that same support and promotes confidence in students taking her math classes at College of DuPage.
"Let's face it: Not many students at COD want to take mathematics," she said. "But learning mathematics is learning an organized thought process which helps you to succeed in life. Learning mathematics requires good study skills and, in most cases, a lot of hard work. Hopefully, my students learn that with these skills and hard work comes success."
Following graduate school, Nickell worked as a systems engineer for Southwestern Bell Company. She accepted the position with the anticipation of someday becoming an instructor in their training facility. However, a few years later, she began teaching part-time at Brookhaven Community College in Dallas.
"The position soon became full time and I realized that community college teaching was my passion," she said. "We moved to the Chicago area in 1987 and at that time I began teaching at the College of DuPage.
"Each day presents a new challenge and each day is filled with many rewards. Teaching affords the opportunity to be a 'life-long learner,' which keeps me feeling vibrant and alive. The more I learn, the more I want to teach ... it is addictive. Success does not come easy, but once achieved, the rewards are infinite!"


text:
The Central Connecticut women's track and field team placed ninth out of 19 teams at the UMASS Minutemen Invitational on Saturday. The Blue Devils earned five bronze medals and were led by junior Shelby Tuttle who took third in both the 100 meter hurdle event and the 400 meter hurdles.
CCSU also took two team members to compete in the Bison Outdoor Classic in Lewisburg, PA on Saturday. Juniors Krisztina Dearborn and Elizabeth Eberhardt represented the Blue Devils at the meet. Dearborn placed seventh out of 45 in the 10,000 meter run and qualified for ECAC competition with her time of 35:49.81. Eberhardt also performed well with her time of 11:01.23 in the 3,000 meter steeplechase for 11th place out of 40.
For a list of results from the Bison Outdoor Classic, click here.
At UMASS, Tuttle ran a 14.46 in the 100m hurdles and a 1:03.79 in the 400m hurdles. She was joined in the 400 by freshman Jenean McCalla, who ran a 1:10.90 for 19th place.
Also performing well on an individual note was standout sophomore Ronea Saunders. Saunders, who is the reigning 2012 NEC Outdoor Track and Field Individual Champion in the high jump, claimed third in the event clearing 1.66 meters. Last year, she jumped 1.75 meters to claim the victory.
The Blue Devils also took the bronze in the 4x100 meter relay event. The team, consisting of Saunders, senior Rachel Dombrowski, junior Cassey Griffith and freshman Alyssa Gonzalez, crossed the finish line in 48.67. CCSU also claimed third in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:57.48.
In the 200m dash, Griffith placed highest of the Blue Devils, earning sixth place with her time of 25.65. She was followed by Gonzalez, who placed 17th in 26.26, and Dombrowski, who placed 23rd with a time of 26.50.
In the field events, freshman Chelse Terry was able to place 13th out of over 20 competitors in both the discus and hammer throw events. She registered a distance of 35.38 meters in the discus and 37.36 meters in the hammer throw. Terry also competed in the shot put event, where she placed 17th of 26 with a 10.66 meter mark.
Other notable performers for the Blue Devils included freshman Erin Howe, who placed 14th in the high jump with 1.46 meters, and sophomore Taylor LePage, who earned 19th in the 800 meter run with her time of 2:21.55.
Central returns to action Friday, April 19, at Princeton in Princeton, NJ.


text:
Radiohead's Thom Yorke DJs New York Fashion Event for Rag & Bone
Upscale menswear isn't the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the name Thom Yorke, but the Radiohead frontman has been involved in the fashion world for a while. In 2011, he created a soundtrack for the premiere of fall line from designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright, aka Rag & Bone.
Two years later, Yorke is back at it, having produced a soundtrack of instrumental, ambient electronica for this week's runway show premiering Rag & Bone's Fall 2013 ready-to-wear menswear line. This time, he got some help from Atoms for Peace bandmate Nigel Godrich, and the show, which took place at an apartment on New York City's Upper West Side, featured "'Bladerunner'-worthy, slow-mo video projections of the models walking," according to a review in Fader. Fancy!
To see male models strutting down the runway to Yorke's chill techno beats, click on the big orange button at the bottom of this page. (Or, if you'd prefer, just listen to the thing here.) Spoiler alert: Out of nowhere, Yorke cuts to Curtis Mayfield's 'Move On Up' for the closing minutes of the mix.


text:
John Legend (Feat. Andre 3000) - Green Light
New Video For John Legend's First Single "Green Light Featuring Andre 3000" Off 3rd Studio Album "Evolver" Due In Stores October 28.
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
SUNY Canton to Honor WWII Veterans at Nov. 8 Living History CelebrationMonday, November 4th, 2013
The storied bravery and valor of North Country World War II veterans will be retold at SUNY Canton in honor of Veterans Day.
The College will be holding a Veterans' Living History Ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, in the Richard W. Miller Campus Center's Kingston Theater. It will be highlighting the recorded accounts of soldiers who served in all branches of the military in many notable battles. The Ceremony is free and open to the public and there will be a reception following the presentation.
"It's our honor to recognize the brave soldiers who served during the war that permanently changed the world, and influenced our entire culture," said SUNY Canton Acting President Joseph C. Hoffman. "These men stormed the beaches of Normandy and witnessed the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. They struggled against German occupation in France and beyond. Then, they came home and went about their lives in Northern New York."
The event was created as a way to celebrate Veterans Day at the College and to spread the word about an ongoing project to collect oral histories from area veterans through the Southworth Library Learning Commons, according to Assistant Librarian Michael Magilligan.
"The project started when I was talking to a co-employee who has an 87-year-old neighbor who dropped out of high school to join the military," Magilligan said. "I ended up interviewing 33 veterans from around the North Country. I feel as though I've captured the true experience of American servicemen during the Second World War."
Many of the veterans Magilligan interviewed will be attending the event. Selections from their interviews, and photos they shared will be shown in a multi-media presentation assembled by the assistant librarian.
Each of the interviews will be housed on a database at SUNY Canton to provide future generations with a comprehensive understanding of World War II and how it
impacted the home front. The recordings will also submitted to the Library of Congress and the New York State Veterans' History Museum in Saratoga.
Kenneth D. Kirkey, Massena, who was a radio operator and a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army selected for a secret mission, relayed his experience for the project. Kirkey was the last one out of his plane as it was shot down. "We were sent into Normandy two days before D-Day [June 6, 1944]," Kirkey recounted to Magilligan. "We had carrier pigeons and radios half the size of a table."
In another account, Charles H. Alexander of Canton, who served in the U.S. Navy relayed his experience ferrying soldiers to and from the beaches of Normandy on Landing Ship, Tank (LST) vessels. "It's scary at first, the first day or two, the first two or three trips. There's a lot of combat going on," he said. "But it kind of moves away. You get used it. You get calloused."
Arnold Newkofsky, Canton, was a gunner on an LST for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater. Newkofsky said that when he heard the alerts he'd rush to his weapon and point it at the sun, waiting for Japanese planes to descend upon them. "Everyday was D-Day," he said.
Magilligan has recorded many other accounts portraying many vivid and intensely personal remembrances from numerous fronts and battles, including those by SUNY Canton Alumni Frank J. White, Canton, (class of 1938) and Otis E. Van Horne, Canton (class of 1942). Van Horne also taught in the Electrical Construction program at the College.
About SUNY Canton
SUNY Canton is Northern New York's premier College for career-driven bachelor's degrees, associate degrees and certificate programs. The College delivers quality hands-on programs in engineering technology, health, management, and public service to students in the North Country, New York State, and beyond. Faculty members are noted for their professional real-world experience in addition to their academic credentials. SUNY Canton OnLine offers hundreds of flexible and convenient courses as well as eight exclusively online bachelor's degrees. The College's 14 athletic teams compete in state-of-the-art facilities as provisional members of the NCAA Division III and the USCAA.


text:
Topic: set separate quota for Trash
Hello Team,
As the mailbox size of each mailbox is very small, users reach the quota limit very fast. When they try to delete big message from inbox through roundcube, they are not able to do it because it tries to copy the message to the trash first and the mailbox quota limit exceeds and delete process fails.
Dovecot suggests the workaround to use separate quota limit for trash by setting something like "quota_rule3 = Trash:storage=1G" in the Dovecot config file.
We are using iRedMail. Can I modify the same settings in Dovecot config file to achieve this? or iRedMail has got different settings somewhere else?


text:
Tech revolutions and innovations flourish daily, leading to more jobs needed to support it all. According to the US Bureau of Statistics, "in the next five years, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) jobs are projected to grow twice as quickly as jobs in other fields. While all jobs are expected to grow by 10.4 percent, STEM jobs are expected to increase by 21.4 percent. Similarly, 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require technical skills." This may sound great to many people who are recent STEM graduates. However, the truth is, there are not nearly enough people graduating with STEM degrees to fulfill this void.
To fill this gap, many people are considering trying to increase kids' interest in STEM. Nevertheless, increasing the role of women in STEM will also be a step toward fulfilling these jobs. On average, a woman working in a STEM career will earn 33 percent more than a woman working in a non-related STEM field.
Events such as the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon help promote STEM interest. At the Hackathon, people of all ages can explore different booths featuring their own unique hacks. The events are also filled with lots of professional programmers and beginners.
Alexandra Jordan, a fourth-grader from Sunnyvale, Calif. has visited several hackathons and talks about what motivates and inspires her:
"My motivation is to be a great person, to help the world, to make discoveries, and to prove that girls and women can do anything. My inspiration is my Dad and my family and friends, but also women programmers. I have been inspired by the women in tech that I met at TechCrunch Disrupt and at ooVoo and others."
Jordan currently has a few projects in progress, one being Super Fun Kid Time, a play date finder for kids, which she has presented to people at several hackathons. Since presenting, she has received lots of support and help with improving her project. The company ooVoo has even spent time helping her add video chat to the project.
Emily, a 14-year-old aspiring geneticist, told the Huffington Post recently:
"Being able to prove myself in the world as being an intelligent and capable woman is one of the many things that inspires me to work in the biology fields. The other thing that inspires me to be an intelligent and powerful woman is being able to follow in the footsteps of my mother, an electrical engineer for General Electric Aviation, and my sister, an electrical engineer student at Northeastern University."
Overall, the role of women in STEM is gradually increasing. However, to accelerate this growth, much more encouragement and support will be needed in the future. Other mentorship programs such as NASA's G.I.R.L.S. (Giving Initiative and Relevance to Learning Sciences) connects professional women from science and engineering with girls from all around the US.
Related posts: