text:
Link: Update on CBS News
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007Update on CBS News (Via Dave McDivitt.) I'm not sure if the CBS story on Dave McDivitt's use of video games in his classroom has aired yet, but the story is available online.
Update on CBS News (Via Dave McDivitt.) I'm not sure if the CBS story on Dave McDivitt's use of video games in his classroom has aired yet, but the story is available online.
Using Google documents (Via Bill Mackenty.) Bill Mackenty is still sharing the how-to documents he is creating for the staff at his site. Here he shares 10 pages (with illustrations) about Google Documents, a tool for collaborative online word processing.
The Ethics Game – A Universal Language for Gaming? (Via Academic Gamers.) The game itself is in Thai, but the concept (which is in keeping with Steven Johnson's ideas about the value of video games) is not lost in translation: "teaching ethics through a video game is perfectly logical since a game can be used to model decisions and consequences."
On Wednesday I was once again at the Laguna Beach Unified School District to work with teachers involved in their Tablet PC pilot program. I found the experience worth reflecting on for three reasons.
First, like the Palm Springs Tech Plan, this project has been an opportunity for me to use a wiki for collaboration over a longer period of time (as opposed to in support of a specific workshop). You can find the agendas, links, and session notes from each of our workshops and sharing sessions at http://k12tablet.wikispaces.com.
Given the shortage of "Tablet PC in Education" resources I found prior to beginning this project, I want to be sure as many people know about this wiki as possible – so that others might benefit from it, and so that we might benefit from their contributions. Unfortunately, like many of the wikis I use for workshops, this one has been largely created and maintained by me. Partly, though, this is because we are meeting face-to-face every month and I want to take advantage of that opportunity rather than forcing the use of an online tool. Still, the running record of our work together (especially the PDF notes of our sessions) is something I appreciate. If you have any suggestions for improving this resource (or its use), please leave a comment here – or at the wiki.
Second, I think it is noteworthy that when Victor Guthrie, the technology director at the district, ordered the workshops, he did not order a hands-on training for each session. He asked for every other session to be a shorter "sharing session" during which the participants would share challenges and best practices. The value of this has been apparent at each of our three sharing sessions. Victor and his staff have been able to be more responsive to the teacher's needs, and innovations have had an opportunity to propagate between classrooms and even between sites. I've been amazed at how many problems were solved merely by one teacher bringing up an issue, and another responding right away "oh, just do X." At this point I think the notes from these sessions are probably the most powerful product of the program (and the best information available at the wiki, even if some of it is in my chicken-scratch handwriting). The interesting thing is, we could have used even more of this SHARING time. The teachers are still requesting more time to absorb and apply the things they have learned.
So the third thing that made last week's meeting blog-worthy for me was that when we discussed the topic for the final three-hour hands-on workshop scheduled for next month, the participants asked not for more training, but for time to develop lessons and units using what they've already learned this year (and admittedly we've thrown a lot at them during the first three workshops). This is the first time I'll be formally facilitating a "lesson planning" session (though I've done "hybrid" workshops in which participants were trained and then had time to create). As I've begun thinking about how to best structure the session, I've realized this might be a formula that would make a good professional development rule of thumb: training, sharing, and planing.
What if when preparing professional development we planned to spend only a third of our time on training, a third on sharing, and a third on planning? This could work for planning a series of workshops, or for planning a particular workshop.
Maybe the elements should not necessarily be in that order. Perhaps it should be: Training, Planning, and Sharing.
In any case, the Laguna Beach teachers not in the pilot program (and teachers in other districts, for that matter) are also often asking for repeat workshops or part II workshops or simple lesson planning time… for topics such as blogging and podcasting, for example. Perhaps the next time I book a series of workshops will be an opportunity to apply this new rule of thumb.
The wiki, of course, would seem to fall under the "sharing" part of the plan, but could really be used to facilitate all three of these elements.
I look forward to trying this out. In the meantime, if any of you have any comments, I'd love to hear from you. :)
In keeping with my efforts to try something new with this blog, I post-dated a new entry for each day this week, Monday through Friday. Though I haven't made the time yet to really catch up in reading my RSS feeds (I have about 2800 unread items at this point), I did manage to post a few new link posts this week, too. The third part of the new plan is to offer a collection of links each Friday, the purpose being to post some of the links that never got out of draft form as individual posts. Some go back more than a year!
At any rate, because I am making a presentation about Internet Awareness, Safety, and Ethics to the Orange County District Technology Leaders (DTL) meeting on Monday morning, I am beginning with my Internet Safety category today, which also has the added benefit of being a relatively small category in my list of drafts.
Some of the links are very old… others were already dead, and they are not included. Still, I hope they wills serve as resources for others as they have for me.
So, here they are… one dozen internet safety links (in chronological order):
Enjoy. And please feel free to offer reactions (or additional resources) in the comments.
On Tuesday night I presented a new educational technology plan to the school board of the Palm Springs Unified School District. The board was gracious enough to give me 15 minutes to present, several of the planning committee members were in attendance to show their support (including Dr. Lee Grafton who was my partner in leading the process and writing the plan), and the superintendent, Dr. Lorri McCune, was downright enthusiastic… so it was a positive experience for me and well worth the drive out there.
The plan is the result of a truly collaborative effort, and I think that is reflected in the length. My colleague Ranjit Mayadas in CTAP Region 9 told me months ago that a tech plan for the state doesn't need to be more than 50 pages in length, but this one comes in at about 150 before appendixes. I really do feel sorry for his counterpart in Region 10, Jenny Thomas, who is reviewing the plan now. :)
Obviously, I was only able to touch on the highlights in my presentation, the things that made it stand out from other more formulaic plans. Check out the slides if you are interested. (Or read the two page executive summary.)
When I say that writing the plan was a collaborative effort, I actually mean we collaboratively authored the plan using… a wiki. Check it out at http://pstechplan.wikispaces.com if you are interested. Each week we met in a computer lab (or with laptops) so anyone could read or edit the wiki at any time. Many of the edits were mine (or made with my account) as I led or facilitated discussions. You'll see a lot of anonymous edits early on. Later, I password protected the site once the plan-in-progress was released to the press and the public. After that you'll see edits by a user called pstechplan, which was shared by the entire committee. I focused on ease-of-use over security and accountability. (Of course, I backed it up after each meeting.)
Late in the process we ended up using the discussion feature to discuss changes without altering the text of the main wiki pages. In one of our final group editing sessions, the committee made 40 changes and posted 38 discussion questions in only 90 minutes. I was amazed… and thrilled that the collaborative tool was working even better than I'd hoped by that point. I was then able to make any necessary changes and respond to each concern in the discussion area. Finally, we moved the content into a word template and made the final changes.
It's not groundbreaking or impressive if you dial into specific pages or posts on the wiki, but the process really was collaborative… and easy, so I thought I'd share it here. I really appreciate having months of work archived there, especially in the "More…" section.
One final thought that came up while I was preparing the slides for this evening's presentation was the phrase, "It's a plan, not a commitment." I initially included it as the lead in to my explanation that the board could approve the plan (which called for an average spending of $5.2 million per year MORE than they are already spending) without fear that they would be held accountable for committing those funds. (Tech plans don't have much teeth in California.) I realized this phrase really captured the reality of the plan, but it also made me realize that the key to making it work (in addition to keeping it a living document) will be making a continued and consistent commitment to the plan. Happily, Dr. McCune really took the lead on this during the discussion and I almost didn't have to say another word. :)
She, and the board, seemed to latch onto another phrase I shared (after hearing Jackie Francoeur use it often)… "built it and they will come" or "plan it, and the money will come." One board member called the $5.2 million a "funding opportunity." The best part was that by the end of the discussion they were asking the superintendent how long it would be until all students had a laptop… and when one of her staff threw out the goal of five years, one of the board members said, "that's too long."
I can't wait to see what happens there… and I hope some of you will share your tech planning successes (or nightmares) in the comments below, too. Is anyone else using web 2.0 or other collaboration tools to facilitate the process?
I've gotten a lot of email (and even a few comments) as a result of the things I've shared about Walden University on this blog… early on I was primarily sharing posts from my online classes that I repurposed here on the blog… then it become my KAMs (papers due before our dissertation), letters to prospective students, and answers to people's questions. Now, Walden students in the dissertation stage who have the same faculty mentor are given an online "class" of their own in which to discuss issues related to our research, and more importantly, find a measure of camaraderie or fellowship. So, once again I can actually share posts from our discussion forums.
These might be most helpful for other doctoral students, but they may be interested to others of you because my experience might indicate some of the ways new technologies are effecting (or could effect) higher education. I'm including two recent posts including "tips" (if I'm in any position to offer tips) for my fellow students.
This first post is about the prospectus that precedes the dissertation, and really doesn't concern technology at all:
Prospectus "Tips"I'm not sure this will be all that helpful to you [fellow student], but the most important thing is to have a clear idea what you want to study. Everything else flows quite easily from that. The particular method is the only really big decision left, and even that may be obvious once you've settled on a problem or research question to explore.
The other important thing to remember is that the prospectus is only a form to fill out at the very beginning of your research. It is not a matter of writing anything down in stone. Your final study and dissertation may wind up looking significantly different. The prospectus just gets you pointed in the right direction – and serves as a tool for recruiting your committee… as I understand it. ;)
For me, the prospectus was a relatively minor task. I had more or less been focused on a particular topic (video games in education) and research question (what are the potential uses of MMORPGs as constructivist learning environments?) for two years by the time I wrote the prospectus. (I settled on the topic by the end of my first year.) By the time I wrote the prospectus I had "nearly 80 theorists and more than 100 sources" identified as relevant to my study (and it's much more than that now). I suspect this is excessive, but my point is that whatever has interested you so far can be a guide… and serve as the foundation of the prospectus – and the dissertation.
Good luck in any case!
This next one focuses on "tips" for conducting efficient research, and I was (strangely) surprised by what I found myself writing… it is all very different than spending a lot of time "in the stacks." Is this higher education 2.0?
Research "Tips"Again, I'm not sure just how helpful this will all be, but here are a few of the things I have found valuable in my research…
1. I do as much research as possible online and in electronic format. For this reason I'm more than happy to pay $119/yr for a memebership to Questia.com, an online library. You can search issues related to your topic prior to purchasing a membership, so there's little risk of wasting your money. [This is in addition to the online databases Walden University pays for.]
2. I use an outliner. (In my case, I use OmniOutliner for Mac OS X.) One of the advantages of having digital resources is that I can cut and paste. So, I've been saving quotes right into the appropriate section of my outliner. Then, writing is just a matter of re-organizing these, weeding them down to the few I really need to make my points, and then "connecting the dots" with my writing. Supporting my points has not been a problem for me… though my writing has been a bit dry and "quote heavy" the last year or so.
3. I use RSS feeds. I subscribe to relevant blogs and news feeds, and I create RSS feeds from MSN, Google, and Technorati searches so that my computer is essentially researching for me 24-7 and the updates come to me in my aggregator. If you are researching something contemporary and/or cutting edge, which I suspect you all are in Ed Tech, well managed RSS feeds can be a valuable resource.
4. I write about my research on my own blog. I can't believe I haven't said this here before, but you could all benefit from this. I've been connected with more practitioners and experts in my field by blogging my research than I could ever hope by simply emailing it off to Jock [our advisor]. I actually know and correspond with many of the most influential authors I've been studying. More resources come to me because of what I share online than I can possibly tell you about here. I would not have had the same experience in this phd program without my blog. (Even without a blog, I would highly recommend making an effort to correspond with key authors and researchers… you are, after all, becoming an expert in your field, and there is a good chance they will be willing to help… and even a good chance you will earn their respect.)
Again, I don't know how useful this "advice" will be for anyone else, but I hope it helps.
Any other graduate students out there have anything to add to this list of suggestions? Or any responses to them?
PS. I guess it's high time I start a "higher education" category here. Done.
Occasionally I get an email like the one below, and sometimes I write a response that I think is worth sharing here as well. I know this is not "news" in the world of edublogs, but I felt I articulated my response well and want to be able to refer to it later. I also hit on a humorous example from my own teaching experience. And, of course, maybe one (or some) of you will have better answers to this call for help.
At any rate, a colleague of mine, a district technology coordinator, recently forwarded me the following email from a teacher (with the subject line "I need your help"):
Hi [Technology Coordinator],I need you to help me with a blog problem. I have been using edublogs… [and] it has been going well until last week. One of my students was upset with another one because she thought she was prank calling her. She logged in as the other student and then said inappropriate stuff. We were able to trace it in the "Manage" section of the blog and match the IP address, so we knew who the student was. Unfortunately, there was a copycat who wanted in on this action. He/she did the same thing, but I can't match the IP address. I tried in all 3 sixth grade classes. I'm in over my head here. Can we trace IP addresses? Should I just not use blogs? I need some tech help and some guidance.
My response addressed the technical issue only briefly (and here someone else may be able to suggest better tools), and then turned to what I think of as the teaching-heart of the problem:
Well, she can trace an IP address to a particular ISP by using tools like this one: http://www.arin.net/whois/Or, she can trace an IP to a particular city using tools like this one: http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation
But without going to the police to get a warrant for the ISP's DNS records, it would be tough (or near impossible) to sort out who it actually was… unless the ISP turned out to be the county or district (if it happened at school)… then by contacting the right people you could trace it to a particular computer at that date and time (if they have the necessary records).
All this is to say, no, she can't trace it. And in any case it is far more important to treat this as a teachable moment and to handle it the same way she would a similar infraction in her classroom.
Imagine kids were writing on the board when her back was turned and blaming it on each other. Would she stop using chalk boards (or white boards)? At one point some of my sophomores used to say "word" whenever I turned by back (after I made the mistake of getting mad at one student for saying "word" all the time). I couldn't tell who was doing it at any given time… and I didn't have the option of, say, taking away the air in the room. The way she would handle this situation is how she should handle the blog situation. (Or perhaps its more analogous to vandalism that happens when other kids aren't around to see it, but I think the point is clear.)
For my money, I'd say have an earnest conversation about it with the kids. Address the initial inappropriate response to the alleged prank calling, and the inappropriateness of the copy cat "crimes." I think you can make students understand how "low" that is. A dose of guilt wouldn't hurt and you can call them to something higher. Make sure they know that any further infractions will be deleted and ignored. Then delete and ignore any more copy cats. Why do you think they wanted "in on the action" – or rather, attention – in the first place? (You might later impose consequences for the class if it is still bothering you or other students too much.)
This is definitely what I would call an educational technology "and life" response to the question. I hope it helps and doesn't come off to preachy. ;)
Any of you (particularly those of you who have dealt with this in your own classes) have anything to add to this?
A conversation with Doug Belshaw – ZDNet.com blogs (Via Google News – Educational Technology.) Look what showed up my Google News feed this morning (and on my custom Google News page, it turns out)… a conversation with one of my favorite edubloggers, Doug Belshaw in the UK. I'm as behind on reading his blog as all my other subscriptions right now, but I took a moment to skim this article. Doug talks about his experience with blogging and his use of wikis with his students and for his own studies. I think the biggest gem in the article is this quote from Doug:
It's easier to talk to others in the blogosphere than others at my school.
I also appreciated this sentiment from his interviewer, Stewart… it's something I've often thought, especially with respect to my own online classes at Walden Univeristy – and something I've complained about there, but have never written about here:
my biggest gripe with traditional course management systems is they take a transient approach to content – it's there for the term, but gone afterward which ruins the real long-term benefit of putting work online.
I've gotten a surprising amount of positive feedback on the Wiki While You Work video I recorded for the k12onlineconference. However, I've also gotten some more critical feedback. The following email is one such example, and one I responded to in some detail, so I thought I'd share it here… in case anyone else felt the same way as the woman who emailed me, or in case anyone else is considering recording similar videos and sharing them… well, that and it just makes a good story.
Here is the email I received a few weeks ago (before the CUE conference):
Mark:I was assigned to facilitate the viewing of your video, Wiki While You Work, to three groups of teachers from our district during our annual technology conference tomorrow. After reviewing the video, I was in a panic! I would like to offer you some constructive criticism and hope that it will help you as you continue in your future endeavors:
- My district technology personnel and I tried long and hard to adjust the audio to a level that could be heard through external speakers. We tried everything, it could not be done. Was there a problem with the audio for this video?
- When the video shows a webpage, the webpage is blurred and can not be read. So a lot of the video is of poor quality and does not hold the viewers attention.
- The two long sections where you interview your wife and the English teacher need work. The viewer needs to be able to see what you are viewing on the computers! It is very boring to sit and watch both of you view and talk about things you are viewing on your computers when we can't see what you are talking about! Did the English teacher have a bird in the room? What was with the dog? Very unprofessional!
- The video was way too long. The content could have been presented in a shorter video.
- I am probably showing my age, 48, but I just would have been more impressed with a more professional environment in the video—not your personal bedroom, kitchen, friend's living room, etc. Your attire (t-shirt and hat) and the background environment took away from the integrity of the content. Remember that your work will often be viewed in a professional environment!
The content is very informative, but the quality of the video makes it unsuitable for general educational audiences in my opinion. I have been working all day to try to figure out which parts I can show, which parts I need to try to share on my own, what else I can do keep my group engaged, etc. There is just no way that I can show the video as it is and expect our teachers to remain engaged for over an hour. What was supposed to be a "watch the video and facilitate a discussion†assignment for me has turned into an all day ordeal. I guess you sense my frustration.
You obviously have a bright future in the field of educational technology…I encourage you to consider the fact that your audiences will be varied in age, expertise, and location. Don't let a poor quality product overshadow the excellent content you have to share!
Name Removed
Technology Teacher
These are all valid criticisms of the video, particularly with respect to the audio levels and the visual resolution… and here is my (hopefully appropriate and sympathetic) response:
Name Removed,Thanks for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your situation and I hope that you are able to find an interactive solution that works for you. I think demonstrating the use of a wiki (and any examples) yourself is ideal. Any of the other content from the video that you'd rather present or discuss would probably be better coming from a live person, too.At best I would only ever show the first five minutes or so of the video in a workshop situation myself. I'm sorry to hear that this means more work for you today. I cansympathize. I know technology teachers get last minute (and critical) projects dumped on them often.
In any case, I appreciate your criticisms and your willingness to share them with me. I generally present in a suit and tie when I lead a workshop, but this video (and the other two I did for the k12 online conference) were created for free (and in a very limited time) to support an online conference put together by my peers – an audience I hoped to reach in a more informal fashion. In length it was meant to take the place of a conference session rather than a more focused podcast. Sadly, the file size also had to be limited for this purpose and the visual quality is not what I would have hoped it would be. Still, I think it provides an opportunity for teachers interested in the topic to get exposure to real examples and real practitioners even when their own district is not providing a workshop. I'm happy to see the video finding a wider audience, and I've gotten some very positive feedback on it as well, but given that your district *is* providing a workshop, I don't think the video is appropriate myself. ;)
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you prepare for your presentation. I'm always happy to help if I can.
I suppose that by sharing these criticisms here, I'm making an effort at being transparent… then again, maybe I'm just interested in publicly explaining myself to anyone else who felt the same way. :)


text:
European Leaders in Lapland Signal Confidence in Cyprus Talks
Kasper ViitaEuropean leaders meeting in Finnish Lapland this weekend expressed confidence that a financial collapse in Cyprus can be averted, saying Europe has proved its ability to deal with crises.
"It's necessary to reach an agreement and I'm sure that the finance ministers will find a solution," Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen told reporters in Saariselkae. "We have learned to deal with sovereign crises."
Euro-area finance ministers will meet today to decide whether Cyprus has done enough for a 10 billion-euro ($13 billion) bailout. The third-smallest economy in the 17-nation euro region was plunged into chaos last week when its lawmakers rejected a proposal to impose levies on all bank deposits in order to qualify for the bailout funds. A levy on deposits over 100,000 euros is now being examined.
"There will probably be some turbulence in Europe in the financial markets, but we wouldn't expect any major long-term implications," Latvia's Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said.
Still, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Ali Babacan, said the Cyprus bailout "should not set a precedent."
"We would never like to see the same methodology used in other countries, in the euro zone or outside of it," he said.
Leaders including Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic attended the meeting, hosted by Katainen and Finland's Europe Minister Alexander Stubb. Topics included the European Union's fundamental values, economic issues, defense pacts, trade agreements and structural reforms to boost confidence in the region, according to Katainen.
The attendance list narrowed just days before the meeting started as the situation in Cyprus worsened. Last-minute cancellations included Joerg Asmussen, a member of the European Central Bank's executive board, Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The movement of Vallabha as conceived and propagated by him was a purely spiritual one it was a special Revelation of God given to the people of Indian under the extremely difficult conditions of life that has arisen in the land owing to the advent of the Kali Yuga, the Dark Age. The presence of the Moslem power was only one more sign of the same and added to the validity of this New Dispensation. So far as Vallabha and some of his great followers were concerned, the Way of Bhakti revealed through him was meant as much for the Hindus as for the Moslems. It transcended the bounds of caste, race, and sex. It was universal in its scope and made no distinctions between man and man. In it we see Hinduism in one of its highest and noblest forms. According to Vallabha, it was Bhakti Marga at its highest, So conscious was he of the predominant part played by the grace of God in it that he called it Pusti Marga, the Way of Grace, as distinguished from Bhakti Marga, the Way of Devotion. PAGE 136
The way of Life and Salvation preached by Shri Vallabhacharya is known as Pushti Marga. This is the most original part of his teaching, showing his religious genius at its best. It is the way of Bhakti Marga, the way of devotion taught by the Bhagawad-Gita, the Bhagavata and the Vaishnava Saints and Acharyas. It differs, however, in some important respects from the teaching of the preceding Acharyas, and has several distinguishing features of its own. The word Pusti, which means fatness or strength, is derived from the word poshana i.e. Nourishment, used first by the Bhagavata with reference to God's grace. The idea underlying it is that the soul of man has become weak and lean owing to sin, and consequently it is in dire need of God's grace which along can give it life and growth. It emphasizes thus the grace of God even more than Bhakti, which after all has its source in the heart of man. According to Vallabha, the origin, development and perfection of Bhakti, are dependent almost wholly, if not altogether, on God.
The Pusti-Marga of Vallabha is, thus, based on the absolute dependence on the part of man on God and His grace. Faith in God and in His Dispensation, full trust in Him accompanied by total surrender and dedication to Him-these are essential for progress in this Way of Grace. This means the extinction of the self as an entity independent of God with all its selfishness manifested in its I-ness and Mine-ness, and the substitution of God in the place of the little self. The self then remains only as the servant of God whose sole pleasure in everything it does is to do the will of God or to give Him joy. As a result of this, its intellect, senses, body and everything else become consecrated. Even one's relations and property are dedicated to God, or they are looked upon as belonging to God without the soul having any proprietary rights over them. When such a state is realized the soul becomes free from the Samsara, the world of its own creation, a kind of Maya, and sees Jagat in its true character as but a manifestation of God. Such a soul is freed from Avidya or nescience.
The Bhakti that such a soul offers to God is no longer of the kind which seeks its fulfillment in something else at some future date. It is real Seva, service of God, which is the means as well as the end in itself. It has no other aim but to give pleasure to God in the present moment. It is Siddha-Bhakti, Bhakti which is an end in itself, as contrasted with Sadhna-Bhakti which is a means to an end. In the Pusti-Marga, the soul enters the inner world of God, seeing Him face to face and serving Him in very possible manner, which alone is its true heaven. It has nothing to do with social conventions or Scriptural injunctions, which belong to a world, which has reality only so long as the soul is not ushered into the immediate presence of God. The Bhakti-Marga of some of the preceding Acharyas, wherein room is found for both karma and Jnana, is, according to Vallabha, the way of Pusti-Maryada, a path wherein both Grace and Law are conjoined together. Even Jnana, knowledge, spoken of so highly by some of the Scriptures, is after all an outward thing in comparison with this Seva, immediate service of God. It is true that often the souls which begin their spiritual life with Sadhana Bhakti may come in the end to attain the pure Pusti or Shuddha Pusti, provided they persevere on the path and go on surrendering themselves more and more to God.
The truest type of Bhakti, in Valabha's opinion, is the one known as Prema-Laxana Bhakti, the Bhakti which has love for its chief characteristic. In it there is nothing conventional or mechanical, nothing ritualistic or obligatory. It is a spontaneous flow of the heart corresponding to the spontaneous grace of God. With the rise of such love in one's heart, one's desire for anything else but God, disappears of its own accord. This is why such Love is spoken of as Raga Vinasha, destruction of desire of any kind. The mind becomes then absorbed in God, and the Seva of God on the part of such a soul, although it may be outward, is an internal thing, for which reason it is defined as Chetastatpravanama the absorption in him. It is contrasted thus sharply from Puja, worship, which belongs to the old Dispensation, wherein Scriptural authority still holds some away. Such Seva is also called Manasi Seva, for it is of the mind and the heart, something which is entirely internal. It is but an outward expression, manifestation of the love of the inner mind.
In the teaching and church of Vallabha, this Seva is centered round the image of Sri Krishna, which is not merely a symbol but God Himself. This seems to be a special characteristic of this movement, perhaps more so than that of any other. The image called Sri Murti becomes the Deity Himself to the eye of faith of the devotee, but this belief is fortified by the philosophic teaching of Vallabha known as Brahmavada. It is only in regard to this matter that Vallabha or some of his followers have followed the pantheistic implications of his monistic system. According to this philosophy, while the clay or the metal of which the Image is made, is itself a form or an incarnation of God, to however limited an extent it be, it becomes more so, and in a higher sense, by the idea imposed on it. Some of the followers of Vallabha even go to the length of saying that it is the faith of the believer in the Image as God Himself which is God. The Prema and Seva that are offered to the Image day by day go on adding to its divine character if at all there were room for such addition. This is the doctrine of the Real Presence as it is understood among the Roman and Anglo-Catholics, carried to its full development, with this difference, however, that there is no priestly mediation necessary in order to induce that presence in the material object. The faith of the believer here is all sufficient for the purpose.
This Prema or the Love for God grows in course of time in the soul and passes through certain well-defined stages. As we have seen it is but a reflex action of the grace of God on the soul. God has manifested Himself now in His true Ananda-form, which, with all His beauty and charm, takes hold of the soul more and more. God begins to live Himself in the soul, and with the tide of the Divine Life and Joy in it, there is an ebb of its own life which it had lived apart from God hitherto. The center of life in such a soul is no more itself, but God Himself.
This love grows in course of time to such an extent that it takes the form of asakti, intense attachment. There is a passionate, burning desire for God and a proportionate detachment from all that is not God. Even the nearest and the dearest relations of one are now dear only for the sake of God, and if they do not conform to the devotee's ideal for them, he becomes indifferent to them. They are no more his. Rather they become hindrances and are as such to be renounced if there is no other remedy. God must now be all in all for the devotee.
This stage of love is followed by what is called vyasana, which means addiction. The devotee becomes an inebriate of the experience of God. He cannot live without it even for a single moment. This experience fills his mind and heart to such an extent that the world, not only in its samsaric form, but even in its true form, ceases to exist for him. The devotee now reaches a world or a plane of existence where only God and himself exist, and if there are others, they are God's elect ones like himself. Vyasana has been also defined as asakticombined with nirodha. This latter term has been defined in Vallabha's Church in a manner peculiar to itself. It means oblivion of even one's own self apart from God. Not only is the world in its Jagata form, but even one's own self, is transcended. There is thus a kind of destruction of the soul, atma-nivritti, and God is loved absolutely for His own sake, and the soul is loved as it is in God.
The climax of this stage is reached in what is called Sarvaatmabhva. The devotee now has the heart and spirit of God Himself, and he experiences God's own delight in himself and in all things. The light and joy of God pass through him upon all things and he, living in this light, sees and experiences all things as God Himself does. The soul has now become one with God, not in the sense of the monist of Shankara's school, but in that in which the lover becomes absolutely united with his beloved. It is a perfect union in and of love. It is absorption in God, but of a kind in which there is room for an eternal rhythm of separation and union.
The ideal types of Bhaktas, according to Vallabha, are the Gopis, and Nanda and Yasoda, the foster-parents of Sri Krishna. In them Bhakti is realized in Dasya, Sakhya and Vatsalya types. God is loved in terms of human relationships at their deepest and best. Rather these relationships are realized as they are in their original form in the mind of God. The Bhakta, owing to this Bhakti of his, is translated into the ideal world of God, which is Heaven itself. This is the real Kingdom of God, or better still, His own House hold and family.
Some Characteristic Features of Pushti Marg
Page No.195-205
The most important characteristic of Vallabha's movement is its emphasis on Bhakti, which is almost absolute. He called his way Pusti-Marga, the path of grace, rather than Bhakti-Marga, the path of emotion. In the path of Bhakti the initiative for salvation lies with the individual soul, whereas in that of Pusti it remains with God. According to Vallabha it is the grace of God rather than the devotion of the soul which is the beginning and the end of true religious life in every human being. When the human will of the individual plays a 'part in one's religious life in seeking and following means etc., the soul falls short of the true ideal of divine life. In Vallabha's scheme of salvation Bhakti does play a large part, but it is Bhakti of the wholly spontaneous and disinterested kind, and it is both the means and the end at the same time. It is more than this. It is the reflex action of the soul to Pusti, the grace of God, and as such it is entirely subordinate to the latter. According to this point of view God has the primacy of place in everything pertaining to ones' religious life. Herein lies the beauty and glory of Vallabha's teaching
The religious movement of Vallabha is perhaps the only one in the whole of history to the based altogether on the Grace of God. As such it ushers the soul into the immediate presence of God, a fact which is well signified by the term Brahma-Sambandha, relationship with God, which its initiation means. Vallabha is so anxious to keep this relationship as pure as possible that he would not allow anything, not even supernatural miracles, to intervene between God and the souls elected by Him for his devotion and service. There are a number of stories illustrating this, of which we shall give here the following:
"Ramdasjee used to serve the Lord with much love and devotion. In this service of his, he was most particular about the things offered to the Image, so much so that he used to fetch the water himself from the well required for the purpose of cooking food etc., for the Image. He used to do this in spite of the fact that he was a rich man. He spent away so much of is money in his service of God that he was faced with poverty. He then invested what little money was left in some business with the result that the tide of his fortune began to turn for the better. Now it so happened that this business, which was that of selling a particular kind of cloth, was not to the liking of the Lord. Hence one day, the Lord said to him: "Now you are serving me from the proceeds of the sale of this dirty cloth." At this Ramdasjee was much grieved and going to the merchant with whom he was in partnership asked him to return his share of the money as he did not want to carry on the business any more. Much surprised at this the man said: "Why are you doing this when the business is so thriving?" To this Ramdasjee replied: "What can I do? I have to deal with a boy (meaning Krishna), and I must satisfy his whims." The man then returned the money which belonged to him. Ramdasjee now began to spend money from his capital with the result that it was soon finished. He then began to buy the things necessary for the service of the Lord on credit, with the result that he was heavily in debt soon. The Creditor then threatened him with legal proceedings. This caused Ramdasjee so much pain that the Lord Himself went to the creditor as Ramdasjee and paid him all his dues. Sometime after this Ramdasjee happened to pass by the shop of this merchant, when the latter calling him said: "Well, Sir, why don't you buy things from me now that our account is cleared?" Being much surprised at this and not knowing what the merchant meant, he asked him to show him the account. When this was done, his surprise knew no bounds for he found that the entire sum was not only paid but there was his own signature. He now understood whose work this was, and returning home told his wife that he would now take some service. So anxious was he to secure a job as soon as possible that he did not hesitate to accept that of a policeman, although it was far below his station in life. It was now difficult for him to be as particular as he was before in regard to the service of the Lord. He came once to Shri Vallabhacharya in this new state of his, when the latter told him: "Ramdasjee, you are blessed indeed!" At this, the Vaishavas, who were present, were much surprised, for they had noticed the change in Ramdasjee, and not knowing its cause had attributed it to a lack of faith and zeal on his part. The Acharya then told them that he was blessed indeed, for he would not cause the Lord any trouble on his account."
There are a number of stories of this kind in the history of this Church which, whatever be their truth, show how Vallabha and his followers looked upon what would have been considered glorious by the followers of most religions, as something to be shunned. Such an attitude towards miracles wrought by God to save. His devotees from difficulties and troubles, is one of the most striking things we have come across in our study of this movement.
In strict accordance with this attitude is another remarkable feature of this movement viz., that it eschews prayer altogether. Prayer of any kind, even for spiritual life, is considered wrong, since in order to fulfill it God is required to take some pains. The idea behind this is that one's faith in and devotion to God should be absolutely disinterested, and that it should mean nothing less than doing our best to serve the good pleasure of God. Faith in God, according to this movement, requires us to do God's bidding and not God to do ours that much of prayer usually means. Besides, God Himself is to be the sole object of one's devotion and nothing else. To Vallabha and his disciples, even those men and women, known in the history of Hindu religion as true and ideal devotees, do not show Bhakti at its best, because God had to work miracles for them in order to save them from difficult situations. This is well brought out in the following saying of one Matulalje, a lineal descendant of Vallabha, who lived in recent times.
"If a soul worshipped God but had its mind set on things of the world, the latter might be pleased with him, but not God. If one wants to please God, he should give up all worldly desires and serve Him alone. One must have full trust in God alone in order to please Him. Because of this the way of Bhakti is very difficult to follow. What is Bhakti ? People say that God saved Gajendra from death, but this is not Bhakti. God supplied Draupdi with about a thousand saris (upper cloth) to save her from disgrace on their removal one after another by Duryodhana and his companions in order to humiliate the Pandavas, but this is not Bhakti. God became the charioteer of Arjuna on the battlefield, but this is not Bhakti. Yasoda bound Krishna when he used to run away from home or eat clay, and he showed her the fourteen universes in his mouth, but this is not Bhakti. Again when Indra was wrathful and wanted to destroy all the people in the Vraja-land by a deluge of rain, the Gopas and the Gopis prayed Krishna to save them, and he protected them by holding Mt. Giriraja on one of his fingers: this too was not Bhakti. When Krishna, in his Rasa-Lila, disappeared from view, and the Gopis, full of the pangs of separation, went about seeking him from place to place that too was not Bhakti. So long as Bhakti is not altogether free from any worldly desires, it is not of the proper kind."
On being asked what true Bhakti was, he said:
"Real and disinterested Bhakti is born only when the soul is free from the I ness and Mine ness: never otherwise. There should be absolutely no desire left in one's mind. One should have only one desire, viz., to rest on the lotus-feet of God. No desire for oneself, and constant service and praise of God, no desire to have one's salvation even, and the sole thought of pleasing God, the sure conviction that one is in this world only to serve God and to have no other but this, "all this pleases God." And that is Bhakti."
Another important feature of the movement is to keep the religious life of the devotee hidden as far as possible from others. As has been said elsewhere in this book, a kind of godly hypocrisy, if such a term be allowed, is encouraged and even enjoined. The life of devotion is a secret between a soul and God which should not be divulged to others, especially those who are not prepared for it. This secret is to be kept not only from non-believers but even from such fellow-believers as may not have reached the proper stage to understand and appreciate the deeper things of God. There are several stories illustrating this feature, of which we give the following:
"Gokuldas was a wealthy man. Once upon a time he came to Gokula with a cheque for one hundred thousand Rs. He came along with several Vaishnavas, all of whom offered their gifts to Gosainjee (Vallabha's son Vitthalnatha) on their being presented to him Gokuldas, however, did not offer anything, whereupon the others began to find fault with him saying that he was a miser. He heard these remarks with much equanimity. Meantime he had placed his cheque unobserved under the cushion of the seat of Gosainjee. This was seen by a personal attendant of the latter, and when the party had left he spoke of it to his master. After this the Vaishnavas remained in Gokula for several days, but none of them knew of the gift made by Gokuldas. On the other hand he allowed himself to be found fault with as one lacking in faith."
In this we have a fine illustration of the practice of the precept "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." It goes even a step further since the man allows himself to be considered mean when he could have received much praise from his fellow-believers. There are a number of such stories in the literature of this movement.
Another important characteristic of this Church is that it discourages as much as possible the making of one's living by one's religious life. This is well illustrated by the following story:
"A Bengali, who lived in Vrandavana, maintained himself by the labour of his hands. Once Sri Gosainiee came to Vrandavana when this man became his disciple. The Vaishnavas of the place, now looking upon him as one of them, began to give him a higher wage that what he received formerly. The man thought this to be wrong inasmuch as it amounted to a sale of his religion. It is written in the Scriptures that the man who begs his bread in the name of God goes to hell, for which reason one should never make an exhibition of his religion in the course of his work or labour. Thinking thus, he used to wash off the mark of his faith on his work or labour. Thinking thus, he used to wash off the mark of his faith on his forehead and hide his necklace of Tulsi beads, before he went to work. He kept thus his faith secret. Once upon a time he forgot to wash the Tilaka (the sign on the forehead) and was leaving his home for work, when the Lord said to him: "Go after washing off your Tilak." This made the man extremely happy. From that day the Lord used to speak with him daily, giving him much joy. This Bengali had received such favour with the Goswami."
If the Lord wanted to accept money from any one, it would come of its own accord. A man's mind becomes evil if he eats the food of evil men even though he himself may be a holy man. It is not that the food itself is evil, but because it has been bought by tainted money it becomes harmful. Owing to this one should save himself from evil food and evil company."
"Champabhai of Gujarata worked as a sort of secretary to Sri Goswamin. He had so much faith in the Master that he saw no defect in him. Once upon a time Goswamin let with him for Gujarata, when on the way Raja Birbal met the party. As it was winter time, Birbal asked Champabhai why Sri Goswamin had chosen such a season to travel about. The later replied that it was due to his being heavily indebted. Hearing this Birbal said that he would gladly pay all his debts if that would prevent him from going to distant parts in the cold weather. Champabhai said this to Gosainjee, whereupon the latter said to himself: "Champabhai's mind has become worldly: this is why he thinks I go because I am in need of money, whereas the real purpose of my visit is to save souls." He then left the place at midnight without letting Birbal know anything about it. The next day he told Champabhai that he should undergo some penance, since he had committed a sin by attributing such a motive to him. He added that the Lord did not accept money from Princes, Prostitutes, Misers, Thieves and from all those who may have earned it by breach of trust or fraud or violence, and that, therefore he should never speak to anyone about it.
:Khushaldas, having earned much money took it all to Gosainjee. When he came, the latter was engaged in preparing himself for the worship of the Lord. On hearing from Khushaldas what he had come for, he remained silent for some time. Then he went into his private room for his worship. When he came out after finishing his worship, Khushaldas bowed down to him and offered the money which amounted to about three lacs of Rs. Gosainjee, however, told him that he could not accept the gift and asked him to take it back. At this the latter was much perturbed and requested the Goswamin to tell him what sin he had committed for him to be punished in this way. Gosainjee replied that it was through no fault of his that his gift was refused, but that it was the very nature of the thing offered which was the cause of the refusal. He added that when Khushaldas first told him about the offering he had brought, he was preparing for the divine service and that it caused distraction to his mind. He further said that if the mere idea of it was dangerous, much more so would the possession of such a big sum be, and that it was being refused on that account. Khushaldas then felt that he himself would suffer in the same way if he kept the money, and accordingly gave it away to others. He did not keep anything for himself. Such was his faith in Gosainjee."
One wishes that the Church of Vallabha had continued to follow in the foot-steps of Vitthalnatha in regard to money as seen in these incidents. Unfortunately it has been far from particular as to where it derives its wealth from, with the inevitable result that it has deteriorated much in many ways.
One of the noblest features of all the movements of Bhakti-Marga, in India or outside, is the cultivation of love for one's fellow-believers, irrespective of caste or race. We must remember in this connection that it is only among the best of people, the saints of God, that true and deep love for all human beings can be found. Such people are always rare in any Church. The followers of most Vaishnava Sampradayas are noted for such love among themselves. There are several stories in the literature of this movement illustrating this trait, of which we shall make room for the following:
"Once upon a time when Gosainjee went to Gujarata, he initiated a man into the faith. This man was then given an Image which he worshipped in accordance with the practice of the Church. So hospitable was he that many Vaishnavas frequented his house as guests. Once he had a visit from several of them in the cold season. He gave to them all the covering and bedding he had in the house reserving nothing for himself, with the result that he could not sleep. He then began to pass his time in remembering the Lord. At this the Lord came out from the room in which the Image was and told him that He himself was unable to sleep and that He was quaking with cold. The man replied to the Lord that He would not have been able to sleep if the Vaishnavas who had been his guests had lacked bedding and covering, and that he himself would love to suffer any punishment for the sin of keeping the Lord from sleep. Hearing this Lord laughed and said: "Your devotion is so great that your name is enough to expiate the guilt of others. How is it possible then for you to have any guilt for doing such an act as this? I am pleased with you and shall grant you any boon you may ask for." To this he replied: "My prayer is that my love for my fellow believers may increase day by day, because it is owing to this love that you have condescended to speak to me to-day." The Lord said Amen to this. From that day the Lord used to speak to him daily."
As has been said already, one of the most notable features of Vallabha's movement is an almost total disregard for ritualistic works. It has not, however, broken with the Varnashrama Dharma which it looks upon more as a social than a religious system. Because of this it does conform to the rules and conventions of society or rather the Caste-system, giving rise, thus, to tension in various degrees in the life of the disciples. There are two definite schools of opinion in the Church, one holding that no rituals whatsoever should be practiced and the other allowing some conformity to them. Happily these have continued to remain together in the Church and no sub-sect has arisen on this matter. It seems these schools of opinion are a later growth, but the tension spoken of above has been felt in the movement from its early days. In the following story we have an example of the way in which it was felt and resolved in the life of a disciple. It stands thus.
A Brahmin, well-versed in Scriptural lore, was much given to performing ritualistic works enjoined by the Scriptures. Once he came to Gokula and became a disciple of Gosainjee. He heard from the latter the characteristics of souls born of God, one of them being the performance, of ritualistic duties and works with a view to hide from people one's inner devotion. Apart from this such works were in no sense obligatory on true devotees. Hearing this he resolved to give up his love for works. He returned home bringing with him an Image which he worshipped with true devotion. He maintained himself by begging and devoted most of his time to the worship of God. Once being late in arranging his place for his worship, he began to sweep the house with haste. While doing this the string with which the broom was bound snapped, and as he did not want to be late for his worship, he just took off his sacred thread and bound the broom with it. At this God laughed and said to him: "Now I am truly pleased with thee. Thou knowest that a Brahmin goes to hell if he does not perform the works enjoined in the Vedas, and yet thou art prepared to go there for My sake. I am indeed much pleased with thee. Thou mayest ask for any boon thou likes, and shall grant it." To this the Brahmin folding his hands replied: "My Lord, I do not want anything. I only want that you should speak and talk with me always." God then asked him to put on his sacred thread again, whereupon the Brahmin replied: "What have I to do with such things now?" Upon this God said that it was necessary for him to do so in order that the people of the world may not be unnecessarily offended. The Brahmin then put on the thread and continued his worship. The Lord used to talk to him every day and gave him His fellowship."
A noteworthy characteristic of Vallabha's Church is that there is no place in it for Sadhus or Sannyasis. It simply does not believe in Sadhus or Swamis. According to Vallabha, in this Dark Age only one kind of Sannyasa is proper, viz., that of Bhakti. He himself took it at the end of his life and it was only a prelude to his passing away.
One of the glories of all the Vaishnava Churches in India is their universality. The Gospel proclaimed by them is meant for all, irrespective of race or sex or creed. In their eyes all human beings are eligible for salvation. The Bhakti movements in India did not hesitate to admit the Non-Aryans and even the Moslems into their fold. He is said to have had one or two Moslem disciples. His son Vitthalnatha continued the practice of admitting Moslems into the Church, one of whom deserves special mention.
The name of this Moslem disciple was Ras Khan. He has been thought by some to be a Pathan and by others a Syed. It is certain that he came from a noble family intimately associated with the Mogul Court. He is said to have been born in the latter half of the sixteenth century, being thus a contemporary of Vitthalnatha. He was, besides, a poet of real merit. It has been said of him that he was a lover of Beauty from his childhood, and without a doubt he loved Nature as only true poets do. This love of his increased with years. He had also a gift for friendship. In his early youth he formed a friendship with a Hindu of his age which engrossed his entire mind and became an obsession. In course of time, hearing from a Vaishnava about Sri Krishna, Ras Khan came to be smitten by a love for Krishna which was deep and profound. He was filled with a passionate desire to have the Darshana of Krishna, in His temple on Mt. Giri, a thing which he was not allowed to do on account of his being a Moslem. He gave up food and drink, and began to seek God here and there in order that he might find Him. For three days he went about like a mad man, crying out aloud for God. This was unbearable to God, and accordingly on the fourth day when Vitthalnatha went to Him in the morning, He said to him:
"A spiritual soul of non-Aryan origin has been sitting on the bank of Govindkund for three days without food. When I appeared to him, he ran to touch me, but I came away from him since you have not accepted him as your disciple. I shall accept him when you give him my name."
This was in other words a command to Vitthalnatha to make Ras Khan a disciple, which was done soon by giving him initiation into the Church. After this he was allowed to enter the temples belonging to the faith.
Ras Khan, who was a true devotee and a Bhakta, consecrated himself entirely to the service of Krishna. Being a poet he devoted all his gifts to the singing of the praise and glory of God. He composed a number of beautiful songs describing his deep experiences of God's love, grace and beauty. Many of these songs are brought together in the form of two small books called Ras Khan Sujana and Prema Vatika.
It was in this way that the doors of Vallabha's Church were opened to the Moslems. It is worthy of note that Vitthalnatha had some disciples even among the Untouchables. This is evident from the following story:
"Once upon a time Gosainjee and his party, while returning from Gujarata to Vrajaland, lost their way. They then found a Balai (a man belonging to an untouchable community) and asked him to show them the way, which the man willingly consented to do, especially as he had to go in the same direction. At noon the party rested for their meal etc., when they gave the Balai some food to eat. As soon as the man ate this food, his mind became pure and he saw God in Gosinjee. He then requested the latter to make him his disciple. Gosainjee, taking pity on him, gave him the Name. The party soon after came to the village where the Balai lived. The man then brought his wife to Gosainjee and got her initiated in to the faith by him. She partook of the holy food which made her mind pure. The influence of this was even greater in her case than in his, for while returning home she was so overwhelmed by the feeling of separation from God that she fainted. The man brought her back in this condition to Gosainjee who soon brought her to her senses. Then both the husband and the wife went with the party to Gokula. They walked at a little distance from others so that they may not touch them. On reaching the river Yamuna, the party crossed over to other side in a ferry, but the two Balais remained on this side as no boat would take them over. They then felt their separation from Vitthalnatha so much that they both had fever and they fainted. Gosainjee on coming to know of this sent some people to fetch them. This was done accordingly, the Balais remaining unconscious all the time. Then Gosainjee touched them with his feet and they both came to their senses. They prayed him to do something in their behalf so that they might have his darshan every day. Gosinjee then gave them his wooden sandals and asked them to worship them. He also told them that they would have his darshan in the sandals whenever they desired it. They were asked, besides, to offer to the sandals milk and fruit and to go and live in a quiet place. They did this and Gosainjee manifested himself to them every day twice, in the morning and in the evening. Their faith and devotion grew so much that they are said to have performed a miracle, which led to the conversion and initiation in to the new faith of a number of Brahmins and a Prince."
According to the accounts given in the book The Stories of Two Hundred and Fifty two Vaishnavas, in Vitthalnatha's own time, several Bhis are said to have been converted to the new faith owing to the efforts of Chacha Harivamsa. It would seem, therefore, that in those early days this branch of Vaishnavism, along with others, did not hesitate to carry its redemptive message even to the Aboriginals, the Moslems and the Untouchables. But this phase of it did not last long. As the Church grew in wealth, prestige and respectability, it fell in a line with the strictly orthodox Varnashramite Hinduism, and no more converts came from the classes mentioned above. This is just what has happened to most of the forward movements within the pale of Hinduism. The same phenomenon is visible elsewhere too. Dynamic movements in course of time are inevitably swallowed up by the large amount of inertia residing always in humanity and they in their turn give place to others having a more vital program.
Most of the stories given above are taken from The Stories of Two Hundred Fifty-two Vaishnavas. The first is taken from The Stories of Eighty-four Vaishnavas. They are extremely valuable, nevertheless, to the students of religious movements, as showing the drift and tendency of the faiths and Churches they represent. Author : Abha Shahra Shyama


text:
Steady snowfall that blanketed Moffat County on Wednesday meant at least one thing to resident Jim Mannion: job security.
"I'm happy anytime I have to shovel twice in one snowstorm," said Mannion who was shoveling sidewalks Wednesday afternoon on Yampa Avenue, earning money through a temporary job service agency. Shoveling twice meant double the pay, he said.
"Mother Nature cooperates that way," Mannion laughed.
Total snow accumulations that were expected to reach from 4 to 7 inches through the night, according to the National Weather Service, also helped business at Hang Time Sports, said owner Bobby Haskins.
"When there's snow, people want their (snow machines)," he said. "The snow definitely brings people out."
Haskins said business was brisk Wednesday with residents brining in their machines for repairs or perusing the store for snowmobiling accessories.
In general, a healthy amount of snowfall is good for most businesses in Moffat County, said Cathy Vanatta, director of the Craig Chamber of Commerce.
"It helps as far as tourism goes," she said.
Unfortunately, a little bit more of the white stuff last weekend would have kept snowmobile races through the Mountain States Snowmobile Racing from being canceled for this weekend. The circuit's first races were shifted to Hot Sulphur Springs, though later races may be rescheduled in Craig.
Having the races in Craig could help local businesses with retail and hotel sales, Vanatta said.
Despite the snow-covered roads, Elwood Eisenhauser of Ike & Son Transmission and Auto Wrecking said the shop hadn't received any calls for towing service Wednesday. That was a stark difference from the area's first heavy snowfall of the year in November, when "cars were off the road everywhere," Eisenhauser said.
Instead, he said people trickled in to get their vehicles winterized.
Colorado State Patrol trooper Marty Smith said the department reported only one vehicle off the road early Wednesday. That's considerably less than the wrecks -- about 20 -- that the patrol reported from the area's first late- November snowstorm.
"Driving improves the longer they spend driving on the snow-covered roads," Smith said.
Smith cautioned drivers to slow down in winter conditions.
For example, driving a posted 65 mph speed limit may be excessive on icy or snowy roads.
Driving too fast also could earn drivers tickets for careless driving.
"It's the law to drive with true regard for the weather conditions," Smith said. "If yours is the only car sliding off the road, then you're obviously not driving slow enough."
Amy Hatten can be reached at 824-7031 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
This term is employed by the apostle John alone, and is defined by him in a manner which leaves no doubt as to its intrinsic meaning. With regard to its application there is less certainty. In the first passage-- ( 1 John 2:18 ) --in which it occurs, the apostle makes direct reference to the false Christs whose coming, it had been fore-told, should mark the last days. In v. 22 we find, "he is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son;" and still more positively, "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of antichrist." Comp. ( 2 John 1:7 ) From these emphatic and repeated definitions it has been supposed that the object of the apostle in his first epistle was to combat the errors of Cerinthus, the Docetae and the Gnostics on the subject of the Incarnation. (They denied the union of the divine and human in Christ.) The coming of Antichrist was (believed to be foretold in the "vile person" of Daniels prophecy, ( Daniel 11:21 ) which received its first accomplishment in Antiochus Epiphanes but of which the complete fulfillment was reserved for the last times. He is identified with "the man of sin, the son of perdition." ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ) This interpretation brings Antichrist into close connection with the gigantic power of evil, symbolized by the "beast," ( Revelation 13:1 ) ... who received his power from the dragon (i.e. the devil, the serpent of Genesis), continued for forty and two months, and was invested with the kingdom of the ten kings who destroyed the harlot Babylon, ( Revelation 17:12 Revelation 17:17 ) the city of seven hills. The destruction of Babylon is to be followed by the rule of Antichrist for a short period, ( Revelation 17:10 ) to be in his turn overthrown in "the battle of that great day of God Almighty," ( Revelation 16:14 ) with the false prophet and all his followers. Rev. 19. The personality of Antichrist is to be inferred as well from the personality of his historical precursor as from that of him to whom he stands opposed. Such an interpretation is to be preferred to that which regards Antichrist as the embodiment and personification of all powers and agencies inimical to Christ, or of the Antichristian might of the world.
[N] indicates this entry was also found in Nave's Topical Bible
[T] indicates this entry was also found in Torrey's Topical Textbook
[B] indicates this entry was also found in Baker's Evangelical Dictionary
[E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary
[H] indicates this entry was also found in Hitchcock's Bible Names
Bibliography InformationSmith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Antichrist'". "Smith's Bible Dictionary".


text:
Oh wait, y'all have done that yet?
He previously interned at the ACLU, where he assisted the organization with its efforts to attack the Bush administration's national security policies. He also helped to challenge the 'state secrets privilege' and to support the rights of terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay during an internship at Human Rights First.
And the DOJ is doing such a great job doing what exactly?
LANNY BREUER: Well, I think I am pursuing justice. And I think the entire responsibility of the department is to pursue justice. But in any given case, I think I and prosecutors around the country, being responsible, should speak to regulators, should speak to experts, because if I bring a case against institution A, and as a result of bringing that case, there's some huge economic effect — if it creates a ripple effect so that suddenly, counterparties and other financial institutions or other companies that had nothing to do with this are affected badly — it's a factor we need to know and understand.
The other side is mostly inflexible in even the most mild discussion of enhnced background checks.
Are you not aware of FedGov statutes that regulate FedGov employees from engaging in partisan political activity ?
Advertising Info
Privacy Policy
Where to Watch LSU
Contact Us
© 2017 TigerDroppings.com. All Rights Reserved |


text:
10 Lovely Valentine's Day Heart Patterns
Show Summary | Posted by colorburned 2964 days ago | Category: Web Design
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all enjoy these 10 vector Valentine's Day heart pattern swatches and can use them in your designs.
Tweet This | Share to Facebook | Discuss | Bury


text:
This website uses cookies. By navigating around this site you consent to cookies being stored on your machine. Learn more
Title (Qty) | Price |
Your Basket is empty. | |
Sub Total | £0.00 |
Shipping Total | £0.00 |
Discount | £0.00 |
Total | £0.00 |
Quality and sturdy drop leg tactical holster for carrying all popular handguns, both medium and large. It comes with a single built in front magazine pouch with Velcro closure. The holster can be attached to the thigh with 2 elastic and adjustable leg straps with quick release buckles. It also has a wide adjustable leg extender that can be attached to the belt with Velcro. The straps ensure stability even during the most demanding missions. It is worth adding the holster has a quick release adjustable thumb break with double security Velcro flap over the thumb break which holds pistol handle in place. Furthermore the bottom of holster is open to allow for holstering of guns with silencers or similar items attached to the bottom.


text:
Ask a Question Please complete this question form so we can get back to you! Thank you.
VONTURY POTTERY LOVELY GRAPE DECORATED VASE! Currently priced at $ 75.00 This is an offering for a lovely Vontury Pottery 4-3/4" high grape decorated vase. This is one of the smaller pieces I"ve seen which explains why there is no mark on the diminutive base. No nicks chips, cracks or repairs. Shipping for this fine addition to your collection is $8.95.
What is the maximum you'd pay for this?
$ Currently priced at $ 75.00.
How many is this for?
Any Questions?
Your Name
Thank you
Store Home · About Us · Contact · FAQ / Policies · Privacy · Security · TIAS home · Site Map · Tell a Friend! · Join our Mailing List ·
The Pottery Peddler Contact us! 11151 318th Place NECarnation, WA 98014United States Updated Saturday, March 25 2017Product descriptions copyright© 2017 The Pottery PeddlerAll else copyright© 1995-2017 TIAS.com All rights reserved.


text:
Ah yes - I might be getting ahead of myself. Marcus as first officer of the Enterprise is mentioned in the prequel comic. Some are speculating that Peter Weller will turn out to be Carol's Dad. Either way, Weller has been cast, and he's a white dude. The race issue can be frustrating too but equally we have an alien desert with only a handful of aliens being present at graduation. It may be that there are alien academies as well so Earth tends to have humans. It would be nice to see some more new characters from some of the classic TOS races though.
It would be nice if we could just stop treating speculations, rumors, and guesses as though they were worth basing any conclusions on. It's only two months and change until the movie comes out, and there are going to be advance reviews and press coverage before then, so it won't be long until we get genuine answers. And then most of this speculation is going to look pretty silly. At this point it seems better just to have a little patience, since the actual facts are so close now. We saw a lot more Starfleet aliens in this movie than we ever saw in TOS, even if they were just background extras. Don't Orions count as a classic TOS race? And there was a redesigned Gorn in the deleted Rura Penthe scenes from the '09 movie.
Yeah it's a shame the Rura Penthe stuff got cut. I don't mind the Orions but I'm not a fan of neutering the species' potential by just making them perky green humans. Orions were way more fun in TOS and Enterprise and I also loved the attention paid to the Andorians in Enterprise. It was nice to see the Vulcans (although I wish they'd included T'Pau) but blue is the new green. Generally, I'd rather see some familiar aliens rather than new and pointless big eyes or bumpy heads. I have no issue if they want to throw some money at re-imaging the regulars. I have to admit begrudgingly that new aliens done well can turn into fantastic assets for the franchise but there are so many fun pre-existing ones to develop that this would be my preference.
I've been regretting for decades that the various makeup creators on TMP, the later movies, and the later TV series kept making up new aliens instead of revisiting what their predecessors had created. We've gotten so many aliens that were seen once and then never used again. It undermines the believability of Trek as a consistent universe. I would've liked to see more ongoing coordination, a commitment to developing the species that had already been introduced rather than making up new ones at random.
You would have freaked if those female characters got killed over males. Canonically, do we know that? Might Keenser be some other gender? Then you missed seeing the rescued female. I'm sure I saw one - and I hoped, at the time, that she'd be revealed to be T'Pau.
Ditto - loved Ex Machina. Lol - no I'm quite happy if men and women get bumped off in equal numbers Canonically I'm not sure if Keenser even has a gender; in the comics he's a dude. And of course I spotted the Vulcan Elder! Plenty of opportunity to give her a name check but she's such a great character it would have been a waste. Chapel was just a tease.
Ah. So, there's actually nothing confirmed about "Admiral Marcus" appearing in the movie. Okay. Also, not to whine, I realize this is the Star Trek Ongoing thread, but it sounds like that little nugget came from Countdown– which I haven't read yet and would just as soon not have spoiled. Tags next time? As for gender and racial balance in the movie: at the time, in the theater, with no time to reflect on what I was seeing, it felt like the movie skewed towards white humans. I'm thinking of the scenes in the big auditorium at Starfleet, like this one: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/xihd/trekxihd2850.jpg Lots of caucasian skin. Now, of course, it is surprisingly difficult to distinguish European, Latino, Native American, Middle Eastern, South Asian and even East Asian skin tones from a distance, especially when they aren't in focus. But still, the overall effect I saw in the theater (which is how most people are gonna see it; very few will go to TrekCore afterwards to examine more closely) was lots and lots of white humans. Worth saying that there are, in fact, more aliens in the crowd than first meets the eye. Here: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/xihd/trekxihd0849.jpg Third row middle, looks a bit like a clean-shaven Tellarite. Here: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/xihd/trekxihd0850.jpg Not-quite-Tellarite again and then copper-skinned female with earrings. Here: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/xihd/trekxihd2851.jpg Second row in the middle, another copper-skinned female, this one without earrings. A little to the right of dead-center of the photo is an alien with a huge head, and next to him/her/it is another alien. Near the right edge, in the first row of redshirts is another alien. All of whom were barely noticeable in the film, for better or for worse. *shrug* Here:
The composition of a large crowd of extras like that is most likely going to reflect the demographics of the place where it was filmed, in this case the Greater Los Angeles area (the assembly scenes were shot in Long Beach). So the majority would be white or Hispanic (or both), with maybe around 10% each black and Asian. I'd say the crowd I'm seeing in that photo is compatible with those estimates. I do recall hearing about crowd-scene casting calls for the film which specifically requested extras not only of all ethnicities, but of "unusual" appearance, presumably people who could pass as aliens of one sort or another. So they were not trying for uniformity, I know that. That female, or one of the same species, also appeared as a background bridge officer on the Enterprise, manning the console just starboard of Spock's. She was called "Madeline" behind the scenes. The big-head guy also ended up on the Enterprise, in the torpedo bay. He was nicknamed "Dexter." And if you look over the names and photos of the extras playing Enterprise crew on that Memory Alpha page I linked to, you'll see they're a very ethnically diverse group.
^ Thanks for the background info and links, Christopher. Very cool. To be clear, I agree that there definitely is a range of ethnicities present among the extras playing the Enterprise crew, and it's clear that the crowd at Starfleet is also somewhat ethnically diverse. All I meant was that, as I was watching the movie, the ethnic diversity seemed much less noticeable, to such a degree that I remember remarking on it to myself. That's clearly an issue of perception, not of the particular extras they hired. Still, it's interesting. Anyway...
The diversity in humans was something I really liked in Star Trek. Abrams didn't smack you in the face with trite speeches about how humanity has evolved beyond racism, he simply showed it.
Yeah I think the background actors are quite diverse in gender and ethnicity. They can probably tease it up a notch as far as the speaking roles are concerned - possibly two notches as far as gender is concerned.
Really, given the premise that this is an alternate timeline that diverged from the original, they're limited by the character casting of the original, which was heavy on the white males by dint of being a 1960s TV show. They'd be freer to add diversity if it had simply been a wholesale reboot, Galactica-style. Then they could have, say, a black McCoy, a female Sulu, whatever. (Khan Noonien Kaur?)
Spoiler: star trek into darkness Actually according to a spoiler review of some scenes in shown in Brazil Weller is playing Admiral Marcus
Yeah, that's crossed my mind more than once. For the 1960's, the TOS cast was pretty diverse. Nowadays, the lack of women is really noticeable. And I have to admit that I think Abrams et al could've made better efforts to incorporate non-stereotypical female characters into the film. But that's a discussion for another sub-forum. Am I right in remembering that there actually were rumors going around, probably in '07 or '08, that Sulu was going to be reimagined as a woman? I'm pretty sure I remember Graham Kennedy over at DITL running a poll on the question, but I can't remember what motivated him...
I think the BSG reboot was very good, but it was only really Starbuck that was re-imagined as a woman - and very well I might add. The other characters were basically different characters with the same name. But BSG did not have the same loyal fan base as Trek. I think re-imagining the characters' gender in Trek would be a big mistake. However, it's also true to say that NuBSG didn't treat the original female characters with any kind of respect. Athena, Cassiopeia, Serena, and Sheba were largely absent in anything resembling their original forms. A version of Athena crops up, although as a different character with the same name, it's arguable that Six has adopted a few traits of Cassiopeia, but she has a different name, although I think a fairly decent version of Sheba appears in Razor. There is a difference between improving the gender imbalance and being true to the characters. For my part, I think they should have saved Chekov for a sequel (much like Robin in the Batman franchise) and made room for one or both of the other recurring women. Rand could have been updated as a more security trained Pike's Yeoman and could have been sent to Delta Vega as Kirk's security escort (although by transporter instead of an escape pod) and should maybe have taken on Chekov's transporter role and manned the transporter on Delta Vega to give her an extra niche and give us a nod to her role in TMP. Chapel could have been a biologist drafted in as a nurse by McCoy following the attack to avoid her being pigeonholed as McCoy's helper from the start. Featuring all three women, even in minor roles (and none of the above would have altered the plot significantly) would have bumped the profile of females in the franchise slightly and if new characters like Marcus come along, they help to even the balance a bit more instead of being a drop in the male ocean. Non-fans would not know or care who Chekov is and fans would understand that he's too young to be an officer at this time. I don't think there would have been an uproar. The comics have an opportunity to feature more women and have featured Rand and Zahra as recurring security guards alongside Hendorff and Boma but I think if they do want to even up the roles a bit more they do need to give Rand a slightly more prominent role. They should also take a look at some of the other women who featured in TOS and slot them in where appropriate. Stick Carolyn Palamas on any landing party featuring pre-industrial societies, use Mulhall alongside McCoy for any astro-biology plot, use Masterson when dealing with phaser repairs, use Noel when dealing with psychology or pshychiatry (instead of nobody as in the reboot of WNMHGB). There are more than just a few yeomen out there - the writers just need a list of characters and roles to work from. NB: It would be nice to see Reilly, Kyle, DeSalle, Decker, and Ilia too, as well as some new aliens but they should put a bit more effort into the laydeez IMHO.
First off, you're forgetting that the original BSG did have a fiercely loyal, if small, fanbase that raised enormous howls of protest at the gender-swapping of Starbuck and Boomer. It was a massive online controversy for a while, which is why Starbuck is the go-to example for a gender-swapped reimagining to this day. But ultimately those protests didn't matter because the show itself proved that the characters' sex didn't really matter to how they were portrayed. By the same token, there were a lot of objections to Elementary casting Lucy Liu as Watson -- and Sherlock Holmes fandom is far older than Trek fandom and just as dedicated. But the show is a big hit, and while I'm sure there are plenty of purists who hate its revisionist take, there are plenty of other Holmes fans (myself included) who love it, and plenty of new fans who've been brought in by it. So yeah, sure, if a Trek reboot changed the characters in a more fundamental way than Abrams's version has, there would be uproar from the purists -- but ultimately that would not matter so long as the actual movie or show were done well. Anything worth doing is going to upset somebody, because people's tastes are so diverse. The only way to offend no one is to delight no one, to do something so bland and empty that it has no real impact of any kind. So you can't let fear of controversy keep you from trying things. Did the original BSG treat them with any kind of respect, though? Serena was killed off very early and rarely mentioned thereafter. Athena gradually faded into the background and was dropped altogether in the latter part of the season. Sheba was supposed to be a tough fighter pilot, but she was played as a simpering, whiny love interest most of the time. And Cassiopeia had the potential to be something intriguing -- like Firefly's Inara, a sex worker in a society where the profession was legal and respected -- but due to the network's fear of that idea, she was hastily retconned into a nurse and was basically just there to be a love interest for Starbuck. The one thing about the original BSG that impressed me where its treatment of women was concerned was that it didn't go for cheesecake and skimpy outfits the way something like TOS did. There were a couple of early scenes where we saw women in flesh-toned leotard-like undergarments that made them look scantily clad but were actually all-concealing, but after that they were usually fully clothed, and it was the men who occasionally lost their shirts or played sports in gratuitously scanty attire. Do you mean Charlene Masters?
I don't think any reboot is going to please everybody but the Trek fan base is big. There are plenty of vocal objections to reboot we have now. Some people even cared that Pine's eyes were the 'wrong' colour. Sheba used to annoy the hell out of me because she always looked like she was about to burst into tears. However, you've hit the nail on the head with the ways that modern writers could have updated a character like Cassiopeia (although they would no doubt be accused of making an Inara knock off). Athena tended to be generic fighter pilot for the latter episodes with no dialogue of any note from what I recall. Same with Trek's women - they would not be hard to modernise but the writers would have to respect their contribution to the story as it can be today instead of leaving them to dole out coffee, hyposprays, and glimpses of leg for their unrequieted loves. NuBSG wasn't faultless though. Duala was a third tier character but she had her moments in seasons 1 and 2. In later episodes she was relegated to a tiresome love triangle plot. She had a couple of cracking scenes with Adama in season one but despite them having a closer relationship in the later seasons we never got a single scene of them together where they could build on those early scenes. It was such a waste! I always get Masters' name wrong. But yeah - plenty of plots involve fixing phasers. Why not use her?
Relative to the population of active posters on an online bulletin board, there are "plenty" of objections. Relative to the total number of moviegoers, there are very few. The 2009 movie was the most financially successful Trek movie since TMP (adjusted for inflation, and largely because TMP was in theaters for far longer), and on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb it's got the highest approval rating of any Trek film ever. So the percentage of fans who disliked the movie, particularly over reasons as trivial as eye color, is much, much smaller in real life than it appears to be on the Internet. The thing is, the people with the most intense opinions about something, particularly negative opinions, are motivated to comment far more aggressively and frequently than people with less extreme views, and that creates the false impression that the fiercest protestors represent a much larger percentage of the audience than they actually do. And just in general, the percentage of fans motivated to participate in online discussions is fairly low and not statistically representative of the whole. So what can be said of online commenters cannot be extrapolated to the fanbase as a whole. Athena was only a pilot in the "Lost Planet of the Gods" 2-parter, I believe. For the most part she was BSG's Uhura -- or perhaps BSG's Tawny Madison (from Galaxy Quest). She was the good-looking female bridge officer who was mainly there to give exposition, when she wasn't just there to be the Veronica to Cassiopeia's Betty. (Sorry for the overload of pop-culture references.) In her last appearance in "Greetings from Earth," she was a schoolteacher. So basically she filled whatever traditional feminine role was called for. The thing is, Duala essentially was Athena in terms of her role aboard ship, so one wonders why they didn't just call her that. Perhaps because they saved the weirder character names for pilot callsigns. And of course if she'd been Athena, and thus Apollo's sister, there would've been no romance with Apollo (not that that plot thread worked out very well anyway).
That's true! I did think Dee was Athena in another guise initially and she was developed only slightly more. I think they just teased me with that scene when she dressed down Adama in season one. That's the Dee I wanted to see again! Oh well.


text:
Determinants of Mortgage Debt Growth in EU Countries
This paper presents an analysis of mortgage debt growth in the EU-15 countries. Mortgage debt has risen quickly in many countries in recent years, reaching historically very high levels that increasingly attract the attention from both researchers and policymakers. While there are some papers on factors behind national mortgage debt developments, studies taking a broader approach, both regarding the number of countries included and the potential determinants of mortgage debt growth, are still lacking. This study aims at filling this gap and presents estimates for real mortgage debt growth for the EU-15 countries, using pooled regressions for the period 1982--2003. Special attention is paid to properly defining mortgage costs, for which an after-tax measure is constructed. The regressions indicate that real mortgage debt is affected by after-tax mortgage interest costs, by house prices, financial deregulation, and stock markets, while the effects of household disposable income and inflation are less evident. These results are shown to be relatively robust using alternative time periods, estimation techniques, and groups of countries, only Greece being somewhat of an exception. Finally, we pay attention to tax instruments for influencing housing market developments, notably the deductibility of mortgage interest payments from personal income tax. The paper concludes that tax instruments have the potential to contribute to more stable mortgage debt developments.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 6 (2006)
Issue (Month): 2 (August)
Pages: 131-149
Handle: | RePEc:taf:eurjhp:v:6:y:2006:i:2:p:131-149 |
Contact details of provider: | Web page: http://www.tandfonline.com/REUJ20 |
Order Information: | Web: http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REUJ20 |
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Karl E. Case & Robert J. Shiller, 1988.
"The behavior of home buyers in boom and post-boom markets,"
New England Economic Review,
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Nov, pages 29-46.
- Karl E. Case & Robert J. Shiller, 1988. "The Behavior of Home Buyers in Boom and Post-Boom Markets," NBER Working Papers 2748, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Robert J. Shiller & Karl E. Case, 1988. "The Behavior of Home Buyers in Boom and Post-Boom Markets," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 890, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
- Irene de Greef & Ralph de Haas, 2002. "Housing Prices, Bank Lending, and Monetary Policy," Macroeconomics 0209010, EconWPA.
- Martins, Nuno C. & Villanueva, Ernesto, 2006. "The impact of mortgage interest-rate subsidies on household borrowing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1601-1623, September.
- Fitzpatrick, Trevor & McQuinn, Kieran, 2004.
"House Prices and Mortgage Credit: Empirical Evidence for Ireland,"
Research Technical Papers
5/RT/04, Central Bank of Ireland.
- Trevor Fitzpatrick & Kieran Mcquinn, 2007. "House Prices And Mortgage Credit: Empirical Evidence For Ireland," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(1), pages 82-103, 01.
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eurjhp:v:6:y:2006:i:2:p:131-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Michael McNulty)
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.


text:
Zif's sketchbook
Monday 11 February 2008 by Yasmin Green. No comments
New acquisitions, Art
A sketchbook of humorous pre-First World War caricatures has recently been acquired by the Australian War Memorial. Members of the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA), located at Queenscliff, Victoria, are depicted in this work dating from 1909-1910. Referred to as the "budget" of the regiment and located in what once appeared to be an accounting book, the works were created by an anonymous artist using the name "Zif".
At the beginning of the book, "Zif" ascertains that "You may rest assured that if you have anything meritorious in your composition, or disposition, we will faithfully portray it; on the other hand, if you incur our disfavour, you may expect no mercy". The caricatures attempt to encapsulate the essence of the individual and some depictions are quite unflattering.
"Bummy Brown" is portrayed as a stein of beer, Phil Cray as a crayfish (a simple play on words presumably), and another RAA gentleman as a dachshund. On the other hand, Charlie Hudd, a man who went on to serve in the First World War as a gunner in the Siege Artillery Brigade, is depicted as the regiment's champion rugby player. Interspersed with verse by "Absolam", the sketchbook contains over 50 caricatures, and several works identify the individual portrayed. This would leave those men in no doubt about how their fellow RAA members perceived them.