text:
With gluten-free products readily available in most stores, you might think that the understanding of Celiac Disease would be at an all-time high. However, there is still a little known side to this autoimmune disease, called Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH).
For most celiacs, the symptoms of the disease are digestive, for example: bloating, upset stomach, and vomiting. However people can also experience sudden or unexpected weight loss, hair loss, depression, tiredness, and anemia. With these symptoms, your doctor might carry out a diagnostic test for Celiac Disease and you will get a definitive yes or no answer as to whether Celiac Disease is the cause of your symptoms. However, there is more to Celiac Disease than digestive symptoms, one which I have personal experience.
In my early 20's, during a period of stress, I developed little clusters of very itchy blisters that crusted over. They appeared on pressure points, so elbows, knees and buttocks. It is difficult to explain just how itchy this rash is, but it has been compared to being whipped with stinging nettles, so you can imagine the intensity of the discomfort. This carried on for weeks then months in varying degrees of cover.
In trying to identify the source of the problem, I visited my Doctor and, at that time, the usual causes were discussed, e.g. contact dermatitis, (so perhaps changing washing powders as it's irritating my skin, or new clothing or a product I was applying to my skin), alternatively a side effect to an existing medication, or a fungal disease, etc. Rashes are notoriously difficult to diagnose and this rash was going to challenge the most astute of the medical profession.
After a prolonged period, it was suspected my rash might be an unusual, but not unheard of, skin manifestation of Celiac Disease: Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH). The small blisters occur anywhere on the body and can appear at any age, but are most common in people in their thirties. This condition is more common in men than women, and effecting (UK data) 1 in 10,000 people. This suspicion resulted in my having the standard test for Celiac Disease (blood test and endoscopy in the UK) and also a skin biopsy, which was actually painless and carried out under local anaesthetic.
When all my results came back I was a celiac with the skin manifestation DH. This meant for me some Dapsone tablets to address the rash (with regular blood tests), until the gluten-free diet kicked in and the Dapsone could be phased out. In time and following a strict diet, symptoms would fade and my skin would eventually return to normal.
Both the skin and the abdominal symptoms, which do not always present together, are a life long condition with the gluten-free diet also a life long commitment for both manifestations of the same condition.
Small intestine damage
There is an even more serious side to Celiac Disease; it is not an allergy but an autoimmune disease. That means the body's immune system is triggered in error to the proteins in the grains of wheat, rye and barley (and for some people oats too) believing it to be an enemy entering the body, like a virus for example. As the body attacks the gluten it damages the small gut, and this is the unseen damage that will cause long term and potentially serious health issues.
It is this unseen damage to the small gut that is really the main reason to go gluten- free and to stay gluten-free after diagnosis.
To show the source of the problem, the following images show the villi, which are the hairs in the small gut that absorb the goodness in your food. A celiac ingesting gluten will cause the immune response which will in turn damage the villi. This damage will flatten the villi and can result in poor absorption of nutrients, which can result in: malnutrition, anemia, osteoporosis, possible fertility problems and cancers. This area of damage exists in both Celiac Disease sufferers with abdominal symptoms and those suffering with DH symptoms:
See illustration below
If you suspect you may have symptoms of Celiac Disease or DH it is important to continue eating gluten foods until you are tested. This is because the tests look for the antibodies produced by the body in response to gluten.
Although initially alarming, Celiac Disease and DH are both manageable. Maintaining a strict gluten-free diet will allow the body to recover and remain healthy.
For my own story, my gut healed and I was able to stop taking Dapsone tablets. In times of extreme stress my rash does sometimes return despite following a strict gluten-free diet. Dapsone is still available to me, but I usually find that the rash subsides on its own now once the stress reduces.
It was also recommended at the time that family members with any similar symptoms also be tested for Celiac Disease as it can run in families, and my mother was also found to be a sufferer, after many years of undiagnosed sickness and irritable bowel.
Hopefully as awareness is raised of all the symptoms of this condition, many people will be able to live happier lives. If in doubt, please speak to your doctor about the initial blood test for Celiac Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH).
- Alonso-Llamazares J et al. (2006) Clinical, pathologic, and immunopathologic features of dermatitis herpetiformis: review of the Mayo Clinic experience
- Zingone F et al. (2009) Body Mass Index and Prevalence of Skin Diseases in Adults with Untreated Coeliac Disease
- Salmi TT et al. (2011) Prevalence and incidence of dermatitis herpetiformis: a 40-year prospective study from Finland
Photographs and some factual information from:


text: Team of Experts Solves a Mystery Make an Appointment Make a Donation Contact Us Kimbrell Kimbrough was going downhill fast. What had started as swelling in her hands and neck had progressed to extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing and dangerously low oxygen levels in her blood. Her hair was falling out, and she needed a wheelchair – when she could muster the energy to get out of bed. Doctors in Georgia first thought she had double pneumonia, then bronchiolitis obliterans, interstitial pneumonia, tuberculosis, and maybe even HIV. They tried antibiotics, steroids and many other medications to no avail. Kimbrell Kimbrough is back to leading an active life and getting the right diagnosis and treatment. "Finally they said that they had tried everything they knew, had no other options, and were sending me home," said Kimbrough. "Basically they were sending me home to die." She wrote letters to her young son and husband to be read after her death. Her family and friends gave her a surprise 37th birthday party, with the unspoken expectation that she would not have a 38th. But Kimbrough's internist persevered. He found National Jewish Health. "Right away I felt like they cared. From the valet parking the car, to the receptionist, the nurses taking my vital signs and the doctors who never seemed rushed, they cared, and they understood me as a whole person," said Kimbrough. At National Jewish Health, Kimbrough saw pulmonologist Kevin Brown, MD, and rheumatologist Richard Meehan, MD, in the Autoimmune Lung Center. Drs. Brown and Meehan combine their expertise in pulmonology and rheumatology to diagnose and care for patients whose lung disease is caused by immune disorders. Together, over the course of a week of extensive testing and consultation, Drs. Brown and Meehan determined that Kimbrough suffered from a rare combination of autoimmune diseases scleroderma and polymyositis, which were attacking her lungs and other organs in her body. Over the next 11 months, Drs. Brown and Meehan worked to find the right combination of medications that could protect her lungs by suppressing her overactive immune system, while keeping her from becoming dangerously susceptible to infection. Today, Kimbrough is active once again, playing tennis, running and caring for her family. "They didn't give up, and they found the answer," said Kimbrough. "They saved my life.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Guitar and thump duet
While I was singing and playing the guitar for Annie, Sniff hid under the bed and kept thumping his hind legs. We sounded like a badly rehearsed duet between a guitar and a bass drum. After a while, either my playing had improved or Sniff's curiosity got the better of him as he came out from under the bed and began to inspect the cause of the ruckus. Pictured: Sniff helps me tune the "G" string, as I was presumably a bit flat.


text:
Discussion in 'Radicons Customs' started by thyvipera, Jun 2, 2009.
Phot Credit: F_R
Nice. Are you going to give him an arm cannon?
i'm going to see what ican do, once they arrive back here. hopefully he will
Looks good!
i like it.
totally feeling this one the head is great and the paint is flawless
Separate names with a comma.


text:
Public playground AMS
Public playground AMS
Children's playschool
Amsterdam, Netherlands
2900 sq.m.
Tomas Umbrasas, Aidas Barzda, Ulė Grinevičiūtė, Tautvydas Vileikis, Rokas Kontvainis, Justė Surplytė
Instead of designing one object (Children's playschool), we suggest to make this site even more attractive by adding different functions and letting people experience "water city" concept. All the volumes are arranged around the pedestrian alley – continuation of the Westerdok street. The complex gradually rises towards the water forming the image of a wind blown structure and reaches its highest point – observation tower.
We removed the subsiding layer of clay and sand and kept the existing piles construction. By keeping it, we got a grid which is filled with different functions: children's day care, a bike shop, rental premises, a boat repair center, an architecture office, outdoor and water cinemas, an exhibition space, a concert hall, an observation tower, an open air theater, a restaurant, public sauna with a bar, public park, pedestrian alley, a stadium, a water polo pool, an outdoor gym, bicycle parking, fish market, chess café, public square and yacht club with a restaurant. Buildings and spaces together form the biggest "Public Playschool" in Amsterdam with cozy narrow pathways, small bridges and amphitheaters overlooking the water.
Despite that the complex works by its own, it also creates a dialogue with existing functions. Children from the Brede School De Zeeheld could come to the opening of a new exhibition, office workers would have lunch every day and the elderly would love to play chess in the outdoor café to keep their minds sharp.
Competition board.
P.S. Find Waldo.


text:
Compendium heroicum available in English
Dec 10, 2022
Germersheimer Übersetzerlexikon (UeLEX) launched
Nov 18, 2022
First OES User Meeting, July 28-29, 2022
Jul 08, 2022
Kick-off event CeMoG @Athens April, 1st 2019
On April, 1st 2019 a kick-off event will take place in Athens focussing on the OES use case Online-Compendium der deutsch-griechischen Verflechtungen (ComDeG) (Online compendium of German-Greek Entanglements) . The project team of CeMoG will give introductory lectures on basic ideas and the conception of a digital reference work.
Mar 28, 2019
Compendium heroicum launched
Oct 17, 2018
OES at CNI Membership Meeting 2017
Dec 10, 2017
In preparation: Compendium heroicum
An online compendium on heroes and heroines "Compendium heroicum" is in preparation. To be published with OES soon.
Nov 21, 2017
DH Berlin round tour event at CeDiS
The project team of the Open Encyclopedia System will host next month's regular DH round tour and is pleased to present the latest developments and future prospects of the project.
Jun 28, 2017
OES at the ISI 2017 in Berlin
Mar 13, 2017
New features for 1914-1918-online released
The project team of Open Encyclopedia System is pleased to announce two new features on 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War : a Call for Papers, and updated editions of previously published articles.
Jan 25, 2017
Autumn went Open Access
This autumn was heavily focusing on issues like Open Access and Open Data. In Berlin for instance, the Senate installed a so-called Open Access office on 1 st September. Additionally, several conferences on these issues took place in Europe. Three of them, mainly focusing on the german-speaking community will be referred to in the following news report.
Nov 23, 2016
Job vacancy at CeDiS
Mar 30, 2016


text:
The restrictive immigration legislation proposed and sometimes enacted in states and localities throughout the United States in recent years has pushed immigration status into new territory. For years a person's compliance or non-compliance with immigration laws was difficult if not impossible to discern in the course of ordinary life. People went to church, school, work, the grocery store, government offices, and even prison without others knowing or even asking whether they had received the federal government's authorization to be present in the United States.
Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, Alabama's House Bill 56, and ordinances enacted by a handful of cities sought to shine a bright light on the immigration status of everyone who was pulled over by a police officer, enrolled in a public school, tried to rent an apartment, or performed some other unremarkable activity. These attempts to identify and sanction potentially unauthorized migrants met strong political resistance. Most were ultimately hampered by litigation.
All the while, writes Anil Kalhan, an associate professor at Drexel University School of Law, the federal government has been systematically unrolling computerized search processes that go far beyond what these local efforts managed. In Immigration Policing and Federalism Through the Lens of Technology, Surveillance, and Privacy, 74 Ohio State Law Journal 1105 (2013), Kalhan identifies what he calls "automated immigration policing"—that is, the use of "interoperable database systems and other technologies [that] automate and routinize the identification and apprehension of potentially deportable noncitizens in the course of ordinary law enforcement encounters and other moments of day-to-day life." Id. at 1108.
Kalhan focuses much of his attention, rightly so, on the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Communities program, a favorite of the Obama Administration and the linchpin of its interior enforcement strategy. Here he displays an impressive familiarity with the obscure operations of this massive initiative, as well as the many electronic databases that are at the heart of the automated immigration policing trend. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, for example, involving over 90,000 government agencies and including more than 11 million records, is the FBI's principal criminal records database and sits at the center of the immigration policing regime that Kalhan examines. Id. at 1124. Meanwhile, the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) contains records of over 100 million subjects, id. at 1123, and shares a starring role in contemporary immigration policing with the DHS-run Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) database that itself counts records on over 148 million people, id. at 1127.
More than simply recount the details of the intergovernmental data exchange that characterizes Secure Communities, Kalhan provides a coherent and compelling theoretical understanding of how Secure Communities is reshaping federal-state-local interactions. This initiative doesn't just expand the reach of federal immigration law enforcement officers—though it certainly does that rather significantly. More importantly, Kalhan explains, it is reshaping a long-standing relationship between federal law enforcement officials and their state and local counterparts "by precluding states and localities from making affirmative, calibrated, and negotiated choices about the level of immigration policing assistance they wish to furnish." Id. at 1132.
Understanding the change that Secure Communities represents requires first understanding the state of intergovernmental relations regarding criminal law enforcement. For the last several decades local cops have sent the fingerprints of people who are arrested to state agencies that have then forwarded that information to FBI agents who sift through the vast NCIC and IAFIS databases that they operate. Id. at 1126-27. These transactions have always been voluntary and intended to promote traditional public safety concerns. States aren't required to ask the federal agents to search the databases that they operate. But because of legitimate crime-fighting goals—finding out whether an arrestee has a criminal history, for example—every state does so. Id. at 1127. Equipped with whatever information federal officials provide, local law enforcement agents then decide if and how to proceed with a criminal prosecution.
It's at this point that Secure Communities alters the information-sharing routine. Under Secure Communities, the FBI takes the fingerprint data it received from the local cops and shares it with DHS. Immigration officials there then search the IDENT database to see whether the person in police custody might be in violation of immigration laws. Local immigration officers are then notified so that they can decide whether to interview the individual or issue an "immigration detainer"—a request that the law enforcement agency hold onto the person for up to 48 hours after the criminal proceeding, including any sentence, ends. Id. at 1128.
The federal government doesn't ask whether state or local officials want arrestee data pushed through immigration databases. The Obama Administration has simply decided that it has the power to do this—one unit of the federal government, the FBI, can simply share information in its possession with another unit, DHS, the argument essentially goes. See ICE, Secure Communities: Get the Facts.
Taking identification data sent to it for a crime-fighting purpose and using it for an immigration policing purpose, Kalhan contends, dramatically changes the nature of intergovernmental information sharing. While riding on the backs of "'voluntary' forms of federal-state cooperation," he writes, Secure Communities has actually forced local police into the immigration law enforcement business—whether they like it or not. Id. at 1132. "This approach," he argues, "erodes the conception of immigration federalism that has emerged in recent years by narrowing the space for states and localities to make affirmative choices concerning their cooperation on immigration policing that are independent from other decisions…to exchange identification and criminal history records for wholly separate criminal justice purposes." Id.
Importantly, in operating Secure Communities the federal government doesn't concern itself with the possible backlash that numerous police officials and scholars have noted—for example, the possibility that immigrant communities will come to view local police as immigration police and, as a result, refuse to cooperate with them. See DHS, Homeland Security Advisory Council, Task Force on Secure Communities Findings and Recommendations 24 (September 2011).
In this way, the federal government has used the information that local law enforcement agencies voluntarily provide it in pursuit of their goal of keeping communities safe to establish for itself an immigration policing foothold in every jail and prison in the United States, thus placing onto immigration status a new salience. Through advanced technologies and vast collections of information, ICE has created an "immigration panopticon" that, Kalhan concludes, essentially disciplines noncitizens "into internalizing the perception that their immigration status is constantly being monitored." Kalhan at 1145. Noncitizens everywhere are at all times subject to the piercing eyes of automated immigration policing and the immigration officers that can appear at a moment's notice to haul someone into an immigration detention center or, for 368,644 people in fiscal year 2013, onto a bus or airplane that will send them to another country.
This is an impressive claim that is as novel as it is convincing. For all that has been written about Secure Communities, no one has theorized its effect on federal-state-local relations. Kalhan's ability to do this is without doubt attributable to his detailed understanding of the information sharing programs that dominate modern immigration policing. Likewise, no one with which I'm familiar has distilled the way that automated immigration policing affects the ordinary lives of noncitizens by operating as an omnipresent surveillance field.
Given his past scholarship on crImmigration law—his essay on immigration detention is one of the most insightful analyses available—the quality of Kalhan's work here isn't surprising. It is, however, much appreciated.


text:
Carlos Eire: A Cuban-American Searches For Roots
In 1962, 11-year-old Carlos Eire was one of thousands of children airlifted out of Cuba and sent to Florida to escape Fidel Castro's regime. His parents thought he'd return when Castro was deposed — but he never went home again. Eire recounts the experience in a new memoir.
Related Topics
Fresh Air
Carlos Eire: A Cuban-American Searches For Roots
TERRY GROSS, host:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
At the age of 11, my guest left behind his parents, his friends, his
possessions and his native land. Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children who
were airlifted out of Cuba to the U.S. after Castro took power. Their parents
were not allowed to leave Cuba.
Carlos Eire's first memoir, "Waiting for Snow in Havana," won a National Book
Award in 2003. His new memoir, "Learning to Die in Miami," is about making a
life in America. He stayed in foster homes before his uncle was able to take
him in. His mother was able to leave Cuba and join him about three years after
the airlift.
Eire is now a professor of history and religious studies at Yale. His research
into late medieval and early modern European religious history is connected to
the spooky and macabre images of Jesus he was exposed to as a child in Havana
and a 15th-century devotional manual his mother gave him when he left Cuba.
More about that later.
Earlier this year, he published a book called "A Very Brief History of
Eternity," which is about how ideas of what happens after death have changed
over the centuries.
Carlos Eire, welcome to FRESH AIR. I want you to start by reading the preamble
to your new memoir.
Mr. CARLOS EIRE (Author, "Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee
Boy"): Sure. Fearing that we'd be enslaved, our parents sent us away, so many
of us, to a land across the turquoise sea alone, all alone, we kids, no mom, no
dad, no kin on the alien shore beyond the horizon, willing, clueless fugitives.
Our exodus came to be known as the Pedro Pan airlift, Operation Peter Pan in
English, a ridiculous name for something so unlike a fairy tale. Ferried to
anti-Neverland, we lost our childhood in a blinding flash forever.
We dribbled out little by little between 1960 and 1962, steadily, inexorably,
like drops of blood from a wound that wouldn't heal, unnoticed, fourteen
thousand of us, boys and girls, a children's crusade, exiled, orphaned, for
what? Freedom.
GROSS: That's Carlos Eire, reading from his new memoir, "Learning to Die in
Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy." So what kind of enslavement did your
parents fear you would be subjected to if you stayed in Cuba after Castro took
Mr. EIRE: The same enslavement I feared, too, which was the total control of my
mind and my tongue and my hands, no ability to express my real thoughts. Plus,
in the case of my parents, the so-called free education that Cuban children
receive is not really free. It requires working the entire summer, agricultural
camps, for no pay at all.
GROSS: Were you ever able to talk with your mother about what went through her
mind when she and your father decided to send you to the United States?
Mr. EIRE: Oh yeah, we talked about it fairly often. And the conversations
usually began when she asked the question, which she asked repeatedly: Are you
glad we sent you? I would always say yes, and then that would lead to further
talk about what happened.
And she was desperate, no other word for it, sheer desperation, kind of a
Sophie's choice: Which side of the train do you throw your child out of? If we
stayed, she'd lose us. If she sent us away, she'd lose us, but we wouldn't be
enslaved. And that's â there's no other way to put it.
GROSS: So tell us more about the Pedro Pan, or in English the Peter Pan,
airlift, who sponsored it and what you had to do in order to get on the flights
Mr. EIRE: Well, here's how it started: It started out as a very small
operation. It was begun by a school, a headmaster at an American school in
Havana, the Ruston Academy. He knew several men and women, who â this is 1959 â
in 1959 were already struggling against Fidel Castro because what he was doing
was squeezing out and eliminating anyone who had fought against Batista but
disagreed with him.
So these were men and women who had fought against Batista and suddenly found
themselves fighting against Fidel Castro. And these men and women feared that
if they were caught and imprisoned, they wouldn't know who was going to take
care of their children and what would happen to their children.
So the headmaster at Ruston Academy had friends in Washington, and they
arranged for the State Department to grant visa waivers to Cuban children so
that they could leave right away without any security clearances.
And an Irish priest in Miami, Father Walsh, somehow hooked up with headmaster
of Ruston Academy, and one thing led to another. The children started to
arrive, very few at first, in 1960. And Cubans are very generous people. The
word began to spread that there was this program where you could get your
children out of the island.
So though it was initially intended for the children of dissidents who were
fighting against Fidel Castro, it very quickly grew into a program for any
child who wanted to leave the island or whose parents wanted them out of the
And as soon as the government took over all schools in April 1961, that's when
the program really took off, mushroomed into something that no one had
predicted or expected. And the floodgates opened.
Mothers would tell each other by â you know, this was all word of mouth. It was
underground, couldn't advertise this in the paper.
GROSS: Your parents told you, as you were preparing to leave for the United
States, that you'd be sent to the finest schools when you got there. Did they
believe that? Because you certainly were not sent to the finest schools.
Mr. EIRE: No, we weren't. But this was â you know, this is what happens in a
place where all information is tightly controlled, and rumor is the only way
that information is passed on.
So yeah, our visa waivers were actually called scholarships, (foreign language
spoken). And we thought we'd be sent to good schools, not necessarily the
finest but that we'd be placed in good schools because keep in mind, this was
only supposed to last a few months. The separation between parent and child was
only supposed to last a few months.
GROSS: And then what? Your parents were supposed to meet you in the U.S.
Mr. EIRE: Come to the U.S., yeah, or what most people thought, Castro's regime
would collapse because of course no one expected that it would last very long.
GROSS: Oh, I see.
Mr. EIRE: And then we'd be going back.
GROSS: Right.
Mr. EIRE: That was what most people hoped. Actually, the parents joining us
here was the second option. But even before the children left the island, most
parents started the paperwork so that they could leave. It would take adults a
year or longer to get all the papers together and the permission to leave.
That's why the visa waivers were so important because it could get the kids out
really quick. And everyone was counting by days and months, not by years. And
parents â desperation came out of not knowing if your child was going to be
sent to one of these camps the next day because anything could happen.
GROSS: But what turned out happening was that not long after you left, it was
the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Mr. EIRE: Right.
GROSS: And Castro stopped people from leaving Cuba. So your mother, who was
prepared to meet you in Florida, couldn't get out of Cuba. And what position â
you were with foster parents at the time.
Mr. EIRE: Yes, I was.
GROSS: What position did it put the foster parents in, knowing that, like, now
this was going to be a much longer commitment than they had ever planned for?
Mr. EIRE: It was terrible for everyone. You know, they took us in, thinking
they'd only have us for a few months, and in my case, actually our mother had
an exit permit for early November. She was about to reunite with us when the
Cuban Missile Crisis closed down everything.
So if the missile crisis had taken place three weeks later, we would have been
reunited with our mom, and my foster parents would have â everything would have
had a very happy ending. But in fact my foster parents were not alone in being,
you know, quote-unquote "stuck" with a child they were only supposed to have
for months. I know Pedro Pan kids who stayed with their families for several
years. Families just took them in, and a few cases where everything looked so
grim that adoption proceedings began.
GROSS: Well, you liked the first foster family you were with. But you...
Mr. EIRE: They were wonderful, just wonderful, Louis and Norma Chait.
GROSS: So did they decide they had to turn you out after they found out your
mother couldn't come?
Mr. EIRE: Well, I don't â you know, I was a child. I don't know exactly
everything that went on. In fact, I turned 12 just a few weeks before I had to
leave their house. So a 12-year-old doesn't know exactly what's going on.
One of our uncles had arrived in the U.S. at the very last minute before the
doors closed. And just before the missile crisis, he had been sent to
Bloomington, Illinois. He was an architect, and he was given a job as a
draftsman in Illinois. But anyway, we had an uncle. We had a relative here. So
the plan was to send us to our uncle. But our uncle couldn't take us in right
then and there because he didn't have any money. He didn't have a place to
He was 62 years old and had a handicapped daughter to worry about, living in a
strange land where he barely spoke the language. So taking us in was not
possible. So they put us in a holding tank sort of â so to speak. But the
holding tank was a hell hole, and we were kind of forgotten there.
GROSS: Yeah, it was that you had two official foster parents who couldn't care
less about you. Some of the other boys there were real thugs and used to beat
you and your brother up, except he could fight back, and you weren't very good
at that. So you'd kind of cower and have to accept the bruises.
Mr. EIRE: Yeah, I was one of the youngest and smallest in the house, too. That
always makes a big difference when you're a kid.
GROSS: While you were at this miserable foster home, you were given basically
one meal a day. And you write that you lost a lot of weight, but you didn't
have a full-length mirror to see how thin you'd gotten or how twisted your
spine had gotten. When did you actually get a full glimpse of yourself, and
what did you see when you did?
Mr. EIRE: Well, it's not what I saw. It's what my aunt said to me at the
airport when she greeted me in Bloomington, Illinois. She gasped when she saw
us. And she said: What's wrong with your back? And actually, I don't think they
had a full-length mirror, but I first saw myself in a photo that was taken,
right? I saw the photo, and I couldn't believe that that was me.
And it was a strange experience, and every â I still have that photo, and every
time I see it, it gives me the willies.
GROSS: It was 1962 when you were flown out of Cuba in this children's airlift
to Florida. And racial segregation was still legal in the South then. Did
segregation apply to you? Did you have to go to the back of the bus?
Mr. EIRE: No, no, we didn't have to. I mean, the schools were not integrated,
and for some reason I have yet to figure out, they didn't send us Cuban kids to
the Negro schools, even though we weren't considered fully white.
But on more than one occasion, you know, we had bus drivers who asked us to go
to the back of the bus. And I've never really, ever since I moved out of Miami,
experienced any kind of discrimination. It was only there, and I think it's
because so many of us had come at once and changed the city so completely that
there was a lot of resentment on the part of the natives.
GROSS: Did you identify with the civil rights movement?
Mr. EIRE: Well, I thought it was a good thing. But, you know, I was 12 years
old. So I had a 12-year-old perspective on it. One sort of humorous insight
into what it's like to be 12 years old and see the March on Washington and then
three days later move to Illinois and then finally find myself in a fully-
integrated school. I thought it was the march that had integrated the Illinois
schools. I just thought it was that way all over the U.S. I didn't realize
that, you know, in Illinois they didn't have segregation. But I thought boy,
things work quickly in the U.S.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: If only.
Mr. EIRE: Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know - just a kid.
GROSS: My guest is Carlos Eire. His new memoir is called "Learning to Die in
Miami." We'll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(Soundbite of music)
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Carlos Eire, and he's written a
new memoir called "Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy." And
it's about his experiences at the age of 12 being flown from Cuba to South
Florida as part of an airlift of children after Castro took power. Carlos Eire
is also a professor of history and religious studies at Yale.
Now, you say you had blonde hair so that you could physically pass as, you
know, as a white person in the U.S. But the moment you opened your mouth, your
accent would give you away.
Mr. EIRE: Right.
GROSS: And that that was one of the reasons why you loved to write because
there was no accent on the page.
Mr. EIRE: That's absolutely true. I also practiced like hell to get rid of my
GROSS: You succeeded. I can't hear anything.
Mr. EIRE: I can hear it.
GROSS: You can?
Mr. EIRE: It's funny, especially now, I'm wearing headphones: Boy, do I hear my
GROSS: Hmm. OK.
Mr. EIRE: I guess I'm a perfectionist. But yeah, I practiced. I also â the
first accent I tried to mimic or aim at, oddly enough, was that of "The Beverly
Hillbillies" and Andy Griffith because...
GROSS: Why?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: You know, I thought it was the finest American accent. You know, this
is an 11-year-old mind, right, an 11- or 12-year-old mind. They were good
shows. I like those characters. I think I'll speak like them.
GROSS: Well, what I found funny was that you wanted to get - to speak as well
as Ricky Ricardo, not realizing that he had a strong accent.
Mr. EIRE: That's true.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: Right. At first, I had no clue that Ricky Ricardo had a very, very
strong accent. I was shocked when I found out that he did, not because I could
discern the accent but because another Cuban kid, a neighbor, told me: What are
you, nuts? You want to talk like him? He has the worst accent in the world.
GROSS: So your mother came to the United States, but your father stayed in
Cuba. He never left Cuba; he died in Cuba. And you say in the book that it was
difficult, more difficult for men to leave, adult men, than adult women. So why
did your father stay in Cuba, and what were the difficulties that men faced
that women didn't when they wanted to leave?
Mr. EIRE: Well, during the 1960s and into the '70s, it was very difficult for
any family to leave intact. Men were required to do slave labor before leaving.
Well, here's what would happen as soon as you applied for exit permit: Number
one, immediately you lose your job; number two, immediately you lose everything
you own, everything. They come and inventory your house, every single item,
down to plastic spoons.
GROSS: Can I interrupt here and say your father had a big art collection.
Mr. EIRE: Yes, he did. He did. So you can imagine the inventory took three days
at my house. And actually, they came and inventoried because just my brother
and I were leaving.
But, you know, number two, you lose all your possessions; number three, if
you're a man, you have to pay your debt to the revolution by working in
agricultural camps for a number of years, and they would never tell you how
long, just an indefinite period.
So in the meantime, then your wife and children leave, and you have to go to a
work camp. Most went for anywhere between two and six years of slave labor, and
then they could reunite with their families in the U.S.
So that's what men faced when they wanted to leave. And it's a difficult choice
for anyone to make, I mean, I realize now, especially middle-aged men with, you
know, teenaged children.
And on the horizon, in the background, in every Cuban's mind is the thought:
This cannot last so long. So you gamble: Do I stay and wait for the inevitable
end, which will come soon, or do I leave?
Those who left are those who found it just so totally intolerable that they
were willing to make all sacrifices; including losing everything you had ever
worked for.
My father, well, you know, I never got to have an adult conversation with him.
So much of his thinking remains a total mystery to me. Our phone calls back
then in the '60s and '70s were limited to three minutes with someone listening
on the Cuban end. And you could never speak about any serious subjects or else
they'd cut off the conversation. It happened regularly.
And one time, when my mom said to my father, I miss you so much, the listener
on the Cuban end started laughing at them. So you're not likely to discuss any
deep subjects under such circumstances.
So we wrote letters to each other, but the letters, too, were opened and read
and resealed with this thick glue that would make everything bind together just
so that the receiver, the recipient, the person who received the letter, would
know it had been looked at. So you couldn't even write about serious subjects,
GROSS: Was your mother angry that your father didn't leave with her?
Mr. EIRE: I don't know. I never brought up the subject. There are certain
things that, even as a middle-aged man, you don't discuss with your mom. And I
think that's one where I drew the line and said I'm not going there. I'm not
talking about this.
But after my father died, my mother received several offers of marriage from
other Cuban men, and she turned them all down. But I didn't ask about that,
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: My guest, Carlos Eire, will be back in the second half of the show. His
new memoir is called "Learning to Die in Miami." I'm Terry Gross, and this is
(Soundbite of music)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Iâm Terry Gross back with Carlos Eire. His new memoir
" I want to talk with you little bit about religion, because it figures so
prominently in your academic work and in your life story. You describe how in
Cuba, when you were growing up, when you were young that the iconography of the
church was so graphic. You say Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum couldn't compete
with any church in Havana when it came to macabre realism. Jesus being whipped,
Jesus on the cross, Jesus dead in the tombs, Mary with seven swords piercing
her body, Mary holding the dead Jesus who was already started turning to green,
Saints with their eyes on a platter. Your father had a silver relic ceric(ph)
containing bone fragments from seven different saints and two slivers from the
true cross in his study.
Mr. EIRE: Yes he did. Well, you know, that's what the little label said.
GROSS: Right. No, exactly.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: I know. I know. But you must believe that as a kid.
Mr. EIRE: Well, you know, I was...
GROSS: That you had the remains of saints in your father's study.
Mr. EIRE: We had - they were real bones for sure. So, yeah, thatâs gross enough
for any kid, you know. I...
GROSS: Well, so did the stuff scare you, all the...
Mr. EIRE: I was...
GROSS: And tell us, are there more graphic things...
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: ...more graphic iconography that you want to describe?
Mr. EIRE: Well, you know, the life-sized three-dimensional icons, especially
images of Jesus, with real human hair and glass eyes. This is very Spanish, and
you find that in Spain and you find it all over Spanish America. Those are very
scary things for any kid. And to me, the scariest place in the world when I was
growing up was the church, and I feared everything connected to religion. Then,
you know, here in the U.S., I encountered a very different kind of Catholicism.
American Catholic churches were kind of cheerful, you know, compared to Spanish
And they had a limit on their iconography, not just in terms of the numbers,
but the types of images that they had, especially in Miami where everything was
new. And the fearfulness gradually began to disappear and to be replaced by an
awareness of the fact that it wasn't religion that was scary; it was a life
that was scary. It wasn't those images that were awful, it was life that was
full of awful things and that those images actually were there to comfort and
give you some kind of feeling that God has empathy for you. And it's the
strangest kind of realization to have, and it probably sounds crazy - to many,
if not most of your listeners - but actually, that's the insight that I came to
have when I was about 14 and it changed my life. And by the time I was a
sophomore in high school, I knew that what I wanted to do was to become a
historian, and not only that, but become a historian of my own religion and no
one could talk me out of that.
GROSS: So as a professor of religious history, which you are now, have you come
to understand why the Christian imagery that you grew up with was so graphic?
Mr. EIRE: Oh, yeah. I, you know, in many ways all of us academics worked out
our personal life in our scholarly pursuits, and especially historians. No
mystery to me, my dissertation and my first book were on the way in which
Protestants rejected Catholic imagery and the meaning behind that. And now I
understand much better the role that symbols play in religion, not just in
Christianity but in all religions. You know, symbols encode, deep deep truths
and allow us to perceive them in a non-rational way. And by non-rational, I
don't mean irrational. I actually mean that these symbols speak to us at a
level that is deeper, and affects us and shapes our personality much more than
any logical discourse could. You know, the United States is a very symbolicly
impoverished culture. So most Americans have trouble understanding symbols and
how symbols affect them. But people who are in advertising have it all figured
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: They know. They know. They know exactly what us religious scholars
know about how symbols affect people and they use them to sell stuff to us.
GROSS: So have stayed with Catholicism or drifted into Protestantism?
Mr. EIRE: Oh, yes, I'm still Catholic. Yes. And actually the chair a have, you
know, the . Learning to Die in Miami" is a sequel to his National Book Award-
winning memoir "Waiting to Snow in Havana." The new book is about being one of
14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba to the U.S. after Castro came to power.
The children's parents were not allowed to leave the country then. Eire is now
a professor of history and religious studies at Yale.
T Laurison Riggs chair, is the chair in Catholics studies.
GROSS: Oh, okay.
Mr. EIRE: And right now I'm teaching a course - a two semester course, the
"History of Catholicism."
GROSS: And what's your preferred type of iconography now?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: Well, I still don't like those life-size Madame Tussaudâs type images
when I go to Spain - or Italy too. They still scare the willies out of me,
especially those dead Jesus's laying in the tomb turning green. But now, you
know, I appreciate image. No, they donât scare. They are actually a sort of
very, very deep profound comfort and my house is full of religious icons.
GROSS: My guest is Carlos Eire. His new memoir is called "Learning to Die in
Weâll talk more after a break.
This is FRESH AIR.
(Soundbite of music)
GROSS: If youâre just joining us, my guest is Carlos Eire and heâs written a
memoir called "Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy." Thatâs
about being one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba by the United States
after the revolution, and being separated from his parents in the process -
because he was able to get out and they were not. Carlos Eire is also a
professor of history and religious studies at Yale.
Now you write that your father's family was truly ecumenical when it came to
alternative religions. What are some of the things that your father believed
Mr. EIRE: Yeah. Well, I came from a mixed religious household. It could be
said, although my father was nominally Catholic, his entire family was taken in
by Spiritualism - 19th century religious movement that came out, primarily, of
Great Britain and North America. And the American Theosophical Society, based
in Philadelphia, had several missions around the world. This is a society that
tried to sort of Westernize Hinduism. And the central belief was reincarnation.
It's basically a revival of old Western Gnosticism and Indian - ancient Indian
religion. Anyway, the most successful mission they had was Cuba. Their second
most successful was Brazil. My father's family, all of them, were into
Theosophy and into Spiritualism. They believed that you could communicate with
the dead. And in my father's case, he not only believed in reincarnation, but
like the actress Shirley MacLaine, he claimed he could remember his previous
incarnations and I never believed him.
GROSS: Which were?
Mr. EIRE: Oh, well, among many, he was King Louis XVI of France. And usually
the case of people who remember their reincarnations, it's always someone
GROSS: Thatâs right.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GROSS: So true.
Mr. EIRE: And youâre either Cleopatra or Louis XVI for Julius Caesar, you know
someone. And hardly ever have I met anyone who remembers reincarnations from an
obscure period in history.
GROSS: So did he believe in seances too?
Mr. EIRE: Oh, yeas. Yeah.
GROSS: And did you participate in any with them with him?
Mr. EIRE: I did not participate in seances but my father treated the Ouija
board as if they were a sacred object. And yes, more than once, you know, I sat
at the Ouija board with my father and received messages from the dead. And...
GROSS: What kind of messages would you get?
Mr. EIRE: Well, you know, you ask questions of the dead, you know, simple
question and, you know, the Ouija board has on one corner I think it is yes,
and the other one no for most answers, and letters for deciphering the other
messages. But among the questions I remember asking, shortly before we left,
was what's going to happen to us? Ouija board said our futures were in another
country and we would have foreign wives. And then I asked my father to ask the
spirits how many children am I going to have? And they wouldn't give me an
answer. I got really upset at that point. Not because they didn't give me an
answer, because I thought the whole thing was such a charade. I never believed
in it. But low and behold the prophecy did become true. My brother and I ended
up in a foreign land, marrying foreigners.
GROSS: Did your father's belief that he was King Louis XVI in an earlier
incarnation affect his self image and his behavior?
Mr. EIRE: I'm sure it did. But, you know, keep in mind that I was a child and I
had a child's perspective on everything.
GROSS: True.
Mr. EIRE: but, you know, he, from the very start, when Batista was toppled;
there were few days there when we didn't know exactly who was going to be in
charge. Within a week, Fidel Castro had assumed charge and started getting rid
of all of his competition. As soon as that happened, my father said this is no
good. This is going to be just like the French Revolution - and yet he did
nothing. Nothing. Because he also said, you know, it's going to be like the
French Revolution but it's not going to last as long as that. So, you know, his
insights as a reincarnated French king had there limits. But what I find very
funny is that in the reviews of "Waiting for Snow in Havana," many reviewers
said that I had gotten carried away with my magical realism by inventing this
father. When in fact, I only scratched the surface. I never got to know the
real man. But he was convinced. This one time I remember, shortly before I
left, he was teaching me how to play pool - a billiards table. And he says to
me, you know I haven't played this game in three lifetimes. And I got very
angry at him.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: And that's one of my last memories of my time with my father,
GROSS: Something I find very entertaining about your religion background is
when you moved - when you first moved to Florida and you were first staying
with a Jewish family, what you really wanted - because you were 12 - what you
really wanted to be was a real American and therefore, to become Jewish and
have a real bar mitzvah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: I thought all Americans had bar mitzvahs.
GROSS: I think thatâs so funny.
Mr. EIRE: Yeah. Well, you know, I learned a lot of Yiddish words too in that
house that I thought were English.
GROSS: Oh did you really? Mm-hmm.
Mr. EIRE: And then when I moved to Bloomington I, you know, let fly a Yiddish
word here and there and nobody would understand what I was saying. It came as a
great shock to me, that they weren't English.
GROSS: Now I think one of the reasons why you started to take religion very
seriously is a book your parents sent you off with. A book written by a monk in
1418, called "The Imitation of Christ." A book intended to be read by other
monks, not my 12-year-old boys.
Mr. EIRE: Yeah.
GROSS: Tell us a little bit about this book and the impression it made on you.
Mr. EIRE: The last book in the world an 11 or 12-year-old kid wants to read.
But, you know, I very quickly outgrew my clothes, so the only reminder - only
two reminders I had of my family, physical reminders - were a religious metal I
wore around my neck and this book, "The Imitation of Christ." And there was a -
thereâs a Catholic superstition that if you have a question and you open that
book at random, the answer will be on that page. It's very similar to the
Protestant superstition, that if you open a Bible at random it will give you
the answer. So I tried that many times and every time I open that book it
scared the hell out of me.
It's a book that's all about letting go of all of this world, emptying
yourself, excepting suffering and not being selfish; and actually pouring your
life out for others, rather than for yourself. And also about letting go of
thinking you have control of your life, and placing your life in the hands of
God. Weâll call a superior being. And no kid can deal with that. No kid wants
to hear that. But for me, about age 14, as I kept opening that book at random,
you know, one day it suddenly started speaking to me. It started making sense.
And, you know, when I said before that, you know, I had everything turned
around - that's the perception I had, gradually as I started reading that book,
that I had everything backwards.
The book allowed me to let go of my past. It allowed me not to fix my gaze on
what I had lost, but rather to be happy that I had lost it. To take my exile as
a gift. To not focus on how I could reclaim my place in the social hierarchy,
but rather just to devote myself to reading about my religion, learning how to
live it, and then once I got this idea in my head that I, you know, my
profession was going to be teaching, that's what I considered my vocation. You
know, at one point I considered going into the seminary in becoming a priest.
But when I set foot in that seminary, just walked through the gates and I saw
it, I knew it wasn't for me. And I literally ran away from there.
GROSS: How did you know it wasn't for you?
Mr. EIRE: I just felt this, it's almost like the air pressure had increased 40
fold. Thereâs a biblical number. And it was pressing me down, and pressing,
pushing me away from the place. I could not see myself in there. Something in
me told me I would not make a good priest. And that's when I really knew. I had
already decided I wanted to teach. That's when I started to pursue this,
GROSS: Another book of yours is called âA Very Brief History of Eternity,â
which is, literally, a history of the concept of eternity. When you were
growing up did you believe in a Heaven and Hell or what were your images of it,
Mr. EIRE: Well, I definitely believe in it, and I still do.
GROSS: How has your concept of it changed?
Mr. EIRE: Oh it's changed enormously. Of course, you know the little kid in
Catholic school has these graphic pictures to look at, you know, back then
religious images, very graphic pictures. Heaven is always boring. Just people
are on clouds, circling around God or Jesus. It never looked too exciting to a
kid. Hell, terrible - people on fire, being tortured, and so on and so forth.
Of course, my view has changed. And that's one, I think - one of my other chief
interest as a scholar is dealing with the history of death and the history of
the way in which the afterlife has been configured in the West. And, you know,
in many ways, I now as a scholar right, know how tied to a specific time and
place images of heaven and hell are. I realize that. I can study it. I can
detach myself from it and see it as a cultural construction, specific views of
heaven or hell or eternity. But as a person living out my life and knowing that
my years on earth are numbered, I looked for some continued existence that I
can't even begin to imagine and I leave it at that for myself. I don't try to
imagine what will happen, but I'm pretty sure something will.
GROSS: And is that in the most kind of abstract mystical sense, or do you see
something more physical and literal than that?
Mr. EIRE: Oh, I do believe, you know, all Christians are supposed to believe in
resurrection, the fact that we will live eternally in a body and it's not a
disembodied existence. So I just hope next time around I get a better body,
that doesn't age.
GROSS: Now how different is that from your father thinking he was...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: Well, there you go. There you go, you know...
GROSS: ...you know, that he had been Louis XVI in another incarnation.
Mr. EIRE: Yeah, well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: There you go. Yeah, of course, you know, we all become despite
ourselves, we become our parents in so many ways, even if we only have a brief
encounter with our parents and are separate from them, we all end up in many
ways being our parents because we carry their DNA. And I believe, you know,
this - I say this as a religious scholar, right, religion is a cultural
construction, yes, but in every society in every culture there are people who
have religious sensibilities. They're born that way, in the same way that you
have, you know, you have people with musical talent, and artistic talent. You
have people with kind of a spiritual calling.
Now I hesitate to call it talent. But there are people who actually go more by
their religious sentiments than by pure reason. And they do this not because
they're stupid because religion is like atomic or nuclear power, you know, you
can use it for good you can use it for evil. But there are people with inborn I
think religious sensibilities and this is why religion will never go away.
Because life is too full of mystery and, you know, death and suffering. And our
alternate questions can't be answered by pure reason.
GROSS: My guest is Carlos Eire. His new memoir is called âLearning to Die in
We'll talk more after a break.
This is FRESH AIR.
(Soundbite of music)
GROSS: My guest is Carlos Eire. His new memoir is called âLearning to Die in
Miamiâ is about trying to make a new life in the U.S. when he was one of 14,000
children airlifted out of Cuba after Castro came to power. Eire is now a
professor of history and religious studies at Yale. Earlier this year, his book
âA Very Brief History of Eternityâ was published.
You write that one of the most significant changes was brought about by the
enlightenment, throughout the Western world, was the increasing secularization
of death. And I thought this was really interesting that you write an early
sign of this development was the detachment of cemeteries from churches.
Mr. EIRE: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: But I know as in talking about, you know, this secularization of death
and how, you know, death has changed through the centuries and in different
cultures and religions and so on. And I don't mean to get morbid here, about
like what a meaningful death ceremony would be for you?
(Soundbite of clearing throat)
Mr. EIRE: A good Catholic funeral that's all I hope for.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. EIRE: A mass. A funeral mass. And then I don't care, cremation, burial; I
haven't given that any thought.
GROSS: I thought cremation wasnât - was frowned on in the Catholic church.
Mr. EIRE: Oh no, Catholics can be cremated now.
GROSS: Oh, I didn't know that.
Mr. EIRE: Itâs perfectly okay now. The Catholics Church changed many things in
the press doesn't notice. It's funny that way. But Iâll tell you an experience
I had, which is the closest I have come to facing my own mortality. And this
that when I was working in Madrid researching 16th century wills. I'm reading
will after will after will, and taking down facts and figures. And I have to do
my own indexing because the wills are not catalogued. so I made my own list of
people with their death date next to their name. And I have been doing this for
almost a month. And when I do have a dream in which I see my own name on the
list with a year next to it, and I woke up and I couldn't remember the year.
And that's and I woke up and talk about, you know, having the willies, and that
dream really did it to me. It made me realize the people that I was working
with there, the 16th century wills, they are not people dead long ago.
There were just like me at one point when they were alive and they had no idea
when the end would come. But come it did. So I, you know, I don't spend much
time thinking about this. I try not to dwell on it. But I'm very conscious of
the fact that having a proper ritual when someone dies can help the grief
process so, so immensely. You know, for instance, when my father died in Cuba,
I found out through a phone call. My brother calls me. He says old men died
three days ago. We had no funeral. I couldn't go to the funeral. He was already
dead and buried. I could've gone to the funeral anyway because of travel
restrictions on the Cuban answer, not on this end. And I never went to his
funeral, never went to his burial. And boy, his death lingered for such a long
time, carried it with me wherever I went.
You know, closure is a strange word because sometimes it's used inappropriately
as if it just seals everything off and cures everything when it comes to a
death in the family or a close death of someone close to you. But closure
actually does happen through ritual in the sense that it confirms for you
personally in the company of other people who also cared for this person,
confirms that time has come to move on.
GROSS: So your motherâs death was different than your fatherâs?
Mr. EIRE: Very different. Very, very different because I was there with her
when she died. And her funeral was beautiful. And I was surprised at the number
of people who showed up. You know, I knew she had a lot of friends but I didnât
really know how many, because it was a Monday morning and that's not usually a
time when people can come to a funeral. So that was beautiful and it showed me
how different it can be when you're there to take part in it, have a ritual
then when it's just something that is distant, you know. And in the old days
when people crossed the ocean and migrated, they would usually get this in a
letter. You know, so-and-soâs dead and thatâs it. You know, for generations
humans live like this. Now we realize because it's possible to move around so
easily that, you know, we can be there and it can make a difference,
GROSS: Well, I want to thank you so much for talking with us.
Mr. EIRE: Oh, thanks for having me on the show.
GROSS: Carlos Eireâs new memoir is called âLearning to Die in Miami.â You can
read an excerpt on our website, freshair.npr.org, where you can also download
Podcasts of our show.
(Soundbite of music)
I'm Terry Gross.
(Soundbite of music)
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


text:
People are Seeing a beautiful Inner Light
We have been noticing that a growing number of people are beginning to See a beautiful Inner Light that does not appear to be physical in origin.
Their descriptions vary but include the following: tiny bright points of Light as if looking at a starry sky, stunning geometries of unimaginable precision and contrast, an object of indescribable brightness that resembles the Sun. In every case the observer notes that the Light seems to be alive, Intelligent and exudes Love and some report receiving a message that they should follow the Light on a Journey.
The Light is usually seen when in a darkened room often just before falling asleep. Some people have told us that they thought their room had been lit by car headlights, however on opening their eyes found it was pitch black!
Once the Light appears it is likely to reappear and a person can return time and time again. After a while what is seen may start to change. When a change occurs this may be accompanied by a sensation of rapid movement.
The Light is always present but people cannot see it until they align with the Lightwave of Spiritual Energies. It is similar to the first signs of light that herald a new dawn. First a dull glow, then rays illuminating the eastern sky followed by the magnificence of the fiery globe itself.
The New Lightwave
We have been told that the reason this is happening is because of the vast numbers of Initiations and Enlightenments that are occuring all over the Planet. These have taken place due to a New Lightwave of Spiritual Energy that has been released at this time, the Power of which is totally unprecedented.
It appears that the Earth and ourselves are not separate but intrinsically dependent. Our wellbeing both physically and Spiritually depends on the state of the Planet. Over the years we have plundered the mineral resources and destroyed many life forms through the pollution of their habitats. Although subtle, the sickness of the Planet has had a negative effect on us as Human Beings. We have become highly materialistic and less sensitive to the wellbeing of our fellow man. Moral codes and the pursuit of Spirituality have begun to take a backseat in a "me first" society.
This was the reason this Path was started, to bring Spirituality to the masses. This in turn has caused an Energetic awakening of the Planet; it is as if it is beginning to "sing". Previously, a person would have needed an Initiation to perceive the Sound Current but now an increasing number of people are hearing it quite naturally.
Ask your family, neighbours and friends if they can hear it. You may be surprised how common this is. Many will be curious, if so, please direct them to this website to help them understand the Truth behind their observations.
Do let us know your findings; we would love to learn how widespread this is and how people are reacting to it. If you wish to send us an email simply Click Here


text:
Audits . . . ugh.
The word alone can send shivers through business owners, bookkeepers, and taxpayers alike. Now, you can add software asset managers to that list.
Take the irritation and pain surrounding the audit of physical resources and raise it exponentially when reviewing virtual ones. Businesses of all types face audits that are only increasing in number, frequency, and scope. Sumar Karayi (the CEO 1E) affirmed the following: "…in a world of desktop and server virtualisation, organisations are faced with a whole new level of complexity."
Pain and irritation can sometimes result from lack of knowledge or preparation. So, if you'd like to avoid the pain of your next software audit—Software Asset Management (SAM) offers the key you need. SAM takes care of your information technology (IT) enterprise in three ways:
Network Discovery: Discover every component, software, and application connected to your network and remove anything unwanted, unused, or unauthorized. When looking for a tool to provide this capability, you want a complete solution that includes SAM capability as part of the core product.
IT Asset Management: You need a full lifecycle IT asset management solution that is compatible with discovery tools or SCCM/SMS. Again, any IT asset management tool should include SAM capabilities.
Software Discovery Service: Be prepared for an audit by knowing exactly which software you have and monitoring when to update agreements for licenses. You can also assess the usage of these applications to determine whether your IT funds should be spent on more applicable products. This tool should be able to operate in a hosted environment.
xAssets provides all these tools in a software asset management suite. These products are scalable, configurable, and will fit the precise needs of your business or organization.
Network Discovery: Available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or installed locally, xAssets Network Discovery Software enables organizations of all sizes to discover their network quickly without side effects and without deploying agents. The software includes a configuration management database allowing hardware inventory, IT asset management, software asset management, and software license compliance from within a single browser-based application.
IT Asset Management: xAssets IT Asset Management software is a complete solution to centralize management and reporting on the corporate IT infrastructure. The full asset lifecycle is covered from procurement through deployment, operational service, RMA, compliance, IMACS reporting, and obsolescence and disposal. The application facilitates integration and federation to other IT systems including Active Directory, System Center, SCCM / SMS, Help Desks, and other discovery tools, enabling a holistic view of the IT infrastructure in one easy-to-use browser-based application.
Software Discovery Service: xAssets Software Discovery Service is a 60-day service to discover your entire network and all software in use on all computers. The service is confidential, low cost, fast, light, requires no internal expertise, does not deploy agents, and is fully managed by xAssets.
Don't sweat your next audit—prepare for it and pass it with flying colors. xAssets provides SAM software and professionals with a wide range of functionalities, integrations, and configurations to create a final solution to meet your specific goals.
If you are ready to get your IT house in order, xAssets can help. You can start by visiting our website and getting a free trial of our software asset management solution. Or, feel free to contact me with any questions at email@example.com or 800-691-9120 ext. 304.


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Training description
Training is the use and developing of the Alfresco Community Edition.
Alfresco Community Edition development training (3 days)
• Installation
Possibilities of starting the Alfresco environment
Container images of Alfresco
Alfresco Composition
Prerequisites for implementation
Deploy with Docker Compose
• Configuration
Configuration overwiew
Configuration subsystems
Configuration databases
Configuration repositories
Configuration servers
Configuration e-mail
Configuration e-mail templates
Configuration LibreOffice
Configuration ActiveMQ
Configuration smart folders
Content modeling
• Administration
Using admin console
Management of Alfresco Share functions
User and group management
Configure authentication and security
Configuring clustering
Configuring multi-company
Creating and managing a workflow
Transformation management
Configuring content stores
Importing and transferring files
Data migration to Alfresco Application monitoring
Backup and restore
Heartbeat function
• Creating application and extensions
Architecture of Alfresco Content Service for developer
APIs available for Alfresco and when to use them
Creating client applications based on the Alfresco REST API
Extending the Alfresco platform
Preparation of Alfresco integration
Creating extensions using JavaScript and FreeMarker
Creating a dedicated REST API for Alfresco
How to distribute and apply extensions?
How to write new services in Java and check which APIs are supported?
Configuration and customization of Alfresco Share
Adding extensions to Alfresco Share


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Daejeon Concert
Cancellation announcement – HK Phil tour to Japan and Korea 2020
In view of the latest situation of COVID-19 and uncertainties in global business travels, along with discussions with our tour presenters, performing venues and related partners, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's (HK Phil) tour to Japan and Korea, originally have been rescheduled to a later time of the year, now has been cancelled.
The HK Phil, Music Director Jaap van Zweden, our Board of Governors as well as the administration put the health and well-being of our audience, players and staff at the forefront of our priorities. We sincerely hope that the orchestra's home city, as well as other parts of the world, will recover soon and overcome the current challenging situation. The orchestra and its Music Director Jaap van Zweden look forward to performing for audiences in Japan and Korea in the near future.
The HK Phil would like to thank our tour presenters in Japan and Korea, our performing venue partners, as well as sponsors, for their support.
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (Updated on 15 May 2020)
For more details, please visit: https://www.djac.or.kr/html/en/


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As more of our clients adopt Agile methods, they often wonder how SLIM-Estimate fits into the Agile planning process? It's not uncommon for teams to claim that Agile makes estimation obsolete. But regardless of which features end up in a particular release, businesses still need to know how much functionality can be delivered within a given schedule and budget. Because I have been working with more customers to estimate Agile projects, the first Agile planning and analysis practice suggested by Ellen Gottesdiener & Mary Gorman got my attention ‒ Use Three Planning Horizons: Now-View, Pre-View, and Big-View. Simply stated, each level of the view hierarchy represents more fine-grained planning and analysis:
- Big-View – general idea; how the product will fit in with other products
- Pre-View – enough detail to start planning the next release
- Now-View – delivery team analyzes and estimate activities needed
Their statement, "we don't think of agile as a methodology per se. Rather, it's a disciplined discovery and delivery framework (emphasis added)" is consistent with QSM's approach to estimating Agile projects. Macro estimation techniques allow the business to allocate resources to product development efforts by identifying the number of releases to be built during the next budget cycle, which corresponds to the Big-View horizon. More detailed release planning is performed later in the process, using the prioritized product backlog to determine delivery goals for each iteration.
Product Backlog Prioritization (image via Roman Pichler)
Estimates are, by definition, uncertain. In our SLIM Training Classes, we emphasize the importance of factoring this uncertainty into estimates explicitly. We use Boehm and McConnell'si familiar Cone of Uncertainty to demonstrate that uncertainty is greatest early in the project life cycle when little data is available. As the development team makes progress in decomposing requirements and building out the design, more knowledge is acquired and uncertainty (and therefore risk) is reduced. It occurred to me that the Agile practice of defining and managing the product backlog aligns with this phenomenon (documented in many publications, like the illustration above from Roman Pichler). Gottesdiener and Gorman's view hierarchy also aligns, confirming the reality that earlier estimates will encompass a higher degree of uncertainty. The figure below shows the alignment of these three concepts.
How Product Backlog Aligns with the Cone of Uncertainty
These diagrams neatly align when there is a consistent definition of a project or program. If we ignore the Waterfall development time slices on the cone of uncertainty and let it represent the disciplined discovery and delivery of the Agile methodology, we see the need to continue estimation and planning throughout the life cycle.
Different SLIM Suite products can be utilized at different points in the Agile process, matching the tool to the data available and the tasks to be performed at each stage of the project lifecycle:
- Big-View. Early on, product managers must take the backlog of features and make a business case for the development budget. The prioritized list of features lets him sketch out a proposed release schedule. SLIM-Estimate can be used at the Big-View level to establish the number of stories or features that will fit into a typical release timeframe.
- Pre-View. Once high level requirements have been fleshed out enough to support a more detailed size estimate in story points, both SLIM-Estimate and SLIM-MasterPlan can be used to fine-tune the estimate.
- Now-View. The Now-View is supported by SLIM-Control, where buildup charts, burn down charts and other metrics are used to plan and track each Scrum or iteration.
I regularly mention in the training class that the SLIM is aptly named, because the full product suite supports the entire Software Life Cycle Management. The Agile methodology aligns with SLIM Suite, because it is also built upon the principle of disciplined discovery and delivery.
i Adapted from: Barry Boehm, Software Engineering Economics (Prentice-Hall, 1981), p.311.
Steve McConnell, Software Estimation, (Microsoft Press, 2006), p.3.


text:
I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Dream Valley Challenge 67 - Buttons
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 227 - Cats and Dog/Pets/Animals
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
What a gorgeous card, inside and out! Spotted it on MIM xxReplyDelete
Such a cute card , I seen your entry on MIM ~ mines at entry 47, hugs xxReplyDelete
Fabulous digi card Liz! Susan xReplyDelete
Wow Liz I love your card and I'm sure Amanda will love it. It is definitely a keeper!
Great colour combo and I love all the doggy elements. Got to love Nitwits.
Happy crafting and thanks for the visit.
Hugs Erika. x
oh wow looks brill....thanks for sharing with us at CRAFT x carolReplyDelete
Gorgeous personalised card Liz..fabulous photos and love the paw prints,such a clever idea.
Thanks for sharing with us at Make it Monday..
Luv CHRISSYxx
Very special card with great design. I'm sure it will be treasured. Pat K xxReplyDelete
What a clever design (I love Nitwits, but anything beyond just printing the elements is beyond me, so I'm very impressed by your digi skills!!!) I absolutely love the pawprints!!! Thanks for joining in at Dream Valley!
love Mags B x
Hello Liz. Joanne here from CC&CC. I noticed that I have not heard from you on claiming your prize for our challenge #49 Flowers. I would love to award you your prize! Please e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com with your email address so I can help you claim your prize! Hugs, JoanneReplyDelete
What a wonderful personalised card - I love the idea of a scrapbook card, and Ruby and Buster make great centrepieces! Great pawprints too...
Thanks so much for signing up to follow Words and Pictures - great to have you on board!
Alison x


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Why does the media love Apple and trash Dell?
The media loves Apple, trashes Dell, and gives HP a pass? Perception supposedly is reality, but just whose perception is it?
I'm not a big fan of surveys, so I don't quote them often. But a recent Consumer Reports survey about PC manufacturers listed Apple as No. 1 in tech support, with Lenovo second, Dell third, and HP dead last. I should also say that Dell came in second in desktops.
I thought the headline should be "Survey says leading PC maker HP dead last in tech support." But that's not what happened. The media hailed Apple, trashed Dell, and gave HP a pass.
Horror stories about Dell's support are all over the blogosphere. Why is that? I mean, why does the media give Dell such a hard time?
Because perception is reality. But aside from being a pithy statement, what does that really mean?
Well, according to Merriam-Webster, perception is "physical sensation interpreted in the light of experience."
As it turns out, I have a great deal of experience with Dell. And while I think the quality of some of Dell's computers seems to have declined in recent years, my experience with its tech support has been quite positive. That's my experience.
So what is it about the media's experience that makes them love Apple, ride Dell, and cut HP slack? I guess the media has learned through experience how to get eyeballs. That doesn't make them bad; it's just how they get paid by advertisers.
Eyeballs seem to gravitate to winners and losers. Clearly, Apple's hot these days, so it's easy to understand why the media loves Apple. Apple's a winner.
And while HP's operating results have been strong in recent quarters, its tech support appears to be subpar. And since that makes HP neither a winner nor a loser--it seems to fall somewhere in the middle--that means no eyeballs. So HP gets a pass.
But Dell, well, Dell's another story. Dell has fallen on hard times lately. Its growth engine has stalled amid stories of executive dysfunction, battery problems, and degradation in tech support. Michael Dell has returned as CEO to fix the mess.
These days the media loves to trash Dell, not because Dell's a loser, but because it's a former winner that, as of late, has fallen from grace. That, to the media, seems to be even better than being a loser. A winner that falls off a pedestal (that the media helped put Dell on, mind you) gets lots of eyeballs.
So, the next time you read a blog that seems to be "piling on," remember, that's just the media doing its job. The media isn't paid to reflect reality, it's paid to get eyeballs. And if bloggers perceive that they'll get eyeballs by dragging Dell through the mud while hoisting Apple on the highest pedestal they can find, well, that's just what they'll do.
And if that bugs you, well, you only have yourself--actually your eyeballs--to blame.
As for Dell, it only has to worry about the perception of its customers and shareholders. But what if its customers and shareholders are also influenced by the media? Uh-oh.


text:
Want a floor like this ?
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© Copyright sandmyfloor 2006


text:
Place no limits on this grief of mine–
don't try to cheer me out of feeling sorrow.
I need to wear it for a longer time,
and won't be ready to let go tomorrow.
The ragged tears that burn and sting my eyes,
the knot that's tied inside my throat and chest,
are raiment needed for the long good-bye,
and bind me to the soul that's laid to rest.
And so I wear a shroud of blackest black,
and wrap myself in aching disbelief–
knowing when I last discard my cloak,
our closeness severs. I'll be sadly free.
So long as I can bear to wear my grief,
I stay united with the life so brief.
#grief #dying #babyboomers #timepassing #poetry


text:
The scope of these essays helps to articulate the exceptional breadth of Contemporary Argument in Natural Theology as a whole. The variety of arguments throughout the book provide a point of contact no matter the interest of the reader, and sprawling bibliographies at the end of each essay open up significant inroads to further study ... Contemporary Arguments in Natural Theology is a worthwhile read for anybody interested in the topic.
Modern Reformation
Graduate students who wish to keep up with the latest work in natural theology will find this a useful resource.
Heythrop Journal
This excellent book is proof of the continuing interest in and relevance of natural theology. The essays are creative, clear, and rigorous. They provide both new arguments and creative, cutting-edge slants on old arguments. Contemporary Arguments in Natural Theology will be helpful to advanced undergraduate students, seminary and graduate students, as well as philosophical scholars.
Stephen T. Davis, Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Claremont McKenna College, USA
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.


text: Registered Nurse – Cardiovascular Job ID: 923011 Discipline: Registered Nurse Specialty: CVICU Date Posted: September 28, 2023 Address: 2300 Patterson St Location: Nashville, TN 37203 Shift: 12 N Duration: 13 Weeks Start Date: October 23, 2023 Company: Onward Employment Type: Temporary Weekly Pay: $1,452 - $1,601* *Estimate of weekly payments is intended for informational purposes and includes hourly wages, as well as reimbursements for meal & incidental expenses and housing expenses incurred on behalf of the Company. Please speak with your Recruiter for additional details. Job Description & Requirements Registered Nurse – Cardiovascular - Cardiovascular Intensive Care (CVICU) RN needed for 686-bed comprehensive facility on a 43-acre campus. - Music City offers art, music, beer and food festivals, Tennessee Titans football, Nashville Predators hockey, and a variety of college sports. Music takes center stage with events like the Americana Music Festival, Full Moon Pickin' Parties, and Musicians Corner. Area events include The Music City Food + Wine Festival, Country Music Association Awards followed by the CMA Country Christmas taping later in the week Required Qualifications Years of Experience: 2. 1. Perm TN or compact RN License (#/expiration) 2. ACLS, BLS Preferred Qualifications - Meditech Facility Location Filled with Southern charm, scenic beauty, boot-scootin' dance halls and country music at every turn, "Music City, USA" is always a fascinating destination. Traveling health care professionals who take an assignment in Nashville have the opportunity to enjoy the city's lively music scene, historic attractions, local craft markets and festive clubs. Job Benefits AMN Healthcare's travel nursing assignments typically last 13 weeks, and include: Competitive pay rates and comprehensive benefits Medical plans with dental and vision Complimentary, high-quality private housing 401(k) and flex spending options Life insurance Accident and short-term disability coverage Free continuing education (CE) courses Travel allowances Guaranteed pay program Tuition discount program Referral bonuses About The Company Onward Healthcare, an AMN Healthcare company, is a travel nursing company dedicated to moving our nurses careers "onward and upward." Our team of expert recruiters connect clinicians with exclusive travel nursing opportunities at the nation's top hospitals and healthcare facilities. Onward's nursing assignments are part of a larger, comprehensive RN career development and consultation service. Onward/AMN Healthcare is an EEO/AA/Disability/Protected Veteran Employer.


text:
Source: Fiat Chrysler, Google in partnership talks
DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler and Google's self-driving car project are in advanced talks to form a technical partnership.
The talks were confirmed Thursday by a person familiar with the discussions. The person asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
The partnership would be the first to match an automaker with Google's 7-year-old autonomous car project, which is now part of the so-called X lab at Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company.
Details haven't been revealed. But Google has said it doesn't intend to make self-driving cars and would prefer to license its technology to carmakers.
Fiat Chrysler -- which lacks the cash to develop its own autonomous cars -- might welcome the chance to test Google's technology. The Italian-American automaker also has manufacturing expertise and factories that Google lacks.


text:
Anastasia Carlova participates in the Poetry Contest of the Festival 4 Arts, from Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. We wish her success and thank her!
Live thoroughly with thought of motion, Be brave enough to scale new heights, Don't ever dare leave a hurtful scar behind, Be conscientious to battle inner fights; If you do not expect, but treasure hopeful thoughts, If you do not assume from narrow path you see, If anything that happens does not destroy your core, Yet fire strengthens you and sets your mind free; If your commitment is determined by your wish To persevere keenly in adverse situation, If you impose no limits on your growth And do away with pride, and evil, and pretension; If you are willed enough to not backstab a person, Or say a word you wouldn't say directly, If you accept mistakes and when it comes to trouble You search the root inside of you intently; If you can grasp the meaning of your actions And label life as not an empty chase for wind, If you can seize the time so as to see the essence, And be persistent in your deeds and disciplined; If you remain loyal up to the final point, And never let yourself demolish faith, If you construct a wall with bricks of hate you're thrown, In face of wicked judgement you stay untouched and brave; If you get motivated from a devastating failure And realize not everything is wholly just, If you can help a soul in selfless manner, And not annihilate a conscious trust; Then you possess all values worth adopting, And you are opting for a virtuous life; Whatever your direction is, remember – Live thoroughly with thought of motion, Be brave enough to scale new heights!
My Journey After Life
When my spirit dissipates In the eternity of space, Then I'll walk among the ashes Adopting a reposeful pace; I'll wander till the end of time, Till freedom ceases to exist, Until the gloomy moon above Is captured in the nets of mist; And when I reach the farthest edge, I'll fix my gaze upon a cliff, And in the flaming rays of sun I will be blazing in relief; And it will burn the life of me Until the pulse no longer beats, And in a sudden aching rush I'll lose my way 'mongst creepy tweets; They'll call me fiercely to a maze Where only darkness nobly dwells, And flapping hopelessly, my wings Will resonate in dire yells; And when the void space in me No longer aches for being filled, When faded strength within my core No longer needs to be rebuilt, Then it's the time to end the walk, And vanish in a chasmic gap, Yet linger as an echo chord In someone's harmony instead; I'll bid goodbye to inner sense, And will defeat all sorrow's frost, And then I'll split inside myself To brighten doles of the lost; The hurried wind in all its zeal Will scatter me beneath the skies, So after perishing away I'll live as sparkles in one's eyes!...
The Desperate Star
The wild Moon was floating in the night Among the Stars and darkness of the sky. At once, He saw that one of Stars was grieving, And couldn't comprehend: She was so troubled, why? Her gentle heart was overwhelmed with angst, She was so high she could see all the world, But picture that disastrous was and dire, On this, she fainted and fell onto the Earth. She'd spent Her will on candid twinkling, She'd always relished bringing goodwill out, But now, exhausted, She was lying there – On greenish grass, beyond the shade of doubt; She hesitated whether it was good Without Her on bluish sky above, But soon around looked and so amazed was – She saw no wickedness, but beauty, glee, and love… It was the Spring in its beginning, The melting snow was ebbing out of sight, The blooming trees were spread over the forest, And now She could behold the woods in all delight. But… She'd been made weak and unprotected, The evil deeds had spoilt her kind power, She could no longer share something great with people, Before she passed, however, She'd managed watch the Spring in flower; And after that She feebly flickered, Yet lasted it some moments brief, but then, The light went out, the Star split up and vanished, She never able was to light the Earth again…
What is Time?
'Tis tears that wash away existence, 'tis hidden law of galactic powers, Illuminating soul's freedom, the structure of mindset discovers. May you fill distant run with worth, not to regret that life, destroyed, Evaporates into the chasm of darkness and perpetual void... - The outcome you shall avoid.
Categorii:Poetry Contest


text:
2012 Bible and Spade Back Issues
Regular price $8.00
Fall 2012 Beneath the Surface: The Jesus Wife Fragment and the Battle of Worldviews - We Hear You! - Ready to Reason - The Trial of Jesus in Archaeology and History - Forged in the Name of God: Bart Ehrman and the Issue of Pseudepigrapha in the New Testament - Dialogue with a Skeptic Concerning the Resurrection of Christ - Four Persian Kings: The Bible, Herodotus and Archaeology
Summer 2012 The End from the Beginning - We Hear You! - The Prophecy of Daniel 8 - Tyre: Prophecy Fulfilled - Prophecy, the Bible and Jesus - Amos' Earthquake - Lot Sat in the Gate
Spring 2012 We Hear You! - The Search for Joshua's Ai at Khirbet el-Maqatir, 2011 - ABR's Excavation at Khirbet el-Maqatir: The Infant Jar Burial - City Gates: Not Just a Defensive Measure - Maqatir Monastery Money - Lukewarm in Laodicea
Winter 2012 Tanit in the Mirror - The Testimony of the Didache - Redeeming the Carthaginians? - Abortion: Child Sacrifice Today? - Ancient Child Sacrifice and Abortion - Evolution and the American Abortion Mentality - Jephthah's Vow: A Corruption of Yahwism in the Era of the Judges