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Black and Veatch, a Fortune 500 company that employs more than 400 military veterans, has made a $10,000 gift in support of the University of Central Missouri's efforts to prepare men and women who served in the military for civilian professions.
The check presentation was March 7 at UCM's Military and Veterans Success Center. Theresa Bridges, military and diversity outreach lead for Black and Veatch presented the donation. She said the gift, made through the UCM Foundation, represents the company's appreciation for veterans and its strong partnership with the university.
"We hope these funds will be used to continue the education and support of our veterans," Bridges said as she presented the check to UCM President Charles Ambrose.
She told the gathering that Black and Veatch realizes it needs to hire the best and brightest to grow its business, and that those who served in the military often possess the qualities companies like Black and Veatch are looking for in employees.
"We know that our veterans are professional, they have great critical thinking skills and they can make decisions under pressure. There's a whole laundry list of reasons we know these veterans are a good fit for us," Bridges said.
Ambrose said the university is grateful to Black and Veatch and its commitment to hiring veterans. It is essential to partner with companies that want to contribute to the education of individuals who are making a transition from military service to civilian life.
"We are very indebted," Ambrose said in talking about the gift. "This is more than financial support. This is a great encourager for others to get behind those who serve our country and to do the right thing to help them with their education, health, welfare and jobs."
Among those in attendance was David Smarr, a Navy veteran who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer-Aided Drafting and Design Technology from UCM in 2012. He currently works for Black and Veatch as an engineering technician, and is a UCM campus team member in support of the Military and Veterans Success Center.
Smarr spoke briefly about his experiences at UCM, describing the MVSC as a facility where veterans and active-duty military personnel can get support from staff who provide a range of services, including showing them how to take full advantage of military benefits that will help fund their education.
Smarr also noted how the center was a place where he could go and "be surrounded by veterans and active duty military, and have conversations about whatever we wanted and know that we support each other."
While introducing special guests, Lynn Lowder, a combat veteran who serves as director of Military and Veterans Services at UCM, told the gathering that UCM is focused on addressing three areas that are important to veterans: education, mental wellness related to issues such as post-traumatic stress, and jobs.
"In the military, everyone knows that you don't fight battles alone, no one is self- made," he said. "It takes people. It takes support, and it takes a team. Black and Veatch is a wonderful example of a company and people within who truly want to make a difference, and we're very grateful."
Individuals who have questions are encouraged to contact Delilah Nichols, coordinator, Military and Veterans Services, at 660-543-8776 or [email protected].


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When U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, then-President Bush said the goal in Afghanistan was "to build a flourishing democracy as an alternative to a hateful ideology."
Seven years, billions of dollars and hundreds of U.S. casualties later, the goals are more pragmatic and modest. The Obama administration's new special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, offered an understatement at the ceremony naming him to the post, telling the audience, "Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well." Violence in Afghanistan is up. The Taliban continues to make a comeback and President Hamid Karzai is struggling to control the country, which with a rampant drug trade, threatens to turn into a narco-state. President Obama has called Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan the "central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." Watch what's ahead for Afghanistan » But even as he promises to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a robust debate in Washington has begun about what the U.S. should try to achieve in a country that due to 2,000 years of conflict has been called the "graveyard of empires." Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry lamented that the U.S. has forgotten that its goal in Afghanistan was to fight al Qaeda and get Osama bin Laden.
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"It was not to adopt the 51st state of the United States. It was not to try to impose a form of government, no matter how much we believe in it and support it, but that is the mission, at least, as it is being defined today," Kerry said during Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing for her post as secretary of state. Kerry warned that the U.S. risks getting bogged down in Afghanistan as it did in Vietnam — parallels also drawn in the U.S. media. The administration is conducting reviews of its policy in Afghanistan, including one by Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in the region. The objective is simple: Define what the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan should be. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautions that goals have been too broad and need to be need to be more "realistic and limited," or the U.S. risks failure. "If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose, because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience and money, to be honest," Gates told senators, calling for more concrete objectives that can be achieved in the next three to five years. Obama seemed to signal a more modest approach, defining the mission as limited solely to stabilizing Afghanistan. "What we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al Qaeda. What we can do is make sure that it is not destabilizing neighboring Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons," Obama told NBC News. "We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy." At a minimum, the U.S. must help the Afghan government curb corruption and extend its authority to establish rule of law. That means a hefty component of civilian assistance. The U.S. will increase development efforts and aid to strengthen the Afghan government, including additional nonmilitary aid for education, infrastructure, human services and alternative livelihoods for farmers to turn away from narcotics. Part of the U.S. strategy will repeat the tactics used to help Iraq's "Sunni Awakening," in which Sunni tribal leaders united to fight insurgents and maintain security. In Afghanistan, the U.S. will look for opportunities to engage with tribal and regional leaders, including those who might have been affiliated with or joined forces with the Taliban, insurgents Petraeus refers to as the "reconcilable Taliban." For nuclear power Pakistan, extremists along its turbulent border with Afghanistan present an even greater threat to U.S. national security. As he heads out next week for his first trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, Holbrooke will seek to develop a regional approach to curbing extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan as he did in the 1990s in the Balkans, which had a similar mix of different histories, cultures and traditions. Holbrooke is expected to put more pressure on Karzai, amid a growing impatience with his inability to extend his authority, clamp down on corruption and deliver services to his people. Officials say there is a willingness to withhold U.S. aid if he doesn't deliver. In Pakistan, Holbrooke will seek stronger cooperation from the government of Asif Ali Zardari to crack down on extremists along the Afghan border and in the tribal areas seen as sympathetic to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Another part of Holbrooke's job will be to streamline the U.S. programs and assistance for Afghanistan and Pakistan and direct them toward the immediate goal of stabilizing the region. "If our resources are mobilized and coordinated and pulled together, we can quadruple, quintuple, multiply by tenfold the effectiveness of our efforts there," Holbrooke said at his appointment.
Coordinating a strategy will require a toughness and sense of purpose that has been lacking in U.S. policy toward the region. No one can question Holbrooke's toughness. The architect of the Dayton peace accord in the Balkans is, after all, famous for strong-arming the strongest willed of leaders — such as former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

subset: commoncrawl


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Washington D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–December 15, 2010. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that a $400 million loan guarantee has been finalized for Abound Solar Manufacturing, LLC to manufacture state-of-the-art thin-film solar panels. The Abound Solar project represents the fifth Recovery Act project to close to date. The project, which includes facilities in Longmont, Colorado, and Tipton, Indiana, will use new manufacturing technology for Cadmium-Telluride panels that has never before been deployed commercially in the world. At full capacity, the project will be capable of producing 840 megawatts of solar panels each year.
"Pioneering projects like this are what will help the U.S. recapture the lead when it comes to supporting innovation in the global clean energy economy," said Secretary Chu. "Not only is this investment creating thousands of jobs, but it is also increasing our renewable energy manufacturing capacity and putting us on the path for our future prosperity."
The company estimates the project will create 1,200 new jobs for ongoing manufacturing and operations – including 200 in Colorado and 1,000 in Indiana. The project will also support hundreds of construction jobs and an estimated 1,600 ongoing supply chain jobs throughout the Midwest including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio.
The facility will produce photovoltaic panels using an innovative process in which thin films of Cadmium-Telluride are deposited onto glass panels. The company believes the technology offers numerous improvements over existing manufacturing methods and reduces overall production costs. Production and installation of these panels produces significantly less greenhouse gas emissions than crystalline silicon panels.
The Department of Energy, through the Loan Programs Office, has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 16 clean energy projects totaling nearly $16.5 billion. Together, the 16 projects total over 37 million megawatt-hours of capacity, which will produce enough clean energy to power over 3.3 million homes. DOE has committed support for projects, which include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects; a 2,200 megawatt nuclear power plant – the nation's first in three decades; and the world's largest wind farm with generating capacity of 845 megawatts. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office.
Source: energy.gov


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Winner's Choice of Chibebe Snuggle Pod Giveaway! $99 RV!
Sponsored By: Chibebe
Hosted By: Love, Mrs. Mommy
Co-Hosted By:
Winner Will Receive:
Their choice of Snuggle Pod and Seat Cover! A $99 RV (beans not included)
Chibebe is the world's #1 baby beanbag! The Chibebe Snuggle Pod was originally designed to help prevent reflux and flathead symptoms, but that's not all! These adorable snuggle pods grow with your baby for many years down the road (great for all ages) and come in a variety of stylish, exclusive designs. They not only look amazing, but so is their quality! Chibebe has high standards of safety, so much so that they are laboratory tested to not only meet, but exceed USA and Australian standards!
Open To US and must be 18+ to enter
Giveaway Dates ~ 11/16 9:00 AM EST through 11/30 11:59 PM EST Good luck!
I like this alot, so cute and can be used for many years.
MarksvilleandMe would like to wish all those who enter
Good Luck!
I like this alot, so cute and can be used for many years.
MarksvilleandMe would like to wish all those who enter
Good Luck!
Disclosure: Love, Mrs. Mommy and all participating bloggers are not held responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill their prize obligations. Love, Mrs. Mommy received a Chibebe Snuggle Pod at no cost to facilitate the above-mentioned review. This giveaway is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Facebook or any other social media site. The winner will be randomly drawn by Giveaway Tools and will be notified by email. Winner has 48 hours to reply before a replacement winner will be drawn. If you would like to participate in an event like this please contact LoveMrsMommy (at) gmail (dot) com.


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I suppose I need to apologize in advance for this post, but it is Halloween. Additionally, due to a computer crash (literally, a crash in which the computer took quite a tumble to the floor and has remained inoperable ever since), I've needed to cheer myself up.
Someone recently mentioned the latest craze (which is now well passé, I'm sure): Yearbook Yourself. If you go to that site, you can upload pictures that the site will then modify into yearbook-style pictures from a number of different years! While waiting for the computer repair FAX to go through, I tried it out (using a different computer) with William Shakespeare himself:
Links: Yearbook Yourself.


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Thoughts about Torah, physics, politics, the independent Jewish scene, education, music, DC, and the intersections of all those areas. Contact: mahrabu at gmail dot com
Thursday, July 24, 2008
City, County, and State
Are there any more? If so, then we can pinpoint the location of the next major terrorist attack and take preventative measures.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Deadly enemies
But bar mitzvah needs, in my view, not merely to be described but to be opposed. The American ceremony is one of the deadly enemies of Jewish education, and there is no way to bypass its malignant effect on growing up Jewish. To prettify the issue is, I believe, a disservice to the true needs of our community, which require its abolition instead.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sefer Ha-Bloggadah!
Everyone is invited to participate! All you have to do is obtain a copy of Sefer Ha-Aggadah in Hebrew or English, and follow along each day with the schedule. It's about a page or two each day. You can join the email list to keep up with administrative announcements.
We'll be discussing each day's reading on the blog, Sefer Ha-Bloggadah. We have an amazing and diverse team of bloggers who will be blogging each day, and all are invited to join the discussion in the comments. In addition to the blog, in-person discussion groups are being organized in some cities, and you're invited to organize one in your area.
The Sefer Ha-Aggadah project will formally kick off on Shabbat afternoon, August 16 (Tu Be'Av), at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute, and then the schedule begins on Monday, August 25.
We look forward to creating Torah with you!On a personal note, I'll be using the copy of Sefer Ha-Aggadah that belonged to my grandfather, Rabbi A. Stanley Dreyfus z"l, and dedicating my learning in his memory. One of the many things we found in the apartment was a collection of papers that he had written as an undergraduate at the Hebrew Union College (which used to have a joint undergrad program with the University of Cincinnati). Among these, he had translated a chapter of Sefer Ha-Aggadah into English. (This was in 1939, long before any English translation had been published.) I looked at the schedule to see when we would be reaching that chapter (the one about the destruction of the Second Temple, including the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza), and fortuitously, it turns out that it will be the week of his birthday. So we'll have an opportunity to remember him then, and perhaps compare his translation to the published edition.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Rabbi A. Stanley Dreyfus on the Jewish Catalog: unpublished notes
My grandfather had an incredibly extensive book collection, which includes an original folio Vilna Shas (i.e. printed in Vilna), a Hebrew-Latin Bible printed in Venice in 1551, and an edition of the Mishnah printed in Germany in 1814 with vowels and a translation and commentary in German written in Hebrew characters (not Yiddish, German) handwritten in the margins by Solomon Eppinger of Cincinnati (an original faculty member at the Hebrew Union College) around 1870. But I was mildly surprised to see that this collection also included The Jewish Catalog. But not so surprised, since many different views are represented in this library. It was located on the shelf with books about minhagim, marriage, and mourning.
Inside my grandfather's copy of The Jewish Catalog is a sheaf of small sheets of paper with his notes written on them. It appears that these notes may have been intended for a review of the book. I don't know whether this review was ever written or published (though I could check out whether the CCAR Journal ever ran a review of The Jewish Catalog when I'm back at the apartment -- I'm sure he had a complete set). I'm guessing the notes were written soon after the publication of the book, though there's really no way to know.
So here are Rabbi A. Stanley Dreyfus's notes on The Jewish Catalog (to my best ability to read his handwriting), with my attempts at commentary on this raw primary text. I wasn't surprised that his reaction was critical, but I was surprised to find myself, a do-it-yourself-type Jew, agreeing with many of his criticisms. I've never read The Jewish Catalog cover-to-cover, but this inspires me to want to write my own critique from a 21st-century grassroots-Judaism perspective.
The Jewish Catalogue [sic - of course he would go for the more British spelling], A do-it-yourself kit
Richard Siegel
Michael Strassfeld
Sharon Strassfeld
"A compendium of tools and resources for use in Jewish education and Jewish living in the fullest sense of those terms"
This is a direct quotation from the introduction, p. 8.
Expression of Jewish countercultural activity of late 60's in secular and Jewish worldThese are also direct quotes and paraphrases from the introduction (p. 8-9), and the relevant paragraphs are marked off in pencil in the book. Here, he was just summarizing. Next, Rabbi Dreyfus's own reactions begin:
Move toward communal living
Returning to the land
Relearning joys of "making it yourself"
Voicing social and political concern
This book undertakes
1) to provide immediately useful information
2) to direct those interested to additional resources
3) to present traditional dimensions of each subject covered
4) to open options for personal creativity and contemporary utilization
Ideal: personal responsibility
physical participation
Disturbing aspects of book -- immediate hostile reaction
= Errors of fact
Tenaim תנאים - get
Tallit - worn by all males past age of B/M in Conservative & Reform syn, & by married men in Orthodox syn. p 52
Lulav on Shabbat
Responsibility of teacher
Here's what The Jewish Catalog has to say about tenaim (p. 162): "1. The betrothal is created by the writing of tenaim -- a legal document binding on both parties. 2. Because the tenaim are as binding as a marriage contract -- that is, they are dissoluble only through divorce or death -- the custom of signing tenaim a year before the wedding has, in general, given way to the custom of signing them immediately before the actual wedding takes place." And there isn't a section about divorce or gittin (until the second volume).
So I can't tell what Rabbi Dreyfus is getting at in his laconic note. Perhaps he's saying that a get is in fact not necessary for the dissolution of tenaim, and tenaim can be dissolved by other means? I don't know enough about tenaim to understand which part he's claiming is a factual error.
On p. 51 (not 52), it says "The tallit is the prayer shawl worn by married men in Orthodox synagogues, and by all males past the age of Bar Mitzvah in Conservative and Reform synagogues." Now which part is Rabbi Dreyfus taking issue with here? There are so many possibilities. First of all, the tallit is certainly not universal among post-bar mitzvah males in Reform synagogues, and was considerably less so in the 1970s. As a Reform congregational rabbi, this could not have escaped Rabbi Dreyfus's attention. Second of all, the custom of wearing a tallit only after marriage is not universal in Orthodox communities -- in particular, I believe it is specific to Eastern European communities. As an uber-yekke (at the very least by marriage and disposition, but his Alsatian-born father also spoke German), Rabbi Dreyfus would not have let this omission of German minhag go unaddressed. Finally, I don't know whether tallit use among Reform and Conservative women was common yet in the 1970s, but it may pose another problem with this sentence. (The Catalog takes the interesting position of "Women are not obligated to wear a tallit, nor are they prohibited from wearing one", leaving out any differences of opinion for either clause.)
On p. 73, the Catalog says "It is a mitzvah to wave the lulav on each of the first seven days of Sukkot. The proper time is in the morning -- either before the Morning Service or during the service immediately before the Hallel." (The first sentence sort of contradicts the next part about Shabbat, and the second is another factual error: according to the Mishnah, the proper time for lulav is all day.) P. 75-76 says "The lulav is not shaken on Shabbat -- because perhaps you may carry it (e.g., to the synagogue) and thereby violate the prohibition against carrying an object more than four amot (approximately eighty inches) in the public domain during Shabbat." Now this is an oversimplification of a complex issue, but I don't entirely see how it's an error. Thoughts?
I'm not sure what "Responsibility of teacher" refers to. There is a section called "Teachers", beginning on p. 292, which includes a list of "good people to talk to" ("a list of people whom the editors of this book coincidentally know"), but it doesn't say anything about teachers' responsibilities. Perhaps Rabbi Dreyfus is referring instead to p. 282, in the "How to Start a Havurah" section. This is a fascinating passage that raises questions about how truly egalitarian the early havurot were -- both in the unselfconscious use of the masculine pronoun and in the idea of a singular leader that seems to contradict havurah ideology. I'm not sure what the factual error is (or what Rabbi Dreyfus would have taken issue with, given that his own milieu at that time also consisted of Jewish communities with a singular rabbinic leader who was generally male), but it's a fascinating passage nonetheless:
"If at all possible, the group should have a committed, Jewishly learned leader
"a. whose leadership role is accepted;
"b. who fosters leadership potential among other members so as to eventually minimize or eliminate the need for his own leadership role;
"c. who does not have a holier-than-thou attitude toward other members and is thus open to criticism.
"Such a leader may be found among Jewish professionals in the city, or may be found in a nearby city. This leader should work directly with
"a. aiding work-group chairmen;
"b. changing community coordinators;
"c. teaching the entire community.
"As a teacher he should give members a sense of the geography of Jewish values as embodied in the tradition, as well as methods of access and inquiry into Jewish source material. Thus some members can eventually become teachers themselves."
Errors in balance, proportionAs far as I can tell, this is in fact Rabbi Dreyfus outlining the ideas of his "own Judaism", in order to set up a contrast between his understanding of Judaism and what is presented in the Catalog. I feel like doing a much deeper analysis would be out of my league. Does anyone with a background in Jewish thought want to weigh in and place this section in context?
My own Judaism
a) kingdom of God on earth
Before Abraham, God only in heaven
Messianic era
b) Achieved by obedience to commandments
do justly
love mercy
walk humbly
c) advanced - made vivid by Jewish life style - poetry of life - & sancta as sign posts
Part a is reminiscent of a midrash in which Abraham (and the generations until Moses) brought God's presence from heaven down to earth. I don't know whether this is an intentional allusion to that midrash. But the general idea seems to be that human action (exemplified by Abraham) establishes the kingdom of God on earth and brings the messianic era (which doesn't necessarily include an individual messiah -- a distinction that has long been present in Reform Judaism ever since ומביא גואל / "brings a redeemer" was changed to ומביא גאולה / "brings redemption").
This leads into part b - God's kingdom is achieved by obedience to the commandments, exemplified by Micah 6:8 (the haftarah from the week that Rabbi Dreyfus died, and the distillation of the 613 commandments into three according to Makkot 24a). Let no one (especially Reform Jews) make the claim that Reform Judaism is a non-halakhic movement, or doesn't believe in obligation: here we have a luminary of the Reform movement (and very much of the old guard) identifying obedience to the commandments as the essence of Judaism. Yes, the definition of which commandments are significant may differ from other Jewish movements, but that's just quibbling over the details. Doing justly and loving mercy are halakhah (not merely aggadah) and are obligations (not merely choices).
Part c: I don't think "advanced" is used here as an adjective (as in what comes after "intermediate") but as a verb -- i.e. "this is advanced by...". (What is advanced by the Jewish lifestyle, etc.? The kingdom of God on earth? Perhaps.) "Sancta" sounds Kaplanian, but I don't think that's entirely what he's going for - I think he's talking about "such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives". This is where the role of ritual comes in: it is the "poetry of life" and the "sign posts", and not classified with the "commandments", which are ethical.
Not as ends in themselvesI.e. rituals should not be ends in themselves, but are a means towards living an ethical life and making vivid the kingdom of God on earth.
Must be rationally acceptable
But I have to say that this "rationally acceptable" standard leaves lots of open questions. It seems that there is plenty of room for cultural relativism here. Who is to say that wearing a three-piece suit and tie is rational, and wearing tzitzit (see below) isn't? Cultural norms may be different in different cultures, but one isn't more or less rational than another. Particularly if we're talking about the "poetry of life", poetry isn't always rational.
Tallit knotsThese numbers indeed appear on p.53, and it looks like Rabbi Dreyfus was doublechecking the arithmetic. He appears to be presenting this as a counterexample to "must be rationally acceptable". I would respond by saying that, rational or not, tzitzit knots aren't hurting anyone. But this is listed as an error in balance/proportion. And it's true that the Catalog focuses much more on ritual than on doing justice. Perhaps the explanation is that there was less need for a gujde to doing justice than a guide to tying tzitzit knots, because the former can be obtained from sources that aren't specifically Jewish. But there are specifically Jewish perspectives on justice that, as Rabbi Dreyfus points out, don't get much attention in the Catalog. (It's the same problem as A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, which should be called A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, Volume I: Bein Adam Lamakom.) This was remedied in the sequels, particularly The Third Jewish Catalog.
7 windings
8 "
15 = יה
וה = 11
אחד = 13
600 = ציצית
8 threads
5 knots
p. 53
Must be relevant: justice, honesty, decencyI don't know. Tallit knots may not represent any of these qualities, but they are neither unjust nor dishonest nor indecent. And the social conventions of Classical Reform decorum didn't represent justice, honesty, or decency any better; what was important was that they were meaningful to their adherents.
This book -- Orthodox -- generally ignoring ReformThis is an interesting point, and I think it reflects the demographics of the 1970s havurah crowd, which primarily came from Conservative (and some Orthodox) backgrounds. One of the standard creation myths of the havurah movement is that it was created by people who came back from Camps Ramah and were empowered to start their own Jewish communities. Unfortunately, I don't think the Reform movement's educational system at this time was sufficiently empowering people to do this, so people who were disaffected with their home congregations either dropped out, frummed out, or became rabbis. More recent waves of havurot/minyanim have greater representation from people who grew up in the Reform movement, though the recent independent minyan survey shows that Reform self-identification is still low among this crowd. (In this post I tried to grapple with the frictions between Reform identity and grassroots communities.)
So it's interesting (and worthy of further study) that Reform cultural influence was lacking in the early havurah movement. So there has been a sort of convergent evolution -- if we look at communal prayer as one example, you have the older generation of havurot incorporating more English into the service than they grew up with in their Conservative and Orthodox upbringings, and you now have Reform-identified communities incorporating more Hebrew and congregational participation than were common in the Reform movement 30 years ago, leading to services that might look similar on paper or to someone looking in from the outside, yet sufficiently different (due to vestigial features left over from these very different evolutionary processes) that they appear unmistakably alien to each other's practitioners. (Then there's informed autonomy. The Reform movement talks about it but doesn't do it; havurot do it but don't talk about it.)
Though it would have been anachronistic to use this term at the time (and Rabbi Dreyfus probably wouldn't have used the term more recently either, since that wasn't his frame of reference, though he did know the founder of Artscroll, whose brother is/was a Reform rabbi), Rabbi Dreyfus is seems to be accusing the Catalog of what I would call Artscrollization. This process does not belong exclusively to the Orthodox world; I have accused the contemporary Reform movement of engaging in Artscrollization by (for example) conflating kipot and tallitot into the same category.
takesaccepts every least custom uncritically
as if it were on par w/ Decalogue Except in dealing w/ women
Note the use of the word "custom". It is clear from this word, and the examples below, that Rabbi Dreyfus is not taking issue here with the idea (found to some degree on Berachot 12a, and the reason the Ten Commandments aren't included in the daily liturgy) that all 613 mitzvot are as important as the Ten Commandments (though, if asked, he probably would). He is taking issue with the implication that peripheral customs are as essential as the fundamental elements of Judaism. And the Catalog doesn't always make this distinction clear. However, to be fair, the Catalog has many authors, and some chapters do a much better job than others at making this distinction.
The comment that I have rendered above in italics was written in a different pen, and seems to have been added in later.
By today's standards, The Jewish Catalog really isn't so gender-egalitarian. God and people are referred to with masculine pronouns. On p. 111, a minyan is defined as "a quorum of ten men", and the description of the wedding ceremony on p. 161-164 is the traditional unilateral procedure without exception. Alternatives are presented in a separate section called "On mutualizing the wedding ceremony", and the possibility of egalitarian minyanim and such is mentioned in the chapter titled "A guide to Jewish women's activities" (p. 252ff.), but this is not included as part of the mainstream text. Still, I suppose this is sufficient to make these issues an exception to "accepts every least custom uncritically".
a) Trivia: Candy & raisins at aufruf - sweet lifePage 162, discussing the "oyfrufn" (Rabbi Dreyfus has emended this to the German spelling) says "After the groom [sic] recites the final blessings, it is the custom to throw candy and raisins at him to insure a sweet life to him and his bride." So I'm guessing that Rabbi Dreyfus is taking issue with the language of "it is the custom", which implies that this is the only custom and ignores the existence of communities where this is not the custom.
fertility: but nothing said
The second line seems to be saying "Actually, this custom is about fertility, not just a sweet life; why are they whitewashing the origin and leaving this out?". I've never heard that explanation before, but it's not surprising.
b) Hallah - sensitivity - cover during kiddush
as against
Cover knives at table
Pass bread on plate
But meaningful only if constantly reviewed
Page 38 says:
"10. Knives on the table may be covered before this blessing. There is a tradition not to use a hallah knife at all on Friday night as a reflection of Isaiah's prophecy: 'And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks' (Isaiah 2:4). In addition, the stone altar consecrated to God was not built of hewn stones, 'for by wielding your tools upon them you have profaned them' (Exodus 20:22). Rather than cut the hallah with a knife -- a weapon of war -- which thereby profanes the altar and the offering, the custom has developed to break the hallah apart with your hands.
"12. There is a custom not to hand the pieces of bread directly to those at the table, but rather to put them on a plate and pass the plate around, or to place each piece of bread on the person's plate. It is not from man that we receive our bread.
"13. When the blessing is made over the wine, the hallah should be covered. It is sensitive and may be offended by being placed second to the wine. A story is told about a famous rabbi who once visited a man for Shabbat. The man, trying to impress the rabbi, set out an elaborate meal in honor of Shabbat. He became annoyed when he noticed his wife had forgotten the hallah cover, and he began to berate her. The rabbi turned to the man and rebuked him, saying, 'The purpose of covering the hallah is to shield its sensitive feelings. This teaches us concern for the feeling of even inanimate objects. How much more so should we be sensitive to another human being!'"
(This last story brings to mind a great moment of bitter humor from Yisrael Campbell's show. In recounting the story of his journey towards converting to Judaism, Campbell tells about the time he first learned about this custom, and says that he thought "Wow! If Jews are this sensitive towards the feelings of the bread, imagine how they must act towards people!")
The phrase "as against" seems to be suggesting that the idea of protecting the hallah's feelings, even with the attached story, is rather tenuous, compared to the idea of eschewing weapons of war or remembering that our sustenance comes from God.
I'm not sure if this is what Rabbi Dreyfus is getting at, but I get annoyed with these sorts of explanations of the origins of customs (even if the ideas are nice) being presented as fact, since they are often post-facto explanations, and the customs often developed as mimetic traditions rather than as a drash.
So I'll take a middle position on whether these customs are "meaningful only if constantly reviewed". If they are in fact mimetic traditions, then they don't need to be either substantively "meaningful" or "constantly reviewed", since they are harmless. But if they are picked up from a book rather than received mimetically, then these (probably post-facto) meanings become more relevant. Still, the meanings are, in some sense, just mnemonics, and reviewing them by talking about them isn't necessarily the most effective way to achieve meaning. Rachel Adler writes (Engendering Judaism, p. 79), "The performative character of liturgical language (a notion that Reform Judaism in particular has found difficult to grasp) explains why 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts' is effective as liturgy while 'Through prayer we struggle to experience the Presence of God,' however morally edifying, is liturgically inert. In the performative 'Holy, holy holy,' the congregation has the power to make God's holiness present by naming it in a threefold incantation. 'Through prayer we struggle to experience the Presence of God' rationally describes the goal of prayer, but offers no process for achieving it."
c) Tumah/taharahThere is a chapter called "Tumah and taharah - mikveh" (p. 167-171), which offers anthropological and midrashic explanations of tumah and taharah, and a section on "Laws and customs" that focuses on niddah and mikveh. (The Catalog notes "NOTE: I have not discovered any book in English on the laws of niddah and mikveh which was written for people above the intellectual level of a cretin.") Without any further comments, it's hard to guess what Rabbi Dreyfus specifically had in mind in regard to this section, since there are so many possibilities. This chapter commits the common error of classifying contemporary hilchot niddah under tumah/taharah (which is not observed today, when everyone is permanently tamei) rather than under arayot, but I doubt that that was his concern.
d) Mystic mishmashI think the next few items (which are on another page) are intended as subheadings under this heading. But Rabbi Dreyfus also underlined the paragraph on p. 146 that talks about understanding the days of the omer as combinations of sefirot. I suppose getting annoyed at this runs in the family.
(Note: Rabbi Dreyfus's original notes rendered those words in Hebrew, but I couldn't get it to align properly with the numbers in the Blogger window, so I gave up and transliterated.)
1) Gematria
2 candles as groom led to huppah
2 x [neir] = 250 =
500 = [peru urvu] = 500
Page 46 says "The attendants who bring the groom to the huppah should hold in their hands two lit candles -- because the word נר --candle-- in gematria, doubled, is equivalent to the numerical value of פרו ורבו 'be fruitful and multiple.' And this is a good sign." Here and below, Rabbi Dreyfus has done the math for himself.
But to take it seriously!
Yeah. It's hard to see how anyone can say some of these explanations with a straight face. Clearly most of these customs had non-gematria origins, and the gematria is a post-facto game (but a much less interesting one than midrash halacha, and I say that as a "math person"). It can be entertaining, but I wouldn't go much further.
There is a whole page on gematria (p. 210), describing it as "one of the haggadic hermeneutical rules for interpreting the Torah". (I missed that one on Rabbi Ishmael's list.) This page says "Sometimes when this does not work out exactly, you have the option to add 'one' for the world itself. Example: Why some do not eat nuts on Rosh ha-Shanah -- because אגוז (nuts) equals (almost) חטא (sin)." Come on. If there are people who don't eat nuts on Rosh Hashanah, that can't have been the original reason.
Some don't eat nuts on RH because
[egoz] (17) + 1 for word =
18 = חטא sin
2) Scribal artsThere is a whole chapter on scribal arts, much of it practical in nature, but I'm guessing that Rabbi Dreyfus is taking issue with the part that gives kabbalistic explanations for each of the basic strokes. Example: "In Kabbalah, the yod is the symbol for the origin of light in the world, a pinpoint, a nekudah, a beginning musical note of a niggun, a fine point within the human being that lives in the Holy Image, the pintele Yid." (p. 187)
3) tie/mattress symbolize God's armsI'm not sure what this is, or where to find it. (Did I mention that The Jewish Catalog doesn't have an index?) Help?
Counter cultureOn p. 7, before the introduction, there is a full-page picture taken inside the Havurat Shalom building. Is this what he's referring to, or a picture elsewhere in the book? He seems to be contrasting the simplicity of a shtiebel (of either the older or the newer variety) with the elaborate design of the mishkan/tabernacle described in Parshat Terumah. Is this comparison made explicitly anywhere in the Catalog, or is this Rabbi Dreyfus's own comparison?
Picture of stiebel
vs elaborate [illegible] in Sed. Terumah
Attack on institutional JudaismGuilty as charged. :) Except not really that much. There is a chapter called "Using the Jewish Establishment -- a reluctant guide" (p. 262-274), which begins by explaining why it's reluctant, but then doesn't really attack the Jewish establishment as much as one might expect. It says "One of our assumptions is that hardly anyone should have to resort to organizations, professional 'experts,' or service agencies in the normal course of creating and enjoying a fulfilling Jewish life. With this book, a teacher, friends (perhaps in a real community), study, and imaginative effort, almost anyone can create a richer and more satisfying Jewish life than any organization offers. There are, however, many Jewish organizations, agencies, congregations, associations, and the like which offer access to tools and resources useful in the creation of a Jewish life....." I don't read this as an attack, but just as a statement that people should be empowered to create their own Jewish lives, which is a goal that Jewish institutions should also be supporting.
Well, ok, there are some jabs as the chapter goes on. "Many pulpit rabbis are disappointing people, but if one looks he will find some who will be helpful. If one is looking for deep religious experience, it is generally best to avoid large synagogues. Like anything else, there are good and bad synagogues. If you don't like any in your area, you and your friends should start your own congregation." (p. 264) But maybe the institutions in question should see this as an opportunity for self-examination (and some have, in the intervening decades).
Self righteousness - see Waskow p. 250P. 250 is a chapter called "How to bring Mashiah." Parts of it seem to be intended whimsically. At least I hope so. Rabbi Dreyfus has underlined two paragraphs:
"3. 'The nations ... shall beat their swords into plowshares. ... They shall never again know war' (Isaiah 2:4).
"THEREFORE: Get together a minyan and travel up to West Point. Take along ten swords and a small forge. Put the small forge in the main entrance, start it glowing, and beat the swords into something like a digging tool. Dig holes for ten trees, and plant the trees in the roadway. Meanwhile, sing 'Lo yisah goy' and 'Ain't Gonna Study War No More' alternately, and if any West Pointers stop to see what's going down, offer them a reworked sword to dig with.
"4. 'Mashiah will come when one generation is either wholly innocent or wholly guilty' (Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a)
"THEREFORE; Analyze the tax system of the United States, and publish a detailed answer to these two questions: (a) Are United States taxes used largely for purposes prohibited by Torah (e.g. oppressing the poor, destroying trees, etc.)? (b) Are any Jews in the United States successfully avoiding payment of all taxes? If the answer to (a) is 'Yes' and to (b) is 'No,' proclaim that the entire generation is guilty in fact, regardless of their personal opinions. Ask all shuls to include the proclamation in their Shabbat prayers with strong kavvanah: 'HaShem, we are at last all guilty: send him!'"
I would like to think that progressive activists (including Waskow) have gotten smarter about their tactics over the last 30 years. Somewhere between Vietnam and Iraq, we learned that blaming the troops, rather than the government who sent them into war, is unfair and unproductive. The West Point cadets are not the problem. "Support the troops -- bring them home."
And is Waskow really advocating tax evasion??? The answer to (b) is certainly yes, and they don't tend to be the Jews who share our values. To the extent that ordinary citizens bear blame for oppressive government policies, it's not because they paid their taxes (after all, we've seen during the Bush administration that the government will spend money destructively without regard to whether there is tax revenue to pay for it) but because they voted for the elected officials who implemented these policies. Any responsible progressive should be supporting the idea that taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society, rather than reinforcing the Republican talking point that taxes are evil.
Values of book:Here we get to the positive parts.
Caste systemI can't read this. Is it French? "The rabbi does everything"? Is this an allusion to something? Google isn't helping. I guess he's saying that it's a value that the book is encouraging people to do things for themselves rather than depending on the rabbi to do everything for them.
[le?] rabbin [fait?] tout
InvolvementAgain, Rabbi Dreyfus finds value in the nuts-and-bolts how-to sections that constitute much of the book, which empower people to do things for themselves.
bake hallah
make candles
build sukkah
Devotional guideThe last chapter is called "A first step: a devotional guide" and is by Rabbi Zalman Schachter.
HavurahThere is a section called "How to Start a Havurah" (p. 280ff.). It says "You begin with a shared dissent from existing Jewish institutions and their modes of participation, and a group decision to initiate an alternative model." What did Rabbi Dreyfus, who was committed to existing Jewish institutions, see in this? Unfortunately, we'll probably never know. These somewhat cryptic notes give us but a small glimpse into how much we have lost. For everything that he wrote down, there was so much that Rabbi Dreyfus knew and thought that was never written down, and now we can never ask him.
For now, if you have additional interpretations of anything here, please post it in the comments.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Rabbi Dr. A. Stanley Dreyfus z"l
UPDATE: Other links include a response on Mixed Multitudes, a brief obituary in the JTA, multiple death notices in the New York Times, and a press release from HUC-JIR. The press release quotes his ordination address from June 1979, the day I became the first fetus in history to be ordained as a rabbi.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
The 21st-century Jewish Catalog (alpha version)
Another question often asked is "What will be our generation's Jewish Catalog?"
Perhaps the answer to both of these questions isn't necessarily a book, and isn't necessarily a single static document. Maybe the Jewish Catalog of the 21st century already exists in some sense, but is more like the British constitution (comprising multiple documents written at different times) than like the United States Constitution (a single document). To put these into a usable form, I'm collecting links to blog posts and other documents that could be considered to constitute the 21st-century Jewish Catalog. Perhaps the online format is preferable to the paper format, because it allows for rapid publication, frequent editing, and a dynamic conversation (for a number of the blog posts linked below, the discussion in the comments is at least as important as the post itself).
This is just a first stab at collecting this information into one place. This list focuses on topics that are relevant to running a grassroots Jewish community. The original Jewish Catalog and its sequels also contained lots of other content about Judaism and Jewish life in general, but that sort of information is generally available already in various places, so there's less of an acute need for it.
Please post in the comments if you have suggestions of other posts/pages that should be linked, and I'll add them to the list if I agree. Please also post suggestions of other documents that don't yet exist but should be written, and then our grassroots out there will take responsibility for writing these posts. The preponderance of Mah Rabu posts on the initial list isn't because I think Mah Rabu is more important, but simply because it's what I'm most familiar with off the top of my head; together, we can index the whole Internet.
Remember that the authors of each of the linked posts retain all rights to their work. All are welcome to read these posts, implement the ideas within them, and quote them within fair use, but not to republish them without the authors' permission.
- BZ, Taxonomy of Jewish pluralism
- BZ, Hilchot Pluralism series: I (the two-table system), II (more philosophical underpinnings), III (prayer, including the trichitza), IV (liturgy), V (counting a minyan), VI (the limits of pluralism), VII (musical instruments)
Prayer engineering:
- Two different views on seating configurations for prayer, from ZT and BZ
- BZ, You Kant always get what you want - after a lengthy theoretical introduction, there is practical commentary on prayer space, prayer times, and volunteer-led communities
- ZT, Preparing a prayer space
- from Kol Zimrah, a collection of melodies for Friday night services
- from Mechon Hadar, a collection of resources for minyanim, including printed documents and recordings of nusach
That's just a very basic start. What else goes on the list?
Friday, July 04, 2008
Henry Winkler... covered in bees
Last week we saw part of Little Nicky on TV. It may not be Adam Sandler's best movie, but it's certainly his most underrated; few people have heard of it. (Though maybe I'm biased because this was the movie that led to my 15 minutes of fame. Sorry, Jewish Week, but the Village Voice is way cooler.) It's also the movie that contains the best Hebrew subtitle ever. The line "Popeye's chicken is the shiznit" is rendered as "Popeye's chicken yoteir tov mi-schnitzel" ("Popeye's chicken is better than schnitzel").
This was my first time seeing Little Nicky since moving to New York 6 years ago, so I caught a lot of things that I missed the first time around. For example, the subway train that hits Nicky multiple times (in his travels between Earth and hell) is the K express. Now I understand that there is no K train. (The other letters not currently used in the subway system are H, I (for obvious reasons), O, P, T, U, X, and Y.)
So let's use the comment thread to think of analogous examples of nonexistent (but real-sounding) geographic features in New York or other real cities appearing in movies (or books, TV, etc.). The Royal Tenenbaums (another movie that I first saw in Israel -- the theater audience giggled at every mention of the bird named Mordechai -- and should really see again now that I'll get the New York references) is a gold mine, including the 375th Street Y (based on the 92nd Street Y; the highest numbered street in the Manhattan street grid is 263rd, and that's in the Bronx) and the Irving Island Ferry (based on the Staten Island Ferry; there is a real Irving Island, but it's off the coast of Antarctica).


text:
write( output=$stdout, indent=-1, trans=false, ie_hack=false )
Write the XML tree out, optionally with indent. This writes out the entire XML document, including XML declarations, doctype declarations, and processing instructions (if any are given).
A controversial point is whether Document should always write the XML declaration (<?xml version='1.0'?>) whether or not one is given by the user (or source document). REXML does not write one if one was not specified, because it adds unnecessary bandwidth to applications such as XML-RPC.
See also the classes in the rexml/formatters package for the proper way to change the default formatting of XML output
Document.new("").serialize output_string = "" tr = Transitive.new( output_string ) Document.new("").serialize( tr )
|output an object which supports '<< string'; this is where the
document will be written.
|An integer. If -1, no indenting will be used; otherwise, the indentation will be twice this number of spaces, and children will be indented an additional amount. For a value of 3, every item will be indented 3 more levels, or 6 more spaces (2 * 3). Defaults to -1
|If transitive is true and indent is >= 0, then the output will be pretty-printed in such a way that the added whitespace does not affect the absolute value of the document — that is, it leaves the value and number of Text nodes in the document unchanged.
|Internet Explorer is the worst piece of crap to have ever been written, with the possible exception of Windows itself. Since IE is unable to parse proper XML, we have to provide a hack to generate XML that IE's limited abilities can handle. This hack inserts a space before the /> on empty tags. Defaults to false
# File lib/rexml/document.rb, line 182 def write( output=$stdout, indent=-1, trans=false, ie_hack=false ) if xml_decl.encoding != "UTF-8" && !output.kind_of?(Output) output = Output.new( output, xml_decl.encoding ) end formatter = if indent > -1 if trans REXML::Formatters::Transitive.new( indent, ie_hack ) else REXML::Formatters::Pretty.new( indent, ie_hack ) end else REXML::Formatters::Default.new( ie_hack ) end formatter.write( self, output ) end


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Paul George Klebnikov
From WikiLeaks
Investigating illicit wealth in post-Soviet Russia.
The first editor of Forbes Russia, Klebnikov was murdered in Moscow on July 9, 2004. He was 41 years old. The son of Russian émigrés, he left behind a wife and three young children. Paul launched the magazine in April 2004 with a blockbuster issue that included the first-ever list of Russia's 100 richest people. The related story estimated their worth and investigated how it was acquired. Klebnikov won no friends by revealing what had long been hidden. His research into the activities and connections of one of Russia's most famous businessmen led to a book, Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia. A second book, Conversation with a Barbarian, focused on organized crime in Chechnya. In 2003, Paul completed a ground-breaking article, entitled "Millionaire Mullahs," which examined corruption among Iran's theocratic rulers.


text:
top of page
Fragrance has been a part of the history of the house of Hermès since the 1930s. In the library of Hermès perfumes, every creation tells a story, opens up an imaginary world. As both artisan and artist, Hermès demonstrates through its creations the excellence of its craftsmanship and style; audacious and harmonious, timeless and elegant.
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text: EXCLUSIVE Get ready to stir up some fun! Inspired by the popular cocktail, our stylishly sweet mix of roses, carnations and more always gets the party started. Designed by hand in an oversized margarita glass, this fun floral bouquet is a truly original way to make any hour Happy Hour.


text:
Bruceon June 2, 2012
Thanks for not only taking the time to pose for a shot but for your ongoing community service. Events like this are special for me since it's people like you that enjoy the gift of giving. Click on the slide show and please post your comments.
727.297.4108 firstname.lastname@example.com
All images are copyright ©


text:
TANIOBIS GmbH
The Company of JX Metals Corporation
We are pleased to inform that effective as of July 1st, 2018, TANIOBIS GmbH has transferred to the JX Nippon Mining & Metals Group.
JX Nippon Mining & Metals is a recognized global enterprise which operates as a subsidiary of JXTG Holdings, a Japanese petroleum and metals conglomerate and one of the most prominent and comprehensive energy, resources and materials company groups in Asia. (https://www.jx-nmm.com/english/)
This step is of strategic importance to TANIOBIS GmbH. As a wholly owned subsidiary of JX Nippon Mining & Metals we have access to the resources of the strong JX corporate network. We firmly believe that this will strengthen our business sustainability and boost the success of not only TANIOBIS GmbH, but also that of our business partners. Our company will continue to stand for high-quality production of high-performance tantalum and niobium powders and compounds. We are excited to have you join us as we take this path into the future. For our part, we are committed to be the supplier and business partner of choice for your demanding requirements.
About TANIOBIS GmbH
TANIOBIS GmbH converts metal ores and secondary materials into high-performance tantalum and niobium-based powders. Our company looks back at more than 50 years of experience in the development and manufacturing of high-performance metal powders for capacitors and for sputter targets; chemically highly pure oxides for the optical industry as well as other compounds such as chlorides, nickel niobium and oxalates. With one of the broadest tantalum product portfolio, we are one of the world's leading suppliers of tantalum and niobium powders for applications such as: capacitors, semiconducting materials, and SAW devices. A highly qualified team of employees in R&D and application engineering develops industry- and custom- specific tantalum and niobium powders for a wide range of solutions for advanced applications.


text:
Mark Wahlberg and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges have at least two things in common: They both got their start in the music industry, and they star together in Max Payne, a new action movie based on the popular vigilante videogame series. Wahlberg stars as the eponymous character, a grimly purposeful police detective seeking justice for the murders of his family and his former partner. In a much smaller role, Ludacris plays an Internal Affairs officer who's trying to stop him from bloody revenge. While in Chicago for the unveiling of three Max Payne-inspired graffiti murals, Wahlberg and Ludacris talked to The A.V. Club about the perils of making movies out of video games, getting past The Happening, and how to make the transition from the music industry to movies.
The A.V. Club: Movies based on videogames have a long history of being pretty bad. Where did they go wrong, and what convinced you that Max Payne would be different?
Mark Wahlberg: I don't know. I don't follow the history of movies that came from videogames. I read the script and I liked it. And then when I found out it was a videogame, I was like, "Wait a second here. What is the game?" Because I know about, like, Pac-Man. The only other game I played was SEGA Hockey, and I don't know if there's much of a story about that, either. But when I saw this, the story was extremely elaborate, and it's very cinematic in the way it plays out. So I thought, you know, I liked the character. I liked the story. That was more than enough for me.
AVC: Did you familiarize yourself with the game itself?
MW: Well yeah, I wanted to know how accurate it was. I didn't play it much myself, but my assistant played it every single day. He was completely addicted to it. I had to take it from him at the end of the shoot.
Ludacris: I played a little bit, but when I read the script, I was like, "Okay. They have the foundation in the videogame, but they're taking it to a whole other level." That's really why I loved the script and wanted to be part of the project.
MW: Can you tell me a little bit about the history of videogames in the movies?
L: Not successful. Not good.
AVC: There's been a million of them. Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Brothers, all those Uwe Boll films.
L: Lara Croft.
MW: Doom.
L: Street Fighter. Oh, man, that was definitely a bomb.
AVC: None of them work out.
L: Well it looks like we're going to change that.
AVC: The film is bound to draw a lot of comparisons to The Matrix and John Woo films. Do you welcome those comparisons? What sets this film apart?
MW: Originally, I think they took a lot of the bullet-time stuff that was done in Max Payne and used it in The Matrix. [Actually, The Matrix was released in 1999, so it predates the first Max Payne video game by two years. —ed.] I guess they were trying to make Max Payne for quite a while. I didn't find this out until after. A friend of mine, Brad Weston, who runs Paramount, was at Miramax, and they were trying to develop the project, and The Matrix came out with bullet-time first. So they really didn't know how to do it. But now, with new technology and what we were able to do with a thousand frames per second… We don't use much CGI in the movie aside from the demons and the explosion, which you can't do in downtown Toronto. Everything else was actually shot on film.
AVC: Mark, were you consciously looking for a role like this to follow up The Happening, which is a film where you're on the run most of the time?
MW: Yes. Definitely. Because I wanted to switch it up. I wanna do something different every time out. Even if you could say, "Well, there's some similarities to the Departed character or Four Brothers or Shooter," they're all different in different ways. But yeah, after being a science teacher and just kind of sitting there and saying [Adopts hushed tone.] "What's happening? I don't understand. What about the bees?" You know?
AVC: You can't combat the wind.
MW: It's nice to be proactive. Busting heads.
AVC: [To Ludacris.] What about yourself? How'd you get involved in this?
L: I read the script. I loved it. I went to audition for the part. It was actually written for a 60-year-old white man, so I was kind of hesitant. I didn't know if I was gonna get the part. And I got the call from the director, John Moore, saying I had it. Next thing you know, I was good. And when I knew I could point a gun at Mark Wahlberg, I was like, "Hell yeah. I'm down for the role."
AVC: Was that all that needed to be done? Did you study for the role at all? Follow a cop around?
L: This was the first time I've played a cop, and the first time I've been involved in any real action sequences in any movies that I've ever done. I was in 2 Fast 2 Furious, but I didn't really do much of the action. It was my first time. It was pretty much all I did. You tell me, when you saw the character, did you think it was supposed to be written for a 60-year-old white man?
AVC: No. Were you trying to play it like a 60-year-old white man?
L: Exactly. I was trying to play an asshole.
AVC: You talked a little about the look of the movie. Did you have an idea of what it was going to look like when you made it?
MW: I had a fairly good idea. I've been in enough movies to know that when you're on the set and you start shooting, you're looking at playback and you get a sense of what it's going to be like. I didn't know the demon aspect of it, the hallucinations, would play such a big part. It didn't really read that way in the script. But by the time I got to page 10 in the script, I was already in the headspace of the character. And as he was encountering all these people who were going through these hallucinations, he didn't buy any of it anyway. He just thought they were whacked-out and crazy 'cause they're on drugs.
AVC: How do you get into this character? He's lost his family and his partner. Did you have trouble getting into that headspace?
MW: No. I have three children now, and God forbid something ever happened to my kids. That's all I have to think about. "Something horrible happened to my family. Go bananas."
AVC: Both of you came into acting from the music business. Was there a big learning curve involved in making that transition?
L: I think it's a pretty easy transition, and a great transition. Just because we're so comfortable in front of the camera doing music videos, and it's almost a form of acting when we're doing music videos. We're acting out our own thoughts and what we've written down on paper. So to me, it was just the next big step, just being comfortable in front of the camera, knowing that we have to embody a certain character that we created on our own, so now let's see if we can embody another character.
MW: Well every moment, every project is different. I took a very slow approach to acting, trying to really work with people I could learn from. And I got something different out of each experience.
AVC: Do you have a philosophy for how you go about choosing roles? Are you looking to the filmmakers?
MW: Early on, it was all about the filmmaker. I would do a movie that I didn't necessarily think would be something I would go and see just to get the opportunity to work with a great director. And then when I got to the point where I felt confident in my abilities and I didn't have to rely on having an acclaimed filmmaker, then I started being selfish and choosing films based on the roles and films that I thought people would want to see me in. Because when you go into a starring position and you're carrying a movie, it's important that people like it. And I only do things that I can connect with in some sort of way, or that I can identify with.
AVC: Do you see yourself wanting to be front and center all of the time?
MW: No, not necessarily. It depends on the script, the role. Script, role, filmmaker, cast. Supporting roles, small roles, leading roles… It just depends. And you try to balance out things that are going to be more commercially successful with things that are going to be more artistic.
L: Exactly. Which is why RocknRolla [a Guy Ritchie film in which Ludacris has a supporting role] comes out this month also. That's the artistic one, for sure.
AVC: Coming from music, you both also know how to cultivate a fan base. Is that important in movies as well? Do fans expect certain things from you?
L: Absolutely. Your fans, they count on you to make wise decisions and wise choices. That's why they're your fan base. If you continually let them down, they're going to go find someone else to be fans of.
MW: And there's people that will want to see you in certain things and won't want to see you in other things. I think I've been able to… I haven't done a broad comedy yet, but I've dabbled in comedic things. I never want to be told, "Hey, this is what you do, this is what you do best, and this is the only thing you're going to do." And there are other people that are, you know, put into that box. Or unable to navigate through all the different genres. Some people insist on being a tough guy even though it's not happening. People only want to see them in leading romantic roles. Yet they continue to try and force something that doesn't feel organic to people.
AVC: Do you ever get offered roles and think, "People who know me, that's not really the sort of thing they expect for me or want for me"? Do you ever feel boxed in by their expectations?
L: That's the exact reason why I try and take a different approach, and try to take roles that are different from the previous one. Sometimes I read stuff and I say, "Maybe this isn't for me just yet." Because I'm gradually trying to make the step forward and learn as much as I can before I take that starring role. So we turn down stuff all the time. I have in my head what I want to do next, and when I read it, I'm like "That's it."
AVC: [To Ludacris.] Are you looking to strike a balance between music and film? Or are you going to be more aggressive in going after film roles?
L: Oh, right now, it's definitely about the balance. Because I still have a lot of music to get out. I actually have an album coming out November 25. Theater Of The Mind is the name of it. So I'm balancing both out right now—life is all about balance.
AVC: It's become very hard for musicians to make money in the record industry, and especially hard in the last year or two for hip-hop artists. How are you dealing with that?
L: I deal with it because I'm pretty okay financially. So I don't necessarily do anything just for the money. I do it for the passion and I do it for the love, because I'm still hungry. So if I want to do music, it's not necessarily motivated because of monetary value. Of course I have bills to pay, but at the same time, it's more about the passion and the love, and I think that's where music should come from, the heart, not necessarily just to cash a check.
AVC: What can people expect from the new record?
L: It's funny, because I've been doing so many movies, it's very related to cinematography and theatrics and all these different things. That's why I call it Theater Of The Mind, because the best way to explain it is that every song is kind of like a movie. For instance, I have a song called "Do The Right Thing" with Spike Lee talking on it. And I have a song called "Undisputed" with Floyd Mayweather on it, and it's like I'm in a boxing ring, being very competitive. So every song has a certain cinematic theme to it.
AVC: What's next for you? What are you working on now?
MW: I'm trying to figure that out. I've got a lot of stuff going on in TV that I'm producing. Trying to figure out what the next movie is going to be. I've been training to do Fighter for quite some time now, and hopefully that'll come together some time next year, and maybe do something before that.
AVC: What does that involve, the training?
MW: Getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning every day and going to the gym for two hours. Doing it all. Sparring, running, rope, net work, everything. I gotta play a guy who won the world welterweight title, so I've gotta look like—you know. [Points to arm.]
AVC: Entourage just got another renewal. How involved are you in that show at this point? How much input do you have?
MW: Well, they're kind of at a crossroads on that show, because this season has been so amazing. They've taken Vince down so far. Doug [Ellin] is calling me, asking me what's going on in my life, what I think he should do. But it was basically just getting the right people and the right pieces of the puzzle together and then allowing them do their thing. You've got really talented guys. So any time people are getting out of hand, or I've gotta put out some fires, or pull some strings to get someone to appear… Just when they need me, I'm in the bullpen. But shit, if I've gotta do everybody's job, what the fuck are they getting paid for?


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Horse | NOTI | by Szymon Brodziak
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The Secret Beyond Matter
Every corner of the universe abounds with manifestations of the unequalled creative artistry of our Almighty Allah. Everywhere we look reflects Allah's eternal might and grandeur. The blessings Allah bestows upon mankind are uncountable. Our Lord revealed this truth in the Quran:
If you tried to number Allah's blessings, you could never count them. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nahl, 18)
The truth is that, it is too easy for Allah to create. This is stated in a verse:
The Originator of the Heavens and Earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, 'Be!' and it is. (Surat al-Baqara, 117)
Our All-Mighty Allah, Who is exalted above anything, has the might to create anything whenever He wants. It is extremely easy for Him to create the precise balances that exist on the Earth such as Milky Way, Solar System, countless cosmic laws, physical values and measures surrounding the Earth. Allah is the Creator of the uncountable factors from the heat that Sun radiates to the velocity of the expansion of the Universe, from the fluidity of the water to the position of the Earth in the Milky Way, from the distance between the Moon and the Earth to the ratio of the gases in the atmosphere. Allah stated that it is easy for Him to create. This is related in the verse as follows:
Have they not seen how Allah brings creation out of nothing, then reproduces it? That is easy for Allah. (Surah al-Ankabut, 19)
When we consider that Allah creates everything He wishes whenever He wants at anytime with flawless artistry, we can better understand that Allah creates everything that befalls man with divine wisdom. Indeed, in everything that happens there is absolutely Allah's providence, a destiny He determined, a goodness and purpose. Nothing ever happens by itself and without a purpose. Even the slightest details like the fall of a leaf occurs within Allah's knowledge, as a sign of His perfect artistry, with goodness and purpose.
The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the earth, and nothing moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat al-An'am, 59)
Therefore many incidents that can be considered as a deficiency were actually created within a destiny for goodness and purpose and again displays the endless creative might and artistry of Allah. There are purposes for human beings in being mortal, vulnerable to tiniest microbes and having been created as a being that has many flaws which is in need of food and sleep. Thus, a man who is able to think rationally can easily understand that the life of this world is temporary and deficient. Therefore he does not feel attached to this world and turns to the Hereafter. Besides he can figure out how a helpless being he is and appreciate Allah's grandeur much better.
It is apparent that if He willed, Allah, Who has the might to do anything, would not create this world as a deficient place. But being a place of trial, the world is created specially with flaws. For instance, hunger is a feeling specially created by Allah. No doubt, if Allah willed, there would not be such a concept. But actually hunger is specially created to put man to test and separate believers from unbelievers, the ones who persevere and submit to Allah from those who rebel against Allah. As a result of all this test, it makes Muslims attain rewards. As revealed in this example, there are many special divine purposes in all the other details that seem to be deficiencies.
In line of this thought, we can easily grasp that the concept of "famine" was also created with a special purpose. All the famines that occurred throughout history had some purposes. Allah draws attention to what some of these purposes might be as follows:
Allah makes an example of a city which was safe and at peace, its provision coming to it plentifully from every side. Then it showed ingratitude for Allah's blessings so Allah made it wear the robes of hunger and fear for what it did. A Messenger from among them came to them but they denied him. So the punishment seized them and they were wrongdoers. (Surah an-Nahl, 112-113)
As is known, prophets are the blessed individuals that Allah created to guide people to the right path. There are many special purposes in the events that take place in a community following their turning away from a messenger who calls them to have faith in Allah. In the Qur'an, Allah expounds the situation of those communities in the past who turned away after a warning came to them. Indeed, in the verses above, Allah relates the story of a community which lived in abundance and peace but was struck by famine due to their ingratitude to Allah.
In the Surah Yusuf, there is also reference to a community which was struck by famine. As a punishment or a warning of Allah, this famine might have befallen to that community due to the injustice done to the Prophet Yusuf (as) by the prominent people of that community. Allah knows the truth.
The age in which we live is a special period all believers have been waiting for 1400 years. It is a period with historical importance during which Hazrat Mahdi (as) will start to spread Allah's light all over the world and Prophet Jesus (as) will return to the Earth. These events are heralded by our Prophet (saas). In this distinctive period unprecedented events have successively occurred and continue to occur.
As can be seen in many examples in the Qur'an, afflictions may unexpectedly come to those people who turn away from Allah's warnings, from unrecognized directions. As one would notice, in our day people are stuck in many troubles that they have no idea how they get into. Lack of sincerity and intimacy among people, inability to take pleasure from beauties, unhappiness, constant depression have become the afflictions they can not evade. Turning away from Allah's religion and the morality of the Qur'an and their attachment to this temporary life of this world rather than turning to the Hereafter cause them to lead miserable lives. This is in fact a hidden type of affliction they never calculated. Having indulged themselves into the worldly interests and forgetting their duties as a servant of Allah make them encounter afflictions they have never expected. As they chase more after the worldly values, the world leaves them more rapidly and they get into the downward spiral of lovelessness, insincerity and psychological diseases. As a result they lose their physical strength and age in a short time. However this age of Hazrat Mahdi (as) is a period when people all over the world are openly called to fulfill their duties as servants to Allah. Through various means humanity is constantly warned by Allah's verses and signs. A person who is knowledgeable about the Qur'an easily recognizes that people who turn away from faith are first reciprocated by loss of love and sensitivity towards beauties and failure to attain real happiness. The economic crisis occurring in our day sets an example for it. So much so that people have encountered a trouble enclosing the entire world in a single day. Allah knows the truth.


text:
Библиотека сайта rus-linux.net
6.1. Introduction
In this chapter, we enter the building site and start constructing the LFS system in earnest. That is, we chroot into the temporary mini Linux system, make a few final preparations, and then begin installing the packages.
The installation of this software is straightforward. Although in many cases the installation instructions could be made shorter and more generic, we have opted to provide the full instructions for every package to minimize the possibilities for mistakes. The key to learning what makes a Linux system work is to know what each package is used for and why you (or the system) may need it.
We do not recommend using optimizations. They can make a program run
slightly faster, but they may also cause compilation difficulties and
problems when running the program. If a package refuses to compile
when using optimization, try to compile it without optimization and
see if that fixes the problem. Even if the package does compile when
using optimization, there is the risk it may have been compiled
incorrectly because of the complex interactions between the code and
build tools. Also note that the
-mtune options using values not
specified in the book have not been tested. This may cause problems
with the toolchain packages (Binutils, GCC and Glibc). The small
potential gains achieved in using compiler optimizations are often
outweighed by the risks. First-time builders of LFS are encouraged to
build without custom optimizations. The subsequent system will still
run very fast and be stable at the same time.
The order that packages are installed in this chapter needs to be
strictly followed to ensure that no program accidentally acquires a
path referring to
/tools hard-wired
into it. For the same reason, do not compile separate packages in
parallel. Compiling in parallel may save time (especially on dual-CPU
machines), but it could result in a program containing a hard-wired
path to
/tools, which will cause the
program to stop working when that directory is removed.
Before the installation instructions, each installation page provides information about the package, including a concise description of what it contains, approximately how long it will take to build, and how much disk space is required during this building process. Following the installation instructions, there is a list of programs and libraries (along with brief descriptions of these) that the package installs.
The SBU values and required disk space includes test suite data for all applicable packages in Chapter 6.


text:
The Digital Aquatics temp probe is used with all Digital Aquatics controllers as well as modules. It currently comes in two styles, one with an RJ-11 connection and the other with a Molex connection. The different probe styles function with different system components. Please check to make sure you're purchasing the correct probe when adding one to your system.
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A new joint WMO/World Bank commitment was announced with the creation of an Alliance for Hydromet Development aimed at boosting climate and weather science and information for a resilient world. The initiative was announced on 12 October at an event on "Investing in a Climate Adapted World" held during the 2018 International Monetary Fund/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia.
WMO has joined the global commitment to reduce deaths due to air pollution by two thirds by 2030. At the First World Health Organization (WHO) Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, held in Geneva from 30 October to 1 November, WMO pledged to improve the quality and availability of pollution observations, enable provision of air quality forecasts and advisory services, and incorporate health impacts in key scientific assessments on climate and climate change.
WMO, together with the Government of Germany and the Geneva Water Hub, held a Mobilization for Water Data and Peace event on 27 November. Representatives from the Permanent Missions in Geneva attended to help advance the water data and peace agenda for sustainable development and to advocate for easily accessible and reliable water data to inform policy and decision-making in their national governments.


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|Course Code
|Andrew Hitchcock
|Course Dates
|Saturdays, 23rd September - 9th December 2023
|2.00pm – 4.30pm
|Experience Level
|Art Academy London, 165A Mermaid Court, SE1 1HR
This is a well structured course giving students opportunity to understand how to paint a portrait. The emphasis will be on learning to see form and colour accurately and using these skills to better create loose, expressive portraits. Working with oil paints students will develop a series of artworks, from short expressive painting sketches, to longer more detailed pieces. The class has the benefit of 1:8 model to student ratio, as well as tuition from a talented professional artist.
What level is this course?
This course is suitable for students at our Beginner + level.
Beginner +
Choose a Beginner + course if you are looking to hone your skills, focus on a specific subject area and build your confidence. These courses are suitable for those with some basic skills in and knowledge of the taught medium, but still follow a structured path with guidance from the tutor.
Other course levels include:
Choose a Beginners course if you are looking for a broad introduction to the medium you are studying. Students spend time learning the very basics of the taught medium, for example, how to mix colours, use different tools, set up an easel. Our Beginner courses are suitable for students with no prior experience, they tend to follow a more structured path than our other courses, ensuring each student receives the guidance they need from the tutor.
Our Intermediate courses are suitable for students who have considerable prior knowledge of the taught medium or have completed a Beginners/Beginners + course with the Art Academy.
These courses tend to be less structured and instead are tailored to the classes' needs and the direction they want to advance in. Choose an Intermediate course if you are looking to improve your skills and have more critical discussions around the work you produce.
Choose our Advanced courses if you have considerable knowledge in the taught medium. You are expected to be able to work independently and have critical discussions around your work.
Our Advanced courses include our Masterclasses.
All attendees must be aged 18 or over.
What should I bring?
You will need to bring your own painting materials to the class, which you can store at The Art Academy for the duration of the course. If you do not have your own materials, we recommend you order the Painting Pack below, at the time of booking, which will be available when you arrive for your first class. There is also a mini shop in the Academy that supplies the basics such as canvas boards, paints, Zest-it etc. (card purchases only).
The Academy is a white spirit and turpentine free environment and only odourless spirits, such as Zest-it or Sansodor, are permitted on the premises. These can also be recycled on site. If you are using oil paints you must bring 1 small jar with a lid to hold your solvent as this should be reused each week. If you want to dispose of your solvent please speak to your tutor as these cannot be poured down the sink and must be disposed of correctly.
Please also bring an apron or old clothing to wear.
The Oil Pack contains:
A set of bristle brushes, both flat and round
One tear off palette (9"x12")
One palette knife
One bottle of Zest-it (250ml)
One 10″x12″ canvas board
One 10″x14″ canvas board
Two 12″x16″ canvas boards
Eight Daler Rowney 38ml Georgian oil tubes of Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Blue, Coeruleum Blue and Burnt Umber
Please be aware that depending on the course structure, you might need to purchase extra canvas boards, on top of the ones provided in the pack.
Please note that pack contents are subject to change at the discretion of the Academy at any time.
About Your Tutor
Andrew (born 1983) studied Drawing and Painting at the London Atelier of Representational Art. He has had work exhibited in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Pastel Society, the ROI, the NEAC, the Lynn Painter-stainers and the RBA when he won the Gordon Hulson Memorial Prize. Working entirely from observation and imagination, draughtsmanship and Impressionism are at the centre of his artistic expression. A variety of different paint applications with brushes, painting knives and fingers are made use of in an exploration of the observed and experienced world.
Mermaid Court
165A Borough High Street
London SE1 1HR
tel: +44 (0) 207407 6969
Nearest Tube/ Rail: London Bridge or Borough (both a 5 minute walk).
Please note that London Bridge has two exits, the most direct route is to follow signs to "Borough High Street".
Refreshments and Facilities
You are welcome to use our Common Room/ The Barn during break times, where you can prepare hot drinks and/or food.
Students will also be able to use the coffee machine, where free hot water, and paid-for hot drinks are available.
Students are encouraged to bring their own reusable mugs and water bottles where possible.
Further Details
- You will need to have paid in full before the first session of your class. Your place is not guaranteed until we have received full payment. Please book early in order to guarantee your place on the course.
- If you purchased a pack online this will be given to you on the first session of your course upon your arrival. Packs can be purchased on our Materials Page or on the individual course page when you make your booking.
- Please don't wear your best clothes as there is always a chance you will get messy. If possible bring an apron or overalls.
- All artwork MUST be taken home at the end of the course or it will be disposed of. Paintings that need to dry should be collected within a week. For clay sculptures that need hollowing and firing, you will receive a separate email when they can be collected.
- Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off or is on silent during the class.
- Health and Safety Guidelines will be provided to you at the beginning of your class.
- Sometimes our photographer will pop in to get some images of our classes in progress. We will typically inform you beforehand if photography is taking place during your class; if you do not want to be photographed please let the photographer know!
- To find out more about what's going on at the Academy follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. If you'd like to share images of your course, your progress or your finished work we'd love to see them! Please bear in mind you must have the permission of tutors, other students and models to photograph them.
- If you would like more information or advice on courses at the Academy please contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
- For further details please see our Short Courses: Regulations & Policies page.
Image / Andrew Hitchcock
"The teacher was very helpful and interested!"