text:
Hey, so I take my cat for walks. Not on a leash. I just leave the yard and head out into the long grass that surrounds it, and he takes off. He sticks pretty close, except for when we get too close to a tree, and then he promptly scampers up it, ears back, a hint of the maniacal to his head whipping left and right, eyes round, tail twitching.
Category Archives: Literature
Teaching Criticism
This post attempts to puzzle through the impulse to critique and criticize in literary studies; in particular, it considers a grad-student culture of shame via the newly-created tumblr "englishgradstudentshaming." What happens when grad students and instructors feel like they "can't say anything nice about books anymore"?
Monsters in Literature
Last week, I asked, "Is it the instructor's job to disabuse students of their woeful misconceptions of what literature does?" I might broaden the scope of the question and ask if it applies to any class. Certainly profs and instructors must challenge students, and hopefully all teachers will facilitate flashes of insight in their students that crack open the subject matter with the joy and anticipation you might bring to a hungry assault on a Christmas filbert. But should we seek to convince students that personal, emotional, or so-called trivial approaches to a subject are wrong? Unscientific? Shallow?
I don't know. But I appreciate Deborah Britzman's thoughts on the subject: she baldly calls this desire to control student response to a curriculum monstrous. And, according to Britzman, all teachers have something of the monster about them.
I want to let Deborah speak for herself on this one. She's got this elliptical way of writing that is confusing, sometimes even grammatically off (she particularly favours comma splices), which leaves gaps in meaning for her readers to ponder. This impressionistic style likely comes out of her background in psychoanalysis: her writing refuses tight linearity and strict logic as if it were anathema to true meaning-making. So, yes, her writing can be frustrating. It can feel like she's being deliberately unclear, even lazily non-specific, but those gaps in meaning, those elliptical gestures to a not-quite-said something have the uncanny ability to create moments of deep insight in her readers. She allows her readers to fill in the gaps with their own knowledge; we make meaning right alongside her.
So, as a Christmas gift to you, and by way of "farewell, until next time"–next time being the new year, when I return to Dry-Erase after the holidays– I give you your very own pedagogical Christmas filbert to crack open:
The Monstrous in Teaching
from Novel Education: Pyschoanalytic Studies of Learning and Not Learning, by Deborah P. Britzman, p. 114-117.
"I wished the course title "Monsters in Literature" would convey, in miniature, the whole story of what students could expect to learn. I would present to the class, whom I had never met, a series of literary monsters that would lead them by the hand to critique the monstrous in real life. The course title, so I thought, was a shortcut, a pedagogical telegraph, perhaps even a wish for pedagogical telepathy…. In sequence, the curriculum began with the fantastic, but in my head these actual monsters would only set the stage for encountering something terribly real and literally terrible: the inhumanity of the state apparatus, class inequality, racism, and genocide.
Admittedly, this was a very depressing curriculum, one that I would meet again and again throughout the course of my teaching career. Little did I know how depressed it would make me. Only much later would I learn to become more attuned to the students' complaints, my own depression and even my role in their discomfort. When I began teaching, however, my rationalization for trading in such affect, [was] replacing their denial of false consciousness with my depressing truth…. My ignorance was performed through a pedagogy that tried to insist that works of art are communications to be received and corrections to be made. It took me many years to see in this wish something manic, a teacher's defense against encountering both the literary and its excess and the students, all of whom had their own minds. The manic defense was a symptom of a kernel of the monstrous in my own teaching. ….
The idea that everything was political crowded my centre stage. I used literary monsters to convey the truth. And because there was a truth, it never occurred to me that there would be an argument with students…. They were adverse to using these creatures as a means to critique their society and to accepting my demand that everything, including the monster, is political. Simply put, they wanted to play, escape, and enjoy. ….
For the twenty-year-old that I once was, these psychological questions of significance and relation…–what it means to become human with other humans in the classroom–could not be recognized as the question par excellence. ….
After distributing Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, I worried that the novel was too difficult. I could not read the book through their eyes and, when preparing for the week's lesson, my misreading of their abilities and interests persisted. Stevenson's novel was to begin our social inquiry. Looking back, I realize that I must have thrown it in the curriculum only because there was an actual monster to encounter, only because there was some guilt with my false advertisement. And in that sense, I was right. After all, the course was called Monsters in Literature and not The Political in Literature and once I met the actual students, it dawned on me, in spite of my best defenses, that the students signed up for the Monsters part, not the literature.
The weekend before our discussion of the novel's beginning, I panicked, imagining the students would hate it and would never be able to read it. I worried they would hate me as well…. Yet there the students were that Monday morning. And, too, there was a sheepish student teacher to be greeted by their enthusiasm over the novel. In this difference between what I imagined and what occurred, the students began to be real because I could take no credit for their existence. …. And no matter how difficult the prose, how archaic the English, they read on, enjoying the suspense, identifying with what was monstrous in themselves and others, but not because they needed to change the world. Just the opposite, they wanted the world to take them in. Essentially, and like Shelley's Frankenstein, they wanted to be recognized, even adored, for all their foibles, phantasies, and desires."
Merry Christmas!
"Book Club" Ain't in the Course Description
"I realize that I must have thrown [Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde] into the curriculum only because there was an actual monster to encounter, only because there was some guilt with my false advertisement. And in that sense, I was right. After all, the course was called Monsters in Literature and not The Political in Literature and once I met the actual students, it dawned on me, in spite of my defenses, that the students signed up for the Monster part, not the literature."
–Deborah P. Britzman, Novel Education, 116
The quandary Britzman describes above will sound familiar to many literary scholars. It will likely ring true to teachers in any field where "reading against the grain" is an accepted methodological practice, from History to Anthropology to Sociology. I think, though, that instances of what might be called "false advertising" are particularly pronounced in the teaching of English Literature, not because English profs are dishonest, or because students today are woefully naive, but because in the field of literary studies, there is a great deal of anxiety about the role of fiction studies in Higher Education and, subsequently, a lurking desire to escape fiction, aesthetics, and literature itself. Or, at the very least, a desire to distance the study of English Literature from the much-maligned book club.
A Crisis in Literary Studies
Albert Braz's recent article, "In Praise of Literature," claims that "It is hard for anyone actively involved in the life of an English department in the last few decades not to notice the way English professors have become ambivalent about our ostensible raison d'être. Whenever one discusses the future of the discipline, it soon becomes apparent that most people feel that if it can be saved at all it will be by embracing some related field, such as film studies, cultural studies or that academic catch-all that goes by the name of theory –anything but literature" (University Affairs, 1 Nov 2012).
"This jeremiad is neither accurate nor new" is Terry Goldie's response to Braz, and he's right: Braz's concern for "the seemingly permanent crisis in literary studies" (Braz) is not new. It betrays a nostalgia for a golden age in literature that perhaps never existed. And yet, I agree with Braz, or at the very least I agree with his suggestion that "the most striking aspect of… "the Age of the Critic" is its antagonism toward the literary imagination." Braz takes up Paul A. Cantor's description of the twentieth-century as the Age of the Critic and applies it to the early twenty-first century; in so doing he points to the centrality that literary scholars have ascribed to criticism–to being critical–in literary studies today. What Braz calls "the literary imagination"–by this, I take him to mean "creative imagination"–gets pushed aside in the scholar's scramble to deconstruct the text. In literary studies, it seems difficult to talk about whether one likes a work of art or not in certain streams of literary studies. It seems increasingly difficult to ask why some works of art appeal, and others don't. In literary studies today, questions of aesthetics seem dangerously uncritical, and so, too, do questions about reader responses, and finally, what art might have to say about what it means to be human.
But, is this not what students "get" when they read literature for an English Lit. class, at least in part? Perhaps this is even what they are looking for when they enroll in literature courses. Is it the instructor's job to disabuse students of their woeful misconceptions of what literature does?
I ask these questions because they are questions I have badly needed to ask myself. Deborah Britzman, whom I quoted at the beginning of this post, returns to her first experience teaching English–at the age of twenty, to a ninth-grade English class–to describe how, at the time, "[t]he idea that everything was political crowded [her] centre stage" (115). I appreciate her word choice. Her older, more experienced self does not refuse or undermine her youthful belief that "everything is political"; instead, she explains that this concern crowded out other concerns. In a way, the question, "How is this political?" blinded her to other questions literature compels readers to ask. For the younger Britzman, literature and the human, personal response it compels from readers was secondary; the politics "behind" it: "truth," and this zealous investment in criticism ultimately blinded her to the people in the classroom. "Students were missing," she writes, "as was the teacher" (114). In other words, she overlooked "what it means to become human with other humans in the classroom" (116). This is what Britzman calls "the literary and its excess" (115)– the excessive in literature, or what ideologies, ways of thinking, or even scholarly methodologies cannot account for or speak to in literature. Fiction is excessive; it speaks to things that cannot quite be said. It gestures. It creates anew with metaphor in an attempt to take readers off the beaten track, to see things, suddenly, a little askew, to give a feeling of something else. And this newness, this sideways glance out of the corners of the literary eye, can be terrifying, nauseating, and disturbing, for sure, but it may also be joyful, hopeful, self-affirming, calming, and downright pleasurable.
Critical Creativity
I can look back and see a younger version of myself doing the same things that Britzman recalls in her anecdote. I can clearly remember–and I'm sure, so can many of my friends and colleagues, probably with a cringe–a younger, haughtier version of myself dissatisfied with students who confused my tutorials for a book club. In my mind, they weren't doing literature right. I knew how to do it; they didn't. Over time, though, as I increasingly become aware of and gain respect for students not as students, but as human beings, I have also come to deeply respect the variegated approaches to literature they bring to the classroom. And not just to literature, but to theory, to politics, and to how all three are articulated in their daily lives. Not only that, I have also come to value the creative, productive side of literature–you know, the writing process that results in the stuff we get paid to teach, and, too, the writers that produce the works we read. I've come to value creativity, experimentation, storytelling, self-expression, belief & faith in a new way; I've come to value creativity just as much as criticality.
Last week, Joseph Frank, author of the blog Verba Americana, commented on the photosponse as a mode of "critical creativity." My still perhaps over-zealous grad-student self wants to translate that to, "creative criticality." (Yes, Joe is rolling his eyes as he reads this). Regardless, Joe has captured a fullness of meaning in that term that the more commonly-used, and more mechanistic, scientific or even mercenary phrase "active learning" can communicate. In the scholarship of teaching and learning, active learning is associated with measurable student success, "deep" learning, and the lowering of student "attrition" (or drop-out) rates. Thinking about active learning as a form of critical creativity has the potential to move active learning away from an ends-oriented teaching tool to an open-ended, student-driven mode of inquiry.
Works Cited
Braz, Albert. "In Praise of Literature." University Affairs. 1 Nov. 2012. Online.
Britzman, Deborah P. Novel Education: Psychoanalytic Studies of Learning and Not Learning. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2006. Print.
Cantor, Paul A. "The Primacy of the Literary Imagination, Or Which Came First, The Critic of the Author?" Literary Imagination 1.1 (Spring 1999): n. page. Online.
The Photosponse
Oh joy of joys, today I came across a wondrous thing: a public exhibition showing just how incredibly engaging and productive creative response assignments can be in higher ed. Please, please check out Photosponse, English 365: Photographic Responses to 18th-century Texts. Photosponse, English 365 is a portion of a private class blog made public because, as the "About" page states, the student artwork is "just too good." I swear, people, the proof is in the pudding, and this pudding is delicious. Creative assignments, especially ones that ask for some sort of critical reflection to accompany them, work.
The Letting-of-Words-and-Thoughts-Hang-in-the-Air
Or, the Art of Storytelling…
I'm all over "fluff" lately. Some might call it "pulp." Others, "crap." My partner might describe it as "sh*t spray." Although admittedly this last descriptor would likely arise more out of a commitment to seize any chance at scatological one-up-man-ship than out of any real feeling of judgement or criticism.
I am talking here about genre fiction. I've been asking myself these past few months: why genre fiction? Why am I suddenly so absorbed by fantasy, romantic fantasy, post-apocalyptic narratives and post-human science fictions? And why do I get so bloody riled up every time some "respected" author approaches the genre and ruins it entirely with postmodern disruptions of plot, conventions and credibility?
At the same time that I really started getting into these particular genres I was also thinking about why I liked listening to stories so much. A well-told story is pure magic. A well-told story just feels so good. It is sensational. I mean, I sense it; it is a bodily thing. Perhaps because it is intimate; listening to a good storyteller, you're drawn right in.
Am I just tired of the novel–of the literary novel, that is? Of the internal monologues and endless recycling of narratives of personal growth and enlightenment? Yes yes yes yes, frick yes,I am tired of this perpetual telling of the inner life of the modern individual.
But that's not the whole story. I have this feeling, this gut feeling, you see, that genre fiction is a lot like oral storytelling. Both are bound strictly, in many ways, by convention. This isn't some surface or formal resemblance. Generic conventions set up a sort of covenant between speaker and listener, text and reader. The reader of genre fiction anticipates while she reads based on this generic covenant, or contract. This anticipation is a sort of foreknowledge. She is writing the story before and as it develops; she is participating in the articulation of knowledge before the text can even articulate it. And so it goes with listening. With listening we try to anticipate where a speaker will lead us; with oral storytelling, the storyteller uses devices with which we are familiar to allow us to attempt this anticipation, to feel as though we are a part of the meaning-making process as it unfolds.
Oral storytelling is often described as dialogic; that is, it is supposed to open up a sort of dialogue between storyteller and listener. Sometimes, this is because storytellers use devices that call on the listener to actively participate. These devices might be as simple as silence; or, to give this practice its proper due, we might better describe it as the letting of words and thoughts hang in the air. Silence tends to be taken to mean absence, end, closure or lack. The letting-of-words-and-thoughts-hang-in-the-air is something different all together; it denotes a fullness and a loitering of meaning. It allows the space and the time for listeners to respond, either inwardly to themselves or outwardly to the storyteller, via audible or visible gestures. Call-and-response is of course another, well-known oral storytelling, dialogic device.
The thing I never really got before about listening to oral stories is that this dialogic or participatory function is not merely geared toward entertainment. When you listen to a story and it feels like magic it is because you feel at once like worlds and meanings are appearing, like magic, out of the fabric of someone else's voice, but also like you are there, somehow, part of that creative act. Yes, I get that this happens with written literature as well, and the big-L "Literature" I lambasted. But a well-told oral story has the power to make you feel intimately tied to its creator and to the act of its creation in a way that reading can't. Except maybe for the Choose Your Own Adventure series.
Perhaps you can guess now why I'm rambling on about genre fiction, oral storytelling and generic conventions in a blog that's supposed to be about teaching and learning: because bringing learners into the process of knowledge production is key to deep learning, authentic learning, or whatever it is you want to call it.
If this were a didactic story, I would leave you here with a few lessons. I would explain to you precisely how we can learn from oral storytelling as teachers and learners. And I've gotta yell you: I am a teacher (sort of), and I write about teaching (kind of), so the keen desire to tell you WHAT IT ALL MEANS is damn difficult to ignore.
But ignore it I will. I'll let the words loiter, here, on the page … at least I will, once I say just one … or two … more things. Or, in fact, once I invite a few others to say a few things.
Kimberly M. Blaeser, in her work on contemporary Indigenous literatures in North America, writes that "Native authors… attempt to encourage a response-able way of reading" (qtd. in Neuhaus 12). J. Edward Chamberlin, in an essay on oral storytelling called "Boasting, Toasting and Truthtelling," claims that "It is style that certifies truth–not the subject or the sincerity of the speaker, except insofar as that sincerity is an element of style, as spontaneity might also be" (39). And Chamberlin, when paraphrasing classicist Milman Perry, adds this: "style, not language, constitutes thought in oral performance" (39).
Is your teaching "response-able"?
Is performance a part of your pedagogical lexicon?
Does the spell of style disperse with the end of the performance?
Does performance obfuscate real meaning?
Do you like how I've included gaps between these questions as though giving you the opportunity to respond?
Do you?
Works Cited
Blaeser, Kimberly M. "Writing Voices Speaking: Native Authors and an Oral Aesthetic." Talking on the Page: Editing Aboriginal Oral Texts. Eds. Laura J. Murray and Keren Rice. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1999. Print.
Chamberlin, J. Edward. "Boasting, Toasting, and Truthtelling." Orality and Literacy: Reflections Across Disciplines. Eds. Keith Thor Carlson, Kristina Fagan, and Natalia Khanenko-Friesen. Toronto: U of T Press, 2011. 21-42. Print.
Neuhaus, Mereike. That's Raven Talk: Holophrastic Readings of Contemporary Indigenous Literatures. Regina: CPRC Press, 2011. Print.
Mapping Kinship
Perhaps you have noticed a trend here at Dry–Erase Writings–a multi-coloured, infantile trend (see previous posts involving colour & drawing here and here). Today I'd like to continue that trend by sharing with you yet another way you might introduce pencil crayons & drawing to your classrooms.
Have you ever considered having your students draw kinship maps?
Kinship maps are interesting from a teaching perspective for many reasons:
1. They can translate textual narratives into visual, spatial ones, and therefore provide another way of knowing a text, concept or history.
2. They can function as time-keeping devices, like a timeline might. But unlike timelines, kinship maps can translate linear time into something more complex. They can translate a linear history into something multi-directional.
3. Like any map, kinship maps are good mnemonic devices. They help you remember sh–, er, I mean stuff. And the relationship between stuff.
Asking students to draw their own kinship maps makes active all of these important processes. Drawing a kinship map in class might facilitate the analysis of a narrative, the recording and interpreting of a particular history, and the memorization and comprehension of how different concepts, moments, people, etc. relate to one another.
Beyond Pretty Colours
But kinship maps are also interesting teaching tools because they represent a particular way of knowing, and a particular methodology. And, both are tied to a particular history: to European history and, as we shall see, especially to European colonial history.
Consider this: the ubiquitous family tree found at the beginning of many a memoir or available to any with the inclination and the money at genealogy.com has its own particularly European family history. In her article, "Family Trees and Their Affinities," anthropologist Mary Bouquet shows that the genealogical maps with which we are familiar today–picture here a simple graph in the shape of a tree, or perhaps in the shape of an upside-down tree–have their roots in Judeo-Christian family trees that recorded and regulated lineage, reproduction and the inheritance of property. These semi-sacred, semi-regulatory roots later branched in the nineteenth century into the sciences: into philology (the study of the history of languages) and evolutionary theory. From the sacred domain of the Church, then, to the no-less sacred domain of Science, and from a concern with class pedigree to a concern with biological heredity, genealogy carries a lot of baggage. Add to this their more recent use in anthropology at the turn of the twentieth century, when anthropologists relied heavily on the study of kinship in their ethnographic work, and we can begin to see why borrowing the kinship map for a tutorial or a class might involve more than just getting your students to play with a box full of pretty colours.
Bouquet explains that at the turn of the twentieth century, understanding a culture's kinship system–how a community defines social relationships amongst one another–was deemed of primary importance for the study of any "foreign" culture. This is because how a culture or community defines relationships tells a great deal about that culture, and understanding this can allow an anthropologist to recognize just how large the gap might be between how he or she views the world, and how another culture might. In the West, kinship has historically been defined according to specific, so-called "natural" biological ties. But ethnographic studies of non-European cultures have made any such claim to the "naturalness" of defining kinship in these terms untenable.
This, I think, is the magic of anthropology: it allows you to recognize that systems and ways of living thought natural or intuitive are in fact often constructed and arise out of specific cultural conditions. Despite this, what I find really interesting about kinship maps is that while they might try to capture non-European ways of understanding social relations, the map itself, and its tree-like appearance, reflects a particularly European understanding of kinship and family. The kinship map can easily misrepresent what (or whom) it seeks to describe, and it has historically been tied up with colonial projects to understand, document or assimilate colonized peoples. Bringing kinship maps into your classroom therefore introduces a rich teaching moment to a lesson: it get students actively involved in a meaning-making project, and simultaneously gives instructors the opportunity to draw attention to the ways in which meaning is, indeed, made, framed, or, as it were, mapped.
Back to the Box of Crayons
By way of conclusion, I would like to share with you a possible application of this idea. Last week I drafted a sample lesson plan for a second-year Canadian Literature class. First up on our list of readings for tutorial was one of my favorites of the year: Brian Maracle's "The First Words," a re-telling of the Iroquois creation story. Warren Cariou, Professor at the University of Winnipeg, describes it as "an act of living, historical memory" and stresses the importance of "[s]eeing this narrative as a kind of history, rather than as a myth or a legend" (Globe and Mail, Dec. 2004). I love reading and re-reading Maracle's text. And I love discussing it.
So, I leave my draft lesson plan with you. And along with it, a few questions, too, that jostle around uncomfortably in the back of my mind:
Are exercises like these too juvenile for the adult classroom? Do you think they undermine the seriousness and importance of the subject matter?
Draft Tutorial Lesson Plan: Brian Maracle's "The First Words"
Materials Needed: pencil crayons and scrap paper.
Intended Learning Outcomes: By the end of this tutorial, students will…
1. Have a clear understanding of the relationships between the personages described in Brian Maracle's interpretation of the Iroquois creation story.
2. Consider how those relationships are described by Maracle, and the values they might speak to.
3. Recognize and question the assumptions a reader familiar with settler culture and history might bring to their understanding of the relationships in the text.
Explain briefly what kinship maps are: like genealogical trees, they indicate who descends from whom, and what relationships people have with one another. As an example you might draw your own family tree on the board. This could be a traditional family tree, but it could reflect non-biological kinship ties.
Explain to students that they can decide how they will indicate what type of relationship different people in the map share (ie, brother & sister, parents & children, friend, etc). They could colour-code, for example, or simply draw lines connecting people, or they could write captions explaining relationships.
Give students 15 minutes. Then check in:
1. Who is represented in your kinship maps? Is there anyone missing?
2. How did you indicate the relationship between the First Woman and the grandson of the sky woman? Is she like a daughter? Or is their relationship different? How did you represent the relationship between First Woman and First Man? Why?
3. Did you include any animals on your kinship maps? Why/why not?
4. What about the land? Is the land related to some of the people in the story? How so?
Ask students to return to their kinship maps and make any final revisions that they would like. They might want to add/change things after the discussion you just had. If you like, let students know that you are collecting them, and that next week at the beginning of tutorial there will be a contest: the class will vote for the what they think is the best kinship map (most creative, most robust, etc).
radio… active learning
This Thursday, I'll be giving a guest lecture on Thomas King's Dead Dog Cafe (also available on YouTube). Dead Dog Cafe is a radio drama of sorts, or a radio comedy, I should say. To be precise, it's a radio show about a radio show; in a way, it's a CBC Radio One version of 30 Rock, with a few exceptions: it precedes the American network show by half a decade, it explicitly engages with First Nations culture and politics in Canada, and, of course, it's about a radio comedy hour, rather than a t.v. sketch show. You could say Dead Dog Cafe is about First Nations issues; you could also say it's about humour, and you would be right in both assertions. But I think it's also trying to get at what listening is all about– and how the experience of listening to oral narratives and oral literatures differs from that of reading written literatures.
So that's Thursday: lecturing about listening. Ha. On Tuesday, though, I'll be handing in a short written assignment that marks the culmination of a three-week project for the Education 750 class I'm taking here at Mac through the Centre for Leadership & Learning. I and a group of other students are supposed to submit a "reflection" on a research topic we've developed ourselves. Our chosen research topic is lecturing; specifically we've been interested in learning more about introducing active learning to the lecture hall. It just dawned on me today how intimately-related these two projects are–lecturing about listening, and writing about lecturing–and not simply because they both tackle lecturing in one way or another.
These two projects are fundamentally connected, in my mind, because ultimately, they are both about listening. To prepare for a lecture about a radio show one should not think about how to lecture effectively, or how to tell one's students what they need to know about the topic. Instead, a lecturer needs to think about how people listen, and how to listen well; about how to be receptive, and how to be received; and, finally, about how to invite reception. Listening always involves a two-way interplay; lecturing, on the other hand, might be uni-directional; it can be solitary, lonely, and, ultimately rather self-centred.
So introducing active learning to the lecture hall means thinking about how you can get learners to not only listen, but to respond. How can a lecturer get her learners in on the conversation? How can a lecturer open up a dialogue with her learners? How can a lecturer listen?
Active Learning in the Lecture Hall
After researching this topic for the last few weeks, I've come across a number of practical answers to these questions by the way of in-class exercises and activities. These include "think-pair-share," "one-minute papers" and even establishing discussion groups akin to tutorial groups. Studies have overwhelmingly shown these practices work– students retain information better if these active practices are deployed in the classroom than if they are not (and yes, actual studies have been conducted in classroom settings that follow rigorous academic and scientific research standards; these studies offer quantitative proof of the efficacy of active learning–i.e. in terms of student performance on tests, etc).*
Pretty straight-forward, right? Just walk into a classroom, do A, B, and C, and BAM! you've got yourself some active learning. With some trial and error, you may even find yourself facilitating active learning in a classroom with some success.
But thinking about Tom King's radio show has got me thinking about the problem of lecturing–of talking, and of listening–from a wholly different perspective. The research surrounding active learning in lectures is, not surprisingly, rather "scientific" in nature. Conducted by scientists and social scientists, the research necessarily betrays or displays a scientific approach to learning. It sets up trials, believes firmly in the measurability of results, and carefully breaks down active learning into mechanistic parts, where A causes B, which, in turn, results in C, of course! It's all very logical, you see. Listening to Dead Dog Cafe, however, has not at all been a logical endeavour. Not only does King's comedy persistently overturn "logic" to highly humourous ends, it is also a highly sensational experience, by which I mean that I found myself highly aware of my senses as I listened to his show. I found myself chuckling along whilst stitching the binding to a quilt, and straining to hear Jasper Friendly-Bear over the sound of the hot water running as I washed a sink full of dirty dishes. It was a positively strange experience. I felt immersed in the sounds of the Cafe, sounds which somehow produced a sense of light, scent, and touch, all while I was simultaneously very much immersed in the physical world around me, in the smell of the dish soap, and the feel of the warm water running over my hands, and the sight of the bright early-spring sunshine streaming through the kitchen window. What a positively strange, and yet, too, positively pleasurable experience listening to talk radio, or narrative radio, can be.
Feeling like I was in two places at once, and yet not fully in either, got me thinking: there is something the literature on lecturing and active learning is overlooking. It is overlooking what types of listening a speaker can provoke. It neglects to recognize that listening involves multiple modalities. Really, it fails to engage with the fact that there are many different ways to listen, and, as a result, the literature on active learning in the lecture hall cannot see that different modes of listening have the potential to invoke wildly different responses.
As I sit down to formalize my lecture for the upcoming week, I'll give you a sense of where I'm going with this: there is captive listening, where a listener cannot leave, and must listen; there is what might be termed "redemptive" listening, where a listener seeks the deeply private, the confession; there is passive listening, to be sure, and there is dialogic listening, where a listener is expected to respond, to answer; there is listening that is interpellative, listening that calls or hails you, and thereby in part forms how you might or can respond and even who or what you are in that moment; there is, too, listening where no one is addressing you, where you are not even recognized as the audience– this, of course, is eavesdropping.
Listen Up!
I want to consider what forms of listening occur in a lecture. What happens in a lecture? Are learners addressed directly, or do they eavesdrop, in a way, on a scholarly conversation with which they are neither entirely familiar nor comfortable? I also wonder how a lecturer might actively and purposely facilitate these different modes of listening in her classroom. Can we turn passive listeners into sly observers, eavesdropping on a secretive, unfamiliar or half-heard conversation; can we call on them to be non-judgmental receptors of heated confessions; can we transform them into critics and judges, or, perhaps, detectives and analysts? In the Humanities, we seek critical thinking. In English, we specifically look for critical reading. But what about critical listening? And, perhaps more importantly, what about empathetic listening, non-judgmental listening, or imaginative listening?
These questions about listening bring me back to the experience that began this inquiry: listening to Dead Dog Cafe while busying my hands
with a piece of sewing, or some soapy dishes. This Thursday, I hope to explore how different forms of listening function in King's radio show, and I'm particularly interested in Krista Ratcliffe's thoughts on the subject in "Eavesdropping as Rhetorical Tactic: History, Whiteness, and Rhetoric." Ratcliffe describes eavesdropping as that which situates a listener "outside, in an uncomfortable spot, on the border of knowing and not knowing, [thereby] granting others the inside position, listening to learn" (90). Was this the effect King was looking for, when he invites his listeners into the Dead Dog Cafe to eavesdrop on conversations, asides, and banter that do not officially comprise the show itself? I think so–when listening to Dead Dog Cafe, I was both inside and outside the fictional cafe of the show's title; I was granted the insider's position, and yet I most certainly was an outsider, vaguely and sometimes pointedly uncomfortable as I overheard conversations that I could not fully understand. Again, what a strange, and yet wonderful, experience.
*Selected Readings on Active Learning:
Biggs, J. "Constructing Learning by Aligning Teaching: Constructive Alignment." Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. First Ed. 2007. Print.
—. "What the Student Does: Teaching for Enhanced Learning." Higher Education Research & Development 18.1 (1999): 57-75. Online.
Bleske-Rechek, April L. "Obedience, Conformity, and Social Roles: Active Learning in a Large Introductory Psychology Class." Teaching of Psychology 28 (2001): 260. Online.
Huerta, Juan Carlos. "Getting Active in the Large Lecture." Journal of Political Science Education 3 (2007): 237-249. Online.
Michael, Joel. "Where's the Evidence that Active Learning Works?" Advances in Physiology Education 30 (2006): 159-167. Online.
Smith, Veronica C. and LeeAnn Cardaciotto. "Is Active Learning like Broccoli? Student Perceptions of Active Learning in Large Lecture Classes." Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 11.1 (January 2011): 53-61. Online.
Stead,D.R. "A Review of the One-Minute Paper" Active Learning in Higher Education 6 (2005): 118-131. Online.
sex in the classroom
Who: Me, and students enrolled in a first-year English Lit. course
What: Discussion of characterization in Mrs. Dalloway
When: Modernist London…. as pictured by Virginia Woolf
When (like, for real): Last week
Where: Tutorial
twenty minutes in…
Me: "She keeps hitting us over the head with it, doesn't she? Smacking us in the face with that dick, with that dick-knife / knife-dick symbol, over and over and…."
(I think her hand hits her hipbone here, to indicate the exact level of saggage all the women in the class can look forward to.)
And, a few hours later, in my other tutorial…
Me: "Well, she's sitting on the floor, cross-legged, isn't she? She doesn't cross her ankles demurely, she opens her legs for all the world to see. And she chops flower blooms from their stems– she only wants that feminine opening; she violently removes the phallic part of the plant. And in every way she is described as open, inviting, attractive. Basically, she is a walking vagina."
Sex in the classroom. We never know quite what to do with it, do we? This past week, I put the portrait-drawing contest that I described in my last post to the test, again. It was a bit of a gamble. Whereas previously I had used this activity to talk about characterization in a highly realist novel–where the author gave a detailed physical description of each character, one that unapologetically aligned outward appearance with each character's interior life–this week, I chose to use this activity to discuss characterization in Mrs. Dalloway. I chose a few passages, and asked the students to become portraitists, to draw a portrait of the character the assigned passage described– a tricky task when faced with Woolf's stream-of-consciousness style. She is a writer who rarely gives a catalogue of physical traits; instead gestures, symbols, and the inferences and associations that a character excites in another are what define how we, the reader, envision that character.
But holy crap, did we have fun with this activity. And by the end of it, with 25 minutes left in tutorial, we had plenty of time to discuss each portraitist's "artistic" choices. Students clearly and carefully relayed their interpretations of the text to the class; they explained how they translated text and metaphor into image. Truly fantastic. These were students doing close reading at its best, but with interest, and humour.
Sex quickly entered the discussion because, well, it was Woolf's work we were discussing after all. How funny it was for us all to recognize just how prevalent sexual symbols are in her text. They are everywhere. There is the phallic penknife, opened and closed, opened and closed, by Peter Walsh; there is Big Ben all erect at the centre of the text, penetrating each scene with its ominous noise; there is that orgasmic crowd scene, with every face turned to the sky to watch an airplane reach higher and higher, eagerly awaiting the release of each smoky letter written (you might even say spurted) in the sky above them; there is Sally Seton, castrating a bunch of flowers, divesting each bloom of its stem to display their feminine openings, unaccosted by any hint of masculinity; there is a frothing fountain at the centre of Clarissa's memory of Peter, and an open vase, a jug, or ewer or whatever attached to her memory of Sally.
But is there a line, an invisible line that I should know about, or perhaps even set, which I am not supposed to trespass? Should I be setting some sort of "tone?" My gut instinct says, no, not really. Short of jokes about sexual violence, I'm pro-sex-in-the-classroom. Sex ain't sacred–I know because Foucault told me so! Plus, I think Foucault is right to laugh at those who ask us not to laugh at sex, to mock those who admonish us immature gigglers, snorting at the mention of the word "labia" or "balls." Right? I mean, just try saying "labia" out loud and not cracking a smile.
What are your thoughts? Balls in the classroom– yay, or nay? And, another few: what about labia? Mons? Vaginas? Clitoruses (clitori???)? Female masturbation!??!!? I ask because weirdly enough, female sexuality is still taboo, no matter how much or how loudly I yell about my vagina when drunk at the pub. The same (female) student who joked about saggy breasts this week also commented one day, during a discussion of gender performance, on how women and men must sit differently. Commented, and demonstrated: sitting slouched, with legs splayed, she asked, "Who would want to sit beside this?"–whilst pointing derisively at her own crotch–"It's gross, right? I mean, I know it's not gross, but really, if I saw you sitting like that, I don't think I could even look at you." Should we be looking more closely at female sexuality in our classes? And can we open up the discussion to include everyone, even men? Are male students allowed a voice on sex in classrooms? Do you fear what they might say as much as I do? Honestly, what do you think?
pencil crayons & police portraits… in the classroom!
"Can I get more creative with my assignments? I mean, can I include colour, and images?"
This question comes from a former design student, now registered in a series of engl. lit classes. How might you respond?
I can imagine a number of perfectly reasonable responses that I might have to a question like this. I might be intrigued. On the other hand, my eyes might just glaze over as my mind beats a desperate retreat inward, screaming along the way: "this is an english class, not a fine arts class, and neither is it kindergarten, for that matter!"
It is just as likely that english profs & tas might respond with fear & anxiety. Images can make us literary people anxious. in a field increasingly caught up in the world of cultural studies, however, it's not exactly clear why this might be so.
Scary Pictures
Let's consider a suite of theorists and their thoughts on photography. Susan Sontag describes the photographer as a hunter, tracking its prey, and links photography to nostalgia, often a dirty word in the humanities. Roland Barthes argues that those photographs best able to communicate to and with a viewer are those that puncture, or penetrate. pretty nasty sounding, right? He notes, too, that photographs, unlike film & video, lack "protensity," which is to say that photographs have a tendency to freeze their subjects in time, to make them seem immobile, and unchanging. An ethically murky place to find oneself in, this sounds. Not to mention, of course, all of the possible "might have beens" that the photo cannot capture, that remain unseen. Trauma theory also has an anxious relationship with the photograph: some critics fear that the photo only functions to re-inflict the trauma that it documents, as it assaults new victims unprepared for the violence they see in the film, on the page, or on the screen. And, finally, Allan Sekula reminds his readers that photographs are not neutral; subjects pose or are posed, scenes can be staged, the lens limits the view and the photographer's eye- both her physical eye, and what you might call the eye of her imagination- limits and frames that view even further. Really, though, what sekula wants us to remember is that photographs are political objects, political objects that yet have a tendency to mask and deny the very relationships of power and contingencies of production that bring them into being.
What most of this criticism points to is the "evidentiary" (to borrow Barthes' term) function of the photograph. It just looks so damn real. In fact, it often stands in for the real; it is documentary proof of the world beyond our immediate view- beyond the purview of sight, and beyond the reach of the present. This is what can make literary and cultural theorists wary of the photograph: reality and representation blur in the photograph, or, more accurately, the image takes on the role of evidence; it points to its referent unerringly, distracting the eye- or, the critical eye, anyway- from the conditions of its own production, and its circulation in economies of meaning in excess of that which it supposedly represents.
So, does the photograph document, or construct? Does it record, or produce? And why should we not engage with photography and "the cult of the image" in a literature course, where these same questions arise again and again and again?
And again. We can only yammer on about histiographic metafiction for so long, ya know?
My suggestion? Ask your students these questions. And to avoid the dumb stares and rolling eyes when you ask them, all you have to do is bring a box of pencil crayons to tutorial.
Portraiture & Literature in Tutorial
This tutorial exercise comes from Erin, a former PhD student and TA at Mac, not to mention a fantastic teacher and expert on teaching & learning. Erin divided her students into groups and assigned each a brief character description from the novel they were studying. Based on that description, students were to sketch the character, and then answer the question: does the physical appearance of the character tell us anything about her/his personality?
The benefits of this assignment are multiple. First, students have fun. Even if they think it's kind of stupid. Which it kind of is, right? It doesn't feel very scholarly, anyway. But that is precisely the draw– it makes learning a little less formal, it asks students to engage in the text in a new and interesting way, and, finally, it gives students the opportunity to socialize. I firmly believe that university, and tutorials in particular, are a space for learning how to be in relation with others, and yet, students so rarely get a chance to practice this. Drawing childlike portraits in tutorial gives students a bit of a break,or a release, and, talking about movies, parties and family while they do so only enriches that learning experience. Really. I swear.
But i digress. Back to the academic: students practice close reading with this exercise. they begin to see representation as intentional, and representative of more than simple "truth." They begin to recognize the politics of representation in asking, for example, why an author might choose to dress a female protagonist in a trench coat, or to refrain from mentioning race or noting any ethnic markers.Now to add something to Erin's original exercise, a variation that might be especially productive to include in your "colouring session:" at the end of tutorial, show your students some slides; bombard them with modern mug shots, passport photos, composite police sketches, and perhaps older instantiations of all three.
The Body & The Archive
Why mug shots? As often happens, teaching choices reflect research interests, and this particular idea was prompted by my reading of Nancy Armstrong's Fiction in the Age of Photography, which explores the pictorial framing and type-casting of the social world the novel has historically partaken in and produced, even before the photograph itself began to circulate in abundance in an economy of taste. This, in turn, led to a re-reading of Allan Sekula's "Body and the Archive," an analysis of 18th-century police portraits and the "science" of phrenology and physiognomy. both tackle the near-ecstatic transmutation the photograph can undergo from product to evidence and from representation to social reality.
So: after surprising your students with a series of scary-looking mug shots (and why not include some hilarious/creepy/kind-of-gross celebrity mug shots while you're at it, is my thinking on the subject), then you can explicitly ask your students: does the photograph, or a sketch, faithfully reproduce, or does it produce something else altogether? What frames a photograph, or our vision, in general? and, an interesting question to pose to your students is: what happens when you imagine your character sketches as police sketches? What sort of criminal do you see? Is it possible to recognize the criminal in your character sketch at all? And if not, what prevents you from doing so?
In short, this exercise provides another entry point into a discussion of "the frame." In subsequent tutorials, it might lead to discussions about the function of narrative, the line between fiction and non-fiction, history, historiography and myth, and even the old standby, Linda Hutcheon's concept of historiographic metafiction. But, further, this exercise ushers the image into the literature classroom. I suddenly feel compelled to type: "we live in the age of the image," despite my essay-marking-self cringing at the mere thought of such a platitude. It's true, though. And its beginning to seem increasingly idiotic to ignore that fact when teaching critical reading in the classroom.
Any other ideas on how you might introduce the world of visual representation to your teaching of literature? Or how you might get students to think critically with the likes of pencil crayons, photo-shopping programs, or old-school collages? I would love to hear about them.
And, thank you…
To that design student whose inquiry started this entire train of thought.


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Vogel's and trendy fashion
CoolCat in The Netherlands
Vogel's creative video walls
CoolCat is a retail chain with approximately 130 stores in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg. They sell trendy fashion to young people. They sell fun, fashion and trends @ better prices than other brands. CoolCat fits its corporate identity and changed a typical shop for a cool hangout for young people. By using a cool video wall, the shop now looks like a real club / Arcade game hall! This is a must-see! This project is done for different CoolCat stores throughout the Netherlands, because of this it is achieved in stages. The project began in 2011 and is now complete!
What was unique about this project? Through interactive multitouch displays with games, social media and website integration First Impression created a place where young people can not only shop but also relax. The creative video walls attract attention and get into the interior of the store. There are several displays used for this project 17 "- 18" and it involves over more than 100 pieces. These are all mounted with Vogel's professional products.
Quote installer...
If you go shopping at CoolCat it feels like you are in a cool club!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
***Non-Union Submissions*** Alex is currently taking submissions for a show working tomorrow in Los Angeles. She is looking for males and females who appear to be African-American looking and can portray 20s-40s park goers. No visible tattoos! If this is you… CONTINUE READING IN THE EMBED BELOW. (wait here for embed to load)
If the embed is gone then you waited too long. Central Casting shared this background casting notice at 1:16 PM Pacific on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 for Los Angeles area actors.
Get fast 24/7 unlimited full text background casting notices filtered to match selected union status, gender, and portray-able ethnicity in your email inbox with Extras Alerts PRO


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WARNING: TO WORK, THE MODIFICATION REQUIRES Microsoft. NET Framework 3.5. Make sure that the service pack is on your computer or download and install it.
If you don't have it, you can't use the auto installer, but you can install it by hand from install\mymod folder.
This modification requires a clean (no mods) GTA San Andreas, but after installing the mod you can play in both the conventional SA, and GTA Familier.
1. Start Familier (ENG). Exe and follow the instructions in the installer.
2. Go to your folder GTA San Andreas. There appeared a file Familier.exe. Run it to play Familier (you can copy a shortcut on the desktop). If you want to play the usual SA, run the old gta_sa.exe.
This modification makes many changes to the familiar world of San Andreas:
-New player
-New character models
-New peds
-New weapons
-New Grove Street
-New loading screens
New story line of the 4 missions (0.1 Demo) with cut-scenes and text.
The idea - LikeBAX, Conrad
Storyline, missions - LikeBAX
Textures - Navetsea, Lahori MUnda Rocks, LikeBAX, Fourth_Horseman, wxjsnake, Cheezee Pie, Thiaz, Lil B, Artur$MD, Bllock, karlike15, CJDemon, SlA
Models - Thiaz, Lil B, Artur$MD, Adyshor34all, Bllock, GinoPinoy, THREE6MAFIA, Lost_Forever, SlA
Weapons - LikeBAX
Translation - LikeBAX, DimanZh, DeViL
Settings - CripBK
Art - DeViL, BabkaRamma
NTAuthority for CLauncher, allowing you to play just two games in one game folder
Alexander for mod auto installer
katya for clean main.scm
DK22Pac for help with scripts
Familier is a continueing of Back 2 Los Santos mod (New Edition is coming... ). Back 2 LS mod was released only in Russia in 2006.
San Andreas, 1961. Joe Bucket, the leader of Los Santos Street Racers, the greatest SA gang from 1956 to 1961, made a deal with Conrad's ennemies, Triads. Morgan, another street racer and Conrad's friend, tried to stop Joe, but he didn't. So Conrad rescued Morgan and took him to the hospital.
Then the Triad leader came to the hospital, but he thanked Conrad and Morgan that they killed Joe and presented them a blue Greenwood.
Conrad don't remember nothing about his past life, because he has an amnesia. But Morgan knows much about Conrad.
Conrad and Morgan came to Conrad's friends, they didn't meet for 5 years. They are working at the SF garage. When Conrad told them that Joe is dead, they decided to get Ganton back.
So, they fought with the racers and got Ganton back.
And they decided to make a gang, named Grove Street Families.
The leaders of the gang was Scarfface, Reece and Conrad.


text:
My opinions on matters of the day that, generally, have pissed me off. Being described as a 'Surly Curmudgeon', by those who meet me on a good day, I have a poor regard for the human species. This is my place for my free speech- not bloody yours. Crap under your own rock.
Monday, November 13, 2006
This is a disgusting travesty of 'Justice'!
Police said today they would charge the man with possessing a firearm without lawful, proper or sufficient purposes.
They did not name him but it was believed to be Greg Carvell, 33, director of the Small Arms International gunshop in Penrose..."
This is a bloody disgrace- that a man is charged for defending himself and others against a nutter!
He should have gotten a community service award- not this outrage.
I have often stuck up for the police when they have had to shoot some craphead, but only in the same way I have supported anyone who has made the call to defend themselves . The police have no special claim on the right to defend themselves. Indeed, they are better trained and equipped than the average citizen.
I'm reading between the lines here and guessing that the heat has come from above to charge Greg Carvell.
After all, the powers-that-be can't stand the idea of us standing up for ourselves...
So, it seems the police did not want to charge him!
It was the crown law office
Now who is pulling THEIR strings?
7 comments:
- Dave said...
I'm with you. Let's march on Parliament....
Nah, they're a pack of dickwits...
- 13/11/06 11:08 pm
- Unknown said...
Lets launch an armed assault on parliment.
Get ramming there Oz.
I'm going to need a pile of 20 kg rocks.
- 13/11/06 11:22 pm
- Scotty said...
I hope he is cleared.
- 14/11/06 7:44 am
- Lucia Maria said...
I wrote a post on this too, and most of the comments were on how the guy broke the law and the law is the law you know.
- 14/11/06 5:06 pm
Blah Blah. let him have his day in court, no jury of his peers will find him anything other than NOT GUILTY. And the law is made to look an ass again. The only downside is his legal costs which I am sure somebody will cover. He would have been better to shoot the real crim in the head
- 15/11/06 2:42 pm
- Unknown said...
I'm with Russel on this - the only thing Greg Carvell did wrong was miss everything vital.
- 17/11/06 4:05 pm
- Deadman said...
"Beckham was allegedly demanding guns and threatening to kill Carvell and co-worker Bruce Motley with a 3-foot (just under 1 metre) machete when he was shot, at about 10am on July 27."
Well, perhaps there's the problem, you see. Maybe the legal cutoff point for a machete-as-deadly-weapon is 1 meter and over. So really, Carvell used excessive force on Beckham.
I'll bet that Carvell fellow is Israeli, too!
- 17/11/06 6:13 pm


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Tester Or Rehberg, Who Has Your Vote For Senator? (POLL)
One of the most looked after 2012 Senate races is the one right here in Montana. United States Senator and Democrat Jon Tester has reported raising $3.8 million in 2011 for the campaign. Republican United States Congressman Denny Rehberg funding totals weren't available as of today, but he figures to be the favorite in the competition for the Senate seat.
If you were to cast your vote today, who would your vote for Senator go to? Please answer in the poll below and let's see what people are thinking.


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This card came together so well with little pieces of left over ribbon and paper.
Making a A6 card in itself is usually a challenge
but not this time.
It is the first time that I have used this sweet Snowman.
I just love him with his beanie on at an angle.
I had to take the photo at an angle too as there was too much reflection from the snowflakes.
Am entering this in
Penny Black Saturday challenge- Christmas with silver and snowflakes
Make it Monday-Anything goes
Thanks for dropping in you are most welcome.
Margaret M


text:
DEHealth Pets & Livestock Feed Supplement 900g Bag
Product Code: DEF1
100% Natural & Organic, Food Grade, Fresh Water Diatomaceous Earth for human consumption.
Contains more than 94% Amorphous Silica.
Note: As this is a natural product, colour may vary.
Availability: In Stock
Price: $19.99 $14.00
Ex GST: $12.17
Ex GST: $12.17
Write a reviewYour Name:
Your Review: Note: HTML is not translated!
Rating: Bad Good
Enter the code in the box below:c22


text:
posterior perforated substance(redirected from locus perforatus posticus)
pos·te·ri·or per·fo·rat·ed sub·stance[TA]
the bottom of the interpeduncular fossa at the base of the midbrain, extending from the anterior border of the pons forward to the mammillary bodies, and containing numerous openings for the passage of perforating branches of the posterior cerebral arteries.
Synonym(s): substantia perforata posterior [TA], locus perforatus posticus, Malacarne space
posterior perforated substance
A triangular area forming the floor of the interpeduncular fossa. It lies immediately behind the corpora mammillaria and contains numerous openings for blood vessels.
See also: substance
Malacarne,Michele V.G., Italian surgeon, 1744-1816.
Malacarne pyramid - a lobule on the undersurface of the cerebellum, the posterior portion of the vermis.
Malacarne space - the bottom of the interpeduncular fossa at the base of the midbrain. Synonym(s): posterior perforated substance


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Completion of painting ….
Posted by Micro Update Ltd on March 22, 2010
The managment of the laundry communicates via e-mail today:
My intention is to meet with the contractor after Easter and to arrange a suitable time to complete the works then.
Once dates have been agreed I will keep you informed of progress.
With kind regards
Paul Pearson.
Gen Manager.


text:
Herb Day
Instead of salt, use herbs, spices, lemon juice, and/or vinegar to enhance the taste of your food. The health benefits are life-long.
Enhance the Flavor of Foods with Herbs
Wikipedia has provided an extensive list of culinary herbs and spices. The list does not contain salt (which is a mineral) or plants used primarily as herbal teas or medicinal herbs. Explore the different flavors and cultures.
Tips for Selecting and Storing
Herbs and Spices
Herbs and Spices
Spice it Up with
Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD
Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD


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A business course on 'thinking management' is being organised by the Ivano-Frankivsk Business Support Centre on 28-30 November, together with the EBRD as part of the EU4Business initiative. The event takes place in Volosyanka, in the Lviv region
The event is targeted at owners, managers and HR-directors of SMEs.
The programme of the forum includes the following topics:
- Challenge of time and the need for changes;
- Development of emotional competence;
- Adaptive thinking as a basis for deliberate life management in a world of uncertainty and instability;
- Creative thinking: development of creativity;
- Completion of the course.
The event aims to increase the competence of participants in thinking management, explain the importance of developing different types of intelligence in order to enhance personal and team efficiency, and provide practical tools for the development of emotional creative and adaptive intelligence.
The Ivano-Frankivsk Business Support Centre is part of the EU-funded Network of Business Support Centres, which aims to improve the competitiveness and bankability of Ukrainian SMEs through the provision of business advice and capacity building. It also supports BSOs in 15 regions of Ukraine in setting up a network of EU4Business Business Support Centres (BSCs). At least 30,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs benefit from the project.
28-30/11/19, 08:40-18:30
Contact: Khrystyna Savuliak(067) 672 08 43 or firstname.lastname@example.com; Vira Voronova (098) 161 68 39 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Detailed terms of participation and participation fee are specified on the website.


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Leonard Makes Way onto List for Third Consecutive Year
TOWSON, Md. — The Landmark Conference issued its 2012-13 Winter Academic Honor Roll today, a list of 205 student-athletes who have reached sophomore standing at one of the member institutions and have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher. Sixteen of the honorees are from Goucher.
Every athlete on the list competed in one of the six winter sports for which the conference crowns a champion: men's basketball, women's basketball, men's swimming, women's swimming, men's indoor track and field and women's indoor track and field.
Goucher's Charlie Leonard (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville) is one of 31 seniors who made the 2012-13 Winter Academic Honor Roll following appearances in 2010-11 and 2011-12, the other two years in which they would have been eligible.
The following student-athletes from Goucher earned a spot on the Landmark Conference's 2012-13 Winter Academic Honor Roll:
|Men's Swimming
|Charlie Leonard * <
|Walkersville, Md.
|Dean Silverman
|Chappaqua, N.Y.
|Women's Swimming
|Kellyn Brower
|Glen Ridge, N.J.
|Rachel Lyon *
|Fallston, Md.
|Abbey Wegman <
|Knoxville, Tenn.
|Men's Indoor Track & Field
|Christopher Byrne
|Andover, Mass.
|Zachary Byrum
|Stafford, Va.
|Nick Manta
|North Wales, Pa.
|Christian Ribeiro
|Silver Spring, Md.
|Women's Indoor Track & Field
|Maafio Appiah-Padi
|Edmonton, Alberta
|Christine Cherry *
|Laurel Md.
|Hadley Couraud <
|East Lansing, Mich.
|Katherine Currier
|Brooklyn, N.Y.
|Jaclyn Kellon <
|Cleveland Heights, Ohio
|Zoe Malkin
|Watchung, N.J.
|Men's Basketball
|Leroy Williams
|Baltimore, Md.
* 2011-12 Winter Honor Roll selection
< 2010-11 Winter Honor Roll selection


text:
Part of Turkington Holdings, which was founded in 1951, Turkington Windows was launched in 1982 as a supplier and installer of windows and doors for the domestic market.
In addition to supplying homeowners with high quality replacement windows, doors and conservatories, Turkington Windows also have the expertise to supply for new and self-build projects – drawing on our extensive industry experience to advise and provide home improvement products for a huge variety of projects.
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Having previously worked with both public and private sectors clients, councils, developers and other main contractors, we have the expertise and resources to oversee almost any commercial project.
Today Turkington Windows offers a wide range of PVC and aluminium home improvement products and installs these across the whole of Northern Ireland as well as the Dublin area and the following counties: Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan and Louth.
Aside from offering a varied product range, we are also committed to the continuous improvement of our products within a safe working environment and in a way that reduces the impact we have on the environment.
Since its establishment, Turkington Windows has built a reputation as a leading window installer, operating on three main principles: Quality, service and value.
uPVC and aluminium windows and doors in Northern Ireland
Turkington Windows offers a wide range of home improvement products. This includes PVC and aluminium window styles, as well as our premium timber look window system which combines timber aesthetics with the performance benefits of modern PVC.
We also install a wide range of doors including composite doors and bi-folding doors, along with glass and solid roof conservatories, extensions, and PVC roofline products.
All of our products are manufactured using the leading systems and components to ensure high levels of quality across the range and giving you confidence your beautiful new windows and doors are built to last.
Don't take our word for it; we have showrooms in Lisburn and Portadown you can visit to see the quality of our products first-hand and useful information and advice from a friendly member of the Turkington Windows team before making your decision.
Trust an installer with 60 years of industry experience
At every stage of the process of buying from us, from initial contact to completion of installation and beyond, you can expect a professional, efficient and dedicated service.
Pop into a Turkington Windows showroom or book a home appointment where a member of our team will provide a no-pressure sales presentation on our products to help you make an informed decision. We aim to follow up with a quote within 24 hours.
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Social media is, well, cruel. Yet it is also benevolent, often leaving me confused and curled in the fetal position on my living room floor whenever I approach the topic. Look, I've got Facebook, sure, and I have Tumblr. I even have a LinkedIn, but it hasn't been touched in years. And at one point I signed up for Instagram in a wine-induced state of euphoria, determined to reach out to my fellow man, but the username and password are long gone along with the wine.
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What I'm trying to say is that I use social media, but I don't use it well, which is why I was excited LISSO (Library & Information Science Student Organization) hosted a Social Media Workshop February 10th. Meredith Hines-Dochterman from Iowa City Public Library, Sara Pitcher from Coralville Public Library, Connor Hood from the Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio, Lindsay Moen from Special Collections, and Jennifer Teitle from the Graduate Development Department all gave their time to help lost souls like myself get a better grip on something that is becoming a more vital tool for librarians.
So in true social media form, I've compiled a list of 10 things I took away from the event in the hopes that my newly acquired wisdom will pass onto you, or anyone else suckered into reading this.
1. You better have a game plan before you put on your game face
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If you are like me, putting together a game plan is the most tedious part of a project. When it comes to social media, however, it is essential. With so much information being pumped into the different social media channels, having a well thought out strategy could be what keeps all your hard work from flopping. Sara Pitcher of the Coralville Public Library explained that planning for her "Dalek Invasion" event started at least a month before anything appeared online. You may want to just jump into the social media pool, but trust me, it's best that you first figure out how you are going to jump.
2. Read the news and stay up on trends
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By staying on top of trends, you'll be sure to post things that people care about or might find interesting. Connor Hood, who works for the Studio, was the one to really stress this point, and says that it is important especially for a medium like Twitter. You've seen Facebook's "trending" feature on their page, and that is always a good place to start. But you know, reading the actual news is also a good way to stay in touch.
3. Be sure you're telling the story of your library
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If you are using social media for your library, remember that you are creating a giant narration of what your library is to the public. Instagram, for example, is like one big picture book with your library as the protagonist. So be sure that what you are posting, in whatever medium, tells the goals and accomplishments of your library. (And remember, everyone likes a happy story).
4. Keep it up, keep posting!
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Remember, social media is a jerk and will forget about you if you don't keep saying something. If you want your posts to show up in feeds or get any kind of traction, you have to keep on posting. Lindsay Moen at Special Collections posts 5-7 times a week on Instagram. Iowa City Public Library tries to get 4 posts a week on Twitter. And that is just for your library. If you are using social media to create your own professional image, Jennifer Teitle recommends doing at least one thing to reach out on LinkedIn a day and spending at least 20-30 minutes on Twitter each week.
5. Always take pictures, even when you don't post them right away
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Content creation is exhausting. Heck, I'm exhausted just typing about it, but it has to be done. One thing to help with this is to have a queue of pictures on your phone or camera ready to go, just in case brilliance doesn't strike you one day. Lindsay Moen's camera on her phone is almost nothing but pictures she has taken around Special Collections, just in case. And Meredith Hines-Dochterman from Iowa City Public Library calls them "evergreen" pictures because they are not time sensitive and can be shared at anytime.
6. Use LinkedIn to connect with people who have the job you want
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This advice comes from Jennifer Teitle who is a LinkedIn success. She suggests finding people who have the job you wish to have in the near future, reaching out to them, and seeing how they have shaped their LinkedIn profile or Twitter account. Use them as a guide, which also ties into my next point…
7. Get a little personal on LinkedIn, but not like creepy personal
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Adding personal touches to your LinkedIn connections is what will set you apart from the others. As Jennifer Teitle puts it, "you are planting the seeds" for future opportunities. When you ask to connect with someone, sending them a personal message with an invitation to connect. Saying something like "It was great to meet you at the ILA conference. I would love to hear more about your ideas on maker spaces," can make a huge impact. You can even use it to send someone a congratulations on a new job. It's like sending someone a personal card to show that you care about their progress. And who knows, those personal connections that you continue to make might come back to help you one day.
8. Sometimes Twitter won't work for you
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And sometimes Instagram won't work for you, and sometimes…well, you get the point. Certain mediums will work great for some libraries, but maybe not for yours. Don't be afraid to test out new social media sites, and it's okay to (dare I say) fail. Iowa City Public Library tried to have a podcast, and guess what, it didn't really work, but they just moved on. The best thing to do is to be aware of your audience. If you have a younger crowd, Instagram will probably work better than if you have an older crowd who are loyal to Facebook. But also be aware of your story. For example, if you share a lot of links like Connor Hood at the Studio, Twitter is going to get your message out better than Instagram.
9. It doesn't have to be a solo mission
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It's very likely that you could be the only person assigned to a social media campaign at your library, but that doesn't mean it has to be solo work. For one, everyone on the panel was more than willing to be a guide and help with any questions or confusion I might have on my own social media campaign. Regarding the actual execution of social media, try inviting patrons to help take photos, or find inspiration from the roles and interests of your fellow coworkers. Also, collaborating with other groups outside the library by mentioning them in your posts or retweeting/sharing their information is also a great way to foster relationships and get your message out to a larger audience. Don't be a sad, lonely sack; it's called social for a reason!
10. Have fun with it! Or people won't care
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Seriously, if you are not having fun, it's going to show in the work you produce. Social media is a jerk, yes, but it is also supposed to be fun. Be silly, let your imagination soar, and show social media who is boss.
And there you have it: my knowledge on social media for libraries and social media for library professionals all wrapped up in a tiny bundle. Thanks for making it to the end.
[Elizabeth Riordan, SLIS graduate student at the University of Iowa]
[*A video of the full workshop can be found here.]


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Sony Ericsson LT28at specs has surfaced via Bluetooth End Product List. It is expected to head to AT&T which is clear from the code name LT28at. It would feature a 4.55-inch ( 720 x 1280 pixels) HD display, 13MP camera with LED flash and a 720p front facing camera. It would also come with LTE support and Dual microphones (noise suppression and stereo recording).
This is expected to come with 1.5GHz dual-core processor according to the earlier leak that is similar to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc HD (Nozomi), but it differs completely in terms of display size and the camera. Still it's not clear if it would have HDMI port like the Nozomi. There is no image of the phone yet but Sony Ericsson might unveil this device at CES 2012.
Via: Xperiablog.net


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Growing up, if there was a summer barbeque, it was inevitable that my Mom was going to make pasta salad, it was quick and easy, most people liked it and she had three kids, give the lady a break. As one of said children, it was my duty to whine about it and be ungrateful. Turns out, I wasn't giving it a fair shake because of my long standing hatred of celery salt…One of the key ingredients in the seasoning packet she used. I feel like it was literally Italian Dressing and a packet or shaker of Ms. Dash…the bile is rising… I LOVE PASTA SALAD though, and it was my duty today to redeem it.
So! I started with a boiling pot of salted water. I cut some button mushrooms in half while I got my cast iron skillet roaring hot.
When it was smoky hot, I added a bit of olive oil and threw those filthy little things in the pan to sear. While those were browning up nicely, I minced up some parsley and chiffonaded some basil. I also zested a whole lemon and squeezed the juice into a large bowl with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Once the mushrooms were seared nicely, I tossed them hot into the vinaigrette.
By this time the boiling water was nice and boily, and I tossed my garlic scapes into the pot. Garlic scapes are lovely if you haven't ever tried them before. They are surprisingly mild on the garlic. They are similar in texture to blanched asparagus, and they can get a bit woody at the ends so, make sure you trim them, and you will eventually be cutting them on a sharp bias.
Once they are nice and bright and a little softer (don't kill them, they are little guys), pick them out of your water with tongs and run them under cold water until they are cool to the touch. This locks in the color so that they stay bright and pretty!
Once they are cool you can cut them on a sharp bias and add them to your growing heap in the bowl.
Now you can go ahead and use the very same boiling water to throw your rotini in. Look how resourceful I am! I like rotini the most because it is a throwback to my Mom's pasta salad. Props, D…
While you are waiting for the pasta, you can get out a melange of olives of any variety that you like, but please not canned black olives…blarf. If you have to pit them, chop them up a little and while you are at it, why not some capers or caper berries even???
This is starting to come together folks… Now, here is where I was a little worried, but I figured that my love of cauliflower would not lead me astray. I cut some big hunks of cauliflower up and got my pan nice and hot again.
Once again, I poured in some tasty olive oil and seared them crispy and brown. The squirrel wasn't so sure about it, but I was like, "Shut up, Squirrel, leave this to the professionals…"
Ok, so I've been hitting the sauce Zissou-style. Only one though, I am a responsible adult here, people.
Now my pasta is ready, so I ran that under water until it was cool and tossed it in the bowl to start to get it's mingle on.
I salted and peppered my seared cauliflower, and ran a knife over it a few times to make it more appropriately bite sized. I also decided at this point that the garlic scapes were really super mild and I am a woman who loves her garlic, so I minced up a fat clove and mixed it in.
Now I halved a bunch of lovely grape tomatoes. and tossed them in. Folks at this point, you have a LOVELY vegan salad that any person could get down with. Season it to your liking…don't be afraid of a little salt. But, if you are a cheese and anything meaty-umami eater like me, go the extra mile, guys.
I added, three fillets of anchovies sliced thin, and a good 1/3-1/2ish cup of grated Parmesan Reggiano. I also chiffonaded more basil leaves and threw in a handful of pinenuts because I am fancy like that.
And folks that's it. I am for once, looking forward to having pasta salad leftovers to eat for the next few days. I am not knocking Dawn. She is a great cook, and she taught me how to cook, but I think that she would agree that this is worlds apart. Now I just have to see what Eric thinks of it when he gets home from work!


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Brands still struggling to harness the power of SoLoMo
There are a myriad of ways to leverage mobile, social and location. However, many marketers jump in without considering the importance of building an integrated and comprehensive campaign.
SoLoMo has become quite a catchphrase in the mobile space. And since the hype, marketers have been marrying all three mediums to better reach consumers to offer them a 360-degree experience.
?Many brands have challenges across all individually and definitely as an integrated approach,? said Russ Whitman, chief strategy officer of Ratio Interactive.
?The biggest challenge we see is that it?s difficult to determine best practices and how to measure results,? he said.
Enhanced features
When married together, social, mobile and local are an effective way to drive consumer engagement.
Mobile and social complement each other well. Add location into the mix and all the ingredients add up to success.
However, many marketers are not taking advantage of these three mediums.
Gone are the days when solely have a mobile campaign is enough.
Additionally, having a Facebook or Twitter presence does not mean a company has a good social strategy.
Everything last year was all about location and companies such as Best Buy and Victoria?s Secret took advantage of the emerging technologies to better interact with consumers, as well as drive in-store traffic.
By implementing an effective SoLoMo campaign, marketers will be able to engage in two-way dialogues with consumers.
Furthermore, by checking out location data, companies will be able to create more relevant and personalized experience to better target both loyal and new consumers.
?As always every good solution is only as good as its execution, but we are seeing users respond well across the three when implemented well,? Mr. Whitman said. ?Especially in key consumer segments.
?SoLoMo will grow, spreading and increase in effectiveness,? he said.
?Best practices will advance, users will continue to adopt and programs will become more sophisticated.?
Harnessing the power
Marketers need to build their multichannel strategies.
Taking a multichannel approach ? in this case mobile, social and local ? will help marketers stay ahead of the pack and differentiate themselves from competitors.
?Brand and retailer marketing departments have a lot to sort through,? said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston.
?There are literally hundreds of service providers pitching them on the best way to harness the power of location and social media and mobile, all at once,? he said. ?I think the mobile industry does itself a disservice by lumping these trends together in witty acronyms, as it makes the shift from the figurative to the literal hard for brands and retailers who need actionable, results-oriented ways to increase revenues and track impact.
?Retailers and brands should start by asking themselves what their landing zone looks like for the mobile consumers they engage vis SoLoMo. Once done, there are any number of exciting ways to target by location, engage via social and use mobile to deliver messaging at the exact time and place when consumers are most likely to act.
The mobile space is growing rapidly and marketers must constantly keep up with emerging technologies and ongoing trends to stay ahead of the game.
?Mobile is exploding and we are seeing double-digit growth in both traffic and sales,? Mr. Kerr said.
?What is exciting is linking these incremental mobile commerce sales engines, once they are built and deployed, with marketing tools, so that previously static touchpoints like print ads or boxes used for shipments, or point of purchase signage can become hyperlinked sales drivers,? he said.
Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York


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Chaochomvarnish Co.,Ltd. Is a factory producing quality products of international standard export. We produce skin care and personal care products, and cleaning products. According to your needs.
We also have products of our own brand. That is HOM Deodorant, which can be used up deodoriser to 4 items (mustache or beard, body, underarm, foot and genital external area) in 1 bottle. it havn't Alcohol, and have soft smell 6 choice. It is can use to childen ( 4 years up), teenagers, adult and old people. And we are looking for distributors overseas. Which we have commercial rights and credits up to 90 days (according to our consideration only)
You can send details of your needs to e-mail : firstname.lastname@example.com
Interested in being a distributor / wholesale price
Contact Us : Chaochomvarnish Co.,Ltd.
Address : 4/9 M.3, Soi Yamratee, Kanjanapisek Rd, Bang Yai, Nonthaburi 11140 Thailand.
E-mail : firstname.lastname@example.com
Telephone : +669 33 98 44 11


text:
Women's Indigenous Network
(WIN Australia)
Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to build leadership pathways for Indigenous women and forge an integrated and successful future through increasing the number of Indigenous women in leadership roles.
Help Indigenous women build the capacities, competencies, knowledge and wisdom needed to excel in the corporate landscape as leaders and managers.
Learn about membership benefits for individuals and corporate members.
20 Bond St, Sydney NSW 2000
The WIN Australia Pilot Programme titled LEAD (Leadership Excellence and Development), adopts a two-pronged approach to assisting Indigenous women in building a successful career in a leadership role in a large organisation, focussing on two of the core areas that WIN addresses: Strengthen and Support.
The aim of WIN's one-year LEAD Programme is to help indigenous women build the capacities, competencies, knowledge and wisdom needed to excel in the corporate landscape as leaders and managers.
LEAD includes leadership development workshops, specific skills training and a Learning From Leaders series tapping into the wisdom and knowledge of some of Australia's most respected female leaders.
WIN's LEAD Programme:
- Delivers science and research-based leadership development workshops tailored for Indigenous women, coupled with one-on-one coaching to embed the learning and accelerate the process.
- Facilitates access to highly successful female leaders (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) to learn from and be inspired by what is possible.
- Brings together like-minded women on similar leadership pathways to support each other and pay it forward to the next group, further expanding their network and providing leadership to women in their communities seeking a career in corporate leadership roles.
- Builds support in their workplace by way of internal mentoring, championing and advising that builds on their development and helps them integrate more as a corporate leader.
- Partners with organisations to change general attitudes about Indigenous women by working with the media to highlight achievements of programme participants.
Throughout the year key we explore these key themes:
- Purpose-driven leadership
- Influential communication
- Building your leadership brand
- Strategic thinking
- Resilience and emotional intelligence
- Leadership presence
- Corporate politics
- Bringing leadership to your community
- Understanding investment and building personal wealth
- Balancing the many selves and commitments


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Musical Creativity
Multidisciplinary Research in Theory and Practice
Prices & shipping based on shipping country
Book Description
This collection initiates a resolutely interdisciplinary research dynamic specifically concerning musical creativity. Creativity is one of the most challenging issues currently facing scientific psychology and its study has been relatively rare in the cognitive sciences, especially in artificial intelligence. This book will address the need for a coherent and thorough exploration.
Musical Creativity: Multidisciplinary Research in Theory and Practice comprises seven sections, each viewing musical creativity from a different scientific vantage point, from the philosophy of computer modelling, through music education, interpretation, neuroscience, and music therapy, to experimental psychology. Each section contains discussions by eminent international specialists of the issues raised, and the book concludes with a postlude discussing how we can understand creativity in the work of eminent composer, Jonathan Harvey.
This unique volume presents an up-to-date snapshot of the scientific study of musical creativity, in conjunction with ESCOM (the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music). Describing many of the different aspects of musical creativity and their study, it will form a useful springboard for further such study in future years, and will be of interest to academics and practitioners in music, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and other fields concerning the study of human cognition in this most human of behaviours.
Table of Contents
Foreword. I. Deliège and G. Wiggins, Prelude. I. Deliège and M. Richelle, The Spectrum of Musical Creativity. Section 1: Philosophy. N. Cook, Playing God: Creativity, Analysis and Aesthetic Inclusion. B.H. Merker, Layered Constraints on the Multiple Creativities of Music. M.M. Reybrouck, Musical Creativity between Symbolic Modelling and Perceptual Constraints: the Role of Adaptive Behaviour and Epistemic Autonomy. Section 2: Listening. I. Deliège, Analogy: Creative Support to Elaborate a Model of Music Listening. M. Baroni, Hearing Musical Style: Cognitive and Creative Problems. Section 3: Music Education. M. Hickey and S.D. Lipscomb, How Different Is Good? How Good Is Different? The Assessment of Children's Creative Musical Thinking. P. Burnard, Understanding Children's Meaning-Making As Composers. J. Tafuri, Processes and teaching strategies in musical improvisation with children. Section 4: Performance. A. Williamon, S. Thompson, T. Lisboa and C. Wiffen, Creativity, Originality and Value in Music Performance. J. Davidson and A. Coulam, Exploring Jazz and Classical Solo Singing Performance Behaviours: A Preliminary Step towards Understanding Performer Creativity. R. Chaffin, A.F. Lemieux and C. Chen, Spontaneity and Creativity in Highly Practised Performance. Section 5: Music Therapy. T. Wigram, Musical Creativity in Children with Cognitive and Social Impairment. C. Lee, Aesthetics of Creativity in Clinical Improvisation. J.P. Sutton, Hidden Music: An Exploration of Silence in Music and Music Therapy. Section 6: Neuropsychology. M. Lotze, G. Scheler and N. Birbaumer, From Music Perception to Creative Performance: Mapping Cerebral Differences between Professional and Amateur Musicians. E. Brattico and M. Tervaniemi, Musical Creativity and the Human Brain. M.O. Belardinelli, Beyond Global and Local Theories of Musical Creativity: Looking for Specific Indicators of Mental Activity During Music Processing. Section 7: Computer Models of Creative Behaviour. F. Pachet, Creativity Studies and Musical Interaction. F. Pachet, Enhancing Individual Creativity with Interactive Musical Reflective Systems. P.M. Todd, Putting Some (Artificial) Life into Models of Musical Creativity. Postlude. How can we Understand Creativity in a Composer's Work? A Conversation between Irène Deliège and Jonathan Harvey.
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Irène Deliège obtained her qualifications at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. After a twenty-year career as a music teacher, she retrained in psychology and obtained her PhD in 1991 from the University of Liege. A founding member of ESCOM, she has acted since its inception as permanent secretary and Editor of its journal, Musicae Scientiae. She is the author of several articles and co-edited books dedicated to music perception.
Geraint Wiggins studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and at Edinburgh's Artificial Intelligence and Music Departments. He is Professor of Computational Creativity in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, where he leads the Intelligent Sound and Music Systems (ISMS) group. He is a past chair of SSAISB, the UK learned society for AI and Cognitive Science, whose journal he co-edits, and is also an Associate Editor of Musicae Scientiae, the journal of ESCOM.
"Musical Creativity: Multidisciplinary Research in Theory and Practice provides comprehensive treatment of musical creativity, viewed in a broad sense that embraces not only composition but also listening, performing, learning, and therapy. The authors take a variety of philosophical, theoretical, empirical, neuroscientific, and computational approaches to this difficult yet important topic. The result is a bold collection that is destined to become an indispensable reference for future research in the field." - Fred Lerdahl, Fritz Reiner Professor of Music, Columbia University
"This collection shows that the study of musical creativity is not 'beyond science' as many skeptics have believed. A contemporary understanding of creativity must be rooted in actual variety of concrete musical acts and practices, and the equal variety of modes of reception. This volume samples widely from such variety, and ranges from the macro (such as the composition of a symphony) to the micro (such as the selection of a particular chord in an improvisatory sequence), and across all levels of musical sophistication, from untrained child to professional adult." - John Sloboda FBA, Professor of Psychology, Keele University


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We generally have between 1-5 rabbits at anyone time. Unfortunately due to space restrictions we can not re-home rabbits.
Rabbits are small mammals, The male is called a buck and the female is a doe; a young rabbit is a kitten or kit.
Their long ears are used to detect predators and can sometimes measure more than 10cm long. Rabbits also have long, powerful hind legs and a short tail.
Did you know…
- Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, grassland and wetlands.
- Rabbits like to live in groups, and the best known species, the European rabbit, lives in underground rabbit holes called burrows.
- A group of burrows is called a warren.


text: "Who would have figured that going from ninjas to mobsters would still provide an interesting look at people? A while ago, Shonen Jump recently released one of Masashi Kishimoto's oneshots, Mario. It was a story originally drawn in 1998 and brought back in the June 2013 issue of JUMP SQUARE and the May 13, 2013 issue of VIZ's Shonen Jump. Unlike Naruto, Mario is pretty violent and the setting is much more mature. The main character is noted to be a "mama's boy" near the end of the story and it poses a question as to why men are still quite fond of the first women in their lives."


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Serafim Todorov, Serik Sapiyev, Sergey Vodopyanov, Gaidarbek Gaidarbekov, Mihai Nistor, Magomedrasul Majidov, Clemento Russo all have NOT turned professional.
Only 5-10% of the best Amateurs from Europe turn pro, and that that 5-10% is DOMINATING.
Black Americans get their asses beat up in the amateurs, then get everything handed onto them on a plate in a pros.. they ALL turn pro.. 100% of them.. They have the TV deals, promoter deals.Black american privlege/ etc everything on a plate Yet they still get their asses beat up in the pros by the small number of Europeans that get the opportunity to turn pro haha
Can you imagine if every European amateur turned pro. You'd rarely ever see a black world champion if that happened lol
Oleksandr Khyzhniak just beat Troy Isley 4-1 in the semis.
The Dusmatov - Argilagos fight is going to be fire in the final, too bad Spazcano isn't around anymore.
Khyzniak absolutely battered the yank.
Yet somehow it was only a split decision! haha how the hell did one judge score the fight to the yank. It's not like he could have got the boxers mixed up when they look totally different.
Khyzniak has only just turned 22 a few weeks ago, huge future.
My thoughts exactly, how the Hell did one miserable cuck judge score that for the American?


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An old dish.
- 1 sucking pig
- 283 tblsps sour cream
- fat
- The sucking pig is roasted whole or it may be cut in half.
- When the sucking pig is roasted whole, cut its vertebral bone up to its fleshy part from the inside, add the salt and lay it on a baking pan with its back upwards.
- Slightly cover the sucking pig with the sour cream, pour it over with melted butter, pour out 0.5 cupful of water on the baking pan and place it in oven for 1 to 1.5 hour.
- For making a ruddy dry crust periodically pour melted fat on the sucking pig while roasting it.
- To protect its ears from burning cover them with some dough for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Then remove the dough and continue to roast.
- Put the peeled potatoes into the sucking pig to keep its shape.
- If the sucking pig is not roasted whole, cut it in half along its backbone, spread, rub the salt in, cover with sour cream and roast it periodically greasing with melted fat.
- Serve the roasted sucking pig cold together with horseradish.
- It may also be served hot as a holiday dish.