Reaction Style Torque Transfer Standards - S. Himmelstein and Company [Press Release]
Published by – June 27, 2016
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S. Himmelstein and Company has been offering innovative torque measurement solutions since 1960, manufacturing a full line of shaft, spline, flange, pulley, wheel and reaction torquemeters, and other torque measuring instruments.


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JEREMY FOGEL & his mad band of wandering Israelis hits their stride with this passionate reading of Rabbi Jesus' message to the world & how it has been diluted & distorted by greed, power, & ambition. Another intense ride with the Israeli Gainsbourg.
A variety of pieces for ensembles, including a fabulous composition for percussion & Chinese traditional instruments & several solo pieces for piano, percussion & guzheng. Soulful, lyrical & powerful music from this remarkable young composer/performer from ... read more »
MELT-BANANA is one of Japan's most powerful and popular punk bands and at the center of it is the stinging guitar of AGATA. Here he steps out on a rare solo outing created especially for Tzadik. Showing an amazing range of interests, a prodigious technique and a remarkable ... read more »
Still available. One of the most important musicians in Japan, who has collaborated with just about every major music maker in the avant garde since the early 1970s, Kondo has been splitting his time between Tokyo and Amsterdam for the past ten years. A master of trumpet ... read more »

domain: artistic


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UnNews:Kidnapper Michael Devlin was President of local Mac User Group
|Your A.D.D. news outl — Oooh, look at the pictures!||✪||UnNews||✪||Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 18:24:59 (UTC)|
|Kidnapper Michael Devlin was President of local Mac User Group|
16 January 2007
Missouri Kidnapper Michael Devlin was President of Local Mac User Group
ST LOUIS, Missouri -- The mystery of why kidnapped boy Shawn Hornbeck never sought help or knew people were looking for him has been solved. While Michael Devlin allowed Shawn to browse the Internet, the Safari browser on his Mac G5 was unable to render the page his parents put up pleading for his safe return.
"Shawn Devlin did Google himself several times", said Victor P. Biggerstaff, head of the local FBI office, "but the Safari browser he was using didn't show the pages properly, so Shawn thought nobody cared about him."
Michael Devlin was committed to his Macintosh. In addition to loving young boys, he also worshipped Steve Jobs.
"Just like rap music and crack, Pedophilia and Mac users go hand in hand" said Mr. Biggerstaff. "In fact, if someone uses a Mac and Java, it's a near certainty that they like little boys--or girls. Alternative platforms and alternative lifestyles. One leads to another."
Michael Devlin planned all the activities and speakers for his Mac users group. Last week, they discussed how to meet young boys in iChat, complete with live demonstrations. He also invited a cub scout troop over to see a demonstration of the Newton.
Next month, he was planning to invite Java pioneer Patrick Naughton to talk about Java and the Macintosh.
"We need to find a new president," said Jason Pansy, Vice President of the Missouri Young Men's Mac Users Group. Without Michael's expert leadership, I don't know what I'll do! And his two boys were a great help," Pansy added. "He used them to model all the latest iPod accessories."
Earlier this year, Michael Devlin conducted a Ram Pod workshop, introducing Mac users to this new way of enjoying your iPod. "I'm still remembering that one," said Mr. Pansy, as he rubbed his rear end.

domain: news


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On Feb. 28, a 38-year-old man named Paul Boucher was at his brother Roland's home on Sisson Avenue in Hartford for his niece's birthday party. After cake and ice cream, Paul got tired. He remembered he hadn't taken his medication.
He left and walked home to his apartment on Farmington Avenue.
Shortly after, another guest at the party called the police after claiming that Paul had stolen $17 from a coat.
The police arrived and tried to call Paul from Roland's apartment. He hung up on them. Two officers went over to Paul's apartment. A half hour later, three officers shot him seven times and killed him.
Paul Boucher had some kind of mental disorder apparently brought on by a stroke; he took medication for depression and high blood pressure. Early news accounts portrayed him as psychotic. Family members and friends say this isn't true. "You couldn't find anyone who didn't like Paul. He loved people, he always had a job," said his sister, Arline Fauteux. Several former co-workers concur. "He wouldn't hurt a fly," said Jon Hykes, a longtime friend. Paul had no police record.
The police report said two officers went to Paul's building and rang the bell. He came to the outer door. When the officers told him why they were there, they said he ran to his apartment. They followed and got inside.
They said he armed himself with a knife and came at the officers, who sprayed him with a pepper-based chemical spray, backed out into the hall and radioed for backup. Soon, a sergeant and two more patrolmen arrived. They started talking to Paul, and said he let three officers into his apartment.
Then, without warning, police said Paul grabbed the knife again and came at them. This time the three officers shot him, apparently seven times. He was pronounced dead shortly after.
How in the name of heaven did a dispute over $17, which was never found, lead to this man's death?
Paul's brother Roland has a speech and learning disability; some others at the birthday party had mental disorders. Should
police have explored the complaint a bit further? Another sister, Diane Faureau (Boucher comes from a Hartford family of 12), said Paul never in his life stole money, and when he needed some, he asked his family or friends.
The pattern of ejected cartridges found on the apartment floor suggests that Paul, a big man, was retreating down a corridor and into a bedroom while he was being shot. Marks on the door indicate the police may have been keeping it open with their nightsticks, and Paul's family thinks he picked up the knife to try to saw the nightsticks off and close the door.
"Paul was afraid. He'd do something like that," his sister said.
Hykes said Paul wasn't wearing his glasses and "couldn't see 6 inches in front of his nose without them."
Roland Boucher said Paul was on the phone to him when he was shot.
"What about a warrant?" his sisters asked. "How did this get so far out of hand?" The case is being reviewed by the chief state's attorney's office to see whether it was what officers call a "bad shoot." Then it will be reviewed by the police department to see whether the shooting was within guidelines. The family plans to sue.
The incident is very disturbing, but since there was no video or eyewitness, maybe it will stand. At the very least, it points yet again to how badly out of touch most Hartford police officers are with the people they're supposed to serve.
Except for 11 community service officers and some specialists such as anti-gang officers, most of the remaining 400 Hartford officers are either cooped up in the North Meadows headquarters, or stuck inside patrol cars. Since most officers also don't live in the city, they don't know Hartford from Toledo.
Hykes said the officers who killed Paul knew nothing about him or the many other people who live in assisted-housing arrangements in the neighborhood. Many of these people have overcome serious handicaps to live on their own, but are fragile and have to be treated accordingly.
Officers who knew the neighborhood would have done a better job with this, Hykes said, and he's right. It is time -- it is way beyond time -- to get police officers out of headquarters, the cars and the doughnut shops and into the neighborhoods. It is time for a full commitment to community policing

domain: sociology


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GUIDED BY VOICES - Scalping The Guru
Regular price $20.00
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Scalping The Guru is an archival Guided By Voices release, envisioned and sequenced by Robert Pollard as a cohesive album, featuring select tracks from four GBV EPs released in 1993-1994 by Domino, City Slang, Siltbreeze and Engine Records. These hard to find records are essential for fans of Vampire On Titus and Bee Thousand, with classics including “My Impression Now,” “Matter Eater Lad,” and “Big School.” They feature the line-up that includes Robert Pollard with Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell, Jim Pollard, Dan Toohey, Greg Demos, and Larry Keller. Recorded on four-track cassette by Tobin Sprout, with some songs lovingly fucked with by Mike Hummel.


It appears as though the “Legion of Boom” is taking a permanent hit. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner ran into some trouble with the league a season ago, and this time he’s really going to pay for it.
Browner has officially been suspended for a full year after violating the league’s policy regarding substance abuse, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Here is clarification on Brandon Browner’s status w Seahawks. He’s being suspended one year for substance abuse, per @AdamSchefter
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) November 26, 2013
Last season, Browner missed the final four games of the year after being suspended for violating the league’s performance enhancing drug policy. At the moment, Browner is in the midst of recovering from a groin injury and would have been available to return sometime in December, according to coach Pete Carroll.
The Seahawks, according to sources of NFL.com’s Michael Silver, are prepared to move on without Browner — his career with Seattle is going to come to an end. For Seattle, this is probably the right decision to make. A team with Super Bowl aspirations and a tight-knit defense doesn’t need any distractions like Browner’s immaturity.
An interesting tidbit from this situation: Seattle is also expected to sign free agent corner Antoine Winfield in the wake of Browner’s suspension, again according to the report.
In an interesting turn of events, Seattle is now without two cornerbacks due to violations of league policies. Walter Thurmond was also suspended four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. While these suspensions will hurt the Seahawks in the short-term, like I said before, the team is much better off without the distraction.
We’ll keep you updated on the situation as we hear more information. But, for now, Browner is gone for a year and likely on his way out of Seattle.


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“In the last seven years, we have brought out the government from closed rooms in Delhi to all parts of the country,” Modi said at an event in Mahoba in UP’s Bundelkhand region.
Corruption charge at previous regimes:
Attacking rival parties like Samajwadi Party and the Congress, Modi said the previous regimes led by them were mired in corruption even as the area lacked basic infrastructure. He recalled a time when the Bundelkhand region was known for its water management. However, under the earlier governments, the region suffered massive neglect and corrupt governance, he claimed.
“Situation came to a point where people started shying away from marrying their daughters in this area, and daughters here started wishing for marriage in areas with surplus water. People of Mahoba, people of Bundelkhand know the answers to these questions”, he said.
The previous rulers looted Bundelkhand to benefit their families. Your families were craving from drops of water, was not something they could be bothered about, he said. Dynasts kept them thirsty but the government of “karmyogis” has provided 30 lakh families with water.
Triple Talaq Promise:
The prime minister pointed out that it was in Mahoba that he had made the promise of freeing “Muslim sisters” from the scourage of Triple Talaq. The prime minister said he had fulfilled the promise.
Clampdown on Mafia:
. Attacking previous government, he said the resources of the regions were gifted away to mafia. “In UP, the bulldozer is now being run over the Mafia,” he said.
He claimed that while some people were creating a hue and cry over the government’s actions, the work of development will continue.
Outreach to farmers: rime minister said that when he examined the pending irrigation schemes, the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh did not show any interest. Modi claimed that he could increase the pace of development after Yogi Adityanath government was formed in the state.
For decades, people of Bundelkhand have seen governments which indulged in plunder. For the first time there is a government that works for the people. “They never tired of plunder. We never tire of work,” he said.
“They do politics of problems, we do politics of solution,” the prime minister said.
Dynasts only wanted to keep farmers in deprivation. “They used to make announcements in the name of farmers, but even a single pie did not reach the farmer. Whereas from PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, we have so far transferred Rs 1,62,000 crore directly to the bank accounts of farmers”, he remarked.
Double engine will make it UP’s decade:
The prime minister emphasised that the double engine government, with him at the Centre and Yogi Adityanath in power at Lucknow, was working to make this a decade of Bundelkhand and a decade of Uttar Pradesh.
He said many holy places and sites were also being developed. The prime minister said the government is committed to make this region self-reliant in employment, to prevent migration from Bundelkhand. The Bundelkhand Expressway and UP Defence Corridor are a great proof of this, he said.
PM dedicates projects:
Modi dedicated several developmental projects in Mahoba, These included the Arjun Sahayak Project, Ratauli Weir Project, Bhaoni Dam Project and Majhgaon–Chilli Sprinkler Project. The cumulative cost of these projects is over Rs 3250 Crore and their operationalisation will help in irrigation of around 65000 hectares of land in the districts of Mahoba, Hamirpur, Banda and Lalitpur, benefitting lakhs of farmers of the region. These projects will also provide potable drinking water to the region.
Modi wished people on Prakash Purab of Guru Nanak Dev ji who awakened new consciousness in India during that era of slavery. He also noted the jayanti of the brave daughter of India, the pride of Bundelkhand,Rani Laxmibai.


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Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker
Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting
I distinctly remember seeing Richard Hell prowling around — not at the New York City Book Fair at the Armory on Park Avenue but at the satellite fair on 18th Street. If you are hitting the satellite, you have the fever. I was not really in awe of seeing a punk god in the flesh, but I was struck by how cool it was that the singer of “The Blank Generation” is a book dork. Patti Smith: another book dork and proud of it. Reading Victor Bockris‘ With William Burroughs, it was cool to realize that Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie are book dorks. Burroughs is considered the Godfather of Punk. The father of Punk, Lou Reed, is a book dork, a former student of Delmore Schwartz at Syracuse University.
Obviously, New York Punk of the mid-1970s was a revolution in music and a revelation in fashion. In a series of essays being published in various academic journals, Daniel Kane explores the relevance of literature to Big Apple Punk beginning with the two book dorks mentioned above: Richard Hell and Patti Smith. As author and editor of All Poets Welcome and Don’t Ever Get Famous, Kane navigates the city’s — particularly the Lower East Side’s — literature (as well as this literature’s geography, landmarks, and secret locations). Like the most savvy cab driver reads the mean streets of Alphabet City, Kane takes you to places you never knew existed or thought of exploring. At their best, Kane’s essays get your motor running and your mind thinking in new and exciting ways about all the topics he covers. This can be a topic that threatens to become clichéd in established histories, in memoir accounts, and in my own preconceptions. An example for me is that of his treatment of Fuck You Press in All Poets Welcome.
Richard Hell, Genesis: Grasp, and the Blank Generation: From Poetry to Punk in New York’s Lower East Side
> Download Daniel Kane’s Essay, “Richard Hell, Genesis: Grasp, and the Blank Generation”
In a recent issue of Contemporary Literature, Daniel Kane suggests that “Richard Hell is a particularly interesting figure to consider in light of both the poets’ and punks’ engagement with and interrogation of underground and mainstream economies and their attendant aesthetics” and proceeds to give his close attention to Hell’s little magazine Genesis: Grasp. I was completely unaware of just how wide-ranging Hell’s connections within the poetry community actually were. Kane’s reading of Hell’s correspondence with Clark Coolidge and Bruce Andrews was a revelation for me. As always, Kane packs his footnotes with great information. For example, I spent some time thinking about the reference to Creeley’s Pieces in terms of the structure of Hell’s poetics, to say nothing of Hell’s songwriting.
If anything, I feel that Kane is a bit conservative in his readings. Case in point, Kane expresses reservations about his take on Richard Hell’s hairstyle with its links to Rimbaud, Baudelaire’s “The Abyss,” Artaud, and Johnny Rotten. No need to worry; Kane’s reading was merely deeply thought-provoking. Kane’s trepidation stems from his position in academia and from the essay’s venue: Contemporary Literature. It must be tough for Kane to justify his interest in art and literature that sit on the fringes (if not totally outside) the canon to tenure boards. It is a shame that Kane has to look over his shoulder at certain points in his essays. In my opinion, Kane is at his best when he throws academic caution to the wind and lets his mind wander a bit.
Here is the drift of some of my thoughts as I meandered through Kane’s essay:
In the final issue of Genesis: Grasp, an image of Theresa Stern appears on the cover: “a person who, at first glance, appeared to be either a very rough-living, gaudy woman or a member of the New York Dolls. In fact, ‘Theresa’ was a composite shot of Tom Miller/Verlaine and Richard Meyers/Hell, with liberal doses of makeup.” The persona of Stern was a “breakthrough moment” in Hell’s transition from poetry to punk. Kane asks the question: “Who was this fictional Theresa Stern?” Kane makes some fascinating points in trying to answer that question but I think he misses a major reference point: Duchamp and Rrose Sélavy. Stern and Sélavy work in remarkably similar ways. Both emerged out of a series of photographs; both inspired playful speculations about their personal histories; both personas were used to authorize works of art and writing. Duchamp helped pioneer the idea of the artist as performer, as celebrity, which Hell draws on for his breakthrough moment from a little magazine to punk band. When you talk punk, the focus is on Rimbaud, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Artaud and other poètes maudits, but I think Duchamp is also a major figure of inspiration in terms of the connections between lifestyle and art.
Through his analysis, Kane provides some interesting food for thought regarding Hell’s grasp of the literary and the genesis of his engagement with punk. With Hell’s little magazine and his Dot Books project, I was struck that Hell obviously views those publications as physically beautiful objects. Yet the magazine Hell loves the most and sees as a guide, C: A Journal of Poetry, was actually sloppy and low-fi in terms of production. C: A Journal of Poetry, especially the later issues, barely holds together, since the magazine is too thick for the staples. The legal-size paper makes the magazine clumsy to store on bookshelves. Furthermore, its size lends itself to torn or bumped pages. The idea of mimeo as torn, ripped, stained goes back to a mag like Berrigan’s. C and other mimeo productions, like My Own Mag and Floating Bear, have more punk rock in their look and construction than Hell’s literary productions as I visualize them. There is something conservative underlying Hell’s literary enterprises, particularly in their appearance, which Hell sheds in favor of his punk rock persona of spiked hair, ripped shirts, etc. My Own Mag, C, and Floating Bear are ripped, torn, stapled, water-stained, mis-collated, cut, painted, etc. Later punk publications will be as well. But not Hell’s literary productions, like Dot, which will have “flashy glossy covers — blurbs, exclamation points, code numbers, pulpy paper inside. Hottest looking books that mimic drugstore paper backs.” This is POP art, not punk. Also if we take a mimeo publication as a stand-in for the physical body, as Hell, in fact, does in a letter to Bruce Andrews on 5th Collaboration, Hell proves reluctant to “Clip, Stamp, Fold,” to create something “Ripped and Torn,” or to “Slash,” as punks will do with both their publications and their bodies. Hell has a fetish towards print that places the little magazine and other publications on a pedestal and surrounds them with an aura. Hell is hesitant to destroy or desecrate his literary objects. Yet Hell’s poems do precisely that, particularly in literary acts of aggressive sexual fantasy. I think there is something interesting to be made of this, but it would take some thinking and more knowledge of Hell’s work than I have. Kane’s essay provides a great start to further academic work of this nature.
“Nor Did I Socialize with Their People”: Patti Smith, Rock Heroics, and the Poetics of Sociability
> Download Daniel Kane’s Essay, “‘Nor Did I Socialize with Their People’: Patti Smith, Rock Heroics, and the Poetics of Sociability”
Kane’s article on Patti Smith appeared in Volume 31/1 of the journal Popular Music earlier this year. Kane breaks it down as follows:
As I show, from her time as a young performance poet in New York in the late 1960s to her current position as punk rock’s éminence grise, Patti Smith foregrounded the image of the poet as privileged if dissident seer, and used this stance to inform her own projection and reception as rock’n’roll star. This, I will argue, was predicated on Smith’s initial attraction to, subsequent argument with, and ultimate rejection of an adamantly grass-roots poetry culture based in downtown New York, committed to a poetics of sociability — a term I will illustrate on subsequent pages. By reading Smith’s investment in poetry within the context of Smith’s activity in the Poetry Project at St Mark’s Church, the pre-eminent public face of the Lower East Side poetry scene of the 1960s and 1970s, we can begin to see how Smith’s complex negotiations between poetry and music fed into the development of her own brand of proto-punk rock.
Yet another fascinating article by Kane. Kane chronicles Smith struggling within the New York art and poetry community to establish her voice and make her voice heard. Reading the essay again recently, I spent a couple late nights on YouTube watching various Patti Smith readings and concerts to get a sense of Smith’s “complex negotiations between poetry and music.” For years, I have been returning obsessively to Smith’s performance of “Hey Joe/Horses” in 1976 on the Old Grey Whistle Stop. The Patti Smith persona would be fully under her command by the time of “Because the Night” in 1978. All complex negotiations are established by this point.
This was not always the case. Searching yet again on YouTube for my coveted performance of “Hey Joe/Horses,” I came across a simple black and white short, filmed by photographer Bob Gruen, of Smith performing “Hey Joe” at Max’s of Kansas City in 1974. Max’s is a place in-between. Not just a restaurant, not just a bar, not just a concert space, not just a coffeehouse or gallery. It defied categories. Max’s was just Max’s: a one-of-a-kind spot that could only exist in the unique time and space of New York’s alternative art scene.
Like a Warhol screen test, Gruen’s camera never moves; there are no edits. Smith stands, simply dressed in a white T-shirt, in front of a tape deck, which plays the previously recorded instrumental track of “Hey Joe,” probably as performed by her band. Yet Smith is painfully alone here. This is a solo performance. In fact, it is a poetry reading. What we have in this footage by Gruen is the bridge from the readings of the Poetry Project to the “live” performances on television venues, such as the Old Grey Whistle Stop. As such, it perfectly captures Smith navigating between poetry and music and developing “her own brand of proto-punk rock.”
Immediately, I sent the footage to Kane, and he, like me, was blown away. It is no doubt rare footage, as neither of us had ever seen it before. But will we ever see it again? Almost as soon as I saw the video, it was pulled for copyright reasons. Possibly Gruen (or his estate or agent) objected to the posting. This is a real shame. I do not want to get all hot and bothered about the fact that information, like this video of “Hey Joe,” needs to be available for download where it can be free. I also do not want to get all indignant and start screaming about fair use, but clearly there is a scholarly need for videos like this to be available for study, as Kane’s article proves. Leaving aside academic use and its small audience, having Smith’s Max’s performance freely available, to my mind, only increases a deeper appreciation and understanding of the work of Smith (and Gruen). I would think that would be a good thing, including on a commercial level, for all involved.
Watching this video and reading Kane’s article got me thinking about Anne Waldman. Much is made of all the macho posturing and pissing matches among the men in the art and literary scene of the Lower East Side, but there was no doubt just as fierce competition between women. Anne Waldman and Patti Smith seem on point in this regard. Smith’s “initial attraction to, subsequent argument with” the Lower East Side community in large part relates to Waldman. If there were a king and a queen of the prom that was the Lower East Side poetry scene, Berrigan would be the king and Waldman would be the queen. In the late 1960s, Waldman’s apartment was the secret location for all manner of poets and artists. A clubhouse, a hangout. The Poetry Project, with Waldman running the show, was the public face of a more informal community. In this Breakfast Club of the Lower East Side scene, Smith is Ally Sheedy to Waldman’s Molly Ringwald.
Smith would eventually leave the Poetry Project behind but Smith left her mark there and on Waldman as well. Is there anything to the fact that Waldman writes and then publishes “Fast Speaking Woman,” a performance poem that makes full use of the shaman as poetess persona, around the time Smith is negotiating her version of the shaman through Rimbaud and Jim Morrison? Was it just in the air? Did Smith prepare Waldman to make the jump to reading in a concert setting in the Rolling Thunder Revue? Did Smith’s performance and reading style, such as that at Max’s “Hey Joe,” influence Waldman’s reading delivery? Listen to early Waldman doing “Fast Talking Woman” and then listen to her later readings. They definitely get more punk rock and theatrical. Again this was definitely in the air. Waldman could point to Jim Carroll, Allen Ginsberg (and the Clash), Bob Dylan, even Richard Hell as influences, but I would think Smith plays in here as well. What about Waldman’s and Smith’s sense of fashion? Did everybody wear vests, scarves and men’s shirts? Did everybody look like Annie Hall?
Yes, both Waldman and Smith did the poet as rock star thing, but clearly Waldman’s “Uh oh, Plutonium” of 1982 is miles away from Smith’s “Hey Joe” of 1974. So maybe I am forcing connections because they are both female poets, and there is a tendency (a prejudice) to compare within genders, races, sexualities. All white basketball stars are the next Larry Bird. But even the differences between Smith and Waldman are interesting and say a lot about each poet-performer and her aesthetic. And, I think, ultimately how Smith and Waldman influenced each other; even if in terms of something to react against or steer clear from. Okay, maybe “Hey Joe” and “Uh, Oh Plutonium” reveal more about my aesthetic. I much prefer Smith’s scalding, electric version of “Hey Joe,” which moves from the garage to the alleyways of the LSE to Waldman’s cause-rock drenched in the look of the early 80s. In the world of poet rock, I think Waldman is better served when she draws on the performance style of Smith, as in some renditions of “Fast Speaking Woman,” rather than leaning on Allen Ginsberg. “Don’t smoke” is a drag.
Wholly Communion, Literary Nationalism, and the Sorrows of the Counterculture
> Download Daniel Kane’s Essay, “Wholly Communion, Literary Nationalism, and the Sorrows of the Counterculture”
The essays on Smith and Hell provide the foundation to what should prove to be a fascinating and informative collection of essays along the lines of the Kane-edited Don’t Ever Get Famous, or, even more on point, Kane’s We Saw The Light: Conversations Between New American Cinema and Poetry. If the punk book ever does get published, he should consider including his recent essay on the Royal Albert Hall Reading of 1965 and Whitehead’s documentary Wholly Communion as a preface of sorts. Published in 2011 in Framework, Kane argues that
Wholly Communion is a film that is both deeply moving and markedly melancholic. It reveals the belated status of British poetry and poetics as it is manifested through its relationship to the American avant-garde. It shows not merely that American writers were “ahead” of their British counterparts, but, I would propose, makes larger (if perhaps unintended) claims about the difficulty in trying to forge a community-oriented, internationalist, hierarchy-free counterculture.
Where is the connection to punk? Well, the Royal Albert Hall reading was one of the first instances of poets taking on (or attempting to take on) the personas of rock stars and staging a poetry reading not as a jazz session but as a rock concert. It is in effect proto-punk in a similar manner as performances by The Velvet Underground, The MC5, or The Fugs.
The question I was left with after reading the essay is whether the Royal Albert Hall Reading and the atmosphere surrounding it really demonstrate the belated status of British poetry and how American poets felt about the British poetry scene. Whitehead’s film may express such a belief, but I have always been struck by just how behind American poets felt they were to their British counterparts. Of course, their peers were not really British poets, but British rock stars. In some respects, English pop culture was far more hip and progressive than Beat culture. In fact, the Beat writers (and poetry in general) with its Ginsbergian comb-over were old, out of fashion, and in danger of becoming irrelevant. Around this period, Ginsberg writes that Liverpool was the cultural center of the world, and it is clear that, if Ginsberg was not threatened by the Liverpool poets, he was terrified, fascinated, and envious of the Fab Four and their brethren. British writing might suck, but the scene across the pond was really hopping at this point in all other cultural respects from fashion to art to hairdressing. That is why the Warhol crew was in London at the time of the Royal Albert Hall reading. Warhol, like Ginsberg, was stalking the competition. New York’s status as the center of taste-making was being threatened by Swinging London.
With this in mind, the Albert Hall reading can be viewed as an attempt to reverse the British Invasion that Ginsberg witnessed in 1964 in the United States. Ginsberg was in New York City at the time of the Beatles landing, and would have seen the Ed Sullivan Show, the greeting of fans at the airport, and the hip interviews. In short order the Beatles wiped the top 10 pop charts clean of American music and American culture. The Beach Boys and Motown were no longer relevant. British culture seemed to be sweeping across the United States. Whitehead’s movie reveals not so much literary nationalism but, in fact, an act of literary imperialism.
For example at the Royal Albert Hall, Ferlinghetti did not so much attempt to build a global community as challenge the rest of the world to follow the American model. Cold War imperialism hovers over Ferlinghetti’s challenge to Voznesensky and Neruda, his scolding of Czechoslovakia, and his entire reading. I am thinking of the role of Abstract Expressionist art in the Cold War: The goal was to create an umbrella out of American creative freedom and culture under which all endangered nations could gather in protection from the oncoming Red Storm.
Similarly, Ginsberg came to Britain in order to bring its upstart culture under his control. Kane suggests a sexual relationship or attraction between Harry Fainlight and Ginsberg. In his written account, Whitehead writes of Fainlight’s reading, “But Harry knew. The mood had gone. Cut off in full thrust. Denied the orgasm. He was crying now with abject misery, frustration and rage. He’d lost his erection.” Ginsberg takes Fainlight into his lap after Fainlight’s reading with a refrain of “COME COME” echoing throughout the Hall. It is no doubt true that this episode demonstrates the virility of American poets and the impotence of British poetry. And yet it also reflects the anxiety of an American such as Ginsberg. Interestingly, Ginsberg replaces the spent British poet, Fainlight, with Barbara Rubin, who was Bob Dylan’s girlfriend for a time and a member of the Warhol circle. She was also a talented underground filmmaker in her own right. Ginsberg’s attraction to Rubin can be interpreted as a way of attempting to gain power over the much more relevant and vibrant mediums of rock music, Pop Art, and underground film.
It is telling that Kane compares Ginsberg’s reading at the Royal Albert Hall to music. For example, Kane refers to the presence of a dancing girl in Whitehead’s film. Kane also mentions the Grateful Dead in this context. Truly, rock music is crucial to understanding why Ginsberg arrived in London in 1965. The Beatles, like sirens, drew the wandering Ginsberg in from his travels throughout Europe and inspired him to organize a reading at the specific location of the Albert Hall. Ginsberg wanted to put on a rock concert. The melancholy of the movie may be due to the fact that Beat poetry as social force was in decline, and that a poetry reading may never again be an effective way to connect with the mass populace. Beat poetry will never be the center of a counterculture, as in the Age of the Romantics and of Shelley’s Legislator. The scenes of miscommunication among the poets and the audience not listening during the reading reflect the irrelevance of Beat poetry in the face of rock music. On June 11, 1965, the Beat poets perform their Last Waltz. By the following summer, the Beatles will take back Albert Hall and the role of poetry from Ginsberg and company. With Sgt. Pepper, rock music and rock musicians officially become poetry and poets. The popular audience will in turn lavish close readings on rock lyrics in a way that was once the privilege of poetry. In my eyes, there is a reference to the Royal Albert Reading in “A Day in the Life.” How many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall? This represents the Beatles’ triumph over, and kiss off to, their Beat namesakes. The once powerful Beat poets and their audience are now merely assholes.
I highly recommend spending some time with Kane’s three most recent essays. They demonstrate that he continues to provide some fresh licks to the tired old song and dance of literary criticism. When you are a solo artist like Daniel Kane, working for a media corporation, like the University of Sussex, you have to put your material on vinyl, i.e., in a codex, preferably from a well-known academic label. I would prefer that he belt out his hits in a different venue, such as online. The Wholly Communion essay suggests a move in that direction. The potential audience seems much greater and the ease of access definitely is. This would truly be punk rock.


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Manchester Airport Taxi Transfers service
Have you recently booked a holiday overseas? If so, you may also want to think about arranging Manchester Airport taxi transfers service.
Whilst it is possible to drive to the airport and leave your car in one of the designated car parks, this isn’t advisable. Not only is it expensive to park here for weeks at a time. But you also risk getting lost and running late for your flight, especially if you’re not sure of the route. There are many other reason as-well, which is why it is not advisable to opt for that option.
Next comes in taking a favor from someone you know or a relative to drop you off to the airport. If in-case that is also not possible. Then you are only left with the option of using a public transport. But again that is not advisable if you have luggage or want to reach on time and many other circumstance.
Considering these and many other things in recent times. A service known as the Manchester Airport taxi transfers is gaining its way around very smoothly and rightly.
More and more people are booking Manchester Airport Taxis as they look to take the stress out of their journey.
One popular firm is STS Cars. The company has been taking people to and from the airport from many years and has built up an excellent reputation for its professional and affordable services.
The Very Best Rates in the City
Holidays are expensive, and so you’ll want to ensure that you don’t blow a good chunk of your spending money on taxi transfer services.
Fortunately, STS Cars are well-known for their competitive rates and for never charging their customers over the odds. Browse the website to find out more about this leading Manchester taxi firm and booking your Manchester airport taxi transfers today.

domain: travel


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RotarySwing.com is changing the face of golf instruction by simplifying the way the swing is taught. No longer relying on complicated backswing positions that can take the average golfer years to learn, the Rotary Swing makes it easy for ANY golfer to improve and enjoy the game. Golfers can learn the Rotary Swing online through online golf instruction with a former professional golfer!
Windermere, FL (PRWEB) April 22, 2008 — Through the use of its proprietary golf swing and online instruction technique, RotarySwing.com is quickly changing the golf instruction landscape. The Rotary Swing is the simplest way to learn to swing a golf club and with the new online golf instruction program, golfers can submit their videos online and receive a “movie” back of their online golf lesson from a former professional golfer on the Nationwide Tour. Currently, RotarySwing.com is offering a discount on these online golf lessons for only $49.
Chuck Quinton, founder of the Rotary Swing technique and golf instructor in Windermere, FL, has helped thousands of golfers shave their handicaps by learning his simple swing technique. “So many golfers come to me in desparation, frustrated with the current state of their games. Golf instruction in the past has failed them because it was too complex and difficult to learn given their limited practice time. I’ve simplified the golf swing into simple Rotary Swing fundamentals that can be learned in less than 15 minutes so that even the busy professional with limited time to practice can improve after online one lesson,” Quinton says.
Quinton’s results have been impressive to say the least, with members of his golf instruction website shaving over 10 strokes off their handicaps in as little as 2 months. And his work on the professional tours has been equally impressive with one of his students, Paul Dickinson, leading three rounds of a 2007 Nationwide Tour event. Now, Paul is Quinton’s lead instructor and performs all the online golf lessons. “Adding Paul to the team was a strategic move to ensure we could handle all the new students who are coming to the Rotary Swing and provide them with world class golf instruction. Paul has now done hundreds of online lessons via our website and we couldn’t be happier with the results,” said Quinton.
Simplify your golf swing today and enjoy your best ball striking ever by learning the very simple technique of the Rotary Golf Swing. If you are tired of struggling with your golf swing and want to simplify your technique, visit the home of the Simple Golf Swing -http://www.RotarySwing.com
This went out via PRWeb.com on April 22, 2008. View the PRWeb version here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/04/prweb876294.htm.

domain: sports


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THE NEW YORK TIMES - ran an article this morning about the mortgage assistance program. A lot of these checks are bouncing which is terrible news. You can read about it in todays edition online right here....
Here is a news item about a cash loan program for over extended home owners -- and its from a jewelry store.
Ronnie’s Jewelers Extends Gold Bullion Buying Program To Highland, Michigan
Highland, Michigan - The best time to make those needy home renovations is right now. The spring weather brings cool temperatures and makes for great working conditions. There are many ways to spruce up the home after a long winter including fixing the roof, installing gutters, waterproofing the basement, and installing new bay windows. Some home owners want to fix and flip properties while others just want to improve the home. This sort of thing takes money and plenty of it. For over extended home owners this can be somewhat of a problem. Now there is a local jewelry store that is offering its unique services as a lender.
The cash loan program at Ronnie’s Jewelry and Loans is designed to get home owners the cash needed to make vital improvements. This Waterford, Michigan based jewelry store takes the action of a bank and lends out cash loans to its customers. The participant simply has to provide precious stones, precious metals such as gold coins or gold bullion and then that person is eligible for a cash loan. The whole process is actually very quick. This enables the borrower to keep the asset without selling it altogether like in a typical gold buying program.
Giving the borrower the ability to hold onto the precious asset without selling it is the beauty of this program. The turn around time is in the same day. The participant can get appraised in one visit and get the much needed cash for home repair and remodeling. The cash loans aren’t just limited to those who need it for home repair. In fact, the participant can use that money for just about anything including student tuition, doctor bills or even pharmacy prescriptions. The whole process is very discreet and there is no need for the participant to feel embarrassed.
Often times home owners can get over extended in credit and have no other option but to pawn off an extra gold watch, silver flatware or anything of value. Instead of flat out selling that item that person can come into the store and get a much needed cash loan for instant funding and relief. The program is new to Highland, Michigan and it has been receiving a lot of attention on the web. It is taking the pawn store idea to a more sensible level and allowing for more flexibility.
About Ronnie’s Jewelry and Loans:
Ronnie’s Jewelry and Loans specializes in engagement rings, wedding rings, antique rings, men and women’s bridal jewelry and cash loans.

domain: finance


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Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 9:00pm
come shake your ass to the beats of dj ray and performances by thic man and g-zilla. free!no cover charge
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domain: entertainment


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The beginning of July saw the release of our latest print issue, Hi-Fructose Vol.28, and for this volume, renowned painter Mark Ryden collaborated with Hi-Fructose on a very special sketchbook insert. Printed on heavy-weight sketchbook paper, the 16-page insert offers an intimate look at Ryden’s series, “The Gay ’90s Show.” The insert accompanies an extensive feature on Ryden’s new work (printed on the glossy pages). Take a look at some of the drawings in the sketchbook insert and see the rest of the feature in Hi-Fructose Vol. 28, available online and at your local bookstore. More images after the jump!
Many of the artists currently exhibiting in “In the Process” at Hellion Gallery in Portland are process-oriented rather than driven by goals. Founder and owner Matt Wagner and guest curator Monica Choy put together a group of artists, both international and domestic, underground and well-known, and gave them sketchbooks. Using the returned books, a show was created that allows a glimpse into the creative process as well as artworks in their raw state. Some of the exhibiting artists include Souther Salazar, Stella Im Hultberg (Hi-Fructose Collected 3), Edwin Ushiro, Keita Morimoto, Fumi Nakamura, Rachell Sumpter and more. The show opened May 2, and runs through June 1 at Hellion Gallery. Take a look at some artwork and opening night photos after the jump!
In our latest issue, Hi-Fructose Vol.27, we printed a very special, exclusive 16-page Inside the Sketchbook section with color pencil artist Marco Mazzoni. Printed on toothy, heavy-weight sketch paper, it explores the artist’s thought process and showcases the beauty of his work in a brand new way. Take a look at the sketchbook and be sure to pick one up at the many places that stock Hi-Fructose all over the world or get it directly from us here!
In the following interview the very talented Chicago artist Laurie Hogin reveals pages of her sketchbook and talks about how essential sketching and note taking is to her artistic process. Hogin’s fluorescent paintings illustrate fictional narratives that reflect facets of the human experience and pop culture. She is known for incorporating brilliant day-glo hues into paintings filled with personal icons, symbolism, and a variation of toy like species that resemble naturalistic specimens. Laurie Hogan is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. See inside her sketchbook and read the interview after the jump!
Los Angeles-based illustrator Ken Garduno creates nostalgic narratives of popular culture that have a style reminiscent of classic 60s and 70s milieu. His artworks are a delightful mix of media including the use of watercolor and inks on paper. I asked Garduno to let us peek inside his sketchbook for our ongoing Inside the Sketchbook Series. See his humorous sketches and read the interview about his daily “sketch parties” after the jump!
Earlier this month Hi-Fructose showed you a sneak peek into the sketchbook of participating Pow Wow artist Yoskay Yamamoto (seen here) and today we’re happy to give you an exclusive look into the sketchbook of Parisian illustrator Wu Yue, who happens to be painting a wall right next to Yoskay this weekend at Pow Wow. Get a look after the jump!


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For the third year in a row, Montgomery County 4th Solar Co-Op members chose Solar Energy World as their solar installer through an open and competitive bidding process. Solar Energy World is a top rated residential solar installation company which ensures co-op participants will be able to leverage bulk-purchasing power to get discounted pricing and preferred financing terms while still receiving best-of-class solar products and superior service and installation.
“We are excited to be working with Solar United Neighbors again. Their customers are some of the best educated that we work with.”, states Bryan Hacker, Vice President of Sales for Solar Energy World. “We are also proud to be an approved contractor for MC Green Bank’s residential financing program, Clean Energy Advantage, which means we can also offer members better financing with lower interest rates.”
Co-op participants will benefit from major savings on their utility costs which should help relieve at least some of the economic pressure most people are feeling right now. “We have been receiving an unprecedented number of calls from people who are seeing higher utility bills since working from home from higher electricity usage.”, says Hacker. “With utility rates going up and the Federal Tax Credit for solar dropping from 26% this year to 22% next year, the urgency to switch to solar power has never been higher.”
ABOUT SOLAR ENERGY WORLD
Solar Energy World is a top-rated solar installation company for residential property owners that has installed thousands of solar panel systems since our founding in 2009. Our mission is to give more people the power to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels to foster financial and environmental security for their children and grandchildren.
Headquartered in Elkridge, MD with offices in New Jersey and Florida, we currently serve homeowners and small b
usinesses in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, and Washington DC. In addition to having an A+ rating on BBB, Solar Energy World has been ranked on Solar Power World’s Top Solar Contractors List for the past 3 years, 20 on the list for total residential kW installed in the US, and number 1 in Maryland for total residential kW installed.
Since 2007, Solar United Neighbors has made it their mission to change the complicated and expensive process of residential solar for the masses. In many areas across the US, Solar United has formed Co-ops to streamline the process of going solar and take advantage of bulk pricing.


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For everyone who’s been told something’s impossible, unattainable and to get their head out of the clouds because reality bites; Gully Boy is the answer.
Zoya Akhtar’s latest offering takes us deep into Dharavi, without any of the gore and gristle but without adding any glitter either. Ranveer Singh (Murad) shows how deeply he can get under the skin of a character and make it his own. From Simmba to Gully Boy, he peels off layer after layer and shows us how well honed his craft truly is.
Synopsis: Murad, a college-going young man from Dharavi, makes space in his cramped tenement for his mother, younger brother, grandmother and father (Vijay Raaz) and his father’s new, younger wife along with his dreams, hopes and burning desire to be someone. Being a rapper is as alien a concept to the people of Dharavi as are aliens themselves. You either lie and cheat to get ahead or you keep your head down, work hard and join the rat race because money, food in the belly and a roof over your head cancels out having dreams and aspirations over everything else.
His childhood love, Safina (Alia Bhatt),is spirited, unapologetic and unabashedly in love with him and his dreams. Their chemistry is spot on and very real.
How Murad tries toeing the line, doing what is expected out of him and still tries to be true to himself and acknowledge that having a passion is life is not only ok but essential, forms the crux of the movie.
The lingo, the people are all perfectly typecast although there are times when the movie seems to move slower than one would like. Friendships, loyalty and dreaming the impossible and achieving it are all the takeaways at the end of the reel.
The music: is middling between mediocre to decent. The tunes are catchy, the lyrics are worth pondering on and the acting seamless and without much of histrionics.
One may not like rap as a genre, or even the rappers with their yo-yoing all over the place and hoodie pants, but Gully Boy shows the poets that live within.


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Say You’re Sorry, Karen Rose’s latest tale of romantic suspense, is complex, thrilling and impossible to put down. FBI Special Agent Gideon Reynolds, who escaped a dangerous cult as a child, has been dodging a friend’s attempts to set him up with talk radio host Daisy Dawson. But when Daisy is attacked one night, Gideon is brought in on the case. There’s an instant attraction between Gideon and Daisy, but they quickly realize something else is simmering—the solution to the identity of a serial killer who’s been on the hunt for many years. In addition, the cult resurfaces and comes into play, which leads Gideon to reveal more of his past than he ever has before. Rose has a knack for building a community into her stories, family and friends who support as well as complicate the mission of the lead couple. Her characters are special and memorable, not because they’re superheroes, but because they’re authentic people with flaws and strengths. By exposing their frailties, Rose highlights her characters’ courage and compels readers to both worry about and root for them. This is an engrossing and exciting start to a new series, and one that busts genre stereotypes along the way.
Two high-powered Texans must run a gauntlet of family dysfunction and machinations before earning their happy ever after in The Fearless King by Katee Robert. Journey King thrives in her position as COO of the family business until her sadistic and dangerous father returns to Houston and tries to wrest away her control. At a loss to understand his motives, she turns to powerful Frank Evans, who can dig up dirt on anyone. Frank has no love for the King family, but he admires Journey, and the sexual chemistry between them is off the charts. However, the deeper Frank goes into the family’s history, the louder his internal alarm bells ring. But Frank has faced down racial and social prejudice in his past, and he’s not about to give up in the face of this new challenge—even if it turns out that both he and Journey are putting themselves at risk. There’s glitz, glamour and machinations aplenty in this soapy, highly entertaining tale of big Texas business and the larger-than-life King family.
A personal and professional partnership is forged in Alexandra Ivy’s You Will Suffer. Against the wishes of her status-conscious parents, lawyer Ellie Guthrie has returned to rural Curry, Oklahoma, to establish her law practice. Ellie enjoys working away from the eye of her judgmental father, but there’s another man who seems to be watching over her—a former FBI agent who owns the ranch next door. While Ellie outwardly bristles at Nate Marcel’s protective attitude, she secretly finds everything about him sexy. He’s also convenient to have around when vandalism and then murder come to Curry. The little village surrounded by wide-open spaces doesn’t seem a likely place for danger and mayhem, which makes the escalating violent crimes all the creepier. Everybody knows everybody—or so they think. Who could be the dangerous perpetrator in their midst? The cozy, small-town trope is turned on its head as Ellie and Nate work together to unravel ugly secrets and bloody deeds.
Longtime friends become lovers in 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne. Globe-trotting photographer Darcy Barrett is back home to oversee the renovation of her late grandmother’s cottage. Darcy is as reluctant to see it change as she is to face her childhood friend Tom Valeska, the man hired to flip the house. Though Darcy has loved Tom all her life, he’s been engaged to another—a fact that has fueled her incessant need to get away. But as she works on the remodel with a newly single Tom, might they find a path to transforming their platonic relationship as well? Told from Darcy’s fresh, irreverent point of view, this delightful romance is peppered with witty dialogue, sweet love scenes and clever descriptions. One character smells like a birthday candle; conversing with another is “like trying to thread a live worm onto a hook.” But beyond the smart wordplay, there are lovably imperfect characters like Darcy’s twin, Jamie, who is yet another obstacle for the would-be lovers to overcome. Readers of romantic comedy should snatch this one up!
A dashing Scot and a strong-willed heroine take the reader on a thrilling historical adventure in The Wrong Highlander by Lynsay Sands. Lady Evina Maclean heads out in search of Rory Buchanan, a renowned healer, after her father falls ill. When she and her men come upon him bathing, an unfortunate altercation leaves the man unconscious, and Evina decides she’ll save time by taking him directly back to her family castle. If some might consider that kidnapping, she’ll worry about it once her father is well. But then she realizes she’s brought home the wrong Buchanan. Conran, Rory’s twin, isn’t all that happy about his predicament. But he’s intrigued by the red-haired, plain-speaking beauty and uses the knowledge he’s gained from assisting his brother to tend to her father. Soon the older man is on the mend and working on his own scheme—to make a match between the unaware pair. But danger lurks in the castle, jeopardizing everyone just as love begins to blossom between Evina and Conran. Swordplay, mistaken identity and secret passages add to the romantic fun.

domain: library


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For the photos, the bride skied the bunny hill in her gown. The groom and groomsmen wore kilts and they skied with her. The photographer secured some awesome shots.
The ceremony was standing room only. We had a bagpiper hidden away to play for the wedding party's recessional. After they exited, he re-entered and piped the guests out and across to the reception center where a sit-down dinner was served followed by dancing. During the course of the evening we received many comments about the facility and how lovely everything was.
Unfortunately, Tamarack Resort is now closed, so events like this will exist only in memory.


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Yours does not have to be one of the life-destroying mortgage foreclosures forecast for 2021. The Farm Debt Mediation Act courtesy of NSW MP Hon. Richard Amery gives farmers a fair go.
Receivership & foreclosure following failed mediation can involve farmers in paying stratospheric fees. They are often locked out from their own farms. Forced sale of the family farm often involves sale of livestock bred over a couple of lifetimes, grain, wool and equipment all sold at “fire sale” prices. If they have children there are the really difficult explanations as to why they have to leave their home and perhaps their school. It is hard facing the family and the neighbours as you move out. Then what do you do? No business. No farm. No money. No income. Find somewhere to live. Look around for a job. That may not be so easy at your time of life. You may already be depending on welfare or charity but after loss of the farm it becomes much more likely. Getting started all over if you are past middle age is near impossible. That has not happened to any GBAC client in the past 30 years who did exactly what GBAC suggested.
Bank loan problems sometimes give borrowers who consult GBAC unexpected opportunities to make money. One couple last year made from their bank 30 times what they had invested in GBAC’s loan help services. Many on the land make more money from GBAC’s loan negotiations than from years of farming.
Farm debt mediation gives you a chance to turn the tables on the bank, but only if you are properly prepared and represented. Lawyers are not the solution. GBAC is the solution. It is run by 4th generation farmer, retired Chartered Accountant & CPA, Greg Bloomfield. He converted his Chartered Accountancy firm to banking consultancy when banks were deregulated, with referrals and help from Rural Counsellors in the NSW Central West & from Hon. Richard Amery MP who conceived Farm Debt Mediation.
Turn your debt disaster into triumph. Phone or email us at GBAC for a free chat about getting into a winning position to battle the bank. There is no downside, no obligation.


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Please come to my new home:
Hope to see you there!
Monday, June 14, 2010
The first time I had Mexican food I was about 12 years old. I was at a sleepover party and tacos were on the menu. I must have eaten 4 of them. I was absolutely blown away by the crunch of the shells coupled with the tangy salsa and spicy ground beef. Unlike my own children who basically eat meat and salsa, I remember loading them up with shredded iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese and chopped tomatoes, and I fell in love with this new (to me) style of cuisine. Hmmm. Good times only made better a few years later when I had my first visit to California and put together Mexican food with margaritas.
For yesterday's Sunday Supper, I revisited my love of Mexican style food with chicken enchiladas. It was another overcast Sunday and cooking something fragrant in the crockpot was the perfect antidote to a damp, gray day. The hubby had bought a family sized package of bone-in chicken thighs this week, so he tossed (under my direction, of course) 8 of them in the crockpot with a good dousing of smoky bar-b-q sauce. He turned the temperature to low and we simply let them simmer for 4 or 5 hours. I then removed them with a slotted spoon (because they were positively falling off the bones tender) and shredded the chicken with a fork. I added about a tablespoon of chopped poblanos chilies in adobo to fire things up a bit, put them pack into the pot on warm and then prepared the rest of the accompaniments. Flour tortillas were wrapped in foil and placed in the oven to warm, a slightly under ripe avocado was sliced, some arugula was cleaned, sharp cheddar was grated and refried beans with adobo were heated through. It was a bodacious make your own enchilada sort of dinner and you can see my version in the picture above. The green drizzle is commercial salsa verde and added a little kick to a fine Sunday Supper. Probably not the most authentic enchiladas ever, but they were easy, loaded with delicious green things and not overly dense, like Mexican can sometimes be. Yum.

domain: food


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Biodegradable Sensor Monitors Pressure in the Body then Disappears
More details about the research being developed in Prof. Thanh Nguyen’s research group can be found in UConn Today.
Dr. Xinyu Zhao has been awarded an American Chemical Society Grant through the Petroleum Research fund for her research entitled “A computational study of the lean blow-off mechanisms for a bluff-body stabilized premixed flame.” The fund supports research directly related to petroleum and fossil fuels at nonprofit institutions around the world. Increasingly stringent emission requirements […]
Prof. Zhao Awarded Air Force Young Investigator Program for Work on Turbulent Premixed Flames
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) has honored Professor Xinyu Zhao as one of just 43 scientists and engineers awarded YIP grants for her research project titled “Pockets in Highly Turbulent Premixed Flames: Physics and Implications on Modeling.” The grant is worth a total of $450,000 over three […]
New Device for Testing Heart Health
Dr. George Lykotrafitis and his student Kostyantyn Partola have been featured for their development of a device that tests blood viscosity – an important indicator of heart health. Kostyantyn has had support from the Accelerate UConn program as well as the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fellowship program to support the commercialization of the […]


Past American appointments have been criticised for being nobodies. This time the problem is different. Mr Wolfowitz's intelligence is not in doubt, though his career at the Pentagon, as an investment banker and as US ambassador to Indonesia are only indirectly relevant to the most important development institution on earth. But he is gravely handicapped by his reputation as the neoconservative godfather of the Iraq invasion, whose unpopularity explains the froideur with which yesterday's news was received in France and Germany. Mr Bush's choice follows his nomination of John Bolton, a state department hawk and unilateralist, as the next US ambas sador to the UN. European governments badly wanted the bank to be led by a doveish figure such as Colin Powell, the former secretary of state; that would have been welcomed as evidence of the more multilateralist approach his successor, Condoleezza Rice, has promised.
NGOs fear that Mr Wolfowitz's free market outlook, combined with existing US interest in downsizing the bank, could run counter to development policy-making trends under the admired outgoing president, James Wolfensohn. Some worry that his strong emphasis on human rights may complicate relations with China. What is crucial is to continue the focus on poverty reduction that - in a hopeful sign - was begun by Robert McNamara, the former US secretary of defence, and also a hate figure before he took over in 1968.
Mr Bush's choice revives old questions about the selection process. The Commission for Africa recommended last week that heads of international institutions should be decided by open competition "for the best candidate rather than by traditions which limit these appointments by nationality". Europeans - who remember how the US managed to veto the German candidate to head the IMF last year - should now state their objections to Mr Wolfowitz loud and clear.


Researchers have linked a specific type of immune cell found in arterial plaque to increased probability of a stroke or mini-stroke.
Chiara Giannarelli, MD, PhD, and colleagues’ study dissected and scrutinized human plaque in an effort to identify markers that might flag a patient as high-risk for vascular dysfunction, according to a release. The researchers presented their findings at the American Heart Association’s Vascular Discovery Scientific Sessions in Boston on May 14.
“Despite decades of research, we don’t know how to predict and prevent plaque from rupturing in the arteries,” Giannarelli, an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, said in a release. “Most of the research has involved looking at human tissue under the microscope. This has helped us better understand many features of ruptured plaque, but little is known about how and which individual cell type contribute the most to ruptures causing stroke or heart attack.”
Giannarelli’s team recruited 38 patients, on average 72 years old, who they studied in two separate groups. All patients underwent a procedure to correct carotid artery stenosis, and some had experienced a recent stroke or mini-stroke while others presented with no symptoms.
The researchers first looked at a subset of 15 patients, using mass-cytometry to break down the basic cellular makeup of their plaque tissue. They found T-cells—lymphocytes that play a central role in immune response—dominated the plaque.
Giannarelli et al. then conducted a second mass-cytometry analysis and evaluated gene expression in the remaining 23 patients, finding similar results. T-cells continued to dominate advanced plaques, and the team said CD4-positive effector memory cells, a subtype of T-cells, were more common in patients who’d had a previous stroke or mini-stroke.
Giannarelli said that though her team’s study is limited in its small sample size, it does highlight the fact that there’s localized inflammation driven by T-cells in atherosclerotic plaque that isn’t related to any systemic immune response. T-cells found in plaque were unconnected to those found in patients’ blood samples.
“Our study found that plaque from stroke patients is full of T-cells that are part of the adaptive immune system, a specialized second-line of defense in the body,” Giannarelli said. “This may help us eventually identify targets for new immune therapies for the late stages of atherosclerosis.”


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International monetary asymmetries and the central bank
In this paper, we argue that the current international monetary system is fully asymmetric, as it divides the world among reserve issuing economies (RIEs) and reserve earning economies (REEs). Thus, monetary theory, we argue, should take into account whether or not the central bank issues an international reserve currency, as that would largely determine its balance sheet structure, interest rate-targeting procedure, and the elasticity of monetary policy and of the exchange rate regime. The reason is plain: as opposed to RIEs, the central bank in REEs must target a minimum stock of foreign currency assets, as the local currency does not circulate abroad.
Volume (Year): 32 (2010)
Issue (Month): 3 (April)
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domain: chemistry


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The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) will keep undergoing maintenance at least through early 2019, almost a year beyond the original six-month availability.
On Sept. 22, CVN-69’s commanding officer, Capt. Kyle Higgins, said in a message on the ship’s Facebook [FB] community page that while he could not specifically cite how long the ship will stay at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard it will be there at least “into the beginning of next year.”
Higgins acknowledged “a lot of uncertainty on how long this maintenance period would last,” but said the Eisenhower (known as IKE) “is a 41-year-old dynamo.”
The Eisenhower first arrived in Norfolk in August 2017 in preparation for an expected six-month Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) maintenance and upgrade period. The work is focusing on nuclear special emphasis work plus various mechanical and electrical improvements.
At the time, project superintendent Matt Merciez said the Navy accelerated the production completion date so the PIA would not fall in the middle of the winter holidays (Defense Daily, Aug. 16, 2017)
CVN-69 then started the PIA in September, with an initial expected completion date of spring 2018 (Defense Daily, Sept. 22, 2017).
Higgins said the ship’s most recent 2016 deployment accomplished a lot, “but that came at a price. You can’t put a ship through so much without having equipment break and having to replace other parts. That’s true of any warship, even Mighty IKE.”
Higgins compared the carrier to a classic car with plenty of miles on it being taken to the shop and more work pops up than initially expected.
“This is a 41-year-old-ship and much like a vintage car, there are always things we can’t anticipate.”
He continued that like the car, while extra work is done to correct additional issues, “you’re able to get some other work done on it at the same time – new upholstery, took care of some rusty areas – while the mechanics are working on the front end.”
However, this dynamic leads to work taking longer, rework, and more issues being found that need to be fixed leading to a growing repair list. So now second- and third-order effects the Navy did not anticipate put the ship in the position where the Navy will need to requalify reactor sailors for their watch stations during this continuing work.
This is within a larger picture of needing the sailors to get trained and qualified for the ship in Norfolk before the work is finished.
“When we get to the other side of these challenges we’ll be ready to go to sea and begin training as a team with the rest of strike group and prepare to head out to wherever we’re needed,” Higgins added.


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A razor-sharp memoir in which a young woman travels to Cambodia, Stockholm, and Paris to overcome the legacy of her difficult and charismatic father
When Victoria Loustalot was eight years old her father swept her up in a fantasy: a trip around the world. It was a grandiose plan and she had fallen for it. But it had never been so much as a possibility. Victoria's father was sick. He was HIV positive and soon to fall prey to AIDS. Three years later he would be gone.
When Victoria realized that the grand trip with her father wasn't going to happen, she was devastated. Her mother assumed she'd get over it, that eventually it would become just a shrug. But it didn't. In the years to come, Victoria wondered what it would have been like to have been alone with her dad all those months, to see him outside of his sickness, beyond anything related to their family or their life. To have been with him in a new context. That's what she wanted. And that's what she did.
Some fifteen years after that initial promise, Victoria went to Stockholm, to Angkor Wat, and to Paris. She went to the places they were meant to see together, and she went to make peace with her father, too. Because while he'd always be forty-four, she'd gone on accumulating birthdays. Every year, her understanding of him continued to evolve and their relationship was still alive. Victoria Loustalot felt trapped beneath all of the unanswered questions he left behind. She needed to be set free. She needed to say goodbye.
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VICTORIA LOUSTALOT is a twenty-seven-year-old journalist and essayist. She earned her B.A. and M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Onion as well as online for AOL, iVillage, Women's Wear Daily, Glamour Magazine's relationship blog "Smitten," Brides and the recently launched Crushable among others. She also wrote The New Yorker's daily literary blog, "The Book Bench," in 2008 and 2009. This Is How You Say Goodbye is her first book.About the Author:
VICTORIA LOUSTALOT's last name is pronounced LOO * STA * LOW. For a longer version of her bio, please read this book.
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Book Description St. Martin's Press. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. 1250005205 Fast Shipping ,Excellent customer service. Bookseller Inventory # K720002
Book Description Book Condition: Brand New. Book Condition: Brand New. Bookseller Inventory # 97812500052051.0
Book Description St. Martin's Press, 2013. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. book. Bookseller Inventory # 1250005205
Book Description St. Martin's Press, 2013. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. Bookseller Inventory # P111250005205

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For centuries Tibet has been known as the last home of mystery, the hidden, sealed land, where ancient mysteries still survive that have perished in the rest of the Orient. Many men have written about Tibet and its secret lore, but few have actually penetrated it to learn its ancient wisdom. Among those few was Madame Alexandra David-Neel, a French orientalist. A practicing Buddhist, a profound historian of religion, and linguist, she actually lived in Tibet for more than 14 years. She had the great honor of being received by the Dalai Lama; she studied philosophical Buddhism and Tibetan Tantra at the great centers; she meditated in lonely caves and on wind-swept winter mountains with yogi hermits; and she even witnessed forbidden corpse-magic in the forests. Her experiences have been unique.
Magic and Mystery in Tibet tells the story of her experiences in Tibet, among lamas and magicians. It is neither a travel book nor an autobiography but a study of psychic discovery, a description of the occult and mystical theories and psychic training practices of Tibet. She tells of great sages and sorcerers that she met; of the system of monastic education; the great teachers and their disciples; Tibetan folklore about their spiritual athletes; reincarnation and memory from previous lives; elaborate magical rites to obtain siddhis; the horrible necromantic magic of the pre-Buddhist Bonpa shamas; mental visualization exercises to create disembodied thought forms (tulpas); visions; phenomena of physical yoga, control of the body heat mechanism; breathing exercises; sending “messages on the wind”; and much similar material.
An unusual aspect of Madame David-Neel’s book is that she herself experienced many of the phenomena she describes, yet she describes them with precision and in a matter-of-fact manner, permitting the reader to draw his own conclusions about validity, interpretation in terms of psychology, and value. Particularly interesting for the modern experiencer are her detailed instructions for tumo (the yoga of heat control) and creation of thought projections.
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Magic and Mystery in Tibet
By Alexandra David-Neel
Dover Publications, Inc.Copyright © 1971 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
TIBET AND THE LAMAS
"WELL, then, it is understood. I leave Dawasandup with you as interpreter. He will accompany you to Gangtok."
Is it a man who is speaking to me? This short yellow-skinned being clad in a robe of orange brocade, a diamond star sparkling on his hat, is he not, rather, a genie come down from the neighbouring mountains?
They say he is an "incarnated Lama" and heir prince of a Himalayan throne, but I doubt his reality. Probably he will vanish like a mirage, with his caparisoned little steed and his party of followers, dressed in all the colours of the rainbow. He is a part of the enchantment in which I have lived these last fifteen days. This new episode is of the stuff that dreams are made of. In a few minutes, I shall wake up in a real bed, in some country not haunted by genii nor by "incarnated Lamas" wrapped in shimmering silk. A country where men wear ugly dark coats and the horses do not carry silver inlaid saddles on golden-yellow cloths.
The sound of a kettledrum makes me start, two hautboys intone a melancholy minor tune. The youthful genie straddles his diminutive courser, knights and squires jump into their saddles.
"I shall expect you," the lama-prince says, smiling graciously at me.
I hear myself, as if I were listening to some other person, promising him that I will start the next day for his capital, and the little troop, headed by the musicians, disappears.
As the last murmurs of the plaintive melody die away in the distance, the enchantment that has held me spellbound dissipates.
I have not been dreaming, all this is real. I am at Kalimpong, in the Himalayas, and the interpreter given me when I arrived stands at my side.
I have already related the circumstances which had brought me to the Himalayas. Political reasons had, at that time, led the Dalai Lama to seek refuge in British territory. It had seemed to me a unique opportunity, while he was stopping at the Indian frontier, of obtaining an interview and getting information from him about the special type of Buddhism that prevails in Tibet.
Very few strangers have ever approached the monk-king hidden in his sacred city, in the Land of Snows. Even in exile, he saw no one. Up to the time of my visit, he had obstinately refused an audience to any woman except Tibetans and I believe, even to this day, that I am the only exception to this rule.
As I left Darjeeling, in the early rosy dawn of a cool spring morning, I little guessed the far-reaching consequences of my request.
I thought of a short excursion, of an interesting but brief interview; while, actually, I became involved in wanderings that kept me in Asia for full fourteen years.
At the beginning of that long series of journeys, the Dalai Lama figures, in my diaries, as an obliging host who, seeing a stranger without the walls, invites him to see over his domain.
This, the Dalai Lama did in a few words: "Learn the Tibetan language," he told me.
If one could believe his subjects who call him the "Omniscient," the sovereign of Tibet, when giving me this advice, foresaw its consequences, and consciously directed me, not only towards Lhasa, his forbidden capital, but towards the mystic masters and unknown magicians, yet more closely hidden in his wonderland.
At Kalimpong, the lama-king lived in a large house belonging to the minister of the Rajah of Bhutan. To give the place a more majestic appearance, two rows of tall bamboo poles had been planted in the form of an avenue. Flags flew from every pole, with the inscription Aum mani padme hum!, or the "horse of the air," surrounded by magic formulas.
The suite of the exiled sovereign was numerous and included more than a hundred servants. They were for the most part engaged in interminable gossip, and quiet reigned round the habitation. But on fête days, or when visitors of rank were to be received, a crowd of busy officials and domestics poured out from all sides, peering at one from every window, crossing and recrossing the large plot of ground in front of the house, hurrying, screaming, agitated, and all so remarkably alike in their dirty, greasy robes, that a stranger could easily make awkward mistakes about their rank.
The splendour, decorum and etiquette of the Potala were absent in that land of exile. Those who saw this road-side camp, where the Head of the Tibetan theocracy waited for his subjects to reconquer his throne, could not imagine what the Court at Lhasa was like.
The British expedition penetrating into the forbidden territory and parading his capital, in spite of the sorcery of the most famous magicians, had probably led the Dalai Lama to understand that foreign barbarians were masters in a material sense, by right of force. The inventions that he noticed during his trip through India must also have convinced him of their ability to enslave and mould the material elements of nature. But his conviction that the white race is mentally inferior remained unshaken. And, in this, he only shared the opinion of all Asiatics—from Ceylon to the northern confines of Mongolia.
A Western woman acquainted with Buddhist doctrines seemed to him an inconceivable phenomenon.
If I had vanished into space while talking to him, he would have been less astonished. My reality surprised him most; but, when finally convinced, he politely inquired after my "Master," assuming that I could only have learned of Buddha from an Asiatic. It was not easy to convince him that the Tibetan text of one of the most esteemed Buddhist books had been translated into French before I was born. "Ah well," he murmured at last, "if a few strangers have really learned our language and read our sacred books, they must have missed the meaning of them."
This was my chance. I hastened to seize it.
"It is precisely because I suspect that certain religious doctrines of Tibet have been misunderstood that I have come to you to be enlightened," I said.
My reply pleased the Dalai Lama. He readily answered any questions I put to him, and a little later gave me a long written explanation of the various subjects we had discussed.
The prince of Sikkim and his escort having disappeared, it only remained for me to keep my promise and make ready to start for Gangtok. But there was something to be seen before moving on.
The evening before, I had witnessed the benediction of the pilgrims by the Dalai Lama, a widely different scene from the Pontifical benediction at Rome. For the Pope in a single gesture blesses the multitude, while the Tibetans are far more exacting and each expect an individual blessing.
Among Lamaists again the manner of the blessing varies with the social rank of the blessed. The Lama places both hands on the heads of those he most respects. In other cases only one hand, two fingers or even only one finger. Lastly comes the blessing given by slightly touching the head with coloured ribbons, attached to a short stick.
In every case, however, there is contact, direct or indirect, between the lama and the devotee. This contact, according to Lamaists, is indispensable because the benediction, whether of people or of things, is not meant to call down upon them the benediction of God, but to infuse into them some beneficial power that emanates from the lama.
The large number of people who came to Kalimpong to be touched by the Dalai Lama gave me some idea of his widespread prestige.
The procession took several hours to pass before him, and I noticed that not only Lamaists but many people from Nepal and from Bengal, belonging to Hindu sects, had joined the crowd.
I saw some, who had come only to look on, suddenly seized by an occult fervour, hurrying to join the pious flock.
As I was watching this scene, my eyes fell on a man seated on the ground, a little to one side. His matted hair was wound around his head like a turban, in the style common to Hindu ascetics. Yet, his features were not those of an Indian and he was wearing dirty and much-torn lamaist monastic garments.
This tramp had placed a small bag beside him and seemed to observe the crowd with a cynical expression.
I pointed him out to Dawasandup, asking him if he had any idea who this Himalayan Diogenes might be.
"It must be a travelling naljorpa," he answered; and, seeing my curiosity, my obliging interpreter went to the man and entered into conversation with him.
He returned to me with a serious face and said:
"This lama is a peripatetic ascetic from Bhutan. He lives here and there in caves, empty houses or under the trees. He has been stopping for several days in a small monastery near here."
My thoughts returned to the vagabond when the prince and his escort had disappeared. I had no definite plan for the afternoon, why should I not go to the gompa (monastery) where he was staying, and persuade him to talk? Was he really mocking, as he seemed to be, at the Dalai Lama and the faithful? And if so, why? There might be interesting reasons.
I communicated my desire to Dawasandup, who agreed to accompany me.
We went on horseback and soon reached the gompa, which was only a large-sized country-house.
In the lha khang (the room containing the holy images) we found the naljorpa seated upon a cushion in front of a low table, finishing his meal. Cushions were brought and we were offered tea.
It was difficult to begin a conversation with the ascetic, as his mouth appeared to be full of rice; he had only answered our polite greetings by a kind of grunt.
I was trying to find a phrase to break the ice, when the strange fellow began to laugh and muttered a few words. Dawasandup seemed embarrassed.
"What does he say?" I asked.
"Excuse me," answered the interpreter, "these naljorpas sometimes speak roughly. I do not know if I should translate."
"Please do," I replied. "I am here to take notes; especially of anything at all curious and original."
"Well, then—excuse me—he said, 'What is this idiot here for?'"
Such rudeness did not greatly astonish me as, in India also, certain yogins make a habit of insulting anyone who approaches them.
"Tell him I have come to ask why he mocked at the crowd seeking the benediction of the Dalai Lama."
"Puffed up with a sense of their own importance and the importance of what they are doing. Insects fluttering in the dung," muttered the naljorpa between his teeth.
This was vague, but the kind of language one expects from such men.
"And you," I replied, "are you free from all defilement?"
He laughed noisily.
"He who tries to get out only sinks in deeper. I roll in it like a pig. I digest it and turn it into golden dust, into a brook of pure water. To fashion stars out of dog dung, that is the Great Work!"
Evidently my friend was enjoying himself. This was his way of posing as a superman.
"Are these pilgrims not right, to profit by the presence of the Dalai Lama and obtain his blessing? They are simple folk incapable of aspiring to the knowledge of the higher doctrines——"
But the naljorpa interrupted me.
"For a blessing to be efficacious, he who gives it must possess the power that he professes to communicate.
"Would the Precious Protector (the Dalai Lama) need soldiers to fight the Chinese or other enemies if he possessed such a power? Could he not drive anyone he liked out of the country and surround Tibet with an invisible barrier that none could pass?
"The Guru who is born in a lotus had such a power, and his blessing still reaches those who worship him, even though he lives in the distant land of the Rakshasas.
"I am only a humble disciple, and yet——"
It appeared to me that the "humble disciple" was maybe a little mad and certainly very conceited, for his "and yet" had been accompanied by a glance that suggested many things.
My interpreter meanwhile was visibly uneasy. He profoundly respected the Dalai Lama and disliked to hear him criticized. On the other hand, the man who could "create stars out of dog dung" inspired him with a superstitious fear.
I proposed to leave, but as I understood that the lama was going away the next morning, I handed Dawasandup a few rupees for the traveller to help him on his way.
This present displeased the naljorpa. He refused it, saying he had already received more provisions than he could carry.
Dawasandup thought it right to insist. He took a few steps forward, intending to place the money on a table near the lama. Then I saw him stagger, fall backward and strike his back against the wall as if he had been violently pushed. He uttered a cry and clutched at his stomach. The naljorpa got up and, sneering, left the room.
"I feel as if I had received a terrible blow," said Dawasandup. "The lama is irritated. How shall we appease him?"
"Let us go," I answered. "The lama has probably nothing to do with it. You, perhaps, have heart trouble and had better consult a doctor."
Pale and troubled, the interpreter answered nothing. Indeed there was nothing to be said. We returned, but I was not able to reassure him.
The next day Dawasandup and I left for Gangtok.
The mule path that we followed dives right into the Himalayas, the sacred land which ancient Indian traditions people with famous sages, stern magicians, ascetics and deities.
The summer resorts established by foreigners on the border of these impressive highlands have not yet modified their aspect. A few miles away from the hotels where the Western world enjoys dancing and jazz bands, the primeval forest reigns.
Shrouded in the moving fogs, a fantastic army of trees, draped in livid green moss, seems to keep watch along the narrow tracks, warning or threatening the traveller with enigmatic gestures. From the low valleys buried under the exuberant jungle to the mountain summits covered with eternal snow, the whole country is bathed in occult influences.
In such scenery it is fitting that sorcery should hold sway. The so-called Buddhist population is practically Shamanist and a large number of mediums: Bönpos, Pawos, Bunting and Yabas of both sexes, even in the smallest hamlets, transmit the messages of gods, demons and the dead.
I slept on the way at Pakyong, and the next day I reached Gangtok.
As I neared this village-capital, I was greeted by a sudden and formidable hail-storm.
Tibetans think that meteorological phenomena are the work of demons or magicians. A hail-storm is one of their favourite weapons. The former use it to hinder pilgrims on their journey to holy places and the latter, by this means, defend their hermitages against intruders and keep off faint-hearted candidates for discipleship.
A few weeks after my arrival, the superstitious Dawasandup confessed that he had consulted a mopa (diviner) about the unexpected attack of hail upon the otherwise gloriously sunny day of my arrival.
The oracle declared that the local gods and the holy lamas were not hostile to me, but that, nevertheless, I should meet with many difficulties if I attempted to live in the "Land of the Religion," as Tibetans call their country.
A prediction very generously fulfilled!
His Highness Sidkeong Namgyal, hereditary prince of Sikkim, was a veritable lama: abbot of a monastery of the Karma-Khagyud sect and a tulku believed to be the reincarnation of his uncle, a lama of saintly memory.
As usual, he had donned the monastic garb while still a child, and spent a part of his youth in the monastery of which he was now the head.
The British Government having chosen him, in preference to his elder brother, as successor to the maharajah his father, he was put in charge of an anglicized Indian as guardian and teacher.
A short stay at Oxford and a trip round the world completed his heterogeneous education.
Sidkeong tulku knew English better than his mother tongue: Tibetan. He spoke Hindustani fluently and, also, a little Chinese. The private villa he had built in his father's gardens resembled an English country house imposed on a Tibetan temple. The same contrasts were repeated within. The ground floor was furnished according to English taste, while upstairs there was an oratory with Lamaist images and a Tibetan sitting-room.
The young prince was very open-minded. He immediately became interested in my researches and facilitated my task with great zeal.
Excerpted from Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel. Copyright © 1971 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION BY DR. D'ARSONVAL
I TIBET AND THE LAMAS
II A GUEST OF THE LAMAS
III A FAMOUS TIBETAN MONASTERY
IV DEALING WITH GHOSTS AND DEMONS
V DISCIPLES OF YORE AND THEIR CONTEMPORARY EMULATORS
VI PSYCHIC SPORTS
VII MYSTIC THEORIES AND SPIRITUAL TRAINING
VIII PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN TIBET - HOW TIBETANS EXPLAIN THEM
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
This is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. She was one of those marvelous women adventurers from the turn of the 20th century, but with a distinctive difference. She was a practicing Buddhist and a Buddhist scholar. From the mid 19-teens and through the 1920s, she travelled throughout Indian, China, Japan, Ceylon, Nepal, Tibet and other Asian countries. She met the Dali Lama of the time, who was then in exile in India. Tibet was a country closed to outsiders, yet she dared to journey there incognito and spent 14 years in search of knowledge about Tibetan lamaist and mystic practices. Her description of the people, their way of life, their beliefs, the rituals, practices and teachings is what makes the book such an amazing read. She gained access to high-ranking lamas as well as seeking out hermits and ascetics. She gives details of many of the rituals and meditation practices, in which she participated as well, even living as hermit for months herself. Though much of is about how the Tibetans practiced their form of Buddhism, there's also an underlayer of far more ancient shamanistic beliefs and practices. There were magicians and sorcerers who dealt with summoning and controlling demons. Tales of sorcerers animating dead bodies. Of mystic training that could make phantoms of the mind become so real that others could see them. I loved this book and need to seek out the one that preceded it. I ended up reading part 2 first without realizing it, not that I mind.
For those interested in the day to day practice of Tibetan buddhism and beliefs, this is a good introduction taken from the Westerner's viewpoint..