Dion Smith was a beacon of hope for his family and friends. He worked for years at the Kids Safe Zone in West Baltimore to make a difference.
Ericka Alston-Buck, the Penn North Kids Safe Zone CEO fondly remembered Dion Wednesday.
"He was always happy, always smiling, always joking," said Penn North CEO, Ericka-Alston Buck.
She was saddened to hear of the 24-year-old's death, a man who had such an impact on the young people at the Safe Zone. She said if the kids couldn't talk to anyone else, they could talk to Dion.
"He was hope for them," Alston-Buck said. "Because he had come from where they came from, he understood the conditions that they live in, he understood not being with your parents, or not having."
Dion was gunned down in his apartment in yet another act of senseless violence in the city. His own brother got to the call. No. 173 on the city's homicide count.
I am not angry," Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Chief T.J. Smith said. "I am upset that he is not gonna have a life to lead and I know what he wanted to know."
Investigators are working to find Dion's killer. Anyone with information is asked to call police or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.


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This month, Greenhills celebrates poetry
April is National Poetry Month, which means it’s time once again for the Greenhills community to celebrate our love of language and the power of poetry to move us, to inspire us, and to bring joy to our daily lives.In 1789, poet William Wordsworth described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Poetry is a special form of expression that communicates love, fear, delight, sadness, and hope through the poet’s careful attention to language. Poetry can be challenging, and it can also be fun–after all, poetry is really about being playful with words. The Greenhills English department invites you to participate in our school-wide celebration of National Poetry Month through one or more of the following events, all part of the 2015 Greenhills Poetry Celebration.
For more information, please email English Department Chair Kelly Williams.
VISITING WRITER PROGRAM April 20
This year, the English department is welcoming prize-winning poet Kazim Ali as part of the Visiting Writer Program. Ali currently serves as the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Oberlin College. He has published four books of poetry, including The Far Mosque, The Fortieth Day, the cross-genre poetic memoir Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities, and Sky Ward, which won the Ohioana Award in Poetry. Monday, April 20th will mark his third visit to Greenhills this semester. He will spend the day in sixth grade English classes as part of the intensive unit on poetry taught by Mrs. Visscher.
PUBLIC POETRY April 20-24
For one week, April 20-24, Greenhills students will have the opportunity to participate in Public Poetry in the cafeteria. There will be a large-scale version of magnetic poetry made from 300 words printed on clear contact paper displayed on the windows of the cafeteria. Students will be able to move the words around to create poems. Public Poetry is a great way to be expressive, spontaneous, and playful with words, accompanied by the knowledge that parents, teachers, visitors, and students of all ages use the cafeteria space.
POETRY AROUND THE SCHOOL April 20-24
There will be poetry available throughout the building. The Greenhills Library will host a poetry display of anthologies and single-author books; students will read poems at grade meetings and division assemblies; poems may be read in non-English classes; chalk poems may appear on the sidewalks; and poems will be posted in unexpected places around the school. Keep an eye out for more!
POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY April 22
All students are encouraged to carry a poem in their pocket on this day. Find a poem that you like (see www.poetryfoundation.org), print it out, and keep it with you all day. You may be called upon at any point in the day by any teacher or a fellow student to read your poem. At the end of the day, the middle school grade with the most poems still in their pockets in G period will win a special prize for the entire grade. The upper school students with poems in their pockets will win the everlasting respect of their English teachers and the intellectual admiration of their peers.
MAGNETIC POETRY COMPETITION April 23 (MS & US lunch)
Four students from each grade will compete in a bracket-style poetry competition. Using Magnetic Poetry Kits, students will work in teams of two to create poems on small metal sheets in timed rounds of elimination. English teachers will score poems to determine who will advance to the next round. The winning team will receive iTunes gift cards.
24 HOURS OF POETRY April 24 12:01 a.m.-11:59 p.m. (online)
On April 24, beginning at midnight, there will be an online event called 24 HOURS OF POETRY. The goal is to see how many original poems the Greenhills community can write and post in that timeframe. When you login to Greenhouse, you will see a wiki for poetry submissions. The Greenhouse wiki for this event will be open to students, teachers, staff, and parents! Prizes will be awarded for the first posted poem, the funniest poem, the best use of a gryphon, the best ode to Greenhills, and the best poem about springtime.
ADRIAN WADE WRIGHT TALENT SHOWCASE April 24 at 7 p.m. (theater)
The African American Focus student group will host talent showcase that includes poetry, music, and dance to raise money for the Adrian Wade Wright memorial fund, which supports diversity initiatives at Greenhills.
MCDOWELL AWARDS SHOWCASE April 30 at 7 p.m. (theater)
The community is invited to hear McDowell winners read from their winning poems, stories, plays, essays, and articles. Join us for a celebration of the hard work, talent, and creativity of middle and upper school students.

domain: artistic


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Arctic Security Series
Several Northern European foreign ministers, among which Timo Soini (Finland) and Børge Brende (Norway), US Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as well as other experts discussed new security challenges in the Arctic during the MSC Core Group Meeting in Washington, DC, on May 9, 2017.
The MSC Arctic Security Roundtable was hosted jointly with the Wilson Center's Polar Initiative and the Arctic Circle. You can find a brief report here. A few photo impressions are available in the photo album of the MSC Core Group Meeting in Washington.
The next MSC Arctic Security Roundtable will take place in Reykjavík on October 12.
Arctic Security and the MSC
Arctic Security has become a key topic on the international security agenda: Warming at a pace of at least twice the global average, the Arctic is undergoing a dramatic transformation that has far-reaching geopolitical and security implications. The MSC wants to contribute to the emerging debate through a series of events aimed at select decision-makers at the highest levels of government, the private sector and civil society.
Arctic Security Roundtables
The Arctic Security Roundtables are designed as an exclusive format, taking place at the side-lines of high-level international events around the world. They bring together a select group of international leaders from within the MSC’s global network, including key decision-makers from the respective region. As with other MSC Roundtables, discussions are private and off-the-record, facilitating a frank and open debate.
The MSC hosted its firsts Arctic Security Roundtables during the Munich Security Conference 2017 and during the MSC Core Group Meeting in Washington in May. The next roundtable is scheduled for October 2017 in Reykjavík, on the sidelines of the Arctic Circle Assembly.
Other MSC Activities on Arctic Security
With the recent establishment of the MSC Arctic Security track, the topic already played an important role in many of the MSC's activities, including panel discussions and side events at the annual flagship conference in Munich and will continue to do so. Additionally, a chapter in the Munich Security Report 2017 focused on the topic.

domain: news


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Recent Blog Posts By KSNF
Dr. Ken Stewart discusses important information about shingles on Living Well
Dr. Ken Stewart, KCU-Joplin assistant professor of primary medicine, shares important information about shingles.
KCU-Joplin students present CHAMPS Anatomy Academy at McKinley Elementary School
KCU Score 1 for Health CHAMPS program med students led the CHAMPS Anatomy Academy for students at Joplin’s McKinley Elementary. The educational outreach program aims to help combat childhood obesity, promoting healthy living while encouraging the pursuit of higher education through the teaching of anatomy and basic nutrition.

domain: medical


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Immigration Department to facilitate entry of Miguna Miguna
By Japheth Ogila
| January 6th 2020
The Government will facilitate entry of lawyer Miguna Miguna back into the country tomorrow, Director General of Immigration Services Alexander Muteshi has confirmed.
A press statement from the Immigration Department partly read: “This is to confirm that in compliance with the court orders issued on December 14, 2018, the Directorate will facilitate Dr Miguna’s entry into the country."
The statement came after fresh orders were issued by High Court judge Justice Weldon Korir, which directed the government to facilitate entry of Miguna Miguna.
On Monday, Miguna (pictured) affirmed that he had departed Canada for Nairobi. He told the Government to grant him entry into the country stating that he is a Kenyan citizen whose fundamental rights must be respected.
“I'm not asking for any special treatment. I have never sought so-called "red carpet" treatment. I want and demand all my rights and fundamental freedoms to be respected. I want my valid Kenyan passport back. I want court orders to be obeyed and complied with. I must enter Kenya unconditionally as a Kenyan,” he posted on his social media page.
He then went on to laud his legal team headed by lawyer Dr John Khaminwa for seeking the court orders to direct the government agencies to facilitate his return.
His legal team moved to Milimani Law Court seeking orders that would bar State agencies from interfering with his return. Dr Khaminwa and his team wanted the State to comply with the court orders which were issued by Justice Chacha Mwita on December 14, 2018.
“The Application has been necessitated by the refusal by the State to comply with numerous court orders following his removal by some Government officials from Kenya,” Mr Khaminwa said.
In the application, Miguna said that it was urgent because he wants to come back to Kenya on January 7.
“We pray that the honorable court be pleased to certify this application as urgent and hears it on a priority basis and during the court’s Christmas recess,” Khaminwa said.
A list of respondents in the matter include the Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Director of Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa, former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett, Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, Mohamed Said, an officer in charge of the defunct Flying Squad and OCPD Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Attorney General.
The lawyer sought an order to compel the State to facilitate entry of Miguna into Kenya on January 7, or any other date on the basis of his identification through his national identity card, or his Kenyan passport in the form and State it was delivered to the High Court Registry pursuant to the court order.
Miguna was flown out of the country via KLM flight departing Nairobi for Amsterdam at midnight, early 2018 after the state agencies failed to produce him in court pursuant to court orders.
On its defence, the government said that the lawyer had no valid documents to depict that he was a Kenyan citizen.
The Ministry of Interior spokesman Mwenda Njoka stated that he renounced his Kenyan citizenship years back, acquired Canadian citizenship and never bothered to reclaim Kenyan citizenship in the legally prescribed manner, neither did he disclose that he had another country’s citizenship despite being a lawyer who should have known better.
Five professional boxers who went bankruptAccording to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Bankruptcy is the quality or state of being reduced to financial ruin. To expound, Bankruptcy is a legal
Why Kenyan boxers are winning medals once againThe BFK led by President Anthony ‘Jamal’ Ombok was elected into the office in 2019 and has since...
Karen Hospital co-founder Dr James Mageria dies of cancer
- Why Dr James Gakara's postmortem failed to proceed
- Jubilee nominates Isaac Ngugi to replace Prengei, Governor Kinyajui protests
- Masinde Muliro University’s top administration, including VC, announced
By Brian Okoth
- Home alone: Kenyans don’t understand why man’s angry after wives leave him
By Brian Okoth
- Nakuru family in agony as KWS detective goes missing

domain: law


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Events entertainer and family magician with a range of custom packages for the larger festival or event. Choose from large stage productions, mix and mingle family entertainment, Christmas party entertainment and themed holiday shows.
Walk-around mix and mingle family style entertainment
“Myself, Steve my brother and his partner were in stitches when you had our daughter doing the chicken trick. You certainly know how to make a child feel special. Thanks again."
Events and Festival Magic Show
With an perfect events entertainer to keep both adults and children amused and amazed with mind blowing mix and mingle magic.
Amazement and Hilarity is guaranteed. Presenting a unique brand of comedy magic designed to bring smiles and bemusement to your guests. The magic has been selected to appeal to a varied age range ensuring quality family entertainment that puts smiles on faces.
“I can’t tell you how many smiling faces I saw today and what today will mean in enhancing the experience for the many people who attended."
Lilian Baxter, Relationship Manager, Aviva
Christmas Party entertainment
There are certain times during the year where a themed magic show works perfectly.
Christmas is a time of magic and merriment and Magic 4 Children has a specialist children’s Christmas magic show designed to reflects the holiday season and spirit.
The show keeps the attention of a mixed age audience and has enjoyed twenty years of refinement as the Christmas party entertainment at hundreds of Christmas parties.
The show features Rudolph’s lost nose, the magical Christmas tree and the amazing comedy antics of Harold the plucked chicken.
All the favourites are included and a well-balanced family show is presented with a mixture of music, Magic Show, comedy, balloon animals and side splitting humour aimed directly at children.


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Lavish Netflix drama The Crown returns today, picking up where it left off in the first series. Ten episodes trace the next 10 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s life, as imagined by writer Peter Morgan.
The production made a welcome return to London streets, along with a day’s shoot in Suffolk.
FilmFixer manages the film office service for Camden, Haringey, Southwark, Croydon and Screen Suffolk.
FilmFixer director Karen Everett says, “For this series we saw Suffolk double as Ghana, the HMS Belfast moored in the Thames in Southwark played the Royal Yacht Britannia, Addington Palace in Croydon was Clarence House and some really important scenes turned Victoria House in Bloombsury into the old ITN studios in Kingsway. “You can almost tell from the use of locations that this series moves outside the confines of the palace and gets among the people of the Commonwealth. Times really were changing. “In the trailer you can see the Ghanaian flag in Suffolk’s Elveden Hall, and the removal of the Queen’s portrait, as the colony gains its independence. The Queen famously danced with its new president Kwame Nkrumah during a state visit in 1961.”
The production filmed at Elveden Hall for a day in May, the last day of the shoot. “The stunning Eastern interiors are a hangover from when the Maharajah of the Punjab, Prince Frederick Duleep Singh owned the hall. He was creating these beautiful rooms in the 1870s. “Screen Suffolk was not directly involved in arranging this shoot. However, we like to think that our ongoing advocacy is partly responsible, and location managers are now more likely to ask themselves whether they could shoot the required scenes in Suffolk. We are delighted the county attracted this very prestigious, big budget production. This shoot is further testament to the county’s diversity and film-friendly attitude.”
In London, the HMS Belfast plays Prince Philip’s home for five months as he tours the far corners of the Commonwealth on the royal yacht, opening the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and visiting Papua New Guinea. In the show Princess Margaret says, “It’s not a royal tour, it’s a five-month stag night.” Karen Everett adds, “On the real tour the Prince had 240 men and officers for company, and for the shoot, he had a rather large cast and crew of 75 over two days in January this year.”
In March 80 cast and crew filmed in Bloomsbury Square where Victoria House played the iconic ITN studios which used to grace Kingsway in London. These scenes highlight the pressure on the monarchy to modernise. They are based on a real 1957 interview by Robin Day with the then Lord Altrincham, who recalled the events in a Spectator article in 1997. In particular Lord Altrincham believed the Queen should spend more time abroad, given that air travel was now possible. He thought she should even live abroad in at least one of the many Commonwealth countries outside the UK. As Lord Altrincham left the studio, a member of the League of Empire Loyalists, Philip Kinghorn Burbidge, slapped his face, later saying “I felt it was up to a decent Briton to show resentment.” Lord Altrincham later disclaimed his peerage and reverted to his birth name John Grigg.
Karen Everett says, “Lord Altrincham’s views at the time weren’t as unpopular as the media claimed. For the show, 100 cast and crew filmed inside Holborn’s Old Nick Pub in Sandland Street, where Lord Altrincham, together with fellow drinkers, watches the ITV interview, and finds himself being congratulated by those around him.”
There was more filming in Camden, Karen Everett says, “The Queen’s uncle the Duke of Windsor embarks from a train at St Pancras Station in the 1950s. And in Hatton Garden, a character takes a call in the bar of Ye Olde Mitre Pub. Rugby Street and Great James Street were also used.”
Along with the considerate and well managed filming, Karen Everett praised the production for its positive relationships with locals, while filming in their neighbourhoods.
She explains, “A local enthusiast trying to break into film was invited on a set visit, and generous donations were made to local residents groups Friends of Bloomsbury Square and the Rugby and Harpur Residents Association, both in Camden. “We encourage this sort of approach among productions, making sure that locals are really seeing the benefits of the filming on their doorstep.”


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Parish Council Budget
The budget for 2019/20 including the precept, was agreed at the Parish Council meeting on the 11th December 2018. The precept for 2019/20 was set at £22,000.
Parish Council Financial Statements
2017/18 Audit of Accounts
The documents below were approved at the Parish Council meeting on the 5th June, and the certificate of exemption has been sent to the external auditor.
2016/17 Audit of Accounts

domain: finance


This question originally appeared on Quora.
Answer by Bobbie Ragsdale, U.S. Army Cavalry Officer:
Once upon a time in 2005, Jon Stewart visited the United States Military Academy at West Point to play to a sold-out, 5,000 seat show. (West Point, for the record, possesses one of the largest theaters in the country, Eisenhower Hall. “Ike Hall,” as it’s known, was designed for addressing the entire Corps of Cadets at once. Traveling shows, bands, comedians, etc, frequently play there to an audience of mostly upstate New York types.)
I, Cadet Corporal Ragsdale at the time, being the most enterprising member of the West Point Theater Arts Guild & Dialectic Society, was self-selected to be Mr. Stewart’s security detail while he was on post, a position that was probably not necessary, but one that I frequently created when posed with the opportunity to hang out with someone interesting. I met a lot of neat people this way, but none were cooler or more down-to-Earth than Mr. Stewart. While Jay Leno showed up in a double-stretch limo and Martina McBride in a double-decker tour bus, Jon Stewart arrived in his single-everything POV, which is military-speak for “his own damn car.” That’s right, he drove himself to the show from NYC. No private helicopter or Aston Martin that becomes a cigarette boat. Nope, just a simple Ford Explorer. And he got out, dressed like this:
No entourage, either. His tour manager or agent or whatever showed up a little later in his own SUV, but that was it. Essentially, I was his entourage. Not that there was much to do. He was several hours early, so I showed him around the stage and then we hung out in the green room for a bit, swapping jokes, talking about Hurricane Katrina, which was only a few days old at the time, and reminiscing over an old Daily Show bit that involved Sheriff Harry Lee shooting Nutria in New Orleans canals with SWAT snipers (fellow NOLA natives will know what I’m talking about).
Fast forward a bit to his show, which was hilarious. I actually bought tickets, something I almost never did, so that my girlfriend could come see the show. Seriously, though, it was one of the best stand-up shows I’ve ever seen. Very breezy, quite blue, and hardly resemblant of his hard-hitting political focus on Comedy Central. Afterward, he signed her copy of America: The Book, which was new at the time.
But that’s not the story. During the show, he had a lot of back-and-forth with the audience of mostly Cadets. In an almost unheard-of turn of events, Cadets nearly bought out the show before tickets went public. At one point, someone shouted, “FIRSTIE CLUB!”
Now, a little background is in order. At West Point, each class has a nickname, and the seniors are called “Firsties,” which comes from their official status as “First Class Cadets.” West Point is a military post like any other, which has fairly typical laws concerning alcohol, but Cadets abide by a special set of rules. In general, alcohol can only be consumed by Cadets (who are of appropriate age and rank) in special circumstances, such as balls, or at the Firstie Club, a bar just across the street from Ike Hall. Funny thing about the Firstie Club: hearkening back to the old Officer’s Club concept, only Firsties are allowed. For anyone else to enter is a big deal, such being prohibited by God, or at least by a Three-Star General, which is basically the same thing. As a Sophomore (aka “Yearling”) myself, I had never seen its sanctuary or tasted its bounty.
Jon, not knowing any of this, simply paused and replied, “… the f*** is a Firstie club?” Five-thousand fingers rose and pointed to house left, trying at once to explain all of the above in that cacophonous way that only 5,000 pumped up young Americans can. Displaying the sharpness of mind for which he is known, he quickly put 1 and 5,000 together and said, “Sure, I’ll meet you there.”
Now, people say lots of things on stage. An audience can be both demanding and judgmental, and you say what you have to say to keep the show moving along. Things said on-stage are like things said while naked: perhaps sincere in the moment, but rarely considered with accountability later. As soon as the show was over, I bounded from my seat, up to the stage to usher him back to the green room and see that he wasn’t disturbed. Imagine my surprise when his first words were, “So, how do we get to this ‘First Club?’”
As it turned out, he did need security. I, my 98-pound girlfriend, and another Army Officer—a Green Beret no less—ushered him outside and over to the back entrance of the bar, shooing off mobs of people as we went. The small pub began to pack with nigh about the entire, 1,000 member Firstie Class. The remaining three underclasses waited outside, miserably, in the cold, and crying hot tears of loneliness, I like to imagine. After BS-ing by the dumpster for a minute, we went in, walked through the kitchen, and came out behind the bar.
The place went nuts. My first time in the Firstie Club, as a Yearling, and I was a goddamned national hero, having delivered Jon Stewart in the company of a Green Beret and my new civilian girlfriend, who no longer needed impressing … ever again. But Jon still had more cool left to burn for the night. As Firsties are clamoring to shake his hand and get autographs at one end of the bar, the clearly overworked bartender was on the other end, shilling Schlitz on tap to a seemingly endless horde of firsties whom, being too far away to experience the Beatific Vision for themselves, were forced to buy cheap beer as consolation.
Jon saw this and sided, not with the lonely Firsties, but with the overstressed bar keep, who was forced to deal with their dissatisfaction over the sad reality of the constraints of space and mass as it applies to 1,000 people trying to occupy the same point. He stopped the autographs and said, “Hey! I used to be a bartender! I can do this!” Then he started serving beers. To the Cadets. For free.
He was working the drafts like a pro(-bono) for several minutes before the bar manager finally came out and said to the Officer and me, “Um, you know you’re gonna have to pay for those, right?” “Yeah, yeah,” we said. “Just let this happen … this is magical, you curmudgeon.” Well, we didn’t actually say the last part, but we thought it really hard.
When all was said and done, and the taps were nearly tapped, we walked back up behind the theater and wished Jon a happy farewell. Except he didn’t know how to get back to the city, and this was before everyone and their brother had a GPS. So I gave him and his agent directions. I hope they were good and he didn’t get lost.
He was back on TV on Monday, so I guess it all worked out. I was still at West Point, though, and had a pretty intense inspection the next morning. So that kinda sucked…
More questions on Jon Stewart:


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Iraq is reassessing contracts to pump crude at fields where production costs are high as it tries to contain expenses while curbing output, the oil minister said, according to a report on Sunday in Al-Sabah newspaper.
OPEC’s second-biggest producer has an interest in cooperating with other global suppliers in reducing output to prop up crude prices, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in an interview with state-run Al-Sabah. The ministry is reviewing some of its contracts and may try to amend those with high costs, he said, without giving additional details.
The country’s oil ministry is seeking to reduce production expenses and invest in low-cost fields that contain lighter, more profitable grades of crude, Jabbar said.
Output from northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave should not exceed 370,000 barrels a day, he said. The Kurds should comply with the OPEC+ cuts, and talks on oil continue between the Baghdad-based ministry and the Kurdistan Regional Government, Jabbar said. Iraq also wants to increase the amount of associated natural gas that it captures at oil fields and boost output from refineries. The ministry may sever refining investment contracts with companies it deems unqualified, Jabbar said, according to the report.


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Randall Jarrell's only novel features a Bryn Mawr-like women's college in which whispers and verbal shivs and sycophancy rule. "Half the campus was designed by Bottom the Weaver, half by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Benton had been endowed with one to begin with, and had smiled and sweated and spoken for the other." The institution's star-struck head is a Clintonesque young man particularly adept at raising money in Hollywood and who "wanted you to like him, he wanted everybody to like him--it was part of being a president; but talking all the time was too." Unfortunately, his new creative-writing hire only likes him the first time they meet. Thenceforth, she not only stirs things up but skewers them as well.
When the book was first published in 1954, most considered Gertrude Johnson to be a none-too-veiled portrait of Mary McCarthy. (The Partisan Review, for instance, failed to run a planned excerpt for fear of litigation.) "As a writer Gertrude had one fault more radical than all the rest: she did not know--or rather, did not believe--what it was like to be a human being. She was one, intermittently, but while she wasn't she did not remember what it had felt like to be one; and her worse self distrusted her better too thoroughly to give it much share, ever, in what she said or wrote." Pictures from an Institution is a superb series of poisonous portraits, set pieces, and endlessly quotable put-downs. One reads it less for plot than sharp satire, of which Jarrell is the master.
--This text refers to an alternate
“[An] exquisite, unerring comedy of manners. . . . [P]erhaps the funniest book I have ever read.”
(Cathleen Schine New York Review of Books
"Mr. Jarrell is on the side of the angels. His is a divine meanness, and he exposes his female writing devil punitively, matching her stream of poinsonous wisecracks with a series of coruscating cracks of his own worthy of Dorothy Parker at her most hilarious and deadly."
(Francis Steegmuller, New York Times Book Review
"One of the wittiest books of modern times."
(Orville Prescott New York Times


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About the artist:
Alexander Hacke was born in the proletarian district of Berlin Neukölln and aside from playing in numerous influential underground-groups, writing, recording, releasing and performing music under the pseudonym Alexander von Borsig, he joined Einstürzende Neubauten in 1980 at the tender age of 14.
All throughout the eighties and up to the present he does not only collaborate with countless artists of various genres but continues to produce records and scores music for theater, feature and documentary movies.
To learn more about Hacke's soundtrack for "Transflexion," INDRA, visit here.
About the artist:
László Zsolt Bordos (also known as Bordos.ArtWorks) is a 3d artist living in Budapest, Hungary. In 2000 he started as a VJ, performing in the underground party culture of Budapest. With his early 3d-vjing (2001-2004), his participation to huge size architectural slide projections (2002-2005) and his outrageous video projections and 3d mapping projects (2006-2007), he became a pioneer of the genre.
Cooperating with other artists since 2010, he started to run the projects under the name 'Bordos.ArtWorks and Invited Artists', which became internationally recognised as eminent representatives of video projection mapping.
Since 2014 Bordos is focusing again on solo art projects, installations and scenery projections for theaters and operas.
Danielle De Picciotto
About the artist:
Die amerikanische Künstlerin Danielle de Picciotto ist 1987 nach Berlin gezogen. Jahrzehntelang hat sie den Umbruch und die Evolution des Undergrounds in der Stadt von Post-Punk über Techno bis zu der gemischten Experimentierfreudigkeit von heute hautnah erlebt. De Picciotto war dabei, als die Love Parade sowie berühmt-berüchtigte Clubs wie Tresor und E-Werk entstanden. Aus ihren persönlichen Erfahrungen weiß sie, wie Berlin sich damals angefühlt hat und wie die gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen die Stadt und ihre Bewohner über die Jahre beeinflusst und verändert haben.
Born in Tacoma, Washington USA, has been living in Berlin Germany since 1987. Studied music & art in NYC/Germany. Works as Gesamtkünstlerin/interdisciplinary artist since 1990 in the fields of art/film/ music/literature/performance. Co-founder of Berlin “Loveparade” ; projects with German Cultural Goethe Institute in Hong Kong, Milan, Rome, Tokyo, Prague, Sarajevo and Mexico City since 2000. In 2009 the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin commissions Danielle de Picciotto to direct/produce a 10-minute art movie. Has exhibited & performed at MOCAD Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, IMOCA Indianapolis Museum of Modern Art, Museum Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Germany, London Museum of Art, Ontario. Website: danielledepicciotto.com
"Net of Mirrors"
The eye is the mirror of the soul. All of our souls are connected in an invisible net of interaction and we blink at each other from afar, much more connected than we imagine. This constant breeze of communication and flowing exchange is presented in the 10 minute short “Net of Mirrors” by Danielle de Picciotto.
about the artist:
Helga Griffiths is a German based Multi-Sense-Artist working at the intersection of science and art. From 1986 to 1992 she lived in the New York area. She has a BFA Degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts/Rutgers University (1991). From 1992 – 1994 she completed her Postgraduate Studies at Kunstakademie Stuttgart in Germany. In 1994 she continued with further studies in New Media at Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsuhe. She received several awards such as the First Prize at “Kunst auf Zeit” in Graz, Honorable Mention“, Paper Biennial in Düren and “Lichtenberg”-Award in Darmstadt (all in 1998), Prize “Lightroutes”- festival in Lüdenscheid in 2003. Her work is in permanent collections such at the TBA TV Station in Tokyo, Deutsches Hygienemuseum Dresden, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren, and Gilleleje, Denmark. She has exhibited in several biennials/triennials such as Cairo Biennial, Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan, Havanna Biennial, Seoul Media Art Biennial. She will be showing at the next Curitiba Biennial, Brazil in 2015. Her work has been shown in international museum exhibitions e.g., Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, ZKM Karlsruhe, Nevada Museum of Art. Her work is in permanent collections at TBS TV Station, Tokyo, Deutsches Hygienemuseum Dresden, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren and Gilleleje, Denmark.
2015, Videoanimation. 16 Minutes
This videoanimation is a reflection on perception itself, on imagination and consciousness. Neural Reflection is inspired by cognitive processes (memory, perception, sensation) and the floating, pulsating images reveal the instability and fragility of our perception of time and space. The work, which is based on tomographic images of the artist’s own brain, shows a surrealistic flight over the semi-transparent, reflective surface of the brain. The motion over the landscape of the brain is juxtaposed with images of nerve cells. It reveals internal as well as external features to enable new perspectives on perception. It also relates to the observer’s own neural processes, since his or her own brain is reacting and changing at the very moment of watching the video animation. New synapses and connections are constantly being created from what is perceived on a conscious or unconscious level. The video „Neural Reflection“ is a research tool – it makes us aware of the centre of our own thinking and seeing processes. It allows us to reflect on our "perceiving and interpreting" machine – and also on our perception of fluctuating/pulsating truth and reality.
About the artist:
Lüers Arbeit zeigt eine große Vielfalt an Medien und Themen - dies kann eine Galerie-Installation sein, ein Stadtraumprojekt oder auch eine künstlerische Reflexion auf Textbasis. Die Entscheidung über die Form und den Inhalt jeder einzelnen Arbeit ist abhängig von der Logik der Arbeit selbst und dem Kontext, in dem sie präsentiert wird. Damit kann Lüers Arbeit eher als situationsspezifisch, denn ortsspezifisch bezeichnet werden.
Lüers work offers a rich variety of mediums and topics - it can be a gallery installation,a project based in urban environment, or an artistic reflection on text basis. The choice of form and content in each artwork is dependent upon the logic of the work itself and the context in which it is presented. Therefore Lüers work can be referred to as situationally specific rather than location specific.
2012, 3 min, HD Video
A numbers station is a type of shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, reading out lists of numbers. According to the notes of The Conet Project, which has compiled recordings of these transmissions, numbers stations have been reported since World War I. If accurate, this would count numbers stations among the earliest radio broadcasts.
It has long been speculated, and was argued in court in one case, that these stations operate as a simple and foolproof method for government agencies to communicate with spies working undercover.
According to this theory, the messages are encrypted with a one-time pad, to avoid any risk of decryption by the enemy. As evidence, numbers stations have changed details of their broadcasts or produced special, nonscheduled broadcasts coincident with extraordinary political events.
A horizontal pattern or ornament becomes visible in the projection,
which consists or a concatenation of the digital eight within a format
of 16:9. Following the example of the real numbers stations, a number between "0" and "9" appears in short order and seemingly at random within a number group of five digits. This specific number group will be repeated three times in a row, before moving to its next variation.
The work "single channel" relies on a projection in public space, which Conceptually replaces the public medium radio. (Alternatively possible as an "interruption" within a video program) The pedestrians become aware of an attraction, which seemingly does not disclose its background or meaning. The viewer experiences the unpredictability and arbitrariness, as well as the failure to grasp a familiar regularity within those random patterns.
About the artist:
Der in Berlin lebende Künstler Robert Seidel transformiert in seinen Filmen nicht nur Zeichnungen in bewegte Malerei und Skulpturen, sondern auch seine Projektionsflächen bergen intermediales Potential. Seine Form- und Bewegungsästhetik orientiert sich am infiniten Detail der Natur, bildet dabei
aber ein geschlossenes, nicht-naturalistisches Erinnerungsuniversum. So schöpft seine Bilderwelt neben Zeichnungsfragmenten und 3D-Modellen auch aus der wissenschaftlichen Visualisierung.
Seine Arbeiten werden weltweit sowohl im musealen Kontext als auch auf zahlreichen Festivals sowie in Galerien, Magazinen, Büchern und TV-Sendungen gezeigt. Sie wurden mehrfach ausgezeichnet, etwa mit dem Ehrenpreis der KunstFilmBiennale.
Robert Seidel began his studies in biology before transferring to the Bauhaus University Weimar to complete his degree in media design. His projections, installations and experimental films have been shown in numerous international festivals, as well as at galleries and museums such as the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, ZKM Karlsruhe, LACMA Los Angeles, Art Center Nabi Seoul, Museum of Image and Sound São Paulo and MOCA Taipei.
His works have been honoured with various prizes, including the KunstFilmBiennale Cologne Honorary Award and Prize for Best Experimental Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
In his work Seidel is interested in pushing the boundaries of abstracted beauty through cinematographic approaches, as well as ones drawn from science. By the organic interplay of various structural, spatial and temporal concepts, he creates a continuously evolving complexity. Out of this multifaceted perspective emerges a narrative skeleton, through which viewers connects to the artwork on an evolutionary-derived and phylogenetic-fixated symbolic level. Seidel lives and works in Berlin and Jena as artist, filmmaker and curator.
About the artist:
Caspar Stracke’s work has its roots in experimental film and performance. In his present videos and installations, he creates artificial temporal and spatial connection between sites and events.
"urban particle supercollider"
This video installation is based on three photo collections of street images from Seoul and Tehran and New York City, originally invited as a Flickr group. Urban particle supercollider links these cities (and their local participants) through street images: Seoul, Tehran, and New York City are composed out of various street objects from their neighborhoods -ranging from torn newspaper fragments to fast-food stands- resulting in a catalogue of images repleat with personal and cultural significance. In this installation, the selected items were virtually rebuilt as 3D objects, “colliding” in five theme clouds.


text:
Real or Fake?
Can you tell the difference between those who are real and those who are fake? Does it really matter if you can? While in Napa this past summer, I hung out with a few plastic surgeons who told me they believe everyone is fake. Even now, after giving it more thought, I still don’t believe it. They said 80% of people (both men and women) have Botox. On top of that, they told me 50% of women have had liposuction, and many more people have fake parts all over their bodies from head to toe.
Did you know these aesthetics can range from hair to teeth, eyes to chins and cheeks, all the way down to fingernails, chests, backsides, and more? These plastic surgeons get rich making women, and men, feel beautiful. At the end of this conversation I was stunned, I had no idea.
In my life, I’m always striving to encourage people to not be so hard on themselves, to stop comparing themselves to others, and to come to peace with the fact that our bodies change throughout our entire lives. The human body is miraculous, we’re not supposed to stay the exact same.
A few years ago, when I found out that most women wear Spanx, I was surprised. I recognize it’s each person’s choice to dress their bodies as they wish, but isn’t there a little relief and freedom in knowing your well-earned wrinkles came from laughing too much and smiling too hard compared to someone else’s Botox-stiff face?
Over the years I’ve had four babies, I’ve spent way too much time in the sun, and I will never again look as young as I did at 20 which feels exciting to me because I see a life that’s being lived. Are there days when I wish I was taller or want a cuter little nose without a scar? Absolutely, but I honor that these things are a part of me, and I plan to stay just the way I am in hopes that people like me beyond my looks and care more about my heart and wisdom.
This week, when you hear that little voice in your head telling you to change something about your appearance, I challenge you to answer it back with a positive reason why it’s perfect just the way it is.
What does living your exceptional life look like to you?
HAVE YOU DONE THINGS TO ALTER THE WAY YOU LOOK? WHY?
WHAT PART OF YOURSELF HAVE YOU ALWAYS WISHED YOU COULD CHANGE? WHY?
WHAT ABOUT YOUR LOOKS DID YOU NOT LIKE BEFORE BUT HAVE ACCEPTED AND EMBRACED NOW? WHAT CHANGED YOUR MIND?

domain: psychology


text:
SDG WLE climate change ecosystem agriculture development transboundary S. Uhlenbrook
04 May 21
Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam
The cgiar research program on water, land and ecosystems (wle) promotes a new approach to sustainable intensification in which a healthy, functioning ecosystem is seen as a prerequisite to agricultural development, resilience of food systems and human well being. wle aims to tackle key global challenges related to water scarcity, climate.

domain: agronomy


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text:
MARIS Stella girls were treated to a visit from legendary explorer, Kingsley Holgate recently.
Holgate, who has been named the most travelled man in Africa, visited the school with Sheelagh Antrobus from Project Rhino KZN, to judge an art competition the girls took part in, and to accept a donation of R2 000 from the pupils.
Holgate told the girls of his travels and the sad reality of how 45 rhinos have been murdered and their horns painfully hacked off in KZN this year alone. He said in 2015, 119 rhinos had died, and 1215 had been killed in South Africa. To illustrate this, he told the girls that if the bodies of these rhinos, minus the horns were lined up back to back, they would fill 10 playing fields.
“Overseas the rhino horn is thought to be medicinal, but we need every child in the world to stand up and fight for the rhinos. People are misinformed, rhino horn does not cure any disease. Our youth have to say 'stop killing the rhinos, hands off, we love them'!” he said.
Holgate and Antrobus use the Project Rhino art competition to take the message around the world, and artwork is posted on Facebook and on the Landrover website.
“Poaching is a priority crime in South Africa, and we work with children and on the ground, where we help with ranger training, the Zululand anti-poaching wing, equipment resourcing, informant funding, working with rural communities, and talking to government. This red band of rhino warriorettes at Maris Stella is joining the 250 000 children who have taken part in the competition to speak out against poaching,” said Antrobus.
The R2 000 raised by the girls through the competition will go to supplying art paper and crayons for children in the rural areas.
“Some of these children have never seen a rhino in the wild, although they live next door to reserves. The winners of the competitions in these areas will be taken to see rhinos for the first time. People think they will be able to go to the reserves and see rhinos forever, but this is not true. Like a sticker we had on one of our landrovers said, 'Let us not be a generation that tells their children we did nothing about it',” said Holgate.

domain: sociology


text:
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2017-01-10Jan 10–15, 2017
Don't miss this new production of 'The Sound of Music.'
2017-02-07Feb 7–12, 2017
The stage version of the popular Disney film of the same name.
2017-03-28Mar 28–Apr 2, 2017
A new musical based on the life of Motown founder Berry Gordy.
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domain: entertainment