Cara Delevingnes moth-eaten jumpsuit look turned heads on the red carpet. but can it work in real life? – The Sun

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CARA Delevingne looked like shed had a moth infestation in her wardrobe when she stepped out this week.

We have all heard of ripped denim but the model, 27, took the trend a step further by wearing a hole-ridden Guy Laroche jumpsuit to an LA awards do.

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Warning

terror vision I heard a pop and lost my eye when I dried my face with a towel

Fine for balmy California temperatures but how would the look fare on a drizzly October day in London?

We sent model Eilie Bennett, 30, from Glasgow, out in our DIY version made using a 32.99 New Look jumpsuit.

Here, she reveals how she got on.

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Cara Delevingnes moth-eaten jumpsuit look turned heads on the red carpet. but can it work in real life? - The Sun

Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings Series Is Casting For ‘Hairy People’ And More – CinemaBlend

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Amazon's Lord Of The Rings series is casting for "hairy people," among other traits, as posted in fascinating casting calls. Sounds like the upcoming show is looking for some Gimlis -- along with some "character faces," very tall and very short people, and even folks with missing teeth. Hey, how about this guy?

OK, I already knew that, Gollum, stop rubbing it in.

The Lord of the Rings prequel series on Prime will be filming in New Zealand -- just like Peter Jackson's movies -- so these casting calls are for people in New Zealand. You probably can't get cast yourself, but the notices put out by the Amazon team do give us some hints on what we'll see on screen.

The casting notices cover a lot of types, but there's definitely an emphasis on hair. Talento talent agency of Auckland, New Zealand recently shared this look at what the Amazon series was asking for:

The upcoming Amazon Original series based on THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

We are looking for a mix of people of all ages, genders/other from multi-racial backgrounds with interesting character faces and physicalitys.These are for Background and Featured Performer roles:

EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE WE ARE LOOKING FOR...

Character Faces (Earthy, Weathered, Dark Skin Tonnes, Missing teeth, Wonderful Noses etc etc)Bearded Hairy Biker Men/Woman/OtherLean Tall Androgynous LooksBeautiful, Fair Fine boned FacesTALL People - 6 ++TALLER People 68 ++Small People 46 to 411Musicians

This past weekend there was a similar open casting call in Aukland, and New Zealand talent agency BGT shared the details:

Casting for....

1. short people under 4 foot 122. Tall people over 6 foot 53. Character faces, wrinkles and lots of them please :-)4. Androgynous men and women5. Hairy hairy people of all ages and ethnicities6. Tall, Long Lithe dancers7. Circus performers who can juggle, stilt walk!8. Stocky mean-looking bikers9. Eurasian people of all ages.10. Hispanic - Latino, Mexican, South American - HOLA11. Red heads all ages, shapes and sizes.12.HAIR HAIR HAIR - if you natural red hair, white hair, or lots and lots of freckles.

I'm intrigued about so much of that -- beyond the HAIR HAIR HAIR emphasis. Like the bikers. What bikers lived in the Second Age of Tolkien's work?! I'm guessing the fine-boned, lean, tall, and androgynous people will be elves, but we'll see. It does look like the series will feature a lot of interesting different looks -- from lots of wrinkles to "wonderful noses" and of course all that hair. As the Talento casting call noted, they were looking for talent for background (extras) and also featured performer roles.

Amazon's Lord of the Rings series was announced with a five season order, including a possible spinoff. So this thing is ambitious to an extreme. It's expected to end up the most expensive series of all time potentially costing a billion dollars.

The Lord of the Rings series has to strictly follow Tolkien's canon and it can only cover the Second Age, or reference things that happened beforehand, but that rules out the storylines we saw in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies, since they were set in the Third Age. But the Second Age has a huuuuge timespan, and there's plenty of room for the creative team to stretch their legs.

One of the Tolkien experts working on Amazon's Lord of the Rings series said he heard Season 1 would have 20 episodes, but that has yet to be confirmed. Not much has been confirmed, since they are still getting their acts together, with filming expected to start in 2020 for a Season 1 premiere on Amazon in 2021. So far, two stars have been reported for the Lord of the Rings, with at least one said to be in a leading role. He's probably not playing Sauron, though, right? We'll still need one.

Here's more of what we know so far about Amazon's Lord of the Rings series.

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Amazon's Lord Of The Rings Series Is Casting For 'Hairy People' And More - CinemaBlend

Marianne Williamson and the religion of "spirituality" – Salon

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Marianne Williamson recently burst onto the political scene as a somewhat unconventional candidate vying for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination in the United States.

While she has never garnered more than two per cent in the polls and did not qualify for the third debate meaning its likely her run will come to an end soon her remarks during the first two Democratic debates, as well as her personality and unconventional campaign parlance, have provoked many media responses.

What distinguishes Williamson from other candidates is her personal and professional background. Prior to her foray into politics, she was an internationally renowned self-help and spiritual author and speaker, known for penning bestsellers like "A Return to Love."

A child of the 1960s, Williamson was significantly involved with the New Age and Human Potential movements, even spending time working at Esalen Institute in California, the American mecca of alternative spirituality.

Today, shes known as Oprah Winfreys spiritual adviser, and remains an outspoken advocate of mindfulness meditation, yoga and therapy as ways to achieve spiritual and social transformation.

Calling for an awakening

Williamson unapologetically infuses her interest in spirituality into her political campaigning.

On her website she calls for a a moral and spiritual awakening in America, speaking to those who are seeking higher wisdom. And in her closing statement at the first Democratic debate, she proclaimed that she will harness love to defeat President Donald Trump.

A number of pundits have mocked Williamson. But the more common reaction is puzzlement: many just dont know what to make of a renowned spiritual and self-help teacher running to lead the Democratic Party.

I believe this is largely because few are familiar with the history of alternative spirituality in North America and its ties to progressive politics.

We have seen a dramatic rise over the last few decades in the number of North Americans who self-identify as spiritual but not religious.

Those in this group, while certainly diverse, have deep spiritual interests, often champion something like the existence of a higher power, remain wary of orthodoxy and place a premium on individual autonomy.

It is these people to whom Williamson appeals. And while they might view themselves as seekers who dont adhere to traditions, there is a longstanding tradition of alternative spirituality in the West.

Metaphysical movements

In "Spiritual but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America," religious historian Robert Fuller sheds light on the various metaphysical movements that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries in America.

These include Swedenborgism, Transcendentalism, Spiritualism, Mesmerism, Theosophy and New Thought, each of which despite being relatively unknown to most people have significantly shaped the spiritual but not religious trend.

These movements were certainly theologically different, but nevertheless, like Williamson and her followers, they postulated the existence of unseen forces and championed the importance of both mystical experiences and individual freedom. If channelled appropriately, those forces could purportedly lead to self-empowerment.

The influence of these movements was far from marginal in American society. They often attracted well-known writers, politicians and artists. Ralph Waldo Emerson, often called Americas national poet, was an avowed Transcendentalist, as was Henry Thoreau, committed civil rights activist and author.

Others who belonged to some of these movements include psychologists William James and Carl Jung, philosopher Rudolf Steiner and biologist Alfred Russell Wallace.

The spiritual is political

Historian Leigh Eric Schmidt of Princeton University usefully traces the historical ties between these movements and progressive democratic politics in the U.S. in Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality.

Schmidt observes that many of the leaders and spokespeople of these movements were ahead of their time, both socially and politically.

For instance, Margaret Fuller, an early Transcendentalist and confessed mystic, was also a staunch advocate for womens rights in the early 19th century. So was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a womens suffrage activist who sought to claim the privilege of autonomy for the female sex in The Womans Bible , published in 1895.

Walt Whitman, the famous American poet and writer - as well as a curious inquirer into clairvoyance and Spiritualism - championed, in cosmopolitan fashion, the good in all religious systems, according to Schmidt.

Felix Adler, a Reform Jew and founder of the Society for Ethical Culture, published in 1905 The Essentials of Spirituality, wherein he championed the importance of doing justice to that inner self in order to do justice to others.

Finally, Ralph Waldo Trine, proponent of New Thought and author of the successful "In Tune with the Infinite," depicted God as a spirit of infinite life akin to a reservoir of superhuman power.

And though Trines doctrines were eventually appropriated by entrepreneurial and materialist ministers such as Norman Vincent Peale in the mid-20th century, Trine himself was a staunch progressive and social reformer. He was also a committed vegetarian, playing an active role in the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Why is Williamson so mind-boggling?

In light of this history, Schmidt concludes:

The convergence of political progressivism, socioeconomic justice, and mystical interiority was at the heart of the rise of a spiritual left in American culture.

Its therefore worth asking why a candidate like Williamson so boggles the modern-day mind.

In part, it has to do with the way alternative spirituality developed over the 20th century. The New Age movement of the 1970s was arguably the most prominent. And while the New Age label may today be out of fashion, many ideas that were once championed under its banner remain strikingly popular.

In fact, its likely that many who call themselves spiritual but not religious subscribe to a set of ideas and engage in a variety of practices that were once central to that counter-cultural movement. And carrying forward a long-standing tradition, these ideas tend to appeal to the left.

Religion, after all, is increasingly associated in the U.S. with social conservatism. In turn, for many progressives, especially millennials, religion is no longer considered a viable option.

So for those with spiritual interests, the cosmopolitan and inclusive spirituality of Williamson has an obvious appeal.

Of course, one of the tenets of New Age thought, at least in its most radical form, is that politics is a distraction from what really matters: self-transformation and spiritual enlightenment.

This may be why the image of Williamson as president is so difficult to entertain: we tend to think spirituality and politics just dont mix.

But thats at odds with the actual history of spirituality in America. Perhaps those who are spiritual but not religious will stop drawing a line separating the spiritual from the political. And if this happens, maybe the thought of a Williamson presidency wont seem so implausible.

Galen Watts, PhD Candidate in the Cultural Studies Graduate Program, Queen's University, Ontario

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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Marianne Williamson and the religion of "spirituality" - Salon

Evolution of the guru principle – Economic Times

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By Andrew Cohen

In India it is often said, Guru is God. But in the complex and ever-evolving world of the 21st century, can we still hold on to such beliefs? As Indian culture slowly makes the journey from the traditional, to the modern and postmodern era, can these ancient beliefs survive intact, untouched by the piercing lens of cultural evolution, the revelations of modern science and the profound insights about human nature that have come from western psychology?

Indeed, even in the land that gave birth to such remarkable spiritual geniuses as the Buddha, Adi Shankara, Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo, can we still hold on to the notion that these profoundly enlightened masters were therefore, inevitably perfected human beings?

Guru is God implies that a true guru is perfect in all ways. This means that the physical form of body, mind and personality of the realised one is always an expression of manifest perfection. Does the profound gift of spiritual enlightenment inherently mean that the receiver of that gift is always perfect in all ways?

I dont think so. And that is because anything that is born, that has a beginning in time and that will eventually die, is inherently imperfect.But unmanifest absolute spirit or Brahmn is perfect because it has never been born and has never entered the stream of time and therefore is ever untouched by anything that has ever happened in time.

The man who has become a true guru, a true master, has a personality that has become radically transformed, now mysteriously and powerfully animated by the immortal consciousness of Brahmn. That awakened consciousness expresses itself as the guru principle. This principle has the power to awaken earnest seekers directly to the consciousness of Brahmn.

But if the guru-principle itself is to survive the unstoppable, dynamic movement of cultural evolution into the future, then it needs to be remodeled. The authority and power of the guru need to be downscaled in such a way as to emphasise that the human persona of the realiser is always inherently relative and in that, will always be imperfect. This somehow needs to be done while still finding a way to deeply honour that the manifestation of the guru-principle, when fully activated, reveals an absolute metaphysical source and uniquely reflects the brightness and brilliance of that source in all its overwhelming glory.

In my work as guru and spiritual teacher today, my own way to honour this guideline is to always make the effort to clearly distinguish between man and master. There is no way around the fact that the master always expresses himself through a relative personality structure, and his expression of the enlightened state is therefore always on the one hand limited, coloured and shaped by the condition of the body-mind of man, with his gifts and flaws alike; but on the other hand, he simultaneously transmits theuncorrupted purity and perfection of an authentic teacher.

Considering the guru perfect in all ways is confusing transcendental reality with manifest existence. Only at itsdeepest sourcethe initial impulse of spiritual transmission is inherently pure and untainted by the deficiencies of this world.

An authentic master, because he is rooted in that source, is able to transmit a powerful measure of this inherent purity to his students and to this day, this remains the most valuable aspect of the guru principle.

Follow Andrew Cohen at speakingtree.in

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Evolution of the guru principle - Economic Times

Is Vanda Boone’s Murder Connected To Nancy Moyer’s Disappearance? | Searching For – Oxygen

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For all the beauty of its forests and the arts and culture found in its cities, Washington state is also home to some of the most notoriousmurderersin history. At various times,serial killersTed Bundy,Gary The Green River Killer Ridgway, andIsrael Keyescalled The Evergreen State home.

When BernardKeithHowellIIIwas pulled over in Tenino, Washington, with the dead body of Vanda Boone in the passenger seat of his truck in 2010, authorities thought ofNancy Moyer, who disappeared a year earlier in the same town, reportedThe Olympiannewspaper.

Was there another serial killer on the loose, or was it just a grim coincidence?

VandaSkauBoone was new to the Pacific Northwest. She hailed from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but she had spent the last 20 years of her life in Queens, New York, where she worked as a massage therapist.In March 2010, she moved to the small town of Yelm, Washington, about 60 miles south of Seattle.

Shechosethe area so she could study atRamthasSchool of Enlightenment, the new age spiritual sect led by J.Z. Knight. Once there, she got a job at Radiance Herbs and Massage, up the road in the college town of Olympia.

The ride west had not been easy. Along the way, her moving truck caught on fire, destroying most of her belongings, according to local newspaper theNisqually Valley News. Several months after her arrival, she learned her brother had died back home in Brazil.

Andrea Seabert, her boss at Radiance Herbs and Massage, told theThe Olympianthat Boone faced such challenges with amazing grace and beauty.

She was one of those bright lights, Seabert told The Olympian. She always had kind words to say and just had the highest integrity.

Growing up,Howell III, who was known asKeith,lived in various parts of Washingtons Puget Sound.

I was a membership manager at private RV resorts, the kids were all raised in beautiful places, his father, Bernard K. Howell Jr., told local news websiteLewis County Sirens.

According to his father, Keithwas a good student, but he began having problems when he was 17. Keith would later tell investigators he heard voices, according to local paper thePeninsula Daily News.

After dropping out of both vocational school and college, he worked as a security guard before trying his hand as an entrepreneur, going door to door selling gourmet meat.While holding down the job, Keith, 26, lived on and off with his father in Tenino and beganusing methamphetamine, according to local NBC affiliateKING5.

He wouldnt go see anyone ... He was really aggressive and angry sometimes, Bernard told Lewis County Sirens.

Bernardsaid on the day of the murder,Keithwas upset about his fledgling business and a lack of money. In a rage, he ran off to a local park.

A 14-mile walking and biking trail runs between Yelm and Tenino. It was there on Aug.8, 2010, that Keith and Boone crossed paths in one fatal encounter. Evidence points to it being a brutal attack. A coroner would later determine Boones throat had been slit and that she had suffered blunt force trauma to her head and neck. She had also been asphyxiated, either by strangulation or smothering, according to the Nisqually Valley News.

Keith would tell investigators he had sex with Boones body after she was deceased,according to a probable cause affidavit obtained byOxygen.com.

Following the murder, Keith asked a man near Daves Thriftway grocery store if he would help him move the body. The man refused and flagged down a sheriffs office deputy, and Keith was pulled over by the deputy a few blocks away.

On the passenger side, they found the body of Vanda Boone wrapped in a sleeping bag,sheet andplastic, according totheprobable cause affidavit.

Keith initially said he had found Boone deceased and was going to bury her himself in order to save her family money, according to probable cause affidavit. He had a 10-pound weight that he intended to use to submerge her body in a nearby swamp, he told the deputy. Keithdenied murdering Boone andwas arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder, according totheprobable cause affidavit.

The Thurston County Sheriffs Office soon began looking at Keith as a person of interest in the disappearance of Nancy Moyer, according toThe Olympiannewspaper. Moyer, a 36-year-old mother of two, had gone missing from her Tenino home in March 2009, leaving behind her purse and car. The initial investigation into her disappearance produced no leadsdespite a $105,000 reward for information leading to her return andhercase is now being reexamined in Searching For, an original series onOxygen.com.

Moyer andKeithlived less than a mile from each other.

He lived close to her, Thurston County Sheriffs Office Lt. Chris Mealy toldLewis County Sirens.Seattle Mariners player Ichiro Suzukicould hit a baseball from his house to her house,he said.

Another commonality between the two cases is the market where Keith was spotted with Boones body Daves Thriftway is one ofthelast placesMoyer was seen before her disappearance, according to theSeattle Times. In a search of Moyers home, investigators also found the same brand of meatKeithhad been selling in her freezer, retired Thurston County Sheriff's Detective David Haller toldTrue Crime Daily.

Keithpleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March 2011, according toThe Seattle Times. He was given the maximum sentence of almost 27 years in prison, according toKOMO.

Haller later interviewed Keith about Moyer, but "he just absolutely refused to cooperate in any way. No polygraph, wasn't going to give any statements, denied ever selling her meat, denied ever knowing her, said Haller.

No evidence has ever linked Keith to the Moyer case, and no further charges have ever been brought against him. She remains missing to this day, and her disappearance has been ruled ano-bodyhomicide, according toThe Daily Chronicle.

Earlier this summer, Moyers former neighbor and co-worker,Eric Lee Roberts, allegedly told detectives he murdered Moyer, but he later recanted his confession, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained byOxygen.com.Robertshas not been charged andis currently freewhile the Thurston County Sheriffs Office conducts its investigation.

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Is Vanda Boone's Murder Connected To Nancy Moyer's Disappearance? | Searching For - Oxygen

What’s all the buzz about? Montreal woman seeks to demystify ayahuasca – Montreal Gazette

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What have you heard about ayahuasca? Maybe that its a wild psychedelic that will make you vomit and see fantastical creatures. Perhaps you know someone who went to Mexico, took some and found the meaning of existence. Youve read its dangerous, heard its epic.

Its a big topic right now, Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester said. Unfortunately, other media have sensationalized, fantasized and drawn negative attention to it.

Rochester is the founder of Cu do Montreal, a church that employs ayahuasca in its ceremonies. Though ayahuasca is illegal in Canada, Cu do Montral is one of five Canadian groups, including four from Quebec, granted an exemption on religious grounds.

Her church will host a conference on Oct. 19 to demystify the strain of plants and its uses, which has a history going back hundreds of years.

One of the first orders of business is explaining what exactly ayahuasca is.

Ayahuasca is a central term that has been used for a long time to describe any brew in historical shamanic use in South America, specifically the Amazon basin, by tribes in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Rochester said.

These sacred plants were used medicinally, for divining and rites of passage, always in the hands of a shaman or shamaness man or woman who have gone through an apprenticeship that lasts 14 years. Its like a very serious medical training.

There have been numerous reports in recent years about sometimes fatal incidents involving ayahuasca. The suicide of a Quebec man, Nelson Deschnes, under the influence of ayahuasca in Peru last spring is terrible, according to Rochester, but not a reflection on religious groups who use the hallucinogenic plant in controlled circumstances.

Without commenting directly on Deschness sad fate, she cautions people to beware the current fad of interest in ayahuasca.

What has been happening is something called ayahuasca tourism. Unfortunately, with the world of the internet and people posting things saying, I went here once and healed my whole life, (ayahuasca) has been sensationalized.

On the other side, there have been tragic accidents where people either met death or caused harm. Our condolences go out to the individuals, families and friends for their losses, which would have been preventable if people would have taken simple precautions.

Cu do Montral has about 40 members, with another 50 to 100 visitors who drop in on occasion. The churchs professed mission, available on its website, is to provide for transformation and evolution of all persons seeking enlightenment in accordance with the tenets of the Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion that uses ayahuasca in its rituals, which take place two Saturdays per month.

The daylong ceremony follows a precise schedule: Participants fast in the morning; there are opening prayers, and then the service of the sacrament an ayahuasca tea at room temperature followed by a 60-90 minutes of silent meditation. After that, collective hymns are sung; and a couple of hours later a smaller concentration of the sacrament is taken. The ceremony closes with more hymns, dance and closing prayers.

All church members take the sacrament at every ceremony. The focus is on each persons internal journey. Rituals are referred to as works to denote the effort required to correct ones flaws and transform the self during services. Each day ends with a potluck dinner.

As for the effects, which can linger for up to a few days, the Cu do Montral website says, The Sacrament allows an individual to experience an expanded state of consciousness to align with the divine, allowing access to and communion with spiritual energies, guides, healers and teachers.

Rochester doesnt use the term ayahuasca, but rather daime, from which the Santo Daime gets its name. She first came into contact with the religion during a trip to Brazil for the International Transpersonal Conference in the mid-1990s. While visiting a Santo Daime community in the Amazon, she participated in a work and had a vision that told her she needed to bring the tradition back to Montreal.

It was against all my common sense, she said. Seriously, starting a Santo Daime centre in Montreal in 1996 seemed crazy. Nobody had heard anything of it.

It was yet another intuitive decision for a woman who had always followed her intuition. Rochester, 69,hashad profound spiritual experiences ever since she was a child.

Born in the U.K. in 1949, she was raised in Montreal from the age of three in an ordinary, middle-class British-Canadian family who attended the Anglican Church.

Throughout her youth, she had visions and dreams. As a teenager, she began reading books on spirituality and realized I was having experiences that fell outside everyday reality.

There wasnt anything wrong with me, Rochester said. These were normal experiences that were not recognized in our culture. But in other cultures and eras, they were very embraced and recognized.

In the early 70s, she pursued all manner of mind-body enlightenment, attending Buddhist retreats, visiting ashrams and studying psychology. She went on to study transpersonal therapy, obtain a doctorate in divinity and become an interfaith minister.

A lot of my experiences contributed to my understanding of myself, and of reality, she said. I was simply following what my heart called me into. I cant say I was looking for anything in particular, but I like what Carl Jung wrote to Bill Wilson about a thirst for wholeness.

Its whats driving Western civilization, and is the cornerstone of a lot of my early academic work and my work as a health and wellness counsellor, which I have been for years.

That thirst may be feeding the current hype around ayahuasca, which has become a clich of something enlightened hipsters do to find themselves. Cu do Montreal has been inundated of late with requests for membership, but Rochester notes that her church does not offer exotic getaways for new-age thrill seekers.

She describes next weekends event as an educational conference, meant to share information, debunk myths and clear up misconceptions about so-called ayahuasca and the religions of the Santo Daime.

Mr. Dunlevy, you can help by de-sensationalizing this, she said, and advising people that this is a very deep, serious spiritual tradition and path, not to be taken lightly and not recreational.

AT A GLANCE: The Ayahuasca Religions: The Sacrament, the Traditions, the Science conference takes place Saturday, Oct. 19, at St. James United Church, 463 Ste-Catherine St. W. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Tickets cost $79 in advance, $100 at the door, $45 for students. For more information, visit santodaime.ca

tdunlevy@postmedia.com

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What's all the buzz about? Montreal woman seeks to demystify ayahuasca - Montreal Gazette

The age of distraction | Opinion – Plattsburgh Press Republican

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Out of the Age of Enlightenment came a burst of creativity that spawned a major leap in Science, Technology and the Arts. Man became the measure of all things.

It is my belief that the scientific method is the best strategy that mankind has developed so far for explaining things. So if we want explanations we have science and when we need machines that make life easier, we use technology. If we want spiritual fulfillment, we have the arts and religion. If we want peace of mind we have meditation, and if we want love and happiness, we have each other.

Since this column is focused on technology, before we go further let me just say that in addition to making our lives easier there is, of course, a downside. Actually, several downsides. First off, technology in the form of the internet has fostered a hyper-awareness --- we want to know everything about everything. Every minute we click and follow a link is time that could be spent in face-to-face conversation with someone who is not a machine. Sure, there are tons of social sites where you can converse with others from all over the world but the internet also makes it more likely that we will be talking past one another. Discussions can turn into arguments with virtually no chance of changing the other persons mind as each accuses the other of using Fake News to back up their claims. Separating the wheat from the chaff on the Internet is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

The futility of this situation is cleverly shown by a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine where a man is typing away at his computer and telling his wife, Ill be right to bed as soon as I correct something someone wrote on the Internet. The original Internet was all about making connections but lately it seems to be fracturing our society by fostering tribes or clans of people we trust and are loyal to one other. We have a place we can call home but at the expense of excluding the opinions of those who belong to other clans.

At the recent Iowa State Fair, a Trump supporter was asked why he voted for him and his response was essentially, "I voted for Trump because he isn't a politician ---- he seems to be a regular guy like me so I trust him."

The same day I heard an interview of a recent book by Adam Gopnik, "A Thousand Small Sanities" where he was asked to give the gist of his book and he replied that he believes the current caustic political divide we are experiencing is because most everyone acts according to one of two competing desires --- for the good of himself or the good of society. Obviously one already knows what one wants for the good of ones self (money, fame, peace and quiet , etc etc etc) but, according to actual studies, what one perceives as good for society usually wins over self interest, for example, going off to fight for your country. For most of us its more important to belong to our clan than to chase fame or fortune...

Gopnik is claiming that the crux of the problem is that our society has fractured into these two clans --- we are no longer a melting pot nor even a mosaic; we have retreated back to trusting only those who belong to our clan and that overrides any altruistic goals we might have.

Thanks to technology and the omnipresence of the internet, its easy to feel that we are leaving the Age of Enlightenment and entering the age of distraction, disconnection and dehumanization. But there is hope.

Years ago I was bragging to a physicist friend about a student who used the web to create a game for his developmentally different brother --- what a fine humane gesture it was. The physicist responded that it would have been even better for him to put his arm around his brother and give him a hug. Listening to Anne Murray singing,Put a little Love in your Heart suggests that perhaps he was right.

Dr. Stewart A. Denenberg is an emeritus professor of computer science at Plattsburgh State, retiring recently after 30 years there. He can be reached at denenbsa@gmail.com.

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The age of distraction | Opinion - Plattsburgh Press Republican

Rescue changed the lives of firefighter and victim in aftermath of Loma Prieta – San Francisco Chronicle

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It wasnt the two hours that San Francisco firefighter Gerry Shannon spent working a chain saw under a collapsed Marina district building that got to him. It was the five minutes he spent lying there while a colleague replaced his blade.

Shannon was on his back in the claustrophobic crawl space, no more than 2 feet high. He could see the glow of approaching fire. He pictured the fire chief ringing the doorbell of his home to inform his wife, Deidre, that her husband had died while trying to rescue a woman trapped in her apartment after the Loma Prieta earthquake. He pictured Deidre giving the news to their three kids.

Those five minutes changed my thinking, Shannon, 74, says now in a voice becalmed by his daily 40 minutes of meditation. They talk about time standing still. It did.

It is a common story among people who have faced a life-threatening situation the promise that if they survive, they will mend their ways and stop wasting time or taking life and family for granted. These vows are often forgotten as soon as the danger is lifted, and Shannon was tempted to go back to his life in the Irish bars of the Sunset District, where he grew up.

He was now a hero with a rescue story that had spread nationwide. He had earned the San Francisco Fire Departments highest medal for valor. Drinks would be on the house for a long time.

But he never went back on the vow to pursue enlightenment that he made under that building the evening of Oct. 17, 1989. He has spent 30 years on a spiritual quest that has taken the fourth-generation city boy out of his element and out of the country.

It was a life-changing day, he says, and I survived it.

Sherra Cox, after months of treatment for injuries caused by the Loma Prieta quake, is greeted by her rescuer, firefighter Gerry Shannon, at the farewell party held for her by hospital staff.

When the TV news helicopters showed flames shooting up from fires all over the Marina after the quake, Shannons son Casey, 9, asked his mother, Do you think dads there? She replied, Yes, then added, but he wont take any chances.

At that moment, Shannon was taking more chances than he ever had. A four-story apartment building at Beach and Divisadero streets had collapsed, its upper stories fallen forward onto the street and its lower floors pancaked to the ground.

Sherra Cox, 56, an office manager, had come home from work early to watch the Giants and As in the World Series. Her building was two blocks from the bay and built on landfill. When the 6.9 earthquake hit at 5:04 p.m., the structure lurched forward off of its foundation and onto the street.

The apartment house next to hers erupted in flames that threatened to spread. The smell of gas was everywhere, and Cox was now trapped beneath heavy beams in the wreckage of her second-floor corner unit.

She managed to work one arm free, grabbed a loose pipe and banged it on the metal post of her bed. A paramedic heard it and alerted the nearest firefighter at hand, who happened to be Shannon, a 20-year veteran who had been detailed to the scene from his station on Jerrold Avenue near Candlestick Park.

When a building collapsed on Cervantes Boulevard in the Marina, Shannons crew of five had been ordered all the way to Divisadero Street. He thought they were sent just as backup. When he got to the top of the hill looking north, the Marina looked like a bomb had gone off, he says.

The building was compressed against the ground, so the only way to reach Cox was to go underneath and cut a path through the floor joists. Shannon got a chain saw from the engine and went to work in the crawl space, so tight he had to take his helmet off to fit. It was slow going. It took him 2 hours and two saw blades to go 35 feet.

But he got to Cox, who had broken her hips and pelvis. By then water was coming into the building from hoses dousing the fire next door. Shannon took off his heavy coat and put it over Cox. She grabbed his hand to make sure he wouldnt leave her, but he had to go get a new saw blade.

I said, Ill be back, I promise you, he recalls. I dont think she believed me. But she finally let go of his hand, and he did come back, 10 minutes later, with a fresh blade to free her from the beam pinning her to the floor.

He crawled back out again, far enough to call for a stretcher board, which paramedic Rich Allen pushed through. He checked Coxs vitals before they put her on the board and pushed her back out the way he had come. The crowd cheered as she was loaded into an ambulance, but she would not let it pull away until she got the last name of the firefighter who rescued her.

The efforts he went to to save a complete stranger, Cox later told The Chronicle. He is the story, I just happen to be the end of it.

Shannon holds a medal the California Firefighters Association awarded him for valor for his daring, lifesaving rescue of Cox.

Shannon never wanted to be the story. He was embarrassed by the attention, even when he was among a dozen heroes to throw out the ceremonial first pitch when the World Series resumed at Candlestick.

I was just a mediocre fireman who was in the wrong place at the right time, he says. You wait your whole career for something like that, and then when it shows up, you dont know how you are going to handle it.

The first sign that he had changed came when he arrived at San Francisco General Hospital the next day with flowers for Cox.

Usually, you dont even call, because if they died it ruins the whole effect, he says. But with her it was different. He kept coming back. When Christmas came around he brought his wife and kids and a tree to brighten Coxs hospital room.

The bond theyd formed over those two hours in her collapsed apartment building was stronger than Shannon anticipated. Cox persuaded him to do something he hadnt done since he was a freshman at Riordan High School read a book. Hed been kicked out of Riordan for fighting, then out of Lincoln High School for the same reason. Hed had to finish at a continuation school.

During Shannons hospital visits, Cox started talking about Eastern religion and philosophy and lending him books. He eventually moved on to the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. He and Cox would pass books on Buddhism back and forth.

After she was released to start five months of rehab, he visited and encouraged her to walk. She held his arm with one hand and her walker with the other. When Shannon learned that she didnt have a place to go for Thanksgiving, he invited her to spend it with his family.

Cox was a pianist who had played rehearsals for the San Francisco Symphony and Opera. Six months after her release, she and Shannon attended the Opera together. When her health later failed and she was using a wheelchair, Shannon would take her to lunch at Westlake Joes. Shed have a martini. By then Shannon wasnt drinking at all.

It didnt work anymore for me, he says. It wasnt part of my lifestyle.

Hed quit his side job as a bouncer and bartender and stopped playing softball, with its long hours of postgame drinking. His wife, Deidre, had been after him to move from their flat in the Sunset to Marin County, so they did, first to San Rafael then to Novato.

The 2 hours he spent under that building in the Marina and the months he spent with Cox afterward had altered his outlook.

I just wanted to do more with my life besides sitting at a bar watching the Miller Hi-Life sign blink on and off, he says.

The hours he used to spend in bars were now spent at Spirit Rock, a meditation center in West Marin. That led to a pilgrimage to Thailand, searching for the monastery of one of the monks hed studied with. When he returned, he took up silent retreats, sitting for 10 days without moving, looking up or talking in the Mojave Desert. He has been to Nepal and Tibet and sat with the Dalai Lama for 10 days in India.

He sectioned off part of his home for meditation, which he practices for 40 minutes every night at 9 p.m. For years he meditated while wearing a ceremonial shawl and sitting on pillows, with incense burning. But now that hes older, he sits in a chair.

Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion, he says. I steer clear of organized religion.

Shannon has not had a drink in 19 years, though he still plays golf every Monday with his drinking buddies from Riordan, who also became firefighters. His other link to his old San Francisco life was Cox, who had moved to an apartment on Nob Hill.

But she missed the Marina, so Shannon helped her find a corner unit in an apartment building there just like her old one. When he took her there to see it, she halted suddenly at the front door.

She said, Im sorry you went to all of this trouble, but I just cant go in there, he says. I looked at her face and it had all come back to her.

So he found her another place at Lake Merced.

Shannon became Coxs medical guardian as she went through a series of amputations, a result of gangrene that had formed when her circulation had been cut off while trapped. She decided to put an end to the operations in summer 2009, and died about a month later.

When Shannon visited her for the last time, he broke down in tears. He still becomes emotional talking about her now.

She said, What are you upset about? These last 20 years were on the house.

Its now been 30 years on the house for Shannon. For his heroics in rescuing Cox, he was issued the Scannell Medal, the San Francisco Fire Departments highest honor. He was named Fireman of the Year by Firehouse magazine. The manufacturers of Kleenex flew him to Washington to accept a God Bless You Award.

He was promoted to lieutenant in 1995 and captain in 2000. In 2003, he retired after 33 years with the department. The helmet he was wearing on the day of the earthquake and his framed medals are kept in his bedroom. It takes a lot of prodding to get him to bring them out.

Its kind of an ego thing I try to avoid, he says. As a Buddhist, he says, he is dedicated to the present, not the past.

I havent thought about the earthquake in a long time, even when it comes up on the anniversary, he says. Thirty years ago, who remembers that?

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF

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Rescue changed the lives of firefighter and victim in aftermath of Loma Prieta - San Francisco Chronicle

Hogarth: Place and Progress – ArtLyst

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The darkly satirical series of William Hogarth (1697-1764) has an enduring appeal today. Cutting through social conventions, they present with wit and humour the immorality and vice that Hogarth perceived in all classes of society.

Hogarth: Place and Progresswill unite all of the paintings and engravings in Hogarths series for the first time. TheMuseums ownRakes ProgressandAn Electionwill be joined byMarriage A-la-Modefrom the National Gallery, theFour Times of Dayfrom the National Trust and a private collection, as well as the three surviving paintings ofThe Happy Marriagefrom Tate and the Royal Cornwall Museum. The exhibition will also include engraved series lent by Andrew Edmunds prints such asThe Four Stages of Cruelty, Industry and IdlenessandGin LaneandBeer Street.

Hogarthsnarratives present asatirical take on the idea of progress. The principalcharacters flout conventional morality and so progress not towards spiritual enlightenment but to poverty, madness and death. London settings, still identifiable today, play a key role in these cautionary tales:inA Rakes Progress, the Rakes initial progressionfrom the mercantile City of London to an extravagant West End mansion spirals to a brothel inCoventGarden, then ultimately to insanity and death in Bedlam madhouse, as a consequence of his dissolute lifestyle.

Displayedacross thebackdrop of Sir JohnSoanesMuseum,the exhibition will demonstrate how Hogarths Modern Moral Subjects married the idea of progress with the moral geography of London, in a dynamic and evolving way throughout his own progress as an artist.

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Hogarth: Place and Progress - ArtLyst

4 Reasons Why Chat-based Learning Can Be a Solution To India’s Mass Education Challenges – Entrepreneur

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Technology giants are investing billions of dollars to build or acquire message-based platforms to fuel their global business ambitions

October14, 20195 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Conversations have changed the world since time immemorial. Conversations led to love, debates, arguments, knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and human enlightenment. Wars were fought when conversations ended. In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, writes, What was the Sapiens secret of success? How did we manage to settle so rapidly in so many distant and ecologically different habitats? How did we push all other human species into oblivion? Why couldnt even the strong, brainy, cold-proof Neanderthals survive our onslaught?

The debate continues to rage. The most likely answer is the very thing that makes the debate possible: Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language. The deepest desire of human beings is to express and connect with the world. Conversations help them build that connect. And language is the foundation of great conversations.

The birth of the Internet came from the same desire to connect and converse. Scientists and university professors wanted to connect their ideas among peers. Thus was born email and private messaging, which later expanded to websites, videos and apps. Today, the Internet is a volcano of trillions of conversations bursting out through computers, smartphones and smart devices.

This is the reason why conversational chat and conversational commerce are now come back into the consciousness of Internet users. Large technology platforms such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and LinkedIn believe that chat is going to transform the Internet. Products on Amazon, Alibaba and OLX are bought and sold using byte-sized reviews. No wonder, technology giants are investing billions of dollars to build or acquire message-based platforms to fuel their global business ambitions.

Business Insider projects that by 2020, 80% of the corporates across the globe will use chatbots at workplace. According to Drift, 27% of US teenagers have confirmed that they would shop and pay through conversational chatbots, and 13% are already shopping on chatbot interfaces.

While India is replicating the success of chat-driven platforms in social media and brick-and-mortar businesses, it is critical to evaluate conversational chatbots to make learning ubiquitous. India is estimated to have 855 million smartphones by 2022 with a majority of them on 5G network. Chatbots-based education can be easy to produce and simple to deliver without the need for complex education infrastructure. Chatbots cannot replace schools or colleges or teachers, but they can provide knowledge and skills in local languages to masses who are unable to afford education. It can provide a huge fillip to Indias education in terms of addressing challenges of quality as well as scale.

Here are five reasons why conversational chatbots can work for transforming Indian education:

The spirit of Indias culture is built around conversations. Most of our religious, spiritual and cultural traditions have seeped into our daily lives through thousands of years of conversational pipelines. Which is probably why, India is one of the largest customer base for WhatsApp. When Facebook Business conducted a survey, a staggering 74% of users confirmed that they would prefer messaging over all other technology channels to resolve their problems.

Learning is no different. Internet has shown us that businesses can be fundamentally transformed through byte-sized conversations. India also has a burgeoning population of first-generation learners who are getting into blue-collar jobs. Research reports say that over 200 million new job seekers are expected to enter the economy over the next 10 years. The app economy has organized the hitherto unorganized sector and provided millions of jobs to educated and less-educated youth. NSDC has a target to train over 200 million youth in job-related skills. The government is spending over INR 17,000 crore under the Skill India Mission. Over 6 million graduates are entering the formal economy to seek job opportunities. Classrooms are not enough and personal computers are unaffordable. Also most jobs are using smartphones as their primary touch point for business. In such a scenario, byte-sized learning opportunities need to be tried and tested.

The pace of growth in learners and job seekers needs fundamentally disruptive learning technologies. Learning platforms that have large format textual content and long videos, are finding it difficult to engage users who have limited attention span. Websites are out and apps are in. And even apps are swiped off or uninstalled when complicated content is ported on them. This is the reality of the Internet generation. Because chat is ideally suited for small screen devices such as smartphones that are exponentially growing and outnumbering personal computers in markets beyond cities. What e-learning can't, chat can. And all this at 10% of the cost.

Chatbots are quick, easy and cheap to produce. By making conversations as the focus of learning, it takes away the stress from understanding difficult concepts in education. A 10-minute chat-based lesson that moves in with a single learning outcome and moves out once it is delivered is far more appealing to users than a complex lesson plan that tries to fit it multiple objectives in multi-modal formats inside the same screen. Moreover, chat is the only low-cost platform that can integrate and offer just-in-time human expertise to learners, without the need for expensive learning infrastructure. A smartphone can be attached to a projection system in school, to teach and learn the same content that is available at home.

So, it is important for the education community to explore the opportunities that chat offers for improving access and outcomes to learning. Not just students, even teachers and parents can benefit by aggregating themselves on from low-cost messaging-based learning platforms. By creating a learning collective of stakeholders on one platform, chats can fundamentally change the way education is imparted and delivered in the future.

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4 Reasons Why Chat-based Learning Can Be a Solution To India's Mass Education Challenges - Entrepreneur

New opportunities for integration and cooperation: Op-ed – Hurriyet Daily News

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Shavkat Mirziyoyev

It gives me a great pleasure to congratulate the participants of the 7th Summit of the Turkic Council, the public of the Turkic world with the significant date - the 10th anniversary of adoption of the Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States.

The signing of this important document has marked the beginning of a new stage in fruitful partnership of Turkic-speaking countries which is based on inextricable historical ties, commonality of language, culture and spiritual values.

Today, the Turkic Council is a prestigious international platform for enhancing and deepening dialogue and cooperation among member countries, effective promotion their interests on the international arena.

The Republic of Uzbekistan as an integral part of the large Turkic family attaches great importance to the development of relations with Turkic-speaking countries. Back in the early years of its independence Uzbekistan has brought forward the initiative "Turkestan - our common home," which had been supported by the Turkic-speaking community. Our country took an active part in the first summits of heads of Turkic-speaking state. The historical 4th meeting of leaders took place on 21 October 1996 in Tashkent.

It became an important milestone in the development of cooperation of Turkic-speaking states and to some extent laid the foundation for the creation of the contemporary Turkic Council. By signing the Tashkent Declaration then, the heads of state emphasized the need for regular mutual consultations and agreed to establish the Secretariat for the heads of Turkic-speaking state meetings. This the most important institution is embodied in todays Secretariat of the Cooperation Council, established by the Nakhchivan Agreement on the establishment of the Turkic Council exactly 10years ago.

This year, Uzbekistan officially addressed the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states with the statement on accession to the Nakhchivan agreement. This request was warmly accepted by Organizations all member states, for which we express them our deep appreciation. In the shortest possible time - literally within one working day we had received a positive response.

On 14 September 2019 the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on acceding the Nakhchivan agreement was signed. On the same day a law on its ratification was adopted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent to the Secretariat and the depository of the Council the Instrument on the accession of Uzbekistan to the Nakhchivan Agreement.

I am convinced that the accession of our country to the Turkic Council will facilitate strengthening of the Turkic world integration and open up new opportunities for cooperation, especially now when the Turkic Council is aiming at fostering the economic interaction amongst member countries.

The Republic of Uzbekistan has gained a solid experience of mutually beneficial partnership with Councils all member states in many areas, both bilaterally and within a number of international frameworks.

Positive trends in interstate relations in the subregion of the Turkic Council open up for us new prospects for enhancing cooperation further both within the Turkic Council and in relations with international institutions and mechanisms, such as the United Nations, OSCE, OIC, ECO, The Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process for Afghanistan.

The Council has wide opportunities as an advisory, coordination mechanism of interstate relations and an instrument for promoting of equal, mutually beneficial international cooperation in Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. There are no disputes or disagreements among member states which in my opinion is a vital advantage. All participants adhere to coinciding or close views and positions on contemporary issues related to the Turkic Council activity, international and regional agenda. It means that today there are no barriers for active interaction in such priority areas as economy, investments, innovations and high technologies, alternative energy and ecology, transport and communications, tourism, science and education, medicine.

The achieved level of comprehensive cooperation among the countries of the Turkic Council inspires great optimism. While its real potential is much greater. We have everything we need, and most importantly, the strong political will to achieve even higher milestones, which unconditionally and fully meet the interests of our people.

In this regard, Uzbekistan has identified key priorities and areas of cooperation for the active promotion of which we are ready to make every effort.

This is first, the expansion of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment ties. Today, this vector should be the driving force of cooperation since it serves as the basis of growth of people well-being. I believe that, first of all, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between leading industrial enterprises, investment companies, banking and financial institutions and entrepreneurs of our countries, as well as to establish effective interregional cooperation.

We are interested in promoting closer cooperative ties in the fields of transport and transit. Creating integrated transport networks will provide an access to major world and regional markets. It is primarily about the international North-South and East-West transport corridors, automobile, rail and air routes connecting the Central Asian region with China, the countries of Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

To this end, a number of strategically important projects for the development of transport infrastructure have already been implemented in the region. Great opportunities are also emerging with development of the Andijan-Osh-Irkeshtam-Kashgar automobile corridor, as well as the beginning of constructionof the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.

Introduction of advanced information and communication technologies and innovations in all spheres is a determining factor in the competitiveness and sustainable development of any country. Therefore, we consider the innovative development of the Turkic Council countries a top priority. In this regard, we proposeto establish close partnership between institutions responsible for innovative development, scientific and research centers and venture companies in order to promote programs and projects for development of future technologies.

As you know, the people of the Turkic-speaking countries have a unique and invaluable cultural, historical and spiritual heritage, which belongs to all mankind. In our countries the historical monuments of the Turkic and Islamic civilisation, heritage of great scientists, poets, thinkers and artists have been carefully preserved. This priceless wealth belongs to all mankind, and the world should see it, which can be facilitated by active development of pilgrimage tourism. The travel industry, along with the economic component, plays an important role in rapprochement of countries and peoples.

While determining the prospects of our present and future, weundoubtedly rely on spiritual and moral values, rich history and culture of people, their centuries-old friendship, good neighborhood traditions and mutual understanding. Cultural and humanitarian cooperation forms the very atmosphere of relations among states, unites people. A vivid example of this is the holding of the Year of Uzbekistan in Kazakhstan and the Year of Kazakhstan in Uzbekistan, mutual days of culture and joint friendship concerts between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, festivals, exhibitions as well as many other joint events that caused a warm feedback in the hearts of people. I am convinced that this will become a good tradition for all countries of the Turkic Council and, undoubtedly, will serve to strengthening friendship and mutual understanding among our people. We have great potential for interaction in the field of human development. Exchange of experience, implementation of joint educational, scientific and cultural projects, promising programs for education and enlightenment of youth should be one of the priorities of the Turkic Council.

In the context of globalization, unpredictability and growing tension in the world, close and mutually beneficial cooperation play a decisive role in achieving sustainable development and progress, ensuring peace and security. One of the basic aspects of multilateral cooperation among Turkic-speaking states, in my opinion, should be coordination of efforts taken by the law enforcement agencies of the Turkic Council countries in combating terrorism, extremism, organised crime, drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Today, the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking statesis entering a new, more dynamic and responsible stage of its development, which requires strengthening of progressive and comprehensive cooperation among our brotherly countries and people.

Thanks to the political will, an open and constructive policy of the Turkic-speaking states, regular meetings of the countries leaders, the atmosphere of increasing mutual trust is being strengthened in the region. Uzbekistan also actively participates in this process.

The great Turkic representative, the Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aitmatov, speaking about the historical role of our country, noted that the Uzbek people in the fate of the Turkic-speaking countries played a role similar to the role of Byzantium in the fate of the Slavic states".

And today, at a new, by no means uneasy, stage of historical development, the Republic of Uzbekistan stands ready to make a worthy contribution to the further strengthening and enhancing of relations of friendship and cooperation between Turkic-speaking states.

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to congratulate the people of the Turkic-speaking states on the tenth anniversary of the Turkic Council and wish them peace, well-being and prosperity.

**Shavkat Mirziyoyev is thePresident of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

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New opportunities for integration and cooperation: Op-ed - Hurriyet Daily News

Walking the path of the buddha in a neglected corner of India – GQ India

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Buddhism was born under a giant fig tree, which, today, grows at the centre of the remote and unbeautiful town of Bodh Gaya, in Indias eastern state of Bihar. The tree is about three crooked blocks from the Be Happy Caf and a few minutes walk from a used bookstore, where a middle-aged Krishna devotee from Iowa named James works, reselling old paperbacks by Hesse and Murakami.

The sacred Bodhi Tree is surrounded by a wall and guarded by police. (Islamic extremists bombed the site in 2013.) At dawn, before pilgrims begin their daily perambulations around the trees massive trunk, local children forage under its sprawling canopy some branches are propped up by iron columns to gather fallen leaves. Pressed inside clear plastic, the leaves are sold to visitors from Bhutan, Myanmar and Manhattan, and to outposts of Buddhism around the world. The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, a reputed prince from what is now Nepal, is said to have achieved nirvana while meditating under the tree, in the 5th century BC. The Awakened One purportedly spent seven weeks under the Bodhi Tree after achieving liberation from the wheel of suffering that binds humankind to selfhood, ageing, disease and death. So Deepak Anand told me.

Last winter, I met Anand not in the Be Happy Caf but at one of its competitors, the Tibet Om Caf. The menu offered a staple comfort food for Western spiritual seekers in Asia: banana pancakes. Anand, who was 45, didnt eat. He was tall, pin-thin, had a shaved head and was so intense and talkative that he ordered a cup of tea but forgot to drink it. Anand is a self-taught cultural geographer. For the past 12 years, he has analysed historical texts and used GPS technology to chart what he says are the pathways walked by the Buddha as he spread his philosophy of mindfulness across northern India about 2,400 years ago. Anand hopes to promote this spiritual legacy by reviving a network of Buddha trails for pilgrims and tourists to walk in Bihar, the cradle of the worlds fourth-largest religion. Yet Buddhism largely vanished from the region centuries ago, eclipsed by Hinduism and Islam. Today, farmers plough up stone effigies without realising that the sculptures are antique representations of the sage. People long ago tore down the stupas and built their homes using the old bricks and stones, Anand said, referring to Buddhist monuments that once dotted the Ganges River plains. They simply didnt know.

To test his ideas, Anand suggested we hike from the Tree of Enlightenment, in Bodh Gaya, to the ruins of the Nalanda University an important centre of Buddhist learning, which was razed by Turkic invaders in the 12th century. The four-day trek effectively spans Buddhisms rise and fall in the Subcontinent many scholars believe the universitys destruction contributed to the religions decline. No one in recent times, Anand assured me, had retraced the Buddhas footsteps along the 80km route.

The Buddhas only concession to a hiking kit was a begging bowl. He sometimes strode through the villages of Bihar with a large crowd of followers in tow. Our own walking party numbered four:

the Bengaluru-based journalist Bhavita Bhatia carried a Free Tibet flag in her rucksack; Siddharth Agarwal, a river conservationist from Kolkata, lugged a leaden hardback copy of Ganges: The Many Pasts Of An Indian River; I packed the electronics needed to transmit stories from the trail. Only Anand practised Buddhist non-attachment. All he brought was a light sweater. Sorry, sorry, sorry, he said, when we caught up with him on the trail, after he repeatedly surged ahead. Im a high-energy person.

In the Buddhas day, northern Indias religious landscape was in a time of spiritual crisis and social upheaval. Disillusioned, rudderless, Siddhartha renounced his gilded life a childhood with 32 nursemaids, a kingdom with seasonal palaces and private gardens and his princess wife and their child to join other ascetics meditating in forests along the Neranjara River.

Today, plastic trash spangles the rivers sandy banks. Miles of rice fields steam where giant trees once threw blue shadows. British records reported a leopard at the train station as late as the 1930s, Anand said, wistfully. Its all gone.

A carload of sightseeing Malaysian monks stopped to ask us directions. They ended up debating with Anand about the location of Ratnagiri Rock, the site sometimes identified as the place where Siddhartha finally abandoned the hermit life, broke his fast with a bowl of gruel and invented a middle way to transcendence that rejects both extreme sensuality and extreme austerity. Anand informed the monks that he had geotagged the exact coordinates of Siddharthas epiphany. The monks smiled in polite silence. There are so many sects in Buddhism, Anand said. Its impossible to convince them all. We walked on. We passed the mountain cave where Siddhartha was said to have mortified himself for

six years, by some accounts sleeping on a bed

of spikes. And, after that pilgrimage stop, Bihar became just Bihar.

Chronically listed as one of Indias poorest states, Bihar isnt usually associated with spiritual revival. Its news cycle instead tallies droughts, floods, fatal encephalitis outbreaks and the violent aftershocks of a failed Maoist insurgency.

Following Anand, we plodded through abandoned sand mines. We stepped over railroad tracks. Inert villages slipped by, hollowed out by urban migration. In granaries, families hand-cranked large mechanical fans to generate a breeze for threshing their harvest. The Biharis, though, are ritually kind. They offer a cup of well water, a spot of shade, a narcotic betel nut to chew on the way. A days walk from the global tourist bubble of Bodh Gaya, where lamas broadcast meditation tips on YouTube, the world grows so insular that young village boys, peering up at me, exclaimed, Look at that face! Have you ever seen a face like that?

What our people and the government dont realise, Anand told us, in frustration, is that they are living on top of a global treasure inside a living museum. Anand isnt Buddhist. He was a Hindu by birth and is an empiricist by nature. Mostly, he is a proud Bihari.

The middle-class son of a military father and a housewife mother, Anand studied engineering and hoped to become a fighter pilot. But his curiosity kept drawing him to the mounds of Nalanda. The grassy hillocks are rubble from the powerful Magadha empire, whose kings funded the worlds first Buddhist monasteries, more than two millennia ago. Anand began poring through early travellers accounts of his homelands largely forgotten past. His hero is Xuanzang, an adventurous Chinese monk who travelled to India, in the 7th century, to study the roots of Buddhism.

Working as a pilgrimage interpreter and cultural consultant, Anand became an unlikely Buddhologist. An entry on his blog, announcing his purported discovery of Ratnagiri Rock and citing a 5th-century Chinese monk named Faxian, contains paragraphs like this:

According to Faxian the rock was 2 Li (400mts-700mts) north of the place where Sujata, the village girl offered rice-gruel (milk-rice) to Siddhartha. The place of offering food by Sujata was 2 Li north of where Siddhartha went to bathe-in river Nairanjana. And, the bathing place was 3 Li west of the spot where Siddhartha took austerities.

Anand has compiled hundreds of such waypoints in his Buddha-trail database. He is a keen admirer of his predecessors, the 19th-century British archaeologists whose excavations proved that Buddhism was a South Asian idea. (Earlier scholars had maintained, based on curly-headed statues, that the Buddha was Ethiopian.) The British were colonisers, Anand said, but they gave India the Buddha.

And they took everything they found away to London, Agarwal, the river conservationist, said.

When we walked into a village called Lohjara, every household seemed to wave at Anand. He was hailed for pressuring the local police into investigating the theft of the villages stone Buddha. The weathered statue, contemplating eternity in the lotus position, had been sitting in a local field for generations. In 2014, art thieves hefted the heavy sculpture into a car trunk and made off into the night. Two years later, acting on a tip, officers raided a nearby warehouse and found the Buddha packed for export. We felt very bad those two years, Rattan Pandey, a village elder, recalled. We protested to the authorities to recover it immediately. We even blocked the roads.

The restored Buddha was anchored with steel hoops beneath a village tree. The statues face was hacked off centuries ago, possibly by a Turkic soldier. Pandey worshipped the figure as Nakti Shiva, or Noseless Shiva, a mutilated version of the Hindu god.

We climbed the Jethian valley, plucking tart berries from jujube trees. According to the explorer-monk Xuanzang, a local man had tried to measure the Buddhas height when he visited the place, but gauging the immense soul by any earthly means had proved impossible. In frustration, the sceptic had thrown down his bamboo yardstick which sprouted to green life. Canebrakes still feathered Jethians high ravines. There were also faded village posters advertising Anands first effort at resuscitating the sacred landscapes of Bihar a pilgrims walk organised with a charity from California.

A remote mountain road patrolled by rhesus monkeys led us to Rajgir, the former capital of the Magadha empire. The area was a bewildering Venn diagram of Indias singular spiritual history: Jain caves, Hindu temples, Muslim shrines, Ashokan stupas. Anand was well-known here, too. At Vultures Peak, a shrine where the Buddha taught his Heart Sutra Form is only emptiness, emptiness only form a crowd of touts, stevedores, rickshaw drivers and cold-drink venders ringed Anand. They complained about being bullied by a pilgrimage mafia. He advised them to unionise.

On day four, we limped into Nalanda under clouds the colour of polished lead. Anand showed us around. At its peak, Nalanda, in central Bihar, was the largest centre of Buddhist learning in the world. It housed as many as 10,000 student monks. They argued about Buddhist doctrine and studied cosmology, astronomy and art. Scores of villages nearby were dedicated to feeding resident scholars. Nalandas graduates helped carry Buddhism to Tibet and points along the Silk Road. They used big mirrors to reflect light onto the Buddha statues inside temples, Anand said, highlighting the monastic centres architectural wonders.

But the manicured ruins felt comatose. Bhatia, the journalist, unfurled her colourful Tibetan pennant the only touch of colour on Nalandas barren squares.

How Buddhism ghosted away from its Indian source, between seven and nine centuries ago, remains one of the great mysteries in the history of religion. Hindu nationalists insist that Muslim hordes from Central Asia first Turkic invaders and later the Mughals wiped out the pacifist Buddhists at sword-point. The general who razed Nalanda, Bakhtiyar Khalji, couldnt even read the millions of Buddhist manuscripts he torched. But other scholars, Anand included, believe the reality is more complex. For centuries, Buddhisms influence was waning in India. The monasteries created a brain drain, sapping innovation. The monks grew isolated from the people. Hinduism and Islam attracted more followers. It was as if Buddhism evanesced the same way that its master teacher did. The Buddha reputedly died, at age 80, near what is today Kushinagar, in Uttar Pradesh. His ashes were taken from the scene of his life and scattered far across the Buddhist world.

According to some scriptures, the Buddha spent a week walking a long way up and down in joy and ease after attaining enlightenment. Our own little walking party sputtered to an end at the Nalanda bus stop. Bhatia left for Sikkim. Anand returned to his base, at Bodh Gaya. Only Agarwal and I slogged on towards the Brahmaputra River. A dense ground fog hugged the fields, making navigation difficult. We stumbled along sodden canal trails. Crows appeared and vanished in the white. Anand had asked, before we parted, for endurance-walking advice. Id forgotten to tell him that, on any long walk, he will get lost. And that being a little lost isnt bad. It helps you stay awake. And being found is overrated.

In January 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek set off from Ethiopia on a seven-year walk around the world, called the Out of Eden walk. His almost 40,000km route retraces the migratory pathways of the first Homo sapiens

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Walking the path of the buddha in a neglected corner of India - GQ India

Non-Violence Is Not the Be-All and End-All of Buddhas Revolutionary Teachings – The Wire

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October 14 marks the 64th anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkars conversion to Buddhism a significant milestone towards reviving Buddhism in India. Apart from it being the biggest mass conversion in modern history, it also came without any bloodshed. He had thundered Main Bharat Baudhmay karunga. (I will make India Buddhist) as five lakh people took deeksha(initiation) in Nagpur.

Indias Buddhist symbols

Even before the conversion, Ambedkar had been working to adopt many Buddhist symbols that are now a part of our day-to-day lives. A majority of Indias national symbols and images have footprints of Buddhism. Our national flag has a bright navy blue wheel, known as the Ashoka Chakra, in the centre. This wheel, which depicts progressiveness, is taken from the lion capital of Ashoka in Sarnath raised across the country during the Mauryan empire by king Ashoka, who ruled and spread Buddhism in Asia.

Our national emblem, which is also a part of all official documents including the Indian currency is a sculpture of four Asiatic lions standing back to back on the Ashok chakra. Durbar hall which hosted the swearing-in of Indias first government is one of the most exquisite halls in Rashtrapati Bhavan and has a beautiful Buddha sculpture dating back to the Gupta period.

From these examples, it would appear as if India has already adopted Buddhist principles by preserving its rich heritage and culture, which has spread globally.

So when Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked Indias gift of peace-loving Buddha to the world in his UN General Assembly speech, he was echoing the widelyknown.

And yet, he faced criticism for invoking Buddha abroad but supporting Hindutva back home. Interestingly, one criticism came from his supporter and a Hindutva votary for invoking Buddha. Manohar Bhide, whom the PM calls his guru, lamented Modis reference by saying, PM Modi was wrong in saying India gave Buddha to the world. Buddhas message of peace and tolerance is of no use now.

Also read:Ambedkar, Buddhism and Democracy

Bhide, a Brahmin, who heads the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, isaccusedof playing a role in the Bhima Koregaon caste-violence case but was never arrested. This was allegedly due to the Devendra Fadanavis government in Maharashtra supporting Bhide and his organisation. Hardly any BJP member has opposed Bhides statement.

Is the criticism of Buddha new? In the Nagpur conversion ceremony, Ambedkar responded to criticism of the Buddha by the Brahmins,saying, Brahmins used to say, Hey, you! [Bho Gautam] to Bhagvan.. Brahmins [thus] spoke slightingly of the BuddhaBut only one name is proclaimed throughout the world, and that name is Buddha.

Buddha as a revolutionary

In Bhides criticism, lies an attempt to not just pit Buddhists against Marathas, but also to limit Buddha to a philosophy of peace and non-violence. In the guise of targeting his message of peace, the likes of Bhide actually criticise Buddhas revolutionary message of the annihilation of the caste system and unscientific yagnas and rituals.

When Buddhas message spread outside India and Asia, Brahminical forces tried to appropriate him falsely either as the ninth avatar of Vishnu or by calling Buddhism another branch of Hinduism where Buddha propagated values like mercy, love, compassion, and affection (note the absence of social revolution).

Ambedkar was very well aware of these designs. He wrote, Buddha is generally associated with the doctrine of ahimsa. That is taken to be the be-all and end-all of his teachings. Hardly anyone knows that what Buddha taught is something very vast; far beyond ahimsa.

In his book Buddhist Revolution and Counter-revolution in Ancient India, Dr Ambedkar wrote:

Buddhism was a revolution. It was as great a revolution as the French revolution. Though it began as a religious revolution, it became more than religious revolution. It became a social and political revolution. To be able to realize how profound was the character of this revolution, it is necessary to know the state of the society before the revolution began its course. ..The aryan community of his time was steeped in the worst kind of debauchery; social, religious and spiritual.

While Buddha showed the unique path of enlightenment or self-realisation using noble eight-fold path, it was his revolution against the social evils and his fight against the Chaturvarnya (varna system) that made him a revolutionary.

Buddhas fierce attack on the Chaturvarya actually irked the beneficiary of the social system namely the priestly class.

On May 20 1951, Ambedkar addressed a conference on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti organised at Ambedkar Bhawan, Delhi. Photo: Wikepedia/ public domain

In his book Buddha and Karl Marx, Ambedkar wrote,

Buddha preached against Chaturvarnya. He used some of the most offensive similes in attacking the theory of Chaturvarnya. The order of Chaturvarnya had been turned upside down. Shudras and women could become sannyasis, a status which counter-revolution had denied them. Buddha had condemned the Karma kanda and the Yajnas. He condemned them on the ground of himsa or violence.

So each time our ISRO scientists seek divine blessings ahead of the launch of Chandrayaan, or our defence minister indulges in unscientific acts like placing a pair of limes under a fighter jet or our HRD minister does what the IIT Bombay students call a scientific blasphemy at a convocation ceremony, or a house speaker citesthe supremacy of Brahmin caste, we betray Buddhas revolutionary teachings.

Also read:An Eyewitness Account of Ambedkars Political Trials in Converting to Buddhism

Encroaching Buddhas heritage

Despite the popular imagery and symbols, Buddhas heritage and his message are under constant attack. Many of his stupas and Vihara have been either compromised or encroached upon. A case in point is the Ekvira Devi temple in Maharashtra. None other than Prabodhankar Keshav Thackeray, Uddhav Thackerays grandfather, wrote about how Hindu priests had encroached on this Buddhist cave in his book Devlancha Dharm Ani Dharmachi Devale.

The world-famous Ajanta caves in Maharashtra dating back to second century BCE would have met similar fate if it had not been for a Rs 400 crore aid from theJapanese government in 2002 to the Maharashtra government to preserve this historic site of Buddhism.

Ambedkar, thorough his historic conversion and drafting of the Constitution, revived Buddhism in India. That is one reason why the priestly class or beneficiaries of the chaturvarnya (caste system) still detest the Constitution, the very guiding document that promotes a scientific spirit anda bahujan hitay spirt, by calling it not reflective of Indias culture.

Despite being home to Buddha and his enlightenment, his birth anniversary isnt even a public holiday across the country like Gandhi Jayanti, Christmas or Republic day something Ambedkar fought for.

Buddhas teachings nevertheless have survived all these challenges as Buddhism has spread to western countries. So instead of opposing Buddhas revolutionary ideas of equality and reason, the latest attempt seems to be to limit him only as a messenger of non-violence and peace.

The anniversary of Ambedkars conversion is a timely reminder to study and inculcate Buddhas revolutionary ideas in these trying times of diminishing equality, shrinking fraternity and an almost dead scientific temper.

Ravikiran Shindeis an independent writer on social and political issues.

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Non-Violence Is Not the Be-All and End-All of Buddhas Revolutionary Teachings - The Wire

The philosophy of the Joker – Fabius Maximus website

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Summary: Jokers opening weekend shattered the record for an October release (despite its R rating), and brought in an incredible $234 million worldwide. Films do not hit those numbers by skill alone. The film must speak to us and our deep concerns.

We live in a time when the forces of chaos again threaten to break loose. Violence breaks out around the world in the name of the Hindu and Muslim gods. Our once poor but culturally rich inner cities such as New York and New Orleans have rotted into ghettos, almost ungoverned zones with cultures alien to the rest of America.

Under stress people often turn to fantasy, not just for encouragement but also to help process these events. Many such stories tell of transcendental saviors (an alien Jesus) or regular people given magic powers to right wrongs. The Batman saga is different. Bruce Wayne has everything intelligence, looks, wealth but gives up a life of ease. Instead honing his physical and mental skills to the very limits in order to personally and painfully wage war on the forces of disorder that have engulfed his city. His greatest opponent epitomizes the forces of disorder: the Joker.

Why does this story have such appeal both to adults and children? It gives form to our fears about the weak foundations of our society, as it totters against threats both foreign and domestic. Allan Bloom helps us to better understand this in his Closing of the American Mind, from which this material is taken. Some of this summarizes what he says; some is a close paraphrase of his words.

Rousseau and Nietzsche destroyed the intellectual basis of the Enlightenment, and the Wests self-confidence in itself. Replacing that in the minds of the intelligentsia is contempt for the bourgeoisie that is, the self-satisfied, morally blind, materialist middle class and beneath that fears that our values (their Christian roots discredited) have no foundation. It leaves few grounds for hope.

So we live in darkness on top of a void, no longer illuminated by rational analysis. The rise of the bourgeoisie results in a spiritual entropy or an evaporation of the soul, which weakens us in face of the unlimited choices made possible by the death of God in our souls and the disappearance of His rules. It leaves only a weak basis for any rules.

That is the basis ofMax Webers science (i.e., modern philosophy), which was at best a doubtful dare against the chaos of things, with values certainly beyond its limits. That is what the precarious, or imaginary, distinction between facts and values means. Reason in politics leads to the inhumanity of bureaucracy. Weber found it impossible to prefer rational politics to the politics of irrational commitment; he believed that reason and science were just value commitments, and so incapable of asserting their own goodness.

Weber believed that politics required a dangerous and inherently uncontrollable semi-religious value positing. Our era is the struggle for the emergence of new values, with unpredictable or unknowable results. Everything is up in the air, and we have no theodicy to sustain us. He, along with others who understood Nietzsches insights, saw that everything we care about was at stake, and we lacked the intellectual and moral resources to govern the outcome.We require values, which in turn require a creativity that is drying up and has no cosmic support. Scientific analysis reveals reason to be powerless, and dissolves the protective horizon within which men can value.

This struggle emerged in the fires of WWI, and then in its result: Weimar Germany. The Wests cultural wars are louder echos of the forces unleashed then. This is best known in the descendants of Christopher Isherwoods semi-autographic Goodbye to Berlin

Few today remember the story that is the context for the song. Even less well-known is its origin in an aphorism in Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra

This is the philosophy of the Joker. Few will understand it, for it lies beyond the vision of the bourgeoisie. That is why the tide of madness will continue to rise, and efforts to stop it will prove futile. Our stars are singing a song they do not understand, bringing America into a world where anything is possible for people who sing about the joy of the knife in cabarets. And who find villains such as the Joker more exciting than heroes who protect us from them.

He now saw himself always as doer of a single deed. Madness I call this: the exception now became for him the essence. The line he followed bewitched his meagre reason. Madness after the deed I call this. Hear me, you judges! There is yet another kind of madness: and this is before the deed. You have not crawled deep enough into this soul!

Thus speaks the scarlet judge: But why did this criminal murder? He wanted to rob. But I say to you all: his soul wanted blood, not loot; he was thirsting for the joy of the knife! But his meagre reason was unable to grasp this madness and it won him over. What is the point of blood! it said; Do you not at least want to steal something too? Or to take revenge? And he listened to his meagre reason: like lead did its speech lie upon him and so he robbed when he murdered. He wanted not to be ashamed of his madness. And now again the lead of his guilt lies upon him, and again his meagre reason is so stiff, so lamed, so heavy.

If only he could shake his head, his burden would roll off: but who can shake this head? What is this man? A heap of sicknesses that reach out through the spirit into the world: there they want to catch their prey.

What is this man? A ball of wild snakes that are seldom at peace with each other so they go forth singly and seek prey in the world. Behold this poor body! What it suffered and desired, this poor soul interpreted for itself and interpreted it as murderous pleasure and greed for the joy of the knife. Whoever now becomes sick is overcome by the evil that is evil now: he wants to hurt with that which hurts him. But there have been other times and another evil and good.

Once doubting was evil and the will to self. At that time the sick became heretics and witches: as heretics and witches they suffered and wanted to inflict suffering. But this will not enter your ears: it would harm your good men, you tell me. But what do your good men matter to me!Much about your good men disgusts me, and verily it is not their evil. How I wish they had a madness through which they might perish, just like this pale criminal! Verily, I wish their madness were called truth or loyalty or justice: but they have their virtue in order to live long, and in wretched contentment. I am a railing by the torrent: grasp me, whosoever can! Your crutch, however, I am not.

Thus spoke Zarathustra.

If you liked this post,like us on Facebookandfollow us on Twitter. See all postsabout heroes, aboutreforming America: steps to newpolitics, and especially these

By Joseph Campbell (1949).

This is the book that sparked serious research in to the function and significance of myths. See Wikipedia. From the publisher.

Since its release in 1949,The Hero with a Thousand Faceshas influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbells revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Heros Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the worlds mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

As relevant today as when it was first published,The Hero with a Thousand Facescontinues to find new audiences.

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Succession Composer Nicholas Britell Talks Creating the Flava That Was Kendalls Rap – IndieWire

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If youre a fan of Succession and you have taste, then you most likely still have Kendall Ken.W.A Roys (Jeremy Strong) rap about his father Logan L to the O-G Roy (Brian Cox) stuck in your head. The song, the glory, and the second-hand embarrassment occurred during an episode that aired two weeks ago (Dundee), but just because were heading into the season finale doesnt mean it will be forgotten anytime soon. Or ever.

Thats because the musical concoction was cooked up by the same man thats provided us with the earworm (and, welllets just say itbop) that is the Succession opening theme and the rest of the series score: composer Nicholas Britell.

Britellwho is notably also Barry Jenkins go-to composer, having worked on Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talkspoke with TV Guide about being a part of this now definitive moment in television history and how he channeled Kendalls inner flava.

The thing Ive found throughout the show is that serious stuff feels serious, musically, but the more absurd something gets onscreen, the more serious I play the music, Britell told TV Guide. When it came time for this sequence, the assignment, in a way, was a reflection of that same duality. On the one hand, it had to be incredibly cringeworthy Kendall deciding he was going to perform a rap to his father. But at the same time, it wouldnt work unless it felt like it was actually really well done. It has to feel well-executed for the humor to also be there.

In the episode, Kendall credits his boy Squiggle for helping him make this glorious piece of art, an opening fact that only makes the whole performance that follows somehow even better. In fact, since this episode, Succession fans have struggled with the fact that while the scene is, as mentioned, cringeworthy, it is also actually quite good. Even Succession creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong spoke to that fundamental truth in the post-episode Inside the Episode featurette:

The idea of Kendall rapping was, I remember, I was thinking, if you heard a billionaires son had done that, youd be like, yeah, it sounds like the sort of toe-curling thing you might see on Instagram I think its pretty embarrassing. Its also kind of good.

Try as you might to fight it, one thing is uncomfortably true: Kendall Roys got bars. Sure, the raps accompanying beata reinterpretation of Johann Sebastian Bachs Prelude in C Minor from Britells collection of college beatscertainly helps him out, but a beat cant contain the hot fire that is a deeply personal lyric like, Dont get it twisted / Ive been through Hell / But since I stan dad, Im alive and well.

The show is constantly embracing the different modes, different tones, and different emotions its exploring, Britell said. The reason I chose the beat was that it actually resonated with some of the courtly classical sound Ive been writing for the score. I used to make so many beats, but that one felt like a spiritual cousin to some of the things Im working on right now.

Now, its one thing for actor Jeremy Strong to rap over a Britell beat in character; its a whole other thing for a notable rapper like Pusha T to do the same thing in reality. Which is exactly whats happened, as HBO has recently announced an official remix of the Succession theme by Pusha Ttitled Puppets (Succession Remix)due for release this Friday, just in time for the second season finale on Sunday.

There was only one person on the list of people to reach out to. Of course it had to be Pusha. There was no backup, there was no plan B, Britell told Vulture. Pushas voice is like a missile!

Like so many of us, Pusha T also apparently cant get enough of Succession. No idea how he personally feels about Kendalls rap skillshe does feel that Roman (Kieran Culkin) should be the one to take over Waystar Roycobut we should all know by now that the true path to enlightenment is to face L to the O-G head-on, stare into it like the sun, and watch it on a loop until you find the meaning of life or finally realize that Succession is, in fact, a comedy.

Now: Enjoy this bop once more, now with no interruptions.

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Mexican carrier TMS partners with Fr8Hub – American Journal of Transportation

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With a 40-year track record, TMS is a Top 10 Carrier in Mexico

Fr8Hub announced a partnership with Transportes Monroy Schiavon (TMS), one of the leading asset-based carriers in Mexico. TMS, is in operation for more than 40 years in Mexico, and is planing to expand their shipping operations to and from the United States by leveraging Fr8Hubs digital cross-border freight marketplace. As well, TMS extensive trucking fleet will immediately become part of Fr8Hubs carrier network, making their fleet of trucks available to match with shippers loads throughout Mexico.

TMS has regularly been recognized as Best Carrier by Walmart Mexico, and received a Service Excellence Award for Large Carriers by Ryder in January 2019. Fr8Hubs digital freight marketplace directly matches cross-border shippers throughout Mexico and the domestic United States (to and from border cities) with available carriers and drivers.

Fr8Hubs cross-border expertise will help us completely revamp our shipping operations into the United States, said Raul Monroy, Owner and General Director, Transportes Monroy Schiavon. In addition, working with Fr8Hub will provide our shipping customers with unprecedented visibility for loads while out in transit.

Fr8Hubs digital freight marketplace is integrated with fleet and driver IOT devices to synthesize and analyze together large amounts of data on each fleet and shipment, providing 24x7 visibility on shipment location and timing. Shippers and carriers can access this critical data through the Fr8Hub Control Center to make timely, actionable decisions on loads, optimize their operations and reduce costs.

The partnership with TMS is a win-win: we have the platform and they have the trucks, said Ohad Axelrod, Co-Founder and CEO, Fr8Hub. TMS prestigious history and reputation as a trusted carrier for the biggest brands will be a tremendous asset for Fr8Hub as we continue to expand our services in Mexico.

Fr8Hub is focused on cross-border shipping, providing flexibility, visibility and simplicity for the once-complex process of international over-the-road (OTR), cross-border shipping.

Since we launched in Mexico in June, our customers there cite Fr8Hub as their competitive advantage in finding reliable, available freight options with speed and efficiency, said Laura Mandujano Valds, Mexico country manager, Fr8Hub. Adding TMS to our network certainly adds to that credibility.

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Changes in the Nexstim Plcs Board – Yahoo Finance

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Company announcement, Inside information, Helsinki 15 October 2019 at 1.50 PM (EEST)

Changes in the Nexstim Plcs Board

Nexstim Plc (NXTMH:HEX, NXTMS:STO) ("Nexstim" or "Company") the company developing and marketing a unique brain stimulation technology for personalized treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), announces changes in its Board composition.

Following the meeting of the Nomination Committee, Ken Charhut and Juliet Thompson, members of the Board of Directors since 2013 and 2015 respectively, have resigned their positions. The Company will later today release a new Company Announcement convening an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders which will include the election of new members to the Board of Directors.

Martin Jamieson, Chairman and CEO of Nexstim, commented: We thank Ken Charhut and Juliet Thompson for their long-standing work on the Nexstim Board and its committees. We wish them all the best in the future. The EGM announcement will provide further details of this planned restructure of the Nexstim Board.

Further information is available on the website http://www.nexstim.com, or by contacting:

Martin Jamieson, Chairman and CEO+44 771 516 3942martin.jamieson@nexstim.com

Sisu Partners Oy (Certified Adviser)Jussi Majamaa+ 358 40 842 4479jussi.majamaa@sisupartners.com

About Nexstim Plc

Nexstim is a Finnish, globally operating medical technology company. Our mission is to enable personalized and effective therapies and diagnostics for challenging brain diseases and disorders.

Nexstim has developed a world-leading non-invasive brain stimulation technology called SmartFocus. It is a navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) technology with highly sophisticated 3D navigation providing accurate and personalized targeting of the TMS to the specific area of the brain.

SmartFocus technology is used in Nexstims proprietary Navigated Brain Therapy (NBT) system, which is FDA cleared for marketing and commercial distribution for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in the United States. In Europe, the NBT system is CE marked for the treatment of major depression and chronic neuropathic pain.

In addition, Nexstim is commercializing its SmartFocus based Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) system for diagnostic applications. The NBS system is the only FDA cleared and CE marked navigated TMS system for pre-surgical mapping of the speech and motor cortices of the brain. Nexstim shares are listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland and Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden.

For more information please visitwww.nexstim.com

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Fr8Hub CEO Ohad Axelrod to Discuss US-Mexico Cross-Border Trade at Journal of Commerce Inland Conference – Yahoo Finance

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LAREDO, Texas, Oct. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fr8Hub co-founder and CEO Ohad Axelrod will join the list of notable speakers at Journal of Commerces Inland Distribution conference, held Oct. 21-23 in Chicago. Axelrod will be part of the US-Mexico Cross-Border Trade: Threading the Needle session, held on Oct. 23 at 1:45 CT at theMarriott Marquis Chicago.Axelrod discussed the current cross-shipping environment with session moderator Bill Cassidy in a recent Journal of Commerce article, Lack of visibility delays US-Mexico truck freight:Infrastructure is a pain point, said Axelrod. You look at the roads leading to the border from Monterrey, and some of these sections are pretty horrible to drive. The more freight is moved, the worse the situation is likely to get.Were bridging the gap to build relationships between carriers in the United States and carriers like TMS in Mexico, to simplify the process of cross-border shipping, said Axelrod.Last week, Fr8Hub announced a partnership with Transportes Monroy Schiavon (TMS), one of the leading asset-based carriers in Mexico for more than 40 years. TMS extensive trucking fleet will immediately become part of Fr8Hubs carrier network, making their fleet of trucks available to match with shippers loads throughout Mexico.Fr8Hub combines extensive logistics experience with innovative cloud-based technology that directly matches shippers and freight forwarders in the U.S. and Mexico with a broad network of reliable carriers. Fr8Hub provides flexibility, visibility and simplicity for the once-complex process of international over-the-road (OTR) shipping. Fr8Hubs digital freight marketplace is integrated with fleet and driver IOT devices to synthesize and analyze together large amounts of data on each fleet and shipment, including location, freight, time and other data points. Shippers and carriers can access this critical data through the Fr8Hub Control Center to make timely, actionable decisions on loads, optimize their operations and reduce costs.The JOC Inland Distribution Conference serves shippers and transportation providers who move goods within North America and from North American ports to the inland destination. To learn more about Fr8Hub, please visit http://www.fr8hub.com. Media Contact: Will HarawayBackbeat Marketing404.593.8320william@backbeatmarketing.comwww.linkedin.com/in/willharawaywww.backbeatmarketing.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2128fd7e-4f96-447b-b151-1d5e3c75b250

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Fr8Hub CEO Ohad Axelrod to Discuss US-Mexico Cross-Border Trade at Journal of Commerce Inland Conference - Yahoo Finance

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Welcome to the Shiny New Mary Sue – The Mary Sue

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As you can see, The Mary Sue has a gorgeous new look. Heres what you can expect from our updated design.

The Mary Sue community as you know it wont be changingour excellent and incisive commenters can be found after the article as ever. Our article pages now are widerand lovely to read, and youll have an easier time finding related stories to keep reading on your favorite topics. Everything looks splendid on mobile, as well, if we do say so ourselves.

The chronological scroll our community prefers remains in place, as does the comment count on every article so that you can quickly see where discussion is happening. We know that change on the internet can feel tricky to navigate, so we tried to preserve all the things we love best about how The Mary Sue works while plotting her upgrade for the future.

Now youll be able to quickly focus in on the most popular articles on site, and well also be curating selections of our favorite TMS posts for your reading pleasure under Our Picks. We have more space to feature videos and art, which we cant wait to share with you.

We also have a rainbow-colored Breaking News bar that well use when big things are going downso keep your eyes peeled up top for what weve nicknamed the Bifrost Bar.

Questions? Comments? We know youll have em! Were excited to welcome you to the new Mary Sue.

(images: Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics)

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The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.

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Marianne Preger-Simon: Why is half of the Second Amendment ignored? – GazetteNET

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Published: 10/11/2019 2:12:49 PM

Modified: 10/11/2019 2:12:37 PM

I am not a constitutional scholar, by any means, but there is something about the way that everyone speaks about the Second Amendment to the Constitution that is very puzzling to me.

The Second Amendment is simply one sentence, containing two ideas. The first idea is almost never mentioned in discussion of the amendment. The only thing ever mentioned is the second idea: the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Why does the first idea never get mentioned? A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,

That part of the sentence gives me the impression that people who keep and bear arms are meant to be part of a well-regulated militia, like, for example, the state National Guard. That would be quite a change. It would mean that people who use guns would need to be registered as part of a militia. That is, they would undergo some sort of group basic training, and regular periodic reviews to maintain their skills.

Why is this half of the Second Amendment never discussed and certainly never implemented?

Marianne Preger-Simon

Whately

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Marianne Preger-Simon: Why is half of the Second Amendment ignored? - GazetteNET