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The first criminal justice issue of the New York gubernatorial campaign came up in the final few weeks -- parole of violent felons. But this isn't the usual substantive discussion of parole, a topic Governor George Pataki mastered long ago. On the contrary, this is about high-level corruption and bribes. Building on analyses by Wayne Barrett and Jesse Goldstein in the Village Voice, Tom Golisano, the Independence candidate for governor, began broadcasting a 30-second advertisement statewide charging the Pataki administration with selling paroles to an armed robber and a major drug kingpin in exchange for campaign contributions. Pataki parole board chairman Brian Travis, who is still on the job, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator by a federal prosecutor.
Selling Paroles?
According to Barrett and Goldstein, Pataki fundraiser and Korean community leader Yung Soo Yoo had approached three families before the 1994 election, saying he could help get their sons, all convicted violent felons, out of prison if they contributed to the Pataki campaign. One man was indeed released on parole two years after his family donated.
Nonetheless, the New York Times concluded that saying Pataki's administration "got caught selling paroles" stretched the truth.
No one was convicted of selling paroles, says the Times, although three State Parole Board officials were convicted of lying to federal investigators and Pataki fund-raiser Yoo was convicted of obstruction of justice. A jury deadlocked on whether he had promised paroles for contributions.
Meanwhile, Patrick Donahue, the finance director of Friends of Pataki, was also named an unindicted co-conspirator for helping bring Yoo into the campaign, collecting contributions from him, and meeting with the families who had been promised early release.
All very distressing stuff, particularly given Pataki's aggressive substantive record on parole. Pataki had pushed a sentencing reform act through the legislature in 1995, eliminating the parole board hearing for repeat violent felons. (Inmates can still apply for a 15 percent reduction in sentence for good behavior.) After a bitter fight with Assembly Democrats, he got the ban on parole extended to first-time violent felons, under what's called Jenna's Law, in August 1998. He has been arguing ever since to abolish parole for all felons, and to implement "truth-in-sentencing," by which a judge would mandate a specific number of years to be served rather than a potential range. Truth-in-sentencing would retain minimum sentences while eliminating the false maximum sentences that had once lulled victims into thinking their assailants would be away for a long time.
The old system of indeterminate sentences didn't really have a maximum term, though one was pronounced by the judge. Someone sentenced to, say, 15-25 years, seldom actually served 25 years. Instead, after serving two-thirds of the so-called maximum sentence the prisoner became automatically entitled to parole. This entitlement applied to everyone, including violent felons who had committed terrible crimes. The only exception was for those who behaved very badly in prison, which some of the more vicious inmates did indeed do, thereby imprisoning themselves further. Robert Chambers, for example, who killed Jennifer Levin in Central Park in August 1986, was recently denied parole, as he has been before, because of his drug abuse and violence in prison. He will finish his 5-15-year manslaughter sentence this winter and be released free of any parole supervision -- yet another problem of the old system. Chambers and a few others aside, most prisoners have been released early, well before reaching their maximum terms.
Seeking More Time
The Central Park jogger case is both 13 years old and brand new, summarized the Times, noting that prosecutors had been granted six more weeks to conclude their investigations of what happened the night of April 19, 1989.
Given the confession (and DNA corroboration) of serial rapist Matias Reyes, attorneys representing the Harlem teenagers who had been convicted of the Central Park jogger assault argued before State Supreme Court Justice Charles Tejada that the convictions should be vacated immediately. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Peter Casolaro, however, asked for more time to review 15,000 pages of court transcripts, interview people, and follow up leads and information given by Reyes. Judge Tejada set December 5 as the new deadline for the prosecutor's report.
While no one knows for sure what will be in the prosecutor's report, the Times, again displaying its amazing access to the D.A.'s office, says that investigators have so far come up "with almost nothing to back the original findings of guilt and with quite a bit that undermines them." Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau has arranged for additional DNA tests that may yet corroborate the original confessions, but he calls the tests a "long shot."
Declaring Another Rape
Adding yet another horrible detail to the case, Matias Reyes told investigators that he had committed a similar rape in Central Park two days earlier, and that he assaulted both women by himself. The earlier rape had never been discussed publicly by either the police department and prosecutors, nor had it been divulged to defense lawyers. After being hospitalized for two days, the victim immediately left New York. No one was ever prosecuted for the rape, and the police department seems to have pretty much shelved any investigation. According to the Times, even the homicide detectives handling the Central Park jogger case did not know about the earlier rape, which had been handled by the Sex Crimes Unit. When Reyes went on to rape and murder a pregnant woman three months later, he carried out the prediction of one defense lawyer during trial that the real attacker was still unknown and would be out committing more rapes and possibly even murder.
The crucial question now is whether Reyes's contention that he acted alone should be believed? Michael Daly of the Daily News dug out a 1991 report on Reyes by psychologist Dr. N.G. Berrill, who concluded that Reyes engaged in "grandiose fantasies." Reyes "indicated that while he does not believe he possesses magic powers he would like to become a 'superhero one day like Ice Man,'" wrote Berrill, who went on to describe Reyes as an "infantile, impulsive individual ... prone to viewing the world in a peculiar fashion ... marked by 'monsters, blood, dead animals.'" He is "demanding, particularly with his need for respect and attention."
Concluded Daly: "Reyes would later say that he finally revealed his secret because he had found God, but the report shows he had been talking about finding God for at least 11 years. More likely, the 31-year-old Reyes realized that even after all this time, his secret accorded him power to match his fantasies."
A New Report From Jogger's Medical Team
Members of the medical team that first treated the jogger told the Daily News that her injuries were not consistent with Reyes's account that he acted alone and beat her with a tree limb and a rock. "The wounds that caused the blood loss, the ones that almost killed her, were administered by some sharp-edged weapon of some kind. Not by a blunt object," said one doctor. "A sharp-edged object will not produce the same abraded edges." A second doctor agreed, adding that more than one person was involved: "She had extensive injuries all over her body. There was not a part of her body that wasn't traumatized."
Increasing Numbers Of Rapes
Rape is the only violent crime in New York that has been on the rise this year, according to NYPD statistics. It is now up a little more than six percent over last year, with 1,570 rapes reported through October 6, 2002, compared with 1,478 rapes in the same period last year.
This year began with an increase in rape; 261 first-degree rapes were reported from January 1 to March 11, up from 238 in the same period last year. In March the NYPD attributed the increase to a rise in acquaintance rape, which jumped 18 percent. Stranger rape fell eight percent. (Nationally, acquaintance rape tends to be as much as 80 percent of all rapes.) While not yet providing the acquaintance/stranger breakdown for the year-to-date data, the NYPD nonetheless argues that the numbers reflected increased reporting rather than an increase in actual rapes.
They may be right, but some of the hardest-hit precincts are also ones with a history of antagonism with the NYPD. The 43, for example, where Amadou Diallo was killed, had 46 rapes up to October of last year and 58 rapes this year to date. The neighboring 44 had 41 last year and 67 this year. Perhaps more women are reporting rape, but perhaps something else is going on.
Julia Vitullo-Martin, a long-time editor and writer on urban affairs, is the former director of the Citizens Jury Project at the Vera Institute of Justice. She is now writing a book entitled The Conscience of the American Jury.


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Story highlights
Chelsea's Eden Hazard charged with violent conduct by the English FA
Hazard appeared to deliberately kick a ball boy in a League Cup semifinal match
Hazard was sent off as Chelsea were knocked out by hosts Swansea
NEW: South Wales Police announce no action against Hazard
Chelsea's Eden Hazard was charged by the English FA with violent conduct Friday after his sending off for kicking a ball boy in his side's League Cup match at Swansea earlier this week.
Belgian international Hazard was already set to receive an automatic three-game ban, but a statement on the FA website said his actions "constituted violent conduct whereby the standard punishment that would otherwise apply was clearly insufficient."
Hazard has until January 29 to respond to the charge. The case will then go before an FA disciplinary panel who will decide on any punishment more than than three matches.
Hazard, signed by the European champions last summer, was shown red by referee Chris Foy in the 78th minute of Wednesday's match at the Liberty Stadium, with his side still trailing 2-0 on aggregate from the first leg.
Read: Hazard sees red after ball-boy incident
Hazard lost patience when the ball boy, 17-year-old Charlie Morgan, was slow to hand the ball back to him after it had gone out for a goal-kick.
Morgan fell to the ground as Hazard attempted to wrest the ball away from him before the 22-year-old Chelsea midfielder took more drastic action.
In attempting to work the ball from under his body, TV replays indicated Hazard had made contact with his boot.
With the winded ball boy left on the ground, Foy sent off Hazard, leaving Chelsea with 10 men for the remainder of the 0-0 second leg draw.
Read: Eden Hazard, right or wrong?
Swansea's achievement in reaching the League Cup final at Wembley where they will play fourth flight Bradford, was obscured by the post-match controversy surrounding the incident.
While Hazard has been widely condemned and has apologized to the ball boy, there has also been criticism for the youngster's time wasting antics.
This was also covered in the FA statement Friday as English football's governing body sent out general advice.
"The FA will remind all clubs of their responsibilities in ensuring ball boys and other personnel around the pitch act in an appropriate manner at all times and will liaise with competitions accordingly," it read.
Hazard received better news later Friday when South Wales Police announced they would be taking no further action after three official complaints had been lodged against him by separate members of the public.
"We can confirm there is no longer any police involvement in this matter," read a statement on their official Twitter feed.
The police also said that they had interviewed the ball boy and he did not wish to make any formal complaint.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hannah Zhao
Hannah is a staff attorney who focuses on criminal justice and privacy issues, and is part of the Coders' Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, she represented criminal defendants on appeal in state and federal courts in New York, Illinois, and Missouri, and also worked at the human rights NGO, Human Rights in China. While pursuing her law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Hannah represented indigent defendants and refugee applicants in Durban, South Africa, and studied international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She also competed in, and remains involved with, the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition, including as a problem author in 2019. In college, Hannah studied Computer Science and Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In her spare time, she likes to climb things.


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Bramante, Donato
Bramante, Donato dōnä´tō brämän´tā [key], 1444–1514, Italian Renaissance architect and painter, b. near Urbino. His buildings in Rome are considered the most characteristic examples of High Renaissance style. In 1477 he painted frescoes in the municipal palace at Bergamo. In Milan and neighboring cities including Pavia and Vigevano, he executed paintings that recall works by Piero della Francesca and Mantegna. Bramante designed much of the Church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan; its famous choir, painted in perspective, gives an illusion of great depth, although it is extremely shallow. He may also have planned the east end of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a spacious domed appendage to an older Gothic church. After 1499 he left for Rome, where he designed the simple but graceful cloister for Santa Maria della Pace and the exquisitely proportioned circular Tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. His other works in Rome include the Belvedere courtyard at the Vatican, designs for a massive Palace of the Tribunals, the choir of Santa Maria del Popolo and other churches, and his own large house with Doric columns rhythmically disposed above a massive rusticated ground floor. His most important work, however, was his plan for St. Peter's, probably conceived as a centrally planned (Greek cross) and domed structure of enormous size and impressiveness. He favored central plans and a sense of noble severity, especially in his Roman period. Although St. Peter's was later remodeled into a longitudinal structure, Bramante is responsible for the essential proportions of the east end, and his design influenced the appearance of many smaller churches.
See studies by G. Chierci (Am. ed. 1960) and A. Bruschi (1977).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Architecture: Biographies


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Jeff Adair: Silly season for Sotomayor
The craziest comment I've heard or read -- and boy there have been plenty -- in response to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court came from a man who objected to her identification as a Latina.
It was a talk radio caller, to a sort of rational host. Surprise. Surprise.
Latina is defined as a woman of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent. Sotomayor is Puerto Rican, a Spanish-speaking territory of the United States. She fits the bill, right?
Wrong. According to this guy, who identified himself as Italian, Latin was the original language of Rome -- that's correct -- and thus, if anyone ought to use the word to describe their heritage, it should be his, not Sotomayor's.
Besides, he added, we're all Americans. My ancestors came here with nothing. They worked hard. (Get the violin out.) They didn't ask for handouts, unlike ... . We need to stop dividing by race. (Yeah, OK, buddy.)
It's silly season folks. Nitpicking and politics go hand in hand. The lunatics are running the asylum. Their heads are about to explode.
No matter whom Obama nominated to the high court, some folks were going to criticize the person's thin resume, call him or her an activist judge, and declare him or her the worst pick ever.
Oh, don't forget, one must also call Sotomayor that dirty word: Liberal.
She's "a gun-grabbing, pro-abortion, big government liberal on steroids!" said a press release titled "Obama picks most liberal Supreme Court justice nominee in history." It was one of many sent to my e-mail Tuesday, including several that arrived before the nomination was official.
Any woman, African-American, or Latino nominee is bound to be called an affirmative action pick. It doesn't matter what law school the person attended, judicial experience, or other accomplishments. Unless the person is a traditional nominee (middle-age white male), they're suspect.
To be fair, silly talk has come from Democrats in the past whenever a Republican president selects a nominee.
Here's the deal: Put the guns down. Get a cool drink and relax. Let Congress give Sotomayor a fair hearing. Members can ask her any question they like. They can make up their minds after the job interview is over.
Congress can ask about the 32 words in a 3,928 word speech she made in 2001 at UCal-Berkley when she said: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
There's nothing wrong with racial pride. Read the speech, that's what it was about: a judge proud to be a Latina, proud to be a woman, proud to be in a position, living in the 21st century, breaking down barriers.
Congress can ask her why as part of a three-judge panel she rejected an appeal by a white New Haven firefighter who felt discriminated against because the city threw out the test results for promotions to captain and lieutenant when all but one of the eligible candidates for promotion proved to be white.
And please, stop the tired argument that she's a racist, or in the New Haven case she supported reverse racism. There's no such thing. Racism is racism no matter who the person is committing the action. This racist accusation is an overused charge, it's getting old. It's made mainly by folks who are too lazy to come up with solid reasons they object to a person or cause, or are afraid to admit, "Hey, I just don't like her."
Jeff Adair is a MetroWest Daily News editor and reporter. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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So you know how every once in a while, I toss off some nonchalant comment, like "I wish I had Tetris fabric," or "someone should really make a shirtdress out of this"?
Those are actually SEEKRIT CODED MESSAGES. If you hear them and feel compelled to comply, DO NOT BE ALARMED. It is all PART OF THE PLAN.
Awesome Jenny at Chronically Uncool heard the first coded message, and commissioned a fantastic Tetris-style fabric design from MissBlackPepper on Etsy, to print at Spoonflower. What's better than that, you say? She's making it available to us to use, too! I'm hosting the file for her; you can download it here (ZIP). I can't *wait* to get mine, I'm ordering from Spoonflower today!
Jenny is releasing her Tetris-style fabric design file under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. If you get a copy of the file, you are free to use, share, and remix the design for your own non-commercial projects. If you make a new design derived from this design, please attribute the original design to Jenny. (When Jenny commissioned MissBlackPepper to create the custom design, she purchased the rights to the resulting design from her.) Your derivative work should be released under a similar Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike license.
Next up in the Parade of Awesome is Nancy, who heard my not-all-that-subliminal instruction to make a ruler shirtdress out of this fabric. And here it is!
Isn't that great? You can read all about it on her blog. Nancy actually used *babysitting time* to get this done. Now THAT is devotion to the cause …
Now I just have to figure out which of my immediate and pressing desires I should issue a call for. Prepare yourselves to receive instructions!


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Message Board
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Behind The Smile
What causes a man to go wild and attack total innnocents and strangers in a school? How do the victims, children, teachers, and those around them, come to terms with the trauma and aftermath? When a man entered the children's junior school in Wolverhampton, UK and set about them with a machete, Lisa Potts had only her bravery and reactions to defend her much loved little children. She was awarded Britain's second highest civilian award, the George Medal,...


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Every once in a while, when we need a good laugh & a challenge, we hold a GIF contest. The 'GIF OFF' is a weeklong competition in which participants create daily themed animated images. Each day we all vote to see which one is our favorite and at the end of the week when all the points are tallied up, we have a winner who is dubbed the "King/Queen of GIF's" and receives a cake of their choosing by Ashlyn's Cakes©. In our 3.0 edition, people got creative with our themes and came up with some 'Laugh Out Loud' animated photos – check out daily the winners:
Which one did you like the best? Share your thoughts in the comments below!


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Would you kiss a slug for $65,000?
Chelsea Toller would. And she'll even eat a cricket, too. (No word on whether she prefers them deep-fried or chocolate covered.) Toller is the principal of Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, and she has promised her kids that if they raise $65,000 in pledges for the Glenview PTA during the annual Glenview Read-A-Thon, she'll kiss the slug and munch the cricket, and they can all watch and say, "Eeee-uwww!"
Sixty-five grand might seem like a daunting goal, but it's actually doable: The kids raised $62,000 last year. And every penny is desperately needed to fill the funding gaps created by the state's cuts in its contribution to local school districts.
Without that money, Glenview would have to get rid of its school librarian, instrumental music programs, anti-bullying programs and empowerment programs for girls.
For the next two weeks, the children will fan out through the neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking people to sponsor them in reading at least a half-hour every night and carefully keeping logs of their progress.
Every effort is made to make it safe and pleasant for them. For example, they're only allowed to knock on the doors of people they know, and they must be accompanied by an adult they know personally.
And at the end of the two weeks they'll be rewarded with an all-day party called the Celebration of Literacy on Feb. 28, which is the closest Friday to Dr. Seuss's birthday, March 2 (he would have been 110 this year).
On that day, they'll be allowed to put away their schoolwork and do nothing but read for sheer pleasure. The littlest ones usually make "forts" in the middle of the classroom, crawl inside and read, read, read to their hearts' content. It's beyond cute.
The kids also invite outsiders to come in and read aloud to them, including local writers (like me), artists and politicians. But to tell the truth, the readers who impress them most are Oakland cops and firefighters and student athletes from Cal.
The Read-A-Thon has a dual purpose: to raise money and to teach the kids that reading is fun.
"As much as we need the money, what we really want is every kid reading," says Read-A-Thon co-chair Alicia von Kugelin.
Most of the teachers are offering incentives — not for collecting pledges, but for reading. Third grade teacher John Miller has told his kids that if 100 percent of them log at least a half-hour of reading every night, he'll let them watch while he gets his head shaved.
And every classroom that achieves its 100 percent reading goal will get a pizza party, courtesy of Red Boy Pizza.
If you'd like to support the Read-A-Thon, you can do it online by going to glenviewelementary.org and clicking on the "Donate Now" button or by sending a check made out to "Glenview PTA" to Glenview Elementary School, 4215 La Cresta Ave., Oakland CA 94602.
In addition, ParkBurger on Park Boulevard will donate a portion of the day's proceeds on Feb. 18, and Ultimate Grounds will give a free cup of coffee on Feb. 23 to everyone who donates to the Read-A-Thon.
Read on, Macduff!
Reach Martin Snapp at email@example.com.


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Remember when Steve Jobs famously said that Apple (AAPL) did "no market research" to figure out what consumers want? Well, it turns out that wasn't exactly the case, as new documents unearthed during the Apple-Samsung (005930) patent trial reveal. Network World's Yoni Heisler writes that Apple is positively freaking out about the possibility that its extensive market research surveys of iPhone and iPad users could be made public, thus revealing the company's special sauce recipe for attracting and keeping loyal users.
UPDATE: All Things D reports that Apple has now lost its bid to keep the market research secret and Samsung will be allowed to use it as evidence in the trial.
In particular, Heisler found a declaration to the court submitted by Apple VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak explaining why Apple's customer surveys should remain sealed away from the public eye.
"The surveys reveal, country-by-country, what is driving our customers to buy Apple's iPhone products versus other products such as the Android products that Samsung sells, what features they most use, our customers' demographics and their level of satisfaction with different aspects of iPhone," Joswiak wrote. "All of that information is set out in exacting detail in the proposed exhibits. No other entity could replicate this research because no other entity has access to the customer base that Apple has."
Heisler also notes that Joswiak claims the market research reports are even kept under tight wraps within the company itself and are only revealed to "a small select group of Apple executives" and cannot be shared with anyone outside of the group without Joswiak's express permission. In other words, part of the secret to Apple's success is that it has been run like one of the Pentagon's black ops teams.


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Dangerous Bodies
On Saturday I was part of Cape Town's SlutWalk. A local manifestation of a global movement which emerged in response to a Toronto policeman's daft comments about rape and women's 'slutty' choice of clothes in January this year, Cape Town's SlutWalk was a resounding success. It was the most fun, friendly, and good natured march I've ever been on. According to the Mail & Guardian and – hurrah! – the Washington Post, about 2,000 people marched from Prestwich Memorial to Green Point stadium. I really was impressed by the numbers of men there, and by the range of ages represented by the marchers. (This is my report for FeministsSA.)
The posters were brilliant, and people came dressed in ball gowns, angel wings, bunny ears, leotards, jeans and t-shirts, fishnets and thigh-high boots, and (almost) nothing at all. In many ways, it was a typically Capetonian event: we gathered outside hip Truth Coffee beforehand, and the march began half an hour late. It was also overwhelmingly middle-class and, really, for an anti-rape protest to make any sense in Cape Town, it should have been in Khayelitsha or Manenberg.
But I don't want to detract from the success of the event. In particular, I hope that it'll prove to be the basis for a campaign against street harassment. SlutWalk is, inadvertently, a protest against the constant low-level harassment of women in public spaces. I was, though, deeply unsettled by the vitriol aimed at SlutWalk when it was announced that South African marches were in the offing. Commentators on SlutWalk Cape Town's Facebook page accused the organisers of being irresponsible, stupid, and of contributing to – rather than solving – the problem of victim blaming.
If anything, those remarks demonstrated the extent to which women are still held responsible for rape. One particularly unpleasant contributor insisted that only one per cent of all reported rapes are 'genuine' – the rest, he alleged, are simply made up by women. What many of these angry men (and they were mainly men) had in common was a fear of a group of scantily-clad women marching together in public: a belief that the amount of naked flesh on display would have – alas undefined – catastrophic ramifications for the women on the march.
Another commentator explained that she opposed the event because she prefers women to 'have a little mystery' about them. Unfortunately, she didn't specify if this was to be achieved by wearing false moustaches, speaking in strange foreign accents, or investing in trench coats.
Women's bodies, argue the anti-Slutwalk brigade, need to be covered and contained. Because female nakedness is usually sexualised, it's seen as excessive, dangerous, and disruptive. Clothing is, then, one way of controlling women in patriarchal societies. We are told to cover ourselves up for our own good – because our bodies exercise too powerful an influence over terminally suggestible, weak-willed men.
Food is another means of exercising control over women. As I've written in the past, the current vogue for cupcakes is partly the product of the fact that they are the acceptable face of feminine eating: they're small, childlike (indeed, they're children's party food), and pretty – like the women who are supposed to eat them. (I should like to add, for the record, that after SlutWalk, my friends and I picnicked and feasted on cheesecake, samoosas, egg sandwiches, naartjies, as well as breast-shaped cupcakes.)
This link between women's diet and the control of their bodies can be traced to the eighteenth century. A few weeks ago, I mentioned the influential Enlightenment physician George Cheyne (1671-1743), whose writing on health and eating was not only extraordinarily popular among the English upper classes, but was also partly responsible for a shift in the understanding of the ideal physical form during the 1750s. Partly as a result of Cheyne's own obesity, he associated excess flesh with excessive behaviour and a kind of moral laxity. Whereas before, fleshiness had been a sign of good health, increasingly slimness was associated with physical and moral health, strength, and beauty.
Cheyne's audience and the patients whom he treated at his fashionable practice in even more fashionable Bath, were primarily female. In a society where eating meat had long been associated with masculinity – and this had even deeper roots in the ancient humoral system which associated meat and spicy food with the blood, the most 'manly' of the four humors – Cheyne advocated the renunciation of all meat, and the adoption of a dairy-rich, vegetarian diet. Men, in other words, needed to eat like women.
During this period, the female body was slowly being reconceptualised as being more delicate – more easily upset – than the male body, and also ruled by the unpredictable emotions, rather than the rational, sober intellect. Although gendered, this emotions-intellect binary did not necessarily privilege the one over the other: the Romantic cult of sensibility celebrated the emotional and irrational, for example. But male and female bodies – or, more accurately, middle-class male and female bodies – needed to be fed differently.
Cheyne was unusual in his implacable opposition to meat-eating, but he and other physicians were united in the belief that a moderate diet was essential for good health – and this was particularly important for women. Cheyne became interested in the 'nervous' complaints which seemed to plague his female patients, and connected their diet to their psychological well-being. Essentially, the less women ate, the better. Anita Guerrini explains:
Cheyne's audience, the aristocracy and new merchant class that frequented Bath, was also the audience for William Law's exhortations in his popular devotional work A Serious Call (1728). He provided contrasting models of female character in the 'maiden sisters' Flavia and Miranda, who 'have each of them two hundred pounds a year,' a comfortable middle-class income. While Flavia spent her income on clothes, luxurious foods, sweetmeats, and entertainment, the ascetic Miranda ate only enough to keep herself alive and spent her income on charity. Miranda, said Law, 'will never have her eyes swell with fatness, or pant under a heavy load of flesh;' such excess flesh was not only morally depraved, it was physically disgusting. Cheyne's patients, like the doctor himself, grew in spirit as they wasted in flesh.
During the 1720s, Catherine, the adolescent daughter of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, was referred to Cheyne because of his specialisation in nutrition and nervous diseases. She suffered from loss of appetite, fainting, and chronic pain, and died in 1722 aged eighteen. Cheyne tried his best to treat her, but could not find a way of making her eat more.
This association of femininity – of physical and moral beauty – and not eating persisted into the nineteenth century and, I would suggest, into the present. Even though we have records which indicate that people, and particularly young women, have purposefully starved themselves to death since the Middle Ages and usually for religious reasons, anorexia nervosa was isolated as a specific ailment by William Withey Gull (1816-1890) in a paper he presented to the Clinical Society of London on 24 October 1873. He argued that this 'peculiar form of disease occurring mostly in young women, and characterised by extreme emaciation' was not a symptom of the catch-all feminine disorder 'hysteria', but a separate condition with its own symptoms and treatment.
As Joan Jacobs Brumberg notes, this identification of anorexia nervosa occurred within a wider cultural concern about the phenomenon of 'fasting girls': young, adolescent women who denied themselves food on religious grounds. Sarah Jacob from Wales claimed that her piety was such that she was able to live without eating.
Some British doctors regarded Sarah Jacob's claim to total abstinence as a simple fraud and, therefore, an affront to science… Consequently, they called for a watch, with empirical standards, which deprived the girl of all food and, not surprisingly, killed her within 10 days because she was already severely undernourished. Some British doctors attributed Sarah Jacob's condition to girlhood hysteria, provoked by religious enthusiasm and her celebrity status.
In other words, girls' decision to starve themselves moved from the realm of religion or mysticism, to science and medicine. It was a disorder which could be described and treated. For example, the French psychiatrist Charles Lasegue (1816-1883) suggested that anorexia should be treated by examining the dynamics of middle-class family class. He
noted the difficult relation between anorectics and their parents but went on to elaborate how the girl obsessively pursued a peculiar and inadequate diet-such as pickled cucumbers in cafe au lait – despite the threats and entreaties of her anxious parents. 'The family has but two methods at its service which it always exhausts,' he wrote, 'entreaties and menaces …. The delicacies of the table are multiplied in the hope of stimulating the appetite, but the more solicitude increases the more the appetite diminishes'.
This shift was due to the increasing medicalisation of the body, and also the secularisation of public life. By the 1870s, doctors exercised the same – or even more – authority as ministers. But what had not changed over the course of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the association of femininity with eating very little.
Anorexia is caused by a range of factors, but the connection of ideal femininities with eating a restricted diet only exacerbates the condition. As rape isn't really about sex, so anorexia isn't entirely about food: it's a manifestation of (mainly, but not exclusively) women's attempts to exercise control over their circumstances through their bodies. Because of the wider, cultural approval of feminine thinness and not eating, these starving young women receive a kind of affirmation for their self-denial.
It's easy to talk glibly about encouraging a 'positive attitude' towards food and eating. We can only achieve this when we acknowledge that women's bodies are still perceived as dangerous – as needing to be contained by their clothes, kept pure by a range of hygiene products, and made small through dieting and exercise. This is why we still need feminism. In South Africa – where the ANC Women's League and Lulu Xingwana's Department of Women, Children, and Disabled Persons have shown a singular lack of enthusiasm for leading a feminist movement – I hope that SlutWalk represents the beginnings of a new, stronger feminism.
Further Reading
Texts cited here:
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, '"Fasting Girls": Reflections on Writing the History of Anorexia Nervosa,' Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, vol. 50, no. 4/5, History and Research in Child Development (1985), pp. 93-104.
Anne Charlton, 'Catherine Walpole (1703-22), an Eighteenth-Century Teenaged Patient: A Case Study from the Letters of the Physician George Cheyne (1671 or 73-1743),' Journal of Medical Biography, vol. 18, no. 2 (May 2010), pp. 108-114.
Anita Guerrini, 'The Hungry Soul: George Cheyne and the Construction of Femininity,' Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 32, no. 3, Constructions of Femininity (Spring, 1999), pp. 279-291.
Erin O'Connor, 'Pictures of Health: Medical Photography and the Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa,' Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 5, no. 4 (Apr., 1995), pp. 535-572.
Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: How the Enlightenment Transformed the Way We See Our Bodies and Souls (London: Penguin, [2003] 2004).
Martha J. Reineke, '"This Is My Body": Reflections on Abjection, Anorexia, and Medieval Women Mystics,' Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 58, no. 2 (Summer, 1990), pp.245-265.
Edward Shorter, 'The First Great Increase in Anorexia Nervosa,' Journal of Social History, vol. 21, no. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 69-96.
Other sources:
I. de Garine, Food, Diet, and Economic Change Past and Present (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1993).
Sander L. Gilman, Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity (Cambridge: Polity, 2008).
Harvey A. Levenstein, 'The Perils of Abundance: Food, Health, and Morality in American History,' in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, eds. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, English ed. by Albert Sonnenfeld (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 516-529.
Harvey A. Levenstein, Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Susie Orbach, 'Interpreting Starvation,' in Consuming Passions: Food in the Age of Anxiety, eds. Sian Griffiths and Jennifer Wallace (Manchester: Mandolin, 1998), pp. 133-139.
Kerry Segrave, Obesity in America, 1850-1939: A History of Social Attitudes and Treatment (Jefferson, NC,: McFarlane, 2008).
Peter N. Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (New York: New York University Press, 1997).
Doris Wit, Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of US Identity (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Tangerine and Cinnamon by Sarah Duff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Still immensely enjoying your blog, Sarah. Wish you were closer, would be so much fun to have you over for dinner. Got to love anyone who reads Sander Gilman.August 22, 2011


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The school's board director is Dr. Brenda Gardner-Valdes received a doctorate in education and curriculum from Texas A&M University in 1987. She is the former director of special education for a large Houston area school district and has served as the director school programs of a local special needs school and treatment center. She has over 25 years experience teaching and administering in Texas Education Agency approved schools. She brings to River Oaks Academy a wealth of knowledge and expertise on curriculum, administration, and special education.


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HAYWARD — A friendship between two men ended tragically Sunday: one man shot dead unintentionally by police; the other, who police say prompted the shooting, now faces charges in his friend's death.
Family and friends on Wednesday said Shawn Joseph Jetmore Stoddard-Nunez asked Arthur Pakman for a ride to another friend's house early Sunday after a night of drinking.
What happened next was something out of character for 19-year-old Stoddard-Nunez, a "sweet person" with a gentle smile who was in the wrong passenger seat at the wrong time, they said.
Police said Pakman defied orders during a traffic stop, rammed his Honda into a police cruiser, nearly hitting a civilian riding along with police. The officer fired at the vehicle, striking Stoddard-Nunez, a passenger in the Honda, twice. Police said he was an unintended victim of the shooting.
"I know he wouldn't condone what Arthur did," said Loretta Hale, the teen's foster mother.
Pakman, 23, of Oakley had met Stoddard-Nunez while he was living in Pinole and attending Pinole Valley High School, Hale said. Another family friend said they knew each other from the foster care system.
At 14, Stoddard-Nunez came to live with Hale in Pinole after bouncing between foster homes throughout California. He and his brother were moved into a group home in 2011 after they were the victims of a home invasion perpetrated by their friends, according to Hale.
Recently, Stoddard-Nunez was attending a Laney College, had aspirations to be a chef and was living in Hayward with his brother.
"Just a sweet person. Very gentle and easygoing," said Mary Lou Schuler of Hayward, whose foster daughter and biological daughter, both 18, were close with him. "He'd come in the door, wave and always say hello. Not all the kids who would come into my house would have the courtesy to do so."
Schuler said the teen's death was unnecessary.
"What rattles me is that the police officer shot at the passenger's side, not the driver's side of the car," Schuler said. "The officer reacted without thinking about where he was shooting. I know it was an act considered as an assault on an officer but it just seems so reckless and irresponsible."
Pakman was arrested at 3:20 a.m. Sunday. He surrendered after fleeing the shooting scene at Fletcher Lane and Watkins Street and crashing at D Street and Foothill Boulevard.
On Wednesday, police said they suspect Pakman may have been driving under the influence at the time of the incident. Authorities are awaiting a toxicology report from a blood test taken after the crash.
Sgt. Eric Krimm said authorities will seek homicide charges against Pakman in connection with Stoddard-Nunez's death, although he has yet to be formally charged. He was arrested on suspicion of felony murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Pakman was to be arraigned Tuesday at the Hayward Hall of Justice, but that hearing was postponed so Pakman could be sent to the Contra Costa County Jail, where he will be held without bail for a parole violation, a prosecutor said.
Pakman's Hayward-based attorney, Frederick Remer, said the violation stemmed from a 2010 conviction for driving under the influence.
Remer has said his client was on his way to visit his girlfriend in Richmond on the morning of the incident and never intended to strike the police car.
Police had been looking into whether the wreck played a role in the victim's death, but an autopsy Tuesday showed Stoddard-Nunez died from a gunshot wound.
Had Stoddard-Nunez lived, he likely would not have been charged with a crime in connection with the chase, Krimm said.
Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Contact David DeBolt at 925-943-8048. Follow them at Twitter.com/natalealund and Twitter.com/daviddebolt.


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Adrian Clarke's portraits of female former prisoners in the UK are up front and honest. The ladies insisted they go on the record and speak openly about their experiences in HMP Low Newton, an unremarkable small prison for women and young offenders in the north of England. Each woman reported only good treatment during their incarceration.
Clarke's work is not sugar-coated. He doesn't have the answers and his subjects, some of whom have ongoing drug addiction struggles, are searching for them.
The women – although aware of their tough lives – do not paint themselves as victims. They want to step up and take responsibility but when you're that far down it takes a Herculean effort to wright the ship.
Low Newton, like all good portrait series, offers insight. But it does not tie the loose ends. I am left to wonder about the different definitions of normalcy we carry in our day today lives and if these women will find their own versions of normalcy and stability.
Mostly, Low Newton deserves attention because it appears to reflect a complete respect between photographer and subject.
Adrian Clarke's portraits of female former prisoners are in the latest issue of The Paris Review.


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TFN Interview:
The Last Jedi
Co-Author Michael Reaves
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Michael Reaves has written nine
Star Wars
novels, several of them in collaboration with either Steve Perry or Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. His latest EU book,
The Last Jedi
, was released a few weeks ago. I spoke to Michael about the characters and situations in
The Last Jedi
, from star Jax Pavan to smarmy sidekick droid I-Five to the unique issues that Reaves and Bohnhoff grappled with in the book.
Was the story of Jax Pavan always intended to have four parts, or was this book added on to address things that you felt you hadn't tackled in the trilogy?
We'd felt that we'd left Jax and his crew in a good place, but he was such a great character, he just begged for more story. Del Rey asked if I had ideas for Jax's future, because another author was looking for an existing Jedi to use and Jax seemed like a good candidate, and that got us thinking even more...and
The Last Jedi
was the result.
Jax has the somewhat unique experience of having been friends with Anakin Skywalker, and in the book he sometimes reflects on the darkness that he saw growing in Anakin. What was that like to develop? How did you go about analyzing Anakin's fall without going beyond what someone like Jax would know?
Jax is unique in his knowledge. He was friends with Anakin as Padawans in the Jedi Temple, and there's a bond there. We gave the two some believable but unique-to-Jax history, and then tried very hard to see Anakin only through Jax's eyes and experience, without giving him information he could know only from seeing the movies! The main concern was that Jax wasn't going to be able to share what he knows about Vader with everyone in the galaxy.
Jax is constantly unsure of himself and rattled. There's a whole subplot about how "indecision is all loss." Jax vacillates and pays the price once, and he's constantly on the lookout to avoid making that mistake again. What was it like to get inside the mind of a Jedi who thinks that he's the last one and that he carries the weight of the entire Jedi Order on his shoulders?
What was it like? This implies that we had a choice. As far as I'm concerned, those flaws are the only thing that make Jax interesting. This is Basic Writing 101, folks: Make your character human. Give him problems to overcome, and make 'em psychological, not just who's got the bigger lightsaber. It's the three basic conflicts that you need in any good story; Man against Nature, Man against Man, and Man against Himself. The first two are important, but if you want it to be memorable, you must have the last one.
There's a lot of discussion of time, the implications of nonlinear time, and the human desire to change the past. The second book in this series introduced a time-transcendent species called Cephalons. Why did you want to make the idea of time a central aspect of this book?
The great thing about science fiction is that you can take concerns that we've all had -- in this case, being able to go back and take the road not taken -- and let your character deal with them -- not just psychologically, but in an active, physical manner as well.
As far as the Cephalons were concerned, they grew out of a fascination with the illusion of free will. We think we're masters of our fate, but everything we know about the cosmos says otherwise. We're predestined, but because we can't see the particulars, we fool ourselves into thinking that we can make a difference. I wanted someone -- or more than one; the STAR WARS equivalent of a Delphic oracle -- to keep Jax on track, but not make things too easy. The best detective stories -- writers like Hammett, Chandler, MacDonald -- usually have a heavy taint of existentialism running through their characters. We tried to give Jax the same sensibility.
You briefly mentioned The Silent in this book. They appeared in the Medstar Duology and they were also mentioned in Coruscant Nights III and Shadow Games. Can you tell me what appealed to you about that group?
The Silent, if memory serves, were Steve Perry's creation. They're based on statistics he came across about people who went to hospitals, rest homes and the like to meditate. They didn't pray, or chant, or do anything overtly woo-woo; they just hung out and were mindful. According to the stuff Steve read, the overall health, longevity, and general well-being of the patients improved markedly whenever The Silent (that wasn't what they called themselves) were there. I dunno; I'd like to see the data. But they were intriguing characters and helped give a better 3d aspect to the planet Drongar -- which was all we wanted, really. That's also why we put 'em in the other books. Think of it as "background continuity."
After Laranth's death, Jax almost reaches out to the Force to see if she has become one with it like the Jedi Code suggests -- but he stops himself because he's afraid of discovering that he can't sense her. This scene and Jax's subsequent crisis of faith had very religious undertones. How did you approach writing this Jedi who was close to disillusioned, even fed up, with the Force and the spirituality that he had been taught?
In a way it's a clich?; the priest who's lost his faith. Remember that Jax had been a Knight for an extremely short time before Order 66 destroyed his entire life. He had to flee into the slums, and he couldn't use the Force for fear of detection. (Right. In a population of umpty-ump squintillion. The false positives alone would -- Ah, well. Ours is not to reason why.) Anyway, you can see why the lad's a bit bitter.
Did you always intend to transition from Lorn Pavan's story to a series of books about his son? Or did that come about following the popularity of Lorn Pavan and I-5YQ?
No, actually. I'd just been contracted to do the Maul book, and had no idea if I'd ever get to do another. I came up with the character of I-Five for purely structural reasons: Lorn needed someone to talk to. Also, I conceived of the book as a buddy story. Initially I was going to have Lorn have an alien partner. Then I woke up one day with that scene at the cantina where Luke has to send Threepio and Aroto outside playing in my head. I thought about how it would play if it was a cheeky, smart-ass droid who refused to cooperate. And I knew I had Lorn's partner.
As for subsequent books, that was pure serendipity. I knew that Lorn, Darsha and I-Five had to die, because Maul had to triumph. I thought it was just too much of a downer if everyone died, so I arranged to have Five's memory wiped. That way there was at least a chance of bringing him back. When Steve and I were tapped for the MedStar books, I knew I wanted to bring him back. From there I pitched Coruscant Nights as "Jedi Detective" with Lorn's son.
I-5 is a fantastic character. How did you go about creating him? What sources did you look to for inspiration? What was the thinking behind giving him a minor Force aura?
Like I said above; he was a smartass droid. I knew I had comedy gold in having people being unable to understand that he wouldn't take any crap about being a "toaster". And it was the best kind of comedy: the kind that could turn serious in a heartbeat. As for him having a connection to the Force -- that was just a plot point that made him different. It is very gratifying, I must say, to have him be so popular.
Big thanks to Michael Reaves for taking the time to discuss
The Last Jedi
with me. The book is on sale now. Check it out!
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March 3, 2013
TFN Interview:
The Last Jedi
Co-Author Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
February 26, 2013
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Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.
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In life, there's the people you want to be better than, the people you want to be better for, and the people you want to be better with.-Genevieve Rose
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First, there was WhatsupHollywood because I have a heart for Hollywood and it's important for us to remember celebrities are people too. This is the line of thinking led to my first novel, My Famous Friend, which led to a blog for my first book; myfamousfriend.com. Now, there is Mindless Peace, a blog where I post the upside of faith, life and culture presented in weekly slivers of gleaned advice on how to maintain that out-of-the-mind level of peace. View all posts by Genevieve Rose


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Return Policy
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Weekly zine/0/es/Spotlight
- Venderia usted su compañia para viajar la mitad del mundo y ser voluntario de tiempo completo, sin paga, en un projecto con gente que usted nunca ha conocido, en un lenguaje que usted no habla y en una tierra con mal cafe... por 9 meses? Bernie Innocenti, uno de los mayores contribuyentes de OLPC en graficos y software de internacionalizacion hizo justamente eso.
Perfiles de Voluntarios: Overview
Hay muchos voluntarios trabajando en el projecto OLPC que merecen credito. Esta seccion tratara de sacar a la luz algunos de estos voluntarios y dar un breve resumen acerca de lo que estan trabajando y de ellos mismos.
Ian Daniher
El primer sujeto al cual nos gustaria introducir es: Ian_Daniher (Ian Daniher), de 16 años. El esta actualmente coordinando los proyectos de TeleHealth y ha sido un instrumento de ayuda para lanzar otros problemas tambien.
Bernie Innocenti
Interview by Mel Chua
Bernie is on the right - "Since I'm clearly not having fun in that picture... you could say this is because I had no computer to hack with." Click here for a larger version of the photo.
Mel: So - for starters, can you introduce yourself? For our gentle readers and all.
Bernie: I'm Bernardo Innocenti, Bernie for friends. I come from Italy and I've been a volunteer at OLPC headquarters in One Cambridge Center for the last 8 months. Or maybe 9. I'd have to check.
It's a long story, but the end of it is that I just sold a big chunk of a startup I founded in Italy, so I was free to go on a sabbatical... My goal was to spend this year travelling around, learning, and of course participating in some kickass project.
Mel: There are a lot of kickass projects out there, though. Why this one? How did you get involved?
Bernie: so, OLPC is in many ways the most amazing project I'd ever heard of... Ambitious, revolutionary, ethically unique... My limited English cannot describe what it feels for a geeky software engineer to be part of it. If I answer honestly [about how I got involved], it will make me look crazy. So let's take the pill.
I met Jim Gettys at FOSDEM 2007... I think it was February. It's a really nice free-software meeting in Brussels. It was my first time there, because the previous years I was really busy with my company and unable to travel around. Jim was giving a keynote about the OLPC.
By then, I was already extremely interested in the project... The good Jonathan Corbet of LWN would cover the ongoings... and it was on Slashdot a few times. I had already noticed the Gandhi progression. They stopped ignoring the crazy laptop with a crank a while ago... and they also had already stopped laughing...they had not yet started fighting it back then, but it was clear the XO was going to disrupt the ambitions of many monopolies.
Back to Jim's keynote: he made it quite clear that the project was already at an advanced stage of development. And very cool things were going on. That was the very first time I could see an XO.
It was an old B2, with many shortcomings, half the memory and half the CPU power. But people loved it. They'd smile like idiots at it... as you'd smile when you see a cute baby. And I was in that crowd. Getting near to the only 2-3 laptops on display wasn't easy.
I had no chance to talk with Jim, if not briefly. I talked with Rob Savoye, instead. Rob is the guy behind Gnash, the open source replacement of Macromedia Flash that is now part of our distribution. Rob was the one suggesting me to join the project if I really liked it so much. He was given a laptop, and he let me hack on it for a while.
So the next month I was already booking a plane to Boston. And this is where the crazy part begins.
I was too shy to just contact the OLPC developers and bluntly say "I want to join this project". I was totally unknown in the OSS world (Ed. Note: Bernie's being modest here - he's contributed to gcc for years), and I had been doing a mostly non-technical job, and certainly not related to open-source for the past 4-5 years.
Mel: So you landed in Boston not having told them you were coming?
Bernie: That's pretty much it. I had in mind to approach someone, maybe Jim Gettys, and offer my help. But I tried to postpone that moment over and over. My English sucked. I didn't even know how to get a bus to get there. So this is how I spent my first week here.
Then I dropped a line or two. "I'm in town... and I'm a software engineer... I'd like to help out. Can we talk about it?" Something like that.
Bernie eventually found the original email he had sent to Jim. Excerpt below:
Hello, For some time, I've been playing with the A-test board and, later, with the B2 laptop you kindly sent to me. As I anticipated a few months ago, I've just sold my company and started a 1-2 year sabbatical dedicated to travel and research. I consider the OLPC by far the best project I've ever seen from a social, ethical and technical point of view. Therefore, I'd very much like to offer my full-time contribution as member of the core OLPC team... <snip> ...I'm currently in Boston.
Bernie: Jim accepted to see me, and was very friendly right from the start. Actually, everybody was. Even though I appeared out of nowhere, with a funny accent, strange credentials, etc. Since then, I've been sitting at a desk in the middle of the Garden.
(Ed. note: "The Garden" is the main open work area of the OLPC office in Boston--a rough melange of tables, chairs, and computer parts where people crash down to work instead of being assigned desks.)
Contribuciones al XO
Mel: What part of the laptop have you been doing most of your work on?
Bernie: I'm a factotum person. My main area is the X windowing system, the heart of the graphical user interface that supports Sugar and its Activities. i18n input methods, keyboard and localization issues. I did a lot of platform work too... packaging other people work, applying patches to existing OS components, cleaning dependencies, etc. Plus a few kernel patches for the input subsystem, the in-kernel debugger and the framebuffer driver.
And to do this work I had to become a Fedora developer, and learn how to do RPM packaging. Which was kinda scary at first, easy now. I'd been hacking around X over 10 years ago on the Amiga, when I was a NetBSD developer. It was called XFree86 back then.
Mel: That was a long time ago.
Adam Holt, OLPC Community Support Manager: (in the background) Don't make me look old, guys. XFree86 & Linux was like the 10th system I used.
Bernie: I happen to be a Ubuntu convert at "home". But Fedora is good enough for me too. Many of us happen to be long time Debian contributors, actually.
Mel: And you did all this work for 8-maybe-9 months, in a foreign country, in a different language, working far more than 40 hours a week, I'm sure... all as a volunteer? That's a pretty incredible commitment.
Bernie: Many Italians would have just died within one month or two for the food. Now I even drink American coffee. *takes a sip from the mug on the desk*
Mel: The horror!
(discussion on good restaurants in Boston's North End ensues)
Bernie: [I've been to the North End's Italian restaurants], pretty good. But you know what? the Greek, Mexican, Indian and Thai are really good too, and you'd not find many of these in Florence. But anyway, back to OLPC.
Bugs divertidos
Bernie: I [also] worked on fixing amusing bugs in the graphics driver. That is, they only were amusing to look at. Not if you had to dig through 15 layers of obscure modules to track them down.
Click on the pictures below to see screenshots of some of the amusing display bugs Bernie fixed. The top right bug (FaintGreyLineAfter) is still a puzzle in progress.
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Mel: Thanks to Bernie, your XO's screen does not look like this.
Avril (OLPC support-gang): Bernie found the touchpad bug... that was a cool bug. (Ed. note: See a video of the bug here.)
Bernie: I was with Dilinger. I just hacked together a patch for it. He was the one noticing the weird "0,0" in the debug output. The touchpad bug was so [annoying] though because we had 8 different places to look at, and we were unsure which one to blame.
The bug would just disappear after a while, so we couldn't ever nail it down properly while debugging. When we saw (0;0), and thought about how the delta was being computed, a light bulb turned on instantly.
Bernie el viajero del mundo
Mel: I hear you're going to be leaving us shortly and flying back to a country with better coffee, albeit somewhat against your will.
Bernie: OLPC is trying to help me out. Hopefully I'll be able to sort out my visa problems and be back as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy "a vacation in Italy", as some colleague pointed out to sweeten the pill.
Just before going back to Italy, I'll attend LCA in Australia. And a few days after reaching Italy, I'll leave for Brussels via Paris to attend to FOSDEM 2008.
Mel: But you're going to try to come back, you say?
Bernie: Yes, as soon as possible. Hopefully within a few months. You know, I could work perfectly well from Florence, too. Marco Pesenti Gritti, our lead Sugar developer, works from Italy too. But I'd miss all this great people, you know. I think working with them was a big motivation. Tonight they organized a surprise dinner for me. I kinda spoiled it by calling Arjun, the author of Measure, to say I'd be late for an xkb hack-session we had scheduled earlier today.
Acerca de aprender y cometiendo errores
Mel: The last few months have been pretty crazy at 1cc (Ed. Note: 1 Cambridge Center, the Boston office's address), with code freezes, mass production, G1G1, and then all the deployments starting to the target countries.
Bernie: Indeed. This is a very stressing, startup environment. And I hope it will always be. The moment we become too much organized, and bureaucratic, [that] will probably mean we'll stop innovating.
Mel: Being a startup, being innovative - that usually means that you'll fall flat on your face many times, make a lot of mistakes, mess things up.
Bernie: We do make mistakes, sure... A lot of them. And I've always been quite loud about the aspects I care more about. The only safe way to avoid mistakes is going with common wisdom, established practices, etc. Which, in our case, would have meant producing a $1000 laptop with 2 hours of autonomy, with old boring legacy software running on it.
Mel: Some people are saying that bucking tradition in designing the actual laptop was great, but now that OLPC is deploying laptops to actual children in schools, it should ease up on the "crazy innovation" pedal and settle down into "proper business practices."
Bernie: I think we all disagree with the "proper" way here. And the reason is that we all learned to do the things we do through the "improper way" as kids.
We had little home computers, we were curious. The proper way of the software engineer, at my time, was to learn Pascal and then write boring sorting algorithms. I was lucky and I could hack fractals, FM synthesis, write multitasking kernels, etc...
We did not know to call it the constructionist model back then. If we did, we'd have some justification for our parents and teachers. I've lost count how many computer magazines I've been confiscated by my teachers in art and history classes.
Mel: Heh - I used to get Shakespeare taken away from me in math class.
(short interlude on the Shakespeare Programming Language ensues.)
Bernie: I guess the bottom line is: some kids will be mathematicians, others will be writers. And confiscating their books is just going to slow them down along the way.
Many people don't realize how huge the problem we're fixing was: the majority of the kids just don't have any books you could confiscate. Giving them a little green laptop is not just an improvement. That's going to be their only tool. And it will be a damn good tool, actually: amazingly better than anything I had when I was young.
So now we're going to empower the next generation with computers they could use at home and school. To learn, explore, hack, communicate... and of course to design better laptops for the next generation.
Mel: Thank you, Bernie!
Bernie: Thank you for interviewing me... peace and love!


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In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the Android faithful have achieved root access to the Kindle Fire though a simple, one-click process, opening the doors to mucho customization. But just because you can, should you?
Having root access to a device means that its software can be removed and replaced with something else (like a full version of Android). Or you could install a slightly tweaked version of the Kindle's software (once the developer community starts releasing them; counting down...), which could give added functionality or speed. Or you could just leave the tablet as is—but install some additional applications you wouldn't have access to through Amazon's curated apps offerings.
The world could be your oyster, but let's look at the pros and cons, depending on your needs.
If you got the Kindle Fire because of its simplicity...
...then you should probably just leave it as is; you're not going to have to think about it. You'll get Amazon's software updates when they come, and you're not going to have to mess with various install procedures. Plus, if you don't know what you're doing, there's a chance that you could brick your Fire during the root process and turn your shiny new tablet into a $200 coaster. It's unlikely, but it happens. If you like it simple, keep it simple.
If you got the Kindle Fire because it's a cheap Android tablet...
...then yeah, as long as you've got a bit of computer savvy and are willing to learn how this goes, this is what you've been waiting for. I mean, hell, when comparably spec'd Android tablets are going for twice as much, this is a no-brainer. But you might want to hold off a little. Honeycomb (Android 3.x) is all right, but Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) looks much, much better. If you root your Fire and install Honeycomb, and then want to install Ice Cream Sandwich later (which you will, as soon as it's available), you're going to have to wipe your system to upgrade, meaning you'll have to reinstall everything, which is kind of a pain in the ass. Patience, grasshopper.
If you love your Kindle Fire, but just wanna tweak it a little...
...then yes, again, with the caveats that you need some tech-smarts and are willing to potentially turn your Fire into a useless mound of plastic. Theoretically, rooting means you should be able to install the full suite of Google applications—Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, all that jazz—and any other application you can download from the internet. Amazon's App Store is curated, which is fine—it's probably more secure than the Android Market—but there's a lot of good stuff missing (read: those Google apps). The Gmail client for Android is fantastic. You'll also be able to install custom kernels for overclocking/underclocking your tablet's processor, goosing your clock speed or boosting battery life. Much more customization to follow, as well.
Ultimately, the decision rests with you, but the already super popular Kindle Fire just got even more compelling for a whole new list of people.
You can get the full instructions on rooting your Fire here, and rest assured that more goodies will be coming soon. The biggest caveat: Unless you're experienced, it's probably best to wait. There isn't much incentive just yet (no ROMs, etc) and the rooting process will only get easier and safer.
And when it does? It'll be awfully tempting to turn your Fire into an outright inferno. [Android Forums via The Next Web]
You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.


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I cannot upload the theme to my Shopify store / Shopify alerts that the file is too big to upload, what is the problem?
Please make sure that you follow below steps:
1/ Download the package from themeforest.net (the file is in zip format)
2/ Extract the file you've just downloaded.
3/ Find this file: shopbe-1.0.0-sections-ready.zip in the folder Shopbe Sections Ready 1.0.0, then you just need to upload shopbe-1.0.0-sections-ready.zip file to your Shopify store.


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Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko (Moonlight) IRVING
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Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Nakajima Hikoki K. K.
- Physical Description
- Twin-engine, conventional layout with tailwheel-type landing gear.
- Armament: (2) 20 mm fixed upward firing cannon
- Engines: (2) Nakajima Sakae 21 (NK1F, Ha35- 21) 14- cylinder air-cooled radial 1,130 horsepower (metric)
- Summary
- Originally designed as a three-seat, daylight escort fighter plane by the Nakajima Aeroplane Company, Ltd., and flown in 1941, the IRVING was modified as a night fighter in May of 1943 and shot down two American B-17 bombers to prove its capability. The Gekko (meaning moonlight) was redesigned to hold only two crewmen so that an upward firing gun could be mounted where the observer once sat. Nearly five hundred J1N1 aircraft, including prototypes, escort, reconnaissance, and night fighters were built during World War II. A sizeable number were also used as Kamikaze aircraft in the Pacific. The few that survived the war were scrapped by the Allies.
- This J1N1 is the last remaining in the world. It was transported from Japan to the U.S. where it was flight tested by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1946. The Gekko then flew to storage at Park Ridge, IL, and was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The restoration of this aircraft, completed in 1983, took more than four years and 17,000 man-hours to accomplish.
- Long Description
- Nakajima Hikoki K. K. J1N1-S Gekkos were the first Japanese aircraft designed and built specifically to intercept and destroy other aircraft at night and in poor weather. Gekkos achieved some notable successes during three years of service with the Japanese Navy. This design took shape in 1938 not as a night interceptor, but as a long-range fighter that could protect bombers. During the war with China, Japanese naval pilots complained of excessive bomber losses to Chinese fighters based beyond the range of Japanese fighters. The navy issued specifications to both Mitsubishi and Nakajima for a 3-seat, twin-engined escort fighter. The aircraft's speed must be at least 518 kph (322 mph) and it had to have a normal range of 2,410 km (1,496 miles) and a maximum range of 3,706 km (2,302 miles). Armament must include forward-firing cannon and machine guns plus a flexible gun to defend against tail attacks. The most important specification ultimately defeated the whole concept. The aircraft had to maneuver well enough to successfully engage single-engine fighters.
- The Nakajima design, called the J1N1 and crafted by engineer Katsuji Nakamura, most readily met the navy's requirements and a prototype was flight-tested in May 1941. In the two years since the navy's original demand, Mitsubishi had developed and placed into service the Zero fighter (also in the NASM collection) and this superlative airplane had solved the bomber escort problem. Nakajima nonetheless forged ahead and flew a J1N1 prototype May 2. A year-and-a-half of flight tests proved beyond doubt that this aircraft was inferior to single-engine fighters. Except for range and takeoff distance, the type failed to meet any requirements in the 1938 specifications. The Germans also foolishly clung to the escort fighter concept. Early in the war, Germany placed in service a multi-engine, multi-seat escort fighter similar to the J1N1, the Messerschmitt Bf-110. It too failed disastrously in 1940 during the Battle of Britain when opposed by single-engine, single-seat Hurricane and Spitfire fighters. Like Nakajima, Messerschmitt salvaged this design when they transformed it into a successful night fighter.
- The Japanese Navy took an interim step, however, before testing the J1N1 in night operations. The navy authorized Nakajima engineers to convert the design into a high-speed, long-range, naval reconnaissance aircraft based on land. Sweeping changes to the airframe, engines, and armament made the aircraft more reliable and suitable for the new mission. Between April 1942 and March 1943, Nakajima delivered just fifty-four of the new model, the J1N1-C, including four prototypes. U. S. forces first encountered the aircraft during early operations in the Solomon Islands and codenamed it the IRVING. The J1N1-Cs served in limited numbers and flew primarily from the great Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The base was a regular target for night-flying U. S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses (see NASM collection). Sometime in the spring of 1943, Commander Yasuna Kozono ordered a J1N1-C modified for night interceptor work. Maintenance crews cleaned out the observer's position behind the pilot and mounted two 20 mm cannon fixed to fire above and to the front of the new night fighter at a 30-degree angle. Two more cannons were mounted in similar fashion but fired downward. The experimental airplane was designated the J1N1-C KAI.
- On the night of May 21, the modified IRVING intercepted and shot down a pair to B-17 bombers. This immediate success caught the attention of the Naval Staff and they ordered Nakajima to begin full-scale production. The new interceptor was named the J1N1-S Gekko (Moonlight). At this time, no one in Allied intelligence circles expected the Japanese to field an effective night fighter and months passed before anyone discovered what lay behind a string of regular and mysterious losses of both B-17s and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers.
- Nakajima concentrated on producing the Gekko version of the J1N for the remainder of the war.
- In the summer of 1944, U. S. Marine and U. S. Army infantry divisions captured the Mariana Islands during several months of vicious combat. This important victory provided air fields from which to attack all the important Japanese cities and industrial targets in the home islands. U. S. Army Air Forces crews flying Boeing B-29 Superfortresses began flying daylight, precision bombing raids against Japan in November. In January, tactics changed to night, low-altitude attacks and the Gekko was one of many types of Japanese night fighters pressed into defending the homeland. There were some spectacular missions flown by IRVING crews but overall, Japan's night interceptors achieved limited results. The B-29 cruised approximately 80 kph (50 mph) faster than either the B-17 or B-24. Gekko crews usually could rarely make more than a single pass at the fast Superfortresses. Lt. Sachio Endo was credited with destroying eight B-29s and damaging another eight before he fell to the gun crews of a B-29. Another Gekko crew shot down five B-29s in one night but these combat successes were rare. Japan's night fighter forces were no match for the overwhelming number of B-29s with their great speed and defensive firepower. Escorting Allied fighter aircraft also took their toll. Many IRVINGs were shot down, destroyed on the ground, or expended during Tokko missions. Tokko is the Japanese term for Special Purpose Attackers, known in the West as kamikaze attacks. By war's end, Nakajima had built 486 Gekkos. Although the IRVING night fighter was an able night fighter, there were never enough to significantly impact the air war.
- The NASM J1N1-S Gekko is the only one remaining today. Following the occupation of the home islands, U. S. forces gathered 145 interesting Japanese aircraft and sent them to the United States aboard three aircraft carriers. Four IRVINGs were in this group: three captured at Atsugi and one from Yokosuka. Serial Number 7334, the aircraft from Yokosuka, was given Foreign Equipment number FE 3031 (later changed to T2-N700). It eventually joined the Smithsonian's growing collection but the other three IRVINGs were scrapped.
- Records show that after arriving aboard the "USS Barnes," air intelligence officials assigned '7334 to Langley Field, Virginia, on December 8, 1945. The airplane moved on to the Air Materiel depot at Middletown, Pennsylvania, on January 23, 1946. The Maintenance Division at Middletown prepared the Gekko for flight tests, overhauling the engines and replacing the oxygen system, radios, and some flight instruments with American equipment. Mechanics completed this work by April 9. The Navy transferred '7334 to the Army in early June, and an army pilot flew the Gekko on June 15, 1946, for about 35 minutes. At least one other test flight took place before the Army Air Forces flew the fighter to Park Ridge, Illinois, for museum storage.
- The collection of museum aircraft at Park Ridge numbered more than 60 airplanes when the war in Korea forced the United States Air Force to move it to the site we now call the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland. The IRVING was dumped outside in a large shipping crate until buildings became available in 1974. In 1979, NASM staff selected IRVING for restoration. Only the second Japanese airplane to receive the skilled attentions of NASM restoration craftsmen, this rare airframe was actively corroding in many places. It was only the second Japanese aircraft restored by NASM, after the Mitsubishi Zero completed in 1976. At that time, it was the largest and most complex aircraft restoration project NASM had undertaken. Work started on September 7, 1979, and ended December 14, 1983, following 17,000 hours of meticulous, dedicated labor. It stands today as the sole remaining example of Japan's night-fighting Gekkos.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the U.S. Air Force
- 1942
- Inventory Number
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- CRAFT-Aircraft
- Materials
- All-metal, monocoque construction airplane
- Dimensions
- Overall: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 41ft 11 15/16in., 10670.3lb., 55ft 9 5/16in. (460 x 1280cm, 4840kg, 1700cm)
- Country of Origin
- Japan
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- Location
- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA
- Exhibit Station
- World War II Aviation (UHC)
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19600338000
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Not determined
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv994731147-8cef-407c-a254-370813428261
Related Content
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.


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Seems I am always in the market for a new tent. And Hilleberg is one of those brands I often think would be nice to own. The company has a sterling reputation, but their tents are anything but cheap.
This Nammatj 3 looks like an optimum mix of weight and space: less of the former, more of the latter. It is a tunnel tent and not free-standing, but company pitches it as a good tent for high or low country use and light enough to be used backpacking while spacious enough to be used car camping. That's two tents essentially for the price of one.
Oh, and the price tag is $650, hardly inexpensive even for a 3 person tent, nor affordable for most, but it may be close if you are a two tent family. There is a two-person model available too.
This review from Outdoor Gear Lab is worth a read if you are looking for a versatile two or three person tent with a gigantic vestibule.


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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will close its border to all who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents to slow spread of COVID-19.
Trudeau made the announcement from the steps of Rideau cottage in Ottawa Monday, as he is in self-isolation after his wife, Sophie was diagnosed with COVID-19 following a trip to the U.K.
Canada recorded at least 324 confirmed cases as of Monday morning, with a further 17 presumptive ones. Of those confirmed cases, B.C. has 103. Four people have died in Canada, all of them in B.C.
The Prime Minister said citizens of U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as well as commerce, trade will be allowed in and out of the country.
As of Wednesday, the only airports in the country accepting international flights will be Vancouver International Airport, Montreal-Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Calgary International Airport.
Trudeau said all Canadians currently abroad should return home by commercial means, while flights are still running.
"We can still slow the spread of this virus… but that window is closing," Trudeau said.
Trudeau defended the travel ban coming in Monday, when both he and top health officials have dismissed it before.
"Now is the time to take this particular step. It is a significant step… but it is the right step to be taking today, he said, noting recommendations from health officials have changed.
Trudeau said his government is in close communication with the U.S. government and hinted the exception for American citizens crossing the borders could change soon.
"We recognize the level of integration of our two economies… puts the U.S. in a separate category," he said, citing the economic integration of the two countries as to why Americans will continue to be allowed in.
Anyone returning to the country must still self-isolate for 14 days.
For those in Canada, Trudeau said although life did not need to shut down completely, careful precautions must be taken.
"All Canadians, as much as possible, should stay home."
And here's the last Trudeau spoke about travel, borders and restrictions amid the #COVID19 situation:@BlackPressMediahttps://t.co/XKUaT69KHa
— Kat Slepian (@katslepian) March 16, 2020
More to come.
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