text: On 07 Apr 2008, at 11:51, Chris Wood wrote: > I'm in an odd situation where our programmer resources probably > don't match > what I need done. I've got a couple of hard core C programmers that > work on > our hardware product and our parent company has some hard core COBOL > programmers. :) There are two of us that can hold our own in Perl, > but web > development or much UI development in Perl is not the direction > technology > and tools are going and we don't have time to work on it. > > The reality is that I'm going to end up hiring somebody to write it or > contract it out. I'm not constrained by what my staff knows or what > we have > developed in previously. It's a catch 22... I can't base my > decision on > what the skills of the person doing the programming since that person > doesn't exist until I decide what language/platform we will program > in. > > I have started building out the requirements document independent of > the > language and doing a lot of the things you talk about (thanks for > the list > of things to cover). > > Given my lack of constraints and the ability to start from scratch, > do you > have opinions one way or another? > If it is one project then <plug shameless="true">just hire mediaRAIN ( http://mediarain.com/ ) to do the project for you.</plug>


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
A Plastic Ocean (2016)
A team of adventurers and researchers on an expedition around the globe delves into the unknown lurking beneath our seemingly pristine and remote waters. |
The Clean Bin Project (2010)
Described as An Inconvenient Truth meets Super Size Me, "The Clean Bin Project" features laugh out loud moments, stop motion animations, and unforgettable imagery. |
Welcome to Sodom (2018)
The documentary "Welcome to Sodom" gives viewers a glimpse behind the scenes of Europe's largest garbage dump in the middle of Africa and portrays the losers of the digital revolution. |
Waste Land (2010)
Lucy Walker accompanies the artist in his work with the people from Jardim Gramacho, the life of rifling through the garbage for recycling material. |
Bag It! (2012)
Beginning with plastic bags, this documentary developed into an investigation with respect to plastic and the impact on waterways, oceans and our bodies. |
Death by Design (2017)
Revealing the dark side of the electronic industry. For all those who love their smartphones, tablets and laptops - and who care about the environment. |
Trashed (2012)
Jeremy Irons embarks on a journey around the globe: to giant piles of garbage, the Great Pacific Garbage patch and underground poison pits. |
Salvage (2019)
In Yellowknife, a city in Canada, a visit to the garbage dump is part of the weekly routine. The film shows us their world and their view of today's consumer society. |
UseLess (2018)
How do we manage to reduce food and clothing waste? A film that encourages us to tackle these problems. |
Closing The Loop (2018)
A groundbreaking film on the way to the Circular Economy. |
A Plastic Surgery: Coca-Cola's Hidden Secrets (2018)
The film examines Coca Cola's marketing strategies and finds that their promises are as sweet as their products. |
Straws (2017)
"Straws" is a short documentary about the pollution caused by plastic straws and how each of us can help make a difference. |
Plastic China (2016)
Following these families' daily lives, "Plastic China" explores how this work of recycling plastic waste with their bare hands takes a toll not only on their health, but also their own dilemma of poverty, disease, pollution and death. All of this to eek out a daily living. But "Plastic China" also unveils the true face of China. |
The E-Waste Tragedy (2014)
Every year, up to 50 million tons of discarded electrics turn up in the Third World. The majority of it is dumped illegally. This film takes you on a global journey to uncover the secrets of e-waste. |
Racing to Zero (2014)
A documentary that explores San Francisco's new ways to solve the global waste problem after the city committed itself to stop producing waste by 2020. |
Albatross (2013)
On a tiny island in the heart of the Pacific, a story is taking place that may change the way you see everything. |
The Light Bulb Conspiracy (2010)
Be it light bulbs, computers or mobile phones, the customer is not encouraged to repair a defective appliance, but to dispose of it and buy a new one. |
Life in Plastic... (2008)
"Life in Plastic..." examines the countless problems that plastic, which has long been regarded as a miracle material, brings with it, and shows which solutions could be used to minimize the negative effects on the environment. |
Waste = Food (2007)
Waste production worldwide is enormous. But the cradle to cradle concept argues that products should be either completely recyclable or biodegradable. |
Garbage Warrior (2007)
A documentary about Earthships. Houses built from tires or other recyclable materials by architect Michael Reynolds. |


text:
Madison, WI
Industry: Professional, Scientific & Technical Services•
5 - 7 years
Posted 42 days ago
Summary of Major Responsibilities
The SAP Operations Business Analyst provides first level support for SAP users and subject matter experts in the materials management, production planning, quality inspection and sales and distribution modules. This role serves as a liaison between SAP business users and IT/SAP configuration experts, internally and externally. The SAP Operations Business Analyst assists in evaluating, prioritizing and managing changes to the SAP system using appropriate change management processes, as well as develops and provides training on SAP for users.
A key aspect of this role will be working with the Operations teams to understand emerging company objectives, this role will research gaps in functionality, gather requirements of users and present recommendations to both technical and business teams. The individual will have a thorough understanding of the business processes and flows to enable the analysis of business requirements and the development of solutions for the business functions primarily between Operations and other departments. In addition, this role will be responsible for day to day support and daily operations for the SAP platform as it relates to the Operations organization and will be required to collaborate with third party vendors.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Minimum Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications


text:
Arab Israeli Conflict
Middle East News
Israel News
Hi Tech News
Yehoshua Sobol 58.
(photo credit: Josef Hofmann)
Dear Reader,
As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before.
Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications,
like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations,
we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open
and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news
and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
For $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
Help us grow and continue telling Israel's story to the world.
Thank you,
Ronit Hasin-Hochman, CEO, Jerusalem Post Group
Yaakov Katz, Editor-in-Chief
Playwright/director/educator Yehoshua Sobol, 71, will receive a Life Achievement Prize at the Israel Theater Prize awards ceremony on May 14 at the Gesher Theater in Jaffa. The prize is awarded for the body of his work, plays "spanning subjects that are essential and central to the Israeli and Jewish experience."
By JTA
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text:
Basically a fixed and polished version of koth_reej_72, which this time hopefully will not make people sick just by looking at it.
This was probably one of those deeply meaningful dreams you get once in a lifetime.
In my dream today, Gabe himself was sitting on the couch,...
I find it hilarious
I'm striving to understand the difference compared to Hammer, at first glance it seems like 'mapping' for UDK is working in 3DS Max 90% of the...
it is some sort of an IT center in China, the sides design look oddly familiar
In the first 11 minutes there is quite a lot said that concerns us all, in the "rewarding the community contributing" category sort.
Posting in...
(ironically) There seems to be a big demand for medieval custom maps on official steam forums. People call for medieval payload as well...
As title says, I've got a problem with capture points in my payload map.
I have 3 capture points including the final one.
CP1 adds to the...
They never quit testing your map.
They stick to their set class.
They will never afk at spawn.
They understand the meaning of dev textures....
My skybox looks great in LDR but with HDR compile it just glows like a lightsaber.
The "brightness scale HDR" doesn't seem to do any difference...
When giving feedback:
type in complete sentences
elaborate on reasons when you give your opinion
state what exactly is the target of your...
I've got 12 random crates to give away, if anybody wants them write a post.
In case there's more than 1 person, I'll get a random number generated :O
I need more to keep going, post whatever you find inspiring/motivational for mapping and level design
My example :closedeyes:
laughed to tears
Singlestage payload map.
A bit of the most iconic Japanese architecture.
What you guys think bout this layout in general.
And scale as well, since I always end up with too small maps and tried to make this one right....
I'll just leave it here :closedeyes:
Need help "turning down" snow brightness...
at the moment it's eye-piercing, glowing bright
I would prefer it to be around cp_coldfront volume
It's science related stuff.
I had a lot of quality-thinking-pleasure while watching this video and I feel like sharing it, unless you guys...
I just noticed the google banner
Followed with my eyes subconsciously
And here's what I've found:
I don't know if anybody is actually...
Separate names with a comma.


text:
Explore Gallery of Wayfair Adirondack Chairs
Showing Photo About Lifetime Plastic Adirondack Chair & Reviews | Wayfair in Wayfair Adirondack Chairs
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text:
Effects and Mediation of Child-centered Play Therapy on Young Children Who Are Anxious
Description: Anxiety is one of the most pervasive childhood disorders, with a poor prognosis if left untreated. Traditional methods of treating anxiety have been less effective with young children. Based on theoretical assumptions regarding the potential effectiveness of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) as a treatment approach, I sought to explore the effects and mediating factors of CCPT on young children with symptoms of anxiety. Fifty-three participants between the ages of 6 to 8 years old were recruited from four elementary schools, including 36 males and 17 females. Of participants, 11 were African American, 24 were Caucasian, 10 were Hispanic/Latino, one was Asian, and seven were biracial. Twenty-five participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group receiving a mean of 15 sessions of individual CCPT, and 28 participants were assigned to an 8-session active control group. Five factorial analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted applying an alpha level of .05 for interpretation of statistical significance and Cohen's d to assess practical significance. ANOVA results indicated a statistically significant interaction with a large effect size on Total Anxiety score of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale-2nd edition (p = .013, d = .715). Subscale ANOVA results indicated a statistically significant interaction effect with large effect size on the Worry subscale (p = .006, d = .795), no statistically significant interaction on the Defensiveness subscale (p = .710, d = .110), no statistically significant interaction but moderate effect size on the Physiological subscale (p = .076, d = .506), and no statistically significant interaction but moderate effect size on the Social Anxiety subscale (p = .162, d = .398). Statistically significant differences with large practical effects were found in total anxiety and worry, suggesting that children who received CCPT decreased their overall levels of anxiety and worry whereas children who were in the active ...
Date: May 2014
Creator: Stulmaker, Hayley L.
Partner: UNT Libraries


text:
Bus Český Krumlov to Linz: Trip Overview
Trip Reviews for Český Krumlov - Linz
User reviews from travellers who booked a bus ticket from Český Krumlov to Linz
Ratings and Reviews (2)
Late is ok, but without notification? Also, better to have the no. for the parking lane in the departing point, so as to assure customers are not going wrong place.
Trip itself was fine, but the Linz drop-off was in the middle of nowhere, some 5km from the railway station we wanted. Without any local currency we couldn't even take a taxi.
Bus companies on this route
Český Krumlov to Linz buses
With Busbud, comparing and booking tickets for a bus from Český Krumlov to Linz is a breeze. Browse through an extensive selection of bus fares and bus schedules to find the best deals.
We make sure you can find a bus service from Český Krumlov to Linz from the most reliable bus companies operating this trip.
Discover how much the bus trip from Český Krumlov to Linz will cost you. Use our filters and sorting features to find the cheapest bus tickets or luxury buses.
Bus Companies
Bus travel from Český Krumlov to Linz is made possible thanks to FlixBus, RegioJet, West Bahn train and Leo Express.
Stations & Stops
Need a bus leaving from Český Krumlov? Your starting point is at AN, Špičák or Nádraží.
If you're onboard a bus traveling to Linz, you can get hop off at Prinz-Eugen-Straße, Hbf, Hbf, Hbf, Hbf, Hbf, Industriezeile, Industriezeile, Industriezeile or Linz Busbahnhof - Wien Erdberg.
|Daily Buses
|Departure Time
|5:00 - 20:00
|Average Price
|Average Trip Duration
|Bus companies on this route
|FlixBus, Infobus, Infobus
About Bus Travel
Bus Travel Tips
Meet and talk to locals at the bus stations while traveling from Český Krumlov to Linz.There is no better way to get inside travel information while exploring a new city than to go straight to its people.
Start sightseeing the minute your bus leaves the station. If you're on the night bus from Český Krumlov to Linz, get comfy and count the stars.
Buses have the smallest carbon footprint of all motorized transport modes. A bus going from Český Krumlov to Linz will emit half the CO2 emitted by a train, and radically less than a car or an airplane.
Tune out to the fine sounds of your best music playlist on your bus trip from Český Krumlov to Linz while indulging in miles on end of beautiful scenic views.
Did you know?
The bus driver with the longest career in the world drove more than 2,000,000 miles and is a happy World Record holder.
It takes 27 hours to go by bus from Lima to Cusco, one of the craziest bus trips on the world. This route is used daily by locals and backpackers.
One of the longest bus route in the world goes all the way from Ontario to Alberta in Canada (with the same bus). This trip is 3,435 km or 2,135 miles long and the price is a bit under $100.
Will you be returning to Český Krumlov by bus?
If you are looking for the return bus journey, take a look at buses from Linz to Český Krumlov.
Popular Buses Connecting Český Krumlov
Popular Buses Connecting Linz
Popular routes in this country
About Busbud
The Best Way To Book Bus Tickets
Busbud.com makes it easy for you to find, compare and book city-to-city bus tickets, all over the world. We save you the extra trip to the bus station. Use Busbud to book your trip online, in your own language and currency, wherever you are. Busbud partners with safe and reliable bus companies throughout the world such as Greyhound, Eurolines, ALSA, OUIBUS, National Express and many others so you can buy tickets without a worry.
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text:
The Cross Is
the cross is the resurrection of the dead
the cross is the way of the lost
the cross is the savior of the lost
the cross is the staff of the lame
the cross is the guide of the blind
the cross is the strength of the weak
the cross is the doctor of the sick
the cross is the aim of the priests
the cross is the hope of the hopeless
the cross is the freedom of the slaves
the cross is the power of the kings
the cross is the water of the seeds
the cross is the consolation of the bondsmen
the cross is the source of those who seek water
the cross is the cloth of the naked.
We thank you, Father, for the cross.Amen.
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text:
The Music Master of Babylon [Short stories]
Post on 27-Dec-2016
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a N.E.R.D's Release ~~ Read First ~~.txtA N.E.R.D's ReleaseTo help, visit http://nerds.no-ip.infoPlease help N.E.R.D's continue to provide you with this great service by visiting the link above.Pangborn, Edgar - [SS] The Music Master of Babylon [v1.0].htmTheMusic Master of BabylonEdgarPangborn** * *Edgar Pangborn(1909-76) attended Harvard and The New England Conservatory of Music and thenpublished his first novel, a mystery (A-100,under the pseudonym Bruce Harrison). Two decades later, he turned to writingscience fiction and wrote several SF novels and a number of stories from the1950s through the 1970s. Damon Knight, describing Pangborns first story,Angels Egg, and his novels West of the Sun(1953) and AMirror for Observers (1954), says, The style isleisurely and reflective; the mood is one of blended sorrow and delight. It is as if [Pangborns] eyesees only certain moral and emotional colors we can only assume that hehas blinded himself in half the spectrum in order to see more radiantly in therest. Certainly nothing is lacking in these stories for want of skill. It maywell be that this is the only song Pangborn was made to sing; and a mournfullybeautiful one it isvery like the thing that Stapledon was always talkingabout but never managed to convey: the regretful, ironic, sorrowful, deeply joyousandpurblindlove of the world and all in it.Davy(1964) is generally considered his masterpiece. Critics generally find it hardto articulate the virtues of this novel that Robert A. Heinlein compared to Huckleberry Finn.Perhaps this is in part because there was little discourse about gay fictionuntil recently. Dictionary of Literary Biography(volume 8), for instance, says it reads like a collaboration betweenMark Twain, Dylan Thomas, and Andre Gide. There is more warmth thanillumination in such statements. It is an intensely sensual book. His laterworks include two collections of stories, Good Neighbors andOther Strangers (1972) and Still I Persist inWondering (1978).Thisstory is from his 1950s advent, the mournfully beautiful period that soimpressed Knight and others.* * * * For twenty-fiveyears no one came. In the seventy-sixth year of his life Brian Van Anda wasstill trying not to remember a happy boyhood. To do so was irrelevant anddangerous, although every instinct of his old age tempted him to reject thepresent and live in the lost times. He would recall stubbornly that the presentyear, for example, was 2096 according to the Christian calendar, that he hadbeen born in 2020, seven years after the close of the civil war, fifty yearsbefore the last war, twenty-five years before the departure of the FirstInterstellar. The First and Second Interstellar would be still on the move, hesupposed. It had been understood, obvious, long ago, that after radio contactfaded out the world would not hear of them again for many lifetimes, if ever.They would be on the move, farther and farther away from a planet no longercapable of understanding such matters.Briansometimes recalled his place of birth, New Boston, the fine planned city farinland from the old metropolis which a rising sea had reclaimed after theearthquake of 1994. Such things, places and dates, were factual props, usefulwhen Brian wanted to impose an external order on the vagueness of his immediateexistence. He tried to make sure they became no more than that, to shut awaythe colors, the poignant sounds, the parks and the playgrounds of New Boston,the known faces (many of them loved), and the later years when he hadexperienced a curious intoxication called fame.Itwas not necessarily better or wiser to reject these memories, but it was safer,and nowadays Brian was often sufficiently tired, sufficiently conscious of hisgrowing weakness and lonely unimportance, to crave safety as a meadow mousecraves a burrow.Hetied his canoe to the massive window which for many years had been a port and adoorway. Lounging there with a suspended sense of time, he hardly knew he waslistening. In a way, all the twenty-five years had been a listening. He watchedEarths patient star sink toward the rim of the forest on the Palisades.At this hour it was sometimes possible, if the sun-crimsoned water lay still,to cease grieving at the greater stillness.Theremust be scattered human life elsewhere, he knewprobably a great deal ofit. After twenty-five years alone, that also often seemed irrelevant. At othertimes than mild eveningson hushed noons or in the mornings always soempty of human commotionBrian might lapse into anger, fight the calm byyelling, resent the swift dying of his own echoes. Such moods were brief. Akind of humor remained in him, not to be ruined by any sorrow.Heremembered how, ten months or possibly ten years ago, he had encountered a boxturtle in a forest clearing, and had shouted at it: They went that-away!The turtles rigidly comic face, fixed in a caricature of startleddisapproval, had seemed to point up some truth or other. Brian had hunkereddown on the moss and laughed uproariously until he observed that some of thelaughter was weeping.Todayhad been rather good. He had killed a deer on the Palisades, and with bow andarrow, not spending a bulletirreplaceable toy of civilization.Notthat he needed to practice such economy. He could live, he supposed, anotherten years at the outside. His rifles were in good condition, his hoardedammunition would easily outlast him. So would the stock of canned and driedfood stuffed away in his living quarters. But there was satisfaction inprimitive effort, and no compulsion to analyze the why of it.Thestored food was more important than the ammunition; a time was coming soonenough when he would no longer have the strength for hunting. He would lose theinclination to depart from his fortress for trips to the mainland. He wouldyield to such timidity or laziness for days, then weeks. Sometime, after suchan interlude, he might find himself too feeble to risk climbing the cliff wallinto the forest. He would then have the good sense, he hoped, to destroy thecanoe, thus making of his weakness a necessity.Therewere books. There was the Hall of Music on the next floor above the water,probably safe from its lessening encroachment. To secure fresh water he needonly keep track of the tides, for the Hudson had cleaned itself and now rolleddown sweet from the lonely uncorrupted hills. His decline could be comfortable.He had provided for it and planned it.Yetnow, gazing across the sleepy water, seeing a broad-winged hawk circle in freedomabove the forest, Brian was aware of the old thought moving in him: IfI couldhear voicesjust once, if Icould hear human voicesTheMuseum of Human History, with the Hall of Music on what Brian thought of as thesecond floor, should also outlast his requirements. In the flooded lower floorand basement the work of slow destruction must be going on: Here and there theunhurried waters could find their wav to steel and make rust of it; the waterproofingof the concrete was nearly a hundred years old. But it ought to be good foranother century or two.Nowadaysthe ocean was mild. There were moderate tides, winds no longer destructive. Forthe last six years there had been no more of the heavy storms out of the south;in the same period Brian had noted a rise in the water level of a mere nineinches. The windowsill, his port, stood six inches above high-tide mark thisyear. Perhaps Earth was settling into a new amiable mood. The climate hadbecome delightful, about like what Brian remembered from a visit to southernVirginia in his childhood.Thelast earthquake had come in 2082a large one, Brian guessed, but itscenter could not have been close to the rock of Manhattan. The Museum had onlyshivered and shruggedit had survived much worse than that, half a dozentimes since 1994. Long after the tremor, a tall wave had thundered in from thesouth. Its force, like that of others, had mostly been dissipated against thebarrier of tumbled rock and steel at the southern end of the submergedislandan undersea dam, man-made though not man-intendedand whenit reached the Museum it did no more than smash the southern windows in theHall of Music, which earlier waves had not been able to reach; then it passedon up the river enfeebled.Thewindows of the lower floor had all been broken long before that. After theearthquake of 82 Brian had spent a month in boarding up all the openingson the south side of the Hall of Musicafter all, it was homewithlumber painfully ferried over from mainland ruins. By that year he was sixty-twoyears old and not moving with the ease of youth. He deliberately left cracksand knotholes. Sunlight sifted through in narrow beams, like the bars of dustygold Brian could remember in a hayloft at his uncles farm in Vermont.Thathawk above the Palisades soared nearer over the river and receded. Caught inthe evening light, he was himself a little sun, dying and returning.TheMuseum had been finished in 2003. Manhattan, strangely enough, had never takena bomb, although in the civil war two of the type called small cleanfission had fallen on the Brooklyn and New Jersey sidesso Brianrecalled from the jolly history books which had informed his adolescence thatwar was definitely a thing of the past. By the time of the next last war, in2070, the sea, gorged on melting ice caps, had removed Manhattan Island fromcurrent history.Everythingleft standing above the waters south of the Museum had been knocked flat by thetornadoes of 2057 and 2064. A few blobs of empty rock still demonstrated whereCentral Park and Mount Morris Park had been: not significant. Where Long Islandonce rose, there was a troubled area of shoals and small islands, probably auseful barrier of protection for the receding shore of Connecticut. Men hadyielded their great city inch by inch, then foot by foot; a full mile in 2047,saying: The flood years have passed their peak, and a return to normalis expected. Brian sometimes felt a twinge of sympathy for the Neanderthalexperts who must have told each other to expect a return to normal at the verytime when the Cro-Magnons were drifting in.In2057 the Island of Manhattan had tobe yielded. New York City, half-new, half-ancient, sprawled stubborn andenormous upstream, on both sides of a river not done with its anger. Yet theMuseum stood. Aided by sunken rubble of other buildings of its kind, aided alsoby men because they still had time to move it, the museum stood, and might fora long time yetweather permitting.Thehawk floated out of sight above the Palisades into the field of the low sun.** * *The Museum of HumanHistory covered an acre of ground north of 125th Street, rising a modestfifteen stories, its foundation secure in that layer of rock which mimicseternity. It deserved its name; here men had brought samples of everythingman-made, literally everything known in the course of human creation sinceprehistory. Within human limits it was definitive.Noone had felt anything unnatural in the refusal of the Directors of the Museumto move the collection after the building weathered the storm of 2057. Instead,ordinary people donated money so that a mighty abutment could be built aroundthe ground floor and a new entrance designed on the north side of the second.The abutment survived the greater tornado of 2064 without damage, althoughduring those seven years the sea had risen another eight feet in its oldever-new game of making monkeys out of the wise. (It was left for Brian VanAnda, alone, in 2079, to see the waters slide quietly over the abutment,opening the lower regions for the use of fishes and the more secretwater-dwellers who like shelter and privacy. In the 90s, Brian suspectedthe presence of an octopus or two in the vast vague territory that had oncebeen parking lot, heating plant, storage space, air-raid shelter, etc. Hecouldnt prove it; it just seemed like a decent, comfortable place for anoctopus.) In 2070 plans were under consideration for building a new causeway tothe Museum from the still expanding city in the north. In 2070, also, the lastwar began and ended.WhenBrian Van Anda came down the river late in 2071, a refugee from certainunfamiliar types of savagery, the Museum was empty of the living. He spent manydays in exhaustive exploration of the building. He did this systematically,toiling at last up to the Directors meeting room on the top floor. Therehe observed how they must have been holding a conference at the very time whena new gas was tried out over New York in a final effort to persuade the WesternFederation that the end justifies the means. (Too bad, Brian sometimes thought,that he would never know exactly what had become of the Asian Empire. In thelittle splinter state called the Soviet of North America, from which Brian hadfled in 71, the official doctrine was that the Asian Empire had won thewar and the saviors of humanity would be flying in any day now. Brian hadinadvertently doubted this out loud and then stolen a boat and gotten awaysafely under cover of night.)Upin the meeting room, Brian had seen how that up-to-date neurotoxin had been norespecter of persons. An easy death, however, by the look of it. He observedalso how some things endure. The Museum, for instance: virtually unharmed.Brianoften recalled those moments in the meeting room as a sort of island in time.They were like the first day of falling in love, the first hour of discoveringthat he could play Beethoven. And a little like the curiously cherished, morethan life-size half-hour back there in Newburg, in that ghastly year 2071, whenhe had briefly met and spoken with an incredibly old man, Abraham Brown. Brownhad been President of the Western Federation at the time of the civil war.Later, retired from the uproar of public affairs, he had devoted himself tophilosophy, unofficial teaching. In 2071, with the world he had loved in almosttotal ruin around him, Brown had spoken pleasantly to Brian Van Anda of smallthingsof chrysanthemums that would soon be blooming in the front yard ofthe house where he lived with friends, of a piano recital by Van Anda back in2067 which the old man still remembered with warm enthusiasm.Onlya month later more hell was loose and Brian himself in flight.Yes,the Museum Directors had died easily. Brooding in the evening sunlight, Brianreflected that now, all these years later, the innocent bodies would beperfectly decent. No vermin in the Museum. The doorways and the floors weretight, the upper windows unbroken.Oneof the white-haired men had had a Ming vase on his desk. He had not dropped outof his chair, but looked as if he had fallen asleep in front of the vase withhis head on his arms. Brian had left the vase untouched, but had taken oneother thing, moved by some stirring of his own never-certain philosophy andknowing that he would not return to this room, ever.Oneof the Directors had been opening a wall cabinet when he fell; the key lay nearhis fingers. Their discussion had not been concerned only with war, perhaps notat all with war. After all, there were other topics. The Ming vase must havehad a part in it. Brian wished he could know what the old man had meant to takefrom the cabinet. Sometimes he dreamed of conversations with that man, in whichthe Director told him the truth of this and other matters, but what wascertainty in sleep was in the morning gone like childhood.Forhimself Brian had taken a little image of rock-hard clay, blackened, two-faced,male and female. Prehistoric, or at any rate wholly savage, unsophisticated,meaningful like the blameless motion of an animal in sunlight. Brian had said: Withyour permission, gentlemen. He had closed the cabinet and then, softly,the outer door.Imold, too, Brian said to the red evening. He searched for the hawk andcould no longer find it in the deepening sky. Old, a littlefoolishtalk aloud to myself. Ill have some Mozart before supper.** * *He transferred thefresh venison from the canoe to a small raft hitched inside the window. He hadselected only choice pieces, as much as he could cook and eat in the few daysbefore it spoiled, leaving the rest for the wolves or any other forestscavengers which might need it. There was a rope strung from the window to themarble steps leading to the next floor of the Museum, which was home.Ithad not been possible to save much from the submerged area, for its treasurewas mostly heavy statuary. Through the still water, as he pulled the raft alongthe rope, the Moses of Michelangelo gazed up at him in tranquility. Other faceswatched him; most of them watched infinity. There were white hands thatoccasionally borrowed motion from ripples made by the raft. I got adeer, Moses, said Brian Van Anda, smiling down in companionship, losingtrack of time Good night, Moses. He carried his juicyburden up the stairway.Briansliving quarters had once been a cloakroom for Museum attendants. Four closewalls gave it a feel of security. A ventilating shaft now served as a chimneyfor the wood stove Brian had salvaged from a mainland farmhouse. The door couldbe tightly locked. There were no windows. You do not want windows in a cave.Outsidewas the Hall of Music, a full acre, an entire floor of the Museum, containingan example of every musical instrument that was known or could be reconstructedin the twenty-first century. The library of scores and recordings lackednothingexcept electricity to make the recordings speak. A few mightstill be made to sound on a hand-cranked phonograph, but Brian had not botheredwith that toy for years; the springs were probably rusted.Briansometimes took out orchestra and chamber music scores to read at random. Once,reading them, his mind had been able to furnish ensembles, orchestras, choirsof a sort, but lately the ability had weakened. He remembered a day, possibly ayear ago, when his memory refused to give him the sound of oboe and clarinet inunison. He had wandered, peevish, distressed, unreasonably alarmed, among theracks and cases of woodwinds and brasses and violins. He tried to sound aclarinet; the reed was still good in the dust proof case, but he had no lip. Hehad never mastered any instrument except the pianoforte.Herecalledit might have been that same dayopening a chest of doublebasses. There was a three-stringer in the group, old, probably from the earlynineteenth century, a trifle fatter than its more modern companions. Briantouched its middle string in an idle caress, not intending to make it sound,but it had done so. When in use, it would have been tuned to D; time hadslackened the heavy murmur to A or something near it. That had throbbed in thesilent room with finality, a sound such as a programmatic composer, sayTchaikovsky, might have used as a tonal symbol for the breaking of a heart. Itstayed in the air as other instruments whispered a dim response. Allright, gentlemen, Brian said, that was your AOutin the main part of the hall, a place of honor was given to what may have beenthe oldest of the instruments, a seven-note marimba of phonolitic schistdiscovered in Indo-China in the twentieth century and thought to be at least5,000 years of age. The xylophone-type rack was modern. Brian for twenty-fiveyears had obeyed a compulsion to keep it free of cobwebs. Sometimes he touchedthe singing stones, not for amusement but because there was comfort in it. Theyanswered to the light tap of a fingernail. Beside them on a little table of itsown he had placed the Stone Age god of two faces.Onthe west side of the Hall of Music, a rather long walk from Brians cave,was a small auditorium. Lectures, recitals, chamber music concerts had beengiven there in the old days. The pleasant room held a twelve-foot concertgrand, made in 2043, probably the finest of the many pianos in the Hall ofMusic, a summit of technical achievement. Brian had done his best to preservethis beautiful artifact, prayerfully tuning it three times a year, robbingother pianos in the Museum to provide a reserve supply of strings, oiled andsealed against rust. When not in use his great piano was covered bystitched-together sheets. To remove the cover was a somber ritual. Beforetouching the keys, Brian washed his hands with needless fanatical care.Someyears ago he had developed the habit of locking the auditorium doors before heplayed. Yet even then he preferred not to glance toward the vista of emptyseats, not much caring whether this inhibition derived from a Stone Age fear offinding someone there or from a flat civilized understanding that no one couldbe. It never occurred to him to lock the one door he used, when he was absentfrom the auditorium. The key remained on the inside; if he went in merely totune the piano or to inspect the place, he never turned it.Thehabit of locking it when he played might have started (he could not remember)back in the year 2076, when so many bodies had floated down from the north onthe ebb tides. Full horror had somehow been lacking in the sight of all thatfloating death. Perhaps it was because Brian had earlier had his fill ofhorrors, or perhaps in 2076 he already felt so divorced from his own kind thatwhat happened to them was like the photograph of a war in a distant country.Some had bobbed and floated quite near the Museum. Most of them had the gapingobvious wounds of primitive warfare, but some were oddly discolored anew pestilence? So there was (or had been) more trouble up there in what was(or had been) the short-lived Soviet of North America, a self-styled nationthat took in east central New York and most of New England. So Yes, thatwas probably the year when he had started locking the doors between his privateconcerts and an empty world.Hedumped the venison in his cave. He scrubbed his hands, showing high blue veinsnow, but still tough, still knowing. Mozart, he thought, and walked, not withmuch pleasure of anticipation but more like one externally driven, through theenormous hall that was so full and yet so empty and growing dim with evening,with dust, with age, with loneliness. Music should not be silent.** * *When the piano wasuncovered, Brian delayed. He exercised his hands unnecessarily. He fussed withthe candelabrum on the wall, lighting three candles, then blowing out two foreconomy. He admitted presently that he did not want the emotional clarity ofMozart at all, not now. The darkness of 2070 was too close, closer than he hadfelt it for a long time. It would never have occurred to Mozart, Brian thought,that a world could die. Beethoven could have entertained the idea soberlyenough, and Chopin probably; even Brahms. Mozart, Haydn, Bach would surely havedismissed it as somebodys bad dream, in poor taste. Andrew Carr, wholived and died in the latter half of the twentieth century, had endured theidea deep in his bloodstream from the beginning of his childhood.Thedate of Hiroshima was 1945; Carr was born in 1951. The wealth of his music waswritten between 1969, when he was eighteen, and 1984, when he died among thesmells of an Egyptian jail from injuries received in a street brawl.Ifnot Mozart, said Brian Van Anda to his idle hands, there is alwaysthe Project.Toplay Carrs last sonata as it should be playedas Carr was supposedto have said he couldnt play it himself: Brian had been thinking of thatas the Project for many years. It had begun teasing his mind long before thewar, at the time of his triumphs in a civilized world which had been warmlyappreciative of the polished interpretive artist (once he got the breaks)although no more awake than in any other age to the creative sort. Back therein the undestroyed society, Brian had proposed to program that sonata in thecompany of works that were older but no greater, and to play itwell,beyond his best, so that even music critics would begin to see its importancein history.Hehad never done it, had never felt the necessary assurance that he had enteredinto the sonata and learned the depth of it. Now, when there was none to hearor care, unless the harmless brown spiders in the corners of the auditorium hada taste for music, there was still the Project. Ihear, Brian thought. I care, and withmyself for audience I wish to hear it once as it ought to be, a final statementfor a world that was (I think) too good to die.Technically,of course, he had it. The athletic demands Carr made on the performer weretremendous, but, given technique, there was nothing impossible about them.Anyone capable of concert work could at least play the notes at the requiredtempi. And any reasonably shrewd pianist could keep track of the dynamics,saving strength for the shattering finale. Brian had heard the sonata played byothers two or three times in the old dayscompetently. Competency was notenough.Forexample, what about the third movement, the mad scherzo, and the five tinyinterludes of quiet scattered through its plunging fury? They were not alike.Related, but each one demanded a new climate of heart andmindtenderness, regret, simple relaxation. Flowers on a floodno.Window lights in a storm no. The innocence of a child in a bombedcityno, not really. Something of all those. Much more, too, defyingwords.Whatof the second movement, the largo, where in a wav the pattern was reversed, themidnight introspection interrupted by moments of anger, or longing, or despairlike the despair of an angel beating his wings against a prison of glass?Itwas a work in which something of Carrs life, Carrs temperament,had to come into you, whether you dared welcome it or not; otherwise yourplaying was no more than reproduction of notes on a page. Carrs life wasnot for the contemplation of the timid.Thedetails were superficially well-known; the biographies were like musicalnotation, meaningless without interpretation and insight. Carr was a drunkenroarer, a young devil-god with such a consuming hunger for life that he chokedto death on it. His friends hated him for the way he drained their lives,loving them to distraction and the next moment having no time for them becausehe loved his work more. His enemies must have had times of helplessly admiringhim if only because of a translucent honesty that made him more and less thanhuman. A rugged Australian, not tall but built like a hero, a face all foreheadand jaw and glowing hyperthyroid eves. He wept only when he was angry, thebiographic storytellers said. In one minute of talk he might shift from gutterobscenity to some extreme of altruistic tenderness, and from that perhaps to aphilosophic comment of cold intelligence. He passed his childhood on a sheepfarm, ran away on a freighter at thirteen, was flung out of two respectable conservatoriesfor drunkenness and public lewdness, then studied like a slave inLondon with single-minded desperation, as if he knew the time was short. He wasmarried twice and twice divorced. He killed a man in a silly brawl on the NewOrleans docks, and wrote his First Symphony while he was in jail for that. Hedied of stab wounds from a broken bottle in a Cairo jail, and was recognized bythe critics. It all had relevancy; relevant or not, if the sonata was in yourmind, so was the life.Youhad to remember also that Andrew Carr was the last of civilizationsgreat composers. No one in the twenty-first century approached himtheyignored his explorations and carved cherrystones. He belonged to no school,unless you wanted to imagine a school of music beginning with Bach, taking inperhaps a dozen along the wav, and ending with Carr himself. His work was asummary as well as an advance along the mainstream into the unknown; in thelight of the year 2070, it was also a completion.Brianwas certain he could play the first movement of the sonata as he wished to.Technically it was not revolutionary, and remained rather close to the ancientsonata form. Carr had even written in a double bar for a repeat of the entireopening statement, something that had made his cerebral contemporaries sneerwith great satisfaction; it never occurred to them that Carr was inviting theperformer to use his head.Thebright-sorrowful second movement, unfashionably long, with its strange pauses,unforeseen recapitulations, outbursts of savage changethat was whereBrians troubles began. (Reminiscent of Franck, said thehunters for comparisons whom we have always with us.) It did not help Brian tobe old, remembering the inner storms of forty years ago and more.Hissingle candle fluttered. For once Brian had forgotten to lock the door into theHall of Music. This troubled him, but he did not rise from the piano chair. Hechided himself instead for the foolish neuroses of alonenesswhat couldit matter? Let it go. He shut his eyes. The sonata had long ago been memorized;printed copies were safe in the library. He played the opening of the firstmovement as far as the double bar, opened his eyes to the friendly black-and-whiteof clean keys, and played the repetition with new lights, new emphasis. Betterthan usual, he thoughtYes.Good Now that nave-appearing modulation into A major, which onlyCarr would have wanted just there in that sudden obvious wav, like the openingof a door on shining fields. On toward the climaxI am playing it, Ithink through the intricate revelations ofdevelopment and recapitulation. And the conclusion, lingering, half-humorous,not unlike a Beethoven Im-not-gone-yetending, but with a questioning that was all Andrew Carr. After thatNomore tonight, said Brian aloud. Some night, though Notcompetent right now, my friend. He replaced the cover of the piano andblew out the candle. He had brought no torch, long use having taught his feetevery inch of the small journey. It was quite dark. The never-opened westernwindows of the auditorium were dirty, most of the dirt on the outside, crustedwindblown salt.Inthis partial darkness something was wrong.Atfirst Brian found no source for the faint light, dim orange with a hint ofmotion. He peered into the gloom of the auditorium, fixing his eyes on theoblong of blacker shadow that was the doorway into the Hall of Music. Thewindows, of course!he had almost forgotten there were any. The light,hardly deserving the name of light, was coming through them. But sunset was surelypast. He had been here a long time, delaying and brooding before he played.Sunset should not flicker.Sothere was some kind of fire on the mainland. There had been no thunderstorm.How should fire start, over there where no one ever came?Hestumbled a few times, swearing petulantly, locating the doorway again andgroping through it into the Hall of Music. The windows out here were just asdirty; no use trying to see through them. There must have been a time when hehad looked through them, enjoyed looking through them. He stood shivering inthe marble silence, trying to remember.Timewas a gradual, continual dying. Time was the growth of dirt and ocean salt,sealing in, covering over. He stumbled for his cloakroom cave, hurrying now,and lit two candles. He left one by the cold stove and used the other to lighthis way down the stairs to his raft; once down there, he blew it out, afraid.The room a candle makes in the darkness is a vulnerable room. Having no walls,it closes in a blindness. He pulled the raft by the guide-rope, gently, forfear of noise.Hefound his canoe tied as he had left it. He poked his white head slowly beyondthe sill, staring west.Merelya bonfire gleaming, reddening the blackness of the cliff.Brianknew the spot, a ledge almost at water level, at one end of it the troublesomepath he usually followed in climbing to the forest at the top of the Palisades.Usable driftwood was often there, the supply renewed by the high tides.No,Brian said. Oh, no!** * *Unable to accept orbelieve, or not believe, he drew his head in, resting his forehead on thecoldness of the sill, waiting for dizziness to pass, reason to return.Itmight have been a long time, a kind of blackout. Now he was again in command ofhis actions and even rather calm, once more leaning out over the sill. The firestill shone and was therefore not a disordered dream of old age. It was dying toa dull rose of embers.Hewondered about the time. Clocks and watches had stopped long ago; Brian hadceased to want them. A sliver of moon was hanging over the water to the east.He ought to be able to remember the phases, deduce the approximate time fromthat. But his mind was too tired or distraught to give him the data. Maybe itwas somewhere around midnight.Heclimbed on the sill and lifted the canoe over it to the motionless waterinside. Useless, he decided, as soon as the grunting effort was finished. Thatfire had been lit before daylight passed; whoever lit it would have seen thecanoe, might even have been watching Brian himself come home from his hunting.The canoes disappearance in the night would only rouse furthercuriosity. But Brian was too exhausted to lift it back.Andwhy assume that the maker of the bonfire was necessarily hostile? Might be goodcompany He pulled his raft through the darkness, secured it at thestairway, and groped back to his cave.Helocked the door. The venison was waiting; the sight made him ravenous. He lit asmall fire in the stove, one that he hoped would not still be sending smokefrom the ventilator shaft when morning came. He cooked the meat crudely andwolfed it down, all enjoyment gone at the first mouthful. He was shocked todiscover the dirtiness of his white beard. He hadnt given himself a realbath inweeks, was it? He searched for scissors and spent an absentmindedwhile in trimming the beard back to shortness. He ought to take somesoap valuable stuffdown to Moses room, and wash.Clothes,too. People probably still wore clothes. He had worn none for years, except forsandals. He used a carrying satchel for trips to the mainland. He had enjoyedthe freedom at first, and especially the discovery that in his rugged fiftieshe did not need clothes even for the soft winters, except perhaps a lightcovering when he slept. Later, total nakedness had become so natural itrequired no thought at all. But the owner of that bonfire could have inheritedor retained the pruderies of the lost culture.Hechecked his rifles. The .22 automatic, an Army model from the 2040s, wasthe bestany amount of death in that. The tiny bullets carried aparalytic poison: graze a mans finger and he was almost painlessly deadin three minutes. Effective range, with telescopic sights, three kilometers;weight, a scant five pounds. Brian sat a long time cuddling that triumph ofmilitary science, listening for sounds that never came. Would it be two oclock?He wished he could have seen the Time Satellite, renamed in his mind theMidnight Star, but when he was down there at his port, he had not once lookedup at the night sky. Delicate and beautiful, bearing its everlasting freight ofmen who must have been dead now for twenty-five years and who would be dead avery long timewell, it was better than a clock, if you happened to lookat the midnight sky at the right time of the month when the man-made starcaught the moonlight. But he had missed it tonight. Three oclock?Atsome time during the long dark he put the rifle away on the floor. Withstudied, self-conscious contempt for his own weakness, he unlocked the door andstrode out noisily into the Hall of Music, with a fresh-lit candle. This samebravado, he knew, might dissolve at the first alien noise. While it lasted, itwas invigorating.Thewindows were still black with night. As if the candle flame had found its ownway, Brian was standing by the ancient marimba in the main hall, the gleamslanting carelessly away from his gaunt hand. And nearby sat the Stone Age god.Itstartled him. He remembered clearly how he himself had placed it there, obeyinga half-humorous whim. The image and the singing stones were both magnificentlyolder than history, so why shouldnt they live together? Whenever hedusted the marimba, he dusted the image respectfully, and its table. It wouldnot have needed much urging from the impulses of a lonely mind to make himplace offerings before itwinking first, of course, to indicate thatrituals suitable to a pair of aging gentlemen did not have to be sensible inorder to be good.Theclay face remembering eternity was not deformed by the episode of civilization.Chipped places were simple honorable scars. The two faces stared mildly fromthe single head, uncommunicative, serene.Awooden hammer of modern make rested on the marimba. Softly Brian tapped a fewof the stones. He struck the shrillest one harder, waking many slow-dyingovertones, and laid the hammer down, listening until the last murmur perishedand a drop of wax hurt his thumb. He returned to his cave and blew out thecandle, never thinking of the door, or if he thought, not caring.Facedown, he rolled his head and clenched his fingers into his pallet, seeking inpain, finding at last the relief of stormy childish weeping in the dark.Thenhe slept.** * *They looked timid.The evidence of it was in their tense squatting pose, not in what the feeblelight allowed Brian to see of their faces, which were blank as rock. Hunkered downjust inside the doorway of the dim cloakroom cave, a morning grayness from theHall of Music behind them, they were ready for flight, and Briansintelligence warned his body to stay motionless. Readiness for flight couldalso be readiness for attack. He studied them through slit eyelids, knowing hewas in deep shadow.Theywere very young, sixteen or seventeen, firm-muscled, the boy slim but heavy inthe shoulders, the girl a fully developed woman. They were dressed alike:loincloths of some coarse dull fabric, and moccasins that were probablydeerhide. Their hair grew nearly to the shoulders and was cut off carelessly,but they were evidently in the habit of combing it. They appeared to be clean.Their complexion, so far as Brian could guess it in the meager light, wasbrown, like a heavy tan. With no immediate awareness of emotion, he decidedthey were beautiful, and then within his own poised and perilous silence Brianreminded himself that the young are always beautiful.Thewoman muttered softly: He wake.Atwitch of the mans head was probably meant to warn her to be quiet. Heclutched the shaft of a javelin with a metal blade which had once belonged to abreadknife. The blade was polished, shining, lashed to a peeled stick. Thejavelin trailed, ready for use at a flick of the young mans arm. Briansighed deliberately. Good morning.Theman, or boy, said: Good morning, sa.Wheredo you come from?Millstone.The man spoke automatically, but then his facial rigidity dissolved intoastonishment and some kind of distress. He glanced at his companion, whogiggled uneasily.Theold man pretends to not know, she said, and smiled, and seemed to bewaiting for the young mans permission to go on speaking. He did not giveit, but she continued: Sa, the old ones of Millstone are dead.She thrust her hand out and down, flat, a picture of finality, adding withnervous haste: As the Old Man knows. He who told us to call him Jonas,she who told us to call her Abigail, dead. They are still-without-moving thefull six days, then we do the burial as they told us. As the Old Man knows.ButI dont know! said Brian, and sat up on his pallet too quickly,startling them. But their motion was backward, a readying for flight. Millstone?Where is Millstone?Theylooked wholly bewildered and dismayed. They stood up with animal grace,stepping backward out of the cave, the girl whispering in the mans ear.Brian caught two words: is angry.Hejumped up. Dont go! Please dont go! He followedthem out of the cave, slowly now, aware that he might be an object of terror inthe half-dark, aware of his gaunt, graceless age, and nakedness, and dirtyhacked-off beard. Almost involuntarily he adopted something of the flat stiltedquality of their speech. I will not hurt you. Do not go.Theyhalted. The girl smiled dubiously. The man said: We need old ones. Theydie. He who told us to call him Jonas said, many days in the boat, not with thesun-path, he said, across the sun-path, he said, keeping land on the left hand.We need old ones, to speak theto speak The Old Man is angry?No.I am not angry. I am never angry. Brians mind groped, certain ofnothing. No one came, for twenty-five years.Millstone?Therewas red-gold on the dirty eastern windows of the Hall of Music, a lightbecoming softness as it slanted down, touching the long rows of cases, the warmbrown of an antique spinet, the clean gold of a twentieth century harp, thegray of singing stones five thousand years old and a two-faced god much olderthan that. Millstone. Brian pointed in inquiry, southwest.Thegirl nodded, pleased and not at all surprised that he should know, watching himnow with a squirrels stiff curiosity. Hadnt there been aMillstone River in or near Princeton, once upon a time? Brian thought heremembered that it emptied into the Raritan Canal. There was some moderatelyhigh ground there. Islands now, no doubt. Perhaps they would tell him. Therewere old people in Millstone, he said, trying for peaceful dignity, andthey died. So now you need old ones to take their place.Thegirl nodded vigorously many times. Her glance at the young man was shy,possessive, maybe amused. He who told us to call him Jonas said nomarriage without the words of Abraham.AbrBrian checked himself. If this was religion, it would not do to speak the nameAbraham with a rising inflection. I have been for a long timeHe checked himself again: A man old, ugly, and strange enoughto be sacred should never stoop to explain anything.Theywere standing by the seven-stone marimba. His hand dropped, his thumbnailclicking against the deepest stone and waking a murmur. The children drew back,alarmed. Brian smiled. Dont be afraid. He tapped the otherstones lightly. It is only music. It will not hurt vou. They werepatient and respectful, waiting for more light. He said carefully: Hewho told you to call him Jonashe taught you all the things you know?Allthings, the boy said, and the girl nodded three or four times, so thatthe soft brownness of her hair tumbled about her face, and she pushed it backin a small human motion as old as the clay image.Doyou know how old you are?Theylooked blank. Then the girl said: Ohsummers! She held upher two hands with spread fingers, then one hand. Three fives.She chuckled, and sobered quickly. As the Old Man knows.Iam very old, said Brian. I know many things, but sometimes I wishto forget, and sometimes I wish to hear what others know, even though I mayknow it myself.Theylooked uncomprehending and greatly impressed. Brian felt a smile on his faceand wondered why it should be there. They were nice children. Born ten yearsafter the death of a world; twenty, perhaps. I think I amseventy-six, but what if I dropped a decade somewhere and never noticed thedamned thing ? He who told you to call himJonashe taught you all you know of Abraham?Atthe sound of the name, both made swift circular motions, first at the forehead,then at the breast. He taught us all things, the young man said. He,and she who told us to call her Abigail. The hours to rise, to pray, to wash,to eat. The laws for hunting, and I know the Abraham-words for that: Sol-Amra,I take this for my need.Brianfelt lost again, and looked down to the clay faces of the image for counsel,and found none. They who told you to call them Jonas and Abigail, theywere the only ones who lived with you?the only old ones?Againthat look of bewilderment and disappointment. The only ones, sa,the young man said. As the Old Man knows.I could neverpersuade them that, being old, I know very nearly nothingBrianstraightened to his full great height. The young people were not tall. Thoughstiff and worn with age, Brian knew he was still overpowering. Once, among men,he had gently enjoyed being more than life-size. As a shield for loneliness andfright within, he now adopted a phony sternness. I wish to examine youfor your own good, my children, about Millstone and your knowledge of Abraham.How many others live at Millstone, tell me.Twofives, sa, said the boy promptly, and I the one who may be calledJonason and this girl who may be called Paula. Two fives and two. We are thebiggest. The others are only children, but the one who may be called Jimi haskilled his deer; he sees after them now while we go across the sun-path.UnderBrians questioning, more of the story came, haltingly, obscured by theyoung mans conviction that the Old Man already knew everything.Sometime, probably in the middle 2080s, Jonas and Abigail (whoever theywere) had come on a group of twelve wild children who were keeping alivesomehow in a ruined town where their elders had all died. Jonas and Abigail hadbrought them all to an island they called Millstone.Jonas and Abigail came originally from up across the sun-paththeboy seemed to mean northand they were very old, which might mean, Brianguessed, anything between thirty and ninety. In teaching the children primitivemeans of survival, Jonas and Abigail had brought off a brilliant success:Jonason and Paula were well-fed, shining with health and the strength ofwildness, and clean. Their speech, limited and odd though it was, had not beenlearned from the ignorant. Its pronunciation faintly suggested New England, sofar as it had any local accent. Did they teach you reading and writing?Brian asked, and made writing motions on the flat of his palm, which the twowatched in vague alarm.Theboy asked: What is that?Nevermind. I could quarrel with some of your theories,Mister-whom-They-call-Jonas. But maybe, hethought, there had been no books, no writing materials, no way to get them.Whats the minimum of technology required to keep the human spiritalive? Wellwell, tell me what they taught you of Abraham.I wish to hear how well you remember.Bothmade again the circular motion at forehead and breast, and the young man saidwith the stiffness of recitation: Abraham was the Son of Heaven who diedthat we might live. The girl, her obligation discharged with thereligious gesture, tapped the marimba shyly, fascinated, and drew her fingerback, smiling up at Brian in apology for naughtiness. He taught thelaws, the everlasting truth of all time, the boy gabbled, and wasslain on the wheel at Nuber by the infidels; therefore since he died for us, welook up across the sun-path when we pray to Abraham Brown who will come again.The boy Jonason sighed and relaxed.AbrahamBrown?ButButI knewhim. I met him. Nuber? Newburg, temporary capital of the Soviet ofoh, damnthat Met him, 2071the concert of minehe remembered The wheel? The wheel? And whendid Abraham die, boy?OhJonason moved fingers helplessly, embarrassed. Dates would be no part of thedoctrine. Long ago. Aa He glanced up hopefully. Athousand years? I thinkhe who told us to call him Jonas did not teach usthat.Isee. Never mind. You speak well, boy. Oh, my good Doctor,ex-President after all!. Artist,statesman, student of ethics, agnostic philosopherall that long lifeyou preached charity and skepticism, courage without the need of faith, the positiveuses of the suspended judgment. All so clear, simple, obviousneeding only thatlittle hit more of patience and courage which your human hearers were not readyto give. You must have known they were not, but did you know this would happen?Jonasand Abigailsome visionary pair, Brian supposed, full of this theory andthat, maybe gone a bit foolish under the horrors of those years. Unthinkingadmirers of Brown, or perhaps not even that, perhaps just brewing their ownsyncretism because they thought a religion was needed, and using Brownsnamewhy? Because it was easy to remember? They probably felt some prideof creation in the job; possibly belief even grew in their own minds as theyfound the children accepting it and building a ritual life around it.Itwas impossible, Brian thought, that Jonas and Abigail could have met the livingAbraham Brown. Brown accepted mysteries because he faced the limitations ofhuman intelligence; he had only contempt for the needless making of mysteries.He was without arrogance. No one could have talked five minutes with himwithout hearing a tranquil: I dont know.Thewheelat Nuber?but Brian realized he would never learn how Brown actuallydied. I hope you suffered no more than most prophetsHewas pulled from the pit of abstraction by the girls awed question: Whatis that?Shewas pointing to the clay image in its dusty sunlight. Brian was almost deaf tohis own words until they were past recovering: Oh, thatthat isvery old. Very old and very sacred. She nodded, round-eyed, and steppedback a pace or two. And that was all they taught you of Abraham Brown?Astonished,the boy asked: Is it not enough?There is always theProject. Why, perhapsWeknow all the prayers, Old Man.Yes,yes, Im sure you do.TheOld Man will come with us. It was not a question.Eh?Thereis always the Project Come with you?Welook for old ones. There was a new note in the young mans finefirm voice, and it was impatience. We traveled many days, up across thesun-path. We want you to speak the Abraham-words for marriage. The old onessaid we must not mate as the animals do without the words. We wantMarry,of course, Brian grumbled. Poor old Jonas and Abigail, faithfulto your century, such as it was! Brian felt tiredand confused, and rubbed a great long-fingered hand across his face so that thewords might have come out blurred and dull. Naturally, kids. Beget.Replenish the earth. Im damned tired. I dont know any specialhocus-pocusI mean, any Abraham-wordsfor marriage. Just go aheadand breed. Try againButthe Old Ones saidWait!Brian cried. Wait! Let me think Did hehe who told you tocall him Jonasdid he teach you anything about the world as it was in theold days, before you were born?BeforetheOld Man makes fun of us.No,no. Since he now had to fight down a certain physical fear as well asconfusion, Brian spoke more harshly than he intended: Answer myquestion! What do you know of the old days? I was a young man once, do youunderstand that?as young as vou. What do you know about the world Ilived in?Theyoung man laughed. There was new-born suspicion in him as well as anger,stiffening his shoulders, narrowing his innocent gray eves. There wasalways the world, he said, ever since God made it a thousandyears ago.Wasthere? I was a musician. Do you know what a musician is?Theyoung man shook his head lightly, watching Brian, too alertly, watching hishands, aware of him in a new way, no longer humble. Paula sensed the tensionand did not like it. She said worriedly, politely: We forget some of thethings they taught us, sa. They were Old Ones. Most of the days they were awayfrom us in places where we were not to go, praying. Old Ones are always prayingIwill hear this Old Man pray, said Jonason. The butt of the javelinrested against Jonasons foot, the blade swaying from side to side, awaiting snakes head. A misstep, a wrong wordany trifle, Brianknew, could make them decide he was evil and not sacred. Their religion wouldinevitably require a devil.Hethought also: Itwould merely be one of the ways of dying, not the worst.Youshall hear me make music, he said sternly, and you shall becontent with that. Come this way! In fluctuating despair, he waswondering if any good might come of anger. Come this way! You shall heara world you never knew. Naked and ugly, hestalked across the Hall of Music, not looking behind him, though he sensedevery glint of light from that bread-knife javelin. This way! heshouted. Come in here! He flung open the door of the auditoriumand strode up on the platform. Sit down! he roared at them. Sitdown over there and be quiet, be quiet!Hethought they didhe could not look at them. He knew he was mutteringbetween his noisy outbursts as he twitched the cover off the piano and raisedthe lid, muttering bits and fragments from the old times and the new: Theywent thataway Oh, Mr. Van Anda, it just simply goes right throughmeI cant express it. Madam, such was my intention, or as Brahmsis supposed to have said on a slightly different subject, any ass knowsthat Brio, Rubato, and Schmalz went to sea in aJonason, Paula,this is a pianoforte; it will not hurt you. Sit there, be quiet, and I pray youlistenHefound calm. Now, if ever, when there is living proof thathuman nature, some sort of human nature, is continuingnow if ever, the ProjectWiththe sudden authority that was natural to Andrew Carr, Andrew Carr took over. Inthe stupendous opening chords of the introduction, Brian very nearly forgot hisaudience. Not quite. The children had sat down out there in the dusty regionwhere none but ghosts had lingered for twenty-five years, but the pianosfirst sound brought them to their feet. Brian played through the first fourbars, piling the chords like mountains, then held the last one with the pedaland waved his right hand at Jonason and Paula in a furious downward motion.Hethought they understood. He thought he saw them sit down again. But he couldpay them no more attention, for the sonata was coming alive under his fingers,waking, growing, rejoicing.Hedid not forget the children. They were important, too important, terrifying atthe fringe of awareness. But he could not look toward them any more, andpresently he shut his eyes.Hehad never played like this in the flood of his prime, in the old days, beforeaudiences that loved him. Never.Hiseyes were still closed, holding him secure in a world that was not alldarkness, when he ended the first movement, paused very briefly, and moved onwith complete assurance to explore the depth and height of the second. This wastrue statement. This was Andrew Carr; he lived, even if after this late morninghe might never live again.Andnow the third, the storm and the wrath, the interludes of calm, the anger,denials, affirmationsWithouthesitation, without awareness of self, of age or pain or danger or loss, Brianwas entering on the broad reaches of the last movement when he glanced out intothe auditorium and understood the children were gone.Toobig. It had frightened them away. He could visualize them, stealing out with backwardlooks of panic, and remembering apparently to close the exit door. To them itwas incomprehensible thunder. Childrensavagesto see or hear orcomprehend the beautiful, you must first desire it. he could not think muchabout them now, when Andrew Carr was still with him. He played on with the sameassurance, the same sense of victory. Children and savages, so let them go,with leave and goodwill.Someexternal sound troubled him, something that must have begun under cover ofthese rising, pealing octave passagesstorm waves, each higher than thelast, until even the superhuman swimmer must be exhausted. It was someindefinable alien noise, a humming. Wind perhaps. Brian shook his head in irritation,not interrupting the work of his hands. It couldntmattereverything was here, in the labors his hands still had to perform.The waves were growing more quiet, subsiding, and he must play the curiousarpeggios he had never quite understoodbut for this interpretation heunderstood them. Rip them out of the piano like showers of sparks, like distantlightning moving farther and farther away across a world that could never be atrest.Thefinal section at last. Why, it was a variationand why had he never quiterecognized it?on a theme of Brahms, from the German Requiem. Quiteplain, simpleBrahms would have approved. Blessed are thedead Something more remained to be said, and Briansearched for it through the mighty unfolding of the finale. No hurrying, nocrashing impatience any more, but a moving through time without fear of time,through radiance and darkness with no fear of either. That they may restfrom their labors, and their works do follow after them.Brianstood up, swaying and out of breath. So the music was over, and the childrenwere gone, but a jangling, humming confusion was filling the Hall of Music outtherehardly a winddistant but entering with some violence evenhere, now that the piano was silent. He moved stiffly out of the smallauditorium, more or less knowing what he would find.Thenoise became immense, the unchecked overtones of the marimba fuming andquivering as the smooth, high ceiling of the Hall of Music caught them andflung them about against the answering strings of pianos and harps and violins,the sulky membranes of drums, the nervous brass of cymbals.Thegirl was playing it. Brian laughed once, softly, in the shadows, and was notheard. She had hit on a primeval rhythm natural for children or savages andneeded nothing else, banging it out on one stone and another, wanting no restor variation.Theboy was dancing, slapping his feet and pounding his chest, thrusting out hisjavelin in time to the clamor, edging up to his companion, grimacing, drawingback in order to return. Neither one was laughing, or close to laughter. Theirfaces were savage-solemn, grim with the excitement and healthy lust. All asspontaneous as the drumming of partridges. It was a long time before they sawBrian in the shadows.Reactionwas swift. The girl dropped the hammer. The boy froze, his javelin raised, thenjerked his head at Paula, who snatched at somethingonly moments laterdid Brian understand she had taken the clay image before she fled.Jonasoncovered her retreat, stepping backward, his face blank and dangerous with fear.So swiftly, so easily, by grace of great civilized music and a few wrong words,had a sacred Old One become a Bad Old One.Theywere gone, down the stairway, leaving the echo of Brians voice crying: Dontgo! Please dont go!Brianfollowed them. Unwillingly. He was slow to reach the bottom of the stairway;there he looked across the shut-in water to his raft, which they had used andleft at the windowsill port. Brian had never been a good swimmer, and would notattempt it now, but clutched the rope and hitched himself hand over hand to thewindowsill, collapsing awhile until he found strength to scramble into hiscanoe and grope for the paddle.Thechildrens canoe was already far off. Heading up the river, the boy paddlingwith deep powerful strokes. Up the river, of course. They had to find the rightkind of Old Ones. Up across the sun-path.Briandug his blade in the quiet water. For a time his rugged, ancient muscles werewilling. There was sap in them yet. Perhaps he was gaining. He shouted hugely: Bringback my two-faced god! And what about my music? You? Did you like it? Speak up!Theymust have heard his voice booming at them. At least the girl looked back, once.The boy, intent on his paddling, did not. Brian roared: Bring back mylittle god!Hewas not gaining on them. After all they had a mission. They had to find an OldOne with the right Abraham-words. Brian thought: Damn it, hasntMY worldsome rights? Well see about this!Helifted his paddle like a spear, and flung it, knowing even as his shoulderwinced with the backlash of the thrust that his action was at the outer limitof absurdity. The children were so far away that even an arrow from a bow mightnot have reached them. The paddle splashed in the water. Not far away. A smallinfinity.Itswung about, adjusting to the current, the heavy end pointing downstream,obeying the river and the ebb tide. It nuzzled companionably against agray-faced chunk of driftwood, diverting it, so that presently the chunkfloated into Brians reach. He flung it back toward the paddle, hoping itmight fall on the other side and send the paddle near him, but it fell short.In his unexpectedly-painless extremity Brian was not surprised, but merely watchedthe gray face floating and bobbing along beside him out of reach, and hisirritation became partly friendliness. The driftwood fragment suggested theface of a music critic he had once metNew Boston, was it? Denver?London?no matter.Why,he said aloud, detachedly observing the passage of his canoe beyond the broadmorning shadow of the Museum, why, I seem to have killed myself.Mr.Van Anda has abundantly demonstrated a mastery of the instrument and of theOh, go playsolfeggio on your linotype!literatureof both classic and contemporary repertory. While we cannot endorse the perhapsoveremotional quality of his Bach, and there might easily be two views of hishandling of the passage in double thirds whichIcant swim it, you know, said Brian. Not against the ebb,thats for sure.sothat on the whole one feels he has earned himself a not discreditable placeamong Gaining on the canoe, passing it, the gray-faced chip movedon benignly twittering toward the open sea, where the canoe must follow. With afinal remnant of strength Brian inched forward to the bow and gathered the fullforce of his lungs to shout up the river to the children: Go in peace!Theycould not have heard him. They were too far away, and a new morning wind wasblowing, fresh and sweet, out of the northwest.
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From Nabirugu*, one of the women in the sewing collective that is supported by your donations.
"My name is Nabirugu*. I am 21 years old. I have no father. I joined the ABFEK centre 10 months ago and today I am ready to go and start my own sewing workshop based on the skills I have [learned]. Today I am able to measure, cut fabrics and join them. I can now make dresses, skirts, a pair of shorts, pants, and blouses. Isn't this progress? I learned to use sewing equipments in this centre, before that time I had never used a pair of scissors to cut fabrics or a tape measure. I am very proud of my training in this centre. Now I have hope and confidence. I hope for success in my life. If I succeed to get my own sewing machine, I can start a small business such as making school pupils uniforms,make [outfits] from fabrics when there is a wedding ceremony, make my own clothes without paying as I was doing before. We need to start learning embroidery and then people will not be taking their fabrics to Bukavu if they need embroidery. I am very happy and I thank everyone who has donated his money to provide us with the sewing equipment we are using in this centre."
(*Names are changed to protect the identity of women in the workshops.)
Do you philanthrop? (Philanthropize? I'm always attempting to coin new verbs.) Philanthroper.com is sort of like those daily deal sites, but instead, they give you the option to do good, one dollar a day, if you choose. And today, Friday, July 22nd, they're featuring Action Kivu!
"Passing the buck" is generally not a flattering phrase, so we're re-defining it, and asking you to pass along a buck to the women and children of eastern Congo. $1. 100 pennies. You've got that to give, right? Log in at Philanthroper.com, give a buck and tell your friends. (If you missed our day and, naturally, you want to philanthropize for Action Kivu, you can always donate here. In fact, you can make it a recurring donation — 4$ / month, the cost of a latte, will send one child to school.)
Since we're volunteers here in the U.S., every bit of your donation goes to the work on the ground in the Congo. (PayPal takes a tiny percentage, as does the bank fee for wiring funds.) Here's a glimpse at where your money goes: to teach women who are victims of the ongoing conflict and violence how to sew, and embroider! Last year, with your generous donations, Amani bought an embroidery machine for the students at the Bukavu sewing collective. And just this week, Amani informed us that with the partnership and grant from the Rotary club, ABFEK bought another embroidery machine for the Mumosho sewing center. Amani's wife Amini is training the advanced students in this art; as the demand for embroidered fabric and clothing is higher, the women will be able to earn more money with this skill.
So go on. Log on to Philanthroper.com (if it's Friday, July 22nd, 2011) or anytime at Action Kivu, and pass the buck. This time it's good for your soul.
|Photos from the Bukavu Center
"I cannot wait to see this market construction complete. I have been selling clothes for about 4 years here. Every time when it rains, we have no place for shelter. During the dry season, the sun causes a serious problem. When it rains my goods are wet and nobody buys. My friend lost a basin of palm oil because of rain 3 months ago. She no longer comes here because that was the only money she had. I am very excited about this market. We have a place to shelter. Now I believe there's time for suffering and time for Hope. We thank ABFEK and their supporters. We'll be selling calmly [in peace]."
The words of just one of the many women whose lives will change because of the creation of the Mumosho Peace Market.
|The women (and a few men) of the Mumosho Peace Market at the opening ceremony.
|Opening ceremony – Mumosho Peace Market, July 2011
The first thing we discovered when we met Amani was that he's a man of many dreams with one overarching vision, to give hope and a future to the women and children of his community in eastern Congo. Then, he told us of a place that he envisioned as a "Peace Market," a safe, communal space along the border, where the Congolese and Rwandans could come together and work alongside each other towards peace and a stronger, healthier economy.
Through ABFEK's partnership with Empower Congo Women, Falling Whistles, and a generous donation from the Rotary Club of Montecito*, Amani's dream of a Peace Market in Mumosho has become a reality. Last weekend, he witnessed his vision become literally solidified, as the community that supports the project traced their names into wet concrete, to mark the spot and space where hope can grow.
We're so excited to witness the changes that are growing out of Amani's visions. From the following email and the abundance of exclamation marks, he's pretty excited as well:
"The Market project is gradually being completed!!! We opened it last Saturday but we still need to do latrines and stalls inside. So many people came to attend!!! Children are also very happy,they told us a market was a real need in the community. After the opening ceremony,we asked people and the organizations who donated and who want to donate to sign in the concrete, and the reason why you'll see AK (Action Kivu) on the banners and in the concrete is because you have been supporting ABFEK and they implemented the project!!!! This project is so important that it will help the women in our sewing centres to sell the fabrics they make. The plans are: while school children are on vacation, the women in the sewing centres have to make school uniforms for the kids and will sell some in this market!!!"
To all of you who support Amani, the women and children in eastern Congo via Action Kivu in spirit and generous funds, thank you. YOU ARE making a difference.
|Peace Market under construction – supervised by Mark of the Montecito Rotary Club, an engineer who oversaw the project.
(*Read more about the Peace Market and the other generous Rotary Club donors including Santa Maria Rotary, D.5240, Korea D.3270, and Rotary Club of Wakefield RI, as well as private donors at Empower Congo Women.)
It's official – Action Kivu / ABFEK has an intern, on the ground, volunteering to assist Amani in all the work, change and growth that he's creating in eastern Congo.
A big welcome to Miriam, who arrived via Rwanda (and Nepal, and a short rest in Germany) just this week, to unexpected rain, open arms, hearts and hope from Amani, his family, and all women and children in the community they work with!
|Miriam in the DRC (in purple pants, 3rd from left) with Amani (blue hat, 2nd from right)
In Miriam's own words:
"I'm 27 years old, from Germany. I'll stay in Bukavu from June to December 2011 to work with Action Kivu.
"The fight for women's equality and against gender-based violence has always been a passion of mine, and this is what brought me here. I was part of the staff of the international NGO Women Against Violence Europe for two years when I decided to explore feminist work on a grassroots level. During the research for my final exam for my master's degree in media science I came across the war journalist Kevin Sites. It was through his reports that I became aware of Action Kivu. I had already read about women's situation in Eastern DR Congo so when I learned about Action Kivu I knew I had to get in touch with them.
"Before my stay in DR Congo I spent half a year in Nepal to learn about the situation women are facing there.
"I refuse to let frustration and resignation take over in the face of the overwhelming plight of Congolese women. Instead I would like to learn from the Congolese people and try to support them, one by one and face to face. "
We're thrilled to welcome Miriam, thankful for her giving spirit and adventurous, open heart, and excited to see, through her eyes, camera, and experience, the challenges facing the people of eastern Congo and the changes being made.


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7 December 2012
The government is to introduce legislation to allow REITs to invest in each other without incurring tax, as tipped by Property Week (23.11.12).
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04326136 is referenced by 8 patents and cites 2 patents.
A threshold arrangement includes two complementary transistors whose channels are situated in series between two supply terminals. In order to obtain a substantially square-wave relationship between the output voltage on the common drain electrodes and the input voltage on the interconnected gate electrodes, a direct voltage source is included between the two gate electrodes, which source has a voltage which is preferable substantially equal to the supply voltage minus the sum of the threshold voltages of the two complementary transistors.