Interview by: Steph Engert, Starlight Dragon Press

What made you decide to design your own Tarot deck?

The idea first found me in a quite mixed period of my life. I could not find my place in the world, or with my arts in the art scene, I was not fitting anywhere- I did not find the place and right thing to give and the feedbacks were reflecting this unmatched connection. Thanks god, I was still very sure I have a lot to do with my pictures and have a lot to say about them, to share my ideas behind them and something universal as well. After Christmas evening, while we had a rest in my hometown with Matthias (whom I consider the 'father' of The Gypsy Palace Tarot) asked why am I not designing a Tarot deck from them, if I have such an interest in tarot too? True, I loved reading the cards and I knew enough of them to face this challenge, but it never came to my mind before to match these. But what really made me decide to start on this way was that very sure feeling, coming from deep inside- I meant to do it. These were my exact words- let's do it, this is the right thing to do. We had no idea how will it work out, we never had experience in creating an oracle, and basically a product, but we agreed to put all our energies in this project.

What was your very first idea about it?

The very first idea was simply to create an artistic deck from my artworks. The idea grew on me, I immediately started to connect my pictures to one or another card and I was very glad to see they were fitting! Of course in the final version does not contain any of these pictures, that was just the first fire... but I drew new ones, so much better ones and after months of intuitive creation, I realized, they are very special and hold so much more than just eye-catchy illustrations.

There are strong influences of Gypsy, and more generally folk culture influences, Eastern European and particularly Hungarian, but also Asian, Indian spiritual traditions – what do these different strands mean to you?

Well, I wish I could give You a more regular answer than this: because that makes me feel home, makes me inspired, enchants me. This is where I am authentic, true. In some remains Hungarian folk influences are present in my deck, but I would never say that it is typically Hungarian, because it is absolutely not. I was never in Asia, India and I am not even gypsy. What is more, I did not even study arts. Of course, I always had interest in these things and I love to dive deep these areas, still, I believe some of these impressions are possibly coming from deeper than the experiences of my 24 years... unconscious, intuition, inheritance? Maybe the answer is very simple, but it is still a mystery for me.

The idea of nomadism, of traveling, of being on the road – physically figuratively, socially and spiritually  - seems to me the metaphor guiding your deck . Can you expand on that, please, i.e.  explain the title Gypsy Palace (which is an intriguing contradiction truly triggering the imagination!) and what being on the road “in all four worlds” means to you and the Gypsy Palace?

The metaphor of traveling is very important to embrace the idea of the deck. But to make the idea complete, we will need to use another metaphor: Home. Traveling and home? A traveling home! The Gypsy Palace. When You travel, everything is constantly changing around You, the need will appear to have a centre, a base, a home. And I am not talking about something physical... Your house can be your body, but your home is your spirit! We are all traveling homes, traveling spirits experiencing, sharing this life with each other.

My spirit could be a Gypsy Palace, that is what I experience, what I can share, where I can invite You- and my art is the manifestation of this spirit. My spirituality is my home and my home is a palace... and most of all, being present in the moment is the most important substance of finding your home!

Being on the road, meeting between caravans and horses around a fire and the starry sky, immediately conjures up story-telling and the exchange of stories. Tarot cards are very good at story telling through multivalent symbols and layers of meanings. The Gypsy Palace is particularly strong in telling stories, some of the cards seem to ‘burst out’ with the amount of stories told in your pictures (for example the Devil card, on which you pointed to the variety of pictures and stories in another interview) . Would you care to choose another card and point us to its stories?

There are a lot of ways to share our story. It can be through art or verbal communication, or even with the blessing or translation of an oracle. Actually, when it comes to story telling, I love to entertain children with a just-made-up story together with my pictures (and I encourage everybody to do so and use the cards freely). I am so curious what they see on a picture, and they always bring spontaneously new twist to it ... I try to reach this sensitive layer in adults as well, the one which makes the imagination borderless and the trust to maximum. Adults maybe rather tell their stories through Tarot, which keeps them creative and present. I have my stories for each of the cards and the wonder is that you will also find yours if you are open to communicate with them.

The card of The Death for example has deep wisdom to our society, it is important to understand the message here – though life and death are the most natural things the man of nowadays and ancient cultures had a very different view on this issue. I believe we keep an unnatural and scaring distance with everything what is dead, what reminds us about our worlds evanescence. In my image you can separate The Death's image vertically to three parts, but notice that these parts are connected to each other. The upper part shows a human being, with a suffering, sad expression on her face, waving with her hand- and the lowest part shows a man from behind, lying, holding up his hand in a waving goodbye expression as well. Between these parts a black cat is positioned, also holding up the paw and tail in the same way plus a human face in an orange triangle.

The cat has a huge role in this picture, as usually animals in my pictures, she is a translator, here between the happenings of the two parts. You may already found out, that the upper part is alive and the lower part is not- at least not in the same meaning. The lady's hand shows five fingers, the passing persons like four and a half fingers and finally the cats shows four fingers. As I talked about it in my article of The Magician, five is the number of creation, to create something from four to a higher level is five, to connect the four elements or to connect the four corners of a square. But here the process is the other way around- five will reduce to four, it turns back to its elements. It is returning to what it was created from, the stripes of red, oranges and green show the disintegration's direction, down to the earth.

But as our cat here has something like a ladder between her tail and neck, you will see that although the material returns to the soil, but the soul, the spirit transforms to something higher in another direction- to the orange face, which is actually a sail and the cat is the ship.

If you pay attention to the dead person's mouth, you will find out wonderful realizations. The mouth is the door, the entrance of a human being. The disintegrating creature has no face anymore, only a mouth remains, which melts into the darkness. This open door is only leading to the ground, the soil. But his soul, which is represented on the orange sail has a face and the mouth, his mouth, the souls entrance is melting together with the cat, the guide of the eternal soul. This entrance leads to another world, another dimension, where the cat is heading to. This ship is the symbol of traveling, going to a journey, what every soul does time after time, from one body to another.

But look at his hand, it still leaves seeds, tears or blessings behind- this is what he can leave behind in the upper world. Death is something material, but I intend to show this transitional period as well, which leads to eternity.

Can you please expand on the meanings of the colours you use: In other interviews and in a text which you wrote on the Magician, you explained your meanings for some of the colours you use.  Can you expand on that and especially your attributions of colours to the elements?

You might experienced that every colour is very attached to the others in a way that every combination carries something new meaning, impression. Even if one colour would carry just one meaning, their meaning would change immediately when another one accompanies it- the same as Tarot cards. Each of them have different meanings in different levels and it also depends on the context!

But I would love to give here a brief introduction, mainly based on very simple nature observations. Blue is the colour of the sky and also of the sea. In other words air and water and even further it will become intellect, mind and transcendence, emotions. Blue can calm you down or can even make you depressed, truly inspires your imagination, definitely spiritual. But we can look at blue as the opposite of red- red, the colour of fire, blood, libido, burning life energy. It can symbolize birth and death, passion and danger, but mostly connected to materialistic issues. Two opposites, what indicate purple, the balancing colour of wisdom between them. Green is also a beautiful expression of balance, the colour of nature, harmony and wild-life. It is the mixture of blue and yellow- and yellow is the colour of sun, light, gold. We can also frame it like yellow stands for god, highness and respected, warm power. Let's add red to it and we can close the circle with the colour of creation and enthusiastic energy, where passion and the bless of god meets: orange.

I am very intrigued by your depiction of the elements in the Aces. They really convey the idea of being the root, the seeds of the elements. They remind me of the traditional conception of the ‘elementals’ such as undines, sylphides and yet they express an entirely bold, new different ‘take’ in these figures which are abstract and concrete at the same time.

The Aces express the pure, elemental energy of the suits, they are almost like ancient sculptures- with their colour, their movement, their character and even with their hair. I actually use the symbol of the hair a lot in this deck, as they are a lot of female characters represented. Their nudity here stand for the purity, not for provocation. It is just a little reminder of that wonderfully common, still hidden, but obvious fact, that under our clothes we are all naturally naked.

If you look at the Ace of Wands you will notice she is like an explosion- her feet doesn't reach the ground, she is in move, in action! As her expression shows, she is excited, surprised, her hair is twisting and floating in the air, says freedom and passion. Her left hand mirrors the hairs movement, every part of her body is moving to a different direction.

Not like the Ace of Swords! Her hair is hidden under the bright turban, which guides your attention to her head. There is no need for temptation here- the intellect dominates. Her eyes are focusing at something far away, what a philosophic lady, her blue skin is holy- but cold at the same time. She stands on tiptoes, with a spiky connection of shadow to the ground, in her strange, but very conscious balance. And surprisingly she has two left hands, one is pointing to her throat, referring to verbal communication and makes the point of insisting with her fist's powerful movement to the knee.

The Ace of Cups is not alone (you may noticed this duality on the court cards too), the cups for me are somehow suggesting the union of two things. She is upside down- and why not? Her hair are the cups, where the young man is drinking from, both eyes dreamingly closed- their experiences here are beyond vision!

And Ace of Pentacles with her dark purple skin, shiny eyes, golden jewelery is shown closest to us- she is not floating, she is already rooted, the green life is going beyond her borders, it is growing, it is alive. Her hair is like a rainbow, expressing her fertility.

 In my earlier view of your deck, I pointed to the inner contrast beween your exuberant, lively colours and an underlying melancholy or tragic trait, for example in Fool or the World and I interpreted this an expression of wholeness. Would you please comment on this idea?

In The Gypsy Palace I celebrate the beauty by showing the weary side of the things, as something what makes them even more precious. This is what you see for example by the missing teeth of The Fool and the half closed eyes of The World or on the painful expression on The Death card. They've been through a lot, they are experienced and life can be rough on you sometimes.

The idea of traveling has a let's say tragical or melancholic side as well, because as things always change around you, you will experience to let go and to loose. You have to let go every unrepeatable moment for something unknown. Even when the loss of something is cleaning up the space for something new, and even if this makes the world complete, leaving things behind on purpose or unwillingly, this can hurt- and it is important to be aware of it and embrace it.

We may loose things on the way physically, but we will be always richer by an experience. And that experience will make you even more complete.

Some of the traditionally very highly regarded, let us say ‘holy’ cards are very down-to-earth in your deck, in an ‘inoffensively disrespectful’ manner. The High Priestess, for example, looks like a moody girl making the point of her displeasure, the Emperor and the Hierophant look like guys you might meet in the street. What made you do so?

I really like this expression: 'inoffensively disrespectful'... they are a bit provocative, aren`t they? Here is what I miss about holy things: that they don't let you to touch them! But these characters somehow provoke you to touch them, to connect to them. They are gods dressed in human costumes, they act and behave like this to reach you, to fool you and to teach something new by showing holy ideas can take shape in unexpected forms... they are not afraid to go beyond the surface of traditions and to play, get a bit dirty! Anyways, I sometimes feel they have their own rules in The Gypsy Palace, they are already their own masters there.

Animals, particularly horses are prominent in your deck. But there are also cats and the Über-animal dragons. What do these animals mean to you, say the blue horses in various cards the red horses in the Star, the dragons in the Chariot...

Yes, animals of every kind are very frequent on the cards. Horses, cats, foxes, birds and fish, frogs, snakes and even an alligator! Animals carry so much attributions and qualities that they truly add to the deck. But I somehow see them as translators between humans and … always something else.

Horses are prominent in traveling, they are powerful, cooperative souls who serve us by transportation, carrying us. Traveling with them must be the real feeling of partnership, as your 'vehicle' is alive it requires sharing and caring, to experience tiredness, hunger, freedom together in a silent way of communication. And when I picture them for example blue, this will add some 'blue attributions' to them- a reliable, cooperative, strong partner, who carries you on your spiritual journey.

Birds have great importance as well, they are the connection between earth and sky, between human and god, they are the symbols of soul and freedom. Flying is their privilege, they can enjoy the view from the clouds- that's what they mean in my art. And still, the peacock ,the owl, the chicken or the golden oriole- they are all translators of something different, but based on these qualities. As the horse rides horizontally, birds fly vertically.

Fish- the creatures of water, which introduces another type of moving: swimming, going with the flow. Water represents the unconscious, knowledge and to deepen things. Fish are also the ancient symbols of fertility- and squama as a pattern also appears on many cards, referring to them.

And dragons... for me they are the mixture of every animal, yes, like an über animal, a super animal with the plus extract of gods wisdom and immortality. This gives the strength to the card of The Chariot.

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The second Kent tournament of the year was held at the all new location of Hop Farm. At first inspection, which admittedly took place at 9.30pm in the dark, it seemed to consist of a great deal of dirt tracks and a huge number of Hillman Imps! However, the next morning as the darkness and the mist lifted it became clear that there was actually grass around and two polocrosse pitches all ready for play. They did still bear some scars from the recent war that had been fought on them and the tanks had compressed the ground to a fairly solid state but they were level and seemed to bounce pretty well all weekend.

Hillman Imp

A Hillman imp, not to be confused with a different type of Imp that is more closely related to the Sprite we featured last week!

The weekend started with the great tail plaiting scandal, with Jason Webb threatening everyone who failed to plait their tails with various threats, ranging from stopping them playing to awarding a goal against their team. He did explain that he simply wanted everything to be smart as there were going to be lots of people around Hop Farm that weekend for the Kent sports weekend and also TV crews, and he did also personally plait up a couple of people’s tails when they were unable to do it themselves. More worrying than any amount of tail plaiting was the umpire’s exam that took place on the Saturday night, with people needing to pass before Nationals. A number of people failed and now their Nationals entry hangs in the balance.

The weather was good, except for a few showers during the A and C grade finals and the Saturday night entertainment consisted of two very contrasting activities. Firstly, there was a large party, with all the other people who were on the Hop Farm that weekend (including the Hillman Imp Owners Club), where Oli Harwood apparently did some very suspect dancing. Secondly, there was a very relaxed bonfire, built due to the hard work of Tom Beney and Todd Weston, where people sat, drunk and chatted till the early hours.

Special Awards:

Best Coach: Kerry Bean, for her brilliant work with solent this season

Pony of the Tournament: Katie Newbrook’s Peppy, both pony and rider did a brilliant job playing against far larger opposition all weekend.

New Player Award: George Harding & Harry Gibson, for a very well played first tournament

A Grade

For the first time this season Kent were defeated, as the Welsh Dragons overcame them by two goals in the final, and on home ground it must have hurt Kent even more. Admittedly, the A grade was only played in sections, not teams, and this might have helped the Dragons, as Kent were not fielding their strongest sections. Nothing can be taken away from the Dragons though, who played brilliantly and deservedly picked up all three best number spots. Lizzie Wright-Roberts beat Jason Webb out the back on many occasions, Simon Shearing always looked cool and confident in front of goal and Debbie Harris (recently acquired from Pendle by the Welsh) did her job well in midfield, hunting ball and picking up the pieces when plays broke up. Kent fought hard but it ran away from them in the last chukka, which started at six all.

1st) Welsh Dragons
2nd) Kent Target

Best Numbers (all Welsh):

1) Simon Shearing
2) Debbie Harris
3) Lizzie Wright-Roberts

Champion Player & Horse: Lizzie Wright-Roberts & L’Oreal

C Grade (that is not a mistake, there was no B grade)

The C grade was won by a Western Phoenix section (well, it was called Mix and Match but as it consisted of 67% Phoenix players and played in Phoenix shirts it is fairly safe to call it Western Phoenix). They defeated another Kent side in the final and looked comfortable from the first line up. They also managed the triple of best number spots and again they were highly deserved. Nick Foley continues to hone his skills at number one, and the same can be said of Alice Humphrey playing in the number two spot behind him. Alex Edwards, borrowed from Pendle for the weekend, put in a great performance and Western Phoenix are now left with the problem of how they fill that spot for Nationals as Pendle are very unlikely to release their player then.

1st) Western Phoenix
2nd) Kent Target

Best Numbers (all W.P):

1) Nick Foley
2) Alice Humphrey
3) Alex Edwards

Best Horse: Pinchinta (Alex Edwards)

D Grade

The D grade afforded a victory for the home team (at last). Kent beat a hard working Solent team in the final. Both teams had played well all weekend but when it came to the final Kent proved themselves to be the greater force. The two Ben’s of Kent, Marsh and Jefferies, had a good weekend, as did Tania Turner, who picked up best number three. For Solent, Jess Fagot deservedly picked up best number one.

1st) Kent Target
2nd) Solent

Best Numbers:

1) Jess Fagot (Solent)
2) Ben Marsh (Kent)
3) Tania Turner (Kent)

Best Horse: Lola (Jess Fagot)


Monthly Archives: April 2018

More connections

What does Aristotle say?

I really don’t know. For some time, I’ve been avoiding looking closely at the origins of logic, and specifically modal logic, in the writings of Aristotle. I’ve run out of excuses and I finally downloaded a copy of Aristotle’s “Categories” (E.M. Edgehill’s translation, from the Gutenberg project), to start looking it over. I will have a little more to say on this when I’ve studied more of it.

One of my ongoing projects has to do with writing what I call historical fantasy. I finally broke down and connected two areas of particular changes and movements; namely stone age developments and the agricultural revolution, all the way back to their origins in the Knoweldge Base. This should allow me to do more with those subjects.

What’s so revolutionary?

This is a continuation of a series of posts on three-valued logic which began with “The learned professors”

There are about seven reasons this work is revolutionary.

1) First, it is a full-featured extension of classical logic into the realm of the uncertain. The arithmetic of the integers is an extension of the ordinary arithmetic of whole numbers into the negative, and the arithmetic of common factions is an extension of ordinary arithmetic into the realm of parts of objects. Both are fully compatible and include the whole numbers as a special case. In a similar fashion, all the laws of classical two-valued logic remain true in the two-valued case, but some of them must be modified in the three valued case.

2) It is truth functional and the same methods of truth truth tables and algebraic manipulation apply in this logic as in two valued logic. It follows the associative, commutative, distributive, identity, annihilator, idempotent, double negation, and De Morgan laws of Boolean algebra but does not follow the complementation laws x & ~x= F and x ∨ ~x = T. This is called a De Morgan algebra.

3) It is a truth functional system of modal logic. It differs from the Lewis systems S1-S5, because it uses a different version of the strict conditional, and because it does not include the law of the excluded middle. However, theorems of L3M that are parallel to the axioms of S5 can be formulated, therefore anything that can be proven in S5 can be proven with this logic. It has been established that S5 itself cannot be reduced to 3 values, but this is a narrow result and can probably be traced to the difference in conditionals.
It can also be established that that if the strict material conditional []( P =) Q) holds, then so does the strict Lukasewicz conditional [](P -> Q), but not conversely.

4) It is a truth functional version of intuitionism. In similar fashion to modal logic, if all the axioms of intuitionism are replaced using the strong negation ~<>P instead of the ordinary negation, and using the strict Lukasewicze conditional instead of the ordinary material conditional, the resulting axioms are theorems of this system. Therefore, anything that can be proven using these axioms is also true in this systems.

5) It clarifies long-standing controversies in logic, notably the meaning of the conditional and its relation with concepts of implication and entailment, and doubts about the universal validity of modus ponens. Along with fuzzy logic, it offers a resolution to the Sorites paradox. It addresses some of the same concerns as relevance logic. The Lukasiewicz conditional can be defined as (~Q \/ P \/ P==Q), if P== Q has been defined as P and Q having the same truth value.

6) It is connected to Fuzzy logic. It has some of the same features, although this logic includes all the values between T and F in the one value U, where Fuzzy logic gives each truth value a distinct number.

7) It shares features with paraconsistent logic. (P & ~P) => Q is not a tautology, so it is not explosive, and is not sufficient to prove any other proposition at all. However, this logic does include methods of indirect proof, which work by establishing contradictions. It is simply necessary to establish a contradiction and not merely a contrary. Expressions such as (p & ~<>P) “true and impossible”, ([]p & ~P) “certain and false”, ([]p & ~[]P) “certain and not certain”, (<>P & ~<>P) “possible and impossible”, and ([]P & ~<> P) “certain and impossible” all work.

This is a continuation of a series of posts on three-valued logic which began with “The Learned Professors”

The strict Lukasiewicz conditional, unlike the ordinary material condition, the strict Lewis conditional, or the ordinary Lukasiewicz conditional, meets the condition for an ordering relation: It is symmetric (A => A), antisymmetric (A => B & B=> A if and only if A = B), and transitive (if A => B and B => C, then A => C). It also satisfies the requirements for a desirable logical entailment relation: if A => B is true, B is not less true than A.

In classical two-valued logic, the notion of logical equivalence is expressed by the biconditional; “if A then B, and if B then A”, or “A if and only if B”. Because of the simplicity of 2-valued logic, this also expresses the happy property of being truth functional, that is, it is possible to evaluate a logical expression algebraically, by plugging in truth values for the variables and evaluating the expressions to determine whether they are true or false. This also expresses the notion that if two expressions are logically equivalent, they have the same truth value. The laws of logic are tautologies, that is, they are expressions that are always true, whatever truth values are substituted for the logical variables. This also a mathematical equivalence, because it is reflexive, (A = A), Symmetric (if A = B then B = A, and transitive (if A = B and B = C, then A = C).

This becomes more difficult in three valued logic. Most of the “logical equivalences” used in three valued logic are biconditionals, but not mathematical equivalences, and do not reflect the notion that two expressions have the same truth value. This is particularly obnoxious with the Lukasiewicz biconditional.
<-> P
* T U F
* T T U F
* F F U T

However, it is simple enough to apply the “Definite” operator, [](P <-> Q) to define a new strict Lukasiewicz biconditional
<=> P
* T U F
* T T F F
* F F F T

This does have the same desirable properties of being both a logical equivalence and a mathematical equivalence.
It’s simple enough, but it hasn’t been done and does not appear in the standard references or surveys of multi-valued logic. Kleene’s 3-valued logic does have this equivalence, but it uses the standard definition of the conditional P -> Q = (~P \/ Q), which doesn’t work in three values.

Next, I will discuss some of the more revolutionary consequences and implications of this logic.


If we sneak along the less obvious alleys of technology we may find something that surprisingly shades the rational mind. That inherent in scientific progress and grandiose technological development, steam as well as positron, lays myth, magic and mysticism. Not as traces of superstition or half-remembered religious rules of moral conduct, but embedded deeply in the flesh of steel, plastic and atomism; an inseparable marriage of human thought. This is not a crack in the system. Neither is it shards to be collected and discarded. It is a reminder that there is no rational thoughts without feelings and no feelings without some rationality. In other words, we can take a step further and propose; there is no science without a little faith. To pose the opposite would be to deny that which makes us human. But being so, as an ironic twist, also makes us more susceptible to dogmatic systems when confronted by the complexity of an ideologic terrain. But there are maps indicating where the monsters dwell. Crystal clearly devised by scholars such as Erik Davis and Mary Midgley and more murkier ones, usually by artists. This is not an indication of quality but rather in its creators ability to travel within the contemporary symbolic universe and utterly immerse in its murky depths...and in some cases lose all traces of objectivity.

Down the more murkier roads we may find contemporary artist Carl-Erik Engqvist, where you now find yourself. Appropriating the role of a scientific preacher or a corporate shaman Engqvist engages himself with investigations concerning the potential of virtual realities, bio-, nano- and robot technology. Combining his background of theology with artistic ideas revolving around technological development, corporate structures and scientific breakthroughs Engqvist tries to create hybrids and symbiotic states that represents contemporary and future uses of the concept of the sacred but also the spiritual realm in itself. A pluralistic concept of reality demands a flexibility of mind, medium and body. Much like a free roaming RPG in the style of Eldar Scrolls, where the character defines and develops itself through a series of choices inherent in the freedom of gameplay(leveling up being just as easy when collecting herbs as in banging in bandits heads), an artistic praxis may sidestep the line of established methods in its actual function as an artist. Interesting results are in any way not a guarantee, so the choice matters only in making one.

Currently Engqvist is working as an Artistic Director at HUMlab, an interdisciplinary digital humanities laboratory placed in Umeå, in the north of Sweden, where he has been based since 2009, when he graduated from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts. In the context of the lab Engqvist has been offered a diversity of perspectives of the digital as well as a wide range of different collaborations with technicians and academia alike.


Scientific advice

Scientific advice helps us ensure we are pursuing the highest quality science, and basing our decisions and actions on firmly-based evidence.

Why use advice?

For government policies to be effective, it is essential that we base them on what works. Scientific advice provides us with clear evidence to help us weigh up the risks and benefits of a course of action.

Who provides that advice?

Our scientific advice comes from many sources:

  • almost every government department has a Chief Scientific Advisor (usually an academic from outside the civil service) who provides independent advice to the Minister and management board
  • many departments also have specialist scientists and engineers working directly for them. For example, the Home Office Scientific Development Branch provides technical science advice for the Home Office. Social and Behavioural science for the department comes from the Research, Development and Statistics group and economic advice is provided by the Economic and Research Analysis group
  • we make full use of these specialists in the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), as well as seeking advice from other government departments whose work impacts on counter-terrorism. This includes the Department of Transport, the Department of Health and the Ministry of Defence
  • OSCT accesses the cutting edge of UK research by seeking scientific and technical advice from experts in universities, other research bodies and industry

How does advice feed into policy?

Policy-makers in government get ‘for and against’ advice on action they are considering from many sources. This can include scientific evidence, information on public opinion and analyses of what has been done internationally. They take all of this into account in order to create the most effective policy.

How does advice feed into operations?

If technical innovations are needed to turn policy into action, or there is a choice of commercial systems available, we seek advice. This may involve testing or developing new equipment within government.

How is scientific advice quality assured?

The government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) is responsible to the Prime Minister for the quality of scientific advice within government.

The GCSA's advice is independent and he or she is supported in his work by staff in the government Office for Science.

Each departmental CSA ensures that scientific advice is robust by encouraging peer review and continued professional development among government scientists.

We also use Scientific Advisory Councils to provide independent, expert and strategic advice on the science underpinning specific policies.

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Egypt, Saudi Arabia discuss launching a “major military manoeuvre” against Yemen.

Egypt said it and Saudi Arabia had discussed holding a “major military manoeuvre” in Saudi Arabia with other Gulf states, following talks on the progress of the three-week-old Saudi-led campaign of air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

The statement from the Egyptian presidency appeared to be a sign that members of the Sunni Arab coalition attacking the Houthis may carry through on threats to eventually follow their air campaign with a ground intervention or at least have a show of force next door.

Arab states have been bombing the Houthis in support of militias resisting an advance by the group and army units loyal to ousted former president Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The conflict, though rooted in local rivalries, has become a proxy battlefield for Sunni-ruled Saudi and mainly Shi’ite Iran, the main regional powers.The UN resolution also demanded the Houthis stop fighting and withdraw from areas they have seized, including the capital Sanaa.

Iran meanwhile prepared to submit a four-point peace plan for Yemen to the United Nations on Wednesday, state media said.Tehran’s proposal includes a call for an end to Saudi-led air strikes against the Houthis and is likely to anger Riyadh, which accuses Iran of meddling in the affairs of its southern neighbour.

The Security Council on Tuesday imposed a global asset freeze and travel ban on Ahmed Saleh, the former head of Yemen’s Republican Guard, and on Abdulmalik Al Houthi, a Houthi leader.Saleh’s father, former president Saleh, and two other senior Houthi leaders, Abd Al Khaliq Al Huthi and Abdullah Yahya Al Hakim, had been blacklisted by the Security Council in November.

The Security Council also expressed concern at what it called “destabilizing actions” taken by former President Saleh, including supporting the Houthis.The elder Saleh, who was forced to step down in 2012, is widely seen as having a behind-the scenes role in the conflict in league with the Houthis.

The resolution imposed an arms embargo on the five men and “those acting on their behalf or at their direction in Yemen” – effectively the Houthis and soldiers loyal to Saleh who are fighting alongside the Houthis.A statement from the Houthi leadership condemned the resolution, which it said supported “aggression”.

The council voted 14 in favor, while Russia abstained, saying some of its proposals for the resolution drafted by council member Jordan and Gulf Arab states were not included.”The co-sponsors refused to include the requirements insisted upon by Russia addressed to all sides to the conflict to swiftly halt fire and to begin peace talks,” Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after the vote.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking in Madrid earlier on Tuesday, said Tehran’s peace initiative involved a ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, a dialogue between Yemeni factions and a broad-based government.

“This issue should be resolved by the Yemenis. Iran and Saudi Arabia need to talk but we cannot talk to determine the future of Yemen,” he told a news conference.

The Houthis, northern-based Shi’ite Muslims, seized control of Sanaa in September, confining Hadi to his presidential residence. He fled to Aden in February then escaped to Riyadh last month as Houthi forces closed in on the city.

Riyadh says it is protecting Hadi and his government-in-exile from the Houthis. But as the world’ largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia is also unhappy at the prospect of protracted upheaval in its southern neighbour.

Nearby shipping lanes and the narrow Bab El Mandeb passage, through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily to Europe, the United States and Asia, could also be at risk from the fighting.

Al Qaeda, which has staged suicide bombings against the Houthis, also poses a threat to Yemen’s stability. The United States has poured aid and personnel into the country in recent years as part of its war on Islamist militants, but its military teams evacuated last month amid the worsening civil war.

Al Qaeda in Yemen announced on Tuesday that its spiritual leader was killed by a US air strike, according to a statement distributed by the group online.Ibrahim al-Rubaish was a Saudi national released from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in 2006.

His death may be a sign that a covert US drone programme against Yemen’s branch of the global militant group continues despite the American military withdrawal.

After prolonged street fighting in the southern city of Aden, Houthi fighters withdrew on Tuesday from Aden’s Khor Maksar district, where the international airport and foreign missions are located.

Via : AFP

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Subtropical rain forests - ecosystem, Biology

Subtropical rain forests - Ecosystem

In regions of fairly high rainfall but less temperature differences between winter and summer and broad-leaved evergreen subtropical biome is found. The vegetation includes mahogany, gumbo limbo, bays, palms, oaks, magnolias, tamarind, all laden with epiphytes (if pineapple and orchid families), ferns, vines and strangler fig (Ficus, aureus). Animal life of subtropical forest is very similar to that of tropical rainforests.

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Salsa is a popular form of social dance that originated in the Caribbean. The movements of salsa have origins in Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Cuban Soncha-cha-chamambo and other dance forms. The dance, along with the salsa music, originated in the mid-1970s in New York. Different regions of Latin America and the United States have distinct salsa styles of their own, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican, Cali Colombia, L.A. and New York styles. Salsa dance socials are commonly held in night clubs, bars, ballrooms, restaurants, and outside, especially if part of an outdoor festival.

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Choose a trusted car rental company

Choose a trusted car rental company
Choose a trusted car rental company

Christmas and New Year’s holidays have arrived. This is a good time to have a family vacation. If you are planning a vacation by using a rental car, there are a number of things to watch out for:

  1. As soon as possible order a rental car

If you already have a vacation plan, if it is possible, better as soon as possible to sewa mobil di malang. For reservations of vehicles from afar more guarantee more car stock and you can choose a car that condition is good.

  1. Choose a trusted car rental company

Find information about car rental places from trusted acquaintances or associations. That way, you can know much about the experience of others in using responsible vehicle rental services and provide the best service.

With more time to spare, you can compare several car rental service companies based on the choice of vehicles, rental rates, budget, and family needs.

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It is better looking for rental cars that are covered by insurance to keep families comfortable and protected during the trip. Find out also how much insurance responsibility that protects the car.

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There should be no passengers on the long journey. Do not also have luggage placed on the vehicle because of small luggage capacity. Placement of goods on the car is very dangerous.

  1. Check the condition of the car and the administrative readiness of the car

In addition to checking the physical condition of the car before the day of H, you should also check the vehicle administration issues such as validity of vehicle registration and lease agreement clause. Pay attention to details of defects or defects of existing cars before the car is rented.

  1. Use the services provided by the driver of the company

If there are more funds, use the services of a rented driver provided by the company to travel more comfortable. Pay attention to the health and safety of all passengers, including the driver while driving a rental car.

6 Tips to Reduce Stress of Traffic Jams

Traffic jams are often a problem in human life in big cities, and are often referred to as one of the causes of stress. But is there really no way to overcome that? Before we discuss the problem, it’s good if we know a little about the mechanism of the mind.

Basically, the human mind is easier to bring negative thoughts than positive thoughts. Negative thoughts will come out of nowhere in the face of certain situations. While positive thoughts must be raised intentionally. But do not worry, according to some theories, positive thoughts are much stronger than negative ones. So the first thing to do in the face of a stress is to think consciously. Well, now we will discuss about things we can do to cope with stress in congestion. To remember is that all of these things must be done consciously.

1. Prepare your body condition
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2. Filter the information that goes into your mind
Currently, for those of you who use cars, almost all are equipped with audio devices. Motorcyclists and users of public transport also often use gadgets as an entertainment tool when facing congestion. This method is powerful enough to reduce stress levels in the face of congestion. However it should be used appropriately. Avoid heavy information, e.g. news about wars, robberies, etc. We recommend listening to music that is easy listening. The volume of the sound must also be arranged, not too hard, because instinctively human “fear” will sound loud, so if the music is refreshing too hard the body will consider it as a threat and give the same reaction as when we are stressed.

3. Re-framing
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4. Self Talk
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5. Breathe consciously
When facing congestion, you can also perform breathing techniques. The way to breathe consciously, then intend every time you draw your breath pull pure oxygen and positive energy from the air that calms your body and mind. And when you throw your breath away, intend to get rid of all the stress and tension in your body and mind.

6. Stretching
Performing Stretching periodically at a standstill can also be very helpful. With stretching, in addition to relieve stiffness, it can also help relax the muscles of the body. So there are some tips that can be done when facing congestion. Good luck.

Things to Consider before Buying Car Roof Racks

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The use of car roof racks as place for storing goods is very popular among cars owner. Other than as an alternative in carrying goods that are safe and comfortable, it is also widely used as accessories to add a strong impression on the car. It generally made of iron, aluminum and plastic. Iron material used for roof rack is generally used for off-road car like SUV, and cars with high carrying ability. While for MPV cars, many car owner use roofrack material from aluminum which is lighter than iron, so as not to burden the car itself with its weight. While for city car cars, mostly wear roof rack with aluminum or plastic materials which is a lot lighter.

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Menu for Justice (‘JUSTMEN’) is an Intensive Programme developed within the framework of the EU´s Lifelong Learning Programme for higher education.

Legal education is traditionally pivotal in Western culture. In Europe, it has been developed by means of high education programs, whose main goal is providing future legal experts with a sound, consistent and reliable knowledge of codes, jurisprudence, and legal doctrine. Over the last decades, legal education started to open up by integrating contents, hints, insights coming from non legal disciplines, human and social sciences whose focus is mainly on behaviours rather on formal norms. Therefore, in some countries, legal education programs started to expand and incorporate courses dealing with the relationship between law and other institutions. In Europe, the relevance of legal education is particularly acute nowadays. Indeed, the new challenges faced by the EU are associated with the need of creating a reliable playfield for the transaction and exchange of public and private actors. Legal harmonization is brought about not only by means of regulation but also by means of judicial cooperation. High education systems will strongly and deeply impact the pace of the European integration, through programs of legal education offered to undergraduate and graduate students. Indeed, students, trained in universities, will be legal and judicial actors in the near future.

This program aims at developing an adequate, innovative and multi-disciplinary training for the actors involved in justice administration in order to enable them to share a common "grammar" and speak a common "language".

The Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy is member of an academic network composed by 51 leading institutions in Europe, including universities, judicial schools, supreme courts, non-profit organizations and foundations.

editorial board coordinator:

Centre Perelman de Philosophie du Droit de l’Université libre de Bruxelles


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This authoritative study explores the scientific and mathematical cultural milieu that patterns much of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges's narrative design.  Although criticism of Borges's fiction and essays has long emphasized philosophical traditions, Merrell expands the context of this interrogation of traditions by revealing how early twentieth-century and contemporary mathematics and physics also participated in a similar exploration.  In this light, Merrell's study provides materials that greatly contribute to a reevaluation of Borges's writings as more than parodies, satires, or metaphysical jokes. Topics treated include the semiotic flows of paradox and contradiction, the patterns of of infinities, the limits of natural and mathematical languages, and the narrative fiction in scientific theory.  Against this background, Merrell provides incisive readings of Borges's complex fiction and essays. Merrell establishes a series of parallels among Borges, mathematics and physics that suggests a large cultural project in the "thinking" of the first half of the twentieth century to "unthink" the closure of traditional models of reality and to press the limits of how the "real" can be described, modeled, and defined.  The result is an integrative study of the relationship between aesthetic and scientific narratives.
In Virginia's Native Son, the election of L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia represents the first and only time an African-American has been elected Governor in the United States history. The book hits on five main points of his election and administration (an analysis of the campaign victory, the media's response to the campaign, the racism involved with the election and administration, the administration itself, and the legacy of the administration
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. - AristotleOnly by strict specialization can the scientific worker become fully conscious. -- Max WeberNo race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. - Booker T. WashingtonThe group must always dictate the modes of activity for the individual. -- Mary Parker FollettWhy Work: The Perceptions of "A Real Job" and the Rhetoric of Work through the Ages explores the contemporary cultural construction of work, beginning with the expression, "A Real Job." Over time, the concept of "work" was thought to be inherently understood by those who examined societal structures and human interactions. Today, the concept is more transient, and past definitions can be regarded as lacking because the concept of "work" arose from the particulars of an environment. This volume examines "work" in the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, St. Benedict, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and Mary Parker Follett to answer the question, "Can the concept of work be divorced from the thinker's past?" A final chapter re-examines the core issue in light of the varying concept of "work" and ask one more time "why work?" This work is a result of an Honors seminar at Purdue University.
Our dominant culture continues to celebrate blind economic expansion despite its heavy toll on people and nature all over the globe. In fact, our national income accounts (such as the GDP) and our policies ignore that much of today's economic income stems from liquidating our social and natural assets. While living on the planet's capital, rather than on the interest (or sustainable harvest) of its renewable assets, we operate as if we could transgress ecological limits forever. Rather than acknowledging this ecological reality, we actively resist recognizing biophysical limits and use wealth to temporarily shield ourselves from the fallout of ecological over-shoot. This study addresses the core question of sustainability and shows why nations will also secure their future competitiveness if they improve their ecological performance. Taken together, all the countries studied consume approximately one-third more ecological services than their available ecological capacity can provide, suggesting that the global economy as a whole is poorly positioned for future competition. Still we find that the European countries, Japan , and Canada (this last because of its large ecological remainder) are in distinctly more favorable starting positions for future competitiveness than all the other countries. They are better at using fewer resources to produce commodities, and, in the case of the countries with ecological remainders, they take better care of their existing ecological capacities. Perhaps the most significant-cant finding is that 16 of the 20 eco-efficiency leaders (about 80 percent) are competitive, compared to only 11 of the 24 eco-efficiency laggards (about 45 percent). This suggests either that eco-efficiency already offers a competitive edge or that competitiveness and high eco-efficiency are not mutually exclusive.
In the late 1970s, Brazil was experiencing the return to democracy through a gradual political opening and the re-birth of its civil society. Writing Identity examines the intricate connections between artistic production and political action. It centers on the politics of the black movement and the literary production of a Sao Paulo-based group of Afro-Brazilian writers, the Quilombhoje. Using Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, the manuscript explores the relationship between black writers and the Brazilian dominant canon, studying the reception and criticism of contemporary Afro-Brazilian literature. After the 1940s, the Brazilian literary field underwent several transformations. Literary criticism's displacement from the newspapers to the universities placed a growing emphasis on aesthetics and style. Academic critics denounced the focus on a political and racial agenda as major weaknesses of Afro-Brazilian writing, and stressed, the need for aesthetic experimentation within the literary field. Writing Identity investigates how Afro-Brazilian writers maintained strong connections to the black movement in Brazil, and yet sought to fuse a social and racial agenda with more sophisticated literary practices. As active militants in the black movement, Quilombhoje authors strove to strengthen a collective sense of black identity for Afro-Brazilians.


TJC Global Translation & Interpreting Services since 1985

What is epidemiology?

This is the study of a disease within a population. It determines how and why diseases may occur within specific populations, and is central to the understanding of disease mechanisms, to theories of possible risk factors and causes, to development of public health strategies, and to the prevention and treatment of disease.

Types of epidemiology

Epidemiological studies can be described as descriptive, analytical, or experimental. Descriptive epidemiological studies are "The first stage of epidemiologic investigation...[focussing] on describing disease distribution by characteristics relating to time, place, and person." (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.). Therefore descriptive epidemiology establishes where relationships may exist between a disease and the characteristics of a population (sex, age, ethnicity), how the incidence and mortality of the disease may change over time, and may help to identify where syndromes or risk factors may exist.

Analytical epidemiology is the use of statistical and laboratory methods to analyse the relationship between factors and diseases, in order to develop theories for cause-effect or pathogenesis. Lastly, experimental epidemiology may be synonymous with clinical trials. Often experimental epidemiological studies are used to determine whether the theory for a cause-effect relationship is supported y evidence. Statistics are used to compile epidemiological information about populations from a sample.

The Bradford Hill criteria

These were proposed by Austin Bradford Hill in 1965, and although not intended for this use, are often referenced when attempting to determine whether a relationship is causal or simply consequential. (Hill, A.B. (1965). "The environment and disease: association or causation?". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 58: 295–300.)

1. Strength

Hill used the example of Potts to illustrate his point. In the 18th century, Potts established that a great number of men with scrotal cancer had histories that included an occupation as a chimney sweep. Due to the overwhelming proportion of cases of scrotal cancer patients with this history, Potts concluded that there was a link between substances encountered in chimney sweeping and development of scrotal cancer. Indeed, later chimney soot was found to contain tumorigenic agents. However, Hill cautions that the existence of a slight association does not necessarily suggest a weak relationship between factor and disease.

2. Consistency

If the results have been repeated by different people, in different locations, using different samples, then the relationship established is likely to be causal.

3. Specificity

If, for example, a specific disease is found in workers at a particular location (i.e. a small population), and there appears to be no particular link between the population characteristic and other unrelated diseases, it is likely that the relationship is causal.

4. Temporality

This is the 'chicken and egg' question. Was the factor causal, or did it develop as a consequence of the disease? Are people who are more likely to have the disease also more likely to have a specific occupation?

5. Biological gradient

This is best demonstrated by a dose-response curve. Hill uses the illustration of smoking and lung cancer. The incidence of lung cancer is linearly correlated to the number of cigarettes smoked per day; consequently this is a strong indication that cigarettes are linked to the development of lung cancer.

6. Plausability

It is more likely that the theory regarding a relationship is true if the cause-effect can be explained by a biological understanding of disease mechanisms. However, Hill states that this should not be a necessary criteria, as current knowledge of biological mechanisms may be inadequate to understand the biological basis of the cause-effect relationship.

7. Coherence

The data and theory should not particularly disagree with previous accepted knowledge concerning the biological mechanisms of the disease.

8. Experiment

This is where clinical trials become useful; does a drug expected to prevent the disease actually prevent the disease? This would indicate that theories explaining the trend between factor and disease are true.

9. Analogy

This is the consideration of the effects of similar factors on the contraction and course of the disease.

Types of epidemiological study

Case series

These can be divided into several different types of study. The first is the descriptive analysis of the experience of a single patient; whilst these cannot indicate the experiences of a population as a whole, they can provide opportunity for the development of new theories. Alternatively, the study may analyse a group of patients with the same condition. Lastly, the study may be a self-controlled case series study, in which patients are subjected to peroids of exposure and non-exposure.

Case control studies

The recruited participants are either part of the 'case' group (i.e. they have the specific disease) or the 'control' group (i.e. they are healthy and disease negative). A comparison between the two groups' potential exposure to possible causative factors is used to detemine links between factors and disease.

Cohort studies

Here participants are selected based on their exposure; for example, heavy smokers, light smokers, and non-smokers. These normally take more time to undertake than case control studies.

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Living in a World they didn’t make, by Janet Jackson

Our next Genre of the Week focuses on gun violence and takes us back to 1989. It was at that time that one of the members of the Jackson family released a powerful album containing songs that focused on social aspects. Janet Jackson started her career with the rest of her siblings in 1973, yet went solo in 1986 with her first solo album (and third overall), Control.  Her breakthrough came with Rhythm Nation 1814, which was released in 1989 and won six platinums, garnered 12 million Dollars in sales and made it all the way to number 1. on the Bilboard charts in the US. It was the first album where songs reached number 1 in the Top 40 Charts for three straight years, and it was the first where seven songs made it to the Top 100.  It is considered one of the most iconic pop music albums in history, with a mixture of rhythm and dance but also some slow dances. The album focused not only on themes of love and dance, but also social issues, which included drug use, domestic dispute, violence,…..

and guns.

While Janet managed to get seven songs into the Top 100, this song deserves to win the Flensburg Files Genre of the Week, even if the song was produced almost 30 years ago. Entitled Living in the World They Didn’t Make, Janet takes us to a school where memories are left over after a shooting incident that happens on school grounds. Children playing on the playground- gone. Teachers helping other- gone. Neighborhoods and families- shattered. All of these ring a bell to the problem with gun violence and the school shootings that have plagued the US as of late. While some have refused to talk about it, when looking at the March on Washington that happened on 24th of March, the theme of gun laws, school violence and issues that have led to people taking it out with the guns have been brought forward to those who want to see change and will not rest until it happens, regardless of who is representing each state in Congress and is running the country at the White House.

Gun violence was the issue upon the song’s release and is still the issue to this day. Listen to the song and ask yourselves, how can we put an end to this madness without having the teacher march around with a machine gun in the classroom.

This Genre of the Week song is for the kids at Parkland who took courageous steps and brought this up front and personal on Capitol Hill. Keep strong, be stronger. Eventually those who resisted will listen or cave in. You will have it your way soon. ❤ 🙂

Genre of the Week: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain

As we look at ways to control the sale of guns and put an end to gun violence in the United States, one of the aspects that was brought many times is mental health.  People who think that we should focus on the issue of mental health claim that the majority of shooters happen to be people who are loners, suffer from some sort of depression, schizophrenia, or have some sort of narccist personality disorder, have come from broken homes where they had been abused by (foster) parents, have been bullied by others, are bullies themselves or a combination of the factors.  In other words, if a student is alone, doesn’t have many friends and always keeps to him/herself, then that person is at risk of committing a violent crime such as a shooting spree, as we have seen with the last school shooting in Florida or the bloodiest massacre in US history at Las Vegas in 2017.

Yet little has anyone realized that there are some advantages of being a loner. Introverts are people who thrive when they are by themselves, creating things with no one around that in the end others can benefit from their inventions. Albert Einstein, Agatha Christie, Arthur Miller, Thomas Edison are a few very popular examples of introverts who never liked being an outgoing entertainer towards others- a primary characteristic of an introvert- and prefer to work on tasks on their own, as they can better concentrate and be creative in their thoughts and imagination. Unlike extroverts, who present proposals to others during meetings and try to make the best out of thriving from attention, introverts prefer to be in the background in group conversations, listening to others and only contributing when absolutely necessary.  This makes them excellent in art (or any kind of fine arts) but lousy in a forensics competition, where they are forced to talk even though they don’t really feel like it.  Admittedly in high school, I was one of the introverts who thrived that way- in art and music- but really sucked in sports (except track and field) and forensics.  😉  And even as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, while I enjoy telling stories and helping people out with improving their language skills, in the end, when the bell rings at the end of the day, my place is in the office with the doors closed, brewing up something for the next day (or week) with no people around to “pester” me. 😉

Introverts unfortunately are the most easily targeted individuals as they are seen as outcasts- bullied by those who don’t like their secret “behind-the-scenes” talent (because they don’t have it in them), pushed by their parents so that they can get recognized by the public (this one I can fully relate while growing up) and forced into the conversation by teachers who think introverts are a sign of a bigger problem- if a teacher looks at each student’s own personal book, they can read between the lines in terms of their personalities and the reasons for that.  But as Susan Cain mentions in a TED-Talk presentation in 2012, introverts are a lot brighter and more sophisticated than what others think, and therefore should not be mistaken for someone who wants to do harm to others.  Sometimes by getting to know them further and giving them space, they can thrive better and provide others with something that surprises and dazzles them.

Some of their inventions can become the household product in the future. 🙂

So let’s have a look at the Genre of the Week and the theme of Introverts:

Genre of the Week: 18 and Life by Skid Row

As we’re talking about gun violence and looking at ways to stopping it, we’re also looking at the causes of this rapid increase in violence which has especially hit schools the hardest. I had a chance to listen to a speech made by four survivors of the shooting at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida as well as the interviews that followed. The students that survived the bloodbath knew the killer (who is behind bars) and were very angry at how this was not stopped earlier. These four were born the same year as the infamous Columbine massacre that took place on 20 April 1999 and have grown up used to mass shootings, including those in schools.  Here’s a quick preview of the speech:

One of the key issues we’ll need to work on as we look at reforming gun control laws is also the ways to reform the mental health system and make schools and public places safe. But how can we do that if we have people running around irresponsibly waving guns around and firing aimlessly at people, killing some in the process and permanently scarring others in the process, like it happened with Columbine, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Sandy Hook, Cold Springs and now Parkland?

One way is to look at how parenting has changed over the years. In the past 40 years, we have gone from being strict Puritans who spank and hit children in order for them to behave to being those who allow children anything and everything they want to, even if it means running over teachers, law enforcement officials and the like at the same time. Parents have struggled to find a middle ground in order to allow for controlled growth- meaning growing within their boundaries and knowing what is right and what is wrong. It means taking responsibility for their own actions and accepting the consequences for their wrongdoing. A one-day suspension from school for fighting or showing disrespect is painful but should be a lesson for the future. It’s by teaching children how to respect others and learn the Golden Rule: Do onto others as they would be done onto you. This includes stories and fables to be told regularly but also normal interaction with people and understanding their feelings.  And if parents cannot do their job, have another foster parent or relative take over for a while, someone who can foster the child’s growth and show them the values of life.

This Genre of the Week looks at a scene that is very typical in today’s society today: a teenager who has gone wild because of years of being overly controlled and abused by his father. His recklessness by using alcohol and guns led to his downfall as he lost not only his family and best friend, but his own life. And as alcohol regulations has worked in keeping people away from the booze, gun regulations can do the exact same thing and even more. But even with gun regulations (which can work), we need to look at reforming our society and investing more time and especially money to reforming our society, starting with the health system, then the school system and lastly the family. This way we don’t have any more wild ones like in this song by Skid Row entitled 18 and Life, produced in 1989.

fast fact logo

Skid Row was formed in 1986 featuring lead singer Sebastian Bach, guitarists Scotti Hill and David Sabo, drummer Rob Affuso and bassist Rachel Bolan. It still produces heavy metal music to this day but with ZP Theart as the lead singer. 18 and Life was produced in 1989 and made it to the Top 4 in the US and Top 12 in the UK. It even won a gold platinum that year. The band is based in New Jersey.

The United States of Africa: How the Greatest Nation has become the Greatest Failure

This was the preamble of the US Constitution, which was signed by George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and representatives of the original 13 colonies and ratified in 1787. It called for the end of occupation by the British Monarchy and the right for people to live prosper lives fostering their own growth and successes but also defending the country through their freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

The right to bear arms has become a topic of discussion lately because of the carnage that has devastated the United States of America. America has a right to protect itself from invaders. Families have rights to protect themselves. And even sometimes people have a right to protect themselves if they feel threatened. Yet the right to bear arms, as mentioned in the second Amendment has turned the country into a failed state, as mentioned by scholars, such as Noam Chomsky. Chomsky has followed on the politics in the States and found that the country created by our forefathers has been in decline- most rapidly since 11 September though it had originally started after the Americans and their allies won World War II. While Washington found ways to mask itself as the knight in shiny armor in protecting its interest from encroaching Communists, and the baby-boomer generations had taken full steam, issues of purging into the lives of others, environmental destruction because of development and select support of nationalist governments were widely ignored. The President and all members of Congress turned a blind eye.  While we have seen many lumps in increases in between, like in the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton years, democracy and its values have been gunned down bit by bit because of the government representing only the privileged and the rich, disregarding the values that protect the society of the people regardless of background. In the case of guns, it’s like in the picture above: a shooting happens, grieving happens, discussions on how to make society safe from guns comes, Congress tries to act but cannot because of support from the likes of the National Rifle Association (NRA) who favor guns and stand-by to the principles of the 2nd Amendment. The issue gets swept under the rug and is not brought up until the next blood bath.

2018 has in no doubt been the bloodiest year in American history with 18 mass shootings so far this year. Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting on 14 December 2012, we’ve had 290 shootings; six of which have been in the top ten deadliest in US history. This includes the Las Vegas Massacre on October 1, 2017, the deadliest mass shooting on record,  where 58 people were killed and 815 hurt.  The latest shooting at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which happened on Valentine’s Day is the ninth worst. Yet our only responses we get from our leaders is “My condolences to the families involved, ” and no real action to stop this? Is this what America has come down to?

As an American expat writing this, I’m really disgusted at the inactivity and indifference politicians and society has towards the country’s people. It angers me even more that instead of addressing it straight up, like we’ve seen in other countries, we defer our responsibilities and blame other aspects. In this case, it is mental illness. However with the next shooting, it will be something else. And more lives will be lost in what was supposed to be a democracy made to protect the people and allow them to live prosperous and make a difference.

This latest shooting brings the United States of America down to the level of 3rd world African and Central American countries because we do not have the balls and testosterome to say “STOP! NO MORE OF THIS!” This leads me to a lot of questions I have to the people in the country who either have turned a blind eye, become helpless or indifferent or even are staunch supporters of guns and violence as a way of protecting oneself and the 2nd Amendment:

Is it really OK to carry hand guns around whenever it is deemed necessary?

Is it really OK to have police arbitrarily invade homes and lives of other people just because they don’t like them for no reason?

Is it really OK to teach children how to take cover in an event of a crazed maniac who could possibly shoot down children and teachers, employers and co-workers, or even the common person, like it’s a Terminator video game?

Is it really OK to scare American society over a tiny virus which only kills one person but ignore the problems that kill thousands?

Is it really OK to say “I’m not OK with domestic violence,” but not do a goddamn thing about it?

Is it really OK to defer responsibility to others for your own wrong-doing, which can lead to lives lost unnecessarily- such as providing money to strippers and porn artists instead of taking that and using it to fix our infrastructure, health care, social security and the like?

Is it really OK to make America safe with guns instead of sitting down together and talking about the issues at hand, hoping to find common ground?

And lastly, is it really OK to watch all this carnage and do absolutely nothing about it?

I really hope America wakes up and finally does something about this mess. Because if guns are really OK, as with violence, death and destruction, then I don’t want to be part of this anymore. We have seen African nations struggle since the end of British rule because of gun violence tied together with corruption,  poverty and war. Yet we have become one of them instead of being a country setting an example for others through our policies, democracy and innovations working for the good of the environment and society.  We have become a live example of  George Orwell’s Animal Farm because of our unwillingness to change to helpo others- to put a stop to this gun violence, to put a stop to bullying, to put a stop to hatred and paranoia, and to put a stop at focusing on our own needs and the needs of the select few. With trillions already wasted to the weapons industry, we have become the African countries that pride ourselves in the brass, but will eventually cave in from underneath due to the social issues we have piling up.

And so, as of today, 15 February 2018, the United States of America, once deemed as the “greatest nation on the face of this Earth,” a catalyst for inventors, innovators and ingenuous people who made a difference for the rest of humanity, my place of origin, has lost all credibility in the eyes of the world and beyond. This country has become the new Africa. All armed and ready to kill again before they kill us.

And if we beg to differ, then my words to you are this: Prove it. Prove it now before we become part of a bloody revolution. Prove it now before we become a memory in our global society. Prove it now in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, in the name of Siddartha the Buddha, in the name of Mohammad, in the name of our fathers and brothers, and in the name of God, who created this place for us to live.

Holiday Genre: Time to Forgive

Move over or fork it over! New laws for Rettungsgassen on German highways

An example of a Rettungsgasse on Motorway 659 as an Ambulance makes way toward the accident scene. Photo taken by LosHawlos for wikicommons

New Fines plus Points in Flensburg and Driving Ban to be enforced for blocking emergency lane on German highways. Even for driving and using E-devices.

BERLIN/FLENSBURG-  Many people travelling in Germany probably don’t know the term Rettungsgasse, especially if they hear this word on the radio while listening to the traffic report and at the same time, travelling to their destination. A Rettungsgasse is an emergency lane that is created by travellers on German highways, so that police, rescue crews and paramedics can travel to the scene of the accident as quickly as possible. This emergency lane is created when an accident occurs, causing traffic on the highway to come to a halt. While this practice is used mostly on motorways (Autobahn), expressways (Schnellstrasse) and other roads that have multiple lanes, many people don’t know how to create one. An illustration below provides you with some steps on how to create one (hint: Spur is German for lane)

Image courtesy of Inga Jablonsky

To sum up, drivers are to move off to the side as far as possible to allow passage and save the lives of those affected by an accident.

Yet many drivers are unaware of the fact that when there is a jam on the highway and cars in front of them and crews travelling with blue lights and a Martin horn, that they should move off to the side and let them pass. For a Martin horn, it sounds like this:

In some cases, drivers have blocked Rettungsgassen on the highways, thus hindering crews from going to the scene.

Some of whom, as seen in the video above, have used Smartphones and mobile phones to photograph or even film the scene of the accident.

Effective immediately, it will cost drivers doing one of the two or both more than just money. The German Ministry of Transportation and Digital Infrastructure (BMVDI) has passed a pair of much stricter laws involving both traffic violations.  For blocking the Rettungsgasse and not paying attention to the sirens of the police and rescue crews, one can expect a fine of at least 200 Euros and two points will be added to the driver’s record at the Office of Vehicle Registration in Flensburg. According to the laws in Flensburg passed in 2014, eight or more points means revokation of the driver’s license and possibly retraining on how to drive at the expense of the offender.

In this case, being a spectator, texting while not paying attention or just intentionally blocking the emergency lane will be very costly.  Not building a Rettungsgasse constitutes a fine of 200 Euros plus two Flensburg points. Not building this important lane when the crews go to the scene means 240 Euros, two points and a one month ban from driving.  Blocking the lane while causing damage and endangering lives means a fine of 320 Euros, two or more Flensburg Points, driving ban PLUS confiscation of the vehicle and other items as evidence to be used in court AND possible prosecution!

If you use your electronic device, regardless of whether you are driving or in a traffic jam and/or forming a Rettungsgasse, you can expect a 100 Euro fine and a Flensburg point. Endangering others constitute 150 Euros and two points. Causing damage means 200 Euros, two points and a one month driving ban!

For both offences, the sanctions have increased by more than two-fold as there have been more and more reports of drivers blocking the Rettungsgasse both intentionally as well as unintentionally, many of whom had been either texting or using devices to film accidents. Even doing the latter alone has caused numerous accidents and fatalities in general. According to studies by the Center for Disease Control, an average of nine people die every day from accidents caused by distracted driving, over 1000 are injured.

But the sharp increase in fines and sanctions for blocking the Rettungsgasse comes as officials are cracking down on drivers who do not create these lanes during traffic jams, even if no accidents are reported; most of the traffic jams occur on heavily travelled motorways in the western half of Germany as well as in large cities. This includes the Motorways 3, 6, 7, and 9, as well as motorways and highways in cities, like Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg.  But even more so, the introduction of tougher sanctions comes in response to the freak bus accident and fire last year near Münchberg in northern Bavaria, along the Motorway 9. 18 people died, including the driver, who rescued as many passengers as possible before succumbing to the smoke and burns. According to reports, drivers blocked the Rettungsgasse and took pictures with their phones, thus hampering rescue efforts.

With the introduction of tougher measures, drivers will be forced to pay more attention to the road and not with their electronic devices. Especially when traffic jams occur on the multi-lane highways will drivers be forced to assume the worse and create the emergency lane to allow for rescue crews to get to the scene as quickly as possible.

As a county engineer in Iowa once said: These laws are there to save lives.  It is hoped that these measures will get the driver to think about the lives of others at risk while driving.

So please, pay attention, put the phone down and please the people in front of you. You will do yourself and them a big favor and save yourself some money, time and your car. Thank you.

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Emergency lane laws are similar to the ones in the United States, Canada and other countries. The Move-over Laws that have been enacted since the 1990s require drivers to move over one lane to provide a lane’s width of space for people at the scene of an accident, car repair or any other sort of emergency. Failure to comply can result in the loss of driving privileges for at least a half year in many areas plus fines in the hundreds.

Drivers not originating from Germany but are caught by police for traffic violation are asked to either pay up at the scene where they are pulled over, or they receive a letter addressed to their home countries requesting the fine to be paid. In these cases the point system is usually not enforced. In worst cases, they may be taken into custody at the police precinct.

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To the Americans who are frustrated with Donald Trump

Dear Fellow Americans,

Do you think that Donald Trump has exceeded your expectations?

Do you think that Donald Trump is unifying the country?

Now be honest…………………..

And lastly,

So just do it!

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Earworm Wednesday: The Eagles ~How Long

So again one of the pioneers of Rock an Roll has died. Glen Frey one of the members of The Eagles had a distinct style that is one of the reasons why the band did so well. I remember listening to the Eagles on the radio from their beginning. And I listened to Frey’s work when the group took a break from each other and enjoyed every minute of it.

This was written by J D. Souther as an antiwar song and the Eagles used it on their Long Road out of Eden. Please enjoy How Long.


Perform The Prehab with Perfect Form

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Prone Snow angels x20
Side Planks 2×30″
Bird Dogs 2×10

Warm up:

2 rounds:
5 Pull ups
10 KBS
15 Goblet Squats

4X1 minutes Rack Hold with Double KB’s -Heaviest Possible – Rest 1 minute

5 minutes Max effort KB Snatch (53/35)

Notes: May switch arms as needed.  Resting on floor not permitted.

 Partner Conditioning:

 “My Pet Rock”

Each team will select one KB (70/53) that cannot be put down for the entire piece.

4 Rounds for time:

 500 meter Row
10 Pull-ups
15 Box Jumps
20 Abmat Sit-ups
200 Meter Sprint

 -25 minute cap

 Notes: One person works at a time while their partner holds a KB any way they would like, as long as it is not touching the floor. Rotate between movements. This means each person will perform each movement twice. Each time the KB touches the ground the team will stop the workout and perform 10 burpees as a pair.

Cool Down:

Accumulate 20 Strict T2B
Accumulate 30 weighted hip extensions
Couch Stretch x60″
Cobra Stretch x60″
Foam Roll T-spine x2min

I had a discussion with Diso this morning with the topic of: how do we keep our athletes healthier? As a physical therapist, what things jump out at me over the last year that I feel our athletes can do to reduce injury? What do we need to change/add/remove from the prehab/warm up/cool downs? My answer was simple. Form. We need to be a much better job performing the prehab and cool down exercises, properly and with a purpose. The recipe is there, but there is a huge difference between doing the exercises and performing them the way they were intended.

For example, I almost always critique members on their wall extensions. So many times I see arms flailing, low backs arching, hands coming off the wall. It really is just a waste of time if you are doing them like this.  The purpose of the exercise is to increase the strength, endurance, and neuromuscular control of the posterior deltoids, mid and low traps, cervical extensors, transverse abdominus, and etc. Basically it helps you achieve symetry with your overhead position which will improve your strength and decrease your chance of injury. So to teach this exercise as if you have never done it before, start with your feet 6″ off the wall, tighten your abs so that there is no space between your back and the wall, place your arms at 90/90 with your wrists and elbows flat against the wall. Once you achieve this position, slowly raise your arms as straight as you can overhead, constantly driving your arms into the wall. Once you achieve full flexion, lower your arms back down and try to tuck your elbows into your back pockets as you fight to keep your wrists on the wall.

You still with me?

As you can see, I really want you to pay more attention to the specifics of each prehab exercise, and I promise you, you will notice a difference. In the meantime, we will continue to do our part, providing you with the best resources to keep you healthy and continuing to achieve the highest level of fitness possible.

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Tantrums vs. Science: Study shows that tennis judges have a 61% accuracy rating when challenged

I could watch John McEnroe flip out all day long. Perhaps one of his most famous tantrums erupted during Wimbeldon in 1981 when a serve of his was called out. McEnroe argued that he saw a puff of chal


6 Habits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has Developed Early On

6 Habits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has Developed Early On

Unsplash/Olu Eletu

Unsplash/Olu Eletu

One of the best ways to get closer to your goals in life, expand your vision, and improve yourself is to learn from others who’ve already succeeded.

You can do that by reading about the greatest men in history and the leaders of today, to check out their biographies and study the doubts and fears they had when they once started, or the techniques they used to grow their revenue, or how they found balance between work and life, and between success and staying true to themselves.

But you can also take a look at the things successful startup founders do, the passionate business owners, productive creatives, and those who break from conventional wisdom and go after what they want in life.

These are the entrepreneurs of today and they are the real face of success. It’s worth getting to know their daily routines and habits so that you can see what makes them stay on top of their game every single day, how they manage to handle all the work and still have passion in their eyes and energy in the evening.

So here’s what behaviors and mindsets they develop early on that help them achieve massive success later in life:

1. They fail a lot.

We hear about famous entrepreneurs’ wins and achievements all the time, but people rarely talk about their failures. Which, in fact, were much more plentiful than the successes.
That’s because failing means you’re trying. And because you can’t know what works at the beginning, you need to try what doesn’t work first, do it wrong, learn from that and never make the same mistake again.

Failure is inevitable and the earlier you accept it as a part of the journey, the better.

2. They wake up early and get to work.

If you start reading about how successful people spend their day, you’ll see one simple tendency first — they start it quite early. What’s more, they start working on their most important tasks right away, often after a productive morning ritual.

Such a morning can help you kick-start your day and be energetic and action-oriented till the end of it.

Waking up earlier means you’ll add extra time to your day, but it also leads to making the most of your morning. It’s often the only period of the day without any distractions, so you can use it for focused work, or just enjoy the peace and silence and drink your coffee and read something inspirational. Both will help you a lot later on.

3. They say yes to less.

Average people — although rarely doing something about their life — like to mention the many opportunities around and how grabbing them is important.

Truth is, these days most opportunities are either distractions or temptations. People and notifications are fighting for our attention, and there’s so much to be done at any moment that we indulge in unproductive, unhealthy behaviors and so on.

All that leads to a lot of time wasted and no progress.

That’s why it’s time to start saying “no” more often.

Every successful entrepreneur knows how valuable time is and that he needs to be selective. So he prioritizes, he eliminates anything that won’t get him closer to his goals and which isn’t essential. You can do the same.

Soon, you’ll start taking decisions faster and more deliberately, as you’ll always choose the option connected to your priorities in life. You’ll also never wonder what to do first again —there will always be items on top of your to-do list.

You’ll be more determined, decisive and will see results sooner, if you say “yes” to less and focus on the essentials.

4. They care about the work they do.

Finding and following your passion is one of the most common pieces of advice you can hear, but it still appears to be one of the best things you can do with your life.

Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t have been working for weeks in his dorm room on creating Facebook if he wasn’t passionate about coding, or if he didn’t care about helping people connect with each other more easily.

These same urges are what helped him grow the social network beyond imagination. To this day, he’s as passionate about it as he was back then.

5. They put in more effort than is expected.

It’s true that entrepreneurs often quit working 40 hours a week just to start working 80 hours — for themselves. You can’t go without hard work here.

But what you get in return is priceless – freedom, independence, satisfaction, challenges, living on your own terms, the ability to scale and work on any new project whenever you like, and much more.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and founder of Square, works an 8-hour shift in the first company, followed by 8 hours in the second one. And he doesn’t seem tired at all.
If you truly find the work you’re good at, are passionate about and for which people are willing to pay, you won’t feel overwhelmed and will have the chance to contribute to the world by doing it.

6. They are lifelong learners.

Last but not least, every successful entrepreneur is a learner from the moment he realizes there’s more to life.

You need to be willing to make many mistakes and learn from them, to meet people and listen to their advice, to read and consume the right information all the time, to travel and learn from experience.

Most importantly, you need to accept that life is a learning process and find a way to enjoy it. Then it will feel less like a struggle, and more like one big adventure.

That’s what successful people start doing early on so they can achieve a lot later in life.

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