Method in Madness: A study of the Ex-centric Cubist Aesthetics of Pablo Picasso and Gertrude Stein

Savi Munjal

“The eye is a creator but thought destroys, it wants the essence of things.  Oh, madness!”
(Ruiz, Contes d’un Filosof [1])

“I was alone at that time in understanding him, perhaps because I was expressing the same thing in literature.”
(Picasso, 16)

The Cubist revolt altered the whole course of art history and lent a death blow to all notions of fixity. The
contextual, conceptual and formal qualities shared by the Analytical Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso (1881-
1973) and Gertrude Stein’s (1874-1946) early poetry forms an important fulcrum to understand the convergence
of literature and art in the early decades of the twentieth century. The epigraphs refer to the twin foci of my
essay: the Cubist stress on perception, ambiguity, relativity and the destruction of traditional syntax to
accommodate modern experience within art[2], and the transposition of Cubist aesthetics into literature by
Picasso’s patron and lifelong friend Gertrude Stein.

The genesis of Cubism can be traced to pre World-War Paris. Montamarte became a point of convergence for
artists, connoisseurs and intellectuals from all over Europe because of its artistic reputation. The Moroccan Crisis
and the collapse of the parliamentary alliance of the Bloc des Gauchés in 1905 led to the political disengagement
which came to define aesthetic avant-gardism in the early decades of the twentieth century. However the
impetus behind this formation of an aesthetic avant-garde at this pregnant historical moment is necessarily socio-
political[3]. John Berger insists that trade-union activity and the proliferation of Socialist movements all over
Europe fed into the revolutionary ethics of Cubism. Darwin’s evolutionary thesis, Bergson’s notions of time,
Freud’s dream theory, Einstein’s theory of relativity, Weber’s sociological thesis, colonial expansion and
industrialization all shape the elliptical, experimental and formally complex aesthetic of modernism which the
Parisian avant-garde deployed to great effect in their works.

The existence of the avant-garde circle afforded a high degree of creative freedom. Moreover, the proliferation of
the denichéur[4] created new circles of circulation and dissemination. This ensured that works of art were no
longer to be found in leading galleries but smaller galleries and the studios of the artists themselves. Gertrude
Stein’s apartment at 27 Rue de Flereus became a magnet for European and American artists, intellectuals and
writers such as Max Jacob, Apollianaire, Kahnweiler, Matisse, Picasso, Gris and Braque. Stein thus participates
in this historical revision of the Salon due to her position as the salonnière. The ‘home’ gets linked to the site of
production and the social space gets remade in the face of a fluid modernity underlining the presence of woman
present as active agent at the founding of an avant-garde project[5]. Stein’s early patronage “His pictures at that
time could really only be seen at 27 Rue de Fleurus” (ABT 60)[6] and friendship was of immense importance to
Picasso “… she is my only friend said Picasso, it is the only home I go to” (ABT 117)[7] . Their bond can be
understood as an amalgam of numerous relationships- mentor-protégé, patron-artist and platonic friendship
between a Spanish and an American expatriate “They always talked with the tenderest friendship about each
other” (ABT 182). This complex relationship where neither had the upper hand over the other, I suggest, is the
locus by which their work can be understood.

Pablo Picasso encodes subversive intent and practice in the ‘visual’ space while Gertrude Stein counters
traditional monolithic epistemology by bringing to our attention the disruptive and transformative power of
language, especially of its ‘poetic’ space. Stein’s early work can be understood within the paradigms of a Cubist
aesthetic owing to her espousal of syntactical radicalism, repetitive rhythm and minimalism[8]. This paper seeks
to tease out stylistic correspondences and establish a parallel between the disruptive potential of Picasso’s cubist
paintings[9] (1907-12) and the playful, idiosyncratic and repetitive rhythms of Stein’s poetry and prose. It
intends to stress on the redefinition of the female nude by looking closely at Picasso’s Cubist nudes and Stein’s
exposition of a lesbian erotics in her poems in order to underline the dismantling of traditional representations of
the female body by Cubism in Literature and the Visual Arts.

I) “…but she is my only friend” (ABT 117): Picasso’s Stein and Stein’s Picasso
Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1906), painted in his studio at Bateau Lavoir, though literally realistic in
many ways, provides a useful starting point to understand Cubist abstraction. The painting seems to be homage
to and a transformation of Cezanne’s Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair (1888-90) and Lady in a Striped Dress
(1892-96). Stein’s mask-like face and the heavily lidded, uneven and asymmetrical eyes are representative of
early Iberian influences while the sharp line of the nose, disaffected expression, the stocky forearms and the
bulky female form anticipate high Cubism. This portrait is reminiscent of Picasso’s Two Nudes (1906) painted in
the same year. Stumpy muscular forearms, the grotesquely compacted limbs and torsos arouse a sense of
superhuman strength reminiscent of Michelangelo.

The hints of immense energy within the picture mark a change from the distorted anatomies of the Blue and
Pink period and the earthy terracotta tones of both paintings anticipate Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), the
first Cubist masterpiece[10]. In The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Stein insists she sat for her portrait at least
80 times but Picasso painted the head from memory, testimony to the fact that it was his personal vision rather
than empirical reality per se. The result is a portrait “which nobody at that time liked except the painter and the
painted” (ABT 6). Lubar insists that the portrait draws attention to the complex economy of psychic and social
exchanges between the painter and the sitter.

In this context Picasso’s effacement of Stein’s head, tantamount to decapitation and his belated substitution of a
mask are suggestive of the male painter’s anxious confrontation with queer desire. The mask serves as “a sign of
erasure, a violent effacement whose function is to contain and neutralize a perceived threat” (Lubar 59),
indicative of the narcissistic[11] subjectivism which becomes central to the Cubist schema. The exploration of
another person then, collapses into self-examination. This early representation of an ‘intellectual’ woman, one
whose femininity exceeded definitional boundaries[12], feeds into Picasso’s Cubist aesthetic. Stein’s bulky form
and her asexual dress move away from the traditional objectification of women. The portrait challenges the
history of art and foregrounds a new way of looking. This first anxiety ridden encounter seems to feed into
Picasso’s Cubist representations, which overturn conceptions about the eroticized depiction of women in art.

Moreover, Picasso’s self assured retort[13] to people who insisted on the lack of resemblance between the picture
and the subject points to one of the preoccupations of Cubism- the need to grapple with the ‘essence’ of things .
Proto-Cubism then can be explained as an endeavour to strip away layers of illusion in order to reveal the
physical essence of things[14]. Stein’s early literary portrait of Picasso If I Told Him (1924), first published in
Vanity Fair, is a similar attempt to capture a resemblance of his genius. A long repetitive passage, characteristic
of Stein, addresses how one might create ‘resemblance’ in a verbal passage:
resemblance, exactly as resembling, exactly resembling, exactly in resemblance
(If I Told Him 1)

II) “Patriarchal Poetry needs rectification” (PP 116)[15]: Fashioning a new visual/ verbal syntax
This stress on cognition and perceptual processes of vision seems to be inherited from Cezanne[16] . Cezanne’s
perception of a geometric relationship between forms and his shift away from a literal rendition of the illusion of
the third dimension[17] feeds into the Cubist imposition of a geometric framework[18] on reality and their
flattening of the pictorial surface. Picasso’s geometricized nudes in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) are
reminiscent of geometric shapes and striations visible in Cezanne’s Houses at L’estaque (1882-85). But Picasso
works his way around space, transforms his visual schemata and flattens his nude figures in two dimensions.
The arcs and the planes which dissect the anatomies of the female nudes on the left shatter the traditional idea of
bulk. This is even more evident to the right of the picture where ”linear and planar rhythms seem almost to
dominate Picasso’s contact with perceived reality” (Rosenblum 25). As with Cezanne perspective is rendered by
means of colour which complicates the ‘flatness’ of the cubist canvas. A grayish tone seems to point to a
background. At another vertical plane there is the suggestion of heavy curtains red and brown on the left, blue
and white on the right. Other coloured planes seem to represent the drapery of the figures.

This purely plastic orientation of Cubism is a far cry from Cezanne’s insistence on fidelity to nature and
emphasis on synthesis. Cubism marks the rupture of the artistic tradition that had prevailed since the
Renaissance and the subsequent creation of a new graphic syntax. The extent of revolutionary transformation is
evident in the first responses to Picasso’s Cubist canvases. Vollard famously denounced it as ‘the work of a
madman’ and Leo Stein as ‘Godalmighty rubbish’(O’Brian 166), Kozloff dismissed Cubism as ‘a massacre’,
Félix Fénéon advised Picasso to take up caricature, Max Jacob insisted it was ‘ugly’ while the Russian dealer
Tchoukine exclaimed, with tears in her eyes “What a loss for French Art”(Picasso 140).

The revolutionary Cubist aesthetic can be witnessed in Picasso’s confrontation with geometric forms, Iberian art,
and his deployment of the death imagery and masks which reaches its apotheosis in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
The grotesque heads on the right are clearly influenced by Negro sculpture. The influence of Cezanne’s Five
Bathers (1885-87) is discernible but the savagery is in line with the veneration of primitive societies in nineteenth
century art by the likes of Ingres and Gauguin. Though the markers of masculine presence are still present in
the picture, Les Demoiselles presents a marked change from The Harem (1906) where the gaze of the male viewer
lingers on female bodies. The anatomical distortion and barbarism involved in the depiction of the nudes seems
to underline the brutal sexism inherent in the painting.

Paradoxically, however, the harsh and angular rendition of the nudes turns the power play around. Picasso’s
deployment of the carnivalesque concept of the grotesque body counters voyeurism and distances and thwarts
desire. His paintings, violently phallocentric in so many ways “produce deconstructive effects precisely against
phallocentrism” (Derrida 59). These paradoxes make sure that some of Picasso’s most odious and diabolical
paintings can be read in interesting ways[19].

Stein, on the other hand, consciously inverts phallogocentric logic by rejecting linear perspective “no
structure…that is liberty” (TB 59) and foregrounding multiplicity using sophisticated linguistic devices in her
poetry. This order of meaning represents “a genuinely oppositional- that is anti-patriarchal and anti-logocentric
mode of signification” (DeKoven 83). Patriarchal Poetry (1927) proposes a conscious difference between Stein’s
ethic and “their origin and their history” (PP 115). Her deployment of free verse, destruction of grammar and
strange or absent punctuation draws attention to the theme of writing itself. She problematises what Kristeva
[20] calls “the thetic phase of the signifying process” (Kristeva 99) and breaks away from the paralyzing effect
of signification[21] .

Stein lashes out at the perils of authoritarian and regulatory textual strategies “…patriarchal poetry left, right,
left” (PP 116), questions the referentiality of language and insists on the resignification of norms outside an
epistemological given “let it be which is it be which is it be….” (PP 113). Signification operates by social
consensus and the lack of adherence to traditional signification accounts for its “alternative, liberating newness
against the absorptive capacity of …established discourses” (Terdiman 13). This explains why the earliest
reactions to Stein’s work mirrored the hostility of Picasso’s critics. The Louisville Courier Journal, for example,
insisted that “the sentences… do not make complete sense, partial sense nor any other sense but nonsense” (Rev.
qtd. Perloff).

Stein’s dismemberment of language is reminiscent of Picasso’s condemnation of the continuity “Down with
style. Does God have a style?” (Picasso qtd. Malraux). The ostensible eclecticism of the Cubists reflects a
growing concern with the boundaries of knowledge. The lack of evolutionary coherence in Cubist narratives/
paintings disrupts the project of closure, undermining hegemonic ‘rationality’. The experimental diversity of
structure Picasso advocates is evident in the fractured texture of Fernande’s face in his Head of a Woman (1909).
However, the distinction between the background and the human form still persists in this painting. The
gradual annihilation of the human form is evident in The Portrait of Kahnweiler (1910) and The Portrait of
Ambrose Vollard (1910) where their respective faces are fractured into hundreds of smaller facet shapes.

This technique, typical of Picasso’s Analytical Cubist style, echoes his belief in the representation of multiple
dimensions of the subject, thereby “creating a many leveled world of dismemberment and discontinuity”
(Rosenblum 43). The cubist image is one of multiple times, perspectives and spaces. There is a superimposition of
layers of time giving a temporal collage that creates image depth. The simultaneous presence of different angles
propounds Bergsonian seamlessness for it implies a sequence of time embedded in a still image. The human
presence is denoted by distinguishing features such as Kahnweiler’s clasped hands and Vollard’s downcast eyes,
protruding jaw-bones and moustache but there is a conscious destruction[22] of traditional motifs such as linear
perspective and chiaroscuro which lend evolutionary coherence to an artwork. The Cezannian “dialectical view
of the process of looking at nature” (Berger 1965: 52) is employed by the Cubists, albeit in an amplified form.
Picasso’s Cubism revels in breaking up objects, analyzing and reassembling them in an abstracted form.

In a similar fashion Stein fractures language from within. The absent referents, deferred signifieds and the
endless play of signifiers characterize the struggle in Tender Buttons (1914) which is “ridding myself of nouns”
(LIA[24] 242)[25].The sub-headings in Tender Buttons are misleading for what follows ‘Salad’, ‘Milk’, ‘Eggs’,
‘Apple’ or ‘A Box’ is anything but a definition of the thing. She uproots words from their traditional meanings
and dismantles the relationship between the signifier and the signified for “… slowly if you feel what is inside
the thing you do not call it by the name by which it is known” (LIA 242)[25]. Stein expresses her distaste for
nouns, challenges the importance of grammar “Forget about grammar and think about potatoes” (HTW 13)
[26] and perceives the world in ambiguities, thereby challenging a monolithic epistemology which relies on
categories, causation and dichotomizing. The continuum which is created between language, content and
narrative form makes her work triply subversive and manifests her desire to leave Patriarchal Poetry “in pieces”
(PP 133) rather than “at peace”(PP 133).

Her radical work subverts the kind of coherent referential meaning we expect in literature “Sugar is not a
vegetable” (TB 2). The repetitive rhythm “is it so is it so is it so”(TB 21), verbal punning “A virgin is a whole
virgin is judged made” (TB 10) and word play “Eat ting” (TB 27) draws attention to the multiplicity of
meanings of the same word . The very phrase “Lifting Belly” serves as a wandering symbol which evokes new
semantic meanings to itself as a signifier throughout the poem. Compare this to the recurrence of the word ‘Jou’
(Still Life With Chair Caning, 1911-12) in Picasso’s paintings. Jou could refer to le Journal, the French for
newspaper but also Jouer the French word for play, which is undoubtedly what both Stein and Picasso intend to
do with the reader/onlooker.

Consider for instance Picasso’s Girl with the Mandolin (1910). One can glimpse a breast, an arc of the mandolin,
fingers and parts of the silhouette in the network of planes but reality is no longer fixed and irrevocable. The
degree of fragmentation has progressed so far that it is tough to ascertain the reference to reality. The planes are
in constant flux and the incomplete cubes on the left lend an aura of fluidity to the painting. Picasso depicts the
interaction between the animate and the inanimate in a way such that the subject is distorted and replaced by a
newer reality, which in essence comprises the painter’s vision. The melding of the animate with the inanimate
leads to a successful “interlocking of phenomena” (Berger 1965: 59) and successfully replaces a single definition
of reality with multiple interpretations.

The monochromatic colour scheme is suited to the presentation of multiple, complex views of the object, which is
now reduced to overlapping, opaque and transparent planes[28]. The simplification of the colour scheme by
Picasso provides a cue to Stein’s scrupulous avoidance of ornamental language consumed by the French
bourgeoisie under the Third Republic and mythical/allegorical references favoured by modernsists[29]. Stein
uses a limited vocabulary but creates a new syntax by omitting some parts of speech, duplicating others and
scrambling sentences. The conceptual complexity is highlighted by the taut architectonic structure which is built
using prosaic vocabulary[30].The minimalism helps the viewer concentrate on the artist’s primary interest- the
structure of the form itself.

Visual and verbal minimalism is complimented by the Cubists’ choice of trivial subject matter. In Tender Buttons
Stein’s implicit critique of the exclusion of domesticity and ordinary language from high modernist art takes the
form of undoing definitional and prescriptive patterns in reference to everyday objects, utensils, meals and living
spaces. In a similar fashion Picasso’s Girl with the Mandolin, much like Braque’s Woman with Guitar (1913),
depicts his lover playing a stringed instrument[31]. The Cubist lack of ornamentation, aestheticization of the
ordinary and the commonplace and insistence on multiple perspectives ensures an inversion of the bourgeois
glorification of ‘high’ art.

The fleeting glimpses of the feminine form in Girl with the Mandolin guide the reader but Picasso’s painting,
like Stein’s poetry, is amenable to multiple interpretations: all partial, none complete. However Stein’s acausal,
fragmentary and indeterminate narrative helps her challenge not just traditional epistemology but also invert
social codes regarding gender and (hetero)sexuality. The process of writing the ‘body’ into the text allows for
Stein’s “shattering entry into history” (Cixous 250).

III) “Lifting Belly is a Language”: Cubist ‘Body’ Politics
Stein’s work becomes doubly disruptive for her deployment of radically divergent linguistic paradigms of
syntax, semantic renderings and structure is closely linked to her hyphenated identity as Jewish homosexual
feminist “let her be let her try”(PP 121). The non habitual rhythms of the text help her learn the new alphabet of
her body “Kiss my lips. She did” (LB 19) and the impression of language in a free state, free to coalesce in
unacceptable ways repressed by dominant discursive practices leads to the creation of a new linguistic entity.
The cyclical and repetitive nature of her poetry represents a “dynamic liberation from all static categories”
(Berger 1965: 60) and is closely linked to feminine subjectivity.

Stein’s poetry can be understood as a paradigmatic example of what Kristeva calls ‘autonarration’ for it derives
impetus from the triadic relationship between life, ideology and writing. The matrix between sexual identity,
power and masquerade, evident in her early works such as Lifting Belly (1915-17) and Pink Melon Joy (1915)
which foreground her articulation of a lesbian identity “I want to tell about fire” (LB 4), question
phallogocentrism and assert her identity as a linguistic subject. Lauretis in a discussion on Wittig’s The Lesbian
Body (1975) insists that her lesbian project helps in “reconstituting the ‘body’ in a new erotic economy,
relearning to know it by another semiotics” (Lauretis 166). In a similar fashion Stein’s sexual and aesthetic
politics link her struggle to rewrite the ‘body’ beyond pre-coded convention to the question of syntax.

A similar emancipation of the woman’s ‘body’ can be gauged in Picasso’s 1912 painting Nude- I love Eva which
marks a culmination of the gradual and inexorable flattening of pictorial space in Cubism. Here the painter’s
vocabulary seems to be regularized to exclusively rectilinear and curvilinear elements. Picasso’s canvas
undermines classical representations of the nude, which Clark promotes as the ideal for the representation of the
female body. The lack of erotic appeal is instrumental to the deconstruction of the traditional model[32] and the
revision of the female nude in art. What Mirzoeff terms the bodyscape now functions as a cluster of multiple
signs, dismantling the deeply embedded patriarchal idea of the woman’s body as a spectacle “to feed an
appetite” (Berger 1972: 55). The complex language of Picasso’s portraiture ensures that the woman’s body is no
longer an erotic object to be looked at. The continual shifting and rearrangement of planes and the lack of
traditional illusionistic devices which lends Cubism its complexity also has a corresponding effect of negating
what Mulvey calls fetishistic scopophilia. The sexual identity of the signatory then need not influence the
ideological leanings of the text completely. The freighted topos of Picasso’s paintings underlines the complex
ways in which “phallocentrism and logocentrism are indissoluble” (Derrida 59).

IV) “The conclusion came when there was no arrangement” (TB 31): Celebratin pluridimensionality
The sophisticated syntax of Cubism foregrounds a complex interchange between art and reality which redefines
spatial and temporal relations. Picasso’s canvases and Stein’s texts destabilize relationships between artist and
model, viewer and painting, reader and text, the self and the world. The lack of evolutionary coherence forces us
to accept an open ended text. These ‘writerly’ texts function as communicative acts which initiate a dialogue
with the reader/spectator who is “no longer a consumer but a producer of the text” (Barthes 6) and reconstructs
them in infinite ways. Lifting Belly for instance lacks a stable authoritative centre. The dialogue at the beginning
of the poem “Do not forget that I showed you the road” (LB 4) is marked by indeterminacy. Is the poetic
persona representative of Leo Stein? Is Gertrude Stein talking to Alice? Or is she addressing Picasso? The
overlapping planes of Picasso’s 1910 Nude reflect a similar ambiguity. Is there one woman? Who is the woman?
Where is her head? Where are her feet?

Stein’s repetitive, illogical and sparse punctuation, non-teleological narrative and pregnant pauses transcribe
Picasso’s aesthetic in words. Literary text and artistic style thus becomes interlocked. For the twenty first century
reader their works exist in a dialogue with each other. The presence of pluridimensionality in Picasso’s paintings
and Stein’s poetry challenges logocentric hegemony ”There are no arrangements” (TB 37). Interestingly there is
a celebration of this the crisis in narrative “A whole inside a part” (TB 29) which makes Stein and Picasso unique
amongst modernists[33].

V) “What is the custom? The custom is in the centre” (TB 8): From Outlaw to Classic
Picasso and Stein thus are linked through shared vision and shared technique. The poems/paintings fashion a
counter-discourse as they make way for a deconstruction of the dominant discourse through syntax/ visual
imagery and try to enact a space different from the totalizing potential of patriarchal discourse.

The constitutive limitations of this alternative discourse are evident in the way both Picasso and Stein were co-
opted by bourgeois ethics. This subtle process of what Pierre Daix labels embourgeoisment marks the limits of
Cubism as a mode of cultural resistance. This is apparent in the shift which can be traced in Stein’s works. From
an overt acknowledgement of her lesbian desire in her early poetry “Lifting Belly is so gratifying”(LB 14) and
her love for Alice B. Toklas “ I love, cherish, idolize, adore and worship you”(LB 19) there is a shift to oblique
suggestion of eroticism in Patriarchal Poetry “wet inside and pink outside” (PP 121). Finally there is a complete
effacement of this erotic subtext in her later works including The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1937).

The only incident which mentions their relationship apes the heterosexual model of marriage “The geniuses
came and talked to Gertrude Stein and the wives came and sat with me” (ABT). Hints of this can be traced in
Lifting Belly as well where Stein assertively refers to Alice as “my wife” (LB 39) and insists “I am the man” (LB
51), voicing ownership a la patriarchal model. Similarly Picasso’s passionate disavowal of any programs and his
early refusal to exhibit, representative of his artistic rebelliousness was replaced by his constant presence at art
soireés in later years. This descent into a routinised, hierarchised economy of commodity production can also be
witnessed in Picasso’s adoption of a variegated palette after his (Analytical) Cubist phase and Stein’s reversion to
comprehensible texts such as The Autobiography of Alice. B. Toklas and Picasso[34], a far cry from the
obscurantism of her early days. The pioneering outlaws of the Parisian avant-garde eventually acquired the
contours of classics[35]. Stein perhaps foresaw this nuanced process whereby the eccentric ‘ex-centricity’ of an
anti-bourgeois libertarian gets transmuted into enshrinement by the Academy and eventual canonicity when
she said: “The creator of the new composition of art is an outlaw until he is a classic; there is barely a moment in
between…” (CE[36] 514).

For that historical moment, however, these two exemplars of the Parisian avant-garde successfully espoused an
assault on bourgeois order by their landmark aesthetic and semiological innovations, the fashioning of a new
space of social exchange and destabilizing the divide between public and private, aesthetic and commercial.
Cubist paintings and poetic techniques bespeak the energies of avant-garde innovation and an enthusiastic
embrace of ambiguity thereby recreating the syntax of art to provide the most fitting rendition of the twentieth
century experience of ‘modernity’. It is an examination of the cubist aesthetics of Gertrude Stein and Pablo
Picasso that paves way for an affirmative answer to the pertinent question: How far is it possible to conjoin
Modernity and Revolution?

[1] All quotes attributed to Kahnweiler, Vollard, Ruiz, Eugeni d’ Ors, Braque and Max Jacob are from the Appendix (I) to Josep Palau
i Fabre’s book titled Picasso Cubism 1907-1917 unless specified.

[2] Interestingly, both Pablo Picasso and Diego Ruiz were from Malaga and the latter penned his short story titled Contes d’un
Filosof in 1907, the year Picasso painted his monumental Les Demoiselles d’Avignon which heralded the advent of Cubism.

[3] “…counter –discourses are never sovereign” (Terdiman 18)

[4] Younger collectors with relatively modest means i.e. Denichéur peopled Paris. Many amonst them were exiles from other
countries: Gertrude Stein and Leo Stein from America, Wilhelm Uhde and Adolphe Baster from Germany, Vincene Kramar from
Prague. Their importance in the creation of the Parisian avant-garde cannot be disregarded.

[5] The artist’s biographer insists on the active role Gertrude Stein played in promoting the artist. Stein “helped to make Picasso’s
name known among those who could buy his works.” (O’Brien 140)

[6] The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

[7] See ABT. It is hard to overestimate the importance of Steins’ patronage. Picasso’s work was to be found at the shops of junk
dealers like Sagot before the Steins started investing in his paintings.

[8] I am not suggesting that this is the only way of reading Stein’s works. Wassestrom coins the word ‘sursymamericubealism’ to
denote the multiplicity of influences on her. However I intend to tease out the presence/absence of Cubist elements in Tender Buttons
(1914), Lifting Belly (1915-17), Patriarchal Poetry (1927), Picasso (1938) and The Autobiography of Alice B.Toklas (1937) and
trace a trajectory based on the years of composition (not printing).

[9] I will focus only on Picasso’s Analytical Cubist works. The word Cubism is used to describe his oeuvre between 1907 and 1912
within this paper.

[10] “When I say Cubists, of course it is understood that it was Picasso with his Les Demoiselles d’Avignon who was the first”
(Max Jacob, letter to Réne Rimbert, March 1922)

[11] I use the word ‘narcissism’ to foreground both Stein’s and Picasso’s self-congratulatory nature. ”I have been the creative mind
of the century”, “Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and me” (Stein qtd Kostelanetz), “I (Picasso) do paint better
than he (Toulouse Lautrec) did” (ABT 10).

[12] It is Gertrude Stein’s usurpation of traditionally ‘masculine’ domains as a producer of literature and connoisseur of avant-garde
that ensured her prominence within the avant-garde community.

[13] To people who insisted that Stein did not look like the depiction in her portrait, Picasso is reported to have said “she will”.

[14] “… to paint seeking a new expression, divested of useless realism, with a method linked only to my thought, without enslaving
myself or associating myself with objective reality”(Picasso qtd. O’Brien)

[15] Patriarchal Poetry.

[16] In ‘Pictures’ (Lectures in America) Stein insists on calling Cézanne the original muse of her career.
Picasso is said to have told Brassai “He was my one and only master… Cezanne” (Picasso qtd. O’Brien) while the Cubist manifesto
of 1912 claims “He who understands Cezanne, is close to Cubism”(Glizes and Metzinger 4)

[17] Notice the omission of detail and the defamiliarisation of landscape (houses atop the trees and fields atop the sky) in Mont Saint-
Victoire (1882-85)

[18] Louis Vauxcelles first used the word Cubism in 1908 on seeing one of Braque’s paintings which he described as being ‘full of

[19] Recent readings suggest that the representation of women in Les demoiselles cannot be considered unambiguously misogynist.
Patricia Leighton, in a provocative reading, boldly argues that Picasso’s use of African sculpture is reflective of his sympathies for
anti-colonialist efforts. The purpose behind this de-idealisation of the human form, according to Leighton “was to evoke a larger
Africa, with all its associations of Colonial exploitation, legalized slavery and resistance to French Rule” (Leighton 234).

[20] French feminism sits well with Stein’s writing for both represent an “anti-bourgeois form of libertarianism” (Moi 177) and insist
that the feminine cannot be inscribed in common language. The resultant obscurantism, paradigmatic of Stein’s poetry is thus

[21] Stein’s anticipates Wittig “The language you speak is made of words that are killing you” (Les Guerrillers 122) and Irigaray
“Hers are contradictory words, somewhat mad from the standpoint of reason, inaudible for whoever listens to them with ready-made
grids” (This Sex Which Is Not One 29).

[22] Berger insists that Picasso’s paintings, in their need to destruct ‘everything’, echo an Anarchism which is typical of late
nineteenth-early twentieth century Spain.

[23] Lectures in America.

[24] This interest in linguistics could be a result of William James’ influence on Stein. James who taught Stein at Harvard, broods on
similar themes in Psychology “We ought to say a feeling of and, a feeling of if, a feeling of but and a feeling of by as readily as we
say a feeling of blue and a feeling of cold” (James qtd. Levinson)

[25] This mirrors Picasso’s comment: “The label apple green on a tube on paint… is neither an apple nor the colour, but an
assemblage of words, a label good for setting you off the track” (Picasso qtd. Sabartés)

[26] How to Write.

[27] The faceted planes of Picasso’s Cubist portraits, although similar throughout a painting, refer to different elements of a motif in
different areas.

[28] Eugeni d’Ors laments this minimalism in La Veu de Catalunya when he exclaims: “Art was so beautiful under Impressionism…
indolence and sensuality, colours and voluptuousness… now we are in Lent”

[29] William Carlos Williams observed that Stein succeeds in disentangling words from the weight of history, “the burden science,
philosophy and every higgledy-piggledy figment of law and order they had been laying on them in the past”(Williams 116)

[30] Linguistic compression links Stein to Imagist writers including Pound and H.D. However, Stein’s work is characterized by a
polyvocality which defies all monolithic labels (modern, post-modern, feminist etc).

[31] Both Braque and Picasso worked in close collaboration, which is one reason why their paintings are hardly distinguishable. “We
lived in Montamarte, we saw each other everyday, we spoke. During those years Picasso and I said to each other things that noone
else would ever say again… that no one could ever understand” (Braque)

[32] For Pollock it is this dismantling of traditional expectations which is intrinsic to empowering art painted by women. This could
be the reason behind the adoption of Picasso’s Cubist strategies by women like Tamara de Lempicka ( See Reclining Nude and
Seated Nude)

[33] I have in mind Eliot’s metaphor of rebirth in The Wasteland and Woolf’s deployment of the trope of the party in Mrs. Dalloway
as literary stratagems which lend coherence to essentially fractured ‘modernist’ narratives.

[34] Stein wrote three portraits of Picasso. The early portraits (1911 an 1923) are characterized by linguistic experimentation
“shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters…” (If I Told Him 1) but her later work titled Picasso (1938) is marked
by a stark absence of any experimentation whatsoever.

[35] This is evident in the increasing number of dealers (Sergei Shchukin, Frank Haviland, Roger Dutilleul) who were interested in
purchasing Cubist masterpieces as opposed to the earlier distaste for them.

[36] Composition as Explanation.

Works cited

Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974.

Berger, John. The Success and the Failure of Picasso. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.

—. Ways of Seeing. London: BBC and Penguin, 1972.

Braque, George. Illustrated Notebooks 1917-1955. Trans. Stanley Applebaum. New
York: Dover Publications ,1971.

Cixous, Helene.”The Laugh of the Medusa”. New French Feminisms: An Anthology. Ed.
Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron. Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1980. pp. 245-264.

Clark, Kenneth. The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form. London: John Murray Ltd., 1957.

Daix, Pierre. Picasso: The Cubist Years 1907-1916 A Catalogue Raisonne of the
Paintings and Related Works. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979.

DeKoven, Marianne. “Gertrude Stein and Modern Painting: Beyond Literary Cubism”.
Contemporary Literature, Vol. 22, No. 1. Winter, 1981, pp. 81-95.

Derrida, Jacques. Acts of Literature. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. “Sexual Linguistics : Gender, Language and
Sexuality”. New Literary History, Vol. 16, No. 3. Spring 1985, pp.515-543.

Gleizes, Albert and Jean Metzinger. “Cubism”. Modern Artists on Art. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall Inc., 1964. pp. 1-18.

Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which Is Not One. Trans. Catherine Martin. New York: Cornell
University Press, 1985.

Kristeva, Julia. “Revolution in Poetic Language” in The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. pp. 89-135.

Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema”. Visual and Other Pleasures.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Laurentis, Teresa. “Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation”. Theatre Journal.
Vol. 40, No.2 . May 1988, pp. 155-77.

Leighton, Patricia. “The White Peril and L’art Negre: Picasso, Primitivism and Anti-
colonialism”. Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History. Ed
Kimberly N. Pinderly. New York: Routledge, 2002. pp. 233-260.

Levinson, Ronald. Gertrude Stein, William James and Grammar”. The American Journal
of Psychology, Vol. 54, No. 1.Jan 1941, pp 124-128.

Lubar, Robert. “Unmasking Pablo’s Getrude : Queer Desire and the Subject of
Portraiture”. The Art Bulletin. Vol. 79, No. 1, March 1997, pp. 56-84.

Malraux, André. Picasso’s Mask. Trans. June Guicharnaud. Da Capo Press: New York,

McDonald, Helen. Erotic Ambiguities-The Female Nude in Art. London: Routledge,

Mirzoeff, N. Bodyscape: Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure. London: Routledge, 1995.

Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics. New York: Routledge, 2002.

O’Brian, Patrick. Pablo Ruiz. Picasso: A Biography. London : The Harvill Press, 1997.

Parker, R and Pollock, G. Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology, London: Routledge
and Regan Paul, 1981.

Pitchford, Nicola. “Unlikely Modernism, Unlikely Post-Modernism: Stein’s Tender
Buttons”. American Literary History, Vol. 11, No. 4. Winter 1999, pp. 642-667.

Rosenblum, Robert. Cubism and Twentieth Century Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams
Inc., 1960.

Shapiro, Theda. Painters and Politics : The European Avant Garde and Society: 1900-
1925. New York: Elsevier, 1976.

Stein, Gertrude. “Composition as Explanation”. Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein. Ed.
Carl Van Vechten. New York: Random House Inc., 1945. pp. 511-524.


Combatting landowners' urge to shoot, shovel and shut-up

Posted: Mar 20, 2018

Many homeowners understand the headaches that accompany zoning laws in their neighborhood.  Law-abiding citizens attempting to comply with these laws find themselves immersed in a bureaucratic tangle of paperwork, waiting periods, and permit fees for simple things like building a tool shed.  Those that skirt zoning requirements face penalties and fines.  What if you had the opportunity to avoid this mess?  How far would you go?

Some landowners who face harsh restrictions under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have taken drastic steps to prevent being subjected to further regulations.  Landowners in North Carolina cut down pine trees before they reached maturity to discourage the red-cockaded woodpecker from nesting.  Ranchers in Idaho developed the mantra of “shoot, shovel and shut-up” to deal with pesky grey wolves.

These individuals are not enemies of the environment and many would enjoy the sight of a rare animal on their land.  However, the difficulties they face if an endangered species settles on their property turns that animal sighting from wonderment to woe.  If a person’s land is pegged as critical habitat, they face restrictions, devaluation of their property, and stiff penalties if they don’t cooperate.  Property rights advocates resent this heavy burden that private parties are forced to bear in the name of the “public good.”

The government faces an even trickier situation when attempting to save candidate species not yet listed as endangered.  Though candidate species face serious threats to their survival, higher priority animals prevent candidates from being listed and gaining the protection of the ESA.  Consequently, landowners whose actions adversely affect candidate species do not face any repercussions for their actions.  The fate of these species rests entirely upon the voluntary actions of citizens, though many are reluctant to provide sanctuary to animals that may cause them a heap of trouble in the future.

Federal agencies, lacking the stick of the ESA, are increasingly turning to carrots to entice private landowners to take up conservation efforts.  The Department of Interior (DOI) is considering expanding voluntary incentive programs to partner with landowners in protecting land for candidate species.  With seventy percent of all land in the United States privately owned, these partnerships are essential to combat habitat destruction and reverse declining population trends before they reach a tipping point.

Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) are among the tools that agencies have used to encourage land conservation.  For an HCP, land developers must submit a plan detailing the environmental impacts of their project and how they will mitigate those impacts.  Mitigation can take the form of payments to a conservation fund, restoration of degraded habitat, or the preservation of suitable land.

In exchange, developers receive “no surprises” assurances that they will not be forced to take further action or commit additional resources if the candidate species is listed as endangered in the future.  An incidental take permit may be issued, which protects developers by allowing a certain amount of harm to a species if it were to be listed.  As long as the conditions of the HCPs are met, the binding agreements will be honored, even in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

Although I support the use of HCPs, they must be designed to adapt with changing conditions.  The “no surprises” assurances may prove too restrictive and instead should remain flexible to respond to changes in the environment or new information about a species.  Negotiations should include room for adaptive management strategies that are tied to specific goals, such as providing a suitable habitat for a certain number of animals.  Obligations to achieve these goals can be altered to address new circumstances.  Limiting the regulatory certainty provided by HCPs may impact their attractiveness to developers, but agencies can combat this by guaranteeing no further commitments will be sought for a limited period of time, such as 10-15 years.
The DOI has also suggested the use of “conservation banks” as a way to improve the mitigation efforts required by HCPs.  Conservation banks are for-profit entities that permanently protect land to benefit a species in exchange for habitat credits.  A number of states, particularly California, have used banks to successfully preserve wetlands.  These banks can conserve land by either purchasing and managing it themselves or buying conservation easements on the land of individuals.  Easements give the bank the authority to ensure that conservation efforts are permanently maintained, but without retaining title to the land.  The one-time credits they have earned can be sold to developers seeking to off-set their environmental impact.

Conservation banks can help consolidate mitigation efforts and provide meaningful habitat protection.  Critics say this is nothing more than paying to pollute, but banks have several advantages over individual conservation efforts.  Banks have the ability to preserve large swathes of land, not small isolated parcels that may not provide quality habitat.  And unlike mitigation efforts by developers, who promise only to preserve land for the duration of the HCP, credits are only issued for permanent conservation efforts.  This ensures that species will be protected both now and in the future.

Banks also offer advantages to federal agencies that are given the task of overseeing conservation efforts.  Agencies can focus efforts on just a few banks instead of individual developers, making it easier to implement regional conservation plans and monitor compliance more efficiently.  Controlling the amount of available credits is also a simple way to limit development in critical areas and reward bank owners with a higher price.  As long as banks are closely monitored and the market price sufficiently represents the true cost of development, they offer a better alternative than individual mitigation plans.

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) are another incentive program that works in a similar way to HCPs, but instead rewards individual landowners who take measures to improve their own land.  Landowners can take proactive measures to improve the habitability of their land in order to attract candidate species.  As long as these improvements are maintained, they will not face further restrictions if the species becomes listed.

CCAA’s have the same pitfalls as HCPs as far as their rigidity and impermanence.  CCAAs give too much regulatory certainty for measures which may not provide the benefit to the species as originally sought.  An alternative to CCAAs are conservation grants which provide monetary incentives to landowners seeking to improve the habitability of their land.  If landowners agree to complete and maintain approved projects, the government will split the bill.  Although more costly, they provide permanent projects that can be adapted to meet species needs without relinquishing future regulatory authority.

Although HCPs and CCAAs can both be successful, there is a risk of overusing them.  The assurances in these agreements will severely limit the protections afforded to a species if they become listed as endangered.  If measures taken by developers come up short, an extensive array of assurances will tie the government’s hands and make further conservation measures impossible.  Agencies will lose their stick if the carrots don’t work.

The DOI should utilize all of the tools in their toolbox to encourage landowners' voluntary conservation efforts.  When past experiences have proven that certain conservation techniques will be effective, limited assurances for landowners that undertake such measures are appropriate.  However, the DOI should not prematurely sign away their ability to combat future habitat destruction for unproven short-term gains today.  Voluntary incentives should be used to compliment the ESA, not contract it out of existence.

Another danger of these incentive programs is their influence on whether a species should be listed as endangered.  The Policy for Evaluation of Conservation Efforts When Making Listing Decisions (PECE) allows agencies to consider protection measures that have not proven effective or have not yet been implemented when a species is up for review.  A recent decision not to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered was due to these existing voluntary agreements.
Listing decisions should be based on the best available scientific data, not on shaky voluntary agreements that may produce results sometime in the future.  The incentive programs the DOI is proposing will certainly aid in enlisting private landowners to step-up conservation efforts, but they may not always be enough.  The powerful protections provided by the ESA give federal agencies a significant weapon to implement habitat protection if necessary.  Dangling carrots can move efforts forward, but the government should not be afraid to use their stick too.

The DOI is seeking comments from the public as part of a public process to expand voluntary partnerships with landowners.  Comments on ways to make existing conservation tools more effective and how to improve incentives will be accepted until July 13th.

Learn more about this proposal and leave a comment for the DOI.

~Brian O'Neill

Copyright © 2018 Red Lodge Clearinghouse. All rights reserved.


The SimpsInns franchise owns various hotels and restaurants across Ayrshire. Last week we went to Si in Irvine and I ordered more or less the same thing. The chef at Gailes did it better. The beef was succulent and the Yorkshire pudding perfect at Gailes. At Si, unfortunately, it was a dried out version with a slightly charred Yorkshire. Consistency between establishments is difficult to pull off and it all comes down to who is working on any given day. On this experience, it would be Gailes for us next time.


Phage therapy shown to kill drug-resistant superbug

A team of scientists at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health have developed a form of “phage” therapy that could be a safe and effective alternative to antibiotic therapy for the treatment of patients with chronic cystic fibrosis lung infections.

For my readers who are wondering, “What are phages?” I will go into detail of these remarkable creatures and what their role is with bacteria.  But first, I am pretty sure that everyone at least once in their lifetime or more realistically, once a season, has come down with the flu.  The flu is caused by the influenza virus.

A virus is a parasite that only has one mission in life: self-replication.  Viruses are not technically alive because they need a host cell to replicate.  When a virus infects a cell, its genetic makeup hijacks the cell’s machinery and tells it to make more viruses.  Once the cell is full of viruses, the cell lyses and dies, and releases more viruses into the bloodstream looking for more cells to infect.  A phage (real name = bacteriophage) is a virus that infects bacteria.

A phage looks like an alien creature from another planet.  The phage is made up of a bulbous head and a tail.  Once the phage lands on a bacterium, it injects its genomic makeup into the host in order for replication. This process is broken up into two major, yet different cycles: the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle.  The lytic cycle is highlighted by the hijacking of the bacterium in order to make duplicates of the phages.  Similar to the virus mentioned previously, once the cell is full of phages it explodes (lyses) and the phages look for more bacteria to infect.  The lysogenic cycle is when the phage inserts its own DNA into the bacterial chromosome.  This allows the phage to reproduce without killing the host cell.  The phage (now called a prophage) can be copied and passed on along with the cell’s own DNA.  Each cycle has pros and cons, but for this blog we will omit these and concentrate on the lytic cycle.

Now that we understand how phages work, let’s look closer into the groundbreaking discovery made by the scientists.  Because of the increased ineffectiveness of antibiotics due to over prescribing, chronic lung infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa have become more difficult to treat.  The team of scientists has shown that phage therapy is extremely effective in treating established multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa strains. The study showed that phages are capable of killing the bacteria in infected lungs.  Especially promising was the effectiveness of treating patients who suffer from inherited disease cystic fibrosis.

By comparing the benefits of phage therapy versus antibiotic therapy, we find a clear winner.  Patients who suffer from cystic fibrosis undergo life-long treatment of various antibiotics and often, these antibiotics prove ineffective and have numerous side effects.  Phage therapy, on the other hand, carries no such stigma.  Phages only attack bacterial cells while leaving the host’s human cells intact.  This is promising since these antibiotic resistant “superbugs” are becoming more numerous and certain strains are only treatable with a cocktail (two or more) of antibiotics.

Hopefully, phage therapy will get the funding it needs in order to prove this strategy on a larger scale.  Unfortunately, big pharma is a multi-billion dollar proposition annually and there might be significant hurdles to overcome before this type of phage therapy becomes commonplace.

Disclaimer:  “Any opinions stated in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CSUN faculty/ staff. Information contained herein has not been verified by CSUN faculty/staff.

Image source:

Image source disclaimer:  Images and Videos on Pixabay are released under Creative Commons CC0. To the extent possible under law, uploaders of Pixabay have waived their copyright and related or neighboring rights to these Images and Videos


"To get back up to the shining world from there,
My guide and I went into that hidden tunnel,

And following its path, we took no care
To rest, but climbed: he first, then I-so far,

through a round aperture I saw appear,

Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears..."

-- Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Tucked away in the Icelandic highlands, in the Reykjanes peninsula off of route 380 lies a lava tube heralded as one of the "World's most thrilling hikes" according to National Geographic, but you could never find it in a thousand years.  Luckily for the world and speleologists, Bjorn Hroarsson did his geologic homework and found something -- literally -- between 1,000 and 9,000 years old. Bjorn (the founder of my tour company) followed a hunch in the new millennium. He poked around the Leitahraun lava fields and, eventually in 2005, decided to have a closer look at a fold in the landscape. Bjorn shoved himself through an unassuming hole in the earth, obscured by boulders and only large enough for Iceland's huldufólk, and laid claim to an underground marvel.
Extreme Iceland's yellow family van on steroids bounced up the hillside making the seven of us feel like rag dolls being tossed around. Atop the bluff, the wind whipped and the sun highlighted the ocean in the distance.  Kai (from Singapore), Lorelei (from the USA), Cristobal + Nerea (from Spain), Atli + Jön (locals), and I marched through the volcanic moss along a sheep trail toward the famous Búri lava tube.
At its inngangur a.k.a. entrance I removed my backpack, put on the complimentary wool gloves, clicked the heavy LED flashlight on, cinched the chinstrap on my helmet, then lowered myself into total darkness.  With the aid of a smattering of sunlight and the intense LED lights from my fellow hikers, I saw Búri's (pronounced "Boo-ree") frozen wonderland.  Like hundreds of tree stumps rising from the earth, a montage of ice formations covered the floor.  Cold water constantly dripped from the ceiling, creating formations and columns taller than me. Though it looked crystalline and cracked, the ice was actually sturdy. We walked across thick slabs of it that coated the rocky terrain, and wide stalagmites blocked the way so our guide, Jön, lead us up a higher path which made for pretty, panoramic views.
Not far from the grand inngangur, the ice formations ceased.  We were abandoning the surface -- the only place moisture could penetrate Búri.  The toothy terrain continued deeper and remained a vibrant ochre -- a color not commonly seen above the surface in Iceland.   Due to the acute angles of the boulders, they treacherously teetered under my weight which made each step a balancing act and time-consuming process.  At some point, every one of us slipped.  Up, down, up, down.  The way stressed my knees and ankles.  There was so much labor involved in navigating the debris I was sticky with sweat & quickly shed my wool gloves.  I placed my steaming hands on the rocks used to steady myself, to absorb their coolness, but at a price: the sharp, porous lava rock blistered my thumbs & cut my palms.
Búri certainly was not for the claustrophobic!  After the birth through the narrow passageway at the surface, space only became tighter as my group travailed onward.  Twice, we were bottle-necked to another aperture in the boulders, and the latter obstacle was downright suffocating. I imagined Bjorn arriving at this point on his initial journey & poking his head through, to affirm that Búri persisted.  Throughout the lava tube the detritus nearly touched the ceiling. I counted my helmet as the biggest blessing (over my sturdy Columbia boots, camera & water) since I repeatedly bonked my head on a multitude of natural objects: the convex ceiling, a protruding ledge, a side wall that funneled inward. Glancing ahead it was hard to differentiate between the ground, walls and ceiling, since they blended in a monochromatic sea of chaos.
Yet, the underworld revealed unexpected gems.  Other warm colors were introduced to the florid landscape.  Bright yellows & oranges mixed with the burnt sienna and resembled a fiery rainbow. The lava tunnel also yielded unusual patterns and textures: concentric circles, veins, rippled valleys, wrinkled skin, brain, streaks and sinew.  Búri was beginning to reveal its dignified wonders.
But there are plenty of places in the world to see prettily colored rock and delve beneath the Earth.  Midway, the vivid colors faded to a charcoal and the rock bore a metallic coating, almost like Quicksilver!  Unlike the jagged rocks I traversed in the past hour, the surfaces in this section of the lava tunnel were smooth with a silver glean.  One gjá a.k.a. fissure looked precisely sliced in half by the huldufólk's knife.  Here was Búri's masterpiece: sculpted by magma eras ago, silver nipples hung from the ceiling & hardened as they dripped down the walls.  Lava once violently pushed through here, covering everything in a purplish-silver gloss.  As the force and volume subsided, the lava still flowed like a river through the tunnel & the emanated heat began to melt the cooling liquid on the upper half of it.  Thus, the magma stalactites formed.  At our feet, we saw the erosive magma's path of least resistance.
With one final pitch, my group ascended a massive pile of rubble.  Abject and drenched in sweat I wasn't sure how much longer I could trod through Búri's intestines.  Like a Godsend, the floor leveled out and most of the stones that littered it thus far simply vanished.  I felt an indescribably relief to be able to hike upright & on solid ground.  If we were suffocating in the tube the last two hours, these last 200 yards felt like pure freedom!  The ceiling rose to a staggering height and the walls quadrupled in width.  This was an underground Silfra Catherdral!
We followed the same route the lava carved, photographing the brutal marks scoured into the walls.  Clearly, something large was rakishly dragged across this plane by the powerful, moving magma.  Otherwise, the tunnel was incredibly circular and could have passed for a manmade subway line. But I never saw the lights of a subway train, only the faint LED glow of my group ahead.  The camera's flash perfectly captured the reddish-brown walls, but they looked completely different illuminated by only my flashlight.
Jön came to a final halt.  A vertical, 17 meter a.k.a. 58 foot pit blocked the way. We could go no further unless -- like Bjorn -- we carried climbing gear.  However, below us & unseen, Búri endured.  After the drop off the lava tunnel burrowed for 400 meters then abruptly stopped.  Where the lava displaced, no one knew. So, we gratefully sat down, ate lunch, and shared stories by flashlight.  Positioned at the back of the group, I left a healthy distance between myself & the abyss since my LED only highlighted what it was directly aimed at.  In fact, we turned off the lights & even with eyes open, the world was the blackest of black.
After the culmination of Búri, the group & I retraced our steps, returning hours later to the picturesque Icelandic day above the surface.  Unfortunately, "The cave is now closed until further notice,"  as stated on the tour company's website; the reasoning not supplied.  Perhaps, it imploded or Bjorn returned to properly map its branches.  Regardless, Iceland's terrific geology and landscape above ground was also mirrored underground in Búri.


This occupation has a very high probability of automation.

87.0% probability

of automation

6.0% growth

projected to 2026

151,600 employed

currently in the US

$23,250 annual wage

US, median ($11.18 hourly)

What they do

Risk of automation

This occupation is 87.0% likely to be automated. It ranks 510 of 702 occupations analyzed (higher rank means higher likelihood).

People affected and economic value

In the US, 151,600 people have this job. They earn $23,250 per year on average (the mean annual wage). The occupation therefore represents $3,524,700,000 in annual economic value. The mean hourly wage for this occupation is $11.18.

Official growth forecast

This occupation is projected to grow 6.0% between 2016 and 2026. At this rate, there would be 160,600 people with this job at that time.

References and notes

This article uses data from "The Future of Employment" (PDF), a 2013 study from University of Oxford researchers, and US Bureau of Labor Statistics files including Standard Occupational Classification 2010 Definitions (XLS), May 2016 Occupational Employment Statistics (zip) and 2016-2026 Employment Projections (XLS).


Sam Sadigursky

Since moving to New York in 2002, SAM SADIGURSKY continues to make a mark as both a leader and sideman across a broad spectrum of musical landscapes. His series of four albums of original music based on poetry and text for New Amsterdam Records, entitled The Words Project, have been acclaimed internationally. Noted music critic Steve Smith called them "compelling and touchingly intimate… that rare anomaly: a jazz-and-poetry record that sounds utterly natural and convincing" and went on to name Sadigursky’s debut album as one of Time Out New York’s top ten albums of 2007.

Sam has toured and recorded as a clarinetist and saxophonist with artists as diverse as Brad Mehldau, Lucia Pulido, Gabriel Kahane, Tom Jones, Edmar Castaneda, Linda Oh, Fred Hersch, The Mingus Orchestra, Pablo Mayor’s Folklore Urbano, La Cumbiamba eNeYe, and fellow NewAm artist Darcy James Argue and Secret Society.

As a composer, he has written for film and modern dance and has also published three books of original etudes for clarinet and saxophone. He is the recipient of numerous grants from organizations such as Chamber Music America and the Jerome Foundation, appears on over twenty albums as a sideman, and has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Winter JazzFest (NYC), Moers Festival (Germany), BMW Jazz Festival (Brazil), Jazz al Parque (Bogota, Colombia), and Wangaratta Jazz Festival (Australia).

Molly Joycesam sadigursky


A multi-stop routing problem

The problem of determining the sequence of stops and the amount of load to carry in each segment route, named the Multi-Stop Routing Problem (MSRP) is addressed. A 0/1 mixed integer linear program and formulation refinements which facilitate the solution process are presented. Since the constraint set of the MSRP includes 0/1 mixed rows, valid inequalities… (More)
DOI: 10.1007/s10479-007-0252-7

2 Figures and Tables


Conserved region CR2 of Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen leader protein is a multifunctional domain that mediates self-association as well as nuclear localization and nuclear matrix association.

Self-association of viral proteins is important for many of their functions, including enzymatic, transcriptional, and transformational activities. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen leader protein (EBNA-LP) contains various numbers of W1W2 repeats and a unique carboxyl-terminal Y1Y2 domain. It was reported that EBNA-LP associates with a variety of… (More)

7 Figures and Tables


The One Man Zelda Band
I love it when fans devote their time to the things they love. That's when you get stuff like this gem, where one man does all the parts of the famous Legend of Zelda theme. This is pretty incredible. I kind of heart him, and also his hats.


Talking with Merryl Jaye, an artist who captures on canvas the emotion and spontaneity of blues & Jazz

"Blues and jazz can and does exist today as deep feelings and sadness for inspiration never changes...We can all relate to situations that create the feeling of loss, loneliness and emptiness at different times in our lives..."

Merryl Jaye: Melodic Colors

Celebrated painter, Merryl Jaye's style is not only visionary, its irrevocably her own and unmistakably recognizable. Her beautiful scenic vistas evoke a romance and majesty of nature as if seen through the eye of a free-spirited impressionist who paints in today's world. She manages to capture an innate understanding and sensibility of light. Her love of brilliant color and unedited, painterly brushstrokes seem as if she could have daubed them onto her canvas on the left banks of Montemartre.

Raised in Southern California, Merryl began painting at age twelve. Fascinated by performing arts, she also studied and sang light opera, winning multiple scholarships. In her late teens, Merryl served her country by entertaining the troops in Vietnam with the USO. After a successful career as a songwriter, recording artist, and having appeared on stage and television, she chose to follow her true passion: painting.

Like her gift of music, Merryl's art has a harmony of composition. Her subject matter consists of people or places you feel you've known before.

Merryl's deep background in music is also a major influence in her artwork. This allows her the sensitivity and understanding to capture on canvas the emotion and spontaneity of jazz in live performance. Merryl began painting portraits of the jazz greats in 2005. Selected for their preeminence in their field, her subjects have been vividly rendered, using a fresh, contemporary, expressionistic style. This successfully harmonizes the twin mediums of art and music. She recreates an uncanny likeness of her subjects and even more importantly, captures their true essence.

Interview by Michael Limnios

Artwork © by Merryl Jaye / All rights reserved

When was your first desire to become involved in the painting and music and what does offer you?

As a child, I was naturally introverted. I found a friend in painting at about age 12. I was influenced and encouraged by an elderly next door neighbor who was taking painting classes and suggested I try following her course as she found I was so drawned to painting....My first paintings were surprisingly accurate and fluid that she continued to encourage me...This achievement gave me an early sense of purpose and happiness.

What characterize the philosophy of your art, how do you describe Merryl Jaye’s progress?

I was never one for planned academic schooling. My philosophy of art is one of natural discovery. Progress is as simple as the continued discoveries that are gained by just attacking and completing the next painting. Never stop moving forward...

"I particularly love to paint the faces of the black musicians for their pure original attributes."

What is line that connects the legacy of Jazz music and culture with the visual art and beyond?

In my most recent jazz portraitures, I feel the true connect with valued culture. This music holds our most important and deepest roots of our culture in artistic expression, as it is alive and organic. My attempt to capture the expressions of these jazz talents in motion is my main goal.

What first attracted you to the Blues & jazz music and how has changed your life?

My mother accidently discovered I could sing after insisting I take lessons as she thought it may help my shyness - music being an outward espression. I won a scholarship singing light opera at age 14. I ventured into many varied musical journeys from light opera, to musical comedy and later country and rock, but could never attain the looseness and spontaneity of blues and jazz.  Painting those very subjects, came easy to me and seemed a better way to achieve that thought. As I grew older, I naturally learned to loosen my strokes to properly capture that illusive spontaneity.  I’m not sure exactly how that happened, but I am grateful for the magic!

Some music styles can be fads but the blues & jazz are always with us. Why do think that is?

Perhaps the steadiness of the talents in blues and jazz and their ability to continue to grow with or without commercial success is a testament to their valued contributions in music. The explorations of improvisations make them unique. No other music has the daring and soul of change.

What are some of the most memorable drawing and paintings you've had?

I think my early and most fulfilling pieces are that of my Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, and Tom Waits paintings, for example. They came to my canvasses quickly and surprisingly satisfying. Tom Waits is many things rolled into one. His writings are experimental, deep and hauntingly beautiful, for a contemporary composer...something entirely different and unusual...Monk and Lester Young were also experimental geniuses in their time.

So to capture these talents properly and have them hanging here in my studio gives me great pleasure...I feel so rewarded when other viewers feel the same....

How does the music come out of your art? What kind of music you hear when you are on progress?

For me, music and art are a part of me...I must listen to music while I’m painting...I listen to classical music, I love the Russian composers, such as Rachmaninoff...I also listen to jazz musicians and singers, such as the great band leader Gerald Wilson, and Billie Holiday and also I love Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, and Miles Davis and many more....

B.B. King is a favorite of mine and Eric Clapton in the rock and blues arena.

Who from THE MUSICIANS you have drew and paint, had the easiest pure original attributes for your painting?

Would you mind telling me your most vivid memory from your inspiration to make a portrait? Which memory during of your progress makes you smile?

My most vivid memory of capturing a portrait comes from the close-up Lester Young painting...Its where I began to paint with the most emotion and spontaneous strokes to adapt to one of the most important jazz musicians of all time....I was in the "zone" of creativity that cannot be explained and surprised myself with the outcome!....Yes, that indeed, made me smile!!

Which of the musicians were the most “difficult” and which was the most “gifted” on brush, canvas and colors?

The most difficult for me to paint are the musicians that are not African American...For some reason, the African American faces are more interesting to tackle, not that they are more "gifted", but just seem to have more feeling in their faces.

What is it that draws (inspiration) you to paint an artist?

What inspires me to paint certain musicians is their individual importance to the jazz world. The special talents of these greats are unavoidable as they have each given something new and inventive to their craft.

What is it that makes different the person and personality of Jazz musicians that want to draw?

The personality of these jazz talents are often intertwined with their music...Luckily, I have met several...Bud Shank, was very down to earth as his music designates...Chick Corea, was friendly, open and spiritual, as his music is expansive and original and accessible.

When we talk about blues and jazz, we usually refer to memories and moments of the past. Do you believe in the existence of real blues jazz nowadays?

Yes, blues and jazz can and does exist today as  deep feelings  and  sadness for inspiration never changes...We can all relate  to situations that create the feeling of loss, loneliness and emptiness at different times in our lives....and out of that comes this rich music...

What are your hopes and fears for the future of art?

My hopes for the future of art are simple...Experiment and growth in subject and point of view is all important and should continue and will continue as always...My fears is the digitalization of art becomes too important...Organic art is always supreme and although experimentation in technology is an advancement of sorts, the two should never be confused....

What are the reasons to become Dizzy, Mingus, Parker, etc. a legendary generation that left it mark through the years until now?

No one musician can become the likeness of the past greats like Dizzy, and Parker...That's what so interesting about their music...there are no duplicates in their craft...The challenge is to always be original and make a mark of a new and exciting way to approach a musical thought...Hopefully there will always be new ideas that rise to the top and lead in a new and wonderful path.

The best moments of my career are the discoveries that come naturally and spontaneous in painting...I surprise myself from time to time with a painting that flies out quickly...and the audience response is equal to my delight...This came in a painting of jazz arranger and composer Johnny Mandel. The response to this piece has been rewarding.....

Of recent, I discovered an album by Joni Mitchell called "Both Sides Now" produced around 2000...I was moved and deeply touched by her natural approach to jazz as her readings of lyrics seem to be so real and straight from the soul. The years, and apparent smoking habits resulted in a sympatico deep and richer voice...I listen for hours to this one album while painting...I have done a couple of paintings of her and I will include the latest one I did last month.

How you would spend a day with BB King?

I adore B.B. King and would love to chat with him about his duo performance I was lucky enough to see with the great jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell...That was something...

What would you say to Coltrane?

If Coltrane allowed me to sit with him, I would just want to hear him talk to see what his thoughts would be about life in general, other than just music...

What would you like to ask Tom Waits?

To me Tom Waits is so brilliant and has such an expanded mind...again, I would just want to hear him talk...But I would ask him where he got his klezmer influence from...

The Art of Merryl Jaye - Official website

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The Nr. 1 rule of risk-taking

Wouldn’t it be incredible to have a sure-fire formula that you could rely on to work out if any proposed venture was going to be a success? No amount of market analysis or close monitoring of the stock market can lead to guaranteed accurate predictions about whether a new product, service or policy will achieve everything you hope it will. There is no calculation you can make, no analysis of facts and figures, which can ever definitively tell you whether or not a risk is worth taking. The very nature of a risk involves uncertainty.

So, if the decision of whether or not to take a risk cannot be decided based on facts and figures – how do great modern business leaders know when to take the leap and when to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground?

The answer is passion. If you truly believe in the direction you’re heading; if you believe that the success of this venture will make the world a better place; if you have a burning passion to share your vision and if you have the charisma to inspire that same passion in others – that is when you take the risk. Passion acts as a far greater guarantee than facts or figures could ever give. With enough passion, failures and set-backs are viewed only as learning tools and steps on the road to success. The drive and determination with which you pursue your goals are what success ultimately relies on.

Can Akdeniz


There is 0.59 mcg of Vitamin K in 1.0 serving 5 fl oz of Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white.

What does this chart mean?

If the only thing you ate today were Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white. You would have to eat 152.54 serving 5 fl ozs in order to get your 100% recommended daily value of 90mcg of Vitamin K.

Similarly, in order to get 50% (45mcg) of your daily recommended value of Vitamin K. You would have to eat 76.27 serving 5 fl ozs of Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white.

Additionally, you would have to eat 38.14 serving 5 fl ozs of Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white to get 25% (22.5mcg) of your recommended daily Vitamin K.

Ideally you should consume the same amount of Vitamin K daily.

Can Vitamin K affect my INR?

With an increase in Vitamin K, your INR could drop.

Where does Vitamin K come from?

Why is Vitamin K important?

  1. "Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white", NDB 14106, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Nutrient Data Laboratory. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, Accessed October, 2014.

Nutrition Calculator

Amount per serving (Alcoholic Beverage, Wine, Table, White)
Calories 120.54 Calories from fat 0.0
Total Nutrition
Vitamin K 0.59 µg
Total Fat 0.0(g)
Saturated Fat 0.0(g)
Trans Fat (g)*
Cholesterol 0.0mg
Sodium 7.35mg
Protein 0.1(g)
Carbohydrate 3.82(g)
Fiber 0.0(g)
Sugars 1.41(g)
Vitamin A 0.0µg
Vitamin C 0.0mg
Calcium 13.23 mg
Iron 0.4 mg
Vitamin B-6 0.07 mg
Vitamin B-12 0.0 µg
Niacin (Vitamin B-3) 0.16 mg
Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2) 0.02 mg
Vitamin D 0.0 IU
Vitamin K 0.59 µg
Vitamin E 0.0 mg
Potassium 104.37 mg
Caffeine 0.0 mg
Selenium 0.15 µg
Zinc 0.18 mg

Missing Nutrient Information:
  • Trans Fat

view more

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Humanistic Psychology Tips

Humanistic Psychology Tips has been rated 4.1 out of 5 based on 43 ratings and 1 user reviews.

Never Settle for Less!

Work is not really work for those who truly love what they are doing so, in the total scheme of things, you should strive to find who you really are and then allow yourself to do the things you want to do. This process of going all out is often called “Self Actualization." Simply put, self actualization means “to become more and more who one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming."
As a branch of psychology, the humanistic perspective allows for a more positive outlook (as compared to other branches such as psychoanalysis and behaviorism) and focuses on a person's potential, stressing growth and the desire to reach for self actualization.
This is why you should never settle for less because settling for less means you are not fully engaging yourself - you are not fully “self actualizing." When you settle for less, you are depriving yourself of one of the greatest satisfactions in life. Doing what you truly want to do will set you free whereas settling for less will only enslave you.
Quit working for a living and focus your energies on personal self actualization. Go out and become who you really are because then, and only then, will you produce great work.

What has been the impact of Humanistic Psychology on our culture?

The Impact of Humanism

Psychotherapies under the heading of Humanistic Psychology include; the Feldenkreis Method, bioenergetics, encounter therapy, rational-emotive therapy, reality therapy and conjoint family therapy, among several others. Even Jungian Psychoanalysis is counted as a Humanistic Psychology, in spite of the fact that it is also referred to as belonging to psychoanalytic psychology. Yet, Humanistic Psychology, or humanism, has had a much broader impact than only in psychotherapies and human growth activities. Humanism has affected the burgeoning evolution of holistic health care, the feminist movement and other aspects of political and societal change since the 1960s. It is popularly credited with concern for self-esteem and the concepts of self-actualization, among many other popular ideas.

What is Humanistic Psychology?

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology has been refereed to as the Third Force: The First Force refers to behaviorism, a belief in conditioning as the predominant cause of human behavior, and to psychoanalytic psychology as the Second Force, the belief that the primary source of human behavior is the unconscious. Humanistic Psychology is a somewhat eclectic amalgam of constructivist, existential, phenomenological, transpersonal, feminist and other psychological theories and therapeutic approaches that are linked together by certain beliefs and values. Its pioneers included Fritz Perls, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow during the 1950s and 60s, although some of the roots go back to existentialism. The link between these theories and approaches is the central concern for what it is to be human.

These tenets include, but are not limited to, the ideas that:

Life must be meaningful to the individual;

Human beings strive for wholeness;

Hope is necessary to life;

Creativity is an important, but higher order, phenomena;

The components of human psychological and physiological wellness;

The core of each person is good;

Each individual is unique;

There is a self to each person; and

That each human is always in a process of development.

Humanistic Psychology usually takes a qualitative approach to research, rather than a quantitative one. It was originally a psychology developed in reaction to what those in Humanistic Psychology saw as the mechanistic views of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Humanistic Psychology is more apt to accept the subjective views of human beings about their experiences. It has had a far-reaching impact on our culture.

How is self-actualization related to humanistic psychology?

Self-Actualization is a widely used term that grew from Humanistic Psychology, and was coined by Abraham Maslow. He believed that once an individual's more basic needs are met, self-actualization is the natural goal towards which a person strives. The definition of self-actualization is reaching one's potential for maturity and mental health through exploration of the self and her or his environment. Self-actualization has had a significant impact on education.

What has been the impact of humanistic psychology on education?

Humanistic Psychology and Education

Although the height of the influence of Humanistic Psychology on education occurred during the 1970s with several educational experiments, such as open classrooms, other aspects of that impact remain in force. The ideas of curricular choice, learning opportunities concerning the arts, learning communities, and encouragement of creativity within the schools were borrowed from Humanistic Psychology. Perhaps most importantly, whether actually originated within Humanistic Psychology or expanded by it, the importance of the individual student is considered a focus of modern education.

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Jolyn Wells-Moran
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17th. C. Epoque Louis XIV walnut table
17th. C. Cabinet
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shop view
shop view
L XV buffet
wood sculpted panel
italian chest of drawers
khmer ceramics
19th C bleached oak dresser
pair of javanese herons
19th. C. wood sculpted freeze original paint
wood sculpted ornaments
19th. C. Decorative Louis XVI pannel
cast iron statue
sculpted ornament
french tole jardiniere
french 16th C stone angel
cast iron statues
industrial lamp
16th./17th. C. celadon ( shipwreck finds)
khmer bayon ceramics ( 11th./ 15th C.)
late 17th. C. wooden statue
18th C spanish table ( walnut ) 17th C spanish chair ( original leather, 17 th C flemish ebonized mirror, etc
han dy grannery, 15 th & 16th C stone fragmented sculptures
gustavian cupboard
17th. C. spanish armchair
dayak skull
early 19th. C. Koran panel
19th. C swedish bowl
early 19th.C. little box original blue colour
louis xv sofa
barok table
whale rib
19th. C. Empire cast iron vazes original patina H 30cm
swedish bench
swedish day bed
italian armchair walnut
wall candle ornament
18th. C. chest of drawers
swedish desk
bleached oak table
early 18th C swedish barock table
swedish rococo table
19th. C. candle stick
late 18 th. c. LXV side - console table
LXV console table bleached oak / nice marble
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centre table
kitchen island
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McIntosh, P. (2010). Action Research and Reflective Practice. Creative and visual methods to facilitate reflection and learning. London & New York: Routledge. 196 pages.

The importance and contribution of reflection to the development and improvement of practice in education, healthcare and social sciences is increasingly revealed and recognised. At the same time, educational action research and the relevant dialogue and reflection practices are constantly and increasingly utilised for investigating, understanding and improving the educational act. McIntosh notes this interesting, in terms of epistemology and research, coincidence in his book, proposing new creative and innovative ways to revitalise and theoretically reinforce action research.

The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, the author sets the ground for the second part, addressing different versions of reflective practice and seeking its connection to educational action research and the theory of conscious and subconscious in terms of moving from implicit to explicit and to realising one’s own personal educational theory.

In the second part, McIntosh gives specific examples to address the concept of critical creativity, promoting it as the basis for reflection and connecting it to reforming action research. After defining the concept of creativity and studying its development by utilising metaphors, symbols, and dialectic practices, he proposes a conceptual framework which opens the perspective of knowledge and reform by utilising creativity in action research and reflective practices. In the last chapter of the book, the author claims that although practical research marks the passing from a positivist approach to a mainly subjective/interpretative view of reality, it can still lead to valid documentation, if creative methods are employed.

With his “live” examples and the supporting theory, McIntosh attempts to provide the stimuli that will propel readers towards creative practical research, turning them into critical, reflective and creative action researchers.

This book is quite different than similar scientific books, in terms of its subject, structure and development. For all of the above reasons, this book proves both a pleasant read and a very fruitful book for undergraduate or postgraduate students, educators and social researchers.


Gaming Studio, Inc.

Authorizing Legislation

Gaming Studio regulated innovative wheel games for wagering

Minnesota 2018  [See the Bill HF3511]

This year Allied Charities of Minnesota is, not just endorsing, but directly carrying the legislation under direction from their general membership and board of directors.

Making existing charitable games more secure and accountable while also increasing the efficiency is a win for the state, the public spirited organizations seeking to fund laudable community activities and the civic-minded leaders who volunteer to lead by joining organizational boards of directors.

HF 3511 - What it Does in General

•  Reduces the amount of secured paper consumed (all of it imported into Minnesota) by allowing one ticket, printed on site, to contain all of a players selected wagers for each of up to ten consecutive spins, or in the case of a wheel used with a table, provides for the use of virtual tickets or chips for specific wagers - converted to a printed ticket for cashing out.  In both cases, the player must deliver a printed paper ticket to the cashier on site to collect winnings.

•  The value of very wager is recorded by computer, providing certain knowledge of gross wager per spin in real time.  This information is not known (for instance where every wager was placed) under the existing system.  Assurance that the wager was placed prior to the wheel being spun.

•  Alleviates the need to physically write payout amounts on each and every winning ticket.

•  Reduces the opening and closing work for organizations significantly.

•  All payouts are calculated by computer, reducing potential "human error."

•  Provides the Control Board with the explicit authority to scrutinize every element of electronic wheel games.  Currently there are no statutory electronic wheel game review processes.

•  Provides the use of symbols in addition to numerals on a wheel.  Symbols sometimes add a humorous element - like the very popular Pig Wheel™ in North Dakota.  So long as symbols are distinguishable, they should not be precluded.

HF 3511 - What it Does Not Do

•  Allow for player activated play.  Does not allow individual player terminals.

•  Does not allow for remote play.  You must be at the site and pay cash.

•  Does not increase the speed of the game play over the existing wheels.

•  Does not increase the bet limit over that currently allowed nor provide prizes above those allowed in Bingo, Pulltabs and Raffles.

Minnesota Electronic Wheel History

In 2016, we relied on assurance given by the co-sponsor of our bill who is chairman of the House Committee on Commerce and Regulatory Reform that H.F. 1798 would receive a timely (there are deadlines for bills passing out of committees) hearing if any gaming bills were heard in his committee.  Gaming bills were heard and passed, with an electronic raffle device authorization among them.  He stalled our bill  until after the deadline passed.  He offered an "informational hearing" (hearing without vote) after the deadline in order that we could hear opposition to our legislation.  The bill and transcript of testimony of the only two parties testifying against the bill is attached here.  As you read the opposition, you realize they had little knowledge of Minnesota paddlewheels used with tables - those in play over more than 30 years.  Tribes never argued that tribal casinos would be in any way injured by the proposed modification to wagering wheels.  Electronic bingo is played without the requirement of paper cards being used.  Electronic pull tabs are played without paper tickets being used.  So, why is this bill that reduces (allows those who prefer the existing table/tickets to continue) the use of paper tickets, provides greater regulation and reduces costs to organizations so different?  It isn't.

2017  In support of focusing on ACM's tax reduction efforts, the wheel legislation was not pursued.

No Official Committee Hearing Has Been Given Since 2012

North Dakota

Nokota Gaming System™ Statutorily Authorized in North Dakota

2019 Proposed ND Wheel Legislation

Other associated Websites

      Contact:          701-388-3266


Impulse-Control Disorders

Impulse control disorders are conditions where a person loses control over their impulses, doing something harmful to others and even to themselves. The acts of the individual are impulsive without a moment’s thought. The condition is very stressful to the individual as they find it hopeless to be in control of their life.

Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol addiction is a chronic condition characterized by dependence on alcohol and frequently resulting in behavioral and health consequences. Alcohol addiction, also known as alcoholism and alcohol dependence, is a progressive degenerative disease that includes the following four symptoms: tolerance, the loss of control, physical dependence, and... Read more about Alcohol Addiction

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder. It is a severe life-long condition recognized mainly by deficits in social functioning, communication, and activities and interests. It is characterized by a difficulty in learning proper social interactions and conventions, delays in language acquisition, and certain repetitive and stereotyped bodily movements and/or intense preoccupation with objects or parts of objects. Many people who have autism have difficulties with reciprocal conversations and... Read more about Autism

Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is considered to be a pathological state disorder where the use of drugs leads to addiction and acute cravings of the drug, which develops into a more chronic stage of drug-seeking behavior. The person addicted to drugs is highly vulnerable to relapse and to a decreased ability to respond to a rewarding... Read more about Drug Addiction

Gambling Addiction

Gambling addiction is considered to be a type of impulse-control disorder where an individual has a compulsion to gamble despite knowing it will lead to negative effects that can hurt their finances, social and personal relationships, and... Read more about Gambling Addiction

Impulse Control Disorder

Kleptomania is a strong desire to steal and belongs under the impulse control disorder category in the DSM IV TR. A Kleptomaniac usually steals items or things that they could normally afford to buy or things that are not very expensive. Persons with Kleptomania usually have the compulsion to steal not for any monetary value, but because of the thrill of doing so. This is what makes Kleptomania distinguishable from normal stealing, theft, or... Read more about Kleptomania

Pyromania is a condition characterized by the intentional setting of fires in order to derive pleasure or satisfaction and to relieve the tension that has built up prior to the setting of the fire. Pyromania comes from the Greek words pyro which means “fire” and mania meaning “loss of reason.” In DSM-IV-TR, Pyromania is classified as an impulse control disorder. This condition is marked by the failure of an individual to resist the impulse to set fire, which is distinctly different from the organized plan... Read more about Pyromania

Sexual Addiction

Sexual addiction, also known a progressive intimacy disorder, begins from a normal sex drive that becomes more obsessive in nature, to the extent of manifesting uncontrolled sexual behavior. Sexual addiction is also referred to as process addiction, as opposed to substance addiction seen from alcohol and substance abuse. The condition involves a euphoric feeling due to the release of chemicals from the brain instead from an external source. The sexual addiction can reach the extent of using pornography,... Read more about Sexual Addiction


The Body Digests Food, But Not Itself

by Jaleah Price, age 14

The digestive system is a process that involves many organs in the abdomen. The role of digestion is to convert food into useful material that provides the body energy, sustains growth, and repairs it when necessary. Digestion involves the mouth; esophagus; stomach; liver; gallbladder; pancreas; and the small and the large intestines.

Before food is digested, it must be chewed and swallowed in the mouth. Once the food is swallowed, it enters the esophagus, the tube that takes it to a stretchy, muscular bag called the stomach. This takes about 10 seconds. In the stomach, food is mixed with pepsin and hydrochloric acid and converted into thick liquid.

After food goes through the stomach, it is released into the small intestine where the bulk of digestion takes place. The small intestine is approximately 21 feet long. Food is pushed forward through the muscular walls of the esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestine in a forward motion; these contractions are called peristalses. In the small intestine, food combines with digestive juices from the liver, called bile. Bile breaks up fat and converts it into a soup like substance. Juices from the pancreas neutralize stomach acid and help digest carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

The small intestine takes six hours to break down food properly and absorb nutrients in its inner lining. This small intestine lining is covered with villi. Villi are fingerlike projections that increase the small intestine surface area and absorb food. Nutrients dissolve into fluids that pass through the villi, where they enter blood vessels and are transported into the body.

Undigested food enters the large intestine, measuring in five feet, which absorbs water and minerals. After 12-36 hours in the large intestine, semisolid feces are collected in the rectum and ultimately released. Gut bacteria eat and produce the waste in the large intestine and give off vitamins useful to the body.

The digestive process takes over 18-30 hours on average to complete. Organs do not digest themselves because the lining of the stomach and intestines is covered with mucus. Mucus helps food slide through different digestive organs, while protecting it from acid and enzymes. The lining of the organs do wear away, but they often renew themselves by producing new cells. Therefore, since the organs produce new cells, they do not go through the process of digesting themselves.

[Source: Encyclopedia]

Nicely done Jaleah!!! – Mr. CSOMS (2014-09-24 17:57)
Thanks for sharing. Your post is a useful coniitbutron. – JodiThanks for sharing. Your post is a useful coniitbutron. (2016-04-27 17:45)


, , ,

Reporting their analysis in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, tested four possible explanations for the January 2015 spike in mortality.

He added: “With an aging population, the NHS is ever more dependent on a well-functioning social care system. Yet social care has also faced severe cuts, with a 17% decrease in spending for older people since 2009, while the number of people aged 85 years and over has increased by 9%.”

Professor McKee continued: “The possibility that the cuts to health and social care are implicated in almost 30,000 excess deaths is one that needs further exploration. Given the relentless nature of the cuts, and potential link to rising mortality, we ask why is the search for a cause not being pursued with more urgency?”

Why has mortality in England and Wales been increasing? An iterative demographic analysis (DOI: 10.1177/0141076817693599) and What caused the spike in mortality in England and Wales in January 2015? (DOI: 10.1177/0141076817693600) by Lucinda Hiam, Danny Dorling, Dominic Harrison and Martin McKee, will be published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine at 00:05 hrs (UK time) on Friday 17 February 2017.

Source: https://www.rsm.ac.uk/about-us/media-information/2017-media-releases/new-analysis-links-30000-excess-deaths-in-2015-to-cuts-in-health-and-social-care.aspx