We all respond to boredom in different ways. Some may find a new hobby or interest, others may instead rip open a bag of crisps and binge watch a new Netflix show. Boredom may seem to you an everyday perhaps even trivial experience. Surprisingly, however, boredom has undergone quite a metamorphosis over the past couple of centuries.

Well before the word boredom cropped up in the English language, one of the earliest mentions of boredom is in a Latin poem by Lucretius (9955BC), who writes of the boring life of a rich Roman who flees to his country house only to be find himself equally bored there.

The first recorded mention of the word boredom in the English language seems to be in the British newspaper The Albion in 1829, in the (frankly impenetrable) sentence: Neither will I follow another precedental mode of boredom, and indulge in a laudatory apostrophe to the destinies which presided over my fashioning.

But the term was popularised by Charles Dickens, who famously used the term in Bleak House (1853) where the aristocrat Lady Dedlock says she has been bored to death by, variously, the trying weather, unremarkable musical and theatrical entertainment, and familiar scenery.

In fact, boredom became a popular theme in English Victorian writing, especially in describing the life of the upper class, whose boredom may reflect a privileged social standing. Dickens character James Harthouse (Hard Times, 1854), for example, seems to cherish perpetual boredom as indicative of his high breeding, declaring nothing but boredom during his life as military dragoon and on his many travels.

In the second part of the 19th century and during the early 20th century, boredom gained notoriety among existentialist writers. Their view of boredom was often less than flattering, and one that confronted all of humanity, not just the upper class with its presumably empty existence.

The early existentialist Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, for example, wrote: The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. This was, according to him, only the beginning of the trouble with boredom. It would eventually lead Adam and Eve to commit their original sin.

Unsurprisingly, Kierkegaard declared boredom to be the root of all evil. Several other existentialists shared this unfavourable view. Jean-Paul Sartre called boredom a leprosy of the soul, and Friedrich Nietzsche, agreeing with Kierkegaard, remarked that: The boredom of God on the seventh day of creation would be a subject for a great poet.

Arthur Schopenhauer took the cake when it came to being gloomy about boredom. According to him, the human capacity for boredom was nothing less than direct evidence for lifes ultimate lack of meaning. In his fittingly titled essay, Studies on Pessimism, he wrote:

The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy, and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom.

A world of boredom, the existentialists seemed to warn, is a world without purpose.

The 20th century witnessed the emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline. While our understanding of many emotions slowly increased, boredom was surprisingly left alone. What little psychological work on boredom existed was rather speculative, and more often than not excluded empirical data.

These accounts hardly painted a more positive picture of boredom than the existentialists. As recently as 1972, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm blatantly denounced boredom as perhaps the most important source of aggression and destructiveness today.

During the past few decades, however, the image of boredom has changed once more, and with it has come an appreciation of the hitherto discredited emotion. Development of better measurement tools allowed psychologists to examine boredom with greater accuracy, and experimental methods allowed researchers to induce boredom and examine its actual, rather than presumed, behavioural consequences.

This work reveals that boredom can indeed be problematic, as the existentialists assured us. Those who bore easily are more likely to be depressed and anxious, have a tendency to be aggressive, and perceive life as less meaningfull.

Yet, psychology uncovered also a much brighter side of boredom. Researchers found that boredom encourages a search for meaning in life, propels exploration, and inspires novelty seeking. It shows that boredom is not only a common but also a functional emotion that makes people reconsider what they are currently doing in favour of more rewarding alternatives, for example increasing creativity and prosocial tendencies.

In doing so, it seems that boredom helps to regulate our behaviour and prevents us from getting stuck in unrewarding situations for too long. Rather than merely a malady among the upper classes or an existential peril, boredom seems, instead, to be an important part of the psychological arsenal available to people in the pursuit a fulfilling life.

See more here:
Leprosy of the soul? A brief history of boredom - The Conversation UK

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "We never know what is enough until we know whats more than enough," said Aries singer Billie Holiday. I don't think that applies to everyone, although it's more likely to be true about the Aries tribe than maybe any other sign of the zodiac. And I'm guessing that the coming weeks could be a time when you will indeed be vivid proof of its validity. That's why I'm issuing a "Too Much of a Good Thing" alert for you. I don't think it'll be harmful to go a bit too far and get a little too much of the good things; it may even be wise and healthy to do so. But please don't go wa-a-ay-y-y-y too far and get wa-a-ay-y-y-y too much of the good things.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author Honor de Balzac (17991850) took many years to write The Human Comedy, an amalgam of 91 intertwined novels, stories, and essays. For this vast enterprise, he dreamed up the personalities of more than 2,000 characters, many of whom appeared in multiple volumes. I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I believe that the next 15 months will be an excellent time for you to imagine and carry out a Balzac-like project of your own. Do you have an inkling of what that might be? Now's a good time to start ruminating.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Not until the 19th century did humans begin to take organized actions to protect animals from cruelty. Even those were sparse. The latter part of the 20th century brought more concerted efforts to promote animal welfare, but the rise of factory farms, toxic slaughterhouses, zoos, circuses, and cosmetic testing has shunted us into a Dark Age of animal abuse. I suspect our descendants will look back with horror at our barbarism. This problem incurs psychological wounds in us all in ways that aren't totally conscious. And I think this is an especially key issue for you right now. I beg you, for your own sake as well as for the animals', to upgrade your practical love and compassion for animals. I bet you'll find it inspires you to treat your own body with more reverence.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian literary critic Harold Bloom bragged to the New York Times that his speed-reading skills were so advanced that he could finish a 500-page book in an hour. While I believe he has indeed devoured thousand of books, I also wonder if he lied about his quickness. Nonetheless, I'll offer him up as an inspirational role model for you in the coming weeks. Why? Because you're likely to be able to absorb and integrate far more new information and fresh experiences than usual and at a rapid pace.

LEO (July 23-August 22): "Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible," says Leo politician Carol Moseley Braun. I agree with her, but will also suggest there's an even higher magic: when you devise a detailed plan for achieving success by challenging the impossible, and then actually carry out that plan. Judging from the current astrological omens, I suspect you're in an unusually favorable position to do just that in the coming weeks. Be bold in rising to the challenge; be practical and strategic in winning the challenge.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): "Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances," writes author Frederick Buechner. What he doesn't say is that you must be receptive and open to the possibility of joy arriving anywhere and anytime. If you're shut down to its surprising influx, if you're convinced that joy is out of reach, it won't break through the barriers you've put up; it won't be able to land in your midst. I think this is especially important counsel for you in the coming weeks, Virgo. Please make yourself available for joy. P.S. Here's another clue from Buechner: "Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction."

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): "I transformed stillnesses and darknesses into words," wrote Libran poet Arthur Rimbaud. "What was unspeakable, I named. I made the whirling world pause." In accordance with current astrological potentials, I have turned his thoughts into a message for you. In the coming weeks, I hope you will translate silences and mysteries into clear language. What is unfathomable and inaccessible, you will convert into understandings and revelations. Gently, without force or violence, you will help heal the inarticulate agitation around you with the power of your smooth, resonant tenderness.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): "Your desires, whether or not you achieve them, will determine who you become," wrote author Octavia E. Butler. Now is a fertile time for you to meditate on that truth. So I dare you to take an inventory of all your major desires, from the noblest to the most trivial. Be honest. If one of your burning yearnings is to have 100,000 followers on Instagram or to eat chocolate-covered bacon that is served to you in bed, admit it. After you're through tallying up the wonders you want most, the next step is to decide if they are essential to you becoming the person you truly want to be. If some aren't, consider replacing them with desires that will be a better influence on you as you evolve.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): If you can manage it, I recommend taking a break from business-as-usual. I'd love to see you give yourself the gift of amusement and play a luxurious sabbatical that will help you feel free of every burden, excused from every duty, and exempt from every fixation. The spirit I hope you will embody is captured well in this passage from author Okakura Kakuzo: "Let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Rapper Eminem advises us, "Never take ecstasy, beer, Bacardi, weed, Pepto-Bismol, Vivarin, Tums, Tagamet HB, Xanax, and Valium in the same day." What's his rationale? That quaffing this toxic mix might kill us or make us psychotic? No. He says you shouldn't do that because "It makes it difficult to sleep at night." I'm going to suggest that you abide by his counsel for yet another reason: According to my analysis, you have the potential to experience some wondrous and abundant natural highs in the coming weeks. Your capacity for beautiful perceptions, exhilarating thoughts, and breakthrough epiphanies will be at a peak. But none of that is likely to happen if you're loaded up with inebriants.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): "Everyone who has ever built a new heaven first found the power to do so in his own hell," declared philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. That's a rather histrionic statement! But then Nietzsche was a Maestro of Melodrama. He was inclined to portray human life as a heroic struggle for boldness and liberation. He imagined us as being engaged in an epic quest to express our highest nature. In accordance with your astrological potentials, I propose that you regard Nietzsche as your power creature during the coming weeks. You have a mandate to adopt his lion-hearted perspective. And yes, you also have a poetic license to build a new heaven based on the lessons you learned and the power you gained in your own hell.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Here's some knowledge from author John le Carr: "In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job." According to my analysis, you have, at least for now, done all you can in your work above the line. That's great! It was crucial for you to follow the rules and honor tradition. But now it's time for a shift in emphasis. In the coming weeks, I hope you will specialize in finessing the details and massaging the nuances below the line.

Homework: Meditate on the possibility that you could gain personal power through an act of surrender. Visit FreeWillAstrology.com.

See the rest here:
Free Will Astrology: August 19, 2020 - River Cities Reader

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible," says Leo politician Carol Moseley Braun. I agree with her, but will also suggest there's an even higher magic: when you devise a detailed plan for achieving success by challenging the impossible, and then actually carry out that plan. Judging from the current astrological omens, I suspect you're in an unusually favorable position to do just that in the coming weeks. Be bold in rising to the challenge; be practical and strategic in winning the challenge.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances," writes author Frederick Buechner. What he doesn't say is that you must be receptive and open to the possibility of joy arriving anywhere and anytime. If you're shut down to its surprising influx, if you're convinced that joy is out of reach, it won't break through the barriers you've put up; it won't be able to land in your midst. I think this is especially important counsel for you in the coming weeks, Virgo. PLEASE make yourself available for joy. P.S. Here's another clue from Buechner: "Joy is where the whole being is pointed in one direction."

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "I transformed stillnesses and darknesses into words," wrote Libran poet Arthur Rimbaud. "What was unspeakable, I named. I made the whirling world pause." In accordance with current astrological potentials, I have turned his thoughts into a message for you. In the coming weeks, I hope you will translate silences and mysteries into clear language. What is unfathomable and inaccessible, you will convert into understandings and revelations. Gently, without force or violence, you will help heal the inarticulate agitation around you with the power of your smooth, resonant tenderness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Your desires, whether or not you achieve them, will determine who you become," wrote author Octavia E. Butler. Now is a fertile time for you to meditate on that truth. So I dare you to take an inventory of all your major desires, from the noblest to the most trivial. Be honest. If one of your burning yearnings is to have 100,000 followers on Instagram or to eat chocolate-covered bacon that is served to you in bed, admit it. After you're through tallying up the wonders you want most, the next step is to decide if they are essential to you becoming the person you truly want to be. If some aren't, consider replacing them with desires that will be a better influence on you as you evolve.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): If you can manage it, I recommend taking a break from business-as-usual. I'd love to see you give yourself the gift of amusement and playa luxurious sabbatical that will help you feel free of every burden, excused from every duty, and exempt from every fixation. The spirit I hope you will embody is captured well in this passage from author Okakura Kakuzo: "Let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Rapper Eminem advises us, "Never take ecstasy, beer, Bacardi, weed, Pepto-Bismol, Vivarin, Tums, Tagamet HB, Xanax, and Valium in the same day." What's his rationale? That quaffing this toxic mix might kill us or make us psychotic? No. He says you shouldn't do that because "It makes it difficult to sleep at night." I'm going to suggest that you abide by his counsel for yet another reason: According to my analysis, you have the potential to experience some wondrous and abundant natural highs in the coming weeks. Your capacity for beautiful perceptions, exhilarating thoughts, and breakthrough epiphanies will be at a peak. But none of that is likely to happen if you're loaded up with inebriants.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "Everyone who has ever built a new heaven first found the power to do so in his own hell," declared philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. That's a rather histrionic statement! But then Nietzsche was a Maestro of Melodrama. He was inclined to portray human life as a heroic struggle for boldness and liberation. He imagined us as being engaged in an epic quest to express our highest nature. In accordance with your astrological potentials, I propose that you regard Nietzsche as your power creature during the coming weeks. You have a mandate to adopt his lion-hearted perspective. And yes, you also have a poetic license to build a new heaven based on the lessons you learned and the power you gained in your own hell.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Here's some knowledge from author John le Carr: "In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job." According to my analysis, you have, at least for now, done all you can in your work above the line. That's great! It was crucial for you to follow the rules and honor tradition. But now it's time for a shift in emphasis. In the coming weeks, I hope you will specialize in finessing the details and massaging the nuances below the line.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "We never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough," said Aries singer Billie Holiday. I don't think that applies to everyone, although it's more likely to be true about the Aries tribe than maybe any other sign of the zodiac. And I'm guessing that the coming weeks could be a time when you will indeed be vivid proof of its validity. That's why I'm issuing a "Too Much of a Good Thing" alert for you. I don't think it'll be harmful to go a bit too far and get a little too much of the good things; it may even be wise and healthy to do so. But please don't go waaayyyy too far and get waaayyyy too much of the good things.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author Honor de Balzac (17991850) took many years to write The Human Comedy, an amalgam of 91 intertwined novels, stories, and essays. For this vast enterprise, he dreamed up the personalities of more than 2,000 characters, many of whom appeared in multiple volumes. I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I believe that the next 15 months will be an excellent time for you to imagine and carry out a Balzac-like project of your own. Do you have an inkling of what that might be? Now's a good time to start ruminating.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Not until the 19th century did humans begin to take organized actions to protect animals from cruelty. Even those were sparse. The latter part of the 20th century brought more concerted efforts to promote animal welfare, but the rise of factory farms, toxic slaughterhouses, zoos, circuses, and cosmetic testing has shunted us into a Dark Age of animal abuse. I suspect our descendants will look back with horror at our barbarism. This problem incurs psychological wounds in us all in ways that aren't totally conscious. And I think this is an especially key issue for you right now. I beg you, for your own sake as well as for the animals', to upgrade your practical love and compassion for animals. I bet you'll find it inspires you to treat your own body with more reverence.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian literary critic Harold Bloom bragged to The New York Times that his speed-reading skills were so advanced that he could finish a 500-page book in an hour. While I believe he has indeed devoured thousand of books, I also wonder if he lied about his quickness. Nonetheless, I'll offer him up as an inspirational role model for you in the coming weeks. Why? Because you're likely to be able to absorb and integrate far more new information and fresh experiences than usualand at a rapid pace.

Homework: Meditate on the possibility that you could gain personal power through an act of surrender. FreeWillAstrology.com

The rest is here:
Free Will AstrologyWeek of August 20 | Advice & Fun | Bend - The Source Weekly

Editor,

Apropos the letter No Country for Atheists, (ST August 19, 2020), I wish to bring to your attention the factual errors and blatant misrepresentation of the humanist and atheist community of Meghalaya. I myself have been an atheist since the 6th grade. Now as a full grown adult I have still remained so. I wish to encourage the author of the particular letter and others who are interested to educate themselves on the beliefs and ideals of the great humanists or atheist thinkers like Voltaire, Nietzsche, B.R Ambedkar, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins etc. Much progress in the fields of science, literature, medicine, philosophy, etc have been made by atheists and humanists. Many of their books are available online for free or in libraries. I also wish for the authors to understand that atheism and humanism are mutually exclusive. Something which would have been easily understood if one would spend time to research the topic instead on relying on hearsay.

Humanism is a rationalist outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Atheism on the other hand is the absence of belief in any divine entity or power. Not all atheists are humanists and not all humanists are atheists. In fact you can follow a religion and be a humanist. As for the accusations that atheism is destructive there can be no denial that there have been some atheists who use their nihilism and depravity to justify their misdeeds just as there have been plenty of adherents of different faiths who commit atrocities in the name of their chosen gods. Beware of painting large groups of people with broad brushes. It is always wise to research and read up on an issue before writing. Calling one particular community as destructive is callous. If the author had been writing about another religious or ethnic community in such a way she would be liable to face legal consequences. As such, most of the humanist and atheist community are rather mellow, level headed and compassionate individuals. They would rather their deeds speak for themselves rather than argue pointlessly in the legal system. The world today is shaped by humanist and atheist beliefs. Without the pursuit of scientific, political and social knowledge the world today would be trapped in the barbarism of the mediaeval ages where feudal lords commit atrocities in the name of their religion. The ideas of liberalism, democracy, human rights, etc originate from humanist ideals that placed human life over that of the divine. In conclusion, I wish for everyone to read up on humanism and atheism even if they are faithful adherents of their religion. The pursuit of knowledge will broaden their horizons and perhaps next time when criticism is used, it will have some basis on reality.

Yours etc.,

Leon Gabriel Kharkongor An Atheist

Via email

Editor,

A sense of shame came over me after reading the letter No country for Atheists,(ST Aug 20th, 2020). We Christians need to introspect and face facts. Meghalaya has a majority of Christians living within its borders but when we look back at what has been done and what we have achieved since 1972, it is us Christians who need to keep quiet and stop justifying any kind of retort. Christ would really not want to be a Christian in Meghalaya. All important indicators show how bad everything is in the state and who has been leading it for years- Christians. This is not to take anything away from the unsung warriors of Christ because a lot has been achieved through their hard work and dedication.

We have churches in every corner and the freedom to worship anywhere but look at the condition of our state. Corruption is rampant, the weak are being oppressed, nature is over exploited beyond its capability to regenerate and we depend on outsiders to control any further destruction; the list goes on. I hide my face in shame (I cant repeat the word enough) and ask for forgiveness on behalf of all decision makers these past decades. We cannot defend anything when the evidence clearly proves otherwise. We need to admit to our mistakes and failures if there is to be any hope for the future.

To the highly controversial subject of forceful conversion, I personally have never been a fan of numbers. How many followers each denomination has will not matter to God when I was taught (correct me if I am wrong) ever since I was a child that He is interested in the heart? People follow Christ because of how he lived; he did not have to force anyone. This is what our churches need to teach people now more than ever. Heaven and hell is not going to mean anything for people trying to survive an already very difficult and challenging world. Maybe then we can face greed and pride head on and compromises like the planned shopping mall will not happen. Only then can we all work together for a better solution to the unemployment problem that the government is saying justifies this course of action.

Yours etc,

Via email

Editor,

It is interesting to read the opinions expressed by several writers through your esteemed daily. Some of the letters/articles are very scholarly and they never fail to inspire us to think big. They broaden our outlook.They even push us to soar up into the higher truths. The light of KNOWLEDGE can alone dispel the darkness of ignorance. So, that LIGHT coming from any source must be welcome. More importantly, the right knowledge helps us become saner and more compassionate towards our fellow beings regardless of what faiths or customs or traditions they practice.Mr. Sanwame War, in one of his letters, emphasizes that religion should encourage us in free-thinking, creativity, and self-inquiry. This really appeals to me. God is the supreme source of creativity.The realm of God is accessible to those who have come out of the narrow cocoon of dogmatism. Excessive dogmatism leads to hatred. Hatred spiritually drags us down weakening our thinking and intellectual capability. Free-thinking, of course within the boundaries of morality, can considerably help us shake off prejudices. Many of us continuously choose to carry a load of biased opinions against others, their faiths/customs without ever knowing that, at the end of the day, they are only going to pollute our mindset. Harbouring malice corrodes our inner self, obstructing our pathway to divinity or, more precisely, self-realization.

I would like to further add, that if religion is all about looking down on others and hurting them, then one needs to stand up and fight for HUMANITY FIRST. Todays major crises, nay, senseless brutalities and bloodshed, are usually due to the flawed interpretation of words of our beloved prophets who otherwise stood for humanity and peace. Just look at the recent incident of Bengaluru, Delhi-riots, Gurdwara suicide bombing in Kabul. also many other places across the world, which are in fact inspired by hatred for other faiths. If religions lead to such violence and killings, then we must have badly misread our holy scriptures. Lord Jesus, Lord Krishna, Prophet Mohammed, Buddha are doubtlessly the embodiment of love and service, they never preached violence. HUMANITY AND SERVICE TO MANKIND are what they lived for till their last breath. So, following in their footsteps, lets first believe in service to mankind, and love one and all without discrimination, being kind and compassionate as aptly concluded by Jennifer Dkhar in her letter Understanding religion (ST, 20thAug). It is our compassion towards His creatures that melts the heart of the ALMIGHTY.He will then surely open His doorway to heaven for us. HE might cut us to size if we hurt humanity inthe name of religion.

Yours etc.,

Salil Gewali,

Shillong,

Go here to read the rest:
Don't misrepresent Atheism - The Shillong Times

Tuesday marks National Couple's Day, celebrated to cherish the love and togetherness. Even though the day is not an official holiday, people use the occasion to celebrate the special personin their lives.

Here aresome quotesfromQuotabularyandGoodreads to share feelings of love and appreciation toward your significant other.

1. "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made!" Robert Browning, "Rabbi Ben Ezra"

2. "Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time." Maya Angelou, poet, and civil rights activist.

3."Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." Lao Tzu,Chinese philosopher

4. "But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles" Anna Nalick, singer-songwriter

5. "You cant blame gravity for falling in love." Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist.

6. "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages." Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

7. "Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae singer.

8. "Absences are a good influence in love and keep it bright and delicate." Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist.

9. "You can never control who you fall in love with, even when you're in the most sad, confused time of your life. You don't fall in love with people because they're fun. It just happens." Kirsten Dunst, actress.

10. "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." Aristotle, philosopher

11. "Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'" Erich Fromm, psychologist

12. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." Eden Ahbez, song "Nature Boy"

This is a representational image Photo: Getty Images

See the original post:
National Couple's Day 2020: Quotes About Love To Share With Your Partner - International Business Times

Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market research report covering the current trend and effect on the business of COVID-19. This intelligence report includes investigations based on Current scenarios, Historical records, and future predictions. An accurate data of various aspects such as Type, Size, Application, and end-user have been scrutinized in this research report. It presents the 360-degree overview of the competitive landscape of the industries. SWOT analysis has been used to understand the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and threats in front of the businesses. Thus, helping the companies to understand the threats and challenges in front of the businesses. Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market is showing steady growth and CAGR is expected to improve during the forecast period.

Prominent Players Profiled in the Report are Sensitech, Inc. ORBCOMM Testo Rotronic ELPRO-BUCHS AG Emerson Nietzsche Enterprise NXP Semiconductors NV Signatrol Haier Biomedical Monnit Corporation Berlinger & Co AG Cold Chain Technologies LogTag Recorders Ltd Omega Dickson ZeDA Instruments Oceasoft The IMC Group Ltd Duoxieyun Controlant Ehf Gemalto Infratab, Inc. Zest Labs, Inc. vTrack Cold Chain Monitoring SecureRF Corp. Jucsan Maven Systems Pvt Ltd.

Key Types Hardware Software

Key End-Use Food and Beverages Pharma & Healthcare Others

Global Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market report provides you with detailed insights, industry knowledge, market forecasts and analytics. The report on the global Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring industry also clarifies economic risks and environmental compliance. Global Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring market report assists industry enthusiasts including investors and decision makers to make confident capital investments, develop strategies, optimize their business portfolio, innovate successfully and perform safely and sustainably.

Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market Region Coverage (Regional Production, Demand & Forecast by Countries etc.):

A Free report data (as a form of Excel Datasheet) will also be provided upon request along with a new purchase.

Overview of the chapters analysing the global Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market in detail:

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Note In order to provide more accurate market forecast, all our reports will be updated before delivery by considering the impact of COVID-19.

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Cold Chain Tracking And Monitoring Market 2020 | Coronavirus Impact Analysis | Trends, Innovation, Growth Opportunities, Demand, Application, Top...

Photograph by Tim Knox / eyevine / Redux

Your story in this weeks magazine, Cicadia, follows three seventeen-year-olds on their way to a party in suburban Cincinnati, in 1986Best friends cruising together. On the cusp of senior year. When did you first start thinking about these boys and that party? How important is the eighties setting?

O.K., so on December 11, 2015, I was watching Last Year at Marienbadyeah, yeah, I was in a moodand halfway through the film the oblique nature of the narrative sort of opened up to me, and I decided I was watching this profound cinematic experiment in repetition, in terms of the acting and the roles played, right down to the looping character of projected film, of life captured but then remaining forever static, the built-in essence of this drama. Like I said, I was in a mood. So I wrote myself this e-mail (verbatim):

A story of a performance, done 10,000,000 times. The dialogue forced, insisted upon them, for this performance. All the players aware of the hell they are in.

Told from multiple point of views. All the action and dialogue the same, fated, but the voices inside their head aware and conscious of whats going on.

Kind of like Groundhog Day with theater being the metaphor. All stuck in the same role.

This was the beginning of Cicadia. But I could never figure out how to crack the code. The minute attempts at communication within the closed system. The budding of meaning, which, budding endlessly, would become meaningless. The basic mechanism of the multitrack plot. It was like geometry, and Im horrible at geometry. So four years passed, my thoughts occasionally flexing around the idea, until I was watching Ferris Buellers Day Off, probably for the fiftieth time, and I wondered, Hmm, what it would be like for Ferris if he was forced to relive this day every time someone pushed play. Like his soul had been captured in Panavision and he only existed for an hour and forty-three minutes of run-time. That was his life. Maybe he was confused. Maybe he was lonely. Feeling trapped. Maybe he wondered if the same was true for Cameron, for Sloane, for Jeanie, for Mr. Rooney, if they were all stuck, unable to acknowledge their shared predicament. Thats interesting, I thought. And complicated. I might be bad at geometry, but I love problem-solving in writing. So I set out to create my own version of a John Hughes movie and to try to convey, under the surface, the psychology of this setup.

Are you confused? Because I am.

And for a while, that was the problem with the story. It was confusing and too attached to its oblique cleverness.

Enter Nietzsche and the concept of the eternal return and my grad-school philosophy class with Fred McGlynn, at the University of Montana. This was back in 1994. Fred is easily one of the best teachers I ever had. Fred constantly smoking in the classroom. Freds distinctive rasp. Freds enthusiasm and sense of humor and massive brain, displayed in clouds of chalk dust and smoke. I ended up taking three courses with himI hope youre well, Fredand I always sparked to Nietzsches idea of eternal return, and I thought maybe I could mix memory and recurrence into the story, and create a more universal impression of how we experience the past and how it operates on the present and the future. Were all caught in our loops. And were always coming of age. Or at least I am.

We see events unfold through the point of view of one of the boys, Max. Hes always prided himself on his B-minus persona, but hes much smarter than that. The story captures him at a point where hes thinking about whether to leave that old persona behind. How aware is Max of what he might lose?

I dont think Max is really aware of the bigger picture, only the big picture within this small world. Hes stuck in his head. But he is acutely aware of the micro-losses. The repercussions of his casual disdain. The misunderstandings. The missed connections. The mistaken assumptions. The inevitable betrayals. He has a desire for meaning thats bigger than himself but also contains himself, a.k.a. the adolescent urge. But, unlike in Groundhog Day, theres no possible liberating version of the day, no sloughing of ego, just the deep understanding of imperfection, along with a bit of hope, of course, in the form of change, which happens via profound noticing. In this endless present, Max needs to see something fresh every day. And theres always something fresh to notice and to feel.

The story takes place as a seventeen-year brood of cicadas is hatching. Were the cicadasand the titlean integral part of the story from the outset? Or did the idea of metamorphoses come as you were writing?

There was a small cicada hatch last summer, and my daughters loved searching for the exoskeletons left behind on the trees, almost like Easter but, instead of hunting for eggs, they hunted for the terrestrial remnants of cicadas. Theyd pick the husks from the trees, their lingering grip on the bark always a surprise. And the anatomical detail was amazing. A perfect cicada sculpt. And I was calling them cicadias, and my daughters were always correcting me. Cicada, Dad! Cicada, Dad! But I kept on messing up, because my brain is weird that way, and I thought of arcadia, and these cicadas dropped into the Last Year at Marienbad/Ferris Buellers Day Off idea like a match into a puddle of gasolineI often need a third thing to trigger thingsand I was, like, Yes, yes, of course, the story should happen during a cicada brood, and then I recalled going to a high-school-graduation party thrown by Holly Brown, in Cincinnati, in 1986, during one of those massive seventeen-year broods, and the cicadas were everywhere, a freaky plaguelike marvel, and I thought, Ill use Cincinnati and that memory.

Cicadia unspools over one night in 1986, yet theres a sense in which its the story of a night thats being told over and overit could be a night thats about to happen or a night thats already happened. How important is that sense of a shifting perspective?*

Like I said above, really, really important. But I wanted it to operate on both planes. Those are my favorite kinds of stories. I wanted Max to be cynical and optimistic, not only because of the hellish circumstances and his own coping methods but also because of the nature of teen-agers when it comes to the present and the future. They havent yet discovered the blurring past. Or it can seem that way. By the end, Max is humbled by time. Like we all are.

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David Gilbert on John Hughes and Being Seventeen - The New Yorker

Recently, The New York Times published a long exchange between two of the papers well-known and excellent opinion writers, Ross Douthat and Frank Bruni, Is Individualism Americas Religion? Im not sure their exchange answered the question, but Im willing to answer it here: Yes, individualism is Americas religion, and its killing us.

Individualism, as a Western European and American idea and term, is of quite recent origin. It was first used in a pejorative way in the 1830s. It did not become used in a positive sense until the 1850s and its positive sense was linked directly with the value of accumulating personal wealth. James Elishama Smith (1801-57), a former socialist, argued that individualism was essential in order to foster the increase of personal property and happiness.

Individualism as an English language term from its beginning has been associated with what has come to be known, in American Protestantism, as the Prosperity Gospel or the Health and Wealth Gospel. This approach to Christianity teaches financial blessing and physical health are the will of God for those individuals who have the right faith, strong enough faith and a personal relationship with Jesus. This type of religion became a major force in America during the so-called Healing Revivals of the 1950s, and it has remained a prominent characteristic evangelical and Pentecostal American religion ever since.

Donald Trumps only religion growing up was his familys regular attendance at Norman Vincent Peales Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, which was headed by Peale from 1932 till 1984. Peale took the individualism of the Healing Revivals to wild extremes. His most famous book was The Power of Positive Thinking, in which he taught, as he did almost every Sunday, that ones individual habits of positive thinking and having faith in God will always be rewarded by God.

It is worth remembering that the mental health community of the U.S. criticized Peale severely. His own earlier collaborator, the New York psychiatrist, Smiley Blanton, pulled away from Peale and refused to endorse the famous book. It is my own opinion, along with many others, that Norman Vincent Peale was one of the worst things ever to happen to religion in America. He was largely just a plain old con man and was the perfect preacher with the perfect message for future con men and one in particular.

The hero myth America has created for itself is all bound up with extreme individualism and positive thinking on many levels. With the advent of the ever-popular genre of the Western novel and films, we have perhaps the most vivid symbol of American individualism: the rugged, stand-on-his-own cowboy who overcomes everything think Clint Eastwood. Another symbol is the insanely rich tycoon who made his millions by hook or by crook and by a will-to-power drive straight out of the pages of Nietzsche think Donald Trump.

American evangelical and Pentecostal religious movements present a version of Christianity that is, at its foundation, based on the individuals will power and highly personal relationship with Jesus. In this approach to the Christian religion, the spiritual journey of all true Christians is a reenactment (unknowingly) of the archetypal personal journey of the Individual Hero. This archetype has been examined at great length by psychologist Carl Gustav Jung and mythographer Joseph Campbell, who focus on what they called the process of individuation.

This sounds rather wonderful and heroic, perhaps, until one goes back and re-reads the Old and, especially, the New Testament. A huge focus in Hebrew scripture, again and again and again, was the establishment of the collective tribal identity and collective functionality of the Hebrew people as a group. Likewise, in the Christian New Testament, the focus is on the forging of a new group of people, the group of the apostles, the larger group of the disciples, the creation of a church, the sacred obligation to foster love and peace and brotherhood not only for your own group but even for your enemies. It is not easy to read Judeo-Christian Scripture and come out thinking it is a handbook for fostering individualism.

Its not easy, but it has been done.

This willful misreading of Scripture was one of the worst tragedies of the 20th century. The consequence is that we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century with two mighty forces of extreme individualism tearing apart the fabric of society: 1) the force of post-modern relativism, whereby everything seems to boil down to not much more than everybody has their own individual opinion and thats fine and 2) the force of the Prosperity Gospel, which accentuates ones personal, individual relationship with Jesus above all else and promises it will make you individually more healthy and wealthy.

It is never pleasant to point out Christianitys internecine conflicts, but here is a big one: the evangelical/Pentecostal tradition has built itself on the Prosperity Gospel model of Christianity, whereas the Catholic tradition has built itself on the Passion of the Cross model of Christianity. The former preaches about a path to individual success and salvation via a personal relationship with Jesus and being born again; the latter preaches about a path that is filled with much suffering where we must take up our cross and be willing to give our very lives (even unto death) for the greater good of our brothers and sisters, as Jesus gave his life for us on the cross.

These are two very different forms of Christianity. It is no accident that Donald Trump claims to be a Christian of the evangelical stripe. He may (or may not) succeed at it, but thats the stripe he comes from. Joe Biden is a practicing Catholic. He may (or may not) succeed at it, but thats the stripe he comes from.

One of these versions of Christianity fosters individualism in a society that, for my money, already suffers from too much individualism. The other version fosters denial (or at least reining in) of individual self will for the benefit of others and the community.

Religion is on the November ticket, whether one likes it or not. In Trump vs. Biden, we couldnt ask for a starker contrast. There it is, boiled down to its very essence. Do we want to vote for the primacy of the individual and individual rights above all else, or do we want to vote for the primacy of the collective good and civil rights above all else?

I hope I dont presume too much, but I think I know what Jesus Sermon on the Mount teaches us to do.

John Nassivera is a former professor who retains affiliation with Columbia Universitys Society of Fellows in the Humanities. He lives in Vermont and part time in Mexico.

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On Faith: Individualism is America's religion | Perspective - Rutland Herald

venue which has been in city since second world war reopens on the eastern banks of river Nore with exhibition from photographer Amelia Stein

A world in lockdown can be a dreary place. At such times, it is the duty of the arts to bring inspiration and good cheer to the people. So all hail Butler Gallery in Kilkenny City which, nearly 80 years after its initial hatching, is boldly reopening its doors in a shimmering new-but-ancient venue on the east side of Irelands medieval capital.

Opened to the public at the beginning of August, the new gallery is probably the biggest addition to rural Irelands cultural portfolio since the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre opened in Carlow in 2009.

The origins of Butler Gallery are rooted in another global crisis. Its genesis was an exhibition of contemporary art and pottery held in Kilkenny in the early years of the second World War, aka the Emergency. The 1942 event was hosted by the newly formed Society for the Encouragement of Art in Kilkenny (SEAK) and centred on pottery by Peter Brennan and a collection of vigorous city and country watercolours by society co-founders George and Helen Pennefather. The critic RR Figgis was especially impressed by the masterly treatment and good colour sense of the Pennefathers interesting and experimental work.

The event generated such an enthusiastic response that in 1943 the Pennefathers offered their collection as a permanent exhibition. This coincided with the rebirth of SEAK as the Kilkenny Art Gallery Society (KAGS), with 49 members, each of whom contributed 10 shillings. The society stuttered uncertainly through the 1950s and seemed destined to fade away until 1963 when Susan (Peggy) Butler became its secretary.

Assisted by Stanley Mosse and his daughter-in-law, Susan Mosse, she set about a radical overhaul of the operation. Key to this was a close relationship with the Arts Council of Ireland, which has provided invaluable financial and moral support to the society ever since.

Peggy Butler, who was the first chair of Kilkenny Arts Week, had trained as a painter at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London but did not pursue a career as an artist. She was arts correspondent for the Kilkenny People for many years and an occasional art critic for The Irish Times. She also provided much encouragement to other artists. When she died in 1996, aged 91, her obituary in this newspaper described her as responsible more than any other person since the mid-century for the development and appreciation of the arts in Kilkenny. Her legacy is also to be found at Annaghmakerrig, her family home in Co Monaghan, which she persuaded her brother, the theatrical director Tyrone Guthrie, to gift to the nation as a workplace for creative artists, now the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.

In 1976, the KAGS collection found a permanent home in the subterranean kitchen wing of Kilkenny Castle. It was duly named Butler Gallery in honour of Peggy and her husband, the celebrated essayist Hubert Butler. The name was also a good fit for another reason. Kilkenny has been a Butler family stronghold since 1391 when James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, purchased the old Norman castle that was to be their power base for the next five centuries.

Butler Gallery remained in the basement of that very castle for 44 years. As an arts space, it was never anything less than atmospheric, drawing upwards of 50,000 visitors annually. Given its location directly beneath one of Irelands busiest tourist attractions, those who attended its pioneering exhibitions included plenty of accidental tourists alongside the purposefully striding art connoisseurs.

Anna OSullivan has been the director of Butler Gallery since 2005 and has 23 years of experience on New Yorks art scene, latterly at the Robert Miller Gallery, a contemporary art specialist in Manhattan. In the 15 years since her arrival in Kilkenny, she has curated a steady flow of innovative, well-received exhibitions and increased Butler Gallerys eclectic collection via gift and purchase, as well as semi-permanent loan.

No matter how big a castle is, its dungeons are always going to be claustrophobic. And indeed, there is something deeply invigorating about the manner in which Butler Gallery now finds itself sprawled upon the eastern banks of the river Nore.

The new incarnation is in Evans Home, a historic alms house on Johns Quay, which was acquired for this purpose 12 years ago. The epic saga of this building commenced in the 13th century when it formed part of an extensive Augustinian priory, founded by the famous knight William Marshal. The priory was known as the Lantern of Ireland on account of the number and size of its stained-glass windows.

The priory was suppressed during Henry VIIIs Reformation. It doubled as a hospital for Oliver Cromwells forces when he captured the city in 1650. Following the defeat of the Jacobites in the 1690s, the priory was rebuilt as an infantry barracks. And so it remained for most of the Georgian age until 1818 when Joseph Evans converted it into an alms house. It was specifically designed to provide accommodation and sustenance to servants, 12 men and 12 women, who had lost their jobs in the economic depression that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In the last century, part of the building was used as a book repository by the neighbouring Carnegie Library.

The military provenance of Evans Home is reflected in Butler Gallerys inaugural exhibition, namely The Bloods, Amelia Steins photographic study of the men and women of the Defence Forces from nearby James Stephens Barracks in Kilkenny. Taking place in the double-height gallery, this will be followed by a collaboration with Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon entitled Wolfwalkers: The Exhibition, based on the upcoming feature from the four-time Oscar nominated studio.

The main H-shaped alms house is home to the permanent collection, as well as an important bequest from the estate of Callan artist Tony OMalley, which was donated by his wife artist Jane OMalley. The gallery also includes a gift from the estate of Sen and Rosemarie Mulcahy.

Blessed with beautifully proportioned rooms, the alms house overlooks a walled garden that has been reconceived as a sequence of spaces, gardens and passages, including further galleries, a caf, a sculpture garden, a sensory garden and an ingenious geometric ramp that serves as a seating space for outdoor performances.

The conversion was carried out by McCullough Mulvin Architects who have created a space with varying qualities of light and finish, giving a strong sense of freshness that serves the best interests of the art within and without.

As an arts space, the diminutive gallery at Kilkenny Castle always punched above its weight. However, the vitality that was inevitably enclosed within its underground seams is now at ease to roam in a space 10 times the size of the castle cellars.

Although it may no longer have such a readymade congregation as it did at its former stronghold, the new venue will provide its own magnetism and draw visitors across the usefully placed Lady Desart Bridge (pedestrian and cyclists only) to this dynamic cultural hub by Johns Quay, opening up yet another chapter in the history of this versatile city.

This space also fulfils the dream that has fired so many of Kilkennys creative souls since 1943 and it will assuredly be integral for the generations of artists to come as we inch towards the middle decades of the 21st century.

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Kilkennys Butler Gallery breaks from castle basement home - The Irish Times

Mwalimu Austin Bukenya stoked my literary instincts last week with his response to an article I wrote in the Daily Nations recently launched Higher Education magazine.

I was pleasantly surprised when he picked on the article as illustration of a good read and he went on to illustrate what makes any piece of writing qualify for that description.

The article was about Kenyatta Universitys Prof Stephen Runo who had won British Royal Africa Society Prize through research on the innovative way of killing the deadly weed, striga. According to Mwalimu Bukenya, among other things, the article was refreshing as it celebrated research, an area generally shunned by the general public, and the media too.

But confessions first. Mwalimu Bukenya, as those close to him fondly refer to him, was my literature lecturer during my undergraduate studies at Kenyatta University in the late 1980s.

He was an all-rounder literary scholar, enchanting us with poetry and taking us through East African prose to European theatre. His favourites, among others, were French dramatist popularly known as Moliere, but whose real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, George Bernard Shaw and of course Shakespeare.

Mwalimu Bukenyas fascination with various genres from Caribbean and particularly the revolutionaries such as V.S. Naipaul, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming, was breath-taking. His course on literary stylistics was a fascinating journey for upcoming writers.

Over the years, a number of us, his former students, have kept constant touch with Mwalimu especially through literary events. The latest interaction was late last year, before coronavirus struck.

One of our classmates, Simon Sossion, who went into publishing, hosted us during the 10th anniversary celebration of his publishing firm, Spotlight, at Sarit Centre, Nairobi. Classmates in attendance were Dr Evans Mugarizi, a literature lecturer at Moi University and Muthuri Nyamu, former KBC Deputy Managing Director and currently, media consultant. It was a reunion of sorts, full of classroom nostalgia.

In class, Mwalimu Bukenya had a way with words and that he has consistently demonstrated in his weekly column in these pages. His distinctive charge was that writing must be simple, easy and flowing.

Not surprisingly, he was at it last week when he made reference to my article and another by Dr Tom Odhiambo of the University Nairobi. Dr Odhiambos article was a book review of editor Saida Yahya-Othmans Nyerere: The Making of a Philosopher.

I was humbled by Mwalimu Bukenyas appreciation of our write-ups. It was a thumbs up from venerable Mwalimu. He used our stories to pronounce himself on the art of good writing.

His pitch was that a good read is identified by the twin catchphrase of facility and felicity. He went on to explain facility to mean fluency and ease of reading while felicity is about elegance.

Mwalimu always insisted on short and simple sentences and had aversion for verbosity and pomposity. He had a sneaky way of putting his view on simplicity, charging that; a long sentence is the rope with which you hang your neck. Not that long sentences are bad. But one has to be careful when using them because often times, many writers end up confusing syntactic rules and confusing readers. Another addition to good writing, he would say, was colour, perhaps, humour, but only in proper context. Those have stood out as the true North for his charges.

Those of us who went on to pursue higher degrees and make a career out of writing, editing and publishing stuck to Mwalimu Bukenyas edict. We are reminded of the works of Chinua Achebe, who though makes use of his vernacular, Igbo, and pidgin, in his English texts, is easily accessible because of simplicity and ease with which he weaves his narratives.

The reason Mwalimu Bukenyas verdict was fascinating was that he is no placatory reader. He is a seasoned literary critique; plain and forthright. He tells it as it, tearing any piece of work from the morpheme to syntax, paragraph to the full text.

Another trait we learnt from him is the art of reading. He always insisted that any literary scholar has to read at least one novel, a play and two poems every week. Reading is the salt of the soul, nourishing the mind and opening vistas to new knowledge. The advice has never failed.

Mwalimu Bukenya has reason to walk with his head high up because his students have kept the faith.

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Why Mwalimu Bukenyas students have kept the faith - Daily Nation