Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Never Ricking Morty puts the meta to the metal.

Returning after an unusual four-month hiatus, the latter half of the shows fourth season debuted Sunday night. The first episode, Never Ricking Morty, introduces itself as an intergalactic train caper before derailing itself into a series of split-off, meta storylines based on the trains passengers with varying degrees of success. The train, a literal narrative device, is a promising premise that quickly turns tedious as the metacommentary becomes more concerned with pettiness than insightfulness.

With the fourth wall reduced to rubble, the episode reads as a petulant middle finger to Rick and Morty fans a warning sign that the show has parodied itself beyond recognition.

Never Ricking Morty begins deceptively like any other episode. Passengers recount brushes with Rick Sanchez such as bizarre Christmas stories filled with evil lairs, third buttcheeks and embarrassing family dinners. Unbeknownst to them, however, a disguised Rick slips through the train to meet his grandson Morty before being accosted by a pectorally gifted ticket inspector.

Shattering the window with gas containers of Continuity, Rick and Morty watch as the inspector is bloodily bisected and sucked into space. Meanwhile, the overhead speaker warns that the train is losing continuity due to the breach the first event in the episode that actually matters.

[Related: Alumna author imbues fiction with scientific rigor, feminist principles]

None of the scenes leading up to this point are particularly important, a fact Rick is smugly aware of, as he says, stupid vignettes, imagine if thatd been the whole thing! in response to the passengers stories. And as the episode cuts away to an absurd amount of vignettes, it becomes clear that this schtick is indeed the whole thing. Creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland weaponize the meta nature of the storylines not to advance a character arc or provide meaningful growth, but to continuously one-up viewers with each added layer of irony.

However, from a world building standpoint, the meta elements are used to monumental effect. After both literally and symbolically breaking the Continuity of the story, Rick and Morty discover the trains path converges in an infinite loop meaning their stories will never stop unless they infiltrate the engine room and halt the train. The episode cleverly references classic story structures, like Rick crossing the threshold from Joseph Campbells The Heros Journey, to delineate the path the duo are expected to follow, heightening the stakes when they ultimately defy it.

But the shows world building has rarely been the issue. Atop the train, Rick asks Morty to think of a story that satisfies the Bechdel test a clear nod to criticism the show has sustained over questionable portrayals of women and male-dominated writing rooms.

Instead of using the episode to redress these issues constructively, Mortys narrative involves his mother and sister Summer discussing their periods and fighting bow-clad scorpions by shooting lasers out of their vaginas. Somehow, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes involved, dismissively referred to as that judge lady. Yes, Morty is a dim-witted, idiotic teenage boy but his characterization shouldnt be used as an excuse to double down on the sexist tropes the show been criticized for in the past.

[Related: Party of Five Season 1 review episode 10: Diaspora]

After Mortys story satisfies the Bechdel test, the pair reach the engine room and encounter the Story Lord, the trains impossibly buff captain. He straps them to a machine in an attempt to break the fifth wall, hurriedly pushing buttons to control levels of Narrative Energy, Marketability, Broad Appeal and Relatability.

Again, the world building of the control panels design executes the meta narrative far more successfully than Ricks pointed remarks at the fanbase and insufferable omniscience. As Rick and Morty shift in and out of scenes with Birdperson musicals and Abradolf Lincler, the trains controls remind viewers of the precarious balance between artistry and carefully manicured optics that Harmon and Roiland must maintain.

Unfortunately, the episode quickly returns to its holier-than-thou stance literally. An intensely ripped Jesus Christ appears before Rick and Morty after they realize they can defeat the Story Lord by praying, framed as an action they would never do. In a hopeful glimpse of self-awareness, Morty asks Rick if a Christianity punchline is a cheap shot at fans. Rick, of course, brushes this off alongside any redemption of the episode.

While Rick and Morty has always tested the flexibility of the sci-fi genre often in hilarious and visually captivating ways it rarely must contend with itself and its place within the genre. In Never Ricking Morty, however, Rick and Morty are relegated to shotgun side characters in their own story while Harmon and Roiland steer the train perhaps into the ground.

Original post:
TV review: Layers of irony in 'Never Ricking Morty' derail narration, criticize show's fanbase - Daily Bruin

May 06, 2020 11:30am PT by Jean Bentley

Pari Dukovic/FX

The star discusses her role in the star-studded FX on Hulu miniseries.

Mrs. America chronicles the movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and the conservative backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett). But before Schlafly's involvement, there was almost unanimous bipartisan support for the legislation. Jill Ruckelshaus, played by Elizabeth Banks, is the real-life socially progressive Republican who worked to pass the ERA from the right side of the aisle.

Playing Ruckelshaus, who was appointed to a special women's rights commission by President Ford and who co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus with feminist leaders like Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, was a reminder that American politics were not always as divided as they are today.

"For me, playing Jill was a great reminder that bipartisanship was the way of the world for so long in American politics and it's only very recently that we've become as fractured and divisive as we have been," Banks tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That's partly due to the work of Phyllis Schlafly. It was really interesting to think about [the fact] thatI was alive in the '70s. The first president of my childhood that I really remember was Ronald Reagan, and he was a Republican. So for me in Massachusetts where I grew up, which is a very blue, very democratic place we're the birthplace of the Kennedys we were very blue and true, and yet everybody seemed to really like Ronald Reagan a lot of the time."

Banks discusses working with other powerful women, why men need to watch the series and what she's taken from Mrs. America for her next projects. New episodes of Mrs. America debut Wednesdays on FX on Hulu.

Jill Ruckelshaus is not someone who is always remembered in the same context as her liberal counterparts.

I thought it was very interesting to remind everyone that there are so many issues that are not controversial in the larger electorate of America. For instance, most Americans by a big majority agree on background checks for all gun sales. That's an easy one. And yet there is a small group of elected officials with a large megaphone and the backing of the NRA and others who would make it seem like somehow that's a controversial issue. It's not actually controversial in the larger electorate.

I think that women's rights fall into that as well. You know, Roe v. Wade being the law of the land, something like between 80 and 90 percent of people in America think Roe v. Wade should be the law of the land that abortion should remain safe and legal. And that's not really that controversial. And yet we hear every day about these wedge issues. So I find it really fascinating that I was able to play someone who reminded people that the Republican Party in particular at this moment in time is not the Republican Party that existed for most of American history. That there was a lot more bipartisanship, there was a lot more hands across the aisle, a lot of working together that was done, and that compromise and gray area is actually where politics lives. Things are not black and white in people's everyday lives, especially in a country as big as America.

What are some things you learned about Jill or that you admired about her that you came across in your research?

One of the things I admired the most about Jill was her relationship with Bill and her very longstanding, loving, supportive relationship with her husband. They stayed married a very long time. I was able to look at a video of them giving a couple joint interviews over the years, and you just feel the respect that the two of them had for each other, the mutual respect that they had. And you know that in a time, in the '70s and in the '60s when they were also you have to remember all these people grew up in the '50s and '60s so they grew up in a time when women did not work. Women stayed home and made dinners. This revolution really was born in the kitchens of these women's lives because women started going into the workforce more and more and more after World War II. And so I find it fascinating that this was a woman who was juggling her own personal ambition and that of her husband, and that her husband made room for her in their household to have a really interesting and rich life outside of the home. That was not necessarily the norm for married women in America at that time.

She's still alive, right?

Jill is still alive, yes. Her husband passed away very recently, but Jill is still alive.

Has she spoken out about the show at all?

Not that I am aware of. But any time you play a real person for me at least, this isn't the first time I've done so my hope in my heart is that they feel honored in some way, in whatever way, that they feel proud and honored that their story was told.

The show is very immersive in the era, but it's also not necessarily a respite from the real world when it's clear that people are still fighting the same battles for the same rights.

We felt that way when we were making it as well. "You've come a long way baby" I think it's true in some respects and this show really shines a light on really where we are still failing so many women in America and around the world, honestly. We are half the population and we are up against quite a lot of historical patriarchy and misogyny. We thought that we could win these battles quickly and it turns out that we cannot.

The sheer amount of powerful women interacting with other powerful women onscreen is really striking. Do any particular moments from set stand out to you?

Well, obviously I get to go toe-to-toe with Cate Blanchett, which was a dream as an actor. It's so fun. It's why I really want to be part of this series too. She's such an actor magnet. But at the same time, every single character is played by one of my favorite actresses. So it across the board is one of those all-time great casts of actors and they just all happen to be some my favorite women. I think what you say about women working together onscreen, it's so rare. Actually, I did a lot of research when I was putting together Charlie's Angels, and outside of romantic comedy it's really rare to have scene where only women around the table working to do something that isn't, like, at a magazine talking about how to get an article about a boy written or something. You see teenage girls in YA-type material doing things like that, but grown-ass women in the working world, to see a group around a table working, it's actually really rare in the media. That was one of the more exciting things about making this project for me.

It's true you rarely see that many powerful actresses together outside of, like, an awards season roundtable, right?

We have to invite everybody to the party because it is not a problem that women created, although a lot of women participate in the patriarchy, which is one of the themes of this show. For me, it really is about that. It's about we all have to be aware of what's going on because we can't change it if we don't acknowledge it. One of the things that's so interesting to me about Jill, and Phyllis in the show, and something that Dahvi [Waller, showrunner] and Laure [de Clermont-Tonnerre], the director on this episode who's incredible, and I [discussed], it was the parallels of their lives. They're both long-term married mothers of multiple children. They're around the same age. They both work outside the home unofficially. Jill used to say, "Yeah, I am the head of this commission, but I'm not getting paid." They both unofficially do a lot of work outside the home, and yet only one of them is aware that they are both up against the same enemy, which is the patriarchy. That lack of awareness, that lack of self-awareness especially, I think really has damaged equality and equal rights for all people. It's just about getting outside of your comfort zone, shaking loose of your experience, and understanding that there are a multitude of experiences here and that our system is meant to be more just and more inclusive. It's what is promised in our Constitution.

And this is touched on more in the Shirley Chisholm episode, but the same way that white women have to work within the patriarchy, it's even worse for the black women who have to work within the patriarchy and white supremacy.

I have a lot of sympathy for everybody who's learning, who's willing to be constantly learning. Because how we're raised and what our life experiences [are], it only gets broader and bigger with time and intention. And so I do think that there are well-intentioned people who still just don't know what the hell is going on. And then there are people who just don't care. But I do think if you are a well-intentioned person and you're interested in understanding someone else's perspective, you're going to have a better time in the world. You're certainly going to be more open to more people, which I do think enriches our lives.

What has the reaction been so far from audiences?

I'm not that focused on it. Personally, I'm very protective of the project and protective of the subject matter, which is intense for some people and elicits a lot of catalysts that I've noticed in the past whenever I speak out about women's issues, it can elicit a lot of negativity and backlash. So I sort of protect myself from a lot of the information. I can feel that people are really liking it. My friends are telling me they like it. My mom loves the show. I'm really only paying attention to the people that are closest to me. I can tell that not enough men for my liking are watching the show.

I guess that's to be expected.

I don't know why! I watched every male-dominated thing with a bunch of dudes that features a bunch of guys. No one's like, "Hmm, I can't believe you wanted to watch that." We're all watching that. We're all watching The Last Dance.

Is there anything that you took from this experience that you've put into your own work that you're either developing or directing or writing or acting in the future?

This all goes hand in hand with my heart. I've been trying to work on things with ensembles of women since the first Pitch Perfect movie, and even before that in my own work and just promoting great female characters with agency. It's exciting to be to be doing that in my work and collaborating with really interesting women. I love that. It's not like a big agenda. I mean, it's more interesting because those characters are more interesting. And the older I get, and the more experienced I am as an actor, I'm looking for things that have a lot of depth and agency where I get to go work with interesting people. These are the things that keep coming into my view.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Elizabeth Banks on Bipartisanship and Why More Men Need to Watch 'Mrs. America' - Hollywood Reporter

CALGARY -- Research shows as many as one-third of first responders paramedics, police officers and firefighters will experience post-traumatic stress as a result of performing their job duties. And for various reasons, many don't seek out professional help.

A team of researchers at the University of Calgary is now working to change that by developing family-based supports

"There are a number of reasons these men and women may not seek out assistance perceived social stigma, workplace culture, or fear of a reduction in work responsibilities or job loss, among them," said Dr. Kelly Schwartz, principal investigator associate professor at the Werklund School of Education.

"We know that (public safety personnel) members actually prefer to seek out informal support from spouses over more formal avenues of support."

During conversations with first responders and their families while developing the study, researchers realized most existing mental health programs don't involve relatives, so they decided to do something about that.

Schwartzs team is now enlisting first responders for an eight-week, Before Operational Stress (BOS) program.

Designed for first responders BOS is a group-based, proactive psychological intervention program designed to increase self-awareness and encourage authentic, healthy relationships.

"We hypothesize that (first responders) who participate in BOS will demonstrate improved psychosocial and physiological functioning, as will family members who participate," said Schwartz.

"In six and 12-month follow-ups, we hope to see evidence of (first responder) members experiencing greater physical and relational health and less mental health problems.

The study was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Schwartz says it now has added relevance as first responders are experiencing added stress of dealing with potentially infected people.

"It is increasingly likely that the second wave of the pandemic may not be physical illness but rather the impact on first responders mental health. The operational stress will inevitably be carried by the first responder into the home," said Schwartz.

"Our intervention will hopefully strengthen the resiliency of the first responder through these family members so that they can continue to serve in their important public safety occupation."

The researchers will be recruiting firefighters, paramedics and police officers and their families in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario for the study.

To participate, PSP members must currently be employed full-time (including volunteer firefighters), not currently be on sick or disability leave, have been employed for 12 months or more, and have a family member (spouse/partner or youth between 11 and 17 years of age) who lives with them.

Additional details can be found online.

See original here:
University of Calgary study aims to improve first responders' mental health - CTV News

Events dont create enlightenment; people do

I read the April 26 letter of Dennis Taylor (Potential for enlightenment has never been greater) several times in an effort to determine exactly what point he was trying to make. I could not determine if he was writing about individuals or our nation when he mentioned the hoax of independence and self-reliance.

Only a person who is blind to his surroundings could believe that we are independent as a nation or as individuals. I have been preaching for years that, at least as a nation, we should once again become independent as we were 80 years ago.

Reliance upon other nations for critical material is folly. Global harmony would be great, but it will never happen as long as humans are running things. Too many people believe their way is the only way and want to make everyone conform to their standard.

What defines the worth, character or essentiality of an individual? I agree that money, possessions, education and title are not in themselves the measure of a person, but they are an indication of the qualities necessary to achieve these things. Some of these qualities would be honesty, willingness to work and accepting responsibility.

Everyone should have the opportunity to work, and they should be paid a living wage. We need available jobs to accomplish this. It would also be nice to provide everyone with the opportunity for a quality education, quality medical care and quality social services.

How do you propose to pay for this? We are already $24 trillion in debt, because our government programs were instituted to get votes, and that will never change as long as we keep electing career politicians.

I totally disagree with the third paragraph (to be or not to be). I dont believe in the whatever it takes philosophy. There is no such thing as absolute safety in any endeavor. So what is the proposal for accomplishing this whatever it takes? I dont know anyone who likes to parade around in public with an assault rifle hanging off his chest, and I spent 20 years in the military during the cold war.

On Aug. 26, 2016, I wrote, When all of our people have a decent home; when all of our people have nourishing food; when all of our sick have the best medical care available; when all of our children get a quality education; when none of our children are afraid; when we provide a rewarding and meaningful life for our elderly and our people with disabilities; when our people respect all others; when our well-off people help those in need; when our country is out of debt; when our government takes care of its citizens rather than itself; when we have eliminated crime, poverty, abuse, bigotry and strife; when we do what is right even when no one is looking; when we are a country that other countries respect rather than hate; and when we are strong enough to prevent war rather than foster it; then we will be great.

Read the original:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Events don't create enlightenment; people do - SCNow

Saturday May2,2020at2:00AM

There is a theory gaining traction on fringe, right-wing websites that we are in a "civil war" caused by Democrats. The theory is vastly misplaced so let's get it right. No doubt there is cultural and political conflict today but it is the product of Trump's authoritarianism, fueled by his lies, and fear mongering.

To retain power Trump is perpetrating a "moral inversion" on his followers. This is a tactic of dictators where truth becomes falsehood, fact is fiction, right is wrong. The follower must obey the authoritarian leader rather than previously held moral beliefs. Hence, they "Liberate Michigan" despite the governor of Michigan's stay-at-home order.

America is the product of Enlightenment thinking, not authoritarianism. The Enlightenment thought is an optimistic belief that people are capable of self-government. It is a belief in individual freedom, reason, science over superstition. The Enlightenment philosophers influenced Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin. Their influence is found in the Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. It made America a beacon of freedom for the world.

Trump wants to change that so he exploits his followers through a campaign of fear, lies and distortion. He seeks to accumulate more power. He surrounds himself with fools and yes-men. He does not trust people to make political decisions so he lies.The conflict today is between the Enlightenment tradition and pessimistic authoritarianism practiced by Trump. For the sake of all that is decent, the Enlightenment must prevail.

Peter Eriksen

Walden

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Enlightenment thinking must prevail in America - Opinion - recordonline.com - Middletown, NY - Times Herald-Record

Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti is celebrated with great fervour in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and numerous other South East Asian countries including Thailand, Tibet, China, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia and Indonesia.(UNSPLASH)

The birth anniversary of Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, is celebrated as Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti with much fervour across the world. It falls on a full moon day in the month of Vaisakh (April/May) according to the Hindu calendar. This year Buddha Purnima will be celebrated on May 7. In Theravada Buddhism, it is also observed as the day when Buddha, born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BCE) attained Nirvana (salvation) under the Mahabodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, Bihar, as well as his death anniversary. The Vesak full moon day is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar. Several Buddhists go to the pagodas to pour water at the foot of the sacred tree in remembrance of the Buddhas Enlightenment.

Buddha Purnima is a major festival celebrated with great pomp and fervour in countries like Sri Lanka (where it is called Vesak), India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Tibet, China, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Singapore and Indonesia, though celebrations vary from country to country.

Devotees of Buddha visit temples, light candles and incense sticks, pray and offer sweets and fruits before the statue of Lord Buddha. Sermons on the life and teachings of Buddha are held and attended by followers all over. People usually dress in white, do not consume non-vegetarian food and distribute kheer, as according to Buddhist lore, on this day a woman named Sujata had offered Buddha a bowl of milk porridge.

Many followers also free caged birds on this day as a symbol of empathy and compassion for all living beings, one of the most important teachings of Lord Buddha.

In India, a large fair takes place in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, a major Buddhist pilgrimage site where Buddha is said to have delivered his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. The relics of Buddha are taken out for public display in a procession. Many Hindus also believe Buddha to be the ninth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. This year, with coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdown, now in phase 3, the celebrations are likely to look different.

According to the British Library blog, Every full moon day is an auspicious day for Buddhists, but the most important of all is the day of the full moon in May, because three major events in the life of the Gotama Buddha took place on this day. Firstly, the Buddha-to-be, Prince Siddhattha was born at Lumbini Grove on the full moon day in May. Secondly, after six years of hardship, he attained enlightenment under the shade of the Bodhi tree and became Gotama Buddha at Bodh Gaya also on the full moon day of May. Thirdly, after 45 years of teaching the Truth, when he was eighty, at Kusinara, he passed away to nibbana, the cessation of all desire, on the full moon day of May.

Buddhas teachings to use in your daily lives:

Soon after Buddha achieved enlightenment, he gave his first discourse called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta or Turning the Wheel of Dhamma, to five ascetics in the deer park at Isipatana in Benares (present-day Varanasi). These five ascetics became his first disciples and his teachings attracted many followers, who then joined the Sangha, the community of monks. Lord Buddha thereafter visited his ailing father to preach the Dhamma. After hearing his teachings, the king attained arahatta (perfect sanctity) before he passed away. This was followed by The Buddha preaching the Abhidhamma or the Higher Doctrine to his former mother, who was reborn as a deva with other deities in the Tavatimsa heaven. He then founded the order of Buddhist nuns. During his long ministry that lasted forty-five years, Lord Buddha walked throughout North India, and taught about the suffering of life, how to end it, how to attain peace and nibbana, to all those who listened.

Here are some of Gautam Buddhas teachings that you can use in your daily life:

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.

If you knew what I know about the power of giving you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.

Learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are calm.

You only lose what you cling to.

The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. Theres only one moment for you to live.

The trouble is, you think you have time.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

The tongue like a sharp knife Kills without drawing blood.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

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Continue reading here:
Buddha Purnima 2020: Heres everything you need to know about Gautam Buddhas birth anniversary - Hindustan Times

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The 1880s marked the beginnings of the mass migration to the US of Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russias Pale of Settlement, whom Germans and German Jews derogatorily called Ostjuden. This migration was paralleled even preceded by another movement: the Americanization of the Eastern European Jews.

Antomir, the shtetl where the eponymous hero of Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky was born, was close to Grodno, one of the proudest Jewish communities in Lithuania. But by the 1880s, Antomir was already in the grip of the centrifugal forces of modernization both pushing and pulling that broke the spell of the Talmud irretrievably for Jews like Levinsky.

Speaking for Cahan, Levinsky explained how hunger transformed his life: first, the living thing in his belly; then, the thirsting for an appetizer for some violent change, for piquant sensation that could not really be separated from the moment when that word America first caught my fancy. Memoirists Shmarya Levin and Milton Hindus confirmed the pre-migration power of Americanization even before Cahan and Levinsky abandoned Eastern Europe.

Benjamin Franklin the internationally-celebrated author, scientist, diplomat, and founding father figures in this story because the Americanization of traditional European Jewry started almost a century before the 1880s.

May 6, 2020 7:52 am

J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter novels in Yiddish are the most recent of a long line of popular translations, of which Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1857) translated into Hebrew as well as Yiddish was the most famous and influential. The pioneering book to introduce Franklins self-improvement maxims to a Jewish audience was not in Yiddish but Hebrew: Sefer Heshbon Ha-nefesh (The Book of Spiritual Accounting), first published in 1808 by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lefin. Lefins book makes no explicit mention of Franklin or his autobiography, but the listing of 13 character traits or virtues, to be emulated in a 13-week cycle, is almost a carbon copy of Franklins.

Lefin acknowledged his debt in an unpublished work not uncovered until the 1920s. The most significant difference between Franklins and Lefins books was that the American Enlightenment thinker meant to edify Virtuous and good Men of all Nations, while Lefin designed his book specifically to be a work of musar (ethical instruction) that would reinforce the morality of his Jewish readers.

The story of how Franklins self-help classic came to be introduced to a Jewish audience starts with its publication in a flawed French translation in 1791. As Nancy Sinkoff has shown, the critical link between the American Enlightenment and Eastern European Jews was Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, an English-educated Polish aristocrat. He knew Franklin personally; both belonged to the Parisian Masonic Lodge, Les Neuf Soeurs. Czartoryski probably met Lefin in Podolia (now in Ukraine). Czartoryski not only hired Lefin to tutor his sons in the sciences (which Lefin had studied in Berlin), but later assisted Lefin in publishing his books.

Rabbi Israel Salanter, who introduced musar into Orthodoxy, had Lefins book republished in the 1840s, which increased its readership and spread Franklins message to more Jews.

Historian Harold Brackman is coauthor with Ephraim Isaac of From Abraham to Obama: A History of Jews, Africans, and African Americans (Africa World Press, 2015).

Continued here:
Benjamin Franklin's Unintended Influence on the Jewish Community - Algemeiner

Mercury meets the Sun at superior conjunction on Monday, on the other side of the Sun from Earth, then the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower peaks toward dawn on Tuesday, followed by Full Moon on Thursday morning. What are your plans for the week?

When Mercury has this meeting with the stars beyond the Sun, its as though the ancient communicator god is gathering divine messages for bearing earthward at its next inferior conjunction, which will come round on June 30th. So think of May 4th as a placeholder where there may be a clue for messages youll receive later next month.

But what makes this meeting of Mercury with the Sun and stars so intriguing this week is that it occurs just as the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower kicks up. Even though this shower is best seen from the southern hemisphere, its still possible to catch some of its falling stars in the early hours of Tuesday morning, May 5th. The star names in Aquarius all have to do with fortune and good luck, so these are truly the wishing stars! Not only that, it was near the radiant of this shower that William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. In esoteric star wisdom, Uranus is considered the gateway to the occult, connected with initiation and the Mysteries.

Then on Wednesday evening, at the eve of this months Full Moon, theres a fun viewing opportunity, if you can get yourself to a spot where both the eastern and western horizons are visible. The nearly Full Moon will rise around 8 pm in the East, while the Sun will set in the West a little less than an hour later, just before 9 pm.

In Buddhist tradition, the Buddha is born, achieves enlightenment and is transfigured all on the May Full Moon. So well let this mighty being speak the message for this week: Three things cannot be long hidden, the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth.

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The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky - Interlochen

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Renewables Battery Energy Storage Market Expectation Surges with Rising Demand and Changing Trends - Cole of Duty

The Black Death (1347-51) devastated European society. Writing four decades after the event, the English monk and chronicler, Thomas Walsingham, remarked that so much wretchedness followed these ills that afterwards the world could never return to its former state.

This medieval commentary reflects a lived reality: a world turned upside down by mass fear, contagion and death.

Yet society recovered. Life continued despite the uncertainty. But it was not business-as-usual in the aftermath the threat of plague remained.

The post-Black Death world had not been made any better by its renewal. The French monk, Guillaume de Nangis, lamented that men were more miserly and grasping, greedy and quarrelsome and involved in more brawls, disputes and lawsuits.

The shortage of workers in the aftermath was acute. The contemporary Historia Roffensis notes that swaths of land in England remained uncultivated, in a world dependent on agricultural production.

A scarcity of goods soon followed, forcing some landlords in the realm to lower or pardon rents in order to keep their tenants. If labourers work not, quipped the English preacher, Thomas Wimbledon, priests and knights must become cultivators and herdsmen, or else die for want of bodily sustenance.

Sometimes, the stimulus came by force. In 1349, the English government issued its Ordinance of Laborers, which legislated able-bodied men and women be paid salaries and wages at the pre-plague 1346 rate.

Other times, the recovery was more organic. According to the French Carmelite friar, Jean de Venette, everywhere women conceived more readily than usual; none was barren and pregnant women abounded. Several gave birth to twins and triplets, signalling a new age in the aftermath of such a great mortality.

Then the plague returned. A second pestilence struck England in 1361. A third wave affected several other countries in 1369. A fourth and fifth wave followed in 1374-79 and 1390-93 respectively.

Plague was a constant feature in late medieval and early modern life. Between 1348 and 1670, wrote historians Andrew Cunningham and Ole Peter Grell, it was a regular and recurring event:

sometimes across vast regions, sometimes only in a few localities, but without omitting a single annual link in this long and mournful chain.

The disease impacted communities, villages and towns with greater risks to urban centres. With its dense population, London was scarcely free from disease with large outbreaks in 1603, 1625, 1636 and the Great Plague of 1665, which claimed 15 per cent of the citys population.

No generation escaped its wrath.

Governments were not shy in their responses. While their experience could never prevent an outbreak, their management of disease tried to mitigate future disasters.

Queen Elizabeth Is Plague Order of 1578 implemented a series of controls to support the infected and their families. Throughout England, a government initiative ensured that infected people did not leave their homes for food or work.

Pesthouses were also built to house the sick and protect the healthy. In 1666, King Charles II ordered each town and city to be in readiness in case any infection should break out. If an infected person was discovered, he or she would be removed from the house and city while the former was closed for 40 days, with a red cross and the message Lord have mercy upon us affixed to the door.

In some cases, barriers, or cordons sanitaires, were built around infected communities. But they sometimes did more harm than good. According to the Enlightenment historian Jean-Pierre Papon, residents of the Provenal town of Digne in 1629 were prevented from leaving, from burying their dead and from constructing cabanes where they might have otherwise safely isolated from the disease.

Experience and regulatory measures werent always effective.

The great plague that struck the southern French city of Marseille between 1720 and 1722 killed an estimated 100,000 people. Following the arrival of the Grand Saint-Antoine, a merchant ship returning from the Levant, proper care and remedies to prevent the fatal consequences of this disease were delayed and ignored. The disease spread to all parts of the city.

The plague began to rage there within a matter of weeks. A corrupt doctor, false bills of health, political and economic pressures to unload the ships merchandise, and corrupt officials investigating the initial spread of the disease, all contributed to a disaster that could scarcely be contained in southern France.

Hospitals were saturated, unable to receive the vast quantity of sick which came to them in throngs. Exercising double diligence, authorities built new hospitals in the alleys, fitted up large tents on the citys outskirts, filling them with as many straw beds as possibly could remain there.

Fearful of transmission on its shores, the English government quickly updated its protective measures. The Quarantine Act of 1721 threatened violence, imprisonment or death on anyone endeavouring to escape the enforced confinement, or those refusing to obey the new restrictions.

Some deemed these measures unnecessary. Infection may have killed its thousands, wrote one anonymous author, but shutting up hath killed its ten thousands

Edmund Gibson, the bishop of London and an apologist for the government, disagreed. Where the disease is desperate, he wrote, the remedy must be so too. As such, he wrote, there was no point dwelling upon rights and liberties, and the ease and convenience of mankind, when there was plague hanging over our heads.

Social dislocation was an inevitable result a necessary evil. But as medieval and early modern experiences with plague remind us, it is not a permanent fixture.

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Medieval Europe's waves of plague also required an economic action plan - The Conversation CA