http://www.cdlponline.org/

The categories include:

• Organizations focusing on breast cancer, other cancers, and public health work together to form reasonable partnerships, leverage available resources, and reduce duplication of services.

• Organizations use evidence-based information along with the highest professional and ethical standards to develop programs and increase their sustainability and capacity.

• Organizations systematically and continuously evaluate their programs for efficacy, efficiency, and relevance.

• Organizations are clear and transparent about whose interests they represent.

• Any organization working toward the eradication of cancer does not (directly or indirectly) endorse, partner with, or accept donations from any entity that contributes to the production or distribution of known or suspected carcinogens.

• Any organization working toward the eradication of cancer does not (directly or indirectly) accept donations (monetary or in-kind) from any entity that profits from the diagnosis or treatment of cancer.

• Research into cancer causation, prevention, detection, treatment, and aftercare is coordinated and, at times, collaborative to foster the greatest impact. Organizations that fund research work within this structure, with clear, evidence-based criteria for funding decisions.

What is Komen’s Role in this Future?

• Remember that Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a nonprofit organization, not a nonprofit corporation as Nancy Brinker refers to it. Act according to sound ethical principles befitting of a nonprofit.

• Cease partnerships with corporate sponsors who engage in “pinkwashing.”

• Stop strong-arming other organizations over the phrase “for the cure.” Trademark or not, Komen does not own this common language. Support your sister organizations.

• Act in accordance with the mission of being “for the cure” and make research the top funding priority.

• Stop producing messaging and education programs that promote simplistic early detection and lifestyle prevention measures. Early detection is a misnomer for many cancers, and it is no guarantee of a cure.

• Partner with other breast cancer organizations to produce and disseminate evidence-based breast cancer awareness and education resources. Doing so will result in costs savings and economic synergies.

• Too many precious resources are being wasted on holding grandscale fundraising events. Consider the power of social media and other original ideas in your fundraising efforts.

• Prioritize funding and advocate for real prevention by commissioning studies on environmental factors, and by lobbying congress for legislation to stop corporate polluting and the manufacturing and marketing of known carcinogens.

• Fund research studies that encompass 10-year, 20-year, 30-year periods to gain a better understanding of survival and mortality statistics for ALL stages of disease. Scientists know that five-year survival statistics are inaccurate representations of breast cancer survivorship.

• Recognize the needs of women living with metastatic breast cancer; prioritize research funding in this area.

• Expand your vision to include other women’s cancers, particularly those that are known or suspected to be associated with the breast cancer genes (e.g. ovarian and colon cancers), those that can result from breast cancer treatments (e.g., uterine cancer, leukemia, and lymphomas), and those with similar causation.

If you would like to search the poetry by tags, some important tags include religious, satire, American, sonnets, and anapestic. I suppose I could add a lot more tags; feel free to suggest one in a comment.

Immediately after Björk releases Biophilia, Galactic Zack invites me to his East Sixth Street apartment in Austin, TX, for a listening party. We drink whiskey and smoke herb, preparing our minds and bodies for Björk’s music.

— Fuck the neighbors, Zack says as he begins playing Biophilia. He turns the volume on his stereo to full-blast and pulls his signature flat-billed cap over his eyes.

We swoon as Tesla coils provide the bass for “Thunderbolt.” When the Gameste in “Crystalline” fades and the song climaxes into a drum-and-bass cadenza, Zack falls to the floor and pulls me with him, pinning me down with his hand on my chest. Our bodies vibrate with the bass.

— FEEL IT?

— I FEEL IT.

— HOW DOES SHE MAKE SO MUCH SOUND OUT OF NOTHING?

— I DON’T KNOW.

I’m not an electronic musician. I really don’t know. But I know that Zack knows.

The previous night, we discussed literature while listening to The Carpenters’ The Singles: 1969-1973 on vinyl. In some mid-sentence claim about the perfection of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Zack stopped talking and leapt up to plug cords into his record player. He apologized for our conversation’s abrupt end.

— I’m sorry; I have to do this.

— Do yo thang.

Zack transferred a three-second sample from The Carpenters’ vinyl onto a cassette tape. He played his sample backwards and moved the recording to his computer, slowing the sound down, elongating its sonic waves. Zack chopped his sample up, repeated it, reversed it, flipped it over itself. Sonic acrobatics. He laid more tracks on top of his sample: frenetic 909 snares and 4-to-the-floor bass, hands clapping at 155 BPM. Zack turned the sample into his own, new, five-minute long track.

— Do you like it?, he asked me.

— Of course I do. What kind of music is it?

— It’s juke.

— What is juke?

— This, Zack said, pointing to his speakers. This is juke.

Now, listening to Bjork’s “Mutual Core,” Zack again jumps up and begins recording. He apologizes for the second night in a row. Again, I tell him I’m not offended. Again, I say:

—    Do yo thang.

*

To literary critics, formalism, or structuralism, is a conversation that began when people started arguing about the methods by which humans construct narratives. Narratives are, of course, tangible objects that take up space and time; the book on the corner of my desk is literally occupying a spot within this moment. Texts, like any other item, are constructed forms. Structuralists, or formalists, discuss the structure of stories much in the same way that architects discuss how people structure buildings: an I-beam is to a builder as plot is to a storyteller. Aristotle began recording this dialogue millennia ago, with Poetics. Within the past hundred years or so, some scholars who discuss literary form have called themselves “New Critics.” And according to structuralists / formalists / New Critics, literature does provide objective measurements by which readers might gauge it.

In the 1920s, Russian formalist Mikhael Bakhtin appropriated a concept called the chronotope from Einstein’s theory of relativity, and he began using this concept within literary studies. The chronotope—literally, “time-space”—manifests within a narrative as an author writes about time in such a way that it “thickens, takes on flesh,” and appears as a tangible spatiotemporal plane within his/her text; “likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the moments of time, plot and history” (Bakhtin 84). Any given chronotope, Bakhtin argues, necessarily works as a generative principle of the narrative within which it appears and therefore limits the scope of that narrative; certain types of characters appear within certain types of spaces, and the actions those characters perform will be limited to what might realistically happen within that space. Chronotopes are interesting inasmuch as they might manifest within many texts from different time periods and because they exist cross-culturally. And because they signify real-world time-space, chronotopes reflect the real-world planes within which we exist.

To prove his theory of the chronotope’s manifestation within literature, Bakhtin identifies a few chronotopes, one of which is “the chronotope of the road […] and of various types of meetings on the road” (Bakhtin 98). Roads exist in literature primarily as historically bound liminal spaces wherein historically bound characters may travel from one place to another and interact with other characters who also do the same. Any given road within any particular text is informed by that text’s existence as a specific, tangible, “piece” of material made from the fabric of space-time. A road in any particular literary text, then, will be constructed in direct response to its author’s historical situation. Or, as Bakhtin writes, “In the chronotope of the road, the unity of time and space markers is exhibited with exceptional precision and clarity” (98).

Indeed, a road is a specific, constructured spatiotemporal plane that exists in the real world and within which travelers travel and encounter other travelers who are also traveling. Our real-world road spaces also manifest within our narratives. Of course, the motives we have for being on roads will no doubt change between our stories, and the appearance of the roads themselves—as well as our means of transportation on those roads—will change between texts, too. The historical moment determines this variation; however, a road is a road is a road. The spatiotemporal plane of the road exists in the real world, and as roads manifest within literature, we discover the narrative trajectory that roads offer to people who travel on them.

For example, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century text The Canterbury Tales, the chronotope of the road manifests as pilgrims—“sundry folk”—travel from Southwark down a pathway toward the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Along their way down this path, the pilgrims engage in a storytelling competition to pass the time, and their stories reveal historically based class, religious, and gender tensions between the characters. Additionally, in her 1991 screenplay Thelma and Louise, the chronotope of the road appears as Callie Khouri writes about the titular characters setting off on a road trip to escape the patriarchal systems that oppress them: after a man attempts to rape Thelma, she kills him. She and Louise then speed away in a blue Thunderbird. They are chased by law enforcement, which views them as outlaws on the run, and they ultimately drive their Thunderbird into the Grand Canyon, crashing the car and presumably killing themselves. The chronotope of the road for Khouri’s characters ends with death—albeit their death stands as a metaphorical escape from the patriarchy which subjugates them.

Though the road in these stories manifests in different forms and though the method of transportation by which these travelers navigate their roads differs, we should notice that between the narratives, the chronotope of the road provides a spatiotemporal plane through which characters travel in order to reach some desired destination. That destination differs between the stories, too; still, as a “set” plane of existence, the chronotope of the road actually determines the spatial narratives of these texts. Characters who enter the chronotope of the road are offered a spatiotemporal plane through which to travel to some destination, and when they reach that destination, they eventually leave the road; therefore, the chronotope disappears from their texts and the spatial narratives of their texts change.

If we think about the spatial narratives provided by chronotopes that manifest within stories, then, we can reproduce those narratives by fashioning their chronotopic spaces into existence in the real world. Of course, our real world does not exhibit a lack of roads; the spatial narratives that our real-world roads might provide are, without a doubt, plentiful. An entire literary genre called “road stories” does exist. However, certainly there are other chronotopic spaces that might be useful for us to construct in the real world—and particularly in our cities.

In my Master’s thesis in Literature, entitled Patti Smith and a Tradition of Transgression in Women’s Autobiography, I indentify one of these chronotopic planes, and I name it the chronotope of the artistic frontier. My chronotope of the artistic frontier is a spin-off of the chronotope of the road inasmuch as it provides a spatiotemporal plane through which a character might travel in order to reach a destination. However, within the artistic frontier, the destination that a subject reaches is a life as an artist.

I develop my chronotope by comparing Patti Smith’s 2010 autobiographical book Just Kids to Diane di Prima’s 1969 Memoirs of a Beatnik, showing that both texts include their subjects moving to urban areas. They acquire jobs at arts-based venues and live in communal “pad” spaces with other artists. They often feel that their work is pointless, not suited for the times in which they live. Still, in the “pad” spaces, the subjects are able to “woodshed,” practicing their art alongside other to-be artists. At least once, the subject leaves the urban area s/he moved to at the beginning of the narrative in order to live somewhere else, but s/he eventually returns to the city with a new appreciation of it. The subjects continue to make friends with other artists whose artistic philosophies run parallel to their own, and these other artists become their mentors.

Eventually, the tangible plane of the chronotope of the artistic frontier disappears from the narratives altogether when the subjects create art that others recognize. The subjects therefore become artists within their own rights. By moving away from the urban area s/he originally came to at the beginning of the narrative now that s/he has become an artist, the subject enters another space that s/he created while exploring the chronotope of the frontier: an artistic career, as well as the world as it exists after the artist has changed it.

*

As it manifests in literature, then, the chronotope of the artistic frontier provides a plane within which individuals can become artists. That is, the chronotope of the artistic frontier determines a particular spatial narrative for those who exist within its manifestation. Perhaps we could implement the literary study of the chronotope into our practice of constructing our urban spaces. By being aware of how chronotopic planes actually generate particular spatial narratives, we can improve our methods of achieving our desired spatial narratives for cities. And if we want our cities to be ones that produce artists, perhaps we should construct the chronotope of the artistic frontier within them.

Of course some cities already do provide the conditions under which the chronotope of the artistic frontier might manifest within the spatial narratives of their citizens. Austin, TX, is one of these cities, and Galactic Zack is an artist who currently traverses the chronotope of the artistic frontier as it manifests in Austin.

Even more interesting, though is that Zack, along with many of his fellow Austin juke artists, is queer. Austin has definitely experienced urban growth in line with what Richard Florida mentions about the “Gay Index,” which assists in the creative class’s rise within urban areas. Along with the rise of the creative class, Florida reminds us, a city becomes more corporatized. This claim therefore indicates that the “queerness” in Austin has no doubt assisted in the city’s overall urban growth and corporatization.

However, if we follow Zack and some of his fellow artists through their own chronotopic narratives of how they became artists, we find that the players in Austin’s juke scene actually resist the corporatization that has impacted the city as it has grown around them. What we then discover is an exception to Florida’s “Gay Index” rule and a re-working of how he claims an urban queer community shapes the landscape within which it lives.

In my next entry, I will explore the chronotope of the artistic frontier’s characteristics in more detail. In turn, we can more fully understand how Galactic Zack exists within Austin’s manifestation of this chronotope, as well as how this chronotope is a tangible structure that we can emulate by literally building it into reality elsewhere.

The following article is from Shaikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhaab’s (rahimahullah) Baad Al-Fawaaid Surah Al-Fatihah. He also has a treatise on prayer which includes some nice information about this Surah.

[You can download the following article here.]

From: http://www.al-ibaanah.com/articles.php?ArtID=138

Some of the Benefits of Surah Al-Fatihah

In the Name of Allaah, the Most Merciful, Bestower of Mercy.

[1] All praise is for Allaah, Lord of the worlds.

[2] The Most merciful, the Bestower of Mercy

[3] Owner of the Day of Recompense

These three verses contain three matters:

The First Verse: Consist of Love. This is since Allaah is the One who grants blessings, and the One who grants blessings is loved in accordance to His granting of blessings.

Love is divided into four types:

The First Love: The Polytheistic Type of Love: This applies to those about whom Allaah said: “And amongst mankind are those who take rivals apart from Allaah, loving them like the love that is due to Allaah…” up to where He said: “And they will not be able to get out from the Fire.”

The Second Love: Love for falsehood and its adherents while having hatred for the truth and its adherents. This is the characteristic of the hypocrites.

The Third Love: The Natural Type of Love: This applies to love for wealth and children. If such things do not preoccupy one from obeying Allaah or assist in disobeying Allaah, then they are allowable.

The Fourth Love: Love for the adherents of Tawheed (monotheism) and hatred for the adherents of Shirk (polytheism). This is the strongest handhold of Faith and the greatest thing a servant can worship his Lord by.

The Second Verse: Contains Hope

The Third Verse: Contains Fear.

“You alone do we worship…” meaning: “I worship You, O Lord, with what has preceded – i.e. the three things – with Love for You, Hope in You, and fear of You.”

These three things are the pillars of worship, and directing them to someone (or something) other than Allaah is Shirk (polytheism).

In these three things is a refutation against those who cling onto just one from amongst them, such as those who cling onto only Love, or cling onto only Hope or cling onto only Fear.

So whoever directs any of these three aspects to someone other than Allaah is a polytheist.

Amongst its benefits is:

A refutation against the three groups, each of which sticks to one aspect apart from the others, as is the case with those who worship Allaah with only Love. And as is the case with those who worship Allaah with just Hope, such as the Murji’ah, and those who worship Allaah with just Fear, such as the Khawaarij.

[4] You alone do we worship and in You alone do we seek assistance

This verse contains the Oneness of Allaah in the Worship due to Him and the Oneness of Allaah in His Lordship.

“You alone do we worship” contains the Oneness of Allaah in the Worship due to Him, i.e. Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah.

“And in You alone do we seek assistance” contains the Oneness of Allaah in His Lordship, i.e. Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah.

[5] Guide us to the Straight Path
This verse consists of a refutation against the innovators.

As for the last two verses,[1] then from among its benefits is that Allaah mentions the (various) conditions of the people. Allaah has divided them into three categories: (1) Those whom Allaah has bestowed His Blessing on; (2) Those whom have gained Allaah’s Anger; and (3) Those who are astray.

Those who have gained Allaah’s Anger are the people who have knowledge but no actions.

Those who are astray are the people who perform worship but no knowledge with it.

Even though the reason why this verse was revealed was with regard to the Jews and the Christians, it applies to everyone that characterizes himself with these attributes.

The third category consists of those who are characterized with knowledge and action. They are the ones whom Allaah has bestowed His Blessing on.

Another of the benefits derived from this surah is that an individual is freeing himself from any power or might since he is the one who is having the blessings bestowed on him. This surah also presents a complete awareness of Allaah and negates all defects from Him, Blessed and Exalted. The surah also contains a person’s aware ness of his Lord and awareness of himself.

This is since if there is a Lord, then there must also be one who is governed. If there is one who grants mercy, then there must also be one who is shown mercy. If there is an owner, then there must be that which is owned. If there is a worshipper, then there must also be one that is worshipped. If there is one that is guided then there must be one that guides. If there is one who bestows blessings, then there must also be one who receives the blessings. If there is one who obtains anger, then there must also be one who is angry. And if there is one who is astray, then there must also be one who leads astray.

So this surah consists of the Oneness of Allaah in His Worship and Lordship and a negation of deficiencies from Allaah. It also consists of the definition and pillars of worship. And Allaah knows best.

Footnotes:

[1] Translator’s Note: Meaning: “The Path of those upon whom You bestowed Your Blessing. Not of those who have gained Your Anger nor of those who are astray.”

Papaano kung nalaman ni Inday na buntis sya sa kanyang ika-pitong anak. Tricycle driver ang trabaho ng kanyang asawa na swerte nang kumita ng P200 sa isang araw. Ang bunsong anak nya, wala pang isang taong gulang. Payat at panay may sakit ang kanyang mga anak dahil kulang ang kanilang pera para mabuhay ng matiwasay sa araw-araw…

Pumasok sa isip ni Inday, “Uminom kaya ako ng pampalaglag? Di na namin kaya ng isa pang anak?” “Kawawa naman ang batang ito kung bubuhayin ko pa dahil baka mamatay din lang ito dahil wala akong mapapakain.” “Di pa naman buhay ito, dugo pa lang ito, sana gumana ang pampalaglag.” “O kaya, uminom na lang kaya ako ng gin hanggang duguin ako?” “Ayoko na nitong batang ito, lalo lang nyang pahihirapan ang buhay ko!!!!”
**********
Sa kabilang banda, sa kwento ni Beverly…. 7 taon na silang kasal ng kanyang asawa. Hindi pa sila nabibiyayaan ng anak. Isang araw, pagkatapos mag home pregnancy test, tuwang-tuwang sinabi ni Bev sa asawang si David na sya ay nagdadalangtao.

Nang Sabadong iyon, pumunta sila sa doktor. Matapos ng napakaraming mga test, sinabi ng doktor na kung itutuloy ni Bev ang kanyang pagbubuntis, maaaring maging mapanganib sa kanyang kalusugan at sa kanyang buhay. Ganun kaaga, pinapapili na ng doktor si David kung ano ang mas gusto niya, ang magkaroon ng anak o magkaroon ng asawa. Hindi maaaring magkaroon pareho.
***********
Ikatlong kwento… si Mylene ay 40 anyos na. Tuwang-tuwang nalaman na sya ay buntis. Ngunit pagkatapos ng isang test sa ospital, nalaman na may down-syndrome ang kanyang anak. Sa bansa kung nasaan si Mylene, pinapayagan ang pag-abort sa sanggol kapag nalaman na ito ay may diperensya.

Ipagpatuloy kaya ni Mylene ang pagbubuntis.
************
Huling kwento. Si Kimberly, 14 na taong gulang. Nadiskubre ng kanyang Tiya Rosing na sya ay buntis at ang ama ng kanyang pinagbubuntis ay ang kanilang kapitbahay na si Tomas. Isang gabi, pagkauwi ni Tomas mula sa maghapong inuman, nakita nya si Kimberly at kanya itong hinalay. Ngayon hindi alam ng bata kung ano ang kanyang gagawin.

Papaanong mag-aalaga ng sanggol si Kim, kung sya mismo at isang bata pa rin? Walang amang mag-aaruga sa bata, at ang ina at kailangan pa rin ng pag-aaruga.
************
Iba’t ibang eksena ang hinaharap ng mga taong ito. Ngunit may isang tanong na lumilingid… itutuloy ba ang pagbubuntis na ito o dapat nang ipa-abort? Sa tingin ninyo, mga misis…..

And so, for me, adoption is definitely an option, almost a wish, whether or not I’ll have kids of my own. I carried this decision even until I got married. Yes, I have been fortunate to have a hubby who shares this belief, and I think God made that so. We want to be instrumental in loving, in giving hope, in sharing our blessings, and in making a difference to even at least one child in the world.

Not a lot of people will share this idea, I know, but we all have our reasons and we all have our missions. Hubby and I just feel that this is ours. We are thankful to God that He gave us a daughter, Ninna, because it makes this mission even clearer: we would like to adopt not because we need to, but because we choose to.

But of course, just like having a biological child, we want to do it responsibly, making sure we are both emotionally and financially ready to take on this task. Also, we want Ninna to be ready as well. We want to make sure that she is secure, she understands, and she is willing to open her heart and the doors of our family for a new member.

Until then, I can’t wait until I sing one song to all of my children, whether they are the fruits of my womb or of my heart.

Baby mine, don’t you cry.
Baby mine, dry your eyes.
Rest your head close to my heart,
Never to part, baby of mine.Little one, when you play
Pay no heed what they say.
Let your eyes sparkle and shine,
Never a tear, baby of mine.

His viewpoint is already apparent by the title; the true value of awesome book is for introducing to the layperson linguistics and the depth of the kinds of questions that can be asked about language… these questions can be “beautiful,” and certainly most of us would not have thought of these issues themselves, yet after Pinker’s examples, it all makes wonderful sense, and is memorable and lucid. Whether or not the reader agrees with Pinker after becoming sophisticated upon further readings is not relevant; without The Language Instinct, Pinker’s engaging introduction to the field, many would never wish to become linguistically sophisticated in the first place!

You likely won’t find another book which presents the beauty & complexity of language with the ease of The Language Instinct. If you are to have but one book in your library on language, this should be the one. Enjoy!