2,362 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2021
    1. Wibmer, C. K., Ayres, F., Hermanus, T., Madzivhandila, M., Kgagudi, P., Lambson, B. E., Vermeulen, M., Berg, K. van den, Rossouw, T., Boswell, M., Ueckermann, V., Meiring, S., Gottberg, A. von, Cohen, C., Morris, L., Bhiman, J. N., & Moore, P. L. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2 escapes neutralization by South African COVID-19 donor plasma. BioRxiv, 2021.01.18.427166. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.18.427166

    1. Tang, J. W., Bahnfleth, W. P., Bluyssen, P. M., Buonanno, G., Jimenez, J. L., Kurnitski, J., Li, Y., Miller, S., Sekhar, C., Morawska, L., Marr, L. C., Melikov, A. K., Nazaroff, W. W., Nielsen, P. V., Tellier, R., Wargocki, P., & Dancer, S. J. (2021). Dismantling myths on the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Journal of Hospital Infection, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.022

  2. onedrive.live.com onedrive.live.com
    1. The African Image

      The African Image is a book by E. Mphahlele, a South African author and educationalist. He is one of the most famous modern African authors and has been dubbed the "Dean of African Letters". This book was published in 1962 and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work in it just seven years later. He was also awarded the Order of the Southern Cross by PM Nelson Mandela as well as the Order of the Palm by the French government. Mphahlele is also widely considered to be the father of African humanism.

    2. Vivaldi's Four Seasons

      (86) The Four Seasons is a very famous musical composition composed by Vivaldi. Cellos and violins are hevaily present. An interesting fact is that one may note that the Winter part is much more cheery and happy than the Summer one. It turns out that this is not simply an issue of Vivaldi's personal opinions of the seasons but of his medical condition as well. Vivaldi suffered badly from asthma. This caused him to have problem with breathing in the Summer when the weather was warmer and more importantly drier in Italy. In the rainy months during the Winter (Italy being a country in the sub-tropical climate belt) he experienced not issues at all which made him his favorite month. This suprising quirk of his in comparison with most people may be a connection with the narator's own personal feeling of disconnection with bothe English and Zimbabwians alike.

    3. Cafenol

      (91) Cafenol is a drug used to cure fever that has similar effect to paracetamol (acetaminophen). In fact, the two main "ingredients" from which cafenol is made are exactly paracetamol and as the name suggests - caffeine. That being said. the great presence of caffeine also makes the medication quite cheap especially when compared to different minophens. This may be one of the reasons as to why the author mentions unnamed type of aspirins and cafenol to "abate" with his fever and not cafenol given the narrator's position. Another interesting fact is that cafenol has been known to cause side effects when consumed without paracetamol. Some of these include nausea, cloudiness, and diahrea.

    4. Christopher Okigbo'

      (p.74) Christopher Okigbo (1932-1967) was born in Ojoto, Nigeria. His father was a teacher, who lectured in Catholic missionary schools during the prime of colonial rule of Britain over Nigeria. Because of that, the family traveled a lot. When he grew up, he studied and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Western classics (Greek and Latin) at the University of Ibadan. Later, he became a teacher there, followed by a job as the librarian of the University of Nigeria, as well as a position as the private secretary of the federal minister of research and information of Nigeria. As an African poet, modernist, and postcolonial writer, Okigbo was influenced by various texts and mythologies: Modern English Literature, the classics, and Western and African mythology. Although he published only three volumes of poetry, his work wasn't left unrecognized, and, in 1966, he was awarded the Langston Hughes Award for African Poetry at the Festival of Black African Arts in Dakar. He declined it based on his belief that poetry shouldn't be judged on race. The themes in his works include loss, nature, and the passing of time. His poems are infused with heavy symbolism, and in them, he speaks a lot about the role of the poet. His works are characterized as being "obscure, allusive, or difficult" (Britannica). He died in the Nigeria-Biafra war and received the National Order of Merit of Biafra after his death. As can be noticed, Okigbo and Marechera share common themes in their works, as well as the tendency to write hard to comprehend texts.

    5. unilateral declaration of independence

      (p. 83) A unilateral declaration of independence is a formal process that leads to a state, earlier dictated upon by another (usually more powerful that gained control over the particular country during a colonization process), declaring its independence without getting a formal agreement from the previously ruling state. On November 11, 1965, after numerous attempts to persuade Britain into giving Rhodesia its independence, Ian Smith's (the prime minister of the state) government announced the UDI, thus separating from Britain. This was the first country after the USA, which had left the United Kingdom without its agreement. In response, the UN and the UK placed sanctions on the breakaway state, but, due to the help received by South Africa and Portugal, Rhodesia's economy continued to thrive. In 1969, the government accepted a constitution that guaranteed political power to the white minority of the country. This led to unrest among the black population, which culminated in the Bush War. After it ended in 1979, Rhodesia (at that time - Zimbabwe Rhodesia) revoked its unilateral declaration of independence. For a brief period, the state was under absolute British rule. In 1980, the country was granted official independence and international recognition, thus becoming what today is known as Zimbabwe.

    6. The nganga was called.

      Nganga (91) is a term originating from the Bantu family language Kikongo, spoken in West Africa. The term is also used in societies of African people in other countries, such as Cuba and Brazil. The -gang in Nganga is related to wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Throughout the Bantu-speaking world, there are variations of the term, while the modern languages have contributed entirely new meanings (such as a plant alternative for marijuana). In its earliest form, and throughout Africa, nganga means herbalist or spiritual healer. The nganga has the special skill to communicate with spirits in order to find the root of an illness, misfortune, or any social malady, and find a solution for the problem. The methods of healing include not only supernatural elements, but also natural medical ingredients. The nganga can also transfer spiritual forces to sacred objects. The nganga (or n’anga) of the Shona society of Zimbabwe is a practicing traditional healer, whose methods include herbalism, religious rituals, and spiritual healing. The n’anga have the ability to tell fortunes and hold great influence over people - they can bless them or even kill them. Because of those special skills, the n’anga were the main helpers of people, during challenging times, throughout the decades. It is even said that during the Rhodesian Bush War, the Guerilla leaders consulted with the n’anga. Today, in Zimbabwe, the n’anga are recognized practitioners and are registered in the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healer's Association.

    7. 'What is your totem?' 'Nguruwe.

      Totems as a whole are known to be an important and unique part of African culture. As such, they are one of the earliest traditions, which the Shona people followed. In Shona language, a totem is called mutupo or mitupo in plural form. A mutupo is usually an animal or body part, which identifies a certain clan or sub-clan. The Shona people are known to have more than 25 identifiable totems and 60 principal names. Through these emblems, clans become associated with certain positive characteristics of the symbol animal, such as bravery, wisdom, courage, speed, etc. In this way, a mutupo serves as a sort of praise for a person; however, it is also meant to help avoid incest. As totems are identifications, people of the same totem know they are related and do not marry one another because they are aware of the consequences that would have for their children. Apart from these two functions, mitupo are also a way of protecting and preserving the environment. Shona people who are associated with a certain animal do not hunt, kill, or eat that animal, not only because the symbol of their totem is believed to be sacred but also because some of their ancestors might have turned into that animal after death. By hunting the animal, they would be performing a forbidden act as well as possibly eating one of their relatives. The clan rather guards the totem animal as its own than harms it. Overall, mitupo played a huge role in the practices and religion of the Shona people pre-colonization and are still considered an important part of a Shona person's identity even today despite many turning to Christianity and starting to follow its beliefs. However, due to the rise of unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children after British colonization, not every Shona child has been given a totem since then (79).

      Edmund’s totem is Nguruwe, which translated from Shona language means “pig”. For this reason, the assistant boarding master Jet refers to Edmund showing the different “species of farting” to his roommates as “very appropriate” behavior after asking his totem on page 79, and Stephen uses the word “pig” as synonymous to Edmund on page 81: “‘You've all heard what the Pig has said.’”

    8. Milton's Paradise Lost

      Paradise Lost is one of the late works of English poet, pamphleteer, and historian John Milton, who is thought to be “the most significant English author after William Shakespeare” (Labriola). It is an epic poem, written in blank verse, which was first published in 10 books in 1667 and later in 12 with some revisions in 1674. The poem consists of almost 11,000 lines in total and is considered to be one of the greatest English literary works of all time (78).

      Paradise Lost generally tells the biblical story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace but also has a narrative arc about Satan’s rebellion and fall from Heaven. Milton’s powerful and sympathetic characterization of Satan has been noted by many readers, and Satan has been admired for his splendid recklessness in confronting God. The Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley considered him the real hero of Paradise Lost and praised his rebellion against the tyranny of Heaven. Satan also has similar traits with many heroes of Classical, medieval, and Renaissance epics. He is resourceful, willful, defiant, and filled with anger, which establishes him as a character who strives never to surrender. Edmund probably had the same opinion of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost as Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the work might have even served to shape his overall view of the Devil. Edmund thought of Satan as a hero, as a role model of sorts, and that’s why he had decorated his locker with depictions of him and enlarged texts of his speeches from the poem (78). Paradise Lost, as well as the other works Edmund read, which are mainly from Russian authors, as the narrator suggests at the end of page 81 (“‘For God's sake, this is not a Petersburg story. He's for real.’”), greatly influenced him and his actions. The views he formed while reading these literary pieces perhaps were also one of the reasons Edmund decided to become a guerilla later on.

    9. It reminded me of the time when I was writing an article about shantytown and while inspecting the pit-latrines there I fell into the filthy hole.

      A shantytown is a poor town or part of a town consisting of shanties, which are usually self-built shacks made from basic materials such as mud and wood. Shantytowns lack appropriate infrastructure and have few services - they do not have street drainage, electricity, public transportation, a safe water supply, and proper sanitation. Because of this, they face many problems such as overcrowding, diseases, fires, overpopulation, and competition for jobs. Shantytowns usually form in developing countries, some of the largest shanty towns being in South Africa, Mexico, Pakistan, and India. Shantytowns in Africa include Khayelitsta and Joe Slovo in Cape Town, South Africa, Kibera and Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya, and Misisi and Komboni in Lusaka, Zambia, but there are many others. In 2018, according to statistics from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 33.5 % of Zimbabwe’s urban population, which numbered 4.65 million people of the total 14.44 million Zimbabweans at the time, lived in shantytowns. Pit-latrines are common for shantytowns because most houses there lack toilets inside. A pit-latrine is a type of communal toilet consisting of a hole in the ground where feces are collected, a small opening to that hole, and a shelter. Without proper maintenance and ventilation, pit-latrines may begin harboring flies, which may cause the spread of intestinal worm infections and diseases such as infectious diarrhea (74).

    10. 'Kaffirs at the back. Kaffirs ..

      “Kaffir” is a racial term that has been used to refer to people of African, South Asian, and Arabic descent (72). Historically, the word comes from Arabic and its meaning is a “non-believer”, usually used by a Muslim to describe a non-Muslim. The term can also be translated to “rejector” or “infidel”. Arab traders on the Swahili coast (whose trade was based on slavery) used the word to refer to the African people who were non-Muslim. The Portuguese arrived on the coast in the second half of the 15th century and assimilated the word as a way to refer to people from South Africa in general. The Portuguese passed the term to their Asian colonies, where the word is not considered offensive. During the colonial periods of Britain and the periods of Dutch rule, the word was used with no derogatory meaning and was often utilized by historians and writers. During the Apartheid, the term became commonly used by the Europeans in South Africa and acquired its derogatory meaning. Throughout the 20th century and today, the term is used as a derogatory term for Black Africans, and since 1976 its usage is considered a crime in South Africa.

    11. sadza

      (p. 49) Sadza is part of the staple diet for the indigenous people of Rhodesia. It is a thickened porridge made out of pulverized grains. Usually, it is served with white maize (a type of corn) or with cooked meat (when served with the latter, it is called Sadza ne Nyama (Nyama - Shona for "meat"), which directly translates to Sadza and meat stew). Sometimes it includes vegetables, but that is not explicitly outlined (people say "sadza" without clarifying its ingredients). This food was originally imported, reaching Rhodesia in 1890 for the first time. Since then, it has been a vital source of starch and carbohydrates for the locals. It has also infiltrated their culture and language as the word may refer to a specific meal of the day (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) when in combination with the Shona words for that time.

    12. he was Elijah the Prophe

      (47) Elijah was a prophet and a miracle worker who lived in Israel according to the Books of Kings. It was believed that God performed miracles through Elijah, such as resurrection, "bringing fire down from the sky, and entering Heaven alive "by fire"' (Wikipedia). This once again shows how knowledgable the narrator is.

    13. Kwame Nkrumah

      pg. 46 Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was a Ghanian politician and revolutionary. He was the first prime minister and the first president of Ghana and fought for national independence. Nkrumah studied literature regarding socialism and nationalism at the University of Pennsylvania, and those studies greatly influenced his worldview and politics. In 1957 he led and won Gold Coast (a British colony in Africa)'s fight for independence. Afterward, Nkrumah formed the Convention People's Party, became one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity, and won the Lenin Peace Prize. After the approval of a new constitution, he was elected president. During his presidency, Nkrumah and his party promoted Pan-African culture, developed a proper educational system, and funded many industrial projects. Because of them, Ghana was one of the more influential states in terms of African international relationships during the decolonization period. Some sources suggest that Kwame Nkrumah gave military support to groups fighting against Ian Smith's government (the white-minority government of Rhodesia that ruled from 1949 to 1974).

    14. Flies

      p.53 - Flies In Christianity, flies are representative of evil - Satan being known as "The Lord of the Flies". They are associated with dirt and impurity. In Egyptian mythology, God's fourth plaque was of swarms of flies, while the swarm of flies in the novella sings hallelujah. If I am not mistaken, flies are also present in the narrator's dreams, where they are believed to be a symbol of unrest, doubt, which is the mental state of protagonist in this section of the novella.

    15. At once massive rocks of rain hurled themselves down upon the sleeping earth. The noise was deafening to the ear, the sight awesome to the eye, and the great torrents almost startled me into premature senility. Such a madness of the elements did not seem possible. Rude buckets of water poured over the school. It rained as though it would flood us out of our minds. It drummed on the asbestos roofs. It drummed on the window-panes. It dinned into our minds. It drummed down upon us until we could not stand it. It poured darkly; plashed; guttered; broke down upon our heads like the smack of a fist. It roared, splashed, soaked, stuttered stertorously down from the black spaces of the huge mindless universe. It rose. It swelled. It cracked its sides like a whip. Silver fish seemed to leap in frenzy by the bucketful. The mud plash and sucking of it churned round and round in our minds. It chilled up to the shoulders of one's soul. The delirium of rain shook the school into a feverish excitement. The eruption was like a boil that bursts and splatters everything with its black acids. The angry skies drove boulders of rain against the school until we felt our very sanity was under a relentless siege.

      Allegedly, stoning was the standard method of punishment in ancient Israel. According to the Old Testament, stoning served as a punishment for sins such as blasphemy and idolatry. The method required the collective action of the entire community, which served as a lesson to individuals. The sense of common rage is expressed through the violence of the people. The community in the novella is torn apart by injustice and hatred, and while there is an enemy colonialist, which the entirety of the country is facing, the people are divided within their nation, society, and even families. Individuals like Harry have resorted to betraying their own in order to be in the favor of the oppressors, and are openly disregarding the truth, pretending to be above the rest. The contrast between the biblical understanding of the act of stoning and the reality of nature is clear. The theme of stains, present in nearly every single layer of human existence, according to the narrator, is seemingly being challenged by the rage of the universe. The violent rain is not able to remove the stains, but it is able to punish the people: “It cracked its sides like a whip...The singing fury of it stuck little needles into the matter of our brains...The rain, it broke down the workers' compound; it felled the huts with its brute knuckle- duster” (44, 45). To me, the rain could be seen as a sort of vengeance, but also as a part of nature, that is in tune with the people. Led to such extremes by the horrible conditions, the people’s fury and desperation are reflected in the setting that surrounds them. For now, I have a bunch of different interpretations, but hopefully as we progress throughout the novella I will be able to find the intended meaning of the storm. Does the storm have a strictly negative meaning, or can it symbolise something positive?

    16. Gadarene swine

      The miracle of the Gadarene swine is a narrative from the New Testament. It tells of Jesus who crosses over the Sea of Galilee, where he meets two men possessed by demons. Jesus exorcises the demons out of the two men and into a herd of swine. The herd then runs off a cliff, falling into the sea and drowning. The story is included in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke with slight variations. The version in the Gospel of Mark is the most detailed, while the ones in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are shorter. In the longest version, Jesus meets only one man possessed by a demon, and it is mentioned that the man has gone mad due to the possession and began cutting himself with stones. Jesus also asks the name of the demon before exorcising it into the herd of swine. The demon is called Legion, and for this reason, this narrative is also known as the Exorcism of Legion (48).

    17. Lobengula

      Lobengula was the second and last king of the Southern African Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom. He ruled between 1868 and 1894, a period during which British interest in Africa was increasing due to its abundance of resources. In 1870, Lobengula granted his first concession to the London and Limpopo Mining Company, allowing them to mine for gold in the Tati River area, situated in the southwest of Matabeleland, in return for gifts, annual grants, and weapons. The area was discovered to be expensive and hard to mine and consequently abandoned, leading to Lobengula revoking the concession in 1880 due to failure to pay the annual fee. In 1886, however, the gold discoveries in Witwatersrand, a mountain ridge situated in today’s South Africa, drew attention to the gold in the Ndebele kingdom and the neighboring Mashonaland once again. Hence, Lobengula proceeded to grant many mining agreements after the first one in 1870, the most significant one being signed in 1888 with Cecil Rhodes’s business associates, led by Charles Rudd. The agreement was a gold concession to the entire Ndebele land, but because Lobengula was illiterate, he was tricked into believing that it was a limited mineral concession. The British government, however, accepted the document as authentic in 1889, and it was used to charter the British South Africa Company (BSAC). Lobengula refused to let them onto his land, so in 1890, the BSAC conquered neighboring Mashonaland instead. After failing to find much gold there, in 1893, the BSAC led an invasion in the Ndebele kingdom, justifying it with claims that the Ndebele were planning to attack Mashonaland. Thus, the First Matabele War began. One of the most devastating conflicts during it was the Battle of Shangani, during which the Maxim machine guns were used, leading to the deaths of many Ndebele warriors. Faced with the attacks of the BSAC’s military forces and the British imperial forces, and the large number of casualties, Lobengula burned Bulawayo, the capital of Ndebele kingdom, and fled in the direction of the Zambezi river. In late 1893, he was reported to be very sick. Although he is thought to have died in early 1894, his death and its cause remain inconclusive (56,57).

    18. (Harry looked as though he had just been swallowed alive by Jonah's whale.)

      (Harry looked as though he had just been swallowed alive by Jonah's whale.) (50)

      According to the Scripture, Book of Jonah, God reached out to Jonah and ordered him to go to preach to Nineveh, as the people there committed a lot of sins. Jonah was enraged because Nineveh was one of the greatest enemies of Israel, and thought of the people as wicked. He did not want to go and preach to them. Because of that, Jonah tried to escape from God’s order. He started moving in the opposite direction of Nineveh by boat, and headed to Tarshish. God was enraged and sent a storm after the ship. The men on the boat realised that Jonah is to blame for the storm, so they threw him in the sea. When he was sent overboard, the storm stopped. God then sent a big fish, a whale, in order to save Jonah from drowning. The whale swallowed Jonah whole. In the stomach of the fish, the man prayed for help and praised God. Jonah spent three days in the whale, and then God ordered it to travel to the shores of Nineveh and to leave the man there. The whale spat Jonah out and the man entered Nineveh. There he spread the message of God and warned the people that if they do not repent the city would be destroyed in 40 days. The Ninevites listened to the preacher and turned away from their sins, so God was merciful to them. Jonah saw that and was enraged because Nineveh was an enemy of Israel, and God did nothing to punish the people. Jonah sat on the ground in his anger, so God gave him a vine which was to provide shade for the man. The next day, however, God sent a worm, which ate through the vine. Jonah had to sit under the hot sun and began complaining, he pitied himself and claimed that he wanted to die. God then reached out to him and reproached him - Jonah was so troubled by a single vine, while God had to take care of the thousands of people living in the city of Nineveh.

    19. When Nestar (what kind of a father would give his child a 65 name like that?)

      Nestar is a gender-neutral name of African descent, meaning greatness, power, and wisdom. In the tradition of Southern African naming practises, the parents chose a hopeful name with the intention of creating a bright future for their children. Nestar’s backstory shows that she has gone through many challenges as a young woman. She has been cast out by her community because of her unwanted pregnancy, and has been left homeless and struggling at the age of twelve. Under these horrible conditions, she has managed not only to survive this harsh reality, but also to come out on top. She has done everything she can in order to secure a good future for herself, and her labour has paid off. She lives a comfortable life, she is rich, and according to her “Money... was power. There is nothing worthwhile that has no gold in it...”. Her story has earned the respect of the narrator, who wants to tell it to other people. The name given to her by her parents has seemingly fulfilled its purpose. Additionally, in my opinion, the quote on page 71 “Ah, heroes, black heroes …” can also be interpreted as a statement about Nestar. After all, her life is proof that people who are victims of the worst conditions have the ability to grow inner strength and rise even from the darkest of lows. Does the narrator consider Nestar a symbol of Rhodesia?

    20. Lager trucks

      Lager is a type of beer which is usually served at low temperatures. It was quite common in the British African collonies because it was quite easy to produce, unlike the normally warm bevarage consumed by the British. Lager trucks, ergo are vehicles used for the transportation, and possibly the storage, of such drinks. It is interesting to note, that despite the poor living conditions, residents had access to alcoloh including common people like the author or the township black clerk.

    21. Ajax,' I said. 'Who?' 'In Homer,' I said. 'The Iliad.'

      Homer's The Iliad is considered to be the first literary work of Ancient Greece and one of the first such in the whole world. It tells the story of the Trojan War sparked by the escape of Helen to Troy A story equally devoted to gods as to men, it comprises of several epic songs. Some notable heroes include Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus. Ajax is a Greek hero, son of king Talemon, who fights along the Spartans. He is a person of great courage, yet as Odysseus turns out victorious in the Little Iliad, Ajax is consumed by madness and starts to slaughter all Greek cattle.

    22. Tiger tiger burning bright. In the forest of the night. The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart. When the stars threw down their spears what rough beas

      This is an excerpt from the poem The Tyger by William Blake (an English poet and painter) that was published in Songs of Experience in 1794. It contains six stanzas, each of four lines that rhyme with one another. It describes a scene in which the speaker asks a mighty tiger a series of questions that are connected by the search for the all-powerful being that created such a beautiful yet horrific creature. The Tyger shows the dualistic nature of the world - both its innocence and its ferocity, its beauty, and destructiveness. The themes presented in the poems are present in House of Hunger as the character constantly juxtaposes the alluring aspects of his life (Immaculate, the sunset ) and the chaos that surrounds him (the squalor, the death, the beatings, drugs, alcohol, etc.).

    23. Gandanga

      Gandanga is a term in Shona (the native language of Rhodesia), which refers to the rebels of the Patriotic Front that serve with the Zimbabwe African Nation Liberation Army (ZANLA-PF) or with the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) - both organizations which fought during the Rhodesian Bush War (1964-1979). The word is directly translated as "rebel" or "insurgent" and is associated with the guerrillas that fought with the Rhodesian Security Forces during the 1970s. Through the years, Gandanga evolved to be used for a type of pop culture that developed in Zimbabwe. This culture is best known through its music called "Gandanga music" - translated as "Rebel music"- that is based on tunes the guerrillas would sing when going on the battlefield.

    24. Special Branch

      "Special Branch" are British police forces responsible for intelligence and national security. It was a special unit of the BSAP during the political unrest in Rhodesia.

    25. funeral games

      Funeral games were a regular feature of Mycenaean Greek society. This could be a reference to Homer's Iliad, where Achilles holds funeral games in honor of Patroclus. A similar competition was also used by the Roman poet Virgil in the Latin poem The Aeneid, where the Trojan Aeneas holds games on the anniversary of his father's death. What kind of image does the use of this phrase provide for life in the House of Hunger?

    26. And again that oblique look: 'You did nothing of the sort. You've just been sitting there like something in a trance.

      The narration of the novella (from what I have seen for now) is composed of events that are happening as the narrator progresses through the story, mixed with past events, memories, and occasionally memories mistaken for reality (30), alongside the clear additions by the narrator, which show his point of view. Due to this mosaic fragmented nature of the narration, in which different timelines overlap, and the narrator goes through periods of questionable state of mind, the clear path of the novella is hard to follow. The narrator is also found under the influence of alcohol and cannabis. According to Marechera's brother, a family curse has been passed down to Marechera by his mother, which resulted in him refusing to meet his family after his return to Zimbabwe. This experience of the author can (allegedly - it is an assumption) be considered an influence on the narrator's condition - he sees people around him, who are not a part of reality. Their laughter affects him negatively and only the storm is able to chase them away. For these reasons, I am led to believe that the narrator sometimes shows signs of being an unreliable one. It is a bit too early to be certain about it, but that is my current conclusion.

    27. Gandanga

      Gandanga is a word in the Shona language, which usually describes males. According to the different definitions given by dictionaries, it can mean "terrorist", "murderer", or "a wild savage person". During the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, gandanga was used to refer to a nationalist guerrilla soldier who fought against the Rhodesian Security Forces. However, the term is considered offensive, so the Shona people themselves never called their freedom fighters gandanga or its plural form magandanga. The word was mostly used by Rhodesians. The guerrillas also used it but only when they wanted to refer to themselves sarcastically (20).

    28. sixth form

      As Rhodesia became a British colony at the end of the 19th century and remained one until the latter half of the 20th century, its educational system was modeled on the British pattern. Prior to the 1990-1991 change, secondary education in Britain was divided into six forms based on an earlier system in which the long backless benches in a classroom where the pupils sat were known as forms. Students aged 11 started the first year of secondary education on the first form and moved up a form each year. The fifth form where pupils aged 15 would normally sit was the last compulsory year of secondary education. Students who wanted to go to university would stay for the last two years of secondary education — years numbered 12 and 13 — also known as the sixth form. Pupils in the sixth form included children aged 16 to 19 (12).

    29. Immaculate

      Another naming tradition in Zimbabwe is directly related to the fact that in the past the country had one of the most stable and democratic educational systems and highest literacy rates. A majority of the population from that generation, no matter their position in society, spoke English. Because of that, many people were given names that have hopeful and direct meanings, such as Freeman, Shopman, Godknows, Pinkrose, Last, and Cabinet.

    30. Peter

      Zimbabwe is a country strongly influenced by colonialist naming traditions, and because of past British rule (1888-1964), the majority of people have more than their name, given at birth, but also an English name (or multiple). Parents believe that English names will help their children prosper in life. Some of the most famous English names in Zimbabwe are indeed Peter, Philip, Anne, and Harry. Dambudzo Marechera himself was born with the name Charles William Marechera.

    1. There is Microsoft Academic which after its relaunch in 2015 seems to be the closest competitor. The newt kid on the block is Semantic Scholar developed by the non-profit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

      Alternatives to GScholar - Semantic Scholar might be interesting for snowballing.

    2. Google Scholar does not return all resources that you may get in search at you local library catalog. For example, a library database could return podcasts, videos, articles, statistics, or special collections.

      See other sources for videos, podcast, grey lit

    3. Within your Google Scholar library, you can also edit the metadata associated with titles. This will often be necessary as Google Scholar citation data is often faulty.

      use GScholar library to edit then download citation data

    4. All the search results include a “save” button at the end of the bottom row of links, clicking this will add it to your "My Library".To help you provide some structure, you can create and apply labels to the items in your library. Appended labels will appear at the end of the article titles.

      Save interesting papers to check out later using Google Scholar (signed in my library) - click the star to save a listing, add tags to help with sorting / retrieving later.

    5. The Scholar Button is a Chrome extension which add a dropdown search box to your toolbar - allowing you to search Google Scholar from any website. Moreover, if you have any text selected on the page and then click the button it will display results from a search on those words when clicked.
    6. Adjusting the Google Scholar settings is not necessary for getting good results but offers some additional customization, including the ability to enable the above-mentioned library integrations. The settings menu is found in the hamburger menu located in the top left of the Google Scholar page.

      save time by setting up GScholar as needed in Settings

    7. The trick is to build a list of keywords and perform searches for them like self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars. Google Scholar will assist you on that: if you start typing in the search field you will see related queries suggested by Scholar!

      GScholar search will help build search terms lists

  3. scientificinquiryinsocialwork.pressbooks.com scientificinquiryinsocialwork.pressbooks.com
    1. Action research also distinguishes itself from other research in that its purpose is to create change on an individual and community level. Kristin Esterberg puts it quite eloquently when she says, “At heart, all action researchers are concerned that research not simply contribute to knowledge but also lead to positive changes in people’s lives” (2002, p. 137).

      Directional goal

  4. Jan 2021
    1. ReconfigBehSci [@SciBeh] (2020-01-27) new post on Scibeh's meta-science reddit describing the new rubric for peer review of preprints aimed at broadening the pool of potential 'reviewers' so that students could provide evaluations as well! https://reddit.com/r/BehSciMeta/comments/l64y1l/reviewing_peer_review_does_the_process_need_to/ please take a look and provide feedback! Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1354456393877749763

    1. Researchers looked at a group of 143 Penn undergraduates, using baseline monitoring and randomly assigning each to either a group limiting Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day, or to one told to use social media as usual for three weeks. The results, published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks in the group limiting use compared to the control group.
    1. Graduate Student Descent

      :)

    2. “Useful” Machine Learning research on all datasets has essentially reduced to making Transformers faster, smaller and scale to longer sequence lengths.

      Typical type of advancement we see in ML

    3. The best people in empirical fields are typically those who have accumulated the biggest set of experiences and there’s essentially two ways to do this.Spend lots of time doing itGet really good at running many concurrent experiments

      How to derive with the best research

    1. Weingarten. E., Chen. Q., McAdams., Yi. J., (2016). From Primed Concepts to Action: A Meta-Analysis of the BehavioralEffects of Incidentally Presented Words. Psychological Bulletin 2016 (142) pp 472-497.

    1. Jo Maugham QC [@jolyonMaugham] (2020, August) Calling on retired lawyers! Law students! Bored lawyers! We at @GoodLawProject need your help with some research... we are working on what will be (well, if we win it) seminal litigation to establish the precautionary principle as a freestanding part of E&W common law! Twitter. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1296092565075369984

    1. Mambrini. A. Baronchelli. A. Starnini. M. Marinazzo. D. De Domenico, M. (2020) .PRINCIPIA: a Decentralized Peer-Review Ecosystem. Retrieved from: chrome-extension://bjfhmglciegochdpefhhlphglcehbmek/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=https%3A%2F%2Farxiv.org%2Fpdf%2F2008.09011.pdf

    1. We talked, for example, about how stores and governments were adding new rules and social distancing guidelines, often communicated through purely visual means, like stickers on the floor and printed signs. Mr. Johnston acknowledged that it was a tough new time for businesses, but shared that he faces new types of exclusion as a result.

      this just makes me wonder how society in general will cope with this. Companies nay be more sensitive to all these challenges COVID has pushed in fast forward mode.

      This is not only about designers being in the front seat of the business development plan, is about we as users setting-up these expectations!

  5. Dec 2020
    1. estigated L2s and Lis such as English and French. To fully understand the issues concerning the source of the knowledge available to the child L2 learner, further research involving other Lis and L2s is necessary. In addition, we also need to investigate successive L2 acquisition contexts where the L2 and the LI involve different modalities, including, for example, spoken languages versus sign lan- guages.3

      I personally haven't seen the explicit reasoning for using French in several of the French Tl studies I've read, but it is used a lot. In addition, many language studies would benefit from expansion that includes sign-language study.

    1. Inferential statistics are the statistical procedures that are used to reach conclusions aboutassociations between variables. They differ from descriptive statistics in that they are explicitly designed to test hypotheses.

      Descriptive statistics are used specifically to test hypotheses.

    1. For example, norms that overwhelmingly prioritize the publication and dissemination of philosophical research as articles in pay-to-read academic journals, although serving an evaluative purpose within the discipline, also reinforce a strong separation between professional philosophers and the public.

      True for advanced study of any kind. [[complexity]]

  6. Nov 2020
    1. In this context, the objective of thisstudy is to increase knowledge of the motivations and patterns of behaviour of foodstagrammertourists and to contribute new insights about this phenomenon. In the first part of the article,therefore, we establish the framework for the characteristics and motivations of foodstagrammertourists. We then describe the ethnographic methodology employed in this study and presentour detailed fieldwork. Finally, we explain our findings and discuss the phenomenon of foodsta-grammer tourists and their managerial implications.

      The research study, 'An Ethnographic Study of Motivations of Foodstagrammer tourists' highlights how a research question may be portrayed by using a broad research statement to identify their overarching focus of inquiry as opposed to directly stating a research question. In this study, it is found in the goals of the study and could be converted to a question format. Stating the purpose for the inquiry works as effectively as proposing a prompt research question.

    1. Reviewing pre-prints with hypothes.is?

      After conversion using the hypothes.is API tool: https://jonudell.info/h/CopyAnnotations/ , this annotation has been copied to a public annotation (which I subsequently edited).

      Drawback: you can only use it with one user log-in and on a single web domain (so you'd have to run it for every single article someone has reviewed).

      Original annotation (see in group—that one stays there, usefully!)

      This annotation should be private to the group only.

      Tags are permitted, they can be any free text.

    1. Das Analyse-Unternehmen Vico Research & Consulting untersucht seit 2003 regelmäßig, wie in den sozialen Netzwerken über den Klimawandel debattiert wird. Die Ergebnisse der aktuellen Studie vom ersten Halbjahr 2020 basieren auf über eine Million deutschsprachige Social-Media-Beiträgen, die sich mit dem Thema beschäftigten.

      Diese Studie hat offenbar ein ziemliches mediales Echo gefunden. Rein vorn der Berichterstattung her lässt sich vermuten, dass es sich um ein industriefreundliches PR-Produkt handelt.

    1. AI is not analogous to the big science projects of the previous century that brought us the atom bomb and the moon landing. AI is a science that can be conducted by many different groups with a variety of different resources, making it closer to computer design than the space race or nuclear competition. It doesn’t take a massive government-funded lab for AI research, nor the secrecy of the Manhattan Project. The research conducted in the open science literature will trump research done in secret because of the benefits of collaboration and the free exchange of ideas.

      AI research is not analogous to space research or an arms race.

      It can be conducted by different groups with a variety of different resources. Research conducted in the open is likely to do better because of the benefits of collaboration.

  7. Oct 2020
    1. Description: The authors discuss the usage of blogs in political science classrooms at a university level. There are five skills (critical thinking, political awareness, background research, essay writing, and reflection) which are improved through the use of blogging and the article dedicates a segment to each skill. The last section of the article discusses two types of blogging students can attempt: response to news clippings or experiential blogging. The first kind is available to all students and requires learners to find and respond to news articles. The second is more reflective of a current opportunity students might have such as studying abroad or an internship.

      Rating: 7/10

      Reason for the rating: The article gives detailed explanations for the impact blogging has on student achievement. It gives examples of each type of blogging to help the reader fully understand the writers ideas. Yet, the article focuses only on political science students while blogs-- and four out of the five skills mentioned above-- can be applies to the majority of university classes.

    1. The data indicate that teachers in this study place tremendous value on research skills, with most reporting assigning a research paper to their students in the 2011-2012 academic year and spending class time teaching various research skills to their students. These lessons are aimed at addressing deficits they see in today’s students. Most notable among these is the inability to judge the quality of information, a skill the vast majority of teachers deem “essential” for their students’ future success.

      AP and National Writing Project teachers emphasize the importance of students' learning research skills, and discuss how they do so. They are most concerned with students learning to judge the quality of information found, but also in coaching students through the process, and dealing with online use restrictions at many schools. Aimed at Middle/ High School students. 8/10

    1. It is essential to help students develop research abilities in the classroom and through faceted assignments.  What are faceted assignments?  After providing guidance in class, the professor assigns each aspect of a research assignment – development of a research problem statement, location of relevant resources, evaluation of resources, and so on – as its own mini-assignment, which is graded promptly, with sufficient comments to enable students to revise and resubmit.  By the time the final research assignment is complete, it carries the benefit of a significant amount professorial mentoring.

      Research skills involve complex, higher order tasks, and they take long-term efforts to learn well. Adult students are better able to do research than younger students do. They need to learn how to understand the different sources available, formulate good questions, learn more advanced database searching skills, and hone their critical thinking skills. Instead of assigning a research paper, instructors should assign each step of the paper so that they can help students properly master the whole process. 8/10

    1. Many of the professors who assign research papers would disagree that they are encouraging students to think conventionally, and point out that the essay has its own limitations. If research papers -- or dissertations, for that matter -- were to become a thing of the past, what would we lose in our pursuit of knowledge? Is there a better way to assess knowledge?

      This is the introduction to short pieces written by two professors, an editor, a librarian, and a Harvard student, 4 of whom support research papers, and the fifth grudgingly accepts its inevitability. It contains links to the contrary opinions against continuing to assign research papers. 7/10

    1. As an English teacher and school librarian, I am passionate about teaching students how to access information, how to evaluate their information and how to correctly source their information when researching.  Here are five of my top tips for helping students write a research paper or complete a research project.

      This has good suggestions about 5 steps in writing a research paper: choosing a research question, brainstorming, finding sources, note taking, and citations. The tips are aimed at children, but are still good. She skipped the step of actually writing the paper, though. 8/10.

    1. Accordingly, our results strongly suggest thatonlineinstructionin keyintroductorycollege-level courses, at least as currently practiced, maynot be aseffectiveasface-to-faceinstructionat2-yearcommunitycolleges.

      According to a study done across all Virginia Community Colleges, students who signed up for gatekeeper courses (basic English and Math) online did less well in those courses than did their peers who took the same classes in person. There was a higher attrition rate in the online classes as well. Students who came in with good GPAs tended to do well in online courses, but those who were struggling with academics did worse than they probably would have in person. Many statistics are included. 9/10

    1. In an interview, he described how these emerging support systems engage students and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, even when they’re not in the classroom. The systems are not an online course, but rather an online tutor, driven by artificial intelligence, that can assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses and deliver personalized individual instruction.

      An interview with Zachary Pardos, a professor at UC Berkeley who is creating adaptive tutoring software. He describes how he thinks technology and the pandemic will change education over the next several years. He expects greater accessibility to wireless provided like school buses, greater use and development of adaptive tutoring software, and more online learning. I'd need more information on how the system deals with students who don't get it - do they have multiple explanations for math, or just one? 5/10

    1. Online learning environments have a promising future for researchers, practitioners, and learners. However designing and developing more effective and efficient online learning environments is possible with ongoing research and development. This paper offers four research goals and matches four existing methodologies to improve student outcomes in online learning environments defined as learner achievement, engagement, and retention.

      The authors outline four general research goals, and then go into detail on some of the questions that should be researched within those areas. They then suggest four methodologies to use in designing students to research those questions: formative, developmental, and experimental research and activity theory. All of these could help include online learning in terms of learner achievement, engagement, and retention. 9/10

    1. DEVELOPMENT ARTICLEA systems-based approach to technology integrationusing mentoring and communities of practice

      This article presents a model of technology integration at the system level formed around mentoring. It focuses on effective methods of teacher professional development in the area of technology integration and discusses overcoming various obstacle teachers face during adult learning/ education. 6/10, very narrow focus of adult learners.

    1. METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN ADULT LEARNING RESEARCHCOMBINING PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

      This article details the methods and results of a research experiment done to determine whether/ how physiological measurement technologies can be used with educational research methods to investigate subjective learning experiences. Describes research methods and data collected. 8/10, very interesting article and a very interesting and well done study but very specific to this one topic. e

    1. Useful mass transportation doesn’t suddenly appear. It is carefully nurtured from a tiny seedling of a good idea to a fully-formed organism that breathes life into a city. It is a process that takes time and effort and patience as well as money.

      Could sub out mass transportation with open scholarly infrastructure! ... "Useful mass transportation doesn’t suddenly appear. It is carefully nurtured from a tiny seedling of a good idea to a fully-formed organism that breathes life into a city. It is a process that takes time and effort and patience as well as money."

    1. The Instapaper highlights go to my Evernote inbox, then I copy them from Evernote into Roam (annoying, I know, hopefully the Roam API will be set up soon!) 

      Getting data into any of these note taking tools quickly always seems to be the most difficult part of the process.

    1. But thirdly, and most valuably, the template gives you a big space at the bottom to write sentences that summarise the page.  That is, you start writing your critical response on the notes themselves.

      I do much this same thing, however, I'm typically doing it using Hypothes.is to annotate and highlight. These pieces go back to my own website where I can keep, categorize, and even later search them. If I like, I'll often do these sorts of summaries on related posts themselves (usually before I post them publicly if that's something I'm planning on doing for a particular piece.)

    1. Storyspace has an always-visible Toolbar and Menu to aid students. The Toolbar (Figure 2) provides, top-left to right and down: a Writing Space tool (to create writing areas), the Arrow tool (already familiar to Macintosh users) for routine selecting and clicking, the Note tool (the star) for attaching notes to text, and the Navigation tool (double-headed arrow) for creating and following text links. The Magnify tool (three windows) decreases or enlarges the size of windows. The Linking tool (boxes connected by line) enables linking of one text to other text areas. The Tunnel tool (box within a box) permits linking over widely separated writing spaces. The Compass (four directional arrows) is used to move quickly through levels of the chart, outline, or windows.

      The design of this, which predates that of the wiki, also seems eerily familiar as a digital version of a zettelkasten or the design which seems to underlie Roam Research's product.

    1. People are rewarded for being productive rather than being right, for building ever upward instead of checking the foundations. These incentives allow weak studies to be published. And once enough have amassed, they create a collective perception of strength that can be hard to pierce.

      We desperately need to fix these foundations of science to focus on solid foundations and reproducibility...

    2. When geneticists finally gained the power to cost-efficiently analyze entire genomes, they realized that most disorders and diseases are influenced by thousands of genes, each of which has a tiny effect. To reliably detect these miniscule effects, you need to compare hundreds of thousands of volunteers. By contrast, the candidate-gene studies of the 2000s looked at an average of 345 people!

      I'm hoping that more researchers are contemplating this as they stroll merrily along their way this week.

  8. www.projectinfolit.org www.projectinfolit.org
    1. Major Findings (2:35 minutes)

      I'm quite taken with the variety of means this study is using to communicate its findings. There are blogposts, tweets/social posts, a website, executive summaries, the full paper, and even a short video! I wish more studies went to these lengths.

    1. Because I’m old, I still have my students set up Feedly accounts and plug in the RSS feeds of their classmates and hopefully add other blogs to their feeds as well. And like blogging, I realize only a handful will continue but I want to expose them to the power of sharing their own research/learning via blogging and how to find others who do as well via Feedly.
    1. Schools can ensure their curriculum are up to date and training students for the areas of science with the most potential for advancement

      This completely flies in the face of the need for more basic science research which is far more likely to create vast potential advancement rather than focusing on smaller edge cases.

    1. Almost every major technological advance of the last two hundred years has taken place with the aid of large amounts of public money and under a good deal of government influence. The technologies of the computer and the Net were invented with the aid of massive state subsidies.

      examples of government (public) funding for research and it's effects

    1. Öffnet für mich nach der ersten Lektüre einen ganz neuen Zugang zur Verbindung von Theorie und Design Praxis. Man kann sich von hierher einen Rahmen für eine "Content strategy for degrowth" als eine nicht anthropozentrische Designpraxis vorstellen. Sehr viele Verweise.

    1. The solution to imposter syndrome is to see that you are one. When I first wrote about how useful it is to remember that everyone is totally just winging it, all the time, we hadn’t yet entered the current era of leaderly incompetence (Brexit, Trump, coronavirus). Now, it’s harder to ignore. But the lesson to be drawn isn’t that we’re doomed to chaos. It’s that you – unconfident, self-conscious, all-too-aware-of-your-flaws – potentially have as much to contribute to your field, or the world, as anyone else.
  9. Sep 2020
    1. Table 3. WBGT exposed levels in °C at different work intensities and rest/ work periods for an average worker with light clothing.

      worker productivity relation to the WBGT heat stress levels using work intensity and rest relation

    2. Table 2. Reference values for WBGT (°C) at corresponding work intensity.

      foundational research to base heat stress on productivity analysis: reference values for WBGT to work intensity

    3. 1.1. Physiological response to heat exposure

      divided into sub-sections of each variable that is affected by heat exposure

    1. "The First Amendment and Supreme Court decisions protect the news media in their reporting on matters of public interest, so you really have to show actual malice and disregard for the truth that would be very blatant and very provable," said Gene Policinski, senior vice president of the First Amendment Center.

      https://web.archive.org/web/20200901145543/https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/

      Our mission: providing resources to help the public understand how their First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition work, and how they can be protected.

      FIRST AMENDMENT EXPERTS The First Amendment Center’s nationally recognized experts David Hudson, Lata Nott, and Gene Policinski regularly provide the media with information and commentary on First Amendment and free expression issues. Interested in contacting one of our experts? Please email media@newseum.org or call 202/292-6200.

    1. Increase in alcohol-industry funded research is a cause for concern, study suggests
      • Since 2009, alcohol companies have been funding increasingly more research - evidenced by almost 13,500 studies funded by the alcohol industry.
      • There are many legitimate fields for research, however there’s a group of these studies that claim health benefits of alcohol, or that substance abuse is a choice.
      • Another problem is that the alcohol industry funds this research through affiliate organisations, and the funding source is often not shown in those papers.
      • Researchers believe that the alcohol industry is too deeply involved, and certain studies should be conducted by independent academics.
    1. Siemieniuk, R. A., Bartoszko, J. J., Ge, L., Zeraatkar, D., Izcovich, A., Kum, E., Pardo-Hernandez, H., Rochwerg, B., Lamontagne, F., Han, M. A., Liu, Q., Agarwal, A., Agoritsas, T., Chu, D. K., Couban, R., Darzi, A., Devji, T., Fang, B., Fang, C., … Brignardello-Petersen, R. (2020). Drug treatments for covid-19: Living systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMJ, 370. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2980