We use cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze our traffic and improve our service Rebecca van LaerHowling Woman is such an interesting character, someone who could be cringe: her mystical name, her woo-woo beliefs. But she isn’t, either to Sabine or to the reader. I was wondering how her name came to you, and what you wanted to explore? RVLYes. And Sabine “knows better,” in terms of cultural appropriation, but not in terms of how to live with herself. You chose to have Sabine narrate the story from a point after her probation, when she has complete knowledge of Howling Woman's life. What made you decide on this narrative perspective rather than telling it from an earlier point in the timeline? RVLYou mentioned that this was a late iteration. In an early draft I read, I know Sabine wasn’t facing trial. Can you talk about what inspired that revision? RVLAs a reader of my work, you’ve taught me to always ask what my characters want. Maybe that seems obvious to some writers, but not to me! When did you start doing this? And how did you make sense of Sabine’s competing wants in this book? RVL The book is character-driven, but it’s also thinking about plot in such smart ways, especially its metafictional frame. Sabine is often talking about plot: the inciting incident, Chekhov's gun, for example, which enacts these devices. When you mention Chekhov’s gun, it’s quite chilling! How did you introduce that element? RVL Let’s talk a little bit more about life, or process. You're writing about childhood sexual abuse, grief, and rage. What kind of self-care did you practice while inhabiting this narrative voice for so long? SH You know, I feel pretty sick all the time when I'm writing. One of the reasons I write, especially because I am a sober person, is because it truly feels like such an altered state. Because I don't use substances, getting to inhabit another character feels like a way to be outside of myself. Self-care is something I’m maybe not very good at, but there is something really powerful about writing into a question that you care very deeply about. And you get to take it to the edge. RVL I’m so interested in how you’re talking about writing as an escape, and also what you said earlier about trying to right-size your desire. Do you think writing is a way for you to right-size it or to explore it and experience it in a safe container? RVL I’ve already asked you about what Sabine wants. So, in contrast to your fictional narrator, what do you want for this book? Rebecca van Laer is a writer based in the Hudson Valley. She is the author of a novella, How to Adjust to the Dark (Long Day Press, 2022), and a forthcoming memoir, Cat (Object Lessons/Bloomsbury, 2025). Her work appears in the New England Review, Joyland, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2022 ALM Media Properties, LLC. The new Assistant, and launch of Epiq AI Labs, come after the company’s acquisition of legal tech startup Laer AI, which had received investment and assistance from Sullivan & Cromwell. legal technology and services company Epiq announced the availability of the Epiq AI Discovery Assistant and the creation of Epiq AI Labs The announcement follows Epiq’s 2024 acquisition of Laer AI a legal technology startup founded by Igor Labutov and Bishan Yang who respectively hold Ph.D.s in computer engineering and computer science from Cornell and who both did postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon The purchase saw Labutov and Yang join Epiq as vice presidents Litigation Daily National Law Journal The Recorder New York Law Journal The Legal Intelligencer Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc Read More Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment Read More Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls Read More a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement Read More Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase Read More Already have an account? Sign In Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Roach van Laer a lifelong resident of Cold Spring passed away peacefully in Dexter Oregon with her granddaughter Alexandra by her side She retired from Sony Electronics Corp in Park Ridge She is survived by her former husband and best friend Charles E Her daughter Robin van Laer and grandchildren Eric Edwards Madison Fitzsimmons and Alexandra van Laer She was predeceased by her daughters Allison van Laer her brother William “Billy” Roach.  Marilyn will be buried in Cold Spring Cemetery with her family in a private ceremony Funeral Arrangements are under the direction of Clinton Funeral Home- Cold Spring.  This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Epiq Global announced today the launch of Epiq AI Discovery Assistant an artificial intelligence-powered platform that aims to automate significant portions of the document review process a research initiative focused on developing advanced AI technologies for legal applications To lead the new lab, Epiq has hired AI experts Igor Labutov and Bishan Yang, computer scientists who cofounded Laer.ai developer of a generative AI e-discovery review product for litigators Epiq also acquired the rights to Laer’s intellectual property and technology Epiq announced Epiq AI Discovery Assistant Review Services where corporate legal departments and law firms collaborate with Epiq AI consultants and teams to expedite review and validate results using Epiq AI Discovery Assistant The company claims the new platform can automate more than 80 percent of traditional e-discovery processes and complete reviews up to 90 percent faster than traditional technology-assisted review (TAR) or linear review methods with the ability to analyze up to 500,000 documents per hour which has already been deployed with several clients including law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP takes a different approach from other AI-powered e-discovery tools by using multiple specialized AI models rather than relying solely on a single large language model such as GPT-4 “We wanted something that was going to be very different and set us up with a unique approach that could be applied to a lot of different use cases,” said Eric Crawley senior vice president of legal solutions at Epiq The system uses what the company describes as an “agentic approach,” automatically selecting appropriate AI models for specific tasks without requiring manual intervention It creates hundreds of prompts and multiple models from review protocols to classify documents across various parameters simultaneously vice president at Epiq and one of the primary architects of the technology the platform’s key differentiation is its ability to analyze documents within the context of an entire matter rather than reviewing them in isolation the story or the narrative is often kind of all across the document collection,” Labutov said “Important facts or evidence could be in the place you least expect even when we started back in the day with search terms LLMs or various kinds of improvements over it like RAG are just better ways of searching the document collection Even if we’re talking about prompting it requires the user to know what they’re looking for.” The newly formed Epiq AI Labs will focus on developing foundational technologies for legal AI applications with Cornell University as a founding member both of whom hold doctorate degrees in computer engineering from Cornell and recently joined Epiq through an acquisition of their technology and intellectual property “Part of the labs and part of the initiative behind the collaboration with Cornell is to educate the market,” Labutov said “to create public-facing content from webinars blog articles and all that’s sort of unencumbered by sales but really focused on explaining the technology projecting into the future where it may go where it may not go – dispel some of the myths maybe and some of the unrealistic expectations that folks have around generative AI.” The platform is available for deployment both on-premises and in the cloud with Epiq offering professional services to help clients implement and optimize the technology While the system currently uses a predetermined mix of AI models the company indicates it has the technical capability to support customer-specific model preferences in the future including the potential for fully on-premises models based on open-source alternatives like LLAMA who says he has used the platform on several different projects noted that it “significantly reduces the volume of documents we need to have first-level reviewed and the time it takes to do so.” While emphasizing the platform’s automation capabilities Epiq executives stressed that human review hasn’t been eliminated from the process “We don’t believe human review has been eradicated We’re not at that point,” Crawley noted describing the technology as transforming document review into “a different mix between software and services the combination of human and artificial intelligence.” visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division Receive a weekly digest of all new content You have successfully joined our subscriber list Read Today’s Top Story: Matthew Gardner’s Q1 2025 market insights 4 West Broadway (Photo Credit: Madore Photography) an alleged hotspot for paranormal activity hit the market for $1.2 million earlier this month Located at 4 West Broadway in Gardner, Massachusetts, the home is the second-most haunted home in New England and ninth in the United States, according to the property listing The attraction’s official website claims that ghosts of the home’s original owners as well as those of boarders who died during their stay The Victorian mansion features seven bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms across three stories Many original historic details have been preserved Zoned for residential or commercial occupancy buyers could dwell in the home or choose to capitalize on its ghostly reputation Brenda Albert of LAER Realty Partners is managing the listing What eerie events took place at the spooky 1875 Massachusetts mansion and website in this browser for the next time I comment Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited This website is unavailable in your location It appears you are attempting to access this website from a country outside of the United States therefore access cannot be granted at this time ShareSaveCommentInnovationCybersecurityNew Apple Password Attack—Do Not Use This Sign-InByZak Doffman Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights surveillance and privacy.Follow AuthorMar 20 05:47am EDTShareSaveCommentNew warning for millions of Apple users A new warning for Apple users who are suddenly “now prime targets” for a dangerous password attack that has already hit Windows The lure may seem simple but it’s alarmingly effective and you will lose your Apple account password if you fall victim The new report comes courtesy of LayerX which says the attack shifting from Windows to Mac “shows the trials and tribulations of combating online phishing and how attacks morph and shift in response to adaptations by security tools.” but LayerX warns “the attackers have shifted their focus to Mac users,” which remains vulnerable I have reached out to Apple for comments on the report the Windows browser attacks “prompted users to enter their Windows username and password malicious code caused the webpage to freeze creating the illusion that the entire computer was locked.” It appears that the attackers have registered a raft of domains to catch users mistyping URLs LayerX says the attackers included some devious touches in their campaign to avoid detection “Phishing pages were hosted on Microsoft’s Windows.net platform,” this helped “make the messages appear legitimate since they were security warnings (supposedly) by Microsoft LayerX says that “following the introduction of the browser protections,” it saw “a drastic 90% drop in Windows-targeted attacks.” We can assume we’ll see something similar for Apple’s Safari users if it follows suit “Our prediction is that in the coming weeks or months we will see a resurgent wave of attacks based on this infrastructure,” LayerX warns “as it probes and tests for weak spots in Microsoft’s new defenses This is just the latest reminder that preventing phishing and web attacks is a continuous The energy sector is creating a myth that individual action is enough to address climate change Analysis of hundreds of public reports and media releases from the Australian energy sector identified a common story of the "net-zero hero" – a consumer who becomes a champion in the fight against climate change "Our research found this idea was constantly perpetuated by players across the energy sector," said Associate Professor Tom van Laer from the University of Sydney Business School install solar panels – you name it – then they can play a key role in saving the planet monitor and manage their energy consumption but it ignores the bigger picture of the corporate and regulatory changes that are essential to address this issue." Associate Professor van Laer is an expert in how storytelling can influence actions and decisions. He analysed material published between 2015 and 2022 on the websites of 44 Australian energy market players, including energy providers, non-government organisations and policy makers. His findings have been published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing consumers may struggle to fulfil the role of net-zero hero consumers may struggle to fulfil the role of net-zero hero," he said "There is a risk that the overwhelming responsibility placed on individuals could lead to feelings of helplessness and disengagement Australia has the highest per-capita emissions (14.51 tonnes/capita) Australia’s energy sector produces 47.3 percent of these emissions burning more than one-third of global fuel Associate Professor van Laer said the sector was creating a "mythical market" made up of small-scale energy consumers in which everyone makes an equally significant contribution to total emissions "In shifting responsibility for net-zero emissions to consumers we risk minimising the accountability of larger entities that have a more substantial impact on the environment We reduce pressure on industries and governments to implement more comprehensive environmental policies and structural change," he said "Instead of placing an unrealistic burden on consumers we must address the systemic changes needed for genuine environmental impact." Research: Tom van Laer and Morgan E. Smith, ‘Responsibilizing the Net-Zero Hero? Creation and Implications of a Tragic Subject Position’ (Journal of Public Policy & Marketing) DOI: 10.1177/07439156241300997 Manual Description : Associate Professor of Marketing and Deputy Head of Discipline PAUL SMITHS — Franklin County is asking the state to invest in the Visitor Interpretive Center at Paul Smith’s College The county tourism department sees potential in turning what they describe as an “underutilized” wilderness recreation and Nordic ski center into a major draw to the region This request would set the VIC up for a transformative multi-year project to upgrade its Nordic cross-country ski trails upgrade the lodge and prepare the 3,000-acre tract to host larger sporting competitions in the future “There’s a lot of potential that we’re not at yet,” VIC Director and Franklin County Tourism Advisory Committee member Scott Van Laer said The Franklin County Legislature authorized its Economic Development Committee to apply for around $100,000 in state grant funding last week The legislature pledged up to $50,000 from its tourism budget to match the grant This grant is just for the engineering studies for the upgrades “It’s the first step in what we hope to be a much larger project,” county Tourism Director Phil Hans said it would set the VIC and the county up to go after more grants in the future a Consolidated Funding Application from the New York Empire State Development program but feels they have a good chance based on the quality of the project shows the greatest potential in all of Franklin County for driving tourism,” Hans said he said the VIC is “underutilized.” An annual VIC report estimated that more than 35,000 people visited the center from July 2022 to June 2023 Businessman and PSC benefactor Phil Saunders donated a lot of money to the college to build up its Nordic ski center and team Van Laer said he’s been driven by Saunders’ vision “I want to get it to the finish line,” he said The ski center already has trails designed by John Morton “That’s a name-drop,” Van Laer said Morton has attended seven Winter Olympics as a biathlon athlete and the trails he designs are prestigious all over the world The center also has a biathlon range and a 100-car parking lot permanent structures and trail infrastructure to get to that next level of hosting bigger events Van Laer said the VIC can “coexist” with the Nordic center at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid As the state Olympic Regional Development Authority-run Mount Van Hoevenberg has become more prestigious he said it creates a great opportunity for the VIC to pick up the regional college and high school races — maybe even some national ones “They can’t have every race,” Van Laer said “This is something that fills hotels and they come basically for a week.” While the college has built up a lot of the center they don’t quite have enough infrastructure to host these sorts of events yet “I may need snowmaking to some capacity,” Van Laer said Because if Paul Smiths doesn’t have natural snow But he said he sees the future climate change is bringing This past winter was the warmest on record for the area since tracking started in 1905 Van Laer said recent winters have been “lean” for snow — there was no skiable terrain at the VIC during the holiday vacation between Christmas and New Year’s Eve Its shake shingle roof and the museum exhibits it houses are still original — and dated He said he’d like to see the museum share more information on the VIC lands themselves The boardwalks over the marshes are also made of 40-year-old pressure-treated wood that is in need of an upgrade Van Laer has been holding concerts in the theater he said it was built with guest speakers in mind Van Laer said he’s glad Franklin County has the same vision for the VIC that he does He added that the VIC will be putting in money itself “I’m not looking for a free pass,” he said The center has been successful in recent years and has “a reasonable surplus for a nonprofit.” The VIC’s most recent annual report shows the center brought in $548,610 in revenue from July 2022 to June 2023 The state supports the VIC with funding from its Environmental Protection Fund Van Laer said he’s biting off what he can chew — for example they redid the lodge’s siding last year — but need help on some of the larger projects Hans said he and the county Tourism Advisory Committee believe the VIC’s location size and its range of experience levels make it an attractive tourism opportunity And he said the upgrades could bolster enrollment for the college which owns and runs the center Hans said the county will submit the application soon and he expects to find out if it is granted by the end of this year The county legislature also approved the payment of a Destination Development and Marketing Program award of up to $10,000 for the VIC last week Hans said this is “indirectly related” to the state grant application LAKE PLACID — The Barkeater Trails Alliance annual meeting will be on Saturday TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake Town Board is set to hold a special meeting at 2 p.m Copyright © 2025 Adirondack Publishing Company | https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com | 54 Broadway Today’s Top News: Who’s Who in Boston Residential Real Estate 2025 Her expert advice and high level of service set Mona Bottoni DeRosby apart from her competition She not only works with investors and contractors on property renovations to help maximize returns but also collaborates with sellers in making value-added renovation decisions and guiding clients through technical aspects of properties With many years of experience in investing DeRosby also has insight into the challenges and opportunities of property management representing clients in over 25 communities in greater Boston referrals are the heart of my business,” she says “My clients know they can trust me to advocate for their best interests every step of the way.” Laer Realty Partners presented DeRosby its Diamond Club Award from 2020 to 2023 and named her Lion of the Year in 2021 She was the recipient of Keller Williams Realty’s Outstanding Achievement silver medal in 2016 and 2019 its triple gold and cultural ambassador in 2018 She served on the company’s agent leadership council from 2017 to 2020 and ranked in the top 10 in New England for sold volume DeRosby is also a Seller Representative Specialist and Accredited Buyer’s Representative but I’m most proud of being a mother to my two beautiful children,” she says weaves these stories into four discrete parts Alix—as she searches for a lasting romantic partner or at least a greater understanding of what a good one would look like While none of the four story arcs has a Hollywood ending each reminds us of the intensely mixed pleasure and pain of our twenties: the love and friendship that are the gateway to the next phase of adult life Rebecca van Laer How to Get Along Without Me unfolds in four parts largely following four different women through life transitions—moving between different jobs and cities I got the same feedback over and over again: these are nice stories but they’re really similar and a lot of them seem incomplete I think people were also concerned about being able to sell a collection that didn’t have a clear overarching theme or through-line and it became very clear to me that I needed to rework it in some way Charles Baxter’s There’s Something I Want You to Do I thought it wouldn’t be that much of a lift to do something similar but with so many similarities—I had to figure out who was who and then draw more distinctions between the four and my brother Sam Axelrod helped me quite a bit by rereading the stories I made spreadsheets and color-coded things to try to make sure that everything made sense and that all the people were intertwined in a way that didn’t feel forced RVL I didn’t know that you’d revised it during that period What was it like working on a book alongside a brand-new person My son was super little and was just asleep on me a lot but I felt fortunate to have that time because I’m not a full-time writer finding the time to write or revise is really tricky RVL It’s extra interesting to me because of the place where the collection concludes Alix enjoys the glimpse of domesticity but also wants to get back to her life “I wanted to feel that moment just before it all shifted when the night was still taut with possibility.” So the characters and the collection are in a very different place than you were as you finished the book and that was the one new story I wrote around that time I had a similar experience when I visited my cousin she asked me to come to Fire Island and babysit her two children I had this really fun-slash-painful drunken night out in Williamsburg I saw my ex leaving a bar and getting into a cab; it was just like one of those nights that felt so fraught and intense even though not much happened She had this wonderful husband and two little kids It was so comforting and calming to know that maybe this was possible for me That’s what I was thinking about when I was writing that story RVL And it’s very self-aware for Alix (and you) to know The book is very much about being in your twenties and looking for love in that intense period when you’re not wise What drew you to writing about that period of life KA I wrote some of the stories when I was in that period I tend to eulogize my relationships through writing but I’ve experienced similar relationship dynamics it’s interesting to see how my perspective has changed on the older stories—and even the ones I wrote in the last few years RVL We’re getting different perspectives on these women as you switch points of view moving between first and third and in one case second Were you aiming to show different sides of them KA I tend to change the point of view and tense when I’m starting a story—it might begin in first-person present and then change later on in the story I don’t know what the best version is until I’ve tried all of them there’s something so immediate about the first person while the third is a little more distant or formal I choose whatever voice sounds right to me What have they taught you about making it work as a writer is the most disciplined writer I know; she writes every day She has never once complained to me about the act of writing and doesn’t seem to struggle with it my mom is a writer—both were just regular jobs that were feasible I feel very fortunate to have her as a model laying the foundation for this idea of being a writer I had to adjust my expectations in a lot of ways—not just to the external reality and choosing a different career in addition to writing but the internal stuff—the struggle to focus RVL How do you find that creative or inspirational space with a day job and a separate career in social work I’ve had a hard time staying focused for that long Writing every day sounds so nice in theory but I get so much “inspiration” from regular daily life that it’s hard to imagine finding it if I didn't have another space to be in I also feel very fortunate to have a social work career even though there are never enough hours in the day RVL I also imagine your job gives you some psychological insight into your characters I’m thinking of “At Full Capacity,” where Nina tells her friend that everyone dates the same person over and over again and this is nothing to be embarrassed about That’s true in this collection—even though the four women don’t know each other What made you decide to have the men float between stories while the women stay discrete KA One of the things I wanted to explore was how you can date different people and be different people in those relationships In the first story “Both Joshes,” Casey dates two men named Josh One probably finds her to be aloof and cool and a little withholding and the other probably finds her to be super available and “needy.” I wanted to show how the women bring something different to the relationship Nina wants to get insight into the man she’s dating who has given her a copy of Breakfast of Champions with all these underlined passages She’s so fascinated by the underlining and thinks why would I underline random sentences?” Your characters have this tendency to project Why do you enjoy writing this kind of dynamic where the relationship is partly a fantasy KA I think when you date people who are unavailable or are grappling with really anything unknowable it is such a human instinct to create a narrative to make sense of it I certainly tried to do it in relationships Writing fiction is the same in so many ways—as I said I tend to write things in a way that eulogizes them to sculpt the stuff of life into something that feels neater and more palatable I always say I’m a control freak in a lot of ways I think this is quite common: people need to have a framework to organize their thoughts Rebecca van Laer is the author of a novella begins with former poet Charlotte reading through the poems she wrote in her 20s and reflecting on her coming-of-age as a person and a writer It’s a fascinating project of literary self-criticism that sees Charlotte analyze how each poem came to be finally reading between the lines of her own character development I was captivated by the thoughtfulness of this book and its meta-textual portrayal of the experience of being a writer — or someone concerned with writing ‘well’ or ‘enough.’ Though the novella accomplishes many things I admire (a compelling narrative voice I loved it most for its ability to engage with feeling honestly and unpretentiously I’m grateful to Rebecca for making time to chat about the various aspects of the writing experience explored in her book There’s always self-consciousness in the process of reading your own writing Do you think time turns this into a writerly wisdom that helps you develop your craft or is re-encountering your own work just an unhelpful way to worry too much about the parts of yourself you are revealing publicly but there’s also a gift in seeing the distance between your selves and in particular how you could now solve not just the personal problems but the artistic problems your younger self is circling around You look back at your own writing and think “I should have gotten out of that relationship that made me write all those depressing poems earlier” — but you can also think in terms of what you were trying to achieve and find a way to do it better That’s the valuable part of going back to old writing: finding the artistic solutions to problems you were grappling with and taking those forward into new projects When Charlotte looks back at her own poems She deflates the idea of a poem: tells us how she wanted her professors to conclude certain things about her or she visualized a poem being read in front of a crush or she was going to share a poem with a partner so the poem was trying to communicate something… The scaffolding around a poem’s creation isn’t invisible like she believes she’s manipulating people into thinking she’s a real writer Is it possible to encounter old writing without the voice of this inner critic When I was writing this book —which contains my own real poetry — the voice of the inner critic was loud especially since I’d switched genres and started writing prose “I can’t write poetry anymore” turned into “I actually could never write poetry.” Charlotte’s self-criticism in the book is an exaggerated version of how I viewed my own writing I told myself that I was always trying to achieve an interpersonal end through written or textual means So how can we look back without that voice of the inner critic or to cut everything away until only what’s of value remains I wrote the bulk of How to Adjust to the Dark in 2015-2016 and distance help you feel more tenderness towards earlier versions of yourself — and it’s something we all probably need to work on I am basically asking you how to not be critical of yourself Sometimes you want to discover something brilliant in your younger self and then the same disappointment that you bring to your writing as an adult will be reflected back to you if your expectations are too high So it might be a matter of setting kinder expectations for yourself To return to the audiences Charlotte is conscious of as she’s writing and re-reading I’m curious how conscious of an audience you were when you were writing this book It felt to me like more of an inward space like Charlotte looking back at Charlotte and not really concerned anymore with her readers I’m also generally curious if you think that visualizing an audience can be helpful This book was kind of a special book for me, because I didn’t know if it was a book or not, and I wasn’t really thinking about the audience. From the beginning, I thought that if it was published, it would be a small press book (because of its hybrid nature) so I had a lot of freedom when I was writing it I wasn’t thinking about how much money I would make or even if it would be long enough to be a ‘real’ novel I think that brings you to a really interesting space as a reader You’re privy to something you can tell wasn’t written for you Just to think about writerly identity for a moment Charlotte says that when she hadn’t written for a while she had to detach herself from that part of her identity George Saunders recently wrote that “even if you’re not actively writing because you’re too busy because of the way you regard the world — with curiosity and interest and some sort of love.” I wanted to contrast the two views Charlotte’s opinion aside — what do you think I think what George Saunders says is absolutely true It’s very much a way of regarding the world and looking for the meaning in experiences and how that meaning can become something else It can take the form of a story you tell a friend or a story you tell yourself about a bird you see the force with which Charlotte departs from her identity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and requires her to become something else: the writer of How to Adjust to the Dark it takes a really long time to refill your own well or hit on an idea that’s worth pursuing — that’s done out of obligation or a fear of losing your identity as a writer that I’m not reading because I have to review them or for market research purposes because they sound similar to my works-in-progress or books that can connect you to your love of literature Since you mention rest — I noticed that whenever she’s struggling How do you feel about measuring writerly productivity setting goals like writing a poem every day I had a boyfriend at one point who wrote a poem every day You generate a lot of material and practice your skills that way but I’m no longer interested in working on things that I don’t have faith in I feel that my goal isn’t to have as much output as possible but to make things that are good and that I care about Do you believe in writerly New Year’s resolutions There was a period in my life when manifestation was important to me and I liked to envision the year ahead — now and I don’t think I can even control a resolution like ‘I will write four great short stories this year.’ I might be able to control ‘I will write four short stories this year,’ but if they’re all bad I would like to write a few short stories if I have good ideas I don’t have it in me to make myself write bad ones While we’re on the topic of writing badly — in your book Charlotte abandons her novel-in-verse after a writing instructor isn’t impressed how do you know when it’s time to abandon a project but I don’t think most readers will ever say “throw it in the trash can it’s of no use.” It’s a hard choice to make there’s always the temptation to tinker or see what you can salvage How do you really know if something is dead I’ve said before that nothing is ever dead and it might just be that you’ll return to it a long but I think that if you feel dread when reading it You can feel dread and still get encouragement from friends who think you should work on it but I think you should listen to the dread The freedom to explore questions I have in my real life through fictional scenarios To go places that I’m not going to go in my real life where I actually don’t want things to change that much but to get to adventure and experiment and learn more about myself In other words: a satiation of my own curiosity This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. 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Soap operas are more recent examples of the power of stories Here are four notable examples of the persuasive power of soap operas while the national Nepalese use of contraceptives remained steady around 39 per cent contraceptive use in the areas where the soap was broadcast rose from 36 per cent to 49 per cent Serr El-Ard (“Secret of the Land”) aired on Egyptian television from 1989 to 2002 and the series led to better farming practices and increased agricultural productivity the popular South African soap Soul City — broadcast between 1994 and 2014 — showed how neighbours might intervene in a domestic violence situation The prevailing cultural norm in South Africa at the end of the 1990s was for neighbours not to intervene during the abuse Partner abuse was considered a “private” matter conducted in a “private” space with curtains drawn and behind a closed front door the neighbours collectively decided to break the ongoing cycle of spousal abuse in a particular home neighbours gathered around the residence and collectively banged their pots and pans This highlighted the importance of energising neighbours towns throughout South Africa reported pot banging to stop partner abuse The purpose of the Indian radio soap opera Taru was to promote caste harmony, community development, gender equality, small family size, and reproductive health. Broadcast from 2002 to 2003 and featuring positive role models, the soap inspired communities to stop child marriages launch adult literacy programs for Dalit (or low-caste) women Despite evidence of the persuasive power of narratives in the early 2000s we knew too little about how these effects occurred For fifteen years I have conducted research into this question A story invites story-receivers into the action it portrays and, as a result, makes them lose themselves in the story. In his 1993 book Experiencing Narrative Worlds Richard Gerrig was the first to coin the notion of narrative transportation within the context of novels he conceptualised narrative transportation as a state of detachment from the world of origin that the story-receiver — in his words “the traveller” — experiences because of their engrossment in the story the state of narrative transportation makes the world of origin partially inaccessible to the story-receiver thereby marking a clear separation in terms of here/there and now/before Story-receivers are transported through three main components: character empathy we can define narrative transportation as the extent to which: The transported “traveller” can return changed by the journey. A story can engross the story-receiver in a transformational experience, whose effects are strong and long-lasting. The term “bleed” captures the challenging transition from fiction to reality It is like dye seeping into an adjacent area Anthony Gierzynski and Kathryn Eddy Gierzynski have written at length about the role that J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter book series played in galvanising the political opinions of Millennials Harry Potter fans are more open to diversity and are more politically tolerant than nonfans; fans are also less authoritarian less likely to support the use of deadly force or torture and more likely to have had a negative view of the Bush administration We can distinguish stories according to their dramatic arcs The hero’s journey is the label that describes Harry Potter’s dramatic arc — one that first rises Harry receives the “call to adventure”: a disruption in the world has occurred and Harry is called to the task of rescuing Hogwarts Harry obtains helpful guidance from Rubeus Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore Harry joins a supportive band of companions and receives magical aid to survive the ordeal the hero’s journey is but one possible dramatic arc The other five basic types are: progressive the plot continuously improves for the character over the course of the story The final three dramatic arcs — like the hero’s journey — alternate in sign A comedy (otherwise known as “[hu]man in [and out of] a hole”) is characterised by a dramatic fall followed by a dramatic rise which is marked by a dramatic rise followed by a dramatic fall and then are brought low again — like Oedipus’s dramatic fall Dramatic arcs can, I believe, help explain humanity’s sluggish response to climate change. For example, tragedy — as captured by the plot of Adam McKay’s 2021 film Don’t Look Up — is the current arc of climate change People do not deal effectively with the climate crisis because it does not form the arc of the hero’s journey The hero’s journey hooks consumers by dealing with clearly defined heroes and villains and dramatising clear and present dangers; it is not a geophysical process that unfolds at a receding glacier’s pace While telling a story about villainous oil executives and heroic environmental activists is possible the main players are difficult to characterise In addition to the abstract forces of geophysics ordinary consumers may be heroes or villains If humankind rises to the challenge and reverses the carbon emissions Let us look at Greta Thunberg on a Friday in the future after the climate crisis Thunberg lives in a cool apartment retrofitted for climate change with deep insulation as well as its own solar air-conditioning and heating systems It has a green wall of plants and a balcony where she can grow a few vegetables Machines automatically recycle or compost waste political parties that prioritise the fight against climate change have been in power for decades Since these administrations have banned exhaust-emitting cars from cities and there is little air and noise pollution Drones deliver organically grown food from a local Magnetic levitation (known as “maglev”) trains have replaced short plane flights How important is this story of a Friday in the future My colleagues and I investigated what a person needs to adopt innovative technologies. Our research shows which stories can make people believe they can change things To spark a worldwide movement against climate change People must be able to embrace their stories and see their Fridays in the future A hero’s journey is a long-term vision that identifies the change — the destination we intend to reach We achieve hero’s journeys more often if they stem from the companions and aid that energise us and helps us stay focused and conflicts that politicians prefer to remain undiscussed until they break out into the open If we could learn to read novels as a kind of literary seismograph we could find out which conflicts are on the verge of exploding into violence and intervene to save millions of lives Consider text mining: scanning books for emotive words and phrases to build a cluster map of feelings associated with specific issues self-published books for terms defined in advance related to social class can tell us something we do not already know the United States has seen a marked decrease in tales about social class and an increase in moralising and political stories and dissatisfaction in novels Literature has thus paved the way for American democratic decline well in advance of the mob violence of 6 January 2021 heady heroic narrative that appeals to would-be rebels It teaches its adherents not just to adopt the mentality that they are at war with progressives The influence of the book was clear during the US Capital attack. It describes attacking the Capital building and instituting “the Day of the Rope”, during which activists string up on gallows “race traitors” it’s worth drawing courage from Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin but one that played a part in the abolition of slavery in the United States Does this not suggest that the very notion of “nonfiction” is nonsense and that a “fictional story” is a tautology because every story has edited elements that distinguish it from objective reality given the implications of stories for reality is that nothing is less innocent than a story Tom van Laer is Associate Professor of Narratology in the Business School at University of Sydney. Two post-doctoral students set up a lab in Sullivan & Cromwell's offices to develop and train AI technology. Its capabilities could alter the very fabric of being a lawyer. The litigator listens to the witness's testimony in court the litigator's assistant takes diligent notes monitors the witness's body language and speech patterns and cross-references their testimony with previous statements Then the assistant suggests questions for cross-examination emphasizing where the testimony seems contradictory or suspicious The assistant is not a rising-star litigator The assistant's role is what Sullivan & Cromwell sees as the potential future of AI and it would be the latest technology on a litigator's laptop Browse More Resources Already have an account? Sign In I found a collection of fables for the twenty-first century While Aesop used animals to represent human concepts and codify human morality Kolluri shows us worlds within and beyond our own imagining how a whale experiences the sound of a ship and a polar bear attempts to find food and solace in a melting arctic These stories examine the loss of the natural world from unfamiliar inviting us to mourn anew while offering a glimmer of what might be possible if we more fully acknowledge our entanglement with the lives of creatures from tigers to pigeons I can’t help but ask how much time you spend imagining your cat’s interior life Do you have an elaborate account or understand of Fig’s personality and preferences Did your pets help you write these stories Talia Lakshmi Kolluri I spend a disproportionally large amount of time imagining Fig’s inner life She’s very interactive and she meows at me constantly I want to understand what she thinks as much as possible so I pay attention to how she reacts to things I think that attention and awareness are a way of communicating with another living thing: communication in its purest form is an exchange of information and careful attention is one way to take information in I’ve figured out that she has strong preferences she’s immediately drawn to them and tries to bite them She also responds very strongly to documentaries about animals She watches closely if I play a film about wolves or big cats She tends to like things with four legs that move quickly She shows much less interest in things with only humans in them What fascinates me the most about her is watching her dream I find this so interesting because adult cats don’t normally communicate with each other by meowing It’s something they primarily direct at humans so I always wonder who she’s talking to in her dreams During the years I was writing this collection She died before I finished the last two stories but living with her was profoundly influential in shaping my belief that animals have distinct personalities and rich inner lives Caring for my pets and trying to accommodate their needs has impressed upon me how important empathy is when considering other animals I think of empathy first when I write from an animal's perspective We also lost a kitty this year—I’ll always be grateful for the lesson he taught me about empathy although my deepest understanding is still of cats not the wide range of animals contained in your book How did you approach channeling animal consciousness more generally TLK All of my stories are built on a foundation of research I read quite a bit about animal environments whether in a more limited or more expansive way than humans I need to find a way to immerse myself in the animal’s world When I was writing “The Open Ocean Is An Endless Desert” [about a whale] I listened to audio of container ships underwater along the California coast I have no idea what animals think about anything but I hope that if I shape it around what I can learn about them RVLIs that something you worried about—accuracy TLKI do worry about accuracy because I want the stories to feel real even if I am taking significant liberties with how that reality is portrayed I think the trick in sustaining a fantastical narrative is to include a grounding underpinning so that even as animals talk and hallucinate and transcend what we think of as reality there is something for the reader to grip onto so that they aren’t pulled out of the story because everything is strange I’ve chosen the landscape as the concrete underpinning I think our natural environment is full of wonder and magic and transformation just as it is so it works very well as my grounding tool I also tried to stay as close as possible to portraying animal behavior truthfully although if I feel the plot requires deviating from that I’m willing to be flexible RVLSpeaking of that flexibility—in these stories animals are gifted with the ability to understand Humans are shut out from this communication “The Good Donkey,” where the titular donkey can freely talk to his owner as they embark on the shared task of creating a zoo in Gaza How did you think about the disconnection between humans and animals TLKI imagine that animals don’t think of themselves as separated and above the natural world the same way humans do because they don’t live in a way that literally sequesters them from the natural environment such that they are free to ignore it They live enmeshed with the world around them and are thus far more obviously interdependent on the species around them Humanity’s deliberate removal of itself from the natural world into the artificial environments we create would perhaps render us no longer attuned to the more subtle communication of other species around us we are experiencing the world in significantly different ways But Hafiz and his donkey are suffering in the same environment the animals are paired with people who are having a very different experience Perhaps because they are having different experiences they have different needs and there is a power imbalance; one of them is more vulnerable than the other Hafiz and his donkey are vulnerable to the same things and their needs are almost identical Having them communicate directly felt like the most natural way to convey that feeling and it came about almost intuitively for them to be able to talk to each other some of the animals in the book are longtime partners to humankind while several others are “charismatic megafauna,” beloved animals whose plights are often used to highlight human wrongdoing (the polar bear You also write from the perspective of a vulture and pigeon were you thinking about which species your audience might and might not empathize with TLKI was more focused on writing about animals that I found personally interesting but I made a deliberate choice to introduce variety in the kind of animal minds I inhabited and the places where they lived I didn’t want every story to be set on a single continent and I didn’t want to write about just one kind of animal I was interested in learning about wayfinding for birds I learned about the pigeon's spectacular navigation system It was so interesting that I couldn’t resist writing about them I also think that every animal can be empathized with if a person learns enough about them RVLI wanted to ask about the international locales These allow you to get at the global reach of human intervention in the natural world Were you first inspired by locations or their inhabitants TLK I was inspired by the desire to show the very thing you have identified It feels vital and urgent to me to lay bare all the ways that ecosystems and species are connected and to show the vast reach of the destruction wrought by humanity’s hand I had a general idea of the animal I wanted to write about but I did discard a few ideas that would have placed me in an identical location or covered an ecosystem that I had already written about It wasn’t an individual location or animal that would inspire each story so much as a desire to cover a wide spectrum RVL While your stories have a fable-like feel there is one true mythical creature: the Manticore who presents an existential threat to a group of tigers: “No matter how often he is fed the manticore is always unsatisfied.” What does this Manticore represent to you and the unknowable forces that sometimes make me feel powerless I wanted to imagine how a tiger might conceptualize a storm and whether they would personify it and perceive it as something that has agency and is coming to them deliberately Often when something terrifying happens it feels very difficult to accept that there isn’t some greater reason or purpose behind it Did this terrible thing happen to me just because I want to imagine that there was a purpose because that means that a different experience is possible But that also means that sometimes I thrust meaning upon something when there really isn’t one I imagined my tigers having the same feelings; it couldn’t just be a devastating storm inundating the mangroves and sweeping them away It had to be something with agency that chose to come and make them suffer RVL That story and many others end on heartbreaking notes Yet the collection ends with a pigeon setting off on a flight to the Yamuna River after receiving help from a bird hospital—a flight that a parakeet insists is impossible The thing about this pigeon is that she chooses to thrive because Toy Man [a human visitor] told her that she could even when she couldn’t see it for herself she held on to the belief he gave her; that she was capable of flying all the way to the river Belief in oneself is a very special kind of hope One of the things that brings me joy and hope is that there are so many new things to learn about the world we live in I just learned recently that bats can swim It makes me wonder how many other things there are in this world that I don’t know about The possibility of learning about and appreciating them gives me a lot of hope What We Fed to the Manticore is available for purchase here now seamlessly integrated into the Relativity App Hub brings an advanced AI-driven approach to legal discovery redefining efficiency and precision for legal professionals 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move that signifies a significant advancement in legal technology LAER AI announces the integration of its groundbreaking product This integration represents a transformative step forward offering the expansive global Relativity community sophisticated AI tools that streamline legal discovery and document review processes Integrating AIDA with the Relativity App Hub is a significant milestone for LAER AI AIDA Discovery Assistant's integration into the Relativity App Hub brings a host of benefits to legal professionals Its ability to process and analyze large volumes of data at unprecedented speeds dramatically reduces the time and effort 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This development is a technological enhancement and a commitment to revolutionizing the legal discovery process which has traditionally been one of the most costly and time-consuming in the eDiscovery Reference Model (EDRM) AIDA's user-friendly interface and advanced AI capabilities make it an indispensable tool for legal professionals navigating the complexities of modern legal challenges As part of its ongoing commitment to innovation LAER AI invites legal professionals attending Legalweek 2024 to experience AIDA's capabilities in person or to schedule virtual meetings to explore the technology in depth Originating from the dynamic environment of Cornell Tech in New York City LAER AI specializes in developing cutting-edge proprietary machine learning and NLP solutions specifically tailored to revolutionize the legal sector emphasizing the ediscovery and document review process Founded in 2018 by distinguished machine learning and natural language processing experts Dr LAER AI stands at the forefront of technological innovation in the legal domain have brought their extensive knowledge to spearhead the company's pioneering efforts A significant achievement in LAER AI's journey is its collaboration with and minority investment from Sullivan & Cromwell This strategic alliance highlights LAER AI's cutting-edge technology integration into legal workflows improving efficiency and precision in intricate legal cases thereby instilling confidence in its capabilities To explore LAER AI's transformative solutions and the latest industry insights, visit www.laer.ai or follow LAER AI on LinkedIn Computer & Electronics Computer Software Computer Software Artificial Intelligence Do not sell or share my personal information: Show Comments Load More How many visitors does Yellowstone park have compared with the land you are describing in the Adirondack park Looks like about 4 million visitors in 2015: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-yellowstone-visitors/yellowstone-national-park-sets-record-year-with-3-8-million-visitors-so-far-idUSKCN0RZ2LM20151005 maybe we should do like Yellowstone and make people who visit the park pay something If 4 million people visiting Yellowstone each pay 10 bucks that’s 40 million dollars Maybe we should stop asking the state (which usually gets us nowhere) and figure out another way to pay for it I would venture to say most visitors to Yellowstone never leave pavement or boardwalks At least in the Lamar Valley where I spent most of my time backcountry trail usage was relatively light and often directed by guides or outfitters backcountry (beyond pavement) use in the ADKs is much higher as a percent of use If the state is going to promote backcountry tourism they need to provide the Rangers to keep it safe Readers here know my views on licenses and certifications but worry that the Ranger you speak of no longer exists I am not in any way disparaging them or their profession or the regulations they operate under – but they wear belts and radios and carry arms/body armor that must weigh 35lbs before they don a pack I have seen assistant rangers in the backcountry but the Pete Fish stereotype appears to be a thing of the past Trips out west indicate to me that the NPS and USFS havent gone this route as appropriately equipped rangers can bee seen miles out but I don’t think NYS Rangers do overnights or extended patrols anymore It’s all just “response.” I would be happy to learn I am wrong about this Scott would be the person to address your point I would assume the body armor you mention has more to do with patrol by vehicle (responding to ANY emergency) vs All Rangers probably do not NEED to be outfitted like a SWAT team But necessity is the mother of invention.I believe there are different levels of Rangers and environmental officers Even if we had “Junior Rangers” or “Associate Rangers” to perform the duties Pete used to perform it would be an immense help This is currently being done in a way with the seasonal Summit Steward program But it could be expanded to waters and forests as well These people would only be pulled away from patrolling and monitoring for perhaps S&R Forest Rangers are police officers and do have a paramilitary structure and training We have a very diverse job so the outward appearance ie; uniform will vary depending on the task or mission for the day I have been a ranger for 22 years and my father was a ranger before me so I have a pretty long perspective We are not doing the amount of back country work or overnights that we once did As little as 6 or 7 years ago I was able to remain at outposts or camp about 25 nights a year The past few years that number has been in the single digits and usually during slower months and not peak times I still put in the requests but they are routinely denied our staffing levels have relegated us to “response” It is not just the search and rescues that you read about that have necessitated this probability and certainty of the next rescue that has caused us to become a “response” team We are seeking a modest increase in staffing to allow us to return to more fully patrolling the backcountry since 1912 the state forest rangers are supposed to be performing full police duties relative to the protection of the state lands and the people that use the state lands The rangers full police duties relative to state land protection was directed by the Conservation Commission in 1911 and enacted in the legislation creating the ranger job title in 1912 The state forest ranger’s law enforcement is one of the pillars of state land protection (the others being search It is unfortunate if some folks feel the ranger’s green uniform gives a paramilitary impression Looking like professional uniformed rangers or police officers does not preclude rangers from doing back country patrol The insufficient numbers of state forest rangers has long been a primary problem whether it be for adequate patrol or appropriate ability for emergency response The insufficient numbers of rangers is more problematic now as the amount of state land and the numbers of users continues to increase The NPS and USFS Rangers I have seen and a couple I know personally are equally uniformed and equipped except they also have tasers the NYS rangers don’t have yet You might not realize it but often in the rural areas where rangers work and troopers or deputies numbers are thin rangers can be called to assist those agencies as the closest backup officer on danergous 911 calls Rangers are also called in for backcountry fugitive manhunts And not only are rangers responsible for backcountry patrol but they must also patrol the problematic roadside primitive camping areas and resond to complaints in state campgrounds That’s why rangers are trained and equipped as they are The state forest rangers job is at a different level than the state’s seasonal assistant forest rangers I learned from conversations with the article’s author that previous generations of state forest rangers were managed with a much stricter paramilitary style of leadership and supervision than the rangers of today I want to be very clear that I am in no way disparaging the people or the profession I spend a lot of time in the High Peaks and if my wife and I ever had a situation that couldn’t be handled via self-rescue I would pray that somebody like Ranger Van Laer would was on his way NYS Forest Rangers are a credit to our State I stand by my original point which SVL seems to corroborate: The true/dedicated backcountry Ranger is a rare critter in the woods these days I am perfectly willing to believe that staffing levels play a role in that if SLV wants to get out there they should add resources that allow for it I get and don’t dispute the points being made about public interventions and fugitive pursuits etc…but that’s not the kind of Ranger I am talking about I spent a considerable amount of time in the Cascades this past summer and routinely interacted with unarmed (unless it was in their pack or otherwise concealed) Rangers who wanted to talk about water filtering They had encyclopedic knowledge of the area and it’s flora/fauna They were protectors and stewards of the land I have nothing but respect for NYS Rangers I just hope we can find a way to allow them to spend more time in their historic role The union wants to get rangers into the backcountry for the precise reasons you outlined True more land is being added to the forest preserve but that does one cessation mean a proportionate increase in workload…ie No one can argue important job high peaks rangers do they are rode hard and put away wet literally speaking If we look at rangers outside of high peaks and their activity reports we find they essentially making work a lot of the time they just need to be utilized and assigned to areas of greatest need Ranger’s duties not only include responding to emergencies but they also are responsible for patrolling their assigned areas Just because Ranger A doesn’t have a lot of emergencies and other emergencies to respond to doesn’t mean they have to look for work They can always patrol their territory on foot looking for problems it is crucial that they have this time to perform the patrolling Ranger B may rarely be able to patrol because of multiple emergencies I agree DEC should look at redistributing the workforce where needed (that should be a given) I don’t believe it is going to result in significantly lower workloads in the heart of the Park without significantly reducing patrolling efforts around the rest of the state Has anybody liked at rangers by region and state land acres in a given region..would seem to be an important piece of data Statewide ranger region-zone numbers from 2016-2017 Annual Report: R1 – 5 rangers cover 120,555 acres 14 tickets/ranger) 3A – 7 rangers cover 210,658 acres 51 ticket/ranger) 3B – 7 rangers cover 209,957 acres 34 ticket/ranger) 4A – 7 rangers cover 147,385 acres 58 ticket/ranger) 4B – 6 rangers cover 168,971 acres 12 tickets/ranger) 5A – 6 rangers cover 467,451 acres 8 tickets/ranger) 5B – 6 rangers cover 275,828 acres 3 tickets/ranger) 5C – 6 rangers cover 266.176 acres 15 ticket/ranger) 5D – 9 rangers cover 897,778 acres 29ticket/ranger) 5E – 8 rangers cover 640,067 acres 10 tickets/ranger) 5F – 5 rangers cover 106,596 acres 17 tickets/ranger) 6A – 6 rangers cover 458,466 acres 12 tickets/ranger) 6B – 6 rangers cover 446,664 acres 17 ticket/ranger) 6C – 6 rangers cover 324,561 acres 36 ticket/ranger) R7 – 6 rangers cover 276,905 acres 19 tickets/ranger) R8 – 5 rangers cover 264,385 acres 21 tickets/ranger) R9 – 7 rangers cover 313,914 acres wow – didn’t see how detailed the breakdown is but I am not sure which letter designations apply If you ever saw a ranger wearing body armor on a mountain rescue it must be a pretty dangerous rescue of a pretty dangerous armed fugitive…otherwise that idea is nonsense I have been on over 600 S@R operations in my career I have worn body armor on about 10 of those all involved fugitives like Dannemorra or missing subjects where some type of threat was made Normally it would be a hindrance to a S@R missions effectiveness On rare occasions it is much appreciated PPE Is body armor a personal/professional choice or is it mandatory on certain searches Is there a mandatory equipment list you must always carry Yes there is minimum gear list we are required to readily have available During Dannemora the vest was required by the command staff Drew Cavenaugh and Scott Van Laer for bringing this staffing matter before the NYS Legislature and for their unified advocacy seeking additional Forest Rangers in the field This advocacy by DEC personnel isn’t easy DEC is given a budget by the executive and ordered to live with it DEC Commissioners like Pete Grannis who publicly declared he could not live with it were not continued in office Speaking up and out from within a large public agency in Albany or Washington DC isn’t rewarded – just the opposite All natural resource personnel – Rangers Technicians of all kinds – at DEC are severely understaffed and have been for decades Our natural resources and public lands cannot be protected from a desktop They suffer as a result of the lack of dedicated field personnel and you are never going to see sufficient funding from the DEC this simply isn’t a priority for them There were a slew of other kooky special interest groups there Keep begging for money that won’t come or find a different way to fund what we need Here you are asking for sufficient coverage in places where the main users are hikers who are only giving money to the ADK or nobody for their parking It really comes down to pay up or – you know what and paddlers to “pay up” to a dedicated Ranger fund an annual Ranger Fund Stamp could be instituted for purchase with the current licensing system Another consideration with ranger staffing is not only acreage per ranger figures but usage figures and need for “ranger presence” needed for emergency situations How intensely does any particular region NEED to be patrolled State lands used primarily for conservation and hunting/fishing with few to no roads or trails likely aren’t going to need intense patrolling or management and easily-accessed lands are likely to require more intensive patrolling thus a larger ranger concentration to be effective So using historical ranger acreage/ranger figures only has limited meaning with changing recreation and land use patterns throughout the state The Adirondack Almanack is a public forum dedicated to promoting and discussing current events nature and outdoor recreation and other topics of interest to the Adirondacks and its communities We publish commentary and opinion pieces from voluntary contributors as well as news updates and event notices from area organizations Contributors include veteran local writers and outdoor enthusiasts from around the Adirondack region views and opinions expressed by these various authors are not necessarily those of the Adirondack Almanack or its publisher Faculty and staff with Polk State College’s Radiography Program are already reporting positive results after only weeks of offering virtual reality technology to their students Polk State’s Health Sciences programs have benefited from technology and equipment upgrades thanks to Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF). The Radiography Program specifically has incorporated virtual reality (VR) headsets with medical simulation software that allow students to work in 3D and 2D settings at College’s Airside Center West Two classrooms have been retrofitted to accommodate the technology Students can also practice in 2D at their homes Our instructors have reported positive feedback in the efficiency of exams [and] when students go to do checkoffs in the lab,” Radiography Program Director Jaime Selph said students can now build on their skills developed in class and the traditional lab setting by practicing in VR Virtual reality is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and near-eye displays that gives users an immersive feel of a virtual world Radiography students are supplementing what they are learning by simulating real patient scenarios and X-ray exposure without the radiation or the need to be physically in the X-ray lab for practice “Our labs and our instruction here at Polk State College remain on the cutting edge because our equipment is real-world Our machines and simulators are very similar to what the students see in their clinical rotations and when they get into their careers,” Selph said “VR technology allows the students to have more hands-on experiences without necessarily being in the X-ray lab.” With recent enrollment growth and approximately 30 students admitted into the newest cohort Selph explained the challenge of students sharing only two X-ray machines Our machines and simulators are very similar to what the students see in their clinical rotations and when they get into their careers.” “Allowing them the use of VR technology not only here on campus but also at home allows them to practice as much as they want or need,” she added Students are already reporting the benefits “It allows you to have an idea of how to move the equipment and how to move the body,” Radiography student Matthew Brooks explained Once you have an idea of how the controls work When we don’t have more time in the (X-ray) lab we can have more time in here to (practice).” Student Tiarre Pierce echoed this appreciation for the new equipment and labs “It’s cool to get a different form of instruction; a different learning opportunity,” she said “It’s giving us more opportunity for trial-and-error and to be able to improve from that.” Students recommend Polk State Radiography to other aspiring radiologic technologists for many reasons including the technology “The program is a mix of all learning styles You have your classroom instruction and your hands-on learning,” student Sarah Miller explained “The teachers are also motivating and helpful You can just tell that they are very passionate about what they do A passionate professor is the key to success.” With Polk State Radiography Program graduates boasting 100% pass rates on the credentialing exam and 100% job placement the newly acquired equipment will only enhance the quality of radiologic technologists entering local healthcare facilities “The students are excited because they don’t have to sit in the lecture room; they can put what they are learning in action in multiple places,” Selph said “The instructors are excited because they are seeing results already.” 5.5.25 Polk State Music students learn from accomplished musician and professor 5.2.25 Polk State Nursing application open through May 15 5.2.25 Polk State collegiate high school student to graduate with AS in Aerospace Administration Winter Haven · Lakeland Bartow · Lake Wales © 2025 Polk State College. 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For additional information, visit polk.edu/compliance .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Rebecca Woolington | The Oregonian/OregonLiveAfter Daniel Wyant shot his ex-girlfriend as she was moving out of their Raleigh Hills apartment her sister's fiancé shot Wyant in the chaos that followed according to newly released court documents That detail – never disclosed publicly until now -- appears in a search warrant affidavit filed this week in Washington County Circuit Court and made public Thursday Wyant posted a photograph of himself on Instagram along with the hashtag "#goodbyes," according to the search warrant Several family members were helping Van Laer move out of the apartment that day had asked him not to be there because she didn't feel comfortable with him around Amal Ram, fiancé to Van Laer's sister, was among those helping with the move, taking heavy items from the porch of the apartment to his truck. Before the shooting, Wyant had been sitting on the couch and had not appeared threatening, said Sgt. Bob Ray, a sheriff's office spokesman Van Laer's mother and sister were packing items in the kitchen when they heard her yell out, "What are you doing?" Van Laer backed into the kitchen as Wyant pointed a handgun at her, according to a probable cause affidavit He fired three times from a customized Sig Sauer .45 semi-automatic handgun Wyant then put the muzzle of his gun under his chin and shot himself Wyant had fallen to the ground after shooting himself Witnesses told investigators that Wyant was trying to get up and get his handgun and fired a shot into Wyant's hip during the fight Van Laer's sister called 911, while Ram held Wyant in the dining room until deputies arrived at the apartment, at 7900 S.W. Brentwood St. the sheriff's office made no mention of Ram shooting Wyant Ray said that decision was made to protect the ongoing investigation Several search warrants were filed seeking phone records emails and social media activity from Wyant Van Laer and others between December 2013 and Nov he became involved in a relationship starting in December 2013 Monica Van Laer is the only person who posted a "like" on the entry Family members told investigators that the two met online while Wyant lived in Illinois. Friends told The Oregonian that Van Laer was in California at that time Family members told investigators that Van Laer and Wyant had lived together in the Raleigh Hills apartment from July to mid-September The relationship became so strained that Van Laer left and stayed with her sister Wyant posted pornographic images and videos of Van Laer and him on Tumblr A friend of Van Laer's alerted investigators to the Tumblr account as well as Wyant's Instagram account On Instagram, photos show Wyant posing with handguns and an AR15, decorated in what is described as "steampunk" style a science-fiction take on the 19th century Among the photos is one that contains the caption Smith of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report 503-294-4049; @rwoolington Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us) The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Advance Local Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here Ad Choices \n m_gallery = \"raleigh_hills_homicide\";\n m_gallery_id = \"16249227\";\n m_gallery_title = \"Raleigh Hills homicide \";\n m_gallery_blog_id = \"4450\";\n m_gallery_creation_date = \"Monday 9:22 AM\";\n m_gallery_permalink = \"http://photos.oregonlive.com/4450/gallery/raleigh_hills_homicide/index.html\";\n m_gallery_json = \"https://blog.oregonlive.com/photogallery/4450/16249227.json\";\n m_gallery_pagetype = \"embed\";\n m_gallery_type = \"photo\";\n <\/script>\n .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Rebecca Woolington | The Oregonian/OregonLiveInside a full courtroom in Washington County three women spoke of a sister who was full of passion full of love and full of life - until her ex-boyfriend took it all away Jurors last week found Daniel Christopher Wyant, 43, guilty of her murder Circuit Court Judge Suzanne Upton sentenced Wyant to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years Wyant shot 33-year-old Van Laer while her family was helping her to move out of the Raleigh Hills apartment the couple once shared Wyant then shot himself in a failed suicide attempt Jurors weren't deciding whether Wyant was the killer. Instead, the state urged them to find him guilty of intentionally killing Van Laer, while Wyant's lawyers offered an insanity defense saying he couldn't control his actions that day jurors determined Wyant had acted with intention when he pulled the trigger Prosecutors argued that Wyant became furious with Van Laer for leaving him, for moving out of their unit at the Broadmoor Manor Apartments and for seeing someone new and finally decided he wouldn't let her go This has been a grueling process our family has gone through over the last 16 months We are grateful that this part is finally over and Monica is getting the justice she deserves If anything positive could come from this experience we hope to raise awareness for domestic violence the man who murdered Monica was sentenced to life in prison Unfortunately no amount of time will bring Monica back to us We are speaking about this today in hopes that it may save even one life from this form of violence Domestic violence does not always present itself as bruises and scars or trapped by their significant other please do not give up reaching out for help There are services out there willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe Van Laer's sisters told the court Friday that Wyant couldn't be forgiven Van Laer's one lapse was believing in Wyant had welcomed Wyant into their lives and would have helped him return home to Illinois when his relationship with Van Laer ended Daniel Wyant stuck a gun in my sister's face and pulled the trigger three times," she told the court Her voice quivered as she read about her sister moving from spot to spot along the West Coast and quitting her Starbucks job to work at a funeral home but she formed deep connections with people and knew her friends as her "chosen family." "Anyone who met my sister loved her," she said "Her positive presence was awe-inspiring "It took a long time for her to see herself how we all saw her: Strong "Tears fall constantly at any moment," she said Her infectious smile is now just a memory." will spend Christmas Day - Van Laer's birthday - year after year at the cemetery Ruth Weston returned to her first-row seat in the gallery a line of crumpled tissues before her on the courtroom bar Rebecca Harrison thanked all who helped with her daughter's case She read from her Bible and told Wyant that if he wants forgiveness "I don't hate you Daniel," she said Harrison said her daughter made friends and kept them "She would have always been your friend," Harrison told him shackled and dressed in an orange jail-issued jumpsuit if he was sure he didn't want to speak she had been able to hear Van Laer through her emails text messages and voicemails that were used as evidence in the case "It was a very strong and clear voice," she said The judge didn't doubt that Van Laer's memory will live on with her family "I suspect Monica's ghost is what will stay with you." 503-294-4049; @rwoolington \n m_gallery = \"daniel_wyant_murder_trial\";\n m_gallery_id = \"19897075\";\n m_gallery_title = \"Daniel Wyant murder trial\";\n m_gallery_blog_id = \"4450\";\n m_gallery_creation_date = \"Monday 1:04 PM\";\n m_gallery_permalink = \"http://photos.oregonlive.com/4450/gallery/daniel_wyant_murder_trial/index.html\";\n m_gallery_json = \"https://blog.oregonlive.com/photogallery/4450/19897075.json\";\n m_gallery_pagetype = \"embed\";\n m_gallery_type = \"photo\";\n <\/script>\n the State Library's fabled archivist who rushed into the burning building to save Colonial Dutch records he was translating donated books and items from van Laer's estate on Thursday After emigrating from the Netherlands in the late 1800s the archivist spent a long career researching and translating 17th-century Dutch documents in the State Library collection where he toiled for decades as a meticulous researcher and well-regarded scholar 1911 fire destroyed nearly the entire collection of the State Library considered one of the nation's finest collections 300,000 manuscripts and much of van Laer's life's work He died a heartbroken scholar in 1955 at 85 "My grandfather had a kind of nervous breakdown after the fire He was never the same after that," said his grandson a retired IBM executive who lives in Cherry Hill With the help of his daughter, Allison van Laer, who also lives in New Jersey, the descendants donated several boxes of Dutch books, photographs, scrapbooks and other material from A.J.F. van Laer that had been kept at a family summer home in Highland Falls "This is so amazing," said the great-granddaughter a custom home finish carpenter who had lugged the Dutch texts during moves between New York But since she does not read or speak Dutch the books were indecipherable and she decided to give them to the State Library to which van Laer bequeathed many of his books The great-granddaughter was shown some of van Laer's published volumes of translations and facsimiles of charred 17th-century documents such as those he could not bear to see including one filled with holes and missing portions that were burned away Look at what he was trying to translate," she said The items they brought Thursday included a photo scrapbook of an 1898 Halloween costume party attended by van Laer and State Library staff members His grandson said the archivist never spoke about the Capitol fire He visited his grandparents in Albany regularly His grandfather always took him up to the attic and sent the boy home with something interesting and instructional from the cache "He was quiet and gentlemanly and a serious scholar," the grandson recalled The archivist was a polymath who spoke eight languages but neither of his two sons inherited his interest in Dutch history and translation One of van Laer's favorite non-academic activities was going to their country home in High Falls and clearing the land He cut out tree stumps with an ax in a technique he dubbed "bogging for stumps." The tall taciturn man wore a suit when he did the rigorous clearing although he ditched the tie on these rare occasions director of the New Netherland Research Center followed in van Laer's footsteps in translating the 17th-century Dutch records of New Netherlands which Gehring took up in 1974 after a long gap of years although he long before abandoned the charred documents "It was so depressing for him after the fire that he couldn't look at them anymore," said Gehring who is aided by van Laer's meticulous research notes who has assisted Gehring with the translations for two decades "I'm sitting hour after hour staring at the same documents as van Laer and there's a sense of closeness to him," she said "I can understand how attached he felt to these documents after working on them for so long The fire was so devastating because the documents had become part of who he was." Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us) Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site Ad Choices This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page — A man was sentenced to life in prison Friday for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her parents back in 2014 Daniel Wyant was arrested for the murder just hours after shooting 33-year-old Monica Van Laer. At the time of the shooting, Van Laer and her family were in the process of moving her out of the Raleigh Hills apartment she shared with Wyant. "Monica was full of passion," said one of her sisters in a victim impact statement at Wyant's sentencing. "No matter what she was doing, she gave her all." Van Laer's other family members also spoke about what she meant to them and how they felt about Wyant. Van Laer's father, Steven, spoke some of the harshest words. "Words like failure, worthlessness, repulsive, revolting, despicable, vile, dishonorable, hated, and ugly," Steven Van Laer said in court to illustrate how he felt about Wyant. After shooting Van Laer, police said Wyant turned the gun on himself and fired just below the chin. Steven Van Laer made reference to that suicide attempt as well. "I would like to leave on a positive note," he said. "Mr. Wyant, good luck to you. Have good success in any future suicide attempts." Wyant was convicted last month. He'll spend 25 years behind bars before being eligible for parole. It was by chance John and Bérénice Van Laer found Nova Scotia A business trip about 14 years ago was the initial introduction “We fell in love with everything,” said Bérénice Van Laer in an interview that it is more important to be kind to be each other Subscribe now to access this story and more: Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience After a few more visits and the arrival of their son the couple decided to make the move from southern Germany to the South Shore town of Lunenburg bringing with them their skills and experience in language translations of English “We decided we wanted to do our own thing and we did it,” said Van Laer We opened our business VL Translations in March 2020 basically a week before COVID hit us,” she said “We already had some customers in the region the couple continued to invest in their business recently launching a new user-friendly website outlining the services they offer “Our mission is to broaden customers’ sales opportunities by bridging languages and expressing your concepts through translation,” states the website “We have a strong belief whatever service or product you are offering the quality of the language is paramount,” said Van Laer Language is one of the most beautiful things we have in life and it shouldn’t be treated badly” noting the couple has found “embarrassing examples of mistakes” in free translation programs “I’ve always found it helpful to meet up with a customer,” said Van Laer It’s very important for a translator to understand not only the text in front of you but understand what is your perception of your business It’s important to hit the right formula when it comes to business.” Van Laer said VL Translations “has a very good network of other translators” around the world they can connect with if there is a need for translation into a different language than what they offer VL Translations conducts the majority of their meetings with clients via Zoom from their home offices but are looking forward to the day they can meet up with customers in person Van Laer said one thing they’ve noticed about businesses since COVID struck was initially Then we noticed these businesses decided now is the time to invest or expand their businesses and those are the ones doing really well I think although we are still in a pandemic I think this is the time to get ready to prepare and get ready for things to go back to normal.” Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page The British Virgin Islands is an explorer's dream with more than 60 isles and cays to discover Expert-backed tips and a step-by-step breakdown to ward off these pests We tried it: Filtrete Smart Tower and the Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09 transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Placid boys lacrosse team found themselves in tightly-contested match with the St Lawrence Larries on Monday at Schroeter’s Field Lawrence jumped out to a 4-1 lead early in the contest and held at least a two-goal lead the remainder of the way The Larries led 8-5 in the final minutes of the game and tacked on a pair of goals to seal the win SLP’s Scottie Nicholas recorded a hat trick while Mik Denkenberger scored two goals and chipped in with two assists Charlie Dow paced the Larries with four goals and one assist Merrick Frary added three goals and two assists Damien Ashley and Connor Provost tallied one goal each Lawrence’s goalie Tyler Tarasek recorded 14 stops.The SLP boys dropped to 1-4 overall Saranac Lake’s Clancy van Laer pitches during Monday’s game against Beekmantown in Saranac Lake.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien) The team will face off against the Colton-Pierrepont Colts at 5 p.m the Saranac Lake baseball team has stumbled across a rough stretch The Red Storm were defeated 26-4 by the Beekmantown Eagles at Petrova Field Monday afternoon Fielding errors from Saranac Lake and solid pitching from Beekmantown’s Doug Duncan helped lead to Saranac Lake’s downfall Duncan struck out nine batters in five innings while his team rallied offensively with 17 hits en route to the win The Eagles’ Patrick Hagadorn and Zachary LaPier had three hits each Parker Broughton and Rylan Garden chipped in with two hits each The Red Storm recorded seven hits in the game and junior Dillon Wilson had the team’s lone extra base hit with a triple in the bottom of the third inning Adam Lewis took the loss in the pitchers’ circle for Saranac Lake After Lewis was relieved in the fourth inning the Red Storm used three pitchers — Clancy van Laer Connor Coventry and Zack Goetz — to close out the game is slated to host the AuSable Valley Patriots at 4:30 p.m The Patriots are 2-2 and recorded their two wins against Northern Adirondack LAKE PLACID — Registration for the first-ever event on the Adirondack Rail Trail — Sunday COLUMBIA, SC (WACH) -- One Columbia father's worst nightmare came to life over the weekend after his son was hit by a car and that driver kept going is now calling for that driver to come forward “How can you even dispute the necessity for them to at least accept responsibility for what they’ve done?," said Hohmann Columbia Police said Laer tripped in the road around 1:45 a.m Sunday and was hit by the car while he was falling Hohmann told WACH FOX News that two young women saw the incident and stayed with Laer until ambulances arrived Everything I’m about is doing the right thing in the world and Police said the suspect was driving a black charger with blue headlights.Investigators believe the charger was a 2011 to 2014 model with dark tinted windows looking for a black charger," said Hohmann Hohmann said his son suffered several broken bones and head trauma “They did a CAT scan on him and they said it’s amazing he didn’t have any hemorrhaging on his brain from the amount of trauma he sustained," said Hohmann Police told WACH FOX News that they are following several tips they have received Hohmann is calling for that driver to turn themselves in there’s no easy way to go about this but at least you’ll be able to sleep at night if you do the right thing," said Hohmann Anybody with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC Employee of motorcycle shop where gang shootout took place arrested Police: Man dead after hitting tree during single-car collision own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment City St George's, University of London provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK View all partners Game of Thrones has become something of a TV event over the past six years – the last season attracted more than 5m viewers per episode the attractions are obvious: large helpings of sex and violence bolstered by a serpentine storyline said to be inspired by the War of the Roses one of the bloodiest periods of English history We found five motivations for consuming stories varying from Game of Thrones specifically to other books forgetting the inner world and looking after a lonely and suffering self Game of Thrones provides insight into the lives of people in other places in other times, like the Scandinavian vikings (portrayed in the series as the Ironborn from the Iron Islands) as well as Genghis Khan and the Mongols (represented by Daenerys’ time with the horse-obsessed Dothraki). We get a glimpse of the Slave Coast of Africa with Slavers’ Bay while the various Free Cities in Game of Thrones – Lys Myr – can be found in our history books as various trading cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (Alexandria the main action in Game of Thrones is inspired which raged from 1455 to 1485 between the English houses of Lancaster and York That bloody story has been transferred to Game of Thrones where the two main competing houses are known as Lannister and Stark Making sense of the world is something all humans need and do. As American scholar Athinodoros Chronis wrote visitors to places such as the American Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg turn what are essentially commercial tourist sites into personal experiences by comparing what they see and hear with their own prior knowledge and using their imagination to immerse themselves in the story of the past So it is with Game of Thrones and the Wars of the Roses We learn that problems of social and financial inequality combined with the mental infirmity and ineffective and weak rule of political leaders can cause conflict Living through an event or feeling certain emotions does not necessarily make them easily interpretable. People use stories to make sense of individual experiences. For example, some people watch Game of Thrones because they can easily relate to the battle between good and evil being fought chiefly in the individual human heart of Tyrion Lannister instead of between heroic elves and evil orcs in Similarly, other people particularly enjoy Game of Thrones because they feel a personal stake when another character dies. Hodor was not a major character but he was beloved for his gentleness Though his master would ultimately cause his demise Different from needing to understand the outer world needing to investigate it reflects the human need to understand not only our own beliefs and perspectives but to appreciate that other people’s are different from one’s own A story like Game of Thrones enables viewers not only to interpret their own lives but also to vicariously navigate other lives that are alien to their own Some people take this seriously enough to visit locations from the series such as Dubrovnik in Croatia whose walls were used for scenes in King’s Landing and the Red Keep Another popular destination is Ouarzazate in Morocco which stands in for Yunkai on the Game of Thrones’ continent of Essos Iceland was used to film the Land Beyond the Wall on the Game of Thrones’ continent of Westeros and Northern Ireland provided Castle Black Travelling to such locations turns Game of Thrones into a personal event that becomes a discovery Another shared need for narrative is to break away from daily life Humans cannot escape the need for escapism Game of Thrones is effective whenever you just do not want to think about your things anymore The series is an effective way to escape from your problems, or at least, to forget them for a while. Fans even invent great (and weird) fan fiction that grants elevation from mundane affairs Beware though: fan fiction can suit solipsistic indulgence and denial of personal problems One 39-year-old French woman we interviewed was struggling to overcome her alcoholism She escaped from her urges by binge-watching horror films simply replacing one addiction with another escapism is about putting your issues aside and keeping them for later people use stories to improve personal resources and heal their suffering selves Game of Thrones can be used for various self-prescribed therapies too Participants mentioned a wide variety of stories they used for therapy One 80-year-old Irish woman told us she had used David Copperfield to help her deal with the grief of losing her mother Arya Stark’s migration to Essos is an example of a way to cope with loneliness – her story is a reminder that there are people out there having it harder than you Meanwhile Sansa Stark having Ramsay Bolton’s hound eat him alive offers a fictional revenge to survivors of sexual violence. Or you can use Tyrion as your alter ego, whose similar life events and emotions makes you think you are not to blame for the mess the world is in First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans used Game of Thrones in a speech to Google: It’s about challenges … Sort of like society in general today Game of Thrones is the perfect metaphor for where we stand as a society Winter may be coming but that is an opportunity to show how strong we are because – like the house of Stark – we are best when we are challenged Stories empower people to self-prescribe narrative therapy Not only do we know which stories we like – but we also know which narrative we need to escape from reality as well as transform it the third largest real estate company in Massachusetts with 20 locations and more than 400 agents announced the addition of Kristin Gennetti to its Winchester office Gennetti joined LAER from the Bean Group in Winchester having lived and worked in Malden the majority of her life Gennetti’s accomplishments include receiving the 2016 Five Star Professional Award 2 Agent in Dollar Volume Sold in Malden in 2016 She is an accredited buyer’s representative and seller representative specialist Gennetti is also a member of both the Malden Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Boston Realty Board ​“I’m both humbled by the trust in me and my research ideas that SSF shows by awarding this grant, and excited to start the project”, says Anton Frisk Kockum, who receives the grant for the project “Quantum simulation and communication with giant atoms”. The project aims to harness a new regime of light-matter interaction, so-called giant atoms, for useful applications. In these systems, interference effects make it possible to turn on and off the coupling between a system emulating the properties of an atom and a surrounding environment. "I will use this setup for two purposes: first to efficiently simulate quantum systems of interest (e.g., molecules) that interact with their surroundings, and second to enable communication between quantum systems, e.g., two quantum-computing processors", says Anton Frisk Kockum. "This funding will let me create a research group devoted to giant atoms and their applications. I currently have one PhD student working on these topics. I will now recruit one postdoc and one more PhD student. The funding also comes with an excellent leadership training program, which I look forward to participating in and learning from." Raphaël Van Laer receives the grant for his project “Attojoule-per-bit acousto-optics”. "Society relies heavily on transistor-based information technologies such as computers and the internet. These systems became increasingly powerful in what is known as Moore’s law. Today, this trend is faltering as transistors are reaching performance limits. The project’s goal is to lay the foundations for new types of information technology with chip-scale light and sound", he says. He aims to greatly reduce the energy footprint of emerging coherent information processors based on photonics and quantum technology. If you would like to learn more about the IAEA’s work sign up for our weekly updates containing our most important news The International Atomic Energy Agency is organising an official side event at the UN Ocean Conference 2022, in cooperation with the Circulate Initiative and the Incubation Network to discuss actions to address marine plastic pollution co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal seeks to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action This environmental issue transcends national boundaries and even with plastic monitoring in place significant efforts and resources are required to establish a baseline for marine plastic pollution and to assess characterize and understand the fate of marine plastic pollution with the ultimate goal of ensuring sustainable marine ecosystem health and human wellbeing there is an urgent need for action and for scaling up ocean action based on science and innovation for the implementation of the UN sustainable development or other environmental goals The main objective of this event is to raise the need for coordinated global action against marine plastic pollution through a series of both high-level and scientific contributions. It is embedded in the context of an IAEA initiative launched in 2021 that builds on the Agency’s expertise in this area: NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) To complement the IAEA efforts, other global initiatives will be presented during this side-event, such as the Incubation Network an ambitious multi-stakeholder initiative supported by The Circulate Initiative and SeconMuse in 2019 which seeks to reduce ocean plastic pollution and to improve the livelihoods of people working in waste management and recycling systems The project has created a connected network of key stakeholdersacross the private scale and support innovative solutions that can significantly contribute to these goals The event also aims at highlighting how research and technology innovation and international cooperation can contribute to scaling up local and regional action to tackle marine plastic pollution especially for issues related to smaller plastic particles for which ocean pollution is currently underestimated and the fate of which is poorly understood Speakers will share stories and lessons learned from their initiatives and will try to show how meaningful change requires multisectoral engagement and to target systems levers This 75 minutes side-event will be organized as a dialogue and will allow the identification of means for scaling up specific action This side event directly aligns with the theme of the Conference and addresses the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 14.1 “By 2025 prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds including marine debris and nutrient pollution” and touches on another SDG 14 targets (14.a develop research capacity and transfer marine technology A panel of representatives of Member States Funding Agencies and renownedinstitutions will take part in this side-event NUTEC Plastics: Using Nuclear Technologies to Address Plastic Pollution New Research on the Possible Effects of Micro-and Nano-plastics on Marine Animals Repackaging Nuclear Science for Policy Makers: Scientists and Communicators Team Up a real estate company in Massachusetts with 22 locations and more than 400 agents announced the winners of its third annual Recognizing Our Accomplished Realtors awards The ROAR awards showcase individual agents and teams who have achieved exceptional levels in annual real estate sales and transactions ten special honors are awarded to individuals who go above and beyond for their fellow agents The browser serves as the primary interface between the on-premises environment the browser is also exposed to multiple types of cyber threats and operational risks Read the complete report and its recommendations here The interesting results of the survey have led LayerX analysts to conclude that while SaaS adoption is (unsurprisingly) on the rise CISOs are still struggling to solve the security debt created by the transition to the cloud account takeover and unsanctioned apps are top concerns for CISOs who are looking for solutions that can mitigate them existing network solutions aren't able to provide a secure means This is because solutions used by on-prem organizations such as device trust are losing effectiveness once the organization transitions to the cloud in most companies they are not implemented across all environments popular solutions like MFA also aren't able to deliver on their promise and SOC security to respond quicker and stop breaches early AI agents boost business—but create risks and strategies from industry leaders – all for free the third largest real estate company in Massachusetts with 22 locations and more than 400 agents has announced the addition of five agents to its Winchester office at 41 Thompson St Cestari holds 18 years of experience in real estate and joins LAER from the Bean Group She grew up in Wellesley and attended Ohio Wesleyan University where she received a bachelor’s degree in economics management Cestari worked as a stock broker/mutual fund wholesaler She currently lives in Sherborn with her family .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By The Associated PressAviation Archaeologist Scott Van Laer photographs pieces of a Cessna 207 that crashed into an Adirondack mountainside in 1970 in New York The New York forest ranger is documenting dozens of plane crash sites in the Adirondack Mountains with plans for a book for fellow "wreck chasers" and hikers also known as a "wreck chaser." What started as a work assignment to update a list of crash sites has become an off-duty obsession involving hundreds of hours poring over Federal Aviation Administration and military crash records networking on web message boards and hiking to remote crash sites."This is one of the first planes I looked for," Van Laer said as he bushwhacked through dense woods and beaver marsh on a recent Sunday in search of a Cessna 207 "Skywagon" that crashed in 1970 in the Jay Mountain range of the northeastern Adirondacks "Turns out I looked totally on the wrong mountain That's because the crash list was put together by a ranger in the '80s before GPS Van Laer was accompanied by local resident Jim Beaton who had visited the site soon after the crash Beaton led the way to the white and yellow shards of fuselage wings and tail scattered through the swath of forest where Harvey Shaw Van Laer documented the site with photographs and GPS readings.In addition to cataloging crash sites for the Department of Environmental Conservation Van Laer is writing a book about Adirondack plane crashes He has documented more than 200 crashes in the region with wreckage remaining in the woods from about 50 took multiple trips to find."One I'm still looking for is a Connecticut National Guard plane that went down in the Moose River Plains in 1956," he said "The pilot dragged himself for 36 hours with a broken leg until some loggers saved him." Scott Van Laer photographs pieces of a Cessna 207 that crashed into an Adirondack mountainside in 1970 One is on Blue Ridge in the central Adirondacks Army C-46 transport plane crashed in 1944 during a night training mission the wreckage wasn't found until nearly a year later by someone searching for a different lost aircraft."A group of wreck chasers found it about 15 years ago and put a plaque on the wing and hung a flag," Van Laer said "Now a few people go to it every year."As he searches for sites Van Laer often seeks out surviving relatives to see if they want to visit the wrecks he led a pilot's son to wreckage of a Cherokee 140 on Iroquois Mountain on the 45th anniversary of the crash "That one was celebratory because his father survived," he said.One wreck remains a mystery The twin-engine jet of an Atlanta developer crashed shortly after takeoff from Burlington A search ranging from the eastern Adirondacks to the Vermont side of Lake Champlain was fruitless The jet and five men on board are still missing.After Van Laer happened to meet the pilot's daughter on a wreck-chasing message board he organized a search in Lake Champlain in 2014 involving state police divers and private contractors with a mini submarine He helped family members organize another private search last year."That one's been tough," Van Laer said "I really want to help bring closure to the family."The pilot's niece said Van Laer is a godsend for a family that longs for answers after 45 years."It's been wonderful to have his support and knowledge," said Nikitas "Not knowing what happened has always been very devastating to us." An Exceptional Job from Jessica Suarez on Vimeo Monday (May 5) for more than 3,200 seats on city councils The county is looking at whether Segale Properties’ proposed environmental mitigation strategies are enough to protect the local environment 12-year-old dies after late-night crash in Enumclaw .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Rebecca Woolington | The Oregonian/OregonLiveInvestigators on Saturday arrested 41-year-old Daniel Wyant in the killing of his former girlfriend at the Raleigh Hills apartment the two used to share Wyant fired several shots into Monica Van Laer last Sunday before turning the handgun on himself a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office was "subdued" by Van Laer's family members until deputies arrived Detectives arrested Wyant -- his full name is Daniel Christopher Timothy Chad Wyant -- at a Portland hospital on an accusation of murder. He was lodged in the Washington County Jail without bail Authorities have been slow to release details about Sunday's killing waiting six days to identify Wyant as their suspect the agency said that Van Laer had moved out of the apartment she shared with Wyant a few weeks before the shooting She was finishing moving out with help from family members when she was killed A neighbor told The Oregonian that he heard screaming and a single gunshot before a woman ran outside and told him that her sister had been shot Van Laer died of gunshot wounds to the head, neck and chest, according to the state medical examiner's office Many friends of Van Laer's have taken to Facebook this week, posting memories, thoughts and photographs of the former St. Helens High School student. One of her friends told The Oregonian that she had recently moved back to Oregon from California Her memorial service was scheduled for Saturday at Skyline Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home, according to an obituary she was working as a counselor at the funeral home Van Laer's family members have created a gofundme page in her memory They say money raised will go to the band and drama programs at St SARANAC LAKE — The steady rain stopped just as a forest ranger honor guard started up the rocky path that runs through the middle of Pine Ridge Cemetery Sunday afternoon stood watch as a small crowd gathered on a stone-wall-dotted hillside to mark an important milestone in Adirondack history The subject of the ceremony was Forest Ranger James Ahern 1917 — several days after suffering grievous injuries while on patrol near Ray Brook It was the first in-the-line-of-duty death recorded for the rangers and it spawned changes that still reverberate today said Ahern was working on state property boundary lines with a surveyor when he fell and got injured Van Laer admits he doesn’t know exactly where the fall occurred or how high a fall it was but Ahern and the surveyor were able to make their way 5 miles Ahern was in the hospital for several days with serious internal injuries and then was sent home for the last hours of his life Van Laer said newspaper accounts at the time said he died in the early hours of April 30 “I can’t remember if I was searching his name in the newspaper archives both in the Saranac Lake paper and the Plattsburgh paper,” van Laer said after the service “But I had never heard the oral history of this “Then I found what really was the kicker if you will: (The) documentation was the state law of 1918 They passed a state law signed by the governor He doesn’t have any direct-line descendants; the family was not even aware of this when I reached out to them.” James Ahern’s great-grandnephew was at the ceremony with his own wife; they now live in Clayburg Michael Ahern said he was surprised when he saw a ranger parked on the side of the road waiting to talk to him about his great-granduncle John Streiff was master of ceremonies Sunday and said in a speech that the spirit of the forest rangers began with the creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve in 1885 But it took a tragedy of monstrous proportions to bring about the professional organization we know today After a fire in 1908 wiped out much of the hamlet of Long Lake West — maybe the largest fire in Adirondack history — the state created the first full-time forest protection unit in 1909 “A paid professional source was created to not only fight fires but to patrol the vast Forest Preserve as well,” Streiff said fire wardens — the forerunners of forest rangers — were only paid when there was a fire the title ‘forest ranger’ was bestowed upon this new force and has remained unchanged ever since.” Streiff said Ahern was hired as a ranger in 1914 at a salary of $60 per month (about $1,450 in today’s dollars) he left behind a wife and two children: James Ahern was 42 at the time of his death and suffered from a rupture of the intestines after the fall he lived in Tupper Lake for a number of years and operated several businesses in the Tri-Lakes area “The duty fulfilled by Ranger Ahern is the same one carried out by rangers today,” Streiff said solid in our beliefs and dedicated to our mission “We follow the same trail today that Ranger Ahern blazed before us.” who acts as the ranger division’s unofficial historian said he found out about Ahern’s death while doing research rangers’ families were not given any sort of death benefit even if the rangers died in the course of their duties But Ahern’s death prompted legislative action in Albany a bill was passed honoring Ahern and awarding his wife and kids a survivor’s benefit The bill also declared that rangers worked in hazardous conditions and ensured that from then on the family of any ranger who died in the line of duty would also receive death benefits Van Laer said it is thought that seven rangers have died in the line of duty since Ahern: at least four due to heart attacks while on hiking or fire patrol and most recently in a plane crash in the 1970s State Assemblyman Billy Jones was at the ceremony retired rangers and law enforcement officers “It’s important to be here … to honor our forest rangers and honor the jobs they do,” said Jones “They do it in very adverse conditions and they don’t often get the recognition they deserve There are only about 120 forest rangers statewide and each is responsible for patrolling an average of tens of thousands of acres has introduced a bill that would require safe CO staffing levels at state prisons and he said he wouldn’t rule out a similar effort to increase ranger staffing levels “I think we have a low level of staffing in the forest rangers,” Jones said and I think it’s always important that I tell my colleagues from the city and from south of here how important it is to staff this properly SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Department of Public Works will begin hydrant flushing on Monday in the Park .. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience It's been a fairly wet spring and summer this year the New York State Forest Rangers keep a close watch.. Jul 04 2017 — It's been a fairly wet spring and summer this year the New York State Forest Rangers keep a close watch on forest fire danger in the Adirondacks fires ravaged thousands of acres of forest land in the Adirondack Park created when the Forest Preserve was formed in 1885 so the New York Legislature enacted new laws in 1909 to fight fires in the Adirondacks and Catskills one that would lead to the establishment of the Forest Ranger Division in 1912 and the construction of more than 100 fire towers Forest Ranger Scott van Laer historian for the state's Forest Ranger Division holding a fire ledger that dates to the beginnings of the service Andy Flynn recently visited the state Department of Environmental Conservation offices in Ray Brook He spoke with Forest Ranger Scott van Laer about a ledger that details some of the region's forest fires shortly after the 1909 laws were enacted Andy FlynnHow the Forest Rangers got their start Scott van Laer: This is a ledger that documented all the wild land or forest fires that occurred in what was then called District 3 What's really interesting about the ledger is it's the oldest documentation that we still have from this time period This coincided with some legislation that changed in 1909 and this began what essentially what we know today as the forest ranger division It was made and printed specifically for what would three years later become known as the forest rangers Facing pages of the ledger record incidences of fires large and small in the early part of the twentieth century This encompassed a lot of what we know as DEC Region 6 today The far left part of the ledger shows the location but you do see a lot of causes that were not as common today like "railroad."   ...you don't see a lot of natural fires What you see is they attach a cause a lot of times to the recreational activity which I assume they were probably from campfires Most of that hamlet had to be evacuated by rail car The system that had been previously in place was from 1885 What they had in place then was called fire wardens and they essentially designated people in towns and hamlets that they thought would function well to supervise putting out fires They were volunteers and were only paid when they were fighting a fire it became clear — after hundreds of thousands of acres burned and the entire hamlet of Long lake West burned — that it didn't work So the act of 1909 not only created what we know as the forest rangers but it created the funds for the prevention system Two men carrying an early gasoline-powered water pump that was an effective tool in fighting forest fires in New York state This is when all those fire towers started to go up and you saw for the next several decades this come into place you can see how the number of fires and acreage goes down over time you actually saw the fire towers be abandoned and the fire tower observer's job eventually disappearing .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Rebecca Woolington | The Oregonian/OregonLiveDaniel Christopher Wyant was suffering from a mental disorder and couldn't control himself when he fatally shot his ex-girlfriend at the apartment they once shared his defense attorney told Washington County jurors Monday is charged with murder in the death of 33-year-old Monica Van Laer Wyant shot Van Laer three times - in her head neck and chest - with a .45-caliber gun on Nov while she was moving out of their Raleigh Hills apartment A depressed Wyant couldn't curb his impulses that day because he suffered a traumatic brain injury years earlier and he was taking a medication to curb seizures and headaches that had ill side effects Most of the facts about the case won't be in dispute and the jury will be tasked with determining whether Wyant was suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime Deputy District Attorney Andrew Freeman told jurors that Wyant intentionally shot Van Laer because she had left him he made sure that she couldn't," Freeman told jurors in his opening statement Van Laer and Wyant had met through an online dating site in December 2013 and Wyant moved to California to live with her The couple stayed a few weeks in the Bay Area before moving to Oregon they moved into the Raleigh Hills apartment together Van Laer was trying to break up with Wyant Van Laer broke off their relationship that fall and was staying with her sister asking her to come back and offering her free rent for months if she did Wyant started posting pornographic images of Van Laer online He also learned that Van Laer had started dating another man Freeman told jurors that online searches done by Wyant showed that he looked the man up finding his Facebook page and where he lived Wyant posted another pornographic image of Van Laer on Tumblr He also had posted a photograph of himself on Instagram with the hashtag "#goodbyes." Van Laer told Wyant she was coming to the apartment with her family and the police Wyant told her the police didn't need to be there Van Laer had asked whether Wyant would be home But when she and her family walked inside the unit at the Broadmoor Manor Apartments was backing into a corner in the kitchen and shielding her face with her hands Wyant opened fire on Van Laer at point-blank range Her body fell at the feet of her sister and mother "She was dead immediately," Freeman told jurors looked at Van Laer's sister and mother "That's what happens when you (expletive) with me," Wyant told them He then placed the gun beneath his chin and pulled the trigger The bullet traveled through his chin and out his nose The shot didn't incapacitate him and he started searching for the gun he dropped according to a recording played for jurors Van Laer's mother got Wyant's gun finished speaking to the 911 dispatcher for the sister The sister's fiance, who was also helping with the move, had retrieved a gun from his truck. Back inside the apartment, he and Wyant struggled, and the fiance shot Wyant in the hip He then restrained Wyant until police arrived Freeman told jurors that Van Laer's killing occurred after months of "angry The defense team focused on Wyant's long struggles with depression and complications from a traumatic brain injury Wyant has twice been married and has two children he suffered an injury that damaged his temporal lobe and frontal lobe and caused him to suffer seizures and headaches Wyant suffered a headache so painful that he wound up in the emergency room A doctor at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland prescribed topiramate to help a doctor will testify that Wyant was suffering from a neurocognitive disorder on the day he killed Van Laer caused by the brain injury "This was a man with a vulnerable brain," the defense lawyer said The medication is known to cause adverse psychiatric side effects in some people Wyant texted Van Laer to say that he had stopped taking the medication indicating he was experiencing some side effects But Wyant apparently continued to take the pills to treat his headaches A little more than an hour before the shooting and she encouraged him to stop taking the medication "I've run out of my ability to cope," he had told her Wyant's trial continues Tuesday and is expected to last three weeks 503-294-4049; @rwoolington