Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to Alphaday 10, Season XVIII. We\u2019ve reached the big \u2018one-0\u2019 mark and we\u2019ll start ticking off \u2018last-of-the-season\u2019 events from now on. With a nod to the \u2018glass half-empty \/ half-full\u2019 image, we\u2019re heading for culminations \u2013 there\u2019s no question of fizzling out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Alphadays always bring plenty of new, inspirational ideas and today\u2019s Alphaday is no exception as you\u2019ll see from the agenda which you\u2019ve all helped to fill with goodies. It\u2019ll be presented by the Alpha team as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alphaday 10, Season XVIII agenda:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you\u2019ll agree we\u2019re in for some special treats to keep us busy for a while as we study the contents. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alpha news: <\/strong>Phil\u2019s Log will give us the latest news about how you\u2019re getting on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you know I\u2019ve been struggling with the unfair punishment imposed by Gmail, who put me on their blacklist and intercepted all emails I sent to Gmail addresses (from all my three email addresses). I\u2019ve spent hours wading from web-pillar to post to find a solution. My patience was sorely tried (please, excuse the understatement) and I never found anything except references to figures and letters to authenticate \u2026 and not understanding a word. My domain had to be authenticated, too, and there\u2019s a good reason why that\u2019s impossible: I don\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe I sent out too many group emails on one day: harassment of Alphas on Alphaday. The other possible crimes don\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily Francesca is at hand to forward my group emails (thank you, Francesca!) and that seems to work smoothly. Over the last week or so I\u2019ve even been in touch with individual Gmail addressees, and with a bit of luck the problem is over. Remains to be seen how my group emails fare. If necessary I\u2019ll have to get the help of an expert technician, as I can\u2019t work this out myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n General news: <\/strong>Sadly the overwhelming news these days is the horrific death and destruction wreaked by one man\u2019s thirst for domination. A month ago we didn\u2019t think that possible. Yet it is happening and we can\u2019t escape the nagging fear of worse to come. A civilised world should be able to solve problems by negotiating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cultural world is doing their best, and I believe it can play an important part. Seeing a pianist playing a grand piano wearing fingerless mittens in the middle of a bombarded square brought tears to my eyes. Hearing stars and sportspeople speaking out and taking action sends out a strong message. Depriving ordinary Russians of their favourite parts of western culture such as Starbucks and MacDonald\u2019s also makes a statement. They\u2019ll have to make do with their native treats of vodka, kvas, samovar tea, borsch \u2026 and blinis with caviar instead of coca-cola and Big Mac. Somehow that doesn\u2019t look like much of a punishment, but the knowledge that they\u2019re shunned by so many people and organisations in the west must surely hit home. One wonders how much can be distorted by censorship and propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How often do we remember George Orwell\u2019s \u2018Nineteen Eighty Four\u2019? That scenario has scared people ever since the novel was first published in 1948. Orwell\u2019s forebodings ring true every time we\u2019re reminded that this isn\u2019t \u2018the best of all possible worlds\u2019. (Voltaire, \u2018Candide\u2019, 1759 satirical novella.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 10, Season XVIII. We\u2019ve reached the big \u2018one-0\u2019 mark and we\u2019ll start ticking off \u2018last-of-the-season\u2019 events from now on. With a nod to the \u2018glass half-empty \/…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}