Asteroid Goddesses - the undistorted Natural/Divine Feminine

[Rad]

Hi All,

Here is the story of Kira Yarmysh's. This is a noon chart.

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Kira Yarmysh's new novel, 'Harassment' Alexey Navalny's press secretary discusses books and personal responsibility in times of war and emigration

Source: Meduza

In the novel "Harassment," the protagonist navigates unwanted attention from her boss. The story's author, Kira Yarmysh (the longtime press secretary of imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny), wrote most of the book in Moscow while under house arrest as a "restraining measure" for violating Russia's draconian pandemic lockdown restrictions. Last summer, Yarmysh left Russia; she now lives and works abroad. Meduza literary critic Galina Yuzefovich spoke with Yarmysh about her new book, Navalny's role in her literary career, and what she believes opponents of the Kremlin's policies should do now.

I started reading your novel on the first day of the war and realized sadly that I'd have come away with a completely different impression, if I'd picked it up literally one week earlier. Are you worried about the book's fate?

On February 24, everything changed so much that of course the attributes of our former lives seem totally irrelevant. But life goes on, no matter how it sounds. You can't just up and pretend that some aspects no longer exist. It's true that the novel's release didn't come at the most fortunate moment, but the book itself was written in a completely different time. That alone, I think, doesn't make it useless or uninteresting to everyone. Harassment hasn't gone anywhere — and it's not likely to go anywhere, so this book will still be important to some right now.

All violence is interconnected. Do you feel that when we're talking about one type, we're in fact talking about violence in general?

I have thought about this a lot, of course. It seems to me, in principle, that violence is a general concept for a certain type of evil, and that it's not particularly important to divide it into specific types and subtypes. With violence, there is no clear gradation, degree, or level. Any violence or illegitimate use of your power is always immoral and criminal. So, yes, the violence that I write about in my novel is private and narrow, but also a very representative example of violence as a global category.

In your novel, you deliberately avoid ethical certainty: there is not one situation in which the heroine finds herself, where we can say with a clear conscience that she is completely blameless, that she's just an unfortunate victim. Do you have any fear that some will think you're taking the position that "not everything is so clear" or even "both sides are to blame"?

No, not at all. I consciously tried to avoid situations which would produce in the reader an unambiguous relationship with the main characters. From the very beginning, I wanted to create a situation that was as realistic as possible and also as contradictory as possible, so that readers' sympathies would always rotate between different characters. In no way did I try to portray the heroine as a victim, some poor little lamb. So, I hope readers will understand me correctly.

It was much more interesting to me to show the contradiction, the complexity, and therefore also the danger of the entire process of harassment than to take one side firmly and dogmatically. Harassment is always a use of one's position and one's power against a weaker person who cannot answer in kind. That is unambiguously bad, but writing such obvious things openly seems trivial and useless to me. I'm really not writing agitprop or a feminist manifesto.

When and under what conditions was the idea for Harassment born?

I discussed the plot of the novel with Alexey [Navalny] on the way to Novosibirsk in August 2020. On that flight, we talked over the whole story and discussed details, but then after a few days the Novichok [poisoning] happened and everything, of course, changed completely. It wasn't until a month after that fateful flight — when it became clear that Alexey was coming out of the coma, and everything would be relatively okay — that I started to write the novel itself. At least then, imminent disaster had been averted.

The book was necessary for me; it helped me somehow to reconcile with what was happening, but there wasn't enough time for it. With my house arrest, I suddenly had all the time in the world. I was writing a lot then.

What was it like to write under house arrest? Did it feel like speaking into the void?

In that respect, the book was an excellent anchor. I wrote under house arrest precisely so it would be easier to survive what was happening. Obviously, I had a lot of free time. No Internet, no nothing — no one could visit, only a lawyer. So, you sit alone in your apartment for 24 hours a day. What do you do with yourself?

My colleagues offered to pass me a gaming console through my lawyer. Everyone was worried that I was bored and probably going nuts, climbing the walls. But I was writing, that whole time, so the first five months I didn't even understand where I would find the time to get bored. And that cured me of any suffering, any depression, and any fretting about the future. Because I was immersed in a world that I'd created. In that moment, nothing more existed for me. Who needs a gaming console!

You mentioned that you discussed your books with Alexey Navalny, and I remember that he actively supported your first novel when he was still free. What, generally, is Navalny's role in your writing career?

Huge, if I'm being honest. He's the person who made me believe in myself and in the fact that I could write at all. For many years, I told everyone that I wanted to write, but I worried that I lacked the perseverance, mainly. So, credit for my first novel is due, undoubtedly, to Alexey. He believed in me so much that he simply overwhelmed me with that belief, until I wrote the book.

Of course, I couldn't discuss the second novel with him because I was under house arrest, and he was in prison. So, except for that conversation on the plane, we discussed practically nothing more about the plot, its twists and turns, or its subtleties. I couldn't consult with him about whether what I was writing was realistic or not. But he became my first reader anyway, because I sent him the whole book, literally page by page, in letters over the course of several months. He read it and liked it. This naturally lifted my spirits and gave me confidence. So, like before, Alexey is actively involved in my writing life, he inspires me, and he supports me.

Do you ever get the feeling that Navalny's participation, his presence in your life in general, not only helps but also hinders your writing career? I remember very well the controversy around your first book, when many colleagues said it was of interest only because it was written by Alexey Navalny's press secretary.

I've thought about this a fair amount, and it would be strange to deny it. I'm certainly indebted to Alexey for the fact that Varya Gornostaeva [a senior editor at CORPUS, Kira Yarmysh's Russian publisher] even agreed to read my novel. But I was only hoping for an expert's assessment and maybe some advice — Varya herself offered to publish it. I honestly was not counting on that. It came as a huge shock and a great joy.

I'd like to believe that the book wouldn't have sustained three reprints in Russia if it were bad, if the only reason it appeared on the market was that I'm Navalny's press secretary. I'd like to believe it wouldn't have been translated into 10 languages.

On the whole, writing is very important to me. I view it as at least half of my work and self-actualization. I have politics and the work that's connected to it, and then I have my creativity. I really want to bear the proud name of a writer, to have the right to speak of myself that way. So, I plan to continue writing, and I hope that simply by releasing novels time and again that are interesting (or necessary) to people, I can win over even those who think my only secret to success (if I can put it that way) is that I'm someone's press secretary.

What was it like watching Navalny's new sentencing?

It was hard. It's difficult to answer this question because, on the one hand, no one had any illusions. It was pretty clear in advance that they'd sentence Alexey to some unthinkable term, probably at a maximum-security facility. That everything would be very long and very painful. You get used to this thought, you don't expect surprises. From the very beginning, it was clear to everybody that Alexey would not be released from the [prison] colony in [his original sentence of] two and a half years. This will happen only after sweeping changes in the country. When Putin dies.

You think you're ready for anything. But the moment when I heard "nine years, maximum security" (and I was live on the air then), everything suddenly turned out to be inadequate. All of my self-control skills went down the drain because I was filled with rage that had nowhere to go. Because, of course, Alexey shouldn't be in prison for one minute. Though the nine years in his sentence are just an abstract figure (he could be released later, or possibly much sooner), the injustice itself is such an outrage that it's like having a nuclear reactor inside me. And that reactor actually helps fuel my work, in fact.

For the foreseeable months or possibly years, it's clear that you'll not likely be able to return to Russia, meaning that you're now an émigré writer. Given this, do you worry that you'll become foreign to Russian readers, to the very people to whom your books are addressed?

I'd say no, and this "no" has both subjective and objective sides. The objective side is that the Internet exists, which makes an enormous difference for people today who've left Russia (compared to what first-wave emigrants experienced). So, of course, I'm much more in touch with Russian reality than my predecessors in emigration were.

And the subjective reason is that I just love Russia so much that I can't imagine that I would suddenly break away from it. Where I live is irrelevant — all my life goals and all my thoughts are concentrated there. I just don't feel any distance between myself and Russia. So, I think I'll continue to write about Russia, all the same, and I'll find themes and words that are important to people living there.

There is a lot of talk now about the "cancellation" of Russian culture. I wanted to ask, first, what you think about this, and how great is the danger of a ban on Russian authors? And second, do you have any sense that something similar could happen to you? Or does your status as an opponent of the Putin regime who is persecuted in your native land protect you?

I myself have felt nothing like this in any capacity. Neither as a regular person on the street, nor as a writer. I hope that will continue. I don't know whether the fact of my persecution plays a significant role here, but my activism is probably important. I don't hide my convictions, and I think everyone knows that they were formed long before it became necessary for me to leave Russia. And that I'm against Putin and that it's been this way with me for many years.

Concerning cancel culture generally, it's a really complex issue. With anything connected to the war, there are no longer simple questions. I believe that Russian culture is a great culture. Undoubtedly, one specific person and several of his closest accomplices bear responsibility for the war. It would be strange to cancel Pushkin because Putin started a war against Ukraine. So, I hope that global ties will remain intact. Many creative people do not support anything that is currently going on in Russia, they don't support Putin, they don't support the war. So, I hope this will outweigh [the bad], and Russian culture won't be cancelled on some large-scale, ultimatum scale without regard for who actually spoke out about what, who defends which interests, and so on.

When Alexey had the chance to speak out, he called on all Russians to protest the Putin regime openly. How does the Anti-Corruption Foundation view this now? And how do you personally see it?

Rallies were never the main point or some kind of magic button that you can push to collapse the Putin regime. None of us, including Alexey, ever thought that rallying was the silver bullet that would kill Putin. Rallies are undoubtedly an important form of protest, but protests can take any form, and any kind of protest is important.

I understand that far from everyone can join a picket line. It is really, really scary. Everyone decides only for themselves what to do here, and I can't force anyone (or condemn anyone, for that matter). If you're prepared to risk everything, go to a rally. If not, then at least try to talk to your neighbors. Share someone's post online. There's always something that you personally can do. If you grasp that what is happening is monstrous and criminal, you just have to use any means to find the chance to express your feelings, whether that's a rally, a picket, a leaflet, a conversation, or some other form of struggle.

And what do you think about emigration? Everyone is ashamed of each other, whether it's someone who stayed in Russia and now Ukrainians are being killed with his tax money, or it's someone who left and isn't fighting Putin.

I really don't get this. I absolutely do not believe that people who remain in Russia are more wrong than people who left. In all my life, that thought has never crossed my mind. Anyway, everyone pays taxes. It's very easy here to blame 146 million people for supporting the war in Ukraine. But in fact, again, it's important to understand clearly who has to answer for the fact — and that's Vladimir Putin. Some old woman in Siberia or a journalist in St. Petersburg is not at fault at all for what's happening — unless, of course, they actively support it.

So, of course, people who remain in Russia and continue to work there are uncommonly brave. And those who leave because they couldn't do otherwise are also brave. The decision to leave or to stay shouldn't be the criterion for evaluating people's political positions, much less for condemning or vindicating anyone.

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Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh sentenced to restricted freedom in the 'Sanitary Case'

Source: Meduza

In its latest "Sanitary Case" verdict, Moscow's Preobrazhensky District Court handed down a parole-like sentence to Alexey Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh. On Monday, August 16, the court's press service told Meduza that Yarmysh was sentenced to one and a half years of "restrictions on freedom."

The court prohibited her from changing her place of residency without permission, attending mass gatherings, and traveling outside of Moscow and the Moscow region. Yarmysh is also obliged to report to a probation office once a month.

The Preobrazhensky Court has already handed down sentences in the "Sanitary Case" to opposition politician Lyubov Sobol, Navalny staffer Nikolai Lyaskin, and Navalny's brother Oleg. Sobol was sentenced to one and a half years of restrictions on freedom, Lyaskin was sentenced to one year of restrictions on freedom, and Oleg Navalny received a one year suspended sentence with a one-year probationary period.

The remaining defendants in the case are Navalny staffer Oleg Stepanov, Doctors' Alliance director Anastasia Vasilieva, Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina, and municipal deputies Dmitry Baranovsky and Lyusya Shtein (the latter is also a member of Pussy Riot). They have yet to receive their sentences.

State investigators launched the "Sanitary Case" in January 2021, accusing ten of Alexey Navalny's associates of inciting violations of pandemic restrictions in connection with a pro-Navalny rally that took place in Moscow on January 23. According to the investigation, the defendants in the case called for people to attend rally, thereby provoking violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules.

In June, the Russian Investigative Committee dropped the "Sanitary Case" charges against municipal deputy Konstantin Yankauskas; this came shortly after the politician announced that he wouldn't be running in the upcoming State Duma elections.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kira_Yarmysh

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Her natal Lilith is 00.14 Sagittarius, N.Node 6 Sagittarius, S.Node 18 Cancer. Her natal Amazon is 13 Sagittarius, N.Node 6 Gemini, and the S.Node 14 Scorpio.

Goddess Bless, Rad

[Darja]

HI All,

Here is the story of Taraneh Alidoosti. This is a noon chart.


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Prominent Iranian actor removes mandatory headscarf in defiant protest

Agence France-Presse
Wed 9 Nov 2022 22.07 GMT

One of Iran's most prominent actors posted an image of herself on social media on Wednesday without the headscarf mandatory for women in the Islamic republic.

Taraneh Alidoosti's apparent act of defiance comes as weeks of protests have rocked the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman died in mid-September after being arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country's strict dress rules for women.

Alidoosti, one of the best-known actors remaining in Iran, who has publicly backed the protest movement, posted the image of herself with her head uncovered on her official Instagram account.

She held a Kurdish-language slogan of the protest movement reading "Jin. Jiyan. Azadi." (Woman. Life. Freedom.)

Alidoosti is a regular star in films by award-winning director Asghar Farhadi, including The Salesman, which took the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2017.

Days ago on Instagram, the actor vowed to remain in her homeland at "any price", saying she planned to stop working and instead support the families of those killed or arrested in the protest crackdown.

"I am the one who stays here and I have no intention of leaving," said the 38-year-old, denying having any foreign passport or residence.

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"I will stay, I will halt working. I will stand by the families of prisoners and those killed. I will be their advocate," she said.

"I will fight for my home. I will pay any price to stand up for my rights, and most importantly, I believe in what we are building together today," she added.

Alidoosti has been a prominent presence on the Iranian cinema scene since her teens, and also starred in the recent movie by acclaimed director Saeed Roustayi, Leila's Brothers, which was shown at this year's Cannes festival.

She is known as a forthright defender of women's rights and wider human rights in Iran.

Iranian cinema figures were under pressure even before the start of the protest movement sparked by Amini's death. The award-winning directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi remain in detention after they were arrested earlier this year.

When major protests rocked the country in November 2019, Alidoosti declared that Iranians were "millions of captives" rather than citizens.

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'We are captives': Iranian actor criticises Tehran government

Taraneh Alidoosti criticises government in Instagram post as anti-regime protests continue

One of Iran's most popular female actors has bluntly criticised the government in Tehran in a post on Instagram, telling her almost 6 million followers that "we are not citizens" but "captives".

Taraneh Alidoosti – who has appeared in an Oscar-nominated film and acclaimed TV dramas – made her comments on Sunday, as Iranians took to the streets in a series of anti-regime protests.

"I fought this dream for a long time and didn't want to accept it. We are not citizens. We never were. We are captives," she wrote.

Alidoosti said that she had replaced her profile picture with the colour black in mourning for demonstrators shot dead by security forces last November. The colour had nothing to do with official "mourning" following the assassination on 3 January of Iran's top general Qassem Suleimani by a US drone, she added.

The actor's intervention comes amid reports that Iranian authorities have fired live ammunition to disperse protesters in Tehran, wounding several people. The protests broke out after the government admitted on Friday its military had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 people.

Alidoosti has previously spoken out against Donald Trump's decision to impose visa bans on Iranians. In 2017 she boycotted the Oscar awards ceremony after The Salesman in which she starred was nominated in the best foreign language film category. The blanket ban was racist, she said.

She played the lead role in the film, directed by Asghar Farhadi. It is about a couple whose relationship is thrown into disarray after an intruder surprises her in the shower. Hardliners criticised Alidoosti after she returned from promoting the film at the Cannes film festival with a feminist tattoo on her arm.

Alidoosti also starred in a popular Iranian online TV series set in the 1950s, which has echoes in politics today. Shahrzad, the most expensive production of its kind in Iran, brought Iranian lifestyle under the late Shah to the screen, depicting snooker clubs, women and men partying together, cabarets and drinking alcohol.

She describes herself on her Twitter profile as an "actor, feminist, translator, mom".

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraneh_Alidoosti

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Her natal Lilith is 6 Libra, N.Node 28 Sagittarius, S.Node 0 Gemini. Her natal Amazon is 6 Capricorn, N.Node 4 Taurus, and the S.Node is 4 Sagittarius.

Goddess Bless, Rad

[Rad]

HI All,

Here is the story of Camille Herron world best distance runner. This is a noon chart.

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Camille Herron: the Queen of Ultrarunning who ran 270km in a single day

Camille Herron has truly made her mark in the world of endurance sports. In the latest episode of How to be Superhuman, the ultrarunner shares her remarkable story of training, tacos and triumph.

Written by Gershon Portnoi

Picture the scene. It's 2am. You've been running for 18 hours, and covered a distance of around 217km, when you start to feel a little peckish, but you still have six hours to run. What do you do?

While most of us couldn't run for that long – or far – those that can probably wouldn't choose to eat tacos while they did it. But that's exactly what Camille Herron did when she was breaking all manner of records in the Desert Solstice 24-hour run in Phoenix, Arizona in 2018. And that's because the Oklahoma-born ultrarunner is not like the rest of us. In fact, she's not like anyone at all.

Describing how she started to up her training mileage to Rob Pope in the latest episode of the How to be Superhuman podcast, Camille says: "Once I got over 100 miles [160km] per week, it started to come alive. I was born for it. The more I ran, the more I felt like myself."

Eventually, she was covering 225km each week (for context, that's more than the average weekly load of Eliud Kipchoge or Mo Farah), highlighting her body's incredible ability to endure.

Overcoming adversity

Like so many of the very best athletes, Camille's thirst for running was born out of adversity when, aged 17, her family home in Oklahoma was destroyed by a tornado in 1999. After the alert came through, Camille and her family had 15 minutes to pack up their most prized possessions in a crate, before escaping to her grandparents' house.

Apart from her running shoes, Camille also packed her favourite book Lore of Running, a bible of inspirational stories about runners, focusing on ultrarunners. "My first running heroes were ultrarunners," she says. "It was hard for me to imagine running that far – what do they eat, how do they keep running?"

    I started running long to celebrate my life and the talents that I was born with
    Camille Herron

They certainly weren't eating tacos, but all that was to come. Camille's running journey had started at school: "When I went to cross country in the eighth grade and all the other girls looked like me, I knew I'd found my sport."

But it was after the devastating twister that she began to run longer on weekends – although at that stage 'long' meant six miles [10km]. "I just felt so grateful for my life and this running ability," she reflects. "I started running long on Sundays to celebrate my life and the talents that I was born with."

Unfortunately, she suffered seven stress fractures while she was at university, forcing her to stop running, although she was unaware of the severity of her injuries, saying: "I didn't know my bones were broken. I didn't think the pain was that bad."

The enforced absence from her sport saw her take up the French horn and led her to a jazz festival where she met her future husband Conor Holt, an elite runner. After the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado, it was always Camille who was running longer than Conor, despite him being the athlete, so he began coaching her.

    I felt like Billy Elliot doing ballet for the first time. It was an amazing feeling – the longer I went, the better I felt
    Camille Herron

But, at that stage, Camille was only focusing on marathons. In 2011, she finished ninth in the Pan American Games, then, just 13 days later, she came home as the third American and 18th overall in the New York City marathon. Noting the incredible back-to-back performances, the New York race co-ordinator remarked that Camille should try ultra-running – she never looked back.

After taking on her first 100km race, she knew she'd found her niche. "I felt like Billy Elliot doing ballet for the first time. It was an amazing feeling, the longer I went, the better I felt."

Not that Camille didn't experience pain from running those distances. The problem for her competitors, was that she loved it: "I'm the type of person who likes to push my limits," she says. "I just had to go longer to find out 'this is hard, and I love it'."

Throwing punches

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Camille was that she was now winning races outright, even defeating the male runners. "It was strange for me to catch the men, I was like 'what's going on here?'"

    In my mind, I'm Rocky Balboa going into this race, and I'm ready to throw 12 rounds of punches at these people
    Camille Herron

And so to Phoenix and The Desert Solstice, where Camille made ultrarunning history. Unlike a normal ultramarathon with its predetermined distance, the race requires participants to run for 24 hours around a 400m track, which Camille describes as: "mind boggling, super mental, like death by a thousand paper cuts."

Pre-race, not a great deal was expected from her, with a Facebook group predicting she might place fifth. But that merely served to motivate her even more: "If you want to light a fire under me, start doubting me," she says. "In my mind, I'm Rocky Balboa going into this race, and I'm ready to throw 12 rounds of punches at these people."

Held in December, the days are reasonably warm, but the nights bring a serious desert chill, which is roughly when Camille became hungry. "I hit about 135 miles [217km] and I was wanting a taco," she recalls. "I had a crew of three, and one of them drove to Taco Bell and got me tacos!"

    My body went into this rigor mortis state. I died a death out there
    Camille Herron

Dying on the track

Once she'd finished, her pace slowed down and, without any serious competitors as she'd already taken care of her rivals, she found it hard to keep going. "My body went into this rigor mortis state. I died a death out there. Once the competition had gone, I didn't have as much motivation and my legs just felt like lead weights. 'Ok, brain, tell my legs to keep moving!'"

With a world record on the line, Camille knew that even with her slower pace, she was still on track, so she ground out painful lap-after-lap, keeping her eyes on the clock as it eventually ticked to 24 hours.

Not only did she complete 262.16km in that time, but she also ran her first 160km (100 miles) in 13 hours and 25 minutes, another world best.

"It really felt like my legs were like rocks," she remembers, and such was the state of her body, she had to leave the track in a wheelchair.

Of course, like every superhuman, that wasn't enough. A year later, Camille went to France to compete in the 24-hour World Championships where she obliterated her own world record in the process, running 270km, although she did throw up twice during the race. Clearly, with no Taco Bells in France, she had to do it the hard way.

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She ran a 100-mile world record. A course error means it won't count

Distance runner Camille Herron said she questions the finding. This is not the first time a racecourse measurement error has voided records.

By Kelyn Soong
Updated November 17, 2022

Imagine running for 100 miles, setting a world record, and then finding out it doesn't count.

That is the situation professional ultrarunner Camille Herron faces. Herron, known as one of the most accomplished ultrarunners in the world, won the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival 100-miler in Henderson, Nev., in February in what was believed to be a world-record-setting time.

The 40-year-old finished the race in 12 hours 41 minutes 11 seconds — a 7:37-per-mile pace — and beat the second-place finisher and first male athlete, Arlen Glick, by nearly 30 minutes. The race served as the USA Track & Field 100 Mile Road Championships, and Herron garnered international acclaim for her world record victory.

In doing so, Herron also beat her own world record of 12:42:40, which she set in 2017, by more than a minute.

Or at least that's what she thought.

After the course was remeasured, in February and again in October, it was determined that the course had been slightly altered and was short by 716 feet. As a result, a USA Track & Field committee decided not to ratify the record.

Herron and her husband and coach, Conor Holt, have questioned the findings and expressed frustration at what they say has been a lack of transparency and communication from USATF. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post, the race director, Ken Rubeli, argued to a USATF official that the findings were "open to subjectivity" and questioned the accuracy of measurements made eight months after a race.

Herron said the situation has been "very stressful" for her. "I set a world record in that race, and now they're telling us that we don't know whether the course was 100 miles or not," she said. "So it's been very upsetting to me the past several months. I've had races since then, and this has weighed heavy on me and impacted my performances."

David Katz, chair of the USATF Road Running Technical Council, wrote in a statement to The Post that the measurements taken on the day of the Jackpot 100-mile race and after the event "produced a course less than the 100 miles."

A USATF council "decided not to ratify the record because the course was changed from what was certified," Katz wrote. In a phone interview, Katz said that the organization has been careful to gather all the facts and that the "ratification process takes a long time."

Katz said in his statement that the course was measured four times by two top A-level measurers — twice in February and twice in October — and it came up short. The Post obtained a measuring report that indicates the course was measured on Oct. 25 by Brandon Wilson, a World Athletics measurer with an A rating, the highest distinction for racecourse measurers. Wilson's report concluded that the 100-mile course's actual length was 99.864336 miles, or 716 feet short.

"Due to overwhelming documentation, photos, first-hand accounts, and live video coverage of the race this fact is not in dispute, no runners in any contest ran certified courses on race-day," Wilson said in the report.

Rubeli, who has since sold the Jackpot event, wrote in a three-page letter sent to Nancy Hobbs, the chair of the USATF Mountain, Ultra and Trail Sport Council, that he takes issue with the measurements and being excluded from the process.

"Trying to measure a course's shortest possible route 8 months after a race, is challenging at best and open to subjectivity, especially if the measurement individuals don't know the relevance of the green course paint marks relative to cone placement," Rubeli wrote. "Inches matter in a short loop course with over nearly 90 laps."

Rubeli states in the letter that he changed one turn on the course for safety reasons, "due to a near collision between a runner and a baby stroller," adding, "I compensated for this turn change with precise cone placements on the course."

In a phone interview, Rubeli said he made the change before the 2020 Jackpot Ultra race but that he did not know the altered course needed to be re-certified and USATF officials never brought it to his attention.

On Feb. 27, about a week after the race, Rubeli hired Paul Fritz, a World Athletics level B measurer, to measure the course, and Fritz came up with 100.00396 miles based on the shortest possible route on the altered course.

Herron said she believes that she ran 100 miles that day in February.

"I hope I get another opportunity at the record, but I may not — you don't know what the future holds," she said. "So this is highly impactful on me and my career. I mean, I'm 40 years old, you know. My time is now that I'm in the best shape of my life. And, I mean, these moments can be fleeting. I put my heart and soul into that performance, and it was such a big deal for the sport and the history of the sport that it needs to count."

Course errors have happened before

This is not the first time a racecourse error has voided records. Whenever a runner sets a record, whether it is a world record, American record or age group record, the course must be verified by an official measurer before the record can be ratified.

Although it's not common, runners have lost out on records in the past because of a course error, some occurring in high-profile events. And when a racecourse error occurs, it's not just the elites who are affected. Amateur runners who thought they had run a personal best in a race distance can no longer officially claim the time.

In 2019, the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in D.C. was short by 240 feet — 0.04 of a mile — because of misplaced cones at a turnaround point, meaning that Stanley Kebenei's time of 46 minutes did not count as an American men's 10-mile road record and Rosemary Wanjiru's time of 50:42 also did not count as the official women's event record. All runners who finished the race have a note next to their results indicating that the course was short.

In early October, Scottish Olympic runner Eilish McColgan's European and British 10,000-meter road race record of 30:18 was wiped out because the course at the Great Scottish Run 10K in Glasgow was discovered to be 150 meters short. The Great Scottish Run half marathon was also roughly 150 meters short in 2016, meaning that Callum Hawkins's time of 1 hour 24 seconds did not count as a Scottish national record.

Discovering a flaw in the course

Herron's 100-mile record at the Jackpot race, which featured a 1.17-mile loop held on "95 percent asphalt and/or concrete surfaces" and 5 percent crushed gravel paths, was called into question after Wilson, the measurer, happened to attend the event because his wife was running in the 100-mile race.

Wilson downloaded the certified course map from the USATF website and noticed that the course being run was not the same as the one certified by USATF or World Athletics. Wilson then performed a measurement on the second day of the race, Feb. 19 and another measurement of the course a few days later, and found the course to be short. Eight months later, when the course was remeasured in October by Wilson and another top-level measurer, the results all came up short, Katz said.

Rubeli said his concern is that some of the measurements being considered by USATF were taken during the race, a chaotic time that he said would produce unreliable results. He asked Fritz, the level B measurer, to measure when the race was over, and Fritz found the course was above the 100-mile mark.

But Katz said only a level A measurer can verify a world record, according to USATF rules.

"The bottom line here is that the course was not certified before the race," Katz said. "Everything else after that, we did for the benefit of the athlete to try to save the record."

In September, Beyond Limits Running, which Rubeli co-founded, announced it had sold the Jackpot Running Festival to privately owned Aravaipa Running. On the current Jackpot race website, organizers tout the 100-mile course for its fast times. "The course is specifically designed to give runners a chance to set records, achieve optimal results, etc.," the website reads.

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Her natal Lilith is 1 Aquarius, N.Node 23 Sagittarius, S.Node 11 Gemini. Her natal Amazon is 27 Virgo, N.Node 7 Taurus, S.Node 1 Sagittarius.

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Goddess Bless, Rad

[Rad]

Hi All,

Here is the story of Cristina Scuccia. This is a noon chart.

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Nun who wowed The Voice of Italy becomes waitress in Spain


Cristina Scuccia, who stunned judges in 2014 contest, explains decision to leave nunhood on talkshow

Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Guardian

A nun who became a singing sensation after winning Italy's version of The Voice has stunned TV viewers again after announcing that she has kicked the habit and is now a waitress in Spain.

Sister Cristina Scuccia, from Sicily, shocked judges, including the late Raffaella Carrà, during her blind audition for the show in 2014, giving a rapturous performance of the Alicia Keys' hit song No One. After realising the incredible voice belonged to a nun, Carrà, who died last year, said: "I couldn't speak for several minutes."

Scuccia, who at the time was among the nuns at the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family convent in Milan, went on to win the show that summer with her performance of What a Feeling, the theme song from the film Flashdance. She later produced an album, which she gave to Pope Francis, that included a cover version of Madonna's Like a Virgin.

Her talent even attracted praise from some Italian cardinals, but eight years on Scuccia, 34, announced on an Italian talkshow on Sunday night that she has abandoned the nunhood.

Dressed in high heels and a red trouser suit, with a pierced nose and long dark hair flowing freely, she told the Verissimo programme: "I believe that you need to listen to your heart with courage. Change is a sign of evolution, but it is always scary because it is easier to anchor oneself to one's certainties rather than questioning oneself. Is there a right or wrong?"

Scuccia said that leaving the nunhood – a decision a psychologist helped her to process – did not mean she had renounced her faith, and that she was still chasing her dream of a career in music.

"I chose to follow my heart without thinking about what people would say about me," she added. "I took a leap of faith and was worried about ending up under a bridge, I always repeated this to my psychologist."

Scuccia said she now lived "with a smile" in Spain, where she works as a waitress.

A group of cheerleading nuns were backstage during Scuccia's audition for The Voice of Italy, and while her participation in the contest was supported by her mother superior, she faced harsh criticism from more traditional factions of the Italian Catholic church, especially when she released Like a Virgin, which was described by Italy's Religious Information Service as "a reckless and calculated commercial operation".

"Cristina reached such high levels of fame – she was getting calls from around the world – and also some criticism, which probably left her in a state of confusion," said a church source.

"Leaving was her own decision, after appearing on TV so much you perhaps lose the compass a little. She was young and under a lot of pressure.

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Singing nun Cristina Scuccia becomes internet star after The Voice audition

This article is more than 8 years old

Nun's performance on Italian version of The Voice has been viewed more than 3m times on YouTube

Lizzy Davies in Rome
Fri 21 Mar 2014

The singing nun is not a new phenomenon. The Belgian Jeanine Deckers, aka Soeur Sourire, shot to fame in 1963 with the tune Dominique, while Julie Andrews and Whoopi Goldberg have done their bit for fictional sisters with heavenly voices.

But in Italy this week there's only one nun worth tuning in for, and she thinks Pope Francis will be proud. Sister Cristina Scuccia, a 25-year-old Sicilian who appeared, habit-clad, on the Italian version of TV show The Voice on Wednesday, has become an instant star, with her audition racking up more than 3m views on YouTube.

Asked what she thought the Vatican would make of her punchy rendition of Alicia Keys' No One, the Ursuline sister said: "I don't know. I'm expecting a telephone call from Pope Francis, certainly. Because he exhorts us to go out, to evangelise, to say that God does not take from us but rather gives us more."

It did not appear that she had anything to worry about. In a post on Twitter, the Vatican's so-called culture minister, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, wrote: "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others (1 Peter 4:10)".

The judges on the show praised Scuccia's "crazy energy" and "incredible" performance. Alessandro Aleotti, a rapper known as J-Ax, asked her if she sang in church on Sundays. Wearing flat black shoes, glasses and a simple crucifix round her neck, Scuccia was obliged to assure the judges that she had not come in fancy dress but was, in fact, "a very real nun".

This was not Scuccia's first time in the limelight. Last year she won a Christian music competition as part of the Good News Festival, in which she explained that she had found her vocation while playing a nun in a musical.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Scuccia

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oyAuockfZQ

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Her natal Lilith is 24 Virgo, N.Node 2 Sagittarius, S.Node 10 Cancer. Her natal Amazon is 12 Libra, N.Node 11 Gemini, S.Node 6 Scorpio.

Goddess bless, Rad

[Rad]

Hi All,

Here is the story of Stephanie Frappart. This is a noon chart.

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Frenchwoman to become first female to referee men's World Cup football match

Agence France-Presse
December 01, 2022

Stephanie Frappart's appointment as match referee for Thursday's crunch World Cup clash between Germany and Costa Rica is a step forward for women in a "sexist sport", according to Costa Rica manager Luis Fernando Suarez.

Frenchwoman Frappart will make history as she leads the first all-female refereeing team at a men's World Cup in the Group E match which Germany must win to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the last 16.

Suarez said it "spoke volumes" for Frappart's commitment to reach the top level in a profession dominated by men.

"I am a great admirer of everything women have conquered and I like the fact they want to keep on conquering things," the 62-year-old Colombian told reporters.

"This is another step forward. This speaks volumes for this woman, of her commitment, especially in this sport which is a very sexist one. It's very difficult to reach the point that she has reached, I think it's good for football and a positive step for football, to show that it's opening up for everyone."

The 38-year-old Frappart will be joined by Brazil's Neuza Back and Mexico's Karen Diaz as she puts down another marker for female officials having also been the first woman to referee a men's World Cup qualifier in March.

Last week, she became the first female official at a men's World Cup when she was fourth official for the Poland v Mexico Group C tie, but on Thursday she will be more in the spotlight.

Costa Rica's midfielder Celso Borges also welcomed her appointment for such a high-profile game.

"I think it's great and it's a huge achievement for women globally," Borges, who is playing in his third World Cup for the Costa Ricans, told reporters.

"If she is there it's because she has all the capabilities to perform on this stage. She has done it before in big matches so I don't see why tomorrow should be an exception.

"I just hope she has a good match and that we can help her make it an easy match."

Her appointment was also backed by Germany manager Hansi Flick who said he had "100% confidence" in Frappart.

"She deserves to be here based on her performance. I hope she is equally looking forward to the game just like we are, and I hope she can deliver a good performance," he said.

Germany defender Lukas Klostermann also welcomed the move, which he described as "the most normal thing in the game."

"I have never looked prior to the game if it is a man or a woman that will be with the whistle, and I hope it will remain a normality," he said.

(REUTERS)

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%c3%a9phanie_Frappart

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Her natal Lilith is 1 Libra, N.Node 21 Sagittarius, S.Node 20 Gemini. Her natal Amazon is 25 Sagittarius, N.Node 10 Taurus, S.Node 29 Scorpio.

Goddess Bless, Rad

[Rad]

Hi All,

This Goddess thread is not being transferred to our new message board at: https://www.jwgaea.org/forum/evolutionary-astrology-q-a/asteroid-goddesses

Goddess Bless, Rad