For the director, Daniel Schechter (director).

Daniel S. Schechter (born in Miami, Florida in 1962) is an American psychiatrist currently living in Geneva, Switzerland. He is known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children.^[1][2][3] His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11, 2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) ^[4] and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the very first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath^[5][6][7][8] Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship, formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal.^[9][10][11] This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory, psychological trauma, and developmental psychobiology literatures ^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Career[link]

Following studies in music and French literature (Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Columbia College (B.A.), and Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (M.A.)), Schechter then completed his medical training at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. His earliest research examined the nature of mother-daughter relationships in the context of male-perpetrated child sexual abuse ^[17] as well as trauma-related culture-bound syndromes in an inner-city Caribbean Hispanic community^[18]

Funding through the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the form of Presidential Scholar and Pilot Research Awards, allowed Schechter to travel to Tulane University in New Orleans, beginning in 1998, to study with infant mental health specialist Charles H. Zeanah. They have since collaborated on multiple projects and articles related to the effects of psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the relationship of infants, young children, and their parents as well as related attachment disorder.^[19][20] This collaboration along with involvement as a Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families Solnit Fellow (1999–2001), encouraged Schechter to pursue further research training in developmental neuroscience through a NIH-funded research fellowship in developmental psychobiology with Myron Hofer and Michael Myers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. In 2003, Schechter received an NIMH Research Career Award to fund the project "Maternal Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Interactive Behavior with Very Young Children" which was completed in 2008. Part of this project has involved functional neuroimaging studies, in collaboration with Bradley Peterson, of mothers with versus without interpersonal violence-related PTSD in response to own and unfamiliar child stimuli.^[21]

In 2008, Schechter was appointed Director of Pediatric Consult-Liaison and Parent-Child Research in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Geneva Hospitals.^[22] He is currently also Associate Professor (Privat-Docent) of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva.^[23]

In Geneva, his clinical research efforts together with colleagues François Ansermet, Sandra Rusconi-Serpa and others, continue to focus on the effects of parental violence-related traumatic stress on the parent-child relationship and on child developmental outcomes in the domains of emotion and arousal regulation that might contribute to intergenerational cycles of violence and victimization. Schechter's and team's research has most recently been included in a large Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) sponsored National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) grant that focuses on the Synaptic Basis of Psychiatric Disorders (SYNAPSY) and that will foster application of clinical and translational research models.^[24] His clinical efforts at the University of Geneva Hospitals have also maintained a focus on the needs of high-risk families with infants and young children in which parents suffer from a range of psychiatric disorders that can interfere with engagement in mutual regulation of emotion, arousal, and aggression.^[25][26]

Schechter was Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry (in Pediatrics) from 2002 to 2008 and, since moving to Geneva, has remained as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in the Division of Developmental Neuroscience and Behavior. Trained as a Psychoanalyst at Columbia, he is also Director of Child Research at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Schechter has been a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association since 2003 and its College of Research Fellows since 1998.

He is most recently co-editor of the 2010 book entitled Formative Experiences: The Interaction of Caregiving, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology ^[27] This book is currently in its second printing.

Schechter's work has received multiple awards including: a Pierre Janet Scientific Paper Prize from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (2007), two Significant Contribution to Research Awards from the International Psychoanalytical Association (2005,2009), a Gertrude von Meissner Research Prize from the University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine (2008), a John J. Weber Prize for Excellence in Psychoanalytic Research from the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research (2009), and the Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2010).^[28]

Helping traumatized parents "change their minds about their young children"[link]

During his work as director of infant mental health services at the Columbia University Medical Center (1998–2008), Schechter found that the large majority of inner-city mothers who were requesting consultation for their infants and young children for reasons of behavioral difficulties had histories of childhood maltreatment and/or family violence victimization and exposure, often with related psychiatric sequelae (i.e. PTSD, major depression, dissociation, and personality disorder). He further observed that many of these traumatized mothers, despite their best intentions, not only had great difficulty in "reading" and tolerating their infants' distress, but that they also had a tendency to misattribute their children's intentions and personality characteristics.^[29][30] As a result, the child, in an effort to maintain an attachment with the traumatized parent, would conform to these misattributions and/or attempt to join the parent's hypervigilant mental state, leading to a traumatically-skewed intersubjectivity^[31] Children of these traumatized mothers also show increased PTSD symptoms, externalizing symptoms and attachment disturbances that are mediated by maternal PTSD severity.^[32][33]

Schechter developed an experimental paradigm informed by attachment theory called the Clinician Assisted Videofeedback Exposure Sessions (CAVES to test whether mothers could "change their mind" about their young children if helped to watch video-excerpts of play, separation and similarly stressful moments in the presence of a clinician who asks the mother to think about what she (and her child) might be thinking and feeling at the time of the excerpt and at the moment of videofeedback. Thus this technique applies principles of mentalization as an aide to emotional regulation with traumatized parents^[34][35] This technique also involves elements of prolonged exposure treatment—in other words confronting avoidance of trauma-related negative emotions,^[36] the video-based treatment Interaction Guidance,^[37][38] and psychodynamically-oriented child-parent psychotherapy ^[39] Schechter and colleagues showed a significant change in the way mothers perceived their own child and their relationship together.^[40]

Intergenerational communication of violent trauma[link]

Schechter has studied how the distressed toddler can trigger a mother's posttraumatic stress marked by a) emotional unavailability or frank avoidance and b) how mothers communicate— often unintentionally, memories of their own violent traumatic experiences. In relation to emotional unavailability, Schechter and colleagues' found that mothers with interpersonal-violence related PTSD, while not showing differences in their capacity to jointly attend to play with their toddlers before a stressor when compared to control-subjects, show significant limitation in their responsiveness to their toddlers upon reunion following separation stress. This is despite that children of PTSD mothers show no greater distress during separation than those of controls.^[41] And in relation to communication of traumatic experience,following from the work of Scheeringa and Zeanah, Schechter explored the implicit and explicit non-verbal and verbal ways parents communicate their traumatic experiences to their children who may or may not have been present during these violent events.^[42] In particular, Schechter has shown how a parent can vicariously and unintentionally transmit her prior experiences of interpersonal violence to her child through her behavior and narrative associations by doing or saying something— or drawing connections between actions and/or language, that the child cannot place in any familiar context, but that is by its nature, frightening or even traumatizing. His work has demonstrated this both in routine daily interactions, laboratory observations, and, most recently, in violent-media viewing practices by mothers and their toddlers in the home.^{[43][44][45][46]} He has hypothesized that this inadvertent intergenerational transmission is often an effect of traumatized mothers' efforts to control their own psychophysiologic dysregulation that is linked to their posttraumatic psychopathology.

To test this hypothesis, Schechter and colleagues measured maternal salivary cortisol within a clinical sample of 32 mothers before and after a mother-child interaction protocol involving separations and reunions; the study led to the first publication in the literature examining maternal Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA-axis) functioning.^[47] The study showed modest, but significant associations between pre-separation cortisol as well as cortisol reactivity with the severity of maternal PTSD, dissociative symptoms, and atypical caregiving behavior. Since that 2004 paper, other more rigorously controlled studies have been published that further support Schechter and colleagues' hypothesis. A recent review of these studies suggests that intergenerational effects related to PTSD and HPA-axis stress reactivity are likely via epigenetic mechanisms requiring further study^[48] An additional active area of study with Alexandre Dayer and Alain Malafosse in Geneva related to this association, is that of gene-environment interactions involving the role of the serotonin-transporter gene and its polymorphisms as markers of vulnerability (i.e., increased brain plasticity). Schechter and colleagues had observed clinically and hypothesized for empirical study in the 2003 September 11 book (see also related video) that the parent-child relationship (i.e., attachment security, specific organization, and characteristics) can be a buffer against and an exacerbating factor for the adverse consequences of violent trauma. Recent advances in the study of gene-environment interactions in the presence of stressors such as interpersonal violence, and the regulatory effects of the serotonin transporter gene and other genes with which it is known to interact on the HPA axis in the context of child development have raised questions requiring further study.^[49]

One consequence of mother's at once defensive, at once frightening behavior is that the mother and child often end up having to co-construct a new moment together that resembles in feeling tone and arousal mother's original traumatic experience(s) but is by definition, new to both. The therapist, as an observing third mind, can receive the communication within and by the mother-child dyad, "connect seemingly disparate dots" and offer an alternative perspective that helps to make sense of, and thereby contain the traumatic overexcitement.

An important motivation for traumatized parents, Schechter and colleagues have found is the conscious aim of the traumatized parent to interrupt intergenerational cycles of violence and trauma so that her child does not have to suffer the emotional and often physical pain that she had experienced as a child. As Schechter and Willheim describe in a recent case-study, this can be a long and difficult process for families—and one that requires that the therapist be prepared to intervene thoughtfully (i.e. modelling and stimulating parental mentalization) as much in-the-moment in response to real-life events reported by the parents and professionals (i.e. pediatricians, daycare and preschool staff, child protective agencies, the courts) as during parent-child sessions.^[50] The work with parents and their relationship with their child often needs to continue, when possible and feasible.^[51] As infants and young children and their needs are so rapidly developing, and as their parents find themselves in a parallel phase of adult development during which they are more open to change, the therapist can be surprised by quick, positive shifts in relational patterns within the context of both brief consultations and long-term treatments such as for caregivers with complex PTSD and their young children.^[52][53]

Infant and early childhood mental health advocacy[link]

Schechter served as a key member of the New York City Early Childhood Mental Health Strategic Work Group, an advisory group to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene under the direction of Evelyn Blanck from 2004-2008. In 2005, the Workgroup published a White Paper,“Promoting the Mental Health and Healthy Development of New York’s Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers, A Call to Action,” that has been used to effectively advocate for mental health services for children from birth to age 5 across all child-serving systems in New York City and New York State.^[54] This paper was instrumental in the inclusion of infants and toddlers in the Child and Families Clinic Plus Initiative implemented by the New York State Office of Mental Health, thus officially recognized for the first time as under the responsibility for care by state licensed child and adolescent mental health clinical programs.^[55] An updated version of the White Paper was reviewed favorably in 2011 by the New York State Mental Health Commissioner's Office.

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu/facdb/profile_list.asp?uni=dss11&DepAffil=Psychiatry
• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/media/03/danielSchechter/index.html
• http://neurocenter.unige.ch/groups/schechter.php
• http://www.nccr-synapsy.ch/cp4
• http://ssbb2011.epfl.ch/index.php?page=speakers
• http://dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=30762
• http://worldradio.ch/wrs/shows/mix/kids-in-mind-helping-traumatized-moms-to-bond-bett.shtml?24232

Daniel
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière
Prophet
Born	7th Century B.C
Died	6th Century B.C Babylon (?)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Catholic Churches Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism adventism Islam[1] Armenian Apostolic Church
Major shrine	Tomb of Daniel, Susa, Iran
Feast	July 21 December 17
Attributes	Often depicted in the den of the lions

Daniel (Hebrew: דָּנִיֵּאל, Modern Daniyyel Tiberian Dāniyyêl ; Arabic: دانيال, meaning in Hebrew "God is my Judge") is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways. By Divine Wisdom from his God, Yahweh, he interpreted dreams and visions of kings, thus becoming a prominent figure in the court of Babylon. Eventually, he had apocalyptic visions of his own that have been interpreted as the Four monarchies. Some of the most famous tales of Daniel are: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, The writing on the wall and Daniel in the lions' den.

Narrative of Daniel[link]

Induction into Babylon[link]

Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early 1900s Bible illustration

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim (BC 606), Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon. The four were chosen for their intellect and beauty to be trained as advisors to the Babylonian court,(Daniel 1) Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar, i.e., prince of Bel, or Bel protect the king!(not to be confused with the neo-Babylonian king, Belshazzar). Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively.^[2]

Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar[link]

In the narrative of Daniel chapter 2, it is the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and the king is distressed by his dreams.^[v.1] Thus he summons his interpreters,^[v.2] however, they are unable to relay or interpret the dreams.^[v.10-11] The King acts in fury and demands the execution of all the wise men in Babylon.^[v.12] When Daniel discovers the King's executive order, he requests from the captain of the guard, Arioch, to see the King.^[v.13-16] Daniel prays for God’s mercy to receive a revelation from the King’s dream.^[v.15-18] God then reveals the mystery to Daniel in a vision that night.^[v.19] Daniel praises his God with a doxology.^[v.20-23] After meeting with Arioch again, Daniel is granted access to the king^[v.24-30] and relays the description of the dream,^[v.31-36] followed by its interpretation.^[v.37-45] With Daniel's successful interpretation of the dream, the king expresses homage,^[v.46] followed by his own doxology that affirms that Daniel's God is God of gods for revealing this mystery of his dream.^[v.47] Daniel is then promoted as chief governor over the whole province of Babylon.^[v.48] At Daniel’s request, his companions are also promoted, thus they remain at the king’s court.^[v.49][3]

Nebuchadnezzar's madness[link]

Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree which is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and become like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored and his kingdom is restored to him.

Daniel and Belshazzar[link]

In Daniel's later years, king Belshazzar holds a great feast for all his nobles. In a drunken state, the king calls for the sacred vessels captured from the Jerusalem temple and blasphemously drinks from them. Suddenly, the fingers of a man's hand appear before the king and write on the wall of the palace. When none of his wise men are able to interpret the message, Daniel is called in at the suggestion of the queen-mother. After reprimanding the king for his impiety, Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall to mean that Belzhazzar is about to lose his kingdom to the Medes and the Persians. For successfully reading the cryptic handwriting, Daniel is rewarded with a purple robe and elevated to the rank of "third ruler" of the kingdom. "That very night", we are told, "Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain" and his successor was King Darius the Mede, aged 62.

Daniel in the Lion's den protected by an angel by François Verdier

Daniel and Darius the Mede[link]

After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel is depicted as one of three senior administrators of the empire in the reign of Darius the Mede. When the king decides to set Daniel over the whole kingdom, the other officials plot his downfall. Unable to uncover any corruption, they use Daniel's religious devotion to defeat him. The officials trick the king into issuing an irrevocable decree that no god is to be worshiped for a thirty day period. When Daniel continues to pray three times a day towards Jerusalem, he is thrown into a den of lions, much to the distress of Darius. After an angel shuts the lions' mouths, Daniel is delivered and his opponents thrown into the den where they are devoured instantly.

Daniel's visions[link]

Daniel's ministry as a prophet began late in life. Whereas his early exploits were a matter of common knowledge within his community, these same events, with his pious reputation, serve as the basis for his prophetic ministry. The recognition for his prophetic message is that of other prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel whose backgrounds are the basis for their revelations.

From Chapter 7 to the end of the book of Daniel, an apocalyptic vision is being described, supposedly from the perspective of Daniel.^[2] This marks a change in the narrative from Daniel interpreting to messengers of God interpreting for Daniel. Daniel dreams of four beasts that come out of the sea: a lion with eagles wings, a bear with three tusks, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a beast with iron teeth, ten horns and one little horn and human eyes.(Daniel 7:4-8) These beasts are all present at a convening of the divine counsel. Presiding over the counsel is the Ancient of Days, which may, in fact, be the Israelite God.^[2] The Ancient One proceeds to put to death the beast with the one little horn. (Daniel 7:9-11) Daniel also describes the fates of the other beasts saying that while their dominion was taken away, their lives were prolonged. (Daniel 7:12) This introduction leads into a series of dreams and visions where these events are expressed in greater detail.

Scholars argue that each of these beasts represent an emperor or kingdom that ruled over the Israelites. The first being Babylon, then Media, then Persia, and finally the Greeks. The horns of the last beast may be symbolic of the rulers that replaced Alexander the Great upon his death, culminating with the little horn, or Antiochus IV.^[2] There are additional details in the text that allude to Antiochus IV, including some form of desecration to the temple (Daniel 11:31) and persecution (Daniel 11:23).^[2] The final message of the second half of Daniel is that God will deliver the people from oppression, the latest of which is Antiochus IV.^[2]

Daniel's final days[link]

The time and circumstances of Daniel's death have not been recorded. However, tradition maintains that Daniel was still alive in the third year of Cyrus according to the Tanakh (Daniel 10:1). He would have been almost 100 years old at that point, having been brought to Babylon when he was in his teens, more than 80 years previously. Many^[who?] posit that he possibly died at Susa in Iran. Tradition holds that his tomb is located in Susa at a site known as Shush-e Daniyal. Other locations have been claimed as the site of his burial, including Daniel's Tomb in Kirkuk, Iraq, as well as Babylon, Egypt, Tarsus and, notably, Samarkand, which claims a tomb of Daniel (see "The Ruins of Afrasiab" in the Samarkand article), with some traditions suggesting that his remains were removed, perhaps by Tamerlane, from Susa to Samarkand (see, for instance, Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, section 153).

References to Daniel[link]

Tomb of Daniel at Susa, Iran.

Book of Ezekiel[link]

The prophet Ezekiel, with whom Daniel was a contemporary, describes a Daniel as a "pattern of righteousness" in the Book of Ezekiel 14:14, 20 and "wisdom" (28:3).^[4] In the Book of Daniel, the name is spelled with a middle letter suggesting the i of that name — but this letter is not included in Ezekiel,^[5] suggesting that the reference there may be to another person, possibly the "Danel" ("Judgement of God") known from Caananite Ugaritic literature (such as the Epic of Aqhat and Anat), whose reputation for wisdom and righteousness had made him legendary. (Vowel-points were not added to the consonantal Hebrew text before well into the Common Era, and the scribes may then have slipped in a vowel-point for "i" as a middle syllable.)

Bel and the Dragon[link]

In the Deuterocanonical portion of Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon, the prophet Habakkuk is miraculously transported by an angel to take a meal to Daniel while he is in the lions' den. In response, Daniel prays, "Thou hast remembered me, O God; neither hast thou forsaken them that seek Thee and love Thee".^[6]

Six tombs of Daniel[link]

There are six different locations claiming to be the site of the tomb of the biblical figure Daniel: Babylon, Kirkuk and Muqdadiyah in Iraq, Susa and Malamir in Iran, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

Religious perspectives[link]

Rabbinic literature[link]

According to Rabbinical tradition, Daniel was of royal descent; and his fate, together with that of his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, was foretold by the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah in these words, "and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon".^{Isaiah 39:7[7][8]}

According to this view, Daniel and his friends were eunuchs, and were consequently able to prove the groundlessness of charges of immorality brought against them, which had almost caused their death at the hands of the king.^[8]

Daniel on the window in the church of St Daniel in Celje (Slovenia)

Islamic views[link]

Muslims traditionally consider Daniel (Arabic: دانيال, Danyal) as an Islamic prophet, alongside the other major prophets of the Old Testament. Although Daniel is not mentioned in the Qur'an, there are accounts of Daniel's life which feature in later Muslim literature. There are debates, however, that go on about Daniel's time of preaching and some Muslims believe that he was not a prophet but a saintly man. Daniel is listed as a prophet in all major versions of Stories of the Prophets.^[9] When the Muslims conquered Alexandria in 641 C.E, a mosque was immediately built dedicated to Daniel.^[10]

Muslim literature[link]

Muslim exegesis, including Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings narrates that Daniel was carried off to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem. It goes onto state that there he was thrown into the den of the lions, but was later rescued. In one such account, Daniel is aided by Jeremiah, who comes to Babylon to help Daniel in the lions den.^[11] In the apocryphal Bel and the Dragon, however, there is a very similar tale which states that the Hebrew prophet Habbakuk was miraculously transported to the den of the lions, to give a meal to Daniel.

All sources, classical and modern, describe Daniel as a saintly and spiritual man. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, in his Qur'anic commentary says:

Daniel was a righteous man of princely lineage and lived about 506-538 B.C. He was carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian, but was still living when Assyria was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. In spite of the "captivity" of the Jews, Daniel enjoyed the highest offices of state at Babylon, but he was ever true to Jerusalem. His enemies (under the Persian monarch) got a penal law passed against any one who "asked a petition of any god or man for 30 days" except the Persian King. But Daniel continued true to Jerusalem. "His windows being open in his chambers towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."

—Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary^[12]

Commemorations[link]

Eastern Orthodox commemorations[link]

On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers^[13] (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity.^[14] Daniel's prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the "stone cut out" being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut "without hands" being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the "uncut mountain"

Roman Catholic Commemorations[link]

The Roman Catholic Church commemorates St. Daniel in the Roman Martyrology on July 21.^[15] However, his commemoration at Mass occurs only on local calendars of particular dioceses, sometimes on July 21 and sometimes on another day. For example, the archdiocese of Gorizia celebrates the feast of St. Daniel, prophet and confessor, on September 11. The reading of the Mass is taken from the Book of Daniel, chapter 14; the Gradual from Psalm 91; the Alleluia verse from the Epistle of James 1; and the Gospel from Matthew 24.^[16]

Coptic Church Commemoration[link]

The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.^[17]

Protestant Commemorations[link]

He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.^[18]

Chapters of the Book of Daniel
1: Induction into Babylon 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of an image 3: The fiery furnace 4: The madness of Nebuchadnezzar 5: Belshazzar's feast 6: Daniel in the lions' den 7: Daniel's first vision 8: Vision of the ram and goat 9: Prophecy of Seventy Weeks 10: Vision of a man 11: Kings of the North and South 12: Epilogue
v t e

See also[link]

Saints portal

• Book of Daniel
• List of names referring to El
• Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Neo-Babylon
• Arioch, Captain of the guard
• Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Daniel's narrative companions
• Belshazzar, possible last King of Neo-Babylon
• Darius the Mede
• Cyrus the Persian, King of Achaemenid Empire
• Ezekiel, Daniel's narrative contemporary
• Persian Jews
• Apocalypse of Daniel

References[link]

• James B. Jordan (1995). "Daniel: Historical & Chronological Comments (II)" (– ^{Scholar search}). Biblical Chronology 7 (1). http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/ch/ch7_01.htm. ^{[dead link]}
• Francis E. Gigot (1889). "Daniel". Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04620a.htm. 
• T. E. Gaston (2009). Historical Issues in the Book of Daniel. Taanathshiloh. 

External links[link]

• Book of Daniel (Biblical Passage)
• Daniel by Rob Bradshaw Detailed dictionary-style article.
• Daniel in the TaNaKh Detailed authorized Jewish translation of the original

Wikisource has original 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary text related to:

Daniel

• Who is Ezekiel's Daniel? : The Ugaritic Danel
• Daniel 11 in Context Overview of the allusions to the Syrian Wars in Daniel 11

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

Emily Osment
Osment at the Hannah Montana: The Movie premiere in April 2009
Background information
Birth name	Emily Jordan Osment
Born	(1992-03-10) March 10, 1992 (age 20) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock, dance pop
Occupations	Actress, singer, songwriter, spokesmodel
Instruments	Vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums
Years active	1999–present
Labels	Walt Disney (2008–2010) Wind-up (2009–2012)[1] Columbia (2012-)
Website	Official Emily Osment Website

Emily Jordan Osment (born March 10, 1992)^[2] is an American actress, singer-songwriter and voice actress born in Los Angeles, California. After working in several television films in her childhood, she gained fame for co-starring as Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. She went on to co-star in the Emmy Award-nominated^[3] Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana as Lilly Truscott as well as the series movie, Hannah Montana: The Movie.^[4] She also starred as Cassie in R. L. Stine's: The Haunting Hour Volume One: Don't Think About It and the Disney Channel Original Movie, Dadnapped as Melissa Morris. She most recently starred in the ABC Family Original Movie, Cyberbully.

Osment expanded her repertoire into pop music and more recently alternative/indie rock where she has recorded teen pop hits like "I Don't Think About It", "If I Didn't Have You" alongside her Hannah Montana co-star Mitchel Musso, and most recently "Once Upon a Dream".

Osment's debut album, Fight or Flight was released on October 5, 2010 via Wind-up Records, and it features lead single "Let's Be Friends" which was released June 8, 2010.^[5] The second single off the album, "Lovesick", was released on October 19, 2010.

Early life[link]

Osment was born in Los Angeles,^[2] where her family still resides, to actor Michael Eugene Osment,^[6] and Theresa Osment (née Seifert), an English teacher.^[7][8] Her father has appeared in various films and was in his movie Soccer Mom, and her older brother is the Academy Award-nominated actor Haley Joel Osment. She was raised Roman Catholic.^[9] In 2011, after wrapping up her tour, Emily Osment decided to pursue her college education by enrolling at Occidental College located in Los Angeles, California.

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Osment's entry into the entertainment industry began in 1998, when she was cast in a commercial for flower delivery company FTD.^[10] From there she went on to feature in many commercials, after which she made her acting debut in the 1999 film The Secret Life of Girls, starring Eugene Levy and Linda Hamilton. The same year, she co-starred with Glenn Close in the Hallmark Classic telefilm Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End, a role that would lead a Young Artist Award nomination.^[10] Since then, she has gone on to do a number of roles, such as appearances on television shows like Touched by an Angel, Friends, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

In 2002, Osment made her film debut as Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams which grossed $119 million globally and for which she won the "Young Artist Award" for best performance in a feature film. In 2003, she reprised her role in the third part of the Spy Kids series, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, which grossed $197 million worldwide.^[11][12]

Osment in 2009.

In 2006, Osment got the role of Lilly Truscott in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. The series premiere scored record ratings for the Disney Channel with 5.4 million viewers, a response "beyond our wildest expectations", according to the president of Disney Channel Entertainment.^[13][14] The show earned her a Young Artist Award nomination in 2007 for best performance in a TV series (Comedy or Drama). She also appeared in the Disney Channel Hannah Montana promotion "Hannah Montana's Backstage Secrets", in which she portrays Lola in a fictional interview set in the show's canon. In addition, she helped to design some of the pieces from the Hannah Montana clothing collection which Disney released in the latter part of the summer in 2006.^[15]

On December 25, Osment hosted the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade with Hannah Montana co-star Mitchel Musso. The parade featured acts like Miley Cyrus and the High School Musical cast. She and Musso performed a sketch based on a Hannah Montana episode. She also had a voice over role in a movie called Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen, which also featured the voices of fellow Disney Channel stars Brenda Song and Dylan and Cole Sprouse. She performed several songs for the movie, including "Don't Ya Just Love Christmas" and "One Day".

Osment did a voice-over role in the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch and also a voice role in Edward Fubbwupper Fibbed Big. She also starred as a goth in R. L. Stine's: The Haunting Hour Volume One: Don't Think About It^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} (co-starring with Hannah Montana co-star Cody Linley). It earned her a Young Artist Award nomination in 2008 for "Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special Leading Young Actress". In 2007, she guest starred as Kelly and tall skunk girl on Disney Channel's Shorty McShorts' Shorts.

According to an audio interview with Osment backstage at the Grammys, she is to start filming a new movie called Soccer Mom. In April 2008, Parade magazine and Forbes ranked her #1 in their Hot Kid Stars To Watch list.^[23] She also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Dadnapped. The film premiered in February 2009.

In May 2011, Osment finished filming Cyberbully an ABC Family TV film in Montreal starring Kelly Rowan and Kay Panabaker. Osment was the role of "Taylor Hillridge" a victim of cyber bullying. It premiered July 17, 2011.

In 2012, Osment announced (via Twitter) that she will be guest starring in an episode of Life With Boys and four episodes of Family Guy.

Music[link]

Osment performing on May 22, 2010

Osment sang vocals in Billy Ray Cyrus's song "You've Got a Friend" from his 2007 album Home at Last. She has also recorded a song entitled "I Don't Think About It" for The Haunting Hour Volume One under the label Hatchery, for which she shot an accompanying music video. The video was released in The Haunting Hour DVD and premiered on Cartoon Network.

I Don't Think About It was recorded for RL Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It and hit number one on the Radio Disney top three in July 2009.^[24] She also shot an accompanying music video for the song, released in The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It DVD.

The music video shows Osment singing the song in a recording studio. Throughout it are scenes of her singing to the song with crazy animations in the background. Another portion of it shows clips from the movie The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It. IT also shows behind the scenes clips and some with home videos of her.

Osment also recorded a remake version of the song "If I Didn't Have You" with Mitchel Musso for the DisneyMania 6 CD. The song was produced by Bryan Todd. The two also filmed a music video for their remake.^[25] In addition, she also recorded a song, released in 2008, with "The Disney Channel Circle of Stars". She recorded a remake of "Once Upon a Dream" for the release of Sleeping Beauty 50th Platinum Edition. The song was aired on Disney Channel on September 12, 2008.^[26] She also recorded a song called "Hero in Me" for the Disney Channel Original Movie, Dadnapped. She also filmed a music video to accompany it. The song will also be released on the Disney compilation album Disney Channel Playlist, which was released June 9, 2009.

According to an audio interview with Osment backstage at the Grammys 2008, she is currently writing and recording tracks with Eve 6. In an interview with Half Taft Blue in 2008, she said that she is working on her EP which is called All the Right Wrongs, though the sound will be completely different from Disney pop. Instead, the main genre will be Indie rock, and the EP will be released. She is set to write most of the songs on the album, with the new track "All The Way Up" being premiered on Radio Disney in August 2009.

Osment describes her music as "definitely Pop but with an Alternative rock edge." She has collaborated on tunes with Tom Higgenson, Max Collins, Tony Fagenson, Toby Gad and Mandi Perkins.^[27][28] On September 18, 2009, Osment tweeted the songs that would be featured in her EP on her official Twitter page.^[29]

Osment at Festival of Ballooning, in 2010.

On March 24, Osment confirmed on Good Day NY that her debut album is set to be released in the Summer 2010.^[30] The first single, "Let's Be Friends" from her debut album premiered on JSYK.com on June 7, 2010.^[31] On June 3, it was announced that the album would be released in the fall.^[32] She announced via Facebook on August 16 that her album would be released in the US on October 5 and that it would be titled Fight or Flight. The cover art was revealed August 17. The next single off Fight or Flight was "Lovesick".

In May 2011, she released her next single "Hush" to Canadian Radio. The song is a duet between her and Josh Ramsay.

In July 2011, she released her newest single "Drift". Which is also featured in Cyberbully.

Osment confirmed on her official Twitter that she is currently working on her 3rd album. It is expected to be a country album.^[33] In 2011, various songs expected to be on the album were leaked.^[34][35]

Entrepreneurship[link]

That same year, Osment signed a deal to appear in a nationwide campaign called "Smart Girls Rock" by the New York-based denim brand Vanilla Star. "It's a new line for girls, the clothes are really denim and girly with an edge of punk."^[36] She promoted her song "I Don't Think About It" with the release of the campaign and commercial.

Late that summer, Disney released a Hannah Montana clothing collection. Osment helped to design some of the pieces from the collection. Her image was used in some of these pieces, as well as other Hannah Montana merchandise (such as dolls and DVDs).^[37]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Fight or Flight (2010)

Extended plays

• All the Right Wrongs (2009)

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emily Osment

• Official website
• Emily Osment at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2009)

Dahr Jamail (born 1968) is an American journalist who is best known as one of the few unembedded journalists to report extensively from Iraq during the 2003 Iraq invasion. He spent eight months in Iraq, between 2003 to 2005, and presented his stories on his website, entitled Dahr Jamail's MidEast Dispatches. Jamail writes for the Inter Press Service news agency, among other outlets. He has been a frequent guest on Democracy Now!. Jamail is the recipient of the 2008 The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.^[1]

Biography[link]

Jamail is a fourth generation Lebanese American, the son of Gerald Jamail, and grew up in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University and later moved to Alaska.

In October 2007, his first book, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, was published by Haymarket Books. Jamail began his national speaking tour in October 2007 ^[2] in New York City, where many turned out to hear him and independent journalist Jeremy Scahill discuss the Afghan and Iraq wars.

Jamail's second book, The Will to Resist: Soldiers who refuse to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan was published by Haymarket Books in 2009.

Dahr Jamail is currently a correspondent for Truthout.^[3][4]

Bibliography[link]

• The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2009. Haymarket Books.
• Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq. 2007. Haymarket Books.
• "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation." June 21, 2005. Report for The BRussels Tribunal.
• "Bechtel's Dry Run: Iraqis suffer water crisis." April 2004. Report for Public Citizen.
• Iraq Dispatches. 2004. Booklet of collected dispatches. NewStandard News.

References[link]

1. ^ Caitlin Fitzsimmons,Reporters share Gellhorn prize, The Guardian, 19 May 2008.
2. ^ Dahr Jamail's Weblog: BOOK RELEASE AND NATIONAL TOUR LAUNCH
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]

External links[link]

• Dahr Jamail's MidEast Dispatches
• Audio interview on Writer's Voice (2007), with host Francesca Rheannon
• Video: Dahr Jamail - Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (November 2, 2007) from Jamail's 2007 book tour.
• MediaBite January 22, 2008: Scribes of the Empire - An Interview with Dahr Jamail by MediaBite, David Manning and Miriam Cotton

Democracy Now! interviews (video, audio, and print transcript)

• April 28, 2005
• July 14, 2005
• October 15, 2007

The Oil Factor in the Iraq Study Group. Interview with Dori Smith on Talk Nation Radio

• [3] from Talk Nation Radio, [4]
• [5] Talk Nation blog, Dori Smith interviews Dahr Jamail February 17, 2006.
• [6]

Dahr Jamail and David Swanson on Talk Nation Radio With Dori Smith Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2008-09-13

• [7]

Part 2 of 3: Twin Catastrophes: Wars in Vietnam and Iraq, by Dori Smith and David Morse | November 4, 2006 10:11 AM Posted to CT Elections 2006

• [8]

James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published prolifically on Latin American and Middle Eastern political issues.

Life and work[link]

Academic and Literature[link]

Petras received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.^[1] His initial appointment at Binghamton was in 1972 at the Sociology Department and his field is listed as: Development, Latin America, the Caribbean, revolutionary movements, class analysis.^[2] During his life he received the Western Political Science Association's the Best Dissertation award (1968), the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the American Sociological Association's Marxist Sociology Section and the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book of 2002.^[1][3]

Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review and Le Monde Diplomatique. Currently he writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo.^[1]