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Pranayama forms an important component of hath yoga. All created things are made of prana or the vital force. The process by which expansion of this prana or vital force is managed is called pranayama.
Pranayama is a part of yoga. It consists......More
Sukha Pranayama (kapal bhati)
comfortably In any meditation pose with head, neck and spine erect. Keep palms
on the knee and assume a gyana mudra. Let the eyes be closed. Then perform
natural breathing and feel the breath on the tip of the nose. Slowly feel the
Nadishodhara (Aanulom Vilom Pranayama)
in padmasana, sidhasana or sukhasana and place the hands on the knees.
Straighten the spine. Keeping the left hand on the knee, raise the right hand.
The thumb should be near the right nostril and the third and middle finger should
in a comfortable position, keeping both the palms on the knees in gyana mudra.
Close the eyes and draw the tongue. Roll it up from the sides to form a channel
like the birds' beak. Slowly and deeply suck the air through it and fill the
erect in a comfortable position. Keep your hands in anjali or gyana mudra for
sometime. Open the mouth slightly, keeping the lips open but teeth together.
Press the tip of the tongue lightly against the lower front teeth and suck the
comfortably in any meditative pose, inhale slowly and deeply through both the
nostrils. Then gently plug your ears with the index fingers, close the eyes,
and exhale through both the nostrils producing a long and continuous......More
this technique the lungs are used like a blacksmith's bellows. Sit in any
comfortable meditative asana. Hold the head and spine erect. Close the eyes and
relax. Breathe rapidly 20 times through both nostrils. Then inhale deeply,
erect in any comfortable meditative position. Inhale slowly and deeply through
both the nostrils with a low uniform frictional sound through the glottis and
expand the chest. Hold the breath after inhalation. With the same continuation
Surya Bhedi Pranayama
in any comfortable meditative asana. Keep the spine and head erect and place
the hands on the knees. Keeping the left hand on the knee, raise the right hand
placing the thumb on the right nostril and middle and third finger on the......More
exercise requires a steady and firm asana, best options being the padmasana and
sidhasana. Inhale through both nostrils while bending the head backwards.
mudra The inhalation should be slow and deep. Retain the breath inside......More
is to float or swim on water easily. By special techniques of inhalation and
also by holding capacity of air in the stomach one could effortlessly float on
the water. It is not for a common man. It should be learnt cautiously......More
Do you have any questions?
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And Let Them Know That God Rules In Jacob To The Ends Of The Earth
by Sharon McClean
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Isaiah 47:9 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, (10) DECLARING THE END FROM THE BEGINNING, and from ancient times THINGS THAT ARE NOT YET DONE, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’
(Note: The book of Revelation is not sealed; Revelation 22:10—And he (the angel) said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. Baker’s on-line Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology; Seal: a seal, in biblical times as today, is used to guarantee security or indicate ownership. Smith’s on-line Bible Dictionary; Seal: The importance attached to seals in the East is so great that without one no document is regarded as authentic. Nave’s Topical Bible; Seal: Figurative of secrecy; certainty of divine approval. It is very important to note however, that we read in John 6:27-(referring to Jesus) God the Father has set His seal on Him. We read in this same passage in verse 33, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.)
Nave’s Topical Bible: Jacob, (Supplanter) son of Isaac, and the twin brother of Esau. Gen. 25:24-26; Ancestor of Jesus Matthew 1:2; obtains Esau’s birthright for just one bowl of stew. Genesis 25:29-34, Hebrews 12:16; fraudulently obtains his fathers blessing. Genesis 27:1-29, Hebrews 11:20.
How does Jacob pertain to us, and just who is the modern day Jacob? I believe that we can find the answer to that question in Psalm 24:6—This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Psalm 105:3—Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! (4) Seek the Lord and His strength: Seek His face evermore! (5) Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonder, and the judgments of His mouth, (6) O seed of Abraham His servant! You children of Jacob, His chosen ones! (Matthew 22:14—“For many are called, but few are chosen.”) 1Chron. 16:13—O seed of Israel His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones! (14) He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. (15) Remember His covenant FOREVER, The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, (16) the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, (17) and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for AN EVERLASTING COVENANT. Ps. 111:5—He will ever be mindful of His covenant. (6) He has declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations. (Isaiah 41:8—“But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend. (9) You whom I have taken FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, you are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
An interesting aspect concerning Jacob’s name: (NKJV)
Genesis 32:24—Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. (26) And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks,” But he (Jacob) said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me! (Scripture insert: Ps. 38:22-- For those who are blessed by Him shall inherit the earth but those who are cursed by Him shall be cut off.) (27) So He said to him, “What is your name? and he said, “Jacob,” (28) And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but ISRAEL: for you have STRUGGLED WITH GOD AND WITH MEN, AND HAVE PREVAILED.”
Ps. 115: 16—The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men. (17) The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence. (Scripture insert: Pro. 3:32—But His secret counsel is with the upright. Pro.2:21-For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; (22) But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it. Ps.25:8—Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. (12)Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses, (13) He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. (14) The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.
Returning to Genesis 32:28—And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel: for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed. So here we see the name Israel, being handed down to Jacob, and now also to the generation of those who seek His face. Psalm 130:7—O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. Ps. 146:5—Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Micah 5: (8) And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many peoples.
Genesis 28:1—Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: (3) May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; (4) And give; you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land (promise land?) in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” Interestingly enough Jacob also had a dream…Genesis 28:12—Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (13) And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. (14) “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
(So now we see the blessing being handed down to Jacob.) (15) Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; (Promise land?) for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
(16) Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it,” (17) And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! THIS IS NON OTHER THAN THE HOUSE OF GOD, and this the gate of heaven!” (18) Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat, (the living bread?) and clothing to put on, (robe of righteousness?) (21) So that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall by my God. (22) “And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
I find this Scriptures interesting in 1 Timothy 3:15—but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now in light of this let’s look at 1 Peter 2:4—Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, (5) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (6) Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” (7) Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” (9) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (10) who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Isaiah 43:1—But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. (5) Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; (6) I will say to the north, Give them up! And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH—(7) Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” Isaiah 44:1—“Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. (2) Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. (3) For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring;
(7) He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. (8) He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, (9) The covenant which He made with Abraham and His oath to Isaac, (10) And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant. Psalm 25:10—All the paths of the Lord are MERCY and TRUTH, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies, (12) Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach IN THE WAY HE CHOOSES, (13) He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. (14) THE SECRET of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Isaiah 42:6—“I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, AS A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES, (7) To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. (9) Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isaiah 49:5—“And now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him. (6) Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You AS A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES, that You should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (8) Thus say the Lord: In an ACCEPTALBLE TIME I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, TO RESTORE THE EARTH, to cause them TO INHERIT the desolate heritages; (9) That You may say to the prisoners, Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, Show yourselves.’
Let’s listen to the words of Mary as her soul is magnifying the Lord. Luke 1:51—He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. (54) He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, (55) As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.” Let’s listen to the words of Zacharias, prophesying while being filled with the Holy Spirit: Luke 1:72—To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, (73) the oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
What God swore to Abraham:
Genesis 22:15—Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, (16) and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—(18) “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” This follows over into the New Testament where we read this in Galatians 3:8—And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached THE GOSPEL to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
Why the Jews could not attain this blessing:
No matter how diligently they sought to obtain this blessing it could only come through Christ to the Gentiles. Galatians 3:13—Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (14) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Romans 4:13—For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Galatians 3:23—But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. (24) Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (25) But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
The children of promise:
Galatians 4:21—Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? (22) For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. (Sarah) (23) But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman THROUGH PROMISE, (24) which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—(25) for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—(26) but the Jerusalem above is free, (Sarah) which is the mother of us all. (28) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children OF PROMISE. (29) But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. John 1:11—He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. (12)But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (13) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (18) No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Psalm 2:6—“Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, (7) You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (8) Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” Ps. 87:5—And of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.” (6) The Lord will record, when He registers the peoples; “This one was born there.”
We too have a birthright, are we going to be an Esau whom God hated or a Jacob, who is going to go after it with all of his might? Hebrews 12:16—Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. Psalm 24:3—Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? (6) This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Ps.111:6—He has declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
Psalm 48:9—We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple. (10) According to Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. (11) Let Mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Your judgments. (12) Walk about Zion, and go all around her. Count her towers; (13) Mark well her bulwarks; consider her palaces; that you may tell it to the generation following (14) For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.
Isaiah 62:11—Indeed the Lord has proclaimed TO THE END OF THE WORLD; “Say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is
with Him, and His work before Him.”
Job 36:20—DO NOT DESIRE THE NIGHT, WHEN PEOPLE ARE CUT OFF IN THEIR PLACE.
Isaiah 45:19—I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. (21) Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. (22) “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Ps. 22:27—All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. (28) For the kingdom is the Lord’s and He rules over the nations.
Ps. 59:13—And let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth.
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I just LOVE the Word of God! If people will read this article thoroughly from start to finish, it's like a beautiful story unfolding. Wonderful! I really appreciate what you've done here! | <urn:uuid:a4ff96a9-2978-4ab0-b146-da8beaddb7a5> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=14599 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721141.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00417-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96114 | 4,677 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Intel on Tuesday said that developer kits for Thunderbolt will be available this quarter, which could lead to the quick availability of a wider range of products based on the interconnect technology.
Thunderbolt was first announced on Feb. 24 and is currently being offered only by Apple in its new MacBook Pro laptops, which were launched on the same day. Intel collaborated with Apple in developing the interconnect.
The developer kits could help device makers accelerate the release of products to market, an Intel spokesman said.
Thunderbolt is a dual-channel, high-speed interconnect that can transfer data between host devices and external devices at speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. The technology enables a full-length, high-definition movie to be transferred in less than 30 seconds, and synchronization of high-bandwidth audio and video between computers and other devices in real time.
Intel is already working with some partners to develop products as it tries to build out an ecosystem around the interconnect. LaCie and Western Digital have already demonstrated portable storage products, but are not yet selling devices. Companies including Canon have announced support for Thunderbolt, and products from AJA, BlackMagic, Matrox and Sonnet are being shown at the NAB trade show, which is going on in Las Vegas through April 14.
Sony is also one of the backers of Thunderbolt, but has not yet talked about plans to implement the technology in its laptops. A number of companies that have not yet implemented Thunderbolt have also expressed interest in the technology. Hewlett-Packard, which offers USB 3.0 ports in high-end laptops for high-speed data transfers to external devices, will evaluate Thunderbolt for implementation in laptops, a company spokesman said.
Thunderbolt currently supports the PCI Express and DisplayPort protocols, and could reduce the number of connectors needed to attach peripherals such as monitors and storage devices to computers. Thunderbolt could ultimately replace protocols such as USB 3.0, but Intel insists that the technologies are complementary.
Intel originally talked about Thunderbolt in 2009, when it said the technology would be delivered with optical cabling. However, initial builds of Thunderbolt are being delivered using copper wires, with optical cabling coming later this year, Intel has said. Optical technology could help provide faster data transfers over longer distances than electrical technology. | <urn:uuid:e1a57361-a958-40c6-a6e4-17fcc70498ee> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://cdn.computerworld.com.au/article/383079/intel_open_up_thunderbolt_development_quarter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573908.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20220820043108-20220820073108-00274.warc.gz | en | 0.963846 | 466 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Doctor insights on:
High Blood Pressure And Lyme Disease
A blood pressure reading has two numbers: a systolic blood pressure and a diastolic blood pressure. The systolic blood pressure is the maximum pressure the blood exerts on the vessels when the heart is beating. The diastolic blood pressure is the pressure the blood exerts on the vessels in between heartbeats. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, begins when the systolic blood pressure remains above 140 or when the diastolic blood pressure remains above 90. Hypertension can be a result of increased blood flow through vessels or increased resistance to ...Read more
I recently had a blood test, it showed a potential false pos of hep b, but is there a link between Lyme disease and hepatitis?
Can symptoms of Lyme disease (and coinfections) become worse due to changes in the weather (such as change in barometric pressure)?
Yes: Lyme disease can cause just about any symptom known to man, including sensitivity to changes in barometric pressure. Western medicine has little if anything to offer for this symptom but homeopathy and chinese medicine can help; of course proper treatment of lyme and co-infections should help too! ...Read more
For physical exam blood tests, Do doctors usually check for Lyme disease or does it get noticed in the blood? Does that have to be requested?
I had a blood test (Western Blot), to check for Lyme Disease. The results look strange (0.45). This doesn't look like the result of any WB test I have?
Probably not Lyme: Your Western Blot would need to be above 5 for a conclusive confirmation of Lyme disease. Unless you also had known tick bite, low-grade fever, "erythema migrants", you probably had a viral illness that should resolve on its own. Do discuss this with your primary medical provider or specialist if symptoms persist. ...Read more
ELISA/West blot.: The 2 main tests are elisa and western blot. Elisa or serology is used for screening to see if there is an antibody response to the b. Burgdorferi spirochete responsible for the disease, while the western blot is a specific test that makes sure the positive response is to this and not a false positive, or a reaction to something else. Pcr, or polymerase chain reaction is another possible test. ...Read more
Fond blood wrk from01?Resultsb.Bur ab w/rfx Lyme disease ab, early<1.00 clinical data suggest ld, repeat, could it b cause of ongoin illness since99, neve
No: These two disease are caused by very different micro-organisms. Both can be treated, but with different medications. ...Read more
It is a good test..: Enzyme-linked immunassay is a sreening test which if positive will be confirmed with a western-blot (=standard of testing). Although not absolutely 100%, a negative western blot is a good bet that there is no lyme at the time of testing. Early disease/infection may have negative test, thus recommended retesting in about 3 wks. Lyme dna testing is better, but more expensive. Consult doc..Good luck. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) (Definition)
A blood pressure reading has two numbers: a systolic blood pressure (top number) and a diastolic blood pressure (bottom number). The systolic blood pressure is the pressure the blood exerts on the artery when the heart is at maximum contraction. The diastolic blood pressure is the pressure the blood exerts on the artery when the heart is at maximum relaxation. Ideal blood pressure is 120/80 or lower. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is 140/90 or higher. ...Read more
Blood pressure is a measurement of the force placed on the blood vessels and is comprised of the "systolic" pressure (the top number on a blood pressure meter) which is the peak pressure when the heart is pumping, and the "diastolic" pressure (the bottom number on a blood pressure meter) which is the pressure during the resting phase ...Read more
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In preparation I called up one of my husband's friends who is a police officer, asking him what things he wished parents knew. He said that people, including children, are being victimized more often as the result of the ever advancing technology. In fact, I-phones are the number one theft in America right now and people are not skipping over children in these kinds of thefts.
The first mistake we make is thinking that our family will be exempt from anything bad as a result of our internet activity.
After teaching this lesson I thought I would share some of my internet safety tips.
1.) Know the settings of the device or program you are using:
So many people have Facebook Profiles but don't ever check their settings. This allows anyone to view their personal information, photos, conversations, etc without ever having to be a "Facebook Friend." As a people we put way too much information about ourselves online, the least we could do is be in control of who can and can't have access to that information.
2.) Protect your photos
What does a photo say about you? The more photos we post on the internet the more information about ourselves we give out. However, as technology advances so does the type and amount of information we give out. I watched a video on YouTube a while back where someone was taking a photo of their daughter in her room playing with their smart phone. They uploaded it to the computer and where able to find the exact coordinates of where that photo was taken, right down to the very room in the house. Scary. However, this can be a quick fix. On your smartphones, I-pods, digital cameras, etc. make sure your "GPS" setting on your photos is turned off.
Also know that when you upload a photo to the internet it is as easy as "CTRL C" for someone to take your photo and do what they please with it. (Hence the reason I add a watermark to my photos)
Once you upload it or text it, it is there forever.
3.) Be careful with specifics
Teach your children what information they should and shouldn't put on the internet. Things to consider are dates, personal contact information, locations, names, and when you will be out of town.
If I post a photo of my family on our Disney Cruise on Facebook with the note, "Wish you were all here with us," I have just announced to all my Facebook Friends that my house is empty. Now you may think everyone on your list is trustworthy but most home invasions occur by somebody the owner knew.
I leave out dates and names in my blog posts for the safety of my family. I use my birth date to get access to all sorts of personal information. Instead I use general terms like "the husband," or "our anniversary month."
4.) Social Media, Emails, Texting, etc is not a way to communicate clearly
Have you ever written something and had someone completely misinterpret your meaning? I know I have plenty of times. Why do you think that is? When we write things the people on the other side of the screen can't see our body language, hear the tone we intended, see what kind of mood we are in, etc. In addition we tend to project our own mood and feelings on something when we read it. If I'm offended at the moment I read something I will read it in a way the makes it sound like the writer was intending to be offensive.
I also know that often times we are multi-tasking as we read something and often skim through the text, missing part of the meaning.
As I've worked with teenage girls and college Freshman I've seen how quickly things get misinterpreted when communication is done solely through writing. It's getting to the point where kids, myself included, grow up not knowing how to make a phone call and as a result sometimes self-confidence or relationships suffer. I wonder sometimes if true communication is a dying art form.
5.) Public Forums are not an appropriate place for fighting
I'm not saying you can't disagree with an article someone has written. Instead I'm talking about arguments and disagreements with those we know and/or love. If I'm mad at my husband and post something like, "My husband is such a pig, I've been slaving away all day taking care of the kids, cooking dinner, etc and he can't even do one lousy load of dishes. When will he ever get a clue?" Not only have I made him look bad but included 500 of my closest friend in a discussion that should have been held between just the two of us. People will start judging him without all of the facts, it will make him feel attacked, and it resolves nothing. Same goes with friends, co-workers, children, or parents. (BTW, my husband is great about helping around the house.)
6.) While we all have opinions we should not demean others with them
I am a very opinionated person but that doesn't mean I'm always right or that I have the right to make others feel bad because they don't agree with me. We often forget that there are people on the other end of the screen. I try and live by the mantra, " If you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it online or in a text." This is how online bullying starts.
Thus if I'm writing about my parenting style I should present it in a manner that lets others know why I have chosen it for my family but that I also understand what works for me doesn't work for them. If I belong to one political party I should respect others' rights to belong to the other. All democrats or all republicans are not bad people. There's good and bad on both sides.
7.) Know what your children are saying/doing with technology
Some kids may think it is an invasion of their privacy or that you are ruining their lives, I know I did as a teenager. With technology comes responsibility, something we are often taught by our parents. Growing up there was the rule that my phone was subject to random "spot checks." At one point I had run over my minutes so my parents pulled up my call list to find out why. They discovered I was talking to my boyfriend late into the night. Of course I got my phone privileges taken away and my life was ruined forever. However, they wanted me to get an adequate amount of sleep so that I might be successful in my school studies. I needed to learn how to balance and I needed my parents to help guide me.
I know as a parent you can pull up phone records and text/pic messages for your minor's phone if you feel it necessary.
8.) Monitor your child's Facebook and Myspace accounts
This is for a few reasons. Know who your children's friends are, who they are talking to, who is talking to them. Read through their walls. Most kids will not tell you if they are being bullied online. It will also help you to know if they are putting out too much information.
Our police officer friend also said to know that many kids have several accounts. They will have the account that their parents can see and then they will have their secret account. To try and help combat this he suggested that every so often you look at their friends list, select some of the closer friends, and then look through their friends lists to see if your child has multiple accounts.
9.) Check your Browsing History
Know what sites your family is accessing. Children are technologically savvy and they may delete their browsing history. Thus sometimes you may have to keep track of when they are on the internet and make sure your history matches that timeline.
In conjunction help your children to know what to do if they come across a bad site. They need to feel comfortable coming to you when they happen upon something they know they shouldn't and not fear you are going to get mad.
10.) Set limits and a time to unplug
Facebook, texting, I-pods and anything related to our modern technology can quickly eat away our lives if we aren't careful. Thus it may be a good idea to set limits for how long we are on these devices. Create technology free zones. Perhaps you have a basket that everyone drops their cell phone in before you sit around the dinner table so that you may have 30 minutes of un-interrupted family time. I know the husband and I will sit down once a week and calendar times we are going to do things together. Sometimes it is as simple as scheduling a time when we are both going to a read books in the same room. Both of our lives are highly centered around the computer and if we are not careful we can spend every waking minute we have together not saying a word but instead be in separate offices working. I know I don't want that for my family. There will always be work to do but the times we have together as a family are limited.
In the end we as parents, leaders, role-models and teachers have to set the example for our children. Do you have to do all of the above? No. You need to decide what rules and practices are going to be best for your family. Is there more you can do? Of course, these were just ten suggestions I came up with.
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Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence, according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air; and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the chase, toiling away, calm and collected as a journeyman joiner engaged for the year. Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests. He was as particular about the comfortable arrangements of his part of the boat, as an old stage-driver is about the snugness of his box. When close to the whale, in the very death-lock of the fight, he handled his unpitying lance coolly and off-handedly, as a whistling tinker his hammer. He would hum over his old rigadig tunes while flank and flank with the most exasperated monster. Long usage had, for this Stubb, converted the jaws of death into an easy chair. What he thought of death itself, there is no telling. Whether he ever thought of it at all, might be a question; but, if he ever did chance to cast his mind that way after a comfortable dinner, no doubt, like a good sailor, he took it to be a sort of call of the watch to tumble aloft, and bestir themselves there, about something which he would find out when he obeyed the order, and not sooner.
What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an easy-going, unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of grave peddlers, all bowed to the ground with their packs; what helped to bring about that almost impious good-humor of his; that thing must have been his pipe. For, like his nose, his short, black little pipe was one of the regular features of his face. You would almost as soon have expected him to turn out of his bunk without his nose as without his pipe. He kept a whole row of pipes there ready loaded, stuck in a rack, within easy reach of his hand; and, whenever he turned in, he smoked them all out in succession, lighting one from the other to the end of the chapter; then loading them again to be in readiness anew. For, when Stubb dressed, instead of first putting his legs into his trowsers, he put his pipe into his mouth.
I say this continual smoking must have been one cause, at least of his peculiar disposition; for every one knows that this earthly air, whether ashore or afloat, is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it; and as in time of the cholera, some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their mouths; so, likewise, against all mortal tribulations, Stubb’s tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent.
The third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha’s Vineyard. A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered. So utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of their majestic bulk and mystic ways; and so dead to anything like an apprehension of any possible danger from encountering them; that in his poor opinion, the wondrous whale was but a species of magnified mouse, or at least water-rat, requiring only a little circumvention and some small application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil. This ignorant, unconscious fearlessness of his made him a little waggish in the matter of whales; he followed these fish for the fun of it; and a three years’ voyage round Cape Horn was only a jolly joke that lasted that length of time. As a carpenter’s nails are divided into wrought nails and cut nails; so mankind may be similarly divided. Little Flask was one of the wrought ones; made to clinch tight and last long. They called him King-Post on board of the Pequod; because, in form, he could be well likened to the short, square timber known by that name in Arctic whalers; and which by the means of many radiating side timbers inserted into it, serves to brace the ship against the icy concussions of those battering seas.
Now these three mates—Starbuck, Stubb and Flask, were momentous men. They it was who by universal prescription commanded three of the Pequod’s boats as headsmen. In that grand order of battle in which Captain Ahab would probably marshal his forces to descend on the whales, these three headsmen were as captains of companies. Or, being armed with their long keen whaling spears, they were as a picked trio of lancers; even as the harpooneers were flingers of javelins.
And since in this famous fishery, each mate or headsman, like a Gothic Knight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooneer, who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance, when the former one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault; and moreover, as there generally subsists between the two, a close intimacy and friendliness; it is therefore but meet, that in this place we set down who the Pequod’s harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of them belonged.
First of all was Queequeg, whom Starbuck, the chief mate, had selected for his squire. But Queequeg is already known.
Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay Head, the most westerly promontory of Martha’s Vineyard, where there still exists the last remnant of a village of red men, which has long supplied the neighboring island of Nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers. In the fishery, they usually go by the generic name of Gay-Headers. Tashtego’s long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones, and black rounding eyes—for an Indian, Oriental in their largeness, but Antarctic in their glittering expression—all this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the main. But no longer snuffing in the trail of the wild beasts of the woodland, Tashtego now hunted in the wake of the great whales of the sea; the unerring harpoon of the son fitly replacing the infallible arrow of the sires. To look at the tawny brawn of his lithe snaky limbs, you would almost have credited the superstitions of some of the earlier Puritans and half-believed this wild Indian to be a son of the Prince of the Powers of the Air. Tashtego was Stubb the second mate’s squire.
Third among the harpooneers was Daggoo, a gigantic, coal-black negro-savage, with a lion-like tread—an Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended from his ears were two golden hoops, so large that the sailors called them ringbolts, and would talk of securing the top-sail halyards to them. In his youth Daggoo had voluntarily shipped on board of a whaler, lying in a lonely bay on his native coast. And never having been anywhere in the world but in Africa, Nantucket, and the pagan harbors most frequented by the whalemen; and having now led for many years the bold life of the fishery in the ships of owners uncommonly heedful of what manner of men they shipped; Daggoo retained all his barbaric virtues, and erect as a giraffe, moved about the decks in all the pomp of six feet five in his socks. There was a corporeal humility in looking up at him; and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to beg truce of a fortress. Curious to tell, this imperial negro, Ahasuerus Daggoo, was the Squire of little Flask, who looked like a chess-man beside him. As for the residue of the Pequod’s company, be it said, that at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans born, though pretty nearly all the officers are. Herein it is the same with the American whale fishery as with the American army and military and merchant navies, and the engineering forces employed in the construction of the American Canals and Railroads. The same, I say, because in all these cases the native American liberally provides the brains, the rest of the world as generously supplying the muscles. No small number of these whaling seamen belong to the Azores, where the outward bound Nantucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews from the hardy peasants of those rocky shores. In like manner, the Greenland whalers sailing out of Hull or London, put in at the Shetland Islands, to receive the full complement of their crew. Upon the passage homewards, they drop them there again. How it is, there is no telling, but Islanders seem to make the best whalemen. They were nearly all Islanders in the Pequod, Isolatoes too, I call such, not acknowledging the common continent of men, but each Isolato living on a separate continent of his own. Yet now, federated along one keel, what a set these Isolatoes were! An Anacharsis Clootz deputation from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod to lay the world’s grievances before that bar from which not very many of them ever come back. Black Little Pip— he never did—oh, no! he went before. Poor Alabama boy! On the grim Pequod’s forecastle, ye shall ere long see him, beating his tambourine; prelusive of the eternal time, when sent for, to the great quarter-deck on high, he was bid strike in with angels, and beat his tambourine in glory; called a coward here, hailed a hero there! | <urn:uuid:2c19a17a-3369-47bf-bb28-08d79aa47563> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moby-Dick/Chapter_27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719027.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00301-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981268 | 2,246 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Alessio De Marchis (Naples, ca 1710 – Perugia, 1752)
Pair of oval landscapes
Oil on panel, 47.3×35.5 cm
The first phase of Alessio De Marchis’ production is entirely dedicated to the view in Rome, its tradition and the study of contemporaries. From the sources we know that the painter was imprisoned in Castel Sant’Angelo for causing a fire and from there he only came out thanks to the protection of his patron, Cardinal Annibale Albani. Thanks to his intervention, De Marchis had the opportunity to start the second phase of his production, more mature and complete: following the cardinal he went to Urbino in 1728, where he frescoed the family palace. In the following years his activity moved to Urbino, where he had numerous important positions.
This pair of oval panels is certainly representative of the artist’s maturity: in an oval the glimpse between the trees allows a glimpse of a vast valley, with architecture in the background, while in its pendant there are two trees in the center of the composition, behind them stands out. an imposing mountain. Observing the brushstroke, which has always been not very analytical and with a not very rigorous line, here it becomes even more lively, almost lashing, romantic. The color is spread in dense, expressive spots; the painter, who was also known in Rome as a skilled draftsman, here lost all interest in minutiae, in describing details.
In works like this one recognizes as imperative the will to free the genre of the landscape from any form of narrative, to elevate it to a meaningful representation for itself and which can live by itself.
Bibl.: A. Busiri Vici, Trittico paesistico romano del’700…, Roma 1975, pp. 159-207, 298-355;
C. Maggini, ‘Aggiunte ad Alessio De Marchis: quattro opere grafiche e tre dipinti ad olio’, in ‘Studi per Piero Zampetti’, Ancona 1993, pp. 416-419;
A. Cerboni Baiardi, ‘Alessio De Marchis’, in ‘La pittura di paesaggio in Italia. Il Settecento’, a cura di A. Ottani Cavina ed E. Calbi, Milano 2005, pp. 174-175, con bibliografia precedente.
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The aim of scientific research is to increase our understanding beyond what is already known. When scientific research is used to shape government policy, it assumes a special obligation — it becomes the glue of a contract between the public, the research community and government.
Four years ago, President Barack Obama recognized the importance of cultivating an environment that encourages scientific integrity. In 2009 he directed agencies to develop procedures “for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making.” Now, the House-passed farm bill includes a provision that will build upon the administration’s initiative to codify the requirement.
Should agencies use sound science when making rules?
The National Pork Producers, the Cherry Marketing Institute, and even Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s home state Farm Bureau see the need for sound science and have contacted us regarding scientific research issues affecting regulations with a direct impact on agriculture. We think that is a cause that can unite Republicans and Democrats, as it did when the House passed its version of the farm bill that is now in conference. Better yet, it is a commonsense approach that can also unite business interests and NGOs across the spectrum — groups focused on issues that also range across the spectrum.
Four years after the departments and agencies were called upon to develop policies, the law is needed because the result of the president’s memorandum is a patchwork of inconsistent approaches that reflects an inconstant commitment to scientific integrity.
The scientific integrity provision attempts to address some of the inadequacies of the plans highlighted by many, including the Union of Concerned Scientists.
It builds on the administration’s initiative by calling on each federal agency to develop guidelines regarding scientific information. It clarifies that scientific information should be supported by peer review when appropriate; ensures that scientific studies used in making decisions be disclosed to the public; and requires an opportunity for stakeholder input.
It is also important to say what the scientific integrity provision does not do. It is not a radical change.
It is not a roadblock to regulation — it simply assures that all agencies have the best policies possible. It will not require a change in the type of studies that government agencies rely upon — but it will put a premium on studies that can be replicated. Nor does it force judges to adjudicate scientific issues — it just assures that agencies follow their own written procedures.
The provision is needed now for two interrelated reasons. Continuing the administration’s efforts to stress scientific integrity comes at a time when public trust in government is at an all-time low. Simultaneously, we are at a time when scientific research is critical in so many areas, such as safeguarding our food system.
Not all scientific research is made equal, and we agree that all federal departments and agencies should have well-developed scientific integrity policies.
Increased public support for science and research has been accompanied by an increased interest in how such research is conducted. With scientific integrity guidelines in place, Americans will better understand the justification for new policy decisions, and decisions will be made with transparency in accordance with the scientific method.
Rep. Stephen Fincher is a Republican from Tennessee, and Rep. Mike McIntyre is a Democrat from North Carolina. Both are members of the House Agriculture Committee. | <urn:uuid:b7541ed1-4458-4b46-b924-e6060506ed75> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.rollcall.com/news/restoring_scientific_integrity_to_government_decision_making_commentary-229940-1.html?pos=adp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00424-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942593 | 659 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Canadian Community Health Survey - Annual Component (CCHS)
Drinking behaviour of person, proportion
Drinking behaviour refers to the alcohol consumption pattern of persons who had at least one drink during a given period of time.
Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.
The data for this variable are reported using the following measurements:
- Age standardized rate | <urn:uuid:e2f17eea-6c87-4b36-9d65-cb34709ec54f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=assembleDESurv&DECId=433587&RepClass=592&Id=259374&DFId=180541 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573533.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818215509-20220819005509-00275.warc.gz | en | 0.928535 | 84 | 2.875 | 3 |
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has been shown to fight various diseases, including cancers. In addition, T cell manufacturing has become a large part of the biopharmaceutical industry due to recent advances in regenerative medicine to cure diseases such as cancer and HIV. Cell manufacturing can be optimized by monitoring cell types, their density, and morphology throughout the manufacturing process. At present, an offline flow cytometry analysis, which is labor-intensive, time consuming, and may introduce contamination, is the only way of characterizing cell samples during manufacturing. In a previous IR&D project, "Enabling In-Situ Label-Free Cell Feature Detection in Flow-Based Cell Expansion Bioreactors” (10-R8925), it was determined that, with an appropriate microscope setup, cell samples from a bioreactor can be classified as monocytes or lymphocytes. However, the internal structures of the cells could not be identified, and the types of lymphocytes (i.e., B cells, T cells, and NK cells) were not differentiable with a standard microscope setup. One technology that may offer the necessary capability is hyperspectral imaging (HSI).
While the eventual goal is to automate real-time cell classification during cell manufacturing, the focus of the current research is to use HSI to collect data on cell samples obtained from an SwRI-owned flow-based bioreactor. Performing exploratory data analysis will help us reveal the signatures, or “fingerprints,” of the cells to enable the detection, quantification, and classification of monocytes and lymphocytes within the sample without staining. Finding the “fingerprints” will allow tailoring the data collection method from hyperspectral to multispectral. With the unique signatures, a cell classification model will be developed to detect the cells, in addition to determining the class of the cell. Following model development, a low-cost camera and filter combination end solution will be created to provide a marketable and cost-effective system.
Using an HSI system, an initial hyperspectral dataset of cell samples has been captured with assistance from our bioreactor lab. In addition, we collaborated with an imaging spectroscopy expert from the Space Science and Engineering Division to build a modular hyperspectral spectrometer and video microscope system suitable for collecting data to perform analysis real-time and offline. We have also developed a software framework of multivariate analysis algorithms using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). We are using this framework to perform exploratory data analysis on the captured dataset to search for the unique spectral signature(s) cell samples to aid in the classification and detection of the cells. | <urn:uuid:ee751a88-6a7b-4bc8-9806-4f2a47b847b6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.swri.org/work-us/internal-rd/2020/biomedical-health/10-r6024 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571190.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810131127-20220810161127-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.924653 | 565 | 2.453125 | 2 |
That’s the issue, someone steals your love, well, can they steal it, someone takes the attention of another, is it real, what does an open heart do, but open, what is a closed heart, one that does not listen, can you own love, well. The strain inside, the comfort that happens, you paint it around a person, but what is it really; it’s the loving spirit you are attracted to, loving spirit, makes you feel good, can you own it, usually, you pass it on, well, this is the affect it has on me, it’s loving. Can you own love, Jesus sighs, imagine the scenario, what is love you ask, Jesus points to the flowers, the water, the happy children, the animals in the field, those in need, the outcasts, then says, you love me, well, go and love what my father in heaven loves, then I will know that you love the Father.
Can you own love, the pillar of support, the one person who wont let you down, who can you rely upon, whom do you trust. The question is posed, the person wonders, who can you depend upon, what is everlasting, who is the go to person in your life, the question goes around the head; not many to trust in, whom can you rely upon, the teacher sighs, the pupils wonder, the bell rings, the class is dismissed, the question will be answered tomorrow, the teacher gathers her bits, home in an hour, a walk, rest, the late evening work, the teacher arrives in the next day, writes the question on the board, can you love love she writes.
You can only pass it on, the teacher writes, just practice it, amen. | <urn:uuid:7bacb66f-f795-4eb2-9af9-534697a34390> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://paddypicasso.wordpress.com/tag/all-who-beleive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.953014 | 370 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Alien hand syndrome
This article possibly contains original research. (October 2015)
|Alien hand syndrome|
|Other names||AHS; alien limb syndrome; ALS; Dr. Strangelove syndrome|
Alien hand syndrome (AHS) or Dr. Strangelove syndrome is a category of conditions in which a person experiences their limbs acting seemingly on their own, without conscious control over the actions. There are a variety of clinical conditions that fall under this category, which most commonly affects the left hand. There are many similar terms for the various forms of the condition, but they are often used inappropriately. The affected person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the controllable hand to restrain the alien hand. Under normal circumstances however, given that intent and action can be assumed to be deeply mutually entangled, the occurrence of alien hand syndrome can be usefully conceptualized as a phenomenon reflecting a functional "disentanglement" between thought and action.
Alien hand syndrome is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy and epileptic psychosis, e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after brain surgery, stroke, infection, tumor, aneurysm, migraine and specific degenerative brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Corticobasal degeneration and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Other areas of the brain that are associated with alien hand syndrome are the frontal, occipital, and parietal lobes.[unreliable medical source?]
Signs and symptoms
"Alien behavior" can be distinguished from reflexive behavior in that the former is flexibly purposive while the latter is obligatory. Sometimes the affected person will not be aware of what the alien hand is doing until it is brought to his or her attention, or until the hand does something that draws their attention to its behavior. There is a clear distinction between the behaviors of the two hands in which the affected hand is viewed as "wayward" and sometimes "disobedient" and generally out of the realm of their own voluntary control, while the unaffected hand is under normal volitional control. At times, particularly in patients who have sustained damage to the corpus callosum that connects the two cerebral hemispheres (see also split-brain), the hands appear to be acting in opposition to each other.
A related syndrome described by the French neurologist François Lhermitte involves the release through disinhibition of a tendency to compulsively utilize objects that present themselves in the surrounding environment around the patient. The behavior of the patient is, in a sense, obligatorily linked to the "affordances" (using terminology introduced by the American ecological psychologist, James J. Gibson) presented by objects that are located within the immediate peri-personal environment.
This condition is known as utilization behavior. It is most often associated with extensive bilateral frontal lobe damage and might actually be thought of as "bilateral" alien hand syndrome in which the patient is compulsively directed by external environmental contingencies (such as the presence of a hairbrush on the table in front of them elicits the act of brushing the hair) and has no capacity to "hold back" and inhibit pre-potent motor programs that are obligatorily linked to the presence of specific external objects in the peri-personal space of the patient. When the frontal lobe damage is bilateral and generally more extensive, the patient completely loses the ability to act in a self-directed manner and becomes totally dependent upon the surrounding environmental indicators to guide their behavior in a general social context, a condition referred to as "environmental dependency syndrome".
In order to deal with the alien hand, some patients engage in personification of the affected hand. Usually these names are negative in nature, from mild such as "cheeky" to malicious "monster from the moon". For example, Doody and Jankovic described a patient who named her alien hand "baby Joseph". When the hand engaged in playful, troublesome activities such as pinching her nipples (akin to biting while nursing), she would experience amusement and would instruct baby Joseph to "stop being naughty". Furthermore, Bogen suggested that certain personality characteristics, such as a flamboyant personality, contribute to frequent personification of the affected hand.
Neuroimaging and pathological research shows that the frontal lobe (in the frontal variant) and corpus callosum (in the callosal variant) are the most common anatomical lesions responsible for the alien hand syndrome. These areas are closely linked in terms of motor planning and its final pathways.
The callosal variant includes advanced willed motor acts by the non-dominant hand, where patients frequently exhibit "intermanual conflict" in which one hand acts at cross-purposes with the other "good hand". For example, one patient was observed putting a cigarette into her mouth with her intact, "controlled" hand (her right, dominant hand), following which her left hand rose, grasped the cigarette, pulled it out of her mouth, and toss it away before it could be lit by the right hand. The patient then surmised that "I guess 'he' doesn't want me to smoke that cigarette." Another patient was observed to be buttoning up her blouse with her controlled dominant hand while the alien non-dominant hand, at the same time, was unbuttoning her blouse. The frontal variant most often affects the dominant hand, but can affect either hand depending on the lateralization of the damage to medial frontal cortex, and includes grasp reflex, impulsive groping toward objects or/and tonic grasping (in other words, difficulty in releasing grip).
In most cases, classic alien-hand signs derive from damage to the medial frontal cortex, accompanying damage to the corpus callosum. In these patients, the main cause of damage is unilateral or bilateral infarction of cortex in the territory supplied by the anterior cerebral artery or associated arteries. Oxygenated blood is supplied by the anterior cerebral artery to most medial portions of the frontal lobes and to the anterior two-thirds of the corpus callosum, and infarction may consequently result in damage to multiple adjacent locations in the brain in the supplied territory. As the medial frontal lobe damage is often linked to lesions of the corpus callosum, frontal variant cases may also present with callosal form signs. Cases of damage restricted to the callosum however, tend not to show frontal alien-hand signs.
The common emerging factor in alien hand syndrome is that the primary motor cortex controlling hand movement is isolated from premotor cortex influences but remains generally intact in its ability to execute movements of the hand.
A 2009 fMRI study looking at the temporal sequence of activation of components of a cortical network associated with voluntary movement in normal individuals demonstrated "an anterior-to-posterior temporal gradient of activity from supplemental motor area through premotor and motor cortices to the posterior parietal cortex". Therefore, with normal voluntary movement, the emergent sense of agency appears to be associated with an orderly sequence of activation that develops initially in the anteromedial frontal cortex in the vicinity of the supplementary motor complex on the medial surface of the frontal aspect of the hemisphere (including the supplementary motor area) prior to activation of the primary motor cortex in the pre-central gyrus on the lateral aspect of the hemisphere, when the hand movement is being generated. Activation of the primary motor cortex, presumed to be directly involved in the execution of the action via projections into the corticospinal component of the pyramidal tracts, is then followed by activation of the posterior parietal cortex, possibly related to the receipt of recurrent or re-afferent somatosensory feedback generated from the periphery by the movement which would normally interact with the efference copy transmitted from primary motor cortex to permit the movement to be recognized as self-generated rather than imposed by an external force. That is, the efference copy allows the recurrent afferent somatosensory flow from the periphery associated with the self-generated movement to be recognized as re-afference as distinct from ex-afference. Failure of this mechanism may lead to a failure to distinguish between self-generated and externally generated movement of the limb. This anomalous situation in which re-afference from a self-generated movement is mistakenly registered as ex-afference due to a failure to generate and successfully transmit an efference copy to sensory cortex, could readily lead to the interpretation that what is in actuality a self-generated movement has been produced by an external force as a result of the failure to develop a sense of agency in association with emergence of the self-generated movement (see below for a more detailed discussion).
A 2007 fMRI study examining the difference in functional brain activation patterns associated with alien as compared to non-alien "volitional" movement in a patient with alien hand syndrome found that alien movement involved anomalous isolated activation of the primary motor cortex in the damaged hemisphere contralateral to the alien hand, while non-alien movement involved the normal process of activation described in the preceding paragraph in which primary motor cortex in the intact hemisphere activates in concert with frontal premotor cortex and posterior parietal cortex presumably involved in a normal cortical network generating premotor influences on the primary motor cortex along with immediate post-motor re-afferent activation of the posterior parietal cortex.
Combining these two fMRI studies, one could hypothesize that the alien behavior that is unaccompanied by a sense of agency emerges due to autonomous activity in the primary motor cortex acting independently of premotor cortex pre-activating influences that would normally be associated with the emergence of a sense of agency linked to the execution of the action.
As noted above, these ideas can also be linked to the concept of efference copy and re-afference, where efference copy is a signal postulated to be directed from premotor cortex (activated normally in the process associated with emergence of an internally generated movement) over to somatosensory cortex of the parietal region, in advance of the arrival of the "re-afferent" input generated from the moving limb, that is, the afferent return from the moving limb associated with the self-generated movement produced. It is generally thought that a movement is recognized as internally generated when the efference copy signal effectively "cancels out" the re-afference. The afferent return from the limb is effectively correlated with the efference copy signal so that the re-afference can be recognized as such and distinguished from "ex-afference", which would be afferent return from the limb produced by an externally imposed force. When the efference copy is no longer normally generated, then the afferent return from the limb associated with the self-generated movement is mis-perceived as externally produced "ex-afference" since it is no longer correlated with or canceled out by the efference copy. As a result, the development of the sense that a movement is not internally generated even though it actually is (i.e. the failure of the sense of agency to emerge in conjunction with the movement), could indicate a failure of the generation of the efference copy signal associated with the normal premotor process through which the movement is prepared for execution.
Since there is no disturbance of the sense of ownership of the limb in this situation, and there is no apparent physical explanation for how the owned limb could be moving in a purposive manner without an associated sense of agency, a cognitive dissonance is created which may be resolved through the assumption that the goal-directed limb movement is being directed by an "alien" unidentifiable external force with the capacity for directing goal-directed actions of one's own limb.
It is theorized that alien hand syndrome results when disconnection occurs between different parts of the brain that are engaged in different aspects of the control of bodily movement. As a result, different regions of the brain are able to command bodily movements, but cannot generate a conscious feeling of self-control over these movements. As a result, the sense of agency that is normally associated with voluntary movement is impaired or lost. There is a dissociation between the process associated with the actual execution of the physical movements of the limb and the process that produces an internal sense of voluntary control over the movements, with this latter process thus normally creating the internal conscious sensation that the movements are being internally initiated, controlled and produced by an active self.
Recent studies have examined the neural correlates of emergence of the sense of agency under normal circumstances. This appears to involve consistent congruence between what is being produced through efferent outflow to the musculature of the body, and what is being sensed as the presumed product in the periphery of this efferent command signal. In alien hand syndrome, the neural mechanisms involved in establishing that this congruence has occurred may be impaired. This may involve an abnormality in the brain mechanism that differentiates between "re-afference" (the return of kinesthetic sensation from the self-generated "active" limb movement) and "ex-afference" (kinesthetic sensation generated from an externally produced 'passive' limb movement in which an active self does not participate). This brain mechanism is proposed to involve the production of a parallel "efference copy" signal that is sent directly to the somatic sensory regions and is transformed into a "corollary discharge", an expected afferent signal from the periphery that would result from the performance driven by the issued efferent signal. The correlation of the corollary discharge signal with the actual afferent signal returned from the periphery can then be used to determine if, in fact, the intended action occurred as expected. When the sensed result of the action is congruent with the predicted result, then the action can be labelled as self-generated and associated with an emergent sense of agency.
If, however, the neural mechanisms involved in establishing this sensorimotor linkage associated with self-generated action are faulty, it would be expected that the sense of agency with action would not develop as discussed in the previous section.
Loss of inhibitions
One theory posed to explain these phenomena proposes that the brain has separable neural "premotor" or "agency" systems for managing the process of transforming intentions into overt action. An anteromedial frontal premotor system is engaged in the process of directing exploratory actions based on "internal" drive by releasing or reducing inhibitory control over such actions.
A 2011 paper reporting on neuronal unit recording in the medial frontal cortex in human subjects showed a clear pre-activation of neurons identified in this area up to several hundred milliseconds prior to the onset of an overt self-generated finger movement and the authors were able to develop a computational model whereby volition emerges once a change in internally generated firing rate of neuronal assemblies in this part of the brain crossed a threshold. Damage to this anteromedial premotor system produces disinhibition and release of such exploratory and object acquisition actions which then occur autonomously. A posterolateral temporo-parieto-occipital premotor system has a similar inhibitory control over actions that withdraw from environmental stimuli as well as the ability to excite actions that are contingent upon and driven by external stimulation, as distinct from internal drive. These two intrahemispheric systems, each of which activates an opposing cortical "tropism", interact through mutual inhibition that maintains a dynamic balance between approaching toward (in other words, with "intent-to-capture" in which contact with and grasping onto the attended object is sought) versus withdrawing from (that is, with "intent-to-escape" in which distancing from the attended object is sought) environmental stimuli in the behavior of the contralateral limbs. Together, these two intrahemispheric agency systems form an integrated trans-hemispheric agency system.
When the anteromedial frontal "escape" system is damaged, involuntary but purposive movements of an exploratory reach-and-grasp nature – what Denny-Brown referred to as a positive cortical tropism – are released in the contralateral limb. This is referred to as a positive cortical tropism because eliciting sensory stimuli, such as would result from tactile contact on the volar aspect of the fingers and palm of the hand, are linked to the activation of movement that increases or enhances the eliciting stimulation through a positive feedback connection (see discussion above in section entitled "Parietal and Occipital Lobes").
When the posterolateral parieto-occipital "approach" system is damaged, involuntary purposive movements of a release-and-retract nature, such as levitation and instinctive avoidance – what Denny-Brown referred to as a negative cortical tropism – are released in the contralateral limb. This is referred to as a negative cortical tropism because eliciting sensory stimuli, such as would result from tactile contact on the volar aspect of the fingers and palm of the hand, are linked to the activation of movement that reduces or eliminates the eliciting stimulation through a negative feedback connection (see discussion above in section entitled "Parietal and Occipital Lobes").
Each intrahemispheric agency system has the potential capability of acting autonomously in its control over the contralateral limb although unitary integrative control of the two hands is maintained through interhemispheric communication between these systems via the projections traversing the corpus callosum at the cortical level and other interhemispheric commissures linking the two hemispheres at the subcortical level.
Disconnection of hemispheres due to injury
One major difference between the two hemispheres is the direct connection between the agency system of the dominant hemisphere and the encoding system based primarily in the dominant hemisphere that links action to its production and through to its interpretation with language and language-encoded thought. The overarching unitary conscious agent that emerges in the intact brain is based primarily in the dominant hemisphere and is closely connected to the organization of language capacity. It is proposed that while relational action in the form of embodied inter-subjective behavior precedes linguistic capacity during infant development, a process ensues through the course of development through which linguistic constructs are linked to action elements in order to produce a language-based encoding of action-oriented knowledge.
When there is a major disconnection between the two hemispheres resulting from callosal injury, the language-linked dominant hemisphere agent which maintains its primary control over the dominant limb loses, to some degree, its direct and linked control over the separate "agent" based in the nondominant hemisphere, and the nondominant limb, which had been previously responsive and "obedient" to the dominant conscious agent. The possibility of purposeful action occurring outside of the realm of influence of the conscious dominant agent can occur and the basic assumption that both hands are controlled through and subject to the dominant agent is proven incorrect. The sense of agency that would normally arise from movement of the nondominant limb now no longer develops, or, at least, is no longer accessible to consciousness. A new explanatory narrative for understanding the situation in which the now inaccessible nondominant hemisphere based agent is capable of activating the nondominant limb is necessitated.
Under such circumstances, the two separated agents can control simultaneous actions in the two limbs that are directed at opposing purposes although the dominant hand remains linked to the dominant consciously accessible language-linked agent and is viewed as continuing to be under "conscious control" and obedient to conscious will and intent as accessible through thought, while the nondominant hand, directed by an essentially non-verbal agent whose intent can only be inferred by the dominant agent after the fact, is no longer "tied in" and subject to the dominant agent and is thus identified by the conscious language-based dominant agent as having a separate and inaccessible alien agency and associated existence. This theory would explain the emergence of alien behavior in the nondominant limb and intermanual conflict between the two limbs in the presence of damage to the corpus callosum.
The distinct anteromedial, frontal, and posterolateral temporo-parieto-occipital variants of the alien hand syndrome would be explained by selective injury to either the frontal or the posterior components of the agency systems within a particular hemisphere, with the relevant and specific form of alien behavior developing in the limb contralateral to the damaged hemisphere.
Damage to the corpus callosum can give rise to "purposeful" actions in the person's non-dominant hand (an individual who is left-hemisphere-dominant will experience the left hand becoming alien, and the right hand will turn alien in the person with right-hemisphere dominance).
In "the callosal variant", the patient's hand counteracts voluntary actions performed by the other, "good" hand. Two phenomena that are often found in patients with callosal alien hand are agonistic dyspraxia and diagonistic dyspraxia.
Agonistic dyspraxia involves compulsive automatic execution of motor commands by one hand when the patient is asked to perform movements with the other hand. For example, when a patient with callosal damage was instructed to pull a chair forward, the affected hand would decisively and impulsively push the chair backwards. Agonistic dyspraxia can thus be viewed as an involuntary competitive interaction between the two hands directed toward completion of a desired act in which the affected hand competes with the unaffected hand to complete a purposive act originally intended to be performed by the unaffected hand.
Diagonistic dyspraxia, on the other hand, involves a conflict between the desired act in which the unaffected hand has been engaged and the interfering action of the affected hand which works to oppose the purpose of the desired act intended to be performed by the unaffected hand. For instance, when Akelaitis's patients underwent surgery to the corpus callosum to reduce epileptic seizures, one patient's left alien hand would frequently interfere with the right hand. For instance, while trying to turn over to the next page with the right hand, his left hand would try to close the book.
In another case of callosal alien hand, the patient did not have intermanual conflict between the hands but rather from a symptom characterized by involuntary mirror movements of the affected hand. When the patient was asked to perform movements with one hand, the other hand would involuntarily perform a mirror image movement which continued even when the involuntary movement was brought to the attention of the patient, and the patient was asked to restrain the mirrored movement. The patient had a ruptured aneurysm near the anterior cerebral artery, which resulted in the right hand being mirrored by the left hand. The patient described the left hand as frequently interfering and taking over anything the patient tried to do with the right hand. For instance, when trying to grasp a glass of water with the right hand with a right side approach, the left hand would involuntary reach out and grasp hold of the glass through a left side approach.
More recently, Geschwind et al. described the case of a woman with severe coronary heart disease. One week after undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, she noticed that her left hand started to "live a life of its own". It would unbutton her gown, try to choke her while asleep and would automatically fight with the right hand to answer the phone. She had to physically restrain the affected hand with the right hand to prevent injury, a behavior which has been termed "self-restriction". The left hand also showed signs of severe ideomotor apraxia. It was able to mimic actions but only with the help of mirror movements executed by the right hand (enabling synkinesis). Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Geschwind et al. found damage to the posterior half of the callosal body, sparing the anterior half and the splenium extending slightly into the white matter underlying the right cingulate cortex.
Park et al. also described two cases of infarction as the origin of alien hand symptoms. Both individuals had had infarction of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA). One individual, a 72-year-old male, had difficulty controlling his hands, as they often moved involuntarily, despite his trying to stabilize them. Furthermore, he often could not let go of objects after grasping them with his palms. The other individual, a 47-year-old female with an ACA in a different location of the artery, complained that her left hand would move on its own and she could not control its movements. Her left hand could also sense when her right hand was holding an object and would involuntarily, forcibly take the object out of her right hand.
Unilateral injury to the medial aspect of the brain's frontal lobe can trigger reaching, grasping and other purposeful movements in the contralateral hand. With anteromedial frontal lobe injuries, these movements are often exploratory reaching movements in which external objects are frequently grasped and utilized functionally, without the simultaneous perception on the part of the patient that they are "in control" of these movements. Once an object has been acquired and is maintained in the grasp of this "frontal variant" form of alien hand, the patient often has difficulty with voluntarily releasing the object from grasp and can sometimes be seen to be peeling the fingers of the hand back off the grasped object using the opposite controlled hand to enable the release of the grasped object (also referred to as tonic grasping or the "instinctive grasp reaction"). Some (for example, the neurologist Derek Denny-Brown) have referred to this behavior as "magnetic apraxia"
Goldberg and Bloom described a woman with a large cerebral infarction of the medial surface of the left frontal lobe in the territory of the left anterior cerebral artery which left her with the frontal variant of the alien hand involving the right hand. There were no signs of callosal disconnection nor was there evidence of any callosal damage. The patient displayed frequent grasp reflexes; her right hand would reach out and grab objects without releasing them. In regards to tonic grasping, the more the patient tried to let go of the object, the more the grip of the object tightened. With focused effort the patient was able to let go of the object, but if distracted, the behaviour would re-commence. The patient could also forcibly release the grasped object by peeling her fingers away from contact with the object using the intact left hand. Additionally, the hand would scratch at the patient's leg to the extent that an orthotic device was required to prevent injury. Another patient reported not only tonic grasping towards objects nearby, but the alien hand would take hold of the patient's penis and engage in public masturbation.
Parietal and occipital lobes
A distinct "posterior variant" form of alien hand syndrome is associated with damage to the posterolateral parietal lobe and/or occipital lobe of the brain. The movements in this situation tend to be more likely to withdraw the palmar surface of the hand away from sustained environmental contact rather than reaching out to grasp onto objects to produce palmar tactile stimulation, as is most often seen in the frontal form of the condition. In the frontal variant, tactile contact on the ventral surface of the palm and fingers facilitates finger flexion and grasp of the object through a positive feedback loop (i.e. the stimulus generates movement that reinforces, strengthens and sustains the triggering stimulation).
In contrast, in the posterior variant, tactile contact on the ventral surface of the palm and fingers is actively avoided through facilitation of extension of the fingers and withdrawal of the palm in a negative feedback loop (i.e. the stimulus, and even anticipation of stimulation of the palmar surface of the hand, generates movement of the palm and fingers that reduces and effectively counteracts and eliminates the triggering stimulation, or, in the case of anticipated palmar contact, decreases the likelihood of such contact). Alien movements in the posterior variant of the syndrome also tend to be less coordinated and show a coarse ataxic motion during active movement that is generally not observed in the frontal form of the condition. This is generally thought to be due to an optic form of ataxia since it is facilitated by the visual presence of an object with visual attention directed toward the object. The apparent instability could be due to an unstable interaction between the tactile avoidance tendency biasing toward withdrawal from the object, and the visually based acquisition bias tendency pushing toward an approach to the object.
The alien limb in the posterior variant of the syndrome may be seen to "levitate" upward into the air withdrawing away from contact surfaces through the activation of anti-gravity musculature. Alien hand movement in the posterior variant may show a typical posture, sometimes referred to as a "parietal hand" or the "instinctive avoidance reaction" (a term introduced by neurologist Derek Denny-Brown as an inverse form of the "magnetic apraxia" seen in the frontal variant, as noted above), in which the digits move into a highly extended position with active extension of the interphalangeal joints of the digits and hyper-extension of the metacarpophalangeal joints, and the palmar surface of the hand is actively pulled back away from approaching objects or up and away from supporting surfaces. The "alien" movements, however, remain purposeful and goal-directed, a point which clearly differentiates these movements from other disorganized non-purposeful forms of involuntary limb movement (e.g. athetosis, chorea, or myoclonus).
Similarities between frontal and posterior variants
In both the frontal and the posterior variants of the alien hand syndrome, the patient's reactions to the limb's apparent capability to perform goal-directed actions independent of conscious volition is similar. In both of these variants of alien hand syndrome, the alien hand emerges in the hand contralateral to the damaged hemisphere.
There is no cure for the alien hand syndrome. However, the symptoms can be reduced and managed to some degree by keeping the alien hand occupied and involved in a task, for example by giving it an object to hold in its grasp. Specific learned tasks can restore voluntary control of the hand to a significant degree. One patient with the "frontal" form of alien hand who would reach out to grasp onto different objects (e.g., door handles) as he was walking was given a cane to hold in the alien hand while walking, even though he really did not need a cane for its usual purpose. With the cane firmly in the grasp of the alien hand, it would generally not release the grasp and drop the cane in order to reach out to grasp onto a different object. Other techniques proven to be effective includes; wedging the hand between the legs or slapping it; warm water application and visual or tactile contact. Additionally, Wu et al. found that an irritating alarm activated by biofeedback reduced the time the alien hand held an object.
In the presence of unilateral damage to a single cerebral hemisphere, there is generally a gradual reduction in the frequency of alien behaviors observed over time and a gradual restoration of voluntary control over the affected hand. Actually, when AHS originates from focal injury of acute onset, recovery usually occurs within a year. One theory is that neuroplasticity in the bihemispheric and subcortical brain systems involved in voluntary movement production can serve to re-establish the connection between the executive production process and the internal self-generation and registration process. Exactly how this may occur is not well understood, but a process of gradual recovery from alien hand syndrome when the damage is confined to a single cerebral hemisphere has been reported. In some instances, patients may resort to constraining the wayward, undesirable and sometimes embarrassing actions of the impaired hand by voluntarily grasping onto the forearm of the impaired hand using the intact hand. This observed behavior has been termed "self-restriction" or "self-grasping".
In another approach, the patient is trained to perform a specific task, such as moving the alien hand to contact a specific object or a highly salient environmental target, which is a movement that the patient can learn to generate voluntarily through focused training in order to effectively override the alien behavior. It is possible that some of this training produces a re-organization of premotor systems within the damaged hemisphere, or, alternatively, that ipsilateral control of the limb from the intact hemisphere may be expanded.
Another method involves simultaneously "muffling" the action of the alien hand and limiting the sensory feedback coming back to the hand from environmental contact by placing it in a restrictive "cloak" such as a specialized soft foam hand orthosis or, alternatively, an everyday oven mitt. Other patients have reported using an orthotic device to restrict perseverative grasping or restraining the alien hand by securing it to the bed pole. Of course, this can limit the degree to which the hand can participate in addressing functional goals for the patient and may be considered to be an unjustifiable restraint.
Theoretically, this approach could slow down the process through which voluntary control of the hand is restored if the neuroplasticity that underlies recovery involves the recurrent exercise of voluntary will to control the actions of the hand in a functional context and the associated experiential reinforcement through successful willful suppression of the alien behavior.
The first known case described in the medical literature appeared in a detailed case report published in German in 1908 by the preeminent German neuro-psychiatrist, Kurt Goldstein. In this paper, Goldstein described a right-handed woman who had had a stroke affecting her left side from which she had partially recovered by the time she was seen. However, her left arm seemed as though it belonged to another person and performed actions that appeared to occur independent of her will.
The patient complained of a feeling of "strangeness" in relationship to the goal-directed movements of the left hand and insisted that "someone else" was moving the left hand, and that she was not moving it herself. When the left hand grasped an object, she could not voluntarily release it. The senses of touch and proprioception of the left side were impaired. The left hand would make spontaneous movements, such as wiping the face or rubbing the eyes, but these were relatively infrequent. With significant effort, she was able to move her left arm in response to spoken command, but conscious movements were slower or less precise than similar involuntary motions.
Goldstein developed a "doctrine of motor apraxia" in which he discussed the generation of voluntary action and proposed a brain structure for temporal and spatial cognition, will and other higher cognitive processes. Goldstein maintained that a structure conceptually organizing both the body and external space was necessary for object perception as well as for voluntary action on external objects.
In his classic papers reviewing the wide variety of disconnection syndromes associated with focal brain pathology, Norman Geschwind commented that Kurt Goldstein "was perhaps the first to stress the non-unity of the personality in patients with callosal section, and its possible psychiatric effects".
In popular culture
- In Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, the eponymous character, played by Peter Sellers, apparently has alien hand syndrome, as he can't stop himself from doing the Nazi salute. "Dr. Strangelove syndrome" was suggested as the official name for AHS. This was not approved, though it is sometimes used as an alternative name.
- In the 1999 movie Idle Hands the main character of the movie has his left hand possessed by the devil and cannot control it, though the title is a reference to "Idle hands are the Devil's playground," the fact that the hand literally has a mind of its own is highly similar.
- In the medical drama TV series House episode "Both Sides Now", a patient has alien hand syndrome.
- An episode of Dark Matters: Twisted But True – a documentary TV series on Discovery Science – described alien hand syndrome and traced its history.
- The 2017 Indian Tamil dark comedy film Peechankai is about a person with AHS.
- In Season 2 of the TV series Scream Queens, Dr. Brock Holt appears to have alien hand syndrome.
- Automatic writing
- Automatic drawing
- Automatic speech
- Bicameral mentality
- Divided consciousness
- Dual consciousness
- Ideomotor phenomenon
- Left brain interpreter
- Surrealist automatism
- Panikkath, Ragesh; Panikkath, Deepa; Mojumder, Deb; Nugent, Kenneth (1 July 2014). "The alien hand syndrome". Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center). 27 (3): 219–220. doi:10.1080/08998280.2014.11929115. PMC 4059570. PMID 24982566.
- Biran, Iftah; Giovannetti, Tania; Buxbaum, Laurel; Chatterjee, Anjan (2006-06-01). "The alien hand syndrome: What makes the alien hand alien?". Cognitive Neuropsychology. 23 (4): 563–582. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.537.6357. doi:10.1080/02643290500180282. ISSN 0264-3294. PMID 21049344. S2CID 15889976.
The alien hand syndrome is a deeply puzzling phenomenon in which brain-damaged patients experience their limb performing seemingly purposeful acts without their intention. Furthermore, the limb may interfere with the actions of their normal limb.
- Aboitiz, F.; Carrasco, X.; Schröter, C.; Zaidel, D.; Zaidel, E.; Lavados, M. (2003). "The alien hand syndrome: classification of forms reported and discussion of a new condition". Neurological Sciences. 24 (4): 252–257. doi:10.1007/s10072-003-0149-4. ISSN 1590-1874. PMID 14658042. S2CID 24643561.
The term "alien hand" refers to a variety of clinical conditions whose common characteristic is the uncontrolled behavior or the feeling of strangeness of one extremity, most commonly the left hand.
- Aboitiz, F.; Carrasco, X.; Schröter, C.; Zaidel, D.; Zaidel, E.; Lavados, M. (2003). "The alien hand syndrome: classification of forms reported and discussion of a new condition". Neurological Sciences. 24 (4): 252–257. doi:10.1007/s10072-003-0149-4. ISSN 1590-1874. PMID 14658042. S2CID 24643561.
A large variety of complex, abnormal, involuntary motor behaviors have been described following callosal lesions which may or may not be accompanied by hemispheric damage, especially in the frontal medial region. Although the different terminologies used to describe these movements attempt to address their clinical specificity, there is a noticeable nosological confusion in the literature which results in assigning similar names, often inappropriate, to diverse phenomena and vice versa. One example of such confusion is the group of syndromes labeled as "alien hand", "anarchic hand" [2, 3], "way-ward hand" [4, 5], "intermanual conflict" and "diagonistic dyspraxia" [7, 8].
- Assal, Frédéric; Schwartz, Sophie; Vuilleumier, Patrik (2007). "Moving with or without will: functional neural correlates of alien hand syndrome". Annals of Neurology. 62 (3): 301–306. doi:10.1002/ana.21173. PMID 17638304. S2CID 14180577.
- Lay summary in: "Alien Hand Syndrome: Nerve Impulses Can Cause Movement Even When Person Is Unaware". ScienceDaily. July 17, 2007.
- Munevar, Gonzalo (2012). "The Myth of Dual Consciousness in the Split Brain: Contrary Evidence from Psychology and Neuroscience" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-15.
- Belfor, Nataliya; Amici, Serena; Boxer, Adam L.; Kramer, Joel H.; Gorno-Tempini, Maria Luisa; Rosen, Howard J.; Miller, Bruce L. (2006). "Clinical and neuropsychological features of corticobasal degeneration". Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 127 (2): 203–207. doi:10.1016/j.mad.2005.09.013. PMID 16310834. S2CID 35169781.
- Kloesel, Benjamin; Czarnecki, Kathrin; Muir, Jeffery J.; Keller, A. Scott (2010). "Sequelae of a left-sided parietal stroke: Posterior alien hand syndrome". Neurocase. 16 (6): 488–493. doi:10.1080/13554794.2010.497154. PMID 20824573. S2CID 31374522.
- Mark, Victor W (November 29, 2014). "Alien hand syndrome". MedLink.
- Revonsuo, Antti (2009). Consciousness: The Science of Subjectivity. New York: Psychology Press. ISBN 9781135164805.[page needed]
- Lhermitte, F (1983). 'Utilization behaviour' and its relation to lesions of the frontal lobes. Brain. Vol. 106. pp. 237–255. doi:10.1093/brain/106.2.237. ISBN 9780415134989. PMID 6850269.
- Lhermitte, F.; Pillon, B.; Serdaru, M. (1986). "Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: A neuropsychological study of 75 patients". Annals of Neurology. 19 (4): 326–334. doi:10.1002/ana.410190404. PMID 3707084. S2CID 2031690.
- Lhermitte, F. (1986). "Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part II: Patient behavior in complex and social situations: The 'environmental dependency syndrome'". Annals of Neurology. 19 (4): 335–343. doi:10.1002/ana.410190405. PMID 3707085. S2CID 46441945.
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- "Definition of Alien Hand Syndrome". MedicalNet.com. December 15, 2000. Retrieved October 6, 2011. | <urn:uuid:ed3503ce-aaff-4714-8c99-4ec7caa1685f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573163.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818033705-20220818063705-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.895878 | 11,516 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Hiking in Porto Moniz (Porto Moniz – Madeira)
We arrived in Porto Moniz after hiking PR6 – Levada das 25 Fontes, a little tired but still with much desire to know the famous Natural Pools of Porto Moniz.
Before we started the descent to the village, we stopped at “Miradouro da Santa” (Santa Viewpoint), in ER 101, where we were dazzled by the landscapes to the “fajã” and to the rock formations that characterize it.
It was only after World War II that Porto Moniz became connected to the rest of the island, when the road linking the village to São Vicente was excavated on the hillside. This is considered one of the most beautiful roads on the island, where sometimes fantastic waterfalls seek their way to the sea.
We parked next to Madeira Aquarium, installed in the old Fort of Saint John the Baptist. With more time available we would certainly bought the tickets to know the various “habitats” of the Madeiran marine world, but unfortunately it would have to stay for another opportunity.
We head towards the Natural Pools that appear as if framed between the pointed escarpments of the coastal border.
The singular beauty of the natural pools and the surrounding landscapes is a pole of attraction, a tourist poster of this region.
First we found “Cachalote” Natural Pools located next to the restaurant with the same name and with free access.
We walked along “Eng. Américo” Street under the watchful eye of “Ilhéu Mole” (Soft Islet), who stoically endured the waves force of a rebellious sea.
We saw the reasons that lead this volcanic pool complex, located on the north coast of Madeira Island, to be so popular with tourists from all over the world. Literally invaded by the crystalline waters of the ocean, its unique beauty, both the swimming pools and the surrounding landscapes, is a pole of attraction, a tourist poster of this region.
The photos taken here are published throughout the year on social networks (yes, the pools are open all year round) but especially during the summer season. The average temperature of the water is between 20 and 21ºC and so it’s normal to see people bathing, even outside the warmer months.
But today wasn’t a bathing day, at least for us. We walked along the promenade, contemplating the bravery of the waves crashing against the black rocks.
We played with Maria in the Children’s Playground, where she doesn’t resist to the slides and swings. It’s a stronger attraction than a magnet to a fridge and we try to always reserve a little time, wherever we are, so that she can discharge the energies, run, get dirty and especially be a child.
We returned to the apartment, traveling all along the south coast of the island, so that by the end of the afternoon we would rest quietly on the porch while the sun set on the horizon.
Tomorrow we would pause the hikes to dress the skin of real tourists. In the morning a trip on the Yellow Bus and in the afternoon a Catamaran adventure for whale watching. Don’t miss the next posts!
Points of Interest:
“Miradouro da Santa” (Santa Viewpoint), Madeira Aquarium and Natural Pools of Porto Moniz.
- Stop at “Miradouro da Santa” (Santa Viewpoint) to observe Porto Moniz and the “fajã” where the village grew.
- Go with time to visit Madeira Aquarium.
13melevation gain uphill
18melevation gain downhill
(Sign up for the newsletter to receive the next hiking trail by email) | <urn:uuid:6f4b16c3-2b16-4e8b-b8d7-24ea6162a059> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://solagasta.com/en/hiking-in-porto-moniz-porto-moniz-madeira/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.943308 | 869 | 1.5625 | 2 |
ARMED with James Knox’s book, you may find yourself reaching for a map, and planning a visit, perhaps to Dumfries House in Ayrshire, or the House of the Binns near Linlithgow.
The Scottish Country House by James Knox
Thames & Hudson, 208pp, £28
Or more likely, particularly at this time of year, sitting back in your armchair, and imagining yourself invited to tea (not all of the ten houses within its covers are open to the public).
There’s nothing like ferreting about a good country house, with some quality plastering, carpets, curious artefacts and the odd masterpiece on which the eye can linger; but they’re so much better value for a memorable encounter with their eccentric denizens. This is the pleasure of Knox’s book; not just for its whimsical, but eminently erudite eye on the architecture and furnishings, but for a knack of matching the character of houses to the families that inhabit them.
He begins, with relish, with the House of the Binns, the first country house handed over to the National Trust for Scotland, in 1944, and home of the Dalyell family. We meet former MP and present laird Tam Dalyell, the seasoned opponent of devolution, and a collection that includes the Griffin cartoon of him, as a dog, chewing on Margaret Thatcher’s heel. But we also encounter his 17th century namesake, General Tam Dalyell, “who as an ardent royalist refused to shave or cut his hair until the Stuart monarchy had been restored to the throne”.
James Fennell’s photographs, like Knox’s text, range from sumptuous settings captured panoramically in natural light, to witty details. Tam Dalyell’s bust by modern Scottish artist Gerald Laing looks, with an arrow through it, like an extra from a western movie, a cheeky addition by the grandchildren. The King’s Room features the decoration of thistles and roses in plasterwork celebrating the union of the crowns, prepared for a (cancelled) visit by Charles I, but a photograph also picks out a row of fancy leather riding boots.
“The Scots engaged with their sublime landscape long before the cult of the picturesque awoke the rest of Britain to the pleasures of a good view,” says Knox, managing director of The Art Newspaper and author of books on Robert Byron and the cartoonist and satirist Osbert Lancaster. He tells a story of how a high wall was demolished at Arniston, Midlothian, and men ran to the dying laird to tell him the sea could now be seen from the windows.
The book celebrates Scotland’s classical architects, William Adam and his sons John, Robert, and James, and reminds us how Sir Walter Scott “turned the revival of castle building into a craze”, built for display rather than defence, with the Scottish Baronial style that “took the country by storm”. It produced buildings like the new castle at Lochinch, built by the Earl of Stair, “bristling with bartizans, turrets” and the high step roofs and narrow gables Scott evoked in his novel Waverley.
Fennell’s photographs are shot only in natural light. Each house is introduced with a stunning flourish, like the sensational entrance hall by William Adams at Arniston; we’re then shown the oak room, where “the lord president liked to carouse with his cronies”, “getting slockened” on claret. Knox likes his language; in the same chapter we hear the lady laird describe her parents as being “very squashing”, and he notes the “limpid hang” of the paintings in the hall. Another hall displays hunting trophies, including a pair of walrus tusks.
Some families lived large; others managed the family property quietly. There’s Dumfries House, for where orders from Chippendale (over 50 items) were shipped to Leith and then by cart to Ayrshire. The house was saved by a deal brokered by Prince Charles in 2007; previously the widowed lady Eileen Bute, a horse racing enthusiast and leader of the so-called Ayrshire Widows Association, lived there nearly 40 years, staining the walls with nicotine.
There’s Ballindalloch, Banffshire, where the current lady laird’s “dear papa” advised her to show “ghastly paintings” to the auction houses before she burned them – they turned out to be rare 17th century Spanish works – and “naughty Uncle George” nearly scuppered the family’s inheritance by leaving most of his estate to his boyfriend in the 1950s. The family have “succeeded in hanging on to it” since 1546, now helped by the oldest Aberdeen Angus herd in existence, from a breed developed at the estate.
The book’s £28 price is merited by the magnificent photographs alone; wisely Knox has avoided picturing the houses’ current owners in Hello! magazine style. | <urn:uuid:af123b01-8d06-4fd8-a3bf-564cd8f6a559> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/book-review-the-scottish-country-house-by-james-knox-1-2719404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00218-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962404 | 1,105 | 1.578125 | 2 |
In doing SDM for SDM, there are three separate things that are still connected in the work that needs to be understood as follows:
- Strategic SDM
- SDM strategy, and
- SDM Organization.
Strategic SDM is a process of SDM practices on the relationship of business strategy. Line managers and human resource functions of strategic SDM. Strategic SDM to create a process to move from business strategy to organizational capacity in human resources practices.
Strategy SDM talked about building an agenda on human resource functions. SDM strategy to create a destination and a focus on human resource functions.
SDM organizations are menegenal process and develop an HR function to deliver SDM services. SDMorganizations is the implementation of human resources executives conducted by the SDM Professional.
Strategic SDM: BUSINESS STRATEGY ON DEVELOPMENT OF PRIORITY SDM
Corporate managers to use the main strategies in the conduct of strategic human resources, business strategy formulation in running SDM results. Formulation of strategy presents three objectives. Namely:
- discuss a strategy guide for the future of the business or in other words a vision, purpose, goal, mission or future review.
- formulation of the problem to allocate resources. Companies have the resources, which focuses on a variety of purposes. Since few companies have sufficient resources to work on the stakeholders, where the allocation of resources should be made.
- formulating strategies that promise memrefleksikan explain commitments made in the formulation of the strategy discussion.
Strategy formulation process, the executive develop a future vision, allocate resources to realize the vision, and promised to stakeholders to achieve its objectives.
Repeating the formulation without the probability of implementing one of the main goals of the strategic SDM tasks. Strategic SDM is often associated with the business strategy on human resources actions by describing the ability to criticize it takes on a company to be successful.
SDM STRATEGY: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SDM FUNCTIONS
When human resources strategy to ensure that a company has the resources necessary to complete the company's business objectives, the strategy describes the creation of human resources by the value of human resources functions.
Step 1: describe an organizational architecture
- Shared Mindset: the level for the human resource function has a mindset shared or common identity
- Competence: the level for the human resource function organized by individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and ability to carry out the work now and the future.
- Consequence: which level of management to achieve system used by human resources professionals to focus on results and behavior.
- Governance: which level of human resource functions effectively connected, communication, decision making, and policy.
- Work Process / Capacity for change: the level to which the function of human resources in training and adjustment, and understanding and improving processes.
- Leadership: the level for effective leadership that spreads into other parts of the human resource function.
Step 2: create an assessment process
A diagnosis of human resources audit or assessment suggests to identify the human resource organization.
Step 3: to provide human resource organization
Human resource functions apply to itself the model of human resource practices. When this happens, this practice became the building blocks of human resources related to the organization.
Step 4: priorities are set
Step 4 determines the priority of the organizational diagnosis of attention from human resources on a few critical issues. The function may set priorities for developing human resources practices. The practice is to build the infrastructure of the human resource function effectively and implementastion strategic human resources. | <urn:uuid:d842bbbc-1e27-4ea1-ae37-fe9956b5890c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://artikelpaper-ekonomi.blogspot.com/2009/11/artikel-manajemen-sumber-daya-manusia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00475-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903308 | 738 | 2.609375 | 3 |
|Schizophrenia Information > Street Drugs and Schizophrenia|
Marijuana / Cannabis and Schizophrenia
Overview: Use of street drugs (including LSD,methamphetamine,marijuana/hash/cannabis) and alcohol have been linked with significantly increased probability of developing psychosis and schizophrenia. This link has been documented in over 30 different scientific studies (studies done mostly in the UK, Australia and Sweden) over the past 20 years. In one example, a study interviewed 50,000 members of the Swedish Army about their drug consumption and followed up with them later in life. Those who were heavy consumers of cannabis at age 18 were over 600% more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia over the next 15 years than those did not take it. (see diagram below). Experts estimate that between 8% and 13% of all schizophrenia cases are linked to marijuna / cannabis use during teen years.
Many of these research studies indicate that the risk is higher when the drugs are used by people under the age of 21, a time when the human brain is developing rapidly and is particularly vulnerable.
People with any biological predisposition towards schizophrenia are at the highest risk -- unfortunately its impossible to accurately identify this predisposition beforehand ( a family history of mental illness is just one indicator of such a predisposition). [see causes and prevention of schizophrenia for more information on all risk factors linked to a person developing schizophrenia]
Researchers in New Zealand found that those who used cannabis by the age of 15 were more than three times (300%) more likely to develop illnesses such as schizophrenia. Other research has backed this up, showing that cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis by up to 700% for heavy users, and that the risk increases in proportion to the amount of cannabis used (smoked or consumed). Additionally, the younger a person smokes/uses cannabis, the higher the risk for schizophrenia, and the worse the schizophrenia is when the person does develop it. Research by psychiatrists in inner-city areas speak of cannabis being a factor in up to 80 percent of schizophrenia cases.
Professor Robin Murray (London Institute of Psychiatry) has recently (2005) completed a 15-year study of more than 750 adolescents in conjunction with colleagues at King's College London and the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Overall people were 4.5 times more likely to be schizophrenic at 26 if they were regular cannabis smokers at 15, compared to 1.65 times for those who did not report regular use until age 18.
Many researchers now believe that using the drug while the brain is still developing boosts levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain, which can directly lead to schizophrenia.
Professor John Henry, clinical toxicologist at Imperial College London said research has shown that people with a certain genetic makeup who use the drug face a ten times (1000%) higher risk of schizophrenia. (for example - if your risk of schizophrenia was 6% (due to a family history of mental illness) prior to taking cannabis, it could be 60% -- or more likely than not - after taking cannabis). Every person is different (i.e. has different genes and different environments) - so this "10 Times Higher Risk with cannabis use"- is just a generalization, and it may or may not apply to a given person.
A recent Dutch study showed that teenagers who indulge in cannabis as few as five times in their life significantly increase their risk of psychotic symptoms.
The increase in evidence during the past decade could be tied to the increased potency of marijuana. A review by the British Lung Association says that the cannabis available on the streets today is 15 times more powerful than the joints being smoked three decades ago.
Schizophrenia can sometimes be triggered by heavy use of hallucinogenic drugs, especially LSD; but it appears that one has to have a genetic predisposition towards developing schizophrenia for this to occur. There is also some evidence suggesting that people suffering from schizophrenia but responding to treatment can have an episode as a result of use of LSD. Methamphetamine and PCP also mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia, and can trigger ongoing symptoms of schizophrenia in those who are vulnerable.
Melbourne University's Professor David Castle stated in a February, 2005 interview that heavy drug use during formative times of life, such as the years at school, could affect the way a teenager or young adult thought, impairing cognitive ability and having a long-term impact on job prospects. Victorian studies had revealed that regular use of cannabis by adolescent girls could trigger long-term depression. And for those vulnerable to a psychotic disorder, even a small amount of cannabis could pose a threat.
Professor Castle, author of the book Marijuana and Madness, has said that those people with this "psychotic proneness" were those who had a family history of mental illness or who had had a bad response on their first use of cannabis or to a tiny amount. Others at risk included those who had experienced a psychotic episode where they had paranoid thinking or heard a voice calling their name. Professor Castle said experiencing such a one-off episode was far more common than people thought.
"People with such a vulnerability should avoid cannabis like the plague," he said.
Without the effects of the drug, such a person might live their whole life without ever experiencing mental health problems. It has been estimated, for example, that between 8% and 13% of people that have schizophrenia today would never have developed the illness without exposure to cannabis.
Professor Castle compared the effect to feeding sweets to a diabetic. While high sugar content foods did not cause too many problems for most people in the short term, they could be catastrophic for diabetics.
He said there was an accumulative effect when it came to cannabis use and schizophrenia. Those who used the drug more than once a week were more prone to needing hospitalisation and often suffered other associated problems such as the breakdown of relations with their family, isolation, crime and violence.
* Cannabis impacts on neurotransmitters that regulate how arousal and stress are managed in the brain. Cannabis takes a long time to metabolise, and can quickly build up to high levels in the body. Once you get to this point, there is a real risk of depression or schizophrenia being triggered.
* A Swedish study of 50,000 military conscripts found heavy use of cannabis increased the risk of suicide by four times (400%). A Victorian study of 2332 adolescents found weekly use increased the risk of suicide attempts among females by five times. Weekly use as a teenager doubled the risk of depression and anxiety. Daily use at the age of 20 boosted the risk of depression and anxiety by five times (500%).
Helpful Actions: If you want to avoid getting schizophrenia - research suggests that the number one thing you should avoid are street drugs (especially marijuana/cannabis - but because you never know what someone has put into a street drug, all of them are dangerous). By avoiding use of all street drugs research suggests that you can greatly reduce the chance (by as much as 50% to 80% if you are biologically predisposed) that you'll develop schizophrenia. Avoiding marijuana after developing schizophrenia also helps reduce relapse rates. Some people with schizophrenia suggest that it makes them feel better, but if depression is an issue we recommend these people talk to their Psych-Doc about possible anti-depressant use rather than street drugs.
Do not use even small amounts of cannabis if you have any family history of mental illness, have had an episode of paranoid thinking or hearing voices or had a bad response when first using cannabis or when using a small amount.
Other street drugs are also very dangerous - partly because they are produced in home laboratories with virtually any possible combination of additional substances mixed in with the drugs. See: Crystal Meth & Schizophrenia
A recent Internet video report on schizophrenia and cannabis has recently become available. To play the video go to the following link - and then click on "Play" button to view any of the 6 different sections of the video report: Messing with Heads: New Research into the longterm effects of Cannabis (Internet Video, 2005) from the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC).
Cannabis-induced psychosis and subsequent schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: follow-up study of 535 incident cases. Br J Psychiatry. 2005 Dec;187:510-5
Toward a world consensus on prevention of schizophrenia.
Risk for schizophrenia--broadening the concepts, pushing back the boundaries.
The environment and schizophrenia: the role of cannabis use.
Predictors of schizophrenia--a review.
Cannabis as a risk factor for psychosis: systematic review.
Cannabis use prior to first onset psychosis predicts spared neurocognition at 10-year follow-up.
[Acute and chronic cognitive disorders caused by cannabis use]
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol effects in schizophrenia: implications for cognition, psychosis, and addiction.
Cannabis use and psychotic disorders: an update.
Is cannabis an anti-antipsychotic? The experience in psychiatric intensive care.
Cannabis and risk of psychosis.
[Cannabis can double the risk of schizophrenia. Increasing but still controversial knowledge of the psychological effects of the drug]
Is the party over? Cannabis and juvenile psychiatric disorder: the past 10 years.
Adverse effects of cannabis on health: an update of the literature since 1996.
Cannabis use and risk of psychosis: an etiological link?
[Cannabis and schizophrenia. From euphoria to psychosis]
Heavy cannabis users seeking treatment- prevalence of psychiatric disorders.
Cannabis use and the risk of later schizophrenia: a review.
Cannabis use and psychosis.Drug Alcohol Rev. 1998 Dec;17(4):433-44.
Cannabis use and age at onset of schizophrenia.
Causal association between cannabis and psychosis: examination of the evidence.
[Cannabis use as a probable causative factor in the later development of schizophrenia]
[Use of cannabis in adolescence and risk of schizophrenia]
Cannabis use in adolescence and risk for adult psychosis: longitudinal prospective study.
[Is there a temporal correlation between substance abuse and psychosis in adolescents?]
Cannabis and psychosis.
Cannabis-induced psychosis: a cross-sectional comparison with acute schizophrenia.
For more science studies on this topic, go to these Search Engine Results: | <urn:uuid:f607eb17-6059-43e3-bfdf-bb4c179a6518> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.schizophrenia.com/prevention/streetdrugs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00301-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94888 | 2,114 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Turn in your Bibles to the first chapter of the book of Job. I decided tonight because many of you asked me about this and some of you have been reading books about it and it's important, if we could talk about the subject of Satan. And so I want to do that tonight. And as I said, I do not particularly prefer sermons that are topical, I'd rather preach expositional ones, but from time to time, I think, topical sermons fit the need and we trust that tonight God has led in this decision to speak on the person of Satan.
I think a lot of us pass by the fact of Satan with very little thought. We don't stop to realize that Satan is a person, that he is really involved in our lives, that he is really involved in the church and he is really involved in the world in a personal aggressive way, that as the Spirit of God is endeavoring to enable you as a Christian to live for Jesus Christ, so the devil Satan is endeavoring to destroy your testimony, to sidetrack you, to derail you from serving Christ in any capacity that is in any way effective. Satan is a reality. And if nothing else tonight, I want you to see something of the strategy of Satan. You know, to know your opponent's strategy is pretty important. In terms of football, when you know the opponent's plays, you're in pretty good shape. If that were ever to come to pass, it would end the game. And Satan really is a very obvious character, painted to us explicitly in terms of Scripture, and we need not be in the dark about him.
We're first introduced to Satan time wise in the book of Job. Job is the oldest book in the Bible, chronologically speaking, though it does not start, it doesn’t come at the beginning of the Bible. Job was a man who lived during the patriarchal period, during the time of the men who were the patriarchs in the book of Genesis. And the first book chronologically speaking, Job, is a book about the conflict between a righteous man and Satan. And there's no bones about it and God doesn't waste any time at the very beginning of man's history, he begins a conflict with the devil and it never ends until Christ finally ends it in His Kingdom when He binds Satan and then looses him for a little while, then casts him into the pit. The history of man is the history of a conflict between God and Satan and the battleground is really the life of a man. That's where the battle is really fought.
So Job, the first book written chronologically, is the story of a man who lived in the patriarchal period, who really is the battleground in a conflict between God and Satan. It's simply the beginning of what's been going on ever since. And in the midst of this battle, in the midst of this conflict, Job stayed true to God and the summary of it all is when Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." Job said, even though God should slay me, I'll continue to trust Him. His faith was never shaken. Look at verse 6 of Job 1, just to set the stage. And this is really a pretext more than a text.
"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them." Evidently Satan though cast from heaven still has access. "And the Lord said unto Satan, 'From where comest thou?' Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it." Now you know the sphere where Satan operates, in the earth. "And the Lord said unto Satan, 'Hast thou considered My servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect man, an upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?' Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Doth Job fear God for nothing? Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land?'" In other words, no wonder Job likes you so well, God, no wonder he's so faithful, look at all the things You've given him.
And verse 11, "Put forth your hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse Thee to Thy face." Just mess up his circumstances a little bit, God, and You're going to find out he's not as faithful as You thought he would be. "And the Lord said unto Satan, 'Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand." Not to slay him. "So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord," and this begins the conflict between God and Satan in the life of Job...a conflict that has been the history of every man from the beginning, a conflict that was actually set up in the Garden of Eden when Eve was tempted by Satan to disobey God. And this conflict has never stopped and even Christ came for the purpose of putting it to an end because the Bible says that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.
Now Satan is the ultimate enemy. He is the ultimate enemy with which we must reckon. And the Bible never underestimates his power and the Bible never mistakes his intentions. It's kind of an interesting thing about Satan, that he very seldom paints it like it is. It's always sugar coated. The advertising world today when you see an advertisement for liquor, it doesn't show some poor person lying in the gutter in his own vomit or something like that which is characteristic of a drunk, it always shows some high-class society situation. It's never painted like it is. And every illicit love affair that's propagandized through movies and television and so forth and so on is always a very beautiful thing. Never is it painted like it is. But Jesus said in John 10:10 that the devil is a thief who comes to kill and steal and destroy. That's his job, that's what he's trying to do. And anybody who plays into his hands is playing into a situation where Satan is going to do nothing but kill and steal and destroy. He didn't stop even with Christ. Immediately after Christ's baptism, which was the high point of the beginning of His ministry, the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness to be confronted with Satan. After the highest point of Christ's first thirty years, His baptism where the voice from heaven said, "Thou art My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," the Spirit of God settled upon Him like a dove and He was commissioned to communicate the message of God, right after that point He went into immediate conflict with Satan. And you remember in His temptation Satan tried to derail Him from the cross. Satan figured that he wanted the kingdoms of the world, so “if You'll just bow down to me I'll give them to You, You won't have to die.” He tried to distract Christ at the very beginning.
He is hostile to God. He was hostile to Christ clear through His life. On one occasion he even spoke through the mouth of Peter himself. Satan is a malignant reality. He is always hostile to God and God's children. He is always promoting filth and vice and sin. You know, and I think sometimes we kind of joke about the devil and, you know, and we go to the dime store about this time of year, it's getting to be Halloween, we see little devil suits. I suppose in some sense they might fit the character of some of our kids...(laugh), but basically speaking Satan is pretty smart. And he knows that if he can create an atmosphere of joking about the reality of his person, it's going to do him a lot of good in the long run. We've come to the place where we kind of joke about the idea of the devil with little horns and a little tail and all that. That's Satan's lie to distract us from the reality of who he is. He's nothing to joke about. He's no impersonal influence. He's no mask. He is a living, active, violent, anti-God personal being. And he's running this world, in case you didn't know it. He is the prince of this world, he is the god of this world, he is the ruler of this present world. The whole world lies in the hands of the evil one, like a sleeping baby. And just as God is a personal God and Jesus Christ is a personal Christ and the Holy Spirit is a personal Spirit, so Satan is a personal reality. And as God is for you, Satan is against you. That's his job.
You know, there are only two chapters really at the commencement of the Bible, right at the beginning, Genesis 1 and 2, and two chapters at the end of the Bible, Revelation 20 and 21, and only those four chapters don't have anything to do with Satan. They're before him and after him. And there's only four chapters in the Bible that have Satan either absent or banished and in both cases, it's paradise. And every other chapter in the Bible is a constant never-ending struggle, conflict between God and Satan and man is the battleground. Through the rest of the history of man, he is recognized and referred to as an actual person, the embodiment of evil. Satan is just one of the numerous names given to him and Satan means adversary, that's what it means, and that's exactly what he is.
Now I want us to see just three aspects in our consideration of Satan tonight: His revelation in Scripture, his relation to the church and his relation to the world. First of all, he is very, very carefully revealed to us in Scripture as to his character. There are many scriptures that indicate, first of all, that he is a person. He is not just a fog. He is not just the presence of evil. He is a real person. And I don't mean that in a physical sense. He is a spirit as God is a spirit. He is not a human being, he is a spirit.
I remember one time in college I had a guy who lived across the hall from me who was really a strange character. He was really strange. And he came in one day and he just kind of walked up to you, a real sly look on his face and he said, "I never see you having your devotions." And I said, "Well I don't have them in your room." And he said, "I bet you don't have your devotions." I said, "Well there are some times when I don't." He said, "I knew it." He said, "You're not spiritual." And he went on like this. And I thought, "This is really weird."
So you know how a guy kind of...I'm just tempted to be a little bit...well anyway, I was coming back from an optional prayer meeting, and where I went to college, prayer meeting wasn't even optional, but this was an optional prayer meeting which was kind of refreshing. And so I went and I came back and he didn't go. And I couldn't resist it. And I walked by his door and I looked in and said, "You didn't go to prayer meeting. What's the matter with you?" And he got the strangest look on his face and he flew across the room and up against the wall like this.....and I'm not kidding you, and he pointed to me and he said, "You're not John MacArthur, you're the devil." And, of course, I went "Roar!!!!" you know, (laughter). And he was actually scared, he was actually afraid and he jumped back and I...I...you know, it was just the strangest thing that's ever happened to me, and I walked out of the room and I thought, "This can't be for real." Well the next day I was asked to report to the Dean and I went up to the Dean and the Dean said, "It's been reported to us that you're the devil." And I said, "Well if I was, you'd have heard from me a lot longer...a lot sooner than this, you know." And I convinced him that I was not the devil, that the devil is not a human being, the devil is a person, he is a spirit, not a human being.
So I'm not talking about a human being, I'm talking about the devil being a spiritual reality just as real and existent as God is, as Christ is, as the Holy Spirit is. And there's many indications, as I said, in the Bible that he is a person. First of all, he tempted Eve in Genesis 3 personally. Secondly, he personally tempted Christ in Matthew 4. He perverted the Word of God in Matthew 4. He opposed God's work in Zechariah 3. He personally hindered God's servants in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. He hinders the gospel in Matthew 13 and 2 Corinthians 4, and many places in the Bible. He ensnares the wicked, 1 Timothy 3 and 2 Timothy 2. He desire...he really destroys nations, he ensnares them. First Kings 22 tells us about this and also in Revelation 16 and Revelation 20. He ensnares the wicked as well, 1 Timothy 3. He is an angel of light, says Paul to the Corinthians. He personally contended with Michael in Jude verse 6. He accomplished the entrance of sin into the world on a personal basis, Genesis 3. He personally appeared before God in Job chapter 1. He personally walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Peter chapter 5, and we'll get to that text in a few weeks. In Revelation chapter 12 he appears in heaven personally to accuse the believers. Hebrews chapter 2 says he is the personal power of death. And it's all climaxed in 1 John 5 when John says, "The whole world lies in the arms of that wicked one. He is a personal reality. The person and personality of Satan is revealed in Scripture as distinctly as the person and personality of Jesus Christ and to deny one is to deny the other.
For example, in casting out demons, Christ Himself perpetually addressed Himself to the demons as if they were definite personalities. He spoke to them specifically as personalities and they weren’t just the foggiest influence of evil. In fact, He sent a group of them out of the maniac of Gadara and they went into a herd of pigs and the whole herd went off the cliff. They were personal realities, they still are and Satan is one of them and when Christ was denouncing them, He was in the same way denouncing Satan as a real person.
Now what does the Scripture tell us about this person? First of all, it tells us that he is not self-existent. The Bible teaches that only God is self-existent, therefore Satan had to be created. You say, "Who created him?" The answer is God created him. You say, "Well God can't create evil." You're right, so obviously when Satan was first created he wasn't evil. Everything that God creates is good. And 1 John 1 says everything that was made was made by Him, by the Word. God created everything and God created everything good so Satan must have been good and then he became bad. That's true, that's exactly what happened. If he's evil today it's because he fell from his natural form which was good in the creation of God. And that's exactly what happened. Satan, the prince of the host of wickedness, the lord of the whole empire of sin, is not enthroned today, he's dethroned, he is fallen. He is fallen from heaven with his angels. And that fall is described for us by Peter and by Jude in some detail, that is the fall with the angels. The Scripture indicates that there was a fall. In fact, Jesus Himself says in Luke 10:18, He says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Originally he had a state with God and Christ Himself said that He beheld him falling as lightning.
You say, "Well what was the sin of Satan that caused him to fall?" I want to show you two passages that will tell you what it is. Isaiah 14, Isaiah chapter 14, these are two very, very significant portions of Scripture. Isaiah 14 verse 12, now let's back up and look at verse 4. Isaiah is...is talking to the king of Babylon here and Babylon, of course, was the first of the world empires and Babylon was about to fall to the Medo-Persians...Darius and the Medo-Persians. And Isaiah really and Israel were happy because Babylon was about to collapse...the great empire, the world empire of Babylon, the golden head of Daniel's image. And so, in this prophecy in chapter 14, Isaiah is prophesying against...I shouldn't say prophesying, well again you might say...but he's pronouncing judgment on the king of Babylon. Look at verse 4, "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, "How hast the oppressors ceased, the golden city ceased?" In other words, it's going to come to an end, the whole thing. Then in verse 11, "Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, or to Hades, and the noise of thy lutes, the worm is spread unto thee and the worms cover thee." In other words, king of Babylon, you and your city have had it. Now all of a sudden a fantastic change in verse 12. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground who didst weaken the nations." And you say, "Well how does this...how does Lucifer get into this thing when he's talking about the king of Babylon?" Well it's very simple. The passage is aimed initially at the king of Babylon who is being given a declaration by Isaiah that he is about to be judged. But at the same time, Isaiah goes beyond this king to the source of his evil who is Satan himself. And so while he's really pronouncing judgment right at the king of Babylon, he's going right through him to Satan who is the source of his problem. So he goes right past this guy and says, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground who didst weaken the nations?...verse 13...for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol to the sides of the pit." That's exactly what happens at the end of the kingdom.
Now you see, what has happened here is this. Isaiah has been speaking to a human figure but past that figure to the source of his problem, the reality of Satan himself. That shows you the influence that Satan had on the life of this man. You say, "Well that's a little strange, isn't it?" Well not really. This is a very common scriptural occurrence. On the positive side, you've read the messianic Psalms, right? Psalm 22 perhaps being the prime example, Psalm 118 being another example. But Psalm 22 is a messianic Psalm. And in that, David is talking about himself but the things that he says in reality are...have a greater fulfillment in Christ. Take for example what we mentioned earlier about Peter. When Christ said I'm going to go to the cross, etc., etc., Peter said, "Lord, let it not be so." And what did Christ say to him? "Get thee behind Me, Peter?" Get thee behind Me...whom?...Satan. He was talking right to Peter but He was going to the heart of the problem, past Peter to Satan. That's exactly what Isaiah is saying here. And so here we have the king of Babylon being addressed and at the same time the source of his evil, Satan, is not only addressed but judged. And in this context we find out the sin of Satan that made him fall. You notice five "I wills" beginning at verse 13. And, boy, this is his problem. First of all, "I will ascend into heaven." Then, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation," 14, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." You know what he had? He had an ego problem. You know what his problem was? Pride. I will be this, I will be that. He wanted to be...climaxing it...I will be like the Most High God. Boy, that's a serious problem. That's why he fell...pride.
Look at Ezekiel 28 and we have the second key reference to Satan's fall. Ezekiel 28:11, actually in Ezekiel 28 you have the very same thing. Now Ezekiel is going to prophesy against the king of Tyre just like Isaiah wanted to prophesy against the king of Babylon. And he's...the first ten verses of this chapter, look at verse 2, for example, well verse 1, "The Word of the Lord came again unto me saying, 'Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre..." And then he starts this judgement at the prince of Tyre. But starting then in verse 11, he goes right past this prince to Satan again who is the source of the prince's activity, see. It's the same technique exactly. And you have in verse 11 this, "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, 'Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden.'" Now we know the king of Tyre was never in Eden. "The Garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, emerald, carbuncle, and gold, the workmanship of thy timbrels and thy flutes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth." Now we know that's not the king of Tyre. He was no angel. "And I have set thee so, thou wast upon the holy mountain of God," also could never refer to the king of Tyre. "Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee." See, God is not responsible for creating an evil being. He was perfect. And so again, talking to the king of Tyre and he goes right past him to the problem of the whole thing who was the reality of Satan himself. And he was perfect until the time that iniquity was found in him and that iniquity was pride and that caused him to fall from heaven.
So, Satan is not self-existent. He was created good, he fell. And since that first rebellion against God, he has been in a constant never-ending rebellion against God.
Secondly, he is not only not self-existent, but he is not sovereign. Satan has not cast off the government of God. He is still subject to it. Satan still is running around in a little sphere that God has permitted him to run in and he can't run out of it. He is still in rebellion, open rebellion against the sovereignty of God but he is still held by it. He has a sphere of operation which God has permitted him to have in this world, but he is still subject to God's sovereignty and if you don't believe it, read the book of Revelation and find out what's going to happen to him. Satan is not like God. He is not omniscient. He can't see and know everything. Satan doesn't know everything. He can't see everything. He's not omniscient. He can't see the end from the beginning. He is not omnipotent. He is still subject to God's power. And he is not omnipresent. He walks to and fro throughout the earth. He goes everywhere and he's fast, he's really fast, he's not omnipresent. That is resigned for God and God alone. No angel is omnipresent, a holy angel or a fallen angel.
You say, "Every time I sin, is that Satan?" No. Satan can tempt you sometimes as demons can tempt you sometimes, and sometimes you don't need anybody, you've just got a depraved sin nature that will do the job. But Satan is not omniscient, he's not omnipotent and he's not omnipresent. Those are the attributes of God, and Satan is not sovereign.
Then not only is he not self-existent and not sovereign, but he is powerful and subtle. He is really subtle. He is not blatant, as I said earlier, he is extremely subtle. He sneaks around. He doesn't come walking up, "I'm the devil, I'd like to ruin your life, do this..." Never...never. He always paints the picture so lovely that we get sucked in on it and then we find out it spells ruin. And the devil runs the world's system. He's powerful...he is powerful. He has captured the medias of the world...all of them belong to him...the movies, to newspapers, for the most part, the schools, the education system, the books, every...every systematized thing in the world is really in the hands of Satan, except those things that are dedicated to Jesus Christ. There's no neutral ground, folks. You can't go and indulge in a neutral activity basically speaking. Now, of course, there are some things that are for the health and the body and the enjoyment of the soul that have no moral significance and God's given us those for our enjoyment. But anything that draws a moral conclusion is either for God or against God. Paul says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places." He's powerful and he is subtle.
And so we see the revelation of Satan in Scripture and we just barely scratched it. But let's look at his relation to the church, secondly. How is he related to the church? Well it's obvious from what we said that he is anti-Christ, he is anti-God, he is anti-Christianity, but he is pro-church and he is pro-religion. If he can hang on to the church and make it become something God never intended it to be and still exists, he has accomplished his purpose. He is right in the midst of the church trying to destroy the work of Jesus Christ, trying to destroy the truth of the Word of God and he's done a pretty good job in some areas. See, he already has the world, he doesn't have to spend a lot of time there. So he spends his time trying to ruin the testimony of Jesus Christ. And he's been successful. Many churches today are run by Satan, for all intents and purposes. They deny Jesus Christ, His reality, the Word of God, the existence of God, even, God's dead, yet they call themselves churches. Those are liberal, you say, and those are modern. That's true but, you know, Satan's at work in evangelical churches, too. He really is. He loves nothing better than to split the church and to bring up sin among the members that’s divisive and that stains the entire congregation. He loves nothing better than to take someone in the church who is in a key position and bring them to a serious ruin because of sin and then destroy the fellowship of the church and make its name black. He loves to do that. He loves to create fights and any kind of sin that's blatant, open sin that will destroy the church. And that's why we pray constantly, incessantly every day that goes by that God will rebuke Satan in this church and keep it pure. Whatever Christ is trying to do in this church, Satan is actively trying to do the opposite. Don't ever forget it. And don't you ever forget that Satan is fighting for his neck. He can read the Bible, too, you know. He knows how it's going to come out but he's not about to sit around and wait for it. If God loves men, then Satan hates them. If God loves Christ to be in men, then Satan hates Christ to be in men and will prevent the Christ like life any way he can. If the Holy Spirit tries to lead to the things of righteousness, then Satan tries to lead men to the things of unrighteousness. And that's why Christ's mission was to destroy the works of the devil because he's in direct opposition to everything Christ stands for. And I'll tell you something, Christian, learn it if you haven't already. The minute you determine to live your life completely committed to Jesus Christ, Satan begins the fight. And if you're sitting around saying, "Boy, everything is going great for me," that's because you're not doing anything. Somebody said to me one time, "You know, I've just learned how to witness and the more I witness the easier it gets." Really! The more I witness, the harder it gets. Why? Because the better you get at it and the more committed you are to it, the harder Satan's going to work. And the closer we get to the coming of Jesus Christ, the more hard men's hearts are going to be. It doesn't get easier.
In the life of a believer, what does Satan do? In Acts chapter 5 it tells us he tempts us to sin. In 2 Corinthians 2 it tells us he hinders us. In Revelation 12, he accuses us before God. In Ephesians 6, he employs his demons to defeat us. He's busy in the life of a committed believer. The same thing is true of the church. When the church begins to move for Jesus Christ, when a church takes its stand on the Word of God and the person of Christ and begins to move out, you can be sure Satan's going to get in there and try to sow as much discord and to bring up as much black blatant sin as he can to destroy the testimony of that church. The moment you take a stand for Jesus Christ, Satan declares war on you. That's why when Paul got to the end of his life, he sort of took a great big gasp and said, "I have fought the good fight." He didn't waltz through his experience, he fought all the time...all the time. That's one thing the Christian can look forward to that the unbeliever doesn't have to worry about, he doesn't fight, he just does evil all the time. There's no battle at all. It's when you become a believer that the fight begins.
"Ah," but you say, "it sounds like a terrible thing." Not really. Paul told the Corinthians there is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. God is faithful who will not suffer thee to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation make...what?...a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. There's always a way out.
You say, "Well, when Satan comes after me, how can I defeat him?" Well some people think...well, you just really fight him, and so forth and so on. You know, I always think about a guard on a wall, when the enemy comes, he doesn't run out and fight him himself, he goes and tells the commander. And when Satan starts bombing you, don't start battling by yourself, just tell the Lord. Say, "Lord, get him off my back." You know whenever Satan starts tempting me, it's very practical, I just bring up the person of Jesus Christ...whoosh...he's gone. Have you ever caught yourself in a sin that you kind of enjoy and you just keep pushing the thought of Christ out of your mind because you want to indulge? When Satan begins to tempt, just bring Christ into reality, bring Him into focus. Satan can't stand the presence of Jesus Christ. And so the Christian does not attempt to resist in his own strength, but we begin to pray and we call on Jesus Christ.
I'll tell you something. You get into a situation of temptation and you just stop and call Jesus Christ to your aid, and, boy, you'll have victory. But you try to fight it yourself, and you'll never make it. Satan's greatest battles are fought against the believer. The Christian life is never easy but there's always victory, there's always, always, always victory. You say, "Where is it?" Peter says, "The victory was provided for us in the blood of the Lamb," that's where it is. The victory was already won at Calvary, all we have to do is latch on to it. It's over with. The writer of Hebrews says that Christ was the Lamb that was slain who through death will bring to naught him that has the power of death, even the devil. It was the death of Christ and His shed blood that provided victory.
Sin has no claim on us. Not anymore. Why? Because we died in Christ. Remember Romans 6? Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ." Sin required death, I died. And as I've said to you, it's just sin's tough luck that I arose from the dead and that I'm living in newness of life. I owe sin not even a bit of attention. When Christ died on that cross 1900 and some odd years ago, I was there too. Sin required that I died, I did die and sin makes no claims on me anymore. The Law required that I die, I die in Christ. I owe the Law nothing, I owe sin nothing. There's victory for me in the death of Jesus Christ because I was there.
There was a large painting of a chess game between the devil and a young man. It was hanging in a museum. And it showed the devil who had checkmated the young man. And there was no way he could get out, seemingly. And the devil had a look of glee on his face and the young man was horrified. There was a great chess player visiting the museum and he stopped and looked at the picture and it fascinated him so he copied down on a piece of paper the situation on the chess board, went home and spent two days figuring out that the young man could make one move and reverse the situation. Kind of an interesting thought. And life is like that. Man has no chance, Satan has us checkmated. But at Calvary, Jesus Christ made one move and reversed the entire process. There's victory in His death for the believer.
Napoleon was planning his conquering of the world and he opened a great big map and on that map was England. And he painted a red dot on England and he said, "If it weren't for that red spot, I could conquer the world." And you know something? In your life, it is that red spot, the blood of Jesus Christ, that gives to Satan no victory.
His relation to the church...lastly and quickly, his relation to the world. What's Satan doing in this world today? Well the world itself is the media through which Satan acts. Satan comes to us through the world to the flesh...the world, the flesh, the devil. Satan begins coming through the media of the world to our flesh to tempt us to sin. He's hiding in the world today and he's not really very well hidden, he's fairly obvious. He's hiding in our half-theology. He's hiding in our philosophy and our education system. In all the media of the world, that's where Satan is. In fact, in Ephesians 2 it says that the unsaved man does the things of the world, verse 2, because he's guided by the prince of the power of the air who is Satan. Satan's running the world. And every unsaved man in this world is run by Satan. You say, "Well that's a little hard to swallow." Well I hope so. I hope so. You see, Paul says in Ephesians 2 that the unsaved man buys the world's bag. Whatever the world is selling, he buys. And he says that's because that's the only store he has to shop in. And the proprietor of the world's store is Satan himself. He's running this world...he's running this world. And I, as I've said so many times, the pigpen morality of our world is the propaganda of Satan, the tolerance of gross immorality and sin that is painted before us constantly on television, in movies, in books, is Satan's propaganda to break down our resistance, and he's doing a very good job of it. Most of us are infinitely tolerant of the gross things that the Word of God condemns. In fact, we often sit and entertain ourselves with them. No wonder we live defeated lives and we sit around allowing Satan to shovel garbage into our brains. The world does his bidding. Remember Jesus said to the leaders in John 8:44, He said, "You are of your father...whom?...the devil." In Acts 13:10, "Thou art the child of the devil." In 1 John chapter 3, just to suggest to you what is John's message there, he says this, "He that committeth sin is of the devil," no question about it. The devil is involved in this world intrinsically in everything that is going on. He says in verse 10, "In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." The one who doesn't do righteousness is of the devil, he's a child of the devil. Just that simple. And Jesus said, He put it this way, "He that is not with Me is...what?...is against Me."
There's no neutral ground. You can't stand in the middle and say, "Well, I haven't made up my mind." I've got news for you, if you're not with Christ, you're against Him. If you're not a part of Christ's Kingdom, you're a part of the devil's darkness.
So how's it going to end with Satan. Well we won't get into it tonight, but as we've said in our prophetic series in the past, finally Satan comes to full power in the tribulation and then the great battle of Armageddon when he decides he's going to defeat Christ and he's conquered and he's bound for a thousand years, at the end of those thousand years he's loosed for a little time of temptation in the world. And then finally he's cast into a pit for eternity. Yes, finally Jesus Christ will destroy the empire of Satan and he will destroy Satan once and for all and the conflict will end. It began and it will end. And the question we ask you tonight, the question everybody has to answer, is whose kingdom are you in? Who are you following? Who is your king? Whose subject are you?
You say, "Well I haven't decided." Well if you haven't decided then you're Satan's. You're either of Christ's or your Satan's. You're either buying the things of the Word of God, you're either a part of the relationship of God through love of Jesus Christ, or you belong to Satan and he's ruining your life, destroying you as fast as he can. I trust tonight if that's the case of some of you that you meet Jesus Christ. Oh, I don't understand how people could want to be guided by Satan and run by Satan when Christ stands there so willing to change everything and make it glorious and give real life. And then, Christian, examine your own life, you've chosen your King, Jesus Christ, are you lapsing back to serve Satan? You've chosen to be a slave of God, Paul says in Romans 6, and don't you know that to whom you yield yourselves to obey whose servants you are? If you've yielded yourself to Jesus Christ, what right do you have to serve Satan? Examine your life. Make your choice. If you're not a Christian, choose Jesus Christ. If you are, be faithful to your choice. Let's pray.
Father, we thank You tonight for Your Word to us. It's not easy, we know, to present truth about Satan because he fights it. We thank You, Father, that we've been able to complete this tonight. We thank You for grace in allowing us to communicate this message. Perhaps we've underestimated You, we expected a little trouble, perhaps, Lord, maybe interruptions or something; we didn't know, we expected Satan to rear his head in objection. Maybe he's doing it in the hearts of some people right now. God, rebuke Satan. We call upon Thee to exhibit Thy power tonight. And, God, if there are some here tonight who are being guided and motivated and moved and propelled by Satan, help them to wake up to that fact. God, by Thy Spirit, teach their hearts the reality of Satan in their lives and cause them to turn to Jesus Christ whose blood alone can wash away sin and who can transform them from darkness into light, who can take them out of the kingdom of darkness, of Satan and put them in that which is the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ, can take away sin and replace it with glory, who can take away the legalism of law and replace it with grace, who can establish purpose and meaning in their lives. God, we pray that there will be some tonight who will turn to Jesus Christ, forsake the ways of Satan and follow the one who loved them and died for them and whose blood can alone cleanse. And then, God, we pray for those of us who are believers. We have chosen to be servants of Thine, may we realize that having yielded to Thee, we are Thy servants, we have no right to go back on our word and serve Satan. God, forgive us for the times we sin. We admit we're sinners. But, God, beyond all, give us a love for Your will, a delight for the things of You. Don't let us slip back to serve Satan. We've chosen You to be our God, our King. We counted the cost. Help us to be willing to pay the price of true discipleship.
While your heads are bowed, as we just prepare to close our service in a moment, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Savior, I say it in a sense, I say it with a breaking heart, you are really bound by Satan, he's blinded your mind to the things of God. And I'm praying that God will open your eyes to see the reality of Jesus Christ tonight, that you'll see that He died for you, that He loves you, that He wants to come into your life and change you, to forgive your sin and take you out of the domain of Satan and sin and put you in His own glorious sphere of grace. You say, "How can I let Him do that?" Simply by inviting Jesus Christ into your life. You can do it right where you sit, right now. All you have to do is say, "Lord Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sin, take over control of my life." Why don't you pray that right now in your heart? If Jesus Christ isn't a reality in your life, if you know He's not your Savior, just say, "Lord Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sin, take over my life," and He'll do it. He always does because that's His promise. Invite Him in right now and pass from darkness into light. Be a part of God's glorious Kingdom.
I trust that some did. Christian, how about you? Have you been naming the name of Christ and serving Satan? Is there sin in your life? Disobedience? If you've drifted away from the place of commitment, don't let Satan get the best of you. Perhaps you need to talk to God just quietly in your heart about your own life.
You may reproduce this Grace to You content for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Grace to You's Copyright Policy (http://www.gty.org/connect/copyright). | <urn:uuid:39253d02-e399-4ec6-8895-c14e43684a73> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.gty.org/resources/print/sermons/1200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00246-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980971 | 9,407 | 2.171875 | 2 |
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Table of Contents:
- How do you calculate the power of a test?
- How do you interpret power?
- What is a good study power?
- What is a power of a study?
- What four factors affect the power of a test?
- What two factors affect power?
- What is a power calculation for sample size?
- What is average power formula?
- What is the formula for power output?
- What is power equal to in physics?
- What is SI unit of work done?
- How do you calculate time and work problems?
- How do you calculate total work?
- What is the work done by time?
- What is the relationship between power work and time?
- Is power equal to work?
How do you calculate the power of a test?
The effect size is equal to the critical parameter value minus the hypothesized value. Thus, effect size is equal to [0.
How do you interpret power?
Bullard describes multiple ways to interpret power correctly:
- Power is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when, in fact, it is false.
- Power is the probability of making a correct decision (to reject the null hypothesis) when the null hypothesis is false.
What is a good study power?
Generally, a power of . 80 (80 percent) or higher is considered good for a study. ... The higher the power of a study is, the more subjects there are and/or the larger the effect size will be (or the smaller the p-value too).
What is a power of a study?
The power of a study, pβ, is the probability that the study will detect a predetermined difference in measurement between the two groups, if it truly exists, given a pre-set value of pα and a sample size, N.
What four factors affect the power of a test?
There are four things that primarily affect the power of a test of significance....They are:
- The significance level α of the test. ...
- The sample size n. ...
- The inherent variability in the measured response variable.
What two factors affect power?
FACTORS AFFECTING POWER The 4 primary factors that affect the power of a statistical test are a level, difference between group means, variability among subjects, and sample size.
What is a power calculation for sample size?
Issues in Estimating Sample Size for Hypothesis Testing. ... In hypothesis testing, we usually focus on power, which is defined as the probability that we reject H0 when it is false, i.e., power = 1- β = P(Reject H0 | H0 is false). Power is the probability that a test correctly rejects a false null hypothesis.
What is average power formula?
If the resistance is much larger than the reactance of the capacitor or inductor, the average power is a dc circuit equation of P=V2/R, where V replaces the rms voltage. An ac voltmeter attached across the terminals of a 45-Hz ac generator reads 7.
What is the formula for power output?
Power Formula 2 – Mechanical power equation: Power P = E ⁄ t where power P is in watts, Power P = work / time (W ⁄ t). Energy E is in joules, and time t is in seconds.
What is power equal to in physics?
In physics, power is the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time. In the International System of Units, the unit of power is the watt, equal to one joule per second. ... The output power of a motor is the product of the torque that the motor generates and the angular velocity of its output shaft.
What is SI unit of work done?
S.I. unit of work is Joule. Work done when a force of 1 Newton displaces the body through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of force.
How do you calculate time and work problems?
D - 10 days, 50 days. (A+B)'s 1 day work = 1/12, (B+C)'s 1 day work = 1/15, (C+A)'S 1 day work = 1/20 Including: 2(A+B+C)'s 1 day work = (1/12+ 1/15+ 1/20)= 12/60 = 1/5 ∴ (A+B+C) `s 1 day work = (1/2 *1/5) = 1/10 ∴ working together they can complete the work in 10 days.
How do you calculate total work?
Work can be calculated with the equation: Work = Force × Distance. The SI unit for work is the joule (J), or Newton • meter (N • m). One joule equals the amount of work that is done when 1 N of force moves an object over a distance of 1 m.
What is the work done by time?
Power is a measure of the amount of work that can be done in a given amount of time. Power equals work (J) divided by time (s). The SI unit for power is the watt (W), which equals 1 joule of work per second (J/s).
What is the relationship between power work and time?
The point is that for the same amount of work, power and time are inversely proportional. The power equation suggests that a more powerful engine can do the same amount of work in less time. A person is also a machine that has a power rating.
Is power equal to work?
Power is a rate at which work is done, or energy is used. It is equal to the amount of work done divided by the time it takes to do the work. The unit of power is the Watt (W), which is equal to a Joule per second (J/s).
- What are the four types of power of attorney?
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- What are top 10 Christmas songs?
- Is Zachary a popular name?
- What is the best power bank to buy?
- What are power chords used for?
- What is power clean good for?
- What are the types of power cables?
- What is a computer power cord called?
- Is the name Zoe popular?
- What is power grid failure?
- Is Power Rangers banned in New Zealand?
- What power generator do I need for a house?
- What is a power drill used for?
- What percentage of death penalty is innocent?
- What is the full meaning of power?
- How do I log into power bi?
- What is power factor correction?
- What is the role of power forward?
- Which is the best power amplifier? | <urn:uuid:de7f31c0-a011-4f50-970d-ab73a068eae0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sociology-tips.com/library/lecture/read/35266-how-do-you-calculate-the-power-of-a-test | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572408.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816151008-20220816181008-00670.warc.gz | en | 0.910972 | 1,645 | 3.5 | 4 |
When your Mercedes-Benz 220 was born, it was destined for a driver who values European styling in their automobile. It's not a regular occurrence that you realize that you have to buy a replacement Distributor Rotor to repair your vehicle. Anyone who drives a Mercedes-Benz knows that when it comes to maintaining their vehicle only the highest quality replacement parts will do. Obviously, you bought your 220 because you knew that you wanted best-in-class service and a trusted brand both rolled up into one automobile.
Without the timed ignition systems in our internal combustion engines, our engines would have to be all electric. One long-lasting component in your Mercedes-Benz 220 engine that will not last forever is your distributor rotor. As your camshaft turns the distributor, your Mercedes-Benz 220 distributor rotor is turned in synch. It has a contact on its tip, so when the coil charges the distributor rotor current is sent through a post under the cap to the spark plug wire on top of the cap.
When your Mercedes-Benz needs the best replacement Distributor Rotor, there's no need to waste time looking anywhere other than the authority, Car Parts Discount. At Car Parts Discount, we have real customer support agents on the phone with enough expertise to help you select the appropriate Mercedes-Benz 220 part for your project or repair. Given all the trouble that can be involved with installing a part to fix your car or truck, let www.carpartsdiscount.com be the number one store you go to make purchasing it easy. Need 1973, 1972, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1965, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960 Mercedes-Benz 220 Distributor Rotor parts? We've got them right here. | <urn:uuid:a297f80b-70e2-4d9a-a412-327abcffe21b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/distributor-rotor/mercedes-benz~220.html?3594=2074 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00384-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928179 | 352 | 1.585938 | 2 |
What I love about David Hockney is that his public utterances are invariably completely right and totally wrong at one and the same time. Part of the trick is his delivery. Hockney may be our national curmudgeon, but he is such a good natured curmudgeon that it hardly matters whether you agree with him or not. For example, he is entirely correct when he says that smoking is one of the greatest pleasures known to man and that the government should allow anyone who wants to smoke do so at their own risk. But isn’t it equally true that there is some justification in the government’s use of the law to discourage people from taking up (or persisting in) a habit that is, after all, pretty certain to kill them?
And so it is with his comments on Damian Hirst, reported yesterday. Hockney knows more about art history than most curators. He is perfectly well aware that artists have not always made their own work. He knows all about Rubens’s studio assistants, the workshops of Lucas Cranach and the technicians who actually carved Rodin’s marble statues. I’ll bet too that he’s cast a critical eye over Hirst’s oeuvre and has decided which pieces (if any) are successful and which aren’t. When Hockney notes that in his forthcoming show at the Royal Academy “all the works were made by the artist himself, personally” he is teasing a younger artist who probably deserves it and can certainly take it.
It’s what he said later in the interview that I find so moving. “I used to point out, at art school you can teach the craft; it’s the poetry you can’t teach. But now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft.’’ He’s saying that students used to be taught how to draw perfectly at the expense of their individuality. Now scores of students graduate from art colleges believing that everything they do or touch or say can be labelled a work of art but they couldn’t draw a rabbit if you held a gun to their heads. There you have it: the difficulty of teaching art in a nutshell.
In my view, what matters above all is the poetry. If the work has that then does it really matter how it was made? The question then is – how do you define `poetry’. I find the paintings of Jack Vettriano repellent, but they are certainly made by the artist himself. On the other hand I’m a fan of the Thai performance artist Rirkrit Tiravanija who comes into a gallery to cook and serve delicious Thai food. Once the show is over there is nothing to look at, but you’ve had an experience that Jamie Oliver would recognize as important: the use of cooking to bring communities together, the rejection of fast and pre-cooked food as the first step in living a good life. I happen to know that Hockney doesn’t think that what Rirkrit does is art, and maybe it isn’t. Who cares? As I said, Hockney is always right and always wrong. That’s why I love to disagree with him. | <urn:uuid:e363c833-05fb-4b8b-bafc-d88b02409165> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/8989772/David-Hockney-is-always-right-and-always-wrong.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571993.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814022847-20220814052847-00673.warc.gz | en | 0.98002 | 680 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Education Under Fire
Why language shouldn't be taught in isolation
A new policy created by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to provide separate instruction for elementary school students who are not fluent in English from native speakers in all core classes, has come under scrutiny. In a recent Christian Science Monitor article, Ronald Solórzano, chair of the Department of Education weighs in on the controversial plan. Solórzano, who is also a former LAUSD bilingual elementary school teacher, has researched and published in the areas of school effects, teacher assessment, bilingual education, and state teaching standards. He also is an affilated faculty member in Latino/a and Latin American Studies. You can read the full article on the Christian Science Monitor. | <urn:uuid:079d200e-4580-4628-b1a3-25e17c955f86> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.oxy.edu/campus-conversations/restless-minds/education-under-fire | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284411.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00462-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957837 | 152 | 2.75 | 3 |
Today's editorial was originally released on Nov 27, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is at the PASS Summit.
My guess is that most of you out there wouldn't necessarily classify your managers as "savvy", especially as it relates to data. I know that when I hear managers talking about "data quality", "data integrity", "ETL", or any other acronyms, I tend to cringe, expecting more work, with poor requirements, and likely unreasonable estimates.
But not all managers are that bad and when I attended the Micosoft BI Conference earlier this year, I was surprised to see so many business people, especially managers, there and talking about how much value they got from BI because it gave then more insights into their data.
And they almost universally talked about how important a strong data warehouse with high data quality is to the success of a project.
Data quality is important, but it takes an effort to ensure that you can achieve a high level of quality in your data, meaning that the data is accurate and represents what you think it represents. I caught this interesting article about 10 data quality habits for successful managers. It probably should be for successful organizations and not just managers, but it's a good guide for managers to be aware of. Without reading the article, I'd bet you could guess at what some of the items should be. They're mainly common sense, but they bear repeating and it's good to see them listed in together in a short article.
Data quality takes effort and just like programming, the earlier you can introduce checks and catch errors, the less expensive it is to maintain. However that doesn't necessarily mean that you should go all the way to the source. Putting in a huge amount of checks and filters in the input client might not be in your best interest.
Consider a salesman, trying to make a sale, entering data and constantly getting pop-ups and errors that force data entry to be exact. Can you imagine how frustrating this would be? And possibly how this might impact data quality? Can you guess at what percentage of people might get names entered as initials instead of misspelled names? Does someone need to be slowed down because they typed "Bbo?"
Enforcing data quality at the source might be better served with suggestions or filters that try to fix common mistakes or even batch up confirmations of suspected errors for someone to examine later. There are any number of ways to make this an easier process and still ensure data quality.
My advice is that you should tackle data quality as an ongoing part of your job. Make constant, continuous, and small improvements, build in checks and balances, and be sure you work with other groups and users to ensure the load is shared, and more importantly, easily integrated into the way they already do business.
And maybe I'll see you featured at one of the next BI events as a SQL Server success!
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
The RSS Feed: or now on iTunes!
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it. | <urn:uuid:07be9068-58f4-40cd-a482-432595b55a26> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/61592/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285315.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00574-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968731 | 744 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Advice from a specialist plus over 200 recipes.
Read alsoStochastic Tools in Turbulence
Stochastic Tools in Turbulence discusses the available mathematical tools to describe stochastic vector fields to solve problems related to these fields. The book deals with the needs of turbulence in relation to stochastic vector fields, particularly, on three-dimensional aspects, linear problems, and stochastic model building. The text…
For those who are lactose intolerant or have milk sensitivities, the only "cure" is to avoid dairy products. A unique combination of cookbook and advice book, The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Dairy-Free Eating provides readers with flavorful and healthy new alternatives that let them enjoy nutritious and delicious dairy-free meals that are sure to become new favorites.
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Sure, tools like Facebook, Twitter and Google provide a wonderful sense of what's happening this instant, anywhere around the world. But they're also being used to unlock mysteries that have existed since the end of World War II.
Millions of children were displaced or separated from their families during the Second World War. Many would never be reunited, and many had no family left.
As the war wound down, relief agencies photographed some of the surviving children. The BBC made routine announcements over the airwaves, attempting to reunite families. A long list of names was followed by a request: "Will anybody who recognizes himself write to the British Red Cross?"
Now, some 66 years later, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is counting on the Internet to help fill the holes of history. The museum is using social media to gather stories of children who survived the Holocaust, in an online photo project called, "Remember Me?"
Jean-Claude Goldbrenner is approaching 70, and just like any other Internet user, he occasionally Googles himself. That's how, a few years ago, he discovered a photograph of himself as a boy — at the time, it was housed at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. It's a photo he had never seen before, and he has no recollection of it being taken. For Goldbrenner, it's one more piece in the puzzle that is his past.
Goldbrenner was only 3 or 4 when the war ended and has very little memory of that time. Sitting in his home in Potomac, Md., he clarified that he was never really displaced.
His mother was killed at Auschwitz; his father survived the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Treblinka. In the absence of his parents, other family members cared for him, and for that he considers himself fortunate. Vague memories bring him back to a farm, where he went into hiding with other children. Perhaps that's where his photo was taken, though he is not sure.
A more recent Google search returned that same photo, but it had moved from an archival box in Cincinnati to a website. It joined more than 1,100 similar photos of children on the Holocaust Museum's website.
But the power of the Internet is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's now easier than ever to find what you're looking for — like a person. On the other hand: What if that person doesn't really want to be found? Theo Meicler, for example, considers himself content if not happy, now living with his wife in Houston, Texas. He's on Facebook, yes, at the urging of his children and grandchildren. But it has taken him decades to get to this place, and he's not one for trips down memory lane. That is, of course, where his rediscovered photo took him.
Case in point for a 21st-century quandary: The more we engage online, the less we can control what information we find, and what finds us. In the online world, your life is everywhere, all the time, a totally open book.
Memory is tricky territory, but the Holocaust Museum is used to that: Its mission is to preserve stories and memories of war — even those that survivors are trying to forget. It's important so that future generations can remember, says Dr. Lisa Yavnai, a director at the museum.
Jean-Claude Goldbrenner was too young during the war to have many painful memories of that era; if anything, he wishes he had asked more questions. "Most of us either didn't think or didn't dare to ask questions," he says of his generation of survivors. "I think when you're young it's a question of didn't think, and when you're older didn't dare too much to stir these memories."
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum wants to stir memories. It's using social media to gather stories before it's too late. "At this point we feel like it's really a race against time," says Yavnai, "because we want to help as many living survivors and their families as possible." If Facebook and Twitter are good for anything, it's racing against time.
"Remember Me" is one of a number of recent initiatives by the Holocaust Museum to employ the best available technology to document history. Last week, the museum also announced a project partnering with the genealogy website Ancestry.com. The World Memory Project, as it's called, relies on anyone with a PC to download software and join the effort to digitize, index and archive the museum's holdings.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
I'm Robert Siegel.
And we begin this week's All Tech Considered with a voice from the past.
(Soundbite of broadcast)
Unidentified Man: This is the third broadcast made on behalf of 45 allied children who've been Nazi captives and have no homes.
SIEGEL: After World War II, the BBC made routine announcements like this one. The broadcast listed names in an effort to reunite families. Millions of children were separated from their families by the Nazis.
And now the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is trying to piece together what became of some of those young survivors. And as the BBC did at the time, the museum is using the best available technology. Today, that means social media.
Claire O'Neill has our story.
(Soundbite of broadcast)
Unidentified Man: Will anybody who recognizes himself write to the British Red Cross?
Dr. LISA YAVNAI (Director, Holocaust Museum Survivors and Victims Resource Center): You can just imagine how long it would take someone to write a letter, for the letter to be opened and then for the child to be located back in Europe.
CLAIRE O'NEILL: Dr. Lisa Yavnai is the director of the Holocaust Museum's Survivors and Victims Resource Center.
Dr. YAVNAI: The difference now is that with the social networking, with Facebook and Twitter, it's instant. We put this website up. And within 24 hours, we got our first identification.
O'NEILL: There was a man in France who was only two when the photo was taken. He found it through Facebook and emailed the museum using the I Know This Child icon on the page that has his photo.
Yavnai's work is part of an online effort to find some 1,100 children now in their 60s, 70s and 80s whose photos the museum has to get their stories and to spread awareness about war from a child's perspective.
Dr. YAVNAI: These are some of these photos.
O'NEILL: She's looking through a box of carefully preserved prints. Faces of children from two months to 18 years old, mostly Jewish, a wide range of nationalities - French, Ukrainian, Polish - many of them smile at the camera.
Dr. YAVNAI: And this is all we know. The name is written on the back with a stamp with the date August 14, 1946. This is when the photo was taken. We don't know anything else about this child except that aide workers took the photo to help identify her family.
O'NEILL: You don't need to be in D.C. to see the pictures. All you need is a computer and maybe a Facebook account to respond.
Mr. THEODORE MEICLER: I've been on Facebook for several years through my kids and grandkids.
O'NEILL: Theo Meicler saw his photo for the first time in an email from the museum at his home in Houston, Texas.
Mr. MEICLER: We are sitting in my office here and I have some pictures from that era. But I'm used to seeing those pictures all the time, so it doesn't stop me anymore. That picture, when I saw it, got my attention.
O'NEILL: In the photo on the website, Meicler looks to be about seven or eight, a full head of neatly combed hair, a fresh face. And right by that image you can see him today, 65 years later. His Facebook profile picture IDs a comment that he left. This is me indeed with more hair and less wrinkles, he writes. Not happy.
Mr. MEICLER: It was a photo that brought me back to a time that was not a very happy time in my life. I remember living in a house behind a railroad station where my father had a cased good manufacturing. I remember when two Gestapo agents came and arrested him.
O'NEILL: Meicler never saw his father again. He was reunited with his mother and brother after the war. But the picture stirs emotions that have troubled him for much of his adult life.
Mr. MEICLER: My father went through several camps, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, I think Treblinka.
O'NEILL: Jean-Claude Goldbrenner was too young to remember his father's departure, but he recalls his return.
Mr. JEAN-CLAUDE GOLDBRENNER: I have a memory of my father coming back totally emaciated, walking with cane. And that's probably the first memory I have of my father.
O'NEILL: Today, Goldbrenner lives in Maryland and was about two or three when his photo was taken. He rediscovered it by Googling himself. He's kept in touch with some of his childhood friends, especially when artifacts like these photos emerge.
Mr. GOLDBRENNER: I mean, that's my picture. And these are the two friends that I found at the time.
O'NEILL: For Goldbrenner's generation, the past has been a bit of a puzzle, pieced together through the years with photos and conversations and letters, like the ones his aunt sent him later in life, written by his mother. Through that correspondence, he learned the details of her death. She was killed, six to seven months pregnant, at Auschwitz. She was 28 years old.
Mr. GOLDBRENNER: Most of us either didn't think or didn't dare to ask questions. I think when you're young it's probably a question of didn't think. And when you're older, didn't dare too much to stir these memories.
O'NEILL: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum wants to stir memories, starting with a simple question, the name of the photo project: Remember Me?
Claire O'Neill, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:bdd0e77c-a491-48e7-aae6-dec572ed9dba> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://weku.fm/post/separated-war-reunited-web-photo-project-links-holocaust-survivors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282926.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00396-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978209 | 2,263 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The design of 3D renderings allows you to recreate interior, exterior and construction spaces through 3D infographics and photorealistic images that help professionals in architecture, interior design or people outside these sectors, to visualize in detail their projects.
In addition to visualizing every detail and perspective, 3D architecture and interior design is a useful tool that allows us professionals to offer a more complete service to our customers.
We work, together with our collaborators, in a personalized way on any 3D rendering project for architecture and interior design, whether of our own creation or collaborating with other projects external to our office.
The recreation of 3D environments or interior design using photorealistic images has become a very useful tool for interior designers, builders or even real estate companies looking to improve their service. The design of 3D interiors facilitates the visualization of spaces in any rehabilitation of homes or commercial premises, as well as the decoration and interior design of the same. | <urn:uuid:7ed0a202-6920-4ba8-929d-f99224bdddd5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.arquitecturatecnica.cat/en/portfolio-item/rendering/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.904943 | 200 | 1.664063 | 2 |
This indoor renovation project is situated in the ground floor of a collective housing. The original collective housing, with six stories height, was built in around 1950s-1960s as part of Xiaogang Xincun Guangzhou.The area of the renovation includes a living room, a balcony, and a connected bedroom, which were separated from the residential unit at the ground floor. The indoor space is 2.7 meters high. Instead of facing the street, this place is located in the interior of the commu-nity. The opening of nearby subway has brought about the gathering of people. Hence, various businesses like manicure, clothing, coffee and tea shops has gradually developed on the ground floor of this open community. Before the renovation, the site used to be a flower shop.
The mission of the design is to turn the two-room space into a place for drinking coffee, gather-ing and communication. And the focus of our design is to turn the indoor space into an integral part of the city block.
套匣 Box in Box
The business of the coffee shop is divided into two parts： dine-in and online take-out. We place the area of coffee bar in the room which is adjacent to the original balcony, leaving the other room as an independent dining and resting space. By doing so, the mutual interference between take-out business and dine-in activities can be reduced. In terms of spatial form, we integrated the bar counter as an independent and floating volume, nesting it inside the room as if a box de-vice. For customers, in addition to order drinks and make inquiries on the side of the box that close to the entrance, they are also able to go all around the box and experience spatial exchange with the barista. The space thus showcases an open and welcoming manner.
内外 Indoor & Outdoor
Giving consideration to the brick-concrete structure of the original residence, and the structural safety concerns of the owner and householders upstairs, we decided to retain the original posi-tions and dimensions of doors and window. At the lowest height among the tops of door and window openings, we use galvanized steel sheets to extend outwards as a rain shade canopy. This approach gives a horizontal order to the facade, meanwhile shelters the openings which, without glass, from sunlight and rain. At the same time, in the dining space, a concrete seat is overhung with the support of the parapet wall below the window opening. Customers can sit sideways, leaning on the seat to look at the trees and passing pedestrians in the community, or sit side by side with friends, gazing at the outdoor scene reflected in the galvanized steel sheet on the north wall.
To close the doors and window, old-style folding iron partitions are adopted. The partitions were not installed in accordance with the size of the openings, but were separated from them and set outside the doors and window. When the folding partitions are opened along with the open of the shop, the openings look more like “holes” between indoor and outdoor space, rather than doors and windows in the usual sense. Thereby, a more open indoor-outdoor relationship are presented here.
Through the introduction of the spatial type of “box in box”, hole-like transition between indoor and outdoor, and the seemingly separated but ambiguous state between architecture, space and furniture, the design let the coffee shop presents a kind of transparent, clear and semi-outdoor spatial impression. These are our efforts on creating a positive space of urban block.
Project name：Inside-out Cabinet, Sigma Incorrect Coffee Shop
Project location：Xiaogang Xincun, Haizhu District, Guangzhou
Project type：Renovation of a shop, at the ground floor of a community
Architect：Liu Yang | Atelier Waterside
Client：Sigma Incorrect Coffee Shop
Construction party：Chen Weifeng Team
Construction materials：galvanized steel sheet, plain plywood, stainless steel sheet, cement plas-tering | <urn:uuid:9b429332-1e61-41b1-90fd-d928847dd430> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.hisheji.com/project/space-type/cafe/2021/04/22/111282 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572192.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815145459-20220815175459-00066.warc.gz | en | 0.763361 | 2,939 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Build on the degree you have, start a new career in the health professions
Considering a career in health professions? You can build on the bachelor’s degree you already have to begin a new life in a rewarding career. Through the Carson-Newman Post Baccalaureate Health Pre-Professions program, you use the foundation of your bachelor’s degree to pursue a career in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, physical therapy, veterinary medicine, and a host of other health professions. The Post-Baccalaureate program is not a degree program or a graduate program. It is a bridge program to prepare BA/BS students for admission to health professional schools.
An individualized curriculum is designed based on the background, interests, and needs of each student. Requirements are generally determined by the career choice and the specific professional schools where admission is sought.
As a C-N Post Baccalaureate student, you will be able to take advantage of features already in place in our program.
- A close personal relationship with your academic adviser
- A full range of courses, including gross anatomy with cadavers
- A course offering shadowing experience in your career choice
- A videotaped interview before our committee with follow-up sessions
- A committee composite letter of recommendation to support your application
- Computerized practice MCAT exams with follow-up sessions
- Regular workshops on the short interview
With small classes and an available, caring faculty, students are expected to thrive in our small school atmosphere. Career Planning in the Health Professions, a 1 credit-hour course, is required during the first fall semester for each new health professions student. The course focuses on the curriculum, the GPA, the national exam, the interview, the personal statement, the application process, and modern trends in health care.
Ideally, applicants will have a ‘B’ or better average in their undergraduate work, will have a sound math background in algebra and trigonometry, and will be strongly motivated to enter the health care field.
To obtain a committee letter of recommendation, students must complete a minimum of 6 lab science courses at C-N, complete the ID 208 class, have a shadowing experience in their career choice, and interview before the C-N Health Professions Committee.
This intensive program is designed to be completed in 12 to 24 months by full time students (taking a minimum of 12 semester hours). It is primarily geared toward the student who has a non-science degree or those who seek career changes requiring additional science courses for admission. The required curriculum is intended to help ensure that every student has the academic background to be competitive in the admissions process to a professional school.
Post-Baccalaureate students at Carson-Newman are part of a well-established health pre-professional program at a university highly regarded for its academic reputation. Carson-Newman is the only college in Tennessee that made all three lists in the 1998 America’s Best Colleges Guide, published by U. S. News & World Report. C-N ranked among the region’s best liberal arts colleges: # 9 Overall Quality, #3 Best Values, #5 Most Efficient.
Successful completion of the Post-Baccalaureate program does not guarantee admission to health professional schools. Since this program is considered a non-degree program, the only sources for financial aid are from the private sector.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Steve Karr
Director of Health Pre-Professions
C-N Box 72041
Jefferson City, TN 37760
Phone: (865) 471-3252
New or returning C-N students may apply online. Returning students may also apply by downloading the application here. The application deadline is June 15. Late applications from outstanding candidates may be considered. | <urn:uuid:2ae48c72-186f-43e6-91d1-66dbe06f846c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cn.edu/undergraduate/programs/health-pre-professions/post-baccalaureate-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00254-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928712 | 794 | 1.804688 | 2 |
BEST QUALITY ROOFING QUARANTEED COMFORTABLE LIFESTYLE
Roofing is a complex and painstaking process. If the installation or repair of the roof is incorrect, the house will not retain heat in its walls. In addition, leaks can occur, which will lead to a loss of tightness of the structure and ultimately to mechanical destruction of various elements of the building.
In order not to leave such an important process as the execution of roofing work, solely at the discretion of the masters, it is useful to imagine what stages it consists of and what is typical for each stage.
The concept of “roofing work” includes repair and maintenance in the same way as designing and erecting a roof. Roofing work is traditionally postponed until the fall, but if possible it is better to take care of the roof in advance.
All types of roofing work contribute to the reliability and strength of the roof, so you should not neglect any of the steps, observing their sequence and approaching their implementation with responsibility.
The roof consists not only of a covering. In addition to it, the budget will include components of the supporting structure, components for the drainage system, insulation and vapor barrier. Also do not forget about the cost of transport and the actual roofing. All materials must be correctly selected and delivered on time to the construction site. After that, you can proceed to installation.
Any roof needs a reliable frame on which the coating will be installed. When mounting a supporting structure, it is important to ensure its strength and resistance to external influences
When planning roofing, the installation of a drainage system cannot be ignored, since its absence significantly reduces the life of the roof. Modern drainage systems successfully fit into any project and can become an additional element of the exterior decoration of the building.
If the supporting structures are made of wood, it must be impregnated with protective compounds that will prevent fire, decay, parasite and mold damage. All heaters must also include flame retardant impregnations.
Since, according to the laws of physics, warm air rises up and cold air rushes down, the roof should protect the house as much as possible from heat leakage and cold penetration. For this, heaters are necessarily provided for in the design. Vapor barrier allows you to keep the necessary humidity conditions in the house, on which the service life of both the interior decoration and, ultimately, the supporting structures will depend. When calculating roofing, it is imperative that the costs of insulation and vapor barrier be included in it.
Enjoy your new roof and prepare to change your life! | <urn:uuid:267da400-7887-4c1c-83a3-6852eaef5528> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://efwconstruction.com/best-quality-roofing-quaranteed-comfortable-lifestyle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572908.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817122626-20220817152626-00075.warc.gz | en | 0.950986 | 536 | 1.875 | 2 |
We hear the message to conserve water a lot these days, and it’s no wonder with another year of drought stressing our state. Water conservation is a principle of environmentally responsible gardening and the North Marin Water District and the Marin Municipal Water District encourage water conservation through their rate tier systems. No wonder interest in succulents is at an all time high.
My garden is full of Aeoniums, which are native to the Canary Islands and North Africa, and thrive in Marin.
There are about 35 varieties of Aeoniums, and they all grow in two ways: either low-growing or those that use a short trunk.
The distinctive geometric circular leaf rosettes typical of all Aeoniums can be as small as 4 inches or as wide as 2 feet, depending on the variety. Rosette colors range from shades of green to purple to almost black.
Aeoniums generally like full sun to partial shade in the milder parts of Marin, but will need some shade in the warmer parts of the county. These subtropical succulents like good drainage.
For me, the foliage is the main attraction of Aeoniums. Their oblong leaves resemble large fleshy flowers. They have true flowers, but most Aeoniums are monocarpic, meaning the parent plant dies after flowering, with offshoots of offspring that may live on.
Aeoniums are super easy to propagate. I just broke off a piece with a rosette from the parent plant and planted it in the ground where I want a new plant to grow.
My garden must have a climate similar to the Canary Islands as my Aeoniums have naturalized and grown wherever the seeds have spread.
Due to their shallow root systems, Aeoniums are not drought tolerant like most succulents, but they go dormant during the summer months. In my shady garden, they only survive thanks to winter rains and are not irrigated. This means that I get two different looking gardens. In winter, the garden looks lush and green, but in summer, the leaves curl and shrink and look more like a dry garden.
Aeoniums store water in the fleshy leaves of the rosette to survive the hot, dry regions from which they originate. Like other succulents, Aeoniums avoid desiccation by only opening their stomata at night. Stomata are the leaf cells that release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. Aeoniums convert the carbon dioxide they absorb at night into a four-carbon organic acid that is used during the day for photosynthesis. The term for this is crassulacean acid metabolism.
The leaves we are most familiar with are relatively flat with mostly visible vein patterns. The leaves of succulents, such as Aeoniums, are plump and filled with precious water. Maintaining efficient photosynthesis requires an evolution of leaf vein structure from a two-dimensional pattern to something best described as three-dimensional.
The name Aeonium comes from the ancient Greek word for ageless. This is a testament to their ability to keep producing new plants and last forever. So try some of these whimsical succulents in your garden. Your water bill will thank you.
Sponsored by UC Cooperative Extension, the University of California Marin Master Gardeners provide scientific and research-based information to home gardeners. Email your questions to [email protected] Attach photos for plant pest or disease inquiries. The office is closed for visits without an appointment. Subscribe to the Flyer, UC Marin Master Gardener’s free quarterly electronic newsletter, at marinmg.ucanr.edu | <urn:uuid:3c610d48-82c5-41fb-a0ff-5a27c6f19d16> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://fossilplants.info/aeoniums-a-canarian-who-feels-at-home-in-marin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573197.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818124424-20220818154424-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.944667 | 758 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Ossur rolls-out next generation POWER KNEE
April 24, 2009 Earlier this week we looked at developments in low-cost prosthetics, but at the other end of the spectrum, advanced prosthetic devices like Ossur's recently announced second generation POWER KNEE are opening up new frontiers in the field. As the world’s first motor-powered artificially intelligent prosthesis for above the knee amputees, the POWER KNEE is designed to enable daily activities without having to think about movement. Something most of us take for granted.
The POWER KNEE
Ossur introduced POWER KNEE in 2006 in a partnership with Victhom Human Bionics. This bionic prosthetic - which has to date been used largely in the U.S Department of Defense and the Veterans Healthcare Administration - replaces the muscle activity required to bend and straighten the knee which allows the amputee to walk in a powered gait, climb and lift the body. It even lifts the heel off the ground, providing sufficient toe clearance during swing to prevent stumbling. The POWER KNEE works as an integrated extension of the limb, and when walking on level ground the user is gently propelled forward allowing greater distances to be covered with much less effort, according to Ossur. On stairs and inclines the knee actively lifts the user up the next step, foot over foot in a natural and secure movement.
“The new second generation POWER KNEE delivers significant improvements in terms of weight, height and noise reduction as well as in power autonomy and ease of use," says POWER KNEE inventor and COO of the Biotronix business unit for Victhom, M. Stéphane Bédard.
How it works
Advanced torque and accelerometer sensors are utilized to allow the amputee to control the walking in an unconscious manner, whilst the prosthetic provides the support when contact is made by the foot with the ground. The new improved artificial intelligence operates in layers to manage the human-system interface. This allows the prosthesis to focus on providing safety, system stability and system adaptability. According to Ossur, the user just walks and the prosthetic does the rest.
The motion of the prosthesis is made possible by lifting the thigh muscle. This generates power relative to the users needs, catering for movements requiring specific power management like walking up or down stairs or inclines, and sitting or standing.
Ossur and Oscar Pistorius
As an aside, you may remember all the kafuffle in the media in January 2008 about the bilateral amputee and world champion sprinter Oscar Pistorius who was banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from competing against able-bodied runners on the grounds that his prostheses (similar to the POWER KNEE) give him a technical advantage. A remarkable athlete, Oscar had broken his own world record 27 times and is the first ever Paralympian to win Gold in each of the 100, 200 and 400 meter-sprints. On May 16, 2008, that ruling was overturned and Oscar’s dream to compete against able bodied runners has been restored.
Ossur is currently working with the rehabilitation team of Walter Reed Army Medical Center to provide the second generation of the POWER KNEE to patients. A full commercial release is expected by 2010. | <urn:uuid:0240bf1d-a4ee-40d1-a04f-3fac11a7e087> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://newatlas.com/ossur-rolls-out-next-generation-power-knee/11529/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280761.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00093-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93997 | 679 | 1.96875 | 2 |
The Moyamoya Program at Boston Children’s Hospital provides the full spectrum of diagnostic, consultation, surgical, and follow-up care services for children and adolescents with moyamoya. This life-threatening condition causes a slowing of the blood flow to the brain.
Our depth of experience in moyamoya
Our team of moyamoya experts collaborate with our clinicians across the hospital — from neurologists, radiologists, and anesthesiologists to physical therapists, social workers, and speech therapists — to devise a comprehensive treatment plan that is right for your child and family.
Because some children with moyamoya are also living with other medical conditions, like Down syndrome, sickle cell disease, and neurofibromatosis, our clinicians work closely with specialists throughout the hospital to deliver care for all of our patients’ needs.
Why choose the Moyamoya Program?
The Boston Children’s Moyamoya Program is the largest center of its kind in the country — and our team is the most experienced in caring for children and adolescents with this rare condition. Our physicians played a key role in developing the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for management of stroke and moyamoya.
We are also the highest volume center for surgical treatment, called revascularization, in patients with moyamoya, with the shortest length of stay and best outcomes.
Meet a moyamoya patient turned doctor
Elizabeth Kwak is living proof of how far the treatment of moyamoya has come. She talks about her experience with moyamoya and how it has dramatically shaped the course of her life.
The only effective long-term treatment for moyamoya is surgery. In 1985, Boston Children’s neurosurgeon R. Michael Scott, MD, developed and first performed a procedure called pial synangiosis that directly applies a healthy artery onto the affected area of a child’s brain. Since then, he and Edward Smith, MD, have used pial synangiosis to treat more than 50 children each year with moyamoya.
In addition, we also offer several other leading-edge treatment options including:
- same-anesthesia bilateral hemisphere revascularization
- surgical treatment of sickle cell patients with moyamoya, including timed exchange transfusions, ICU management, and medication regimen
- specific surgical protocols for patients who have moyamoya and neurofibromatosis or Down syndrome
- occipital synangiosis for cerebral revascularization
Our physicians conduct research into the causes, development, and treatment of moyamoya. Our research efforts include:
- studying how blood vessels in the brain respond to moyamoya and to surgical treatment
- examining the alterations of blood flow in the brains of children with moyamoya
- determining how certain components of the blood and cerebrospinal fluid may influence the onset and progression of moyamoya
- developing new, noninvasive methods of diagnosing moyamoya at an early stage, before disabling strokes occur
Read more on our research and innovation page. | <urn:uuid:07b8180f-4698-4589-bb57-1ffff3187867> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.childrenshospital.org/programs/moyamoya-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571147.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810040253-20220810070253-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.924898 | 657 | 1.625 | 2 |
Curiosities of Chester
Midsummer Watch Jugglers by David Annand
This sculpture was made from stainless steel and was installed on the roundabout near the Bache on the 17th/18th of October
2000. It shows two figures in Elizabethan costumes juggling with firebrands and refers to the midsummer watch.
A pageant dating back to 1498. And forbidden by the Puritans but re-established in 1996 by Chester City Council.
Also See www.davidannand.com >>>
The Refectory Pulpit in Chester Cathedral.
It is thought that this is the most complete example of a refectory pulpit in the country. There is another example of one in Beaulieu Cistercian Abbey in Hampshire.
Lincoln Cathedral has got one!
But Chester also has one but he is less well known.
Who is he ?
He is the Chester Imp. He can be found high up in the Nave.
He is spot lighted high up on the North Nave Wall. He is hard to see
In the Choir of Chester Cathedral on the end of one of the stalls is an elephant.
It was carved in medieval times and the artist had never seen an elephant before.
If you look the head is very pointed and the trunk is too narrow.
Scratched into the first floor front window of Olde Leche house, Watergate Street with a diamond ring.
Are the words 'Charming Miss Oldfield 1736'. Said to be placed there by the famous 18th century lexicographer and wit Dr Samuel Johnson.
Try Memorials in Chester Cathedral >>> | <urn:uuid:a74119d5-fd58-46d0-b2bc-434fa14c29b5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.chestertourist.com/curiosities.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279933.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00128-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960779 | 341 | 1.742188 | 2 |
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
CONFRONTING ETHICAL AND DISCIPLESHIP ISSUES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
©Wendell Griffen, 2015
Baptist Joint Committee Lecture Series
Fuller Theological Seminary (Travis Auditorium)
Friday, November 13, 2015, 2 PM
Jesus declared in the lesson of the Good Samaritan that the greatest commandment is to love God with one’s entire being and to love others as oneself. Today I will address theological, hermeneutical, and ethical deficiencies which contribute to our inability or refusal, as followers of Jesus, to better understand religious liberty as a value that must co-exist alongside and be recognized as integral to commitment to equality because of the love mandate in the Gospel of Jesus.
My fundamental premise is that evangelical followers of Jesus have not theologically, hermeneutically, and ethically considered religious liberty to be part of the deep and wide justice imperative that appears throughout Scripture. This shortcoming is because the Hebrew and New Testaments are not studied, preached, or understood as valuable religious liberty source material, in much the same way evangelicals have refused to understand that those sacred writings declare salvation to be a social justice imperative.
Consequently, most evangelical followers of Jesus affirm faith without a Biblical appreciation about the relationship between religious liberty, discipleship, and social justice. Failure to include religious liberty as part of the way followers of Jesus understand discipleship hinders the ability of evangelical followers of Jesus to develop and live out a robust social ethic consistent with the teachings of Jesus and the social justice imperative found in the Torah.
The Traditional Approach to Religious Freedom
The freedom of a person or community to publicly or privately manifest religious beliefs or teach, practice, worship, and otherwise observe religious traditions—including the freedom to not follow any religion—has long been considered a fundamental human right in various societies across the ages. In a country with a state religion, religious liberty contemplates that the government permits other sects aside from the state religion, and does not persecute believers of other faiths.
Many, if not most, evangelical followers of Jesus view religious liberty in the United States from the perspectives of Western European and U.S. history. Protestants will trace their views on religious liberty to 1517, when Martin Luther published his famous 95 Theses in Wittenberg in an effort to reform Catholicism. Luther was given an opportunity to recant at the Diet of Worms before Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Luther refused to recant, was declared a heretic, and was then sequestered on the Wartburg, where he translated the New Testament into German. After Luther was excommunicated by Papal Bull in 1521, the reformation movement gained ground, spread to Switzerland, and then grew to England, France, and elsewhere in Europe.
The French Revolution abolished state religion in France. However, all property of the Catholic Church was confiscated, and intolerance against Catholics ensued. Under Calvinist leadership, the Netherlands became the most religiously tolerant country in Europe by granting asylum to persecuted religious minorities (French Huguenots, English Dissenters, and Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal).
Religious freedom began in the Netherlands and New Amsterdam (now New York) during the Dutch Republic. When New Amsterdam surrendered to the English in1664, freedom of religion was guaranteed in the Articles of Capitulation. That freedom also benefited Jews who arrived on Manhattan Island in 1654 after fleeing Portuguese persecution in Brazil. Other Jewish communities were eventually established during the 18th century at Newport, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia.
Efforts to escape religious intolerance are part of the national heritage of our society. Recall that the Pilgrims first sought refuge from religious persecution in the Netherlands, and later founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620.
However, most of the early colonies were not generally tolerant of religious pluralism, with the notable exception of Maryland. The colony of Maryland, founded by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, was the first government in what eventually became the United States to formally recognize freedom of religion, in 1634.
Roger Williams was forced to establish the new colony of Rhode Island to escape religious persecution driven by the Puritan theocracy in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans were active persecutors of Quakers, along with Puritans in Plymouth Colony and other colonies along the Connecticut River.
In 1660, an English Quaker named Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for repeatedly defying a Puritan law that banned Quakers from the colony. Her hanging marked the beginning of the end of the Puritan theocracy and New England independence from English rule, as King Charles II in 1661 prohibited Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.
Students of U.S. history, and particularly religious liberty, are no doubt familiar with William Penn. Chief Justice Earl Warren summed up Penn’s courageous commitment to religious liberty in his book, A Republic, If You Can Keep It. William Penn was a Quaker leader in London. The Quakers were not recognized by the government and were forbidden to meet in any building for worship. In 1681 King Charles II of England gave the Pennsylvania region (Pennsylvania means “Penn’s Woods”) to William Penn, a Quaker, who established the Pennsylvania colony so Quakers and other faiths could have religious freedom.
These and other historical events, along with the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, form the foundation for what many people, including followers of Jesus, understand about religious liberty. The First Amendment to the federal Constitution, ratified in 1791, reads, in pertinent part, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
That constitutional guarantee was later made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment states that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Together, the First and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee that government will not establish a religion, prefer one religion over another, become entangled in disputes involving religious doctrine, practices, and officials, nor interfere with the “free exercise” of religion.
However, the religious liberty ideal has Biblical antecedents in the Hebrew Testament, the Gospels of Jesus, and the rest of the New Testament.
Religious Liberty Antecedents in Hebrew Testament
We read at Genesis 41 that Joseph, a great grandson of Abraham, became prominent in Egypt when his spiritual discernment was recognized because he interpreted an Egyptian pharaoh’s dreams as an omen of approaching years of agricultural prosperity followed by years of famine. The dramatic narrative about Joseph recognizing his brother Benjamin, at Genesis 43, becomes even more meaningful when we read that the Egyptians who dined with Joseph “ate with him by themselves”—apart from Joseph their prime minister and apart from Joseph’s brothers—“because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
Joseph rose to political prominence in Egyptian society due to his spiritual discernment. Nevertheless, the social separation described in that dining narrative indicates that Joseph had something resembling a “separate but equal” co-existence with his fellow Egyptian political operatives. Joseph is recognized in the final chapters of Genesis as a man whose religious values and ethnic identity set him apart in Egyptian society.
Exodus, the second book in the Hebrew canon, opens with the dramatic story about how the Hebrew people were socially, economically, and politically oppressed by the Egyptian majority. We traditionally have understood the Exodus as the salvation narrative of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage.
However, the Exodus narrative also exposes a struggle for religious, social, and physical liberty in the collision between the religious, political, social, and ethical framework of the Egyptian empire and the liberating design of God presented through the agency of Moses and his brother Aaron. As the editors of New Oxford Annotated Bible note:
The predictability, the timing of both beginning and ending, the intensity, the contest between Aaron and the [Egyptian] magicians, the distinction between Egyptians and Israelites, and the emphasis on Pharaoh’s knowing (acknowledging) God all point to combat on two interrelated levels: between Israel’s God and Egypt’s gods (12.12), including the deified Pharaoh, and between their human representatives, Moses and Aaron, and Pharaoh, his officials, and his magicians.
Exodus is also a vivid illustration about the quest for religious liberty and the collision of divergent systems of religious belief. Moses was sent to Egypt to present a divine demand to the Pharaoh that the Israelites be freed so they could worship God. During the series of plagues Pharaoh’s courtiers appealed on one occasion for their leader to allow the Israelites to go, saying: “How long shall this fellow [Moses] be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God…”
Deuteronomy should also be understood for its relevance to our understanding of religious liberty. The Israelites entered Canaan bent on genocide of the indigenous population based on the view that nothing short of that would allow them to be a holy people.
From Judges onward, the Hebrew canon presents numerous accounts of political, military, and social collisions between followers of the religion of Moses and neighboring societies known for different religious beliefs and practices. And the writings concerning the Hebrew prophets from Elijah forward contain vivid accounts of competing, and often violent, religious claims, ranging from the standoff between Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, to the threats and dangers suffered by Jeremiah from other, politically favored, religious figures of his time.
Religious liberty is a theme dramatically presented in the post-exilic writings of the Hebrew canon. Like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah preserved their ethnic and religious identity after they were taken to Babylon. The fiery furnace experience of Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and Azariah (Abednego) we read about at Daniel 3 and the lion’s den experience of Daniel about which we read at Daniel 6 are plainly lessons about civil disobedience based on religious devotion. Some commentators view the historical novella of Esther, and particularly the title character, as representative of “the marginal and sometimes precarious status of Diaspora Jews who were obliged to accommodate their lives to an alien environment” in a way that “differs markedly from the outlook of Diaspora Jews like Ezra and Nehemiah.
Religious Liberty Antecedents in the Gospels
The Gospels of Jesus present numerous illustrations of divergent religious systems engaged in a more or less uneasy co-existence. The Jewish people of Palestine lived under Roman political and military control, but retained the freedom to follow their religious traditions.
Yet, the Gospels also demonstrate the challenges that ensue when a minority religious movement (the religion of Jesus) attempts to co-exist alongside a dominant religious tradition (that of the Sanhedrin Council orthodoxy). The contrast between how Jesus understood and applied the moral, social, and ethical imperatives of Torah and how Torah was understood and applied by established and recognized religious leaders of his time and place runs throughout the Gospels.
The sharp difference between the religion of Jesus and the religious perspective of the scribes and Pharisees resulted in clashes between Jesus, followers of Jesus, and unnamed critics. At Mark 9 we read that Jesus found his disciples and “some scribes” arguing in the same passage where Jesus healed a boy afflicted by what the text terms “an unclean spirit.”
Religious liberty is a recurring theme in the Gospels. We read in Luke’s Gospel that when disciples of Jesus tried to stop an anonymous exorcist from casting out demons Jesus contradicted their intolerance, saying, “Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you.” The night-time meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus vividly demonstrates an attempt at intra-faith dialogue. When we read about the encounter between Jesus and the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s Well, we are learning how the social justice impetus within Jesus included a religious liberty aspect that impelled him to push aside longstanding sectarian and ethnic animosities in pursuit of redemptive fellowship.
The Johannine community to which we owe the Fourth Gospel appears to have understood the religion of Jesus as a minority movement that threatened the religious, political, cultural, and social hegemony of the Sanhedrin Council, especially after the raising of Lazarus. When we read about the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin Council and his subsequent indictment by the Sanhedrin before Pontus Pilate, the Roman governor, we are reading how religious figures in a dominant religion fabricated a national security accusation to stamp out the emerging religion of Jesus.
According to John’s Gospel, Pilate was not interested in refereeing a religious dispute between rival Palestinian Jewish factions, so Pilate tried to release Jesus. However, when Sanhedrin leaders associated Jesus with insurrection, Pilate lost interest in achieving liberty for Jesus, and ordered him crucified. We rarely, if ever, hear the crucifixion of Jesus interpreted for its religious liberty significance alongside the traditional salvation perspective.
Religious Liberty Challenges from Acts to Revelation
We do not proceed far in Acts before the religion of Jesus collides again with the dominant religious movement in Jerusalem. Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin Council after they healed a lame man and proclaimed that the man was healed “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified…” As the religion of Jesus began attracting more followers, the threats Peter and John received turned into sectarian persecution, as shown by the trial and stoning of Stephen.
We read about the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch at Acts 8, and are accustomed to that passage being highlighted for its evangelism and missionary significance. Yet, the passage is equally instructive concerning religious liberty.
Philip fled Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen and went to the city of Samaria. His presence was not merely tolerated. His ministry effort there was so well received that Peter and John, dispatched from Jerusalem to investigate it, were also welcomed and well-received. These are clear examples of religious liberty and inclusion taking root among early followers of Jesus.
We do not gain a complete perspective about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus if we disregard that Saul was a leading force in the effort to root out and exterminate followers of Jesus. Saul’s opposition to religious liberty deserves to be highlighted.
After Saul was converted, he was accepted by the Damascus community. When we read in Acts 9 that “the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace,” “was built up,” and “increased in numbers,” we may reasonably argue that the religion of Jesus traces its early ascendance to conflicts, challenges, and victories surrounding the exercise of religious liberty.
Beginning at Acts 10, we read how early followers of Jesus began to struggle among themselves with divergent viewpoints. Peter’s rooftop vision and later baptism of Cornelius eventually forced the young religious movement to become ethnically inclusive.
By the time we reach Act 15, that inclusivity was being challenged by traditionalists who insisted that Gentile followers of Jesus become circumcised. The council we read about at Antioch in Acts 15 shows how the young movement wrestled with divergent religious views among its own adherents, struggled to co-exist alongside the religious teachings and practices of the Sanhedrin Council, all while living as colonized people under Roman political and military occupation.
When we read about Paul and Silas being jailed and later in Philippi at Acts 16, we are reading about a religious liberty struggle. When we read that Paul and Silas were accused of “turning the world upside down” during their brief ministry in Thessalonica, and when we read elsewhere in Acts and other New Testament epistles about the imprisonment, trials, and other experiences of Paul during his missionary efforts, we are reading how the religion of Jesus was threatened and oppressed by the dominant religious faction. The New Testament closes with the Revelation of John who wrote that he was exiled on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
The Cost of Ignoring Biblical Religious Liberty Antecedents
Evangelical followers of Jesus are not nurtured to recognize these and other religious liberty illustrations in our sacred writings. This demonstrates a glaring shortcoming in the traditional ways evangelicals engage theology, hermeneutics, and ethics.
I agree with proponents of liberation theology who argue that the Bible presents God as suffering alongside oppressed people. When God confronts Moses for the first time in Exodus, God identified with enslaved people, not the empire that oppressed them, as shown by the following memorable passage.
Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’
Theodore Walker, Jr. has observed that black liberation theology “understands that liberating answers to questions pertaining to the circumstance of oppression and the struggle for freedom are essential to the Christian witness,” resulting in “a particular vision of God that has been summarily formulated by James Cone and others under the conception of God as ‘God of the oppressed.’” Walker explains that vision of God and contrasts it against what he termed “the prevailing Western theological tradition” as follows.
When black theologians speak of God as God of the oppressed, we do not mean merely that God is present with, related to, worshiped by, or somehow involved with those who are oppressed. This would be to understate the matter. From the perspective of black theology, to speak of God as God of the oppressed is to affirm that God actually experiences the suffering of those who are oppressed. Moreover, black theology knows, from the data of human experience, that the experience of suffering from oppression entails a desire to be liberated from such oppression. Hence, it follows that the God who experiences the suffering of the oppressed also desires their liberation.
Black theology has its deepest rootage in the experience of enslaved and oppressed Africans, and in their appropriation of the witness of scripture, but not in the philosophical and theological traditions of the Western academy and its medieval and Greek forbears. The essentially non-Western rootage of black theology is often concealed by the fact that most African-American communities of worship wear the labels of European-American Protestant denominations. It must be remembered, however, that African-American denominations are not “Protestant” in the sense of having been born in protest to alleged Catholic abuses; instead, African-American denominations are protestant in the very different sense of having been born in protest against oppression by European-American Protestant denominations…
To be sure, black theology is defined in considerable measure by its protest against the prevailing Western theological tradition. History has taught us that classical Western theism is quite capable of abiding peaceably with, and even of being very supportive of, such oppressive activities as the enslavement of Africans and the genocide of Native Americans. It is characteristic of black theology to be unforgivingly critical of any theology that fails to affirm that God favors the struggle for liberation. If God is conceived so as not to favor this struggle, then God is thereby conceived so as not to experience fully our pain and suffering. Such a conception of God is contrary to the Christian witness to God’s suffering as indicated by the cross, and it is contrary to the vision of God as that utterly unsurpassable Friend whose love is perfect and all-inclusive…
…Because we know that God actually experiences our oppression, we know that God favors our struggle for liberation. This is removed as far as can be from such classical attributes of God as immutable, totally impassible, wholly other, and unmoved mover. From the perspective of black theology, the prevailing classical Western (white) theism is logically, existentially, and religiously anathema. Insofar as classical theism aids and abets the structures of oppression, James Cone would describe it as the theology of the Antichrist.
One’s perspective on theology affects hermeneutics. The evangelical hermeneutic is bottomed on what Theodore Walker, Jr. terms “the prevailing classical Western (white) theism,” which has traditionally resulted in emphasis on piety and personal salvation, global evangelism, and missions.
Evangelicals frequently cite the Great Commission passage at Matthew 28:19-20 as authority for that emphasis. Sadly, the theological and hermeneutical perspectives of evangelicals have been also allied with maintaining oppressive order, not achieving liberation from oppression.
This tendency is, to some extent, responsible for cognitive dissonance—morally and ethically—among evangelicals concerning religious liberty and other Biblical imperatives regarding justice. Because they have not interpreted the Bible in terms of its relevance to social justice in general and liberty, including (but by no means limited to) religious liberty, evangelicals primarily consider religious liberty an essential attribute for a well-ordered society, not a moral and ethical imperative arising from the divine passion for liberation from all forms of oppression.
Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on the ethical and social consequences of Western theism to some extent in his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Ponder this excerpt from King’s letter to white Birmingham clerics who criticized him for becoming involved in nonviolent civil disobedience efforts to protest racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.
…I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? … Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church…. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
More than half a century has passed since King’s April 16, 1963 letter. However, his observations are, sadly, true today. Last week I and others received an email message from Rev. Daniel Buford, Minister of Justice at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California, that echoed King’s assessment. In pertinent part, it reads as follows:
This morning I had an “Aha!” moment of epiphany when I saw that the cop who pushed the Indian man to the ground down south was the beneficiary of two hung juries and will not be punished for what he did. The cop saw the brown skin of the elder from India and treated him like a Black man. The Muslim boy who was kicked out of school for making a clock experienced [what] has happened to thousands of African Americans whose White teachers are threatened by the brilliance of dark skinned people who are young, gifted, and Black. In my research on these human rights violations at the hands of police I have come upon the surprising cases of people treated so badly that [I] automatically assumed that they were Black until I dug a little deeper and saw a picture of the victim. Native Americans activists die in jail in 2015 under circumstances like Sandra Bland. An unarmed White teenager on his first date was killed recently for not obeying police orders in a satisfactory manner just like many of the teenagers on the list I have complied. A White Policewoman in Florida dumped a White man in a wheel chair onto the floor because he was not moving as fast as she thought he should without protesting her treatment of him. Cops sexually molest White women as well as women of color with little outcry about the systemic molestation experienced by all women. The absence of records kept about rogue police treatment of Black People also means that no records are kept for anybody.
My “Aha!” is confirming an old trope; Black people are the canaries in the mineshafts of institutional racism; what kills us mostly and firstly will kill everyone eventually regardless of race. Our problem is compounded by the fact that we are also trapped in a labyrinth with the Minotaur of white supremacist state sponsored terrorism. Police Brutality is seen as a “Black problem” just as Sickle Cell disease is seen [as a] disease that only affects people of African descent resulting in many swarthy Mediterranean-Caucasians ending up sick, misdiagnosed, and dead. Environmental Racism kills us first because of where we live and work but everyone must eat, drink, and breathe in the same environment; wind patterns aren’t limited by zip codes. The pollution in our areas always radiates outward. People …don’t give a damn about stopping rogue police as long as Blacks and Mexicans are mainly being hunted and the White community is secure in that knowledge. This [is] precisely where empathy with Human rights concerns comes into play. Haile Selassie said it this way when the League of Nations ignored his warnings about the implications of Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere!”
Although theologians and evangelical leaders profess belief in religious liberty, they somehow have consistently lacked the theological and ethical capacity to relate religious liberty to the wider struggle for freedom from oppression. As Rev. Buford shared in his email message, this demonstrates a basic deficiency in human empathy. I call it moral and ethical dwarfism.
I see no evidence evangelicals recognize, respect, support, and have joined the Black Lives Matter movement and struggle for freedom from the oppression of state-sanctioned abuse and homicide of black people by law enforcement officials. Likewise, immigrants facing xenophobic rhetoric from talk show commentators and self-serving politicians see little evidence, if any, that evangelical scholars, congregational leaders, and rank-and-file evangelicals consider their plight in the face of blatant oppression to be relevant. Workers struggling for living wages see little evidence that evangelicals who are adamant about religious liberty consider income inequality to be morally and ethically relevant to the evangelical notion of justice.
The defect in human empathy arising from theological, hermeneutical, and ethical parochialism explains how evangelicals can be alarmed that photographers, bakers, florists, and a Kentucky county clerk must serve all persons, while U.S. evangelical pastors support oppression of LGBT persons in Uganda. Moral and ethical dwarfism accounts for the incongruity between evangelical complaints about religious persecution of Christians in China, contrasted by their appalling silence, if not open endorsement, of Israeli-government sanctioned persecution of and discrimination against Arabs and followers of Jesus in Israel.
I attribute moral and ethical dwarfism of evangelicals about religious liberty and the deeper and wider issue of justice to the theological, hermeneutical, and ethical failure of evangelical scholars, denominational leaders, and pastors. Evangelical scholars, denominational leaders and pastors study, preach, and teach the Hebrew Testament account of Naomi returning to Judah from Moab after the deaths of her husband and sons. Somehow, they are unable or unwilling to recognize and affirm the theological, hermeneutical, and ethical relevance of that text to demands by Palestinians to return to land from which they have been displaced.
Evangelical scholars, denominational leaders, and pastors study, preach, and teach the Hebrew Testament account of how Queen Jezebel of Samaria orchestrated a state-sponsored land grab of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. Somehow, that scholarship, preaching, and teaching fails to illuminate and affirm the theological, moral, and ethical relevance of this Biblical passage to Israeli-government displacement of Palestinians from their homes, and destruction of Palestinian crops and farm land, to permit construction of illegal Jewish settlements.
These and numerous other examples are why people struggling against oppressive power view claims of evangelicals about religious liberty with disappointment, mounting distrust, and disgust. People struggling against oppression have good reason for that disappointment, distrust, and disgust. They understand that their struggle for liberation from oppression is grounded in belief that God is, to use the words of Theodore Walker, Jr., “that utterly unsurpassable Friend whose love is perfect and all-inclusive.”
Although evangelicals are viewed as the dominant sect among followers of Jesus, evangelicals not only appear intolerant toward other religions; evangelicals appear insensitive, if not unsympathetic and disdainful, about oppression faced by others. There is scant evidence from the course offerings I read on the websites of evangelical seminaries that many of the evangelical scholars who teach and write about religious liberty care about people suffering from mass incarceration, terrorism due to racial profiling, race-based abusive and homicidal police conduct, xenophobia, homophobia, economic oppression caused by classism and capitalism, and other kinds of oppression. Instead, it seems that evangelical scholars, pastors, and other leaders care about religious liberty because they want to be free to proselytize their version of the religion of Jesus, not because they believe God cares about liberating all people who suffer from any oppression.
This shortcoming matters more than one might think. Recall that the early followers of Jesus were a minority sect. When Constantine became the first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity, the religion of Jesus entered the mainstream. The Inquisition and Protestant Reformation show that followers of Jesus struggled across time to demonstrate tolerance for divergent views within our own belief system. However, the Bible shows that God is not only concerned that people are free to proselytize. Our sacred writings illuminate God’s concern that people be free to live, work, and be accepted where they lived as persons of dignity and worth, not deviants, threats, or commodities for private and social exploitation.
Earlier this year, President Marvin McMickle of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School concluded a stirring address at the Baptist Joint Committee’s luncheon during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly with the following statement.
I believe in the First Amendment, in the separation of church and state, in religious liberty, and in the right to worship God as one chooses or not to worship God at all. However, I believe in something else just as strongly; maybe more so. I believe that American history and its economic foundation was largely written in the blood of African slaves and their descendants; a story that a great many people do not want to hear. Of course I am mindful that if time allowed we could tell a similarly chilling story about the blood and suffering of Native Americans and how the appropriation of so much of their land is the real story of how the west was won…
… I believe that our nation has not yet resolved all of the lingering effects of nearly 400 years of slavery, segregation, and second-class status for millions of its citizens. All of this was done and continues to be done by the activity of many who represent the power of the state. Sadly, it could not have lasted as long as it has if it had not been for the silence of so many of those who represent the message of the church, the synagogue, and the mosque.
Borrowing a line from the 1960s song by Simon and Garfunkel, I hope the day will come when the church in America will break the “Sound of Silence” in the face of injustice and inequality! I believe in religious liberty, and I hope that all who labor for the separation of church and state as a valid principle in American society will also labor for the civil and human rights of those whose quest for physical freedom has lasted just as long as the fight for freedom of conscience.
I join Dr. McMickle in urging evangelical followers of Jesus to break from the morally and ethically indefensible practice of supporting “soul liberty,” while actively opposing the demands from others for life, liberty, and equality. The love of God about which we preach, study, sing, write, teach, and pray demands that followers of Jesus love God enough to protect our neighbors, including our neighbors with divergent lives, beliefs, behaviors, and struggles, as much as we cherish our own religious liberty.
Evangelical seminaries, denominational leaders, other religious educators, and pastors have refused to embrace a theological vision that inspires a hermeneutic affirming robust respect for and advocacy of religious freedom as part of a deeper and wider reverence for God’s involvement in and support for the human struggle for liberation. That shortcoming blinds evangelicals morally; it also hinders evangelicals ethically from recognizing and affirming that others must be protected from any persecution, mistreatment, bigotry, and other oppression, not merely religious-based persecution, mistreatment, bigotry, and oppression.
Consequently, we should not be surprised when evangelical followers of Jesus misunderstand, and misrepresent, the social justice imperative enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the equality guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the “love of neighbor” ethic taught and lived by Jesus. And, as Martin King pointedly observed to religious leaders considered “moderates” more than fifty years ago from a Birmingham jail, we should not be surprised by people “whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.”
The people who teach theology, hermeneutics, and ethics must call followers of Jesus to participate with God in the divine struggle for human dignity and equality concerning matters beyond the freedom to proselytize, pray, preach, and erect monuments to those efforts. Religious liberty is a fundamental social justice imperative bottomed in a deeper and wider understanding about who God is and what God is about, not merely a tool used to achieve national pluralism based on tolerance of divergent sectarian beliefs and practices.
Hence, evangelicals must re-think theology, hermeneutics, and ethics. If evangelical followers of Jesus are to develop and live a mature and robust faith, a faith not defined by moral and ethical dwarfism, then the people who teach theology, hermeneutics, and ethics, the people who lead religious denominations, and the people who lead congregations must hold, and affirm, a vision that God participates in the human struggle for liberation from oppression in all its forms.
Respect for religious liberty must be understood, affirmed, and be bottomed in the deeper and wider love of God, the love that inspires one to recognize and respect the inherent dignity and equality of all persons. Until evangelicals ground our notions of religious liberty in the deeper and wider love of God, our religious liberty advocacy and rhetoric will be correctly recognized, and ultimately dismissed, as sectarian chauvinism.
God deserves much better than that from us.
Circuit Judge, Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas (Fifth Division), Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas. I acknowledge, with profound gratitude, the editorial assistance of Camille Drackette and Meghan Kelleybrew, who are members of my court staff.
The statements contained in this lecture, and any comments offered by the author in response to questions or during discussions associated with this lecture, reflect the views of the author alone. In no way do they reflect, or should they be ascribed to the views of any other person or entity, including but not limited to, members of the judiciary (whether in Arkansas or elsewhere), as well as religious bodies, (including New Millennium Church and any other entity with which the author is affiliated).
The Scripture quotations and citations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
See, Luke 10:25-37.
I will throughout this lecture and its companion use the term “followers of Jesus” instead of Christians, and refer to myself as a “follower of Jesus” rather than as a “Christian.” Many evangelical Christians consider Christianity, as a world religion, a vigorous protector of religious liberty. However, as a world religion, Christianity is also often identified with imperialism and colonialism at the expense of religious beliefs, traditions, and worship practices observed by indigenous populations.
Writing about what has been deemed the “Christianization of the Roman Empire,” Joel Spring states:
Christianity added new impetus to the expansion of empire. Increasing the arrogance of the imperial project, Christians insisted that the Gospels and the Church were the only valid sources of religious beliefs. Imperialists could claim that they were both civilizing the world and spreading the true religion. By the 5th century, Christianity was thought of as co-extensive with the Imperium romanum. This meant that to be human, as opposed to being a natural slave (barbarian?), was to be “civilized” and Christian. Historian Anthony Pagden argues, “just as the civitas had now become conterminous with Christianity, so to be human—to be, that is, one who was ‘civil’, and who was able to interpret correctly the law of nature—one had now also to be Christian.” After the fifteenth century, most Western colonialists rationalized the spread of empire with the belief that they were saving a barbaric and pagan world by spreading Christian civilization.
See, Joel H. Spring, Globalization and Educational Rights: An Intercivilizational Analysis, (Routledge, New York, 2001), p. 92.
Similarly, Kenyan legal scholar Makau Mutua, among others, argues that Christian efforts at global proselytizing as a function of religious freedom has, ironically, resulted in the erosion of native religious traditions and denial of religious freedom to adherents of native religions. In Mutua’s words, “Imperial religions have necessarily violated individual conscience and the communal expressions of Africans and their communities by subverting African religions.” See, chapter titled, Proselyism and Cultural Integrity, at Chapter 28 in Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook, (Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, 2004), p. 652.
These and related factors lead me to prefer the terms “follower of Jesus” and “the religion of Jesus” over “Christian” and “Christianity.” I do not associate following Jesus—and prefer to not have my religious identity associated—with support for imperialism, manifest destiny, neo-colonialism, militarism, racism, sexism, crass materialism, classism, and techno-centrism.
Karl Heussi, Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte, 11. Auflage (1956), Tubingen (Germany), pp. 396-397.
Clifton E. Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 124 (1960).
Although freedom of religion was first established as a principle of government in the colony of Maryland in 1634, it was not continuously respected from that time forward. The Maryland Tolerance Act, enacted in 1649, was repealed during the Cromwellian Era, and a new law that barred Catholics from opening practicing their religion was passed. The Tolerance Act was passed again by the colonial assembly in 1658, a year after Lord Baltimore regained control after making a deal with Maryland Protestants. Freedom of religion was later rescinded, again, in 1692, after Maryland’s Protestant Revolution of 1689. In 1704, the colonial assembly enacted a law “to prevent the growth of Popery in this Province,” which barred Catholics from holding political office. Full religious liberty would not occur again in Maryland until the American Revolution, when Charles Carroll of Carrollton in Maryland signed the Declaration of Independence. See, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion, fn. 35-38.
Horatio Rogers, Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston Common, 1 June 1660 (https://books. Google.com/books).
Francis J. Bremer and Tom Webster, eds., Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: a comprehensive encyclopedia. Google Books. (2006).
Earl Warren, A Republic, If You Can Keep It, Quadrangle, (1972).
Constitution of the United States, Amendment I (ratified in 1791).
Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 60 S. Ct. 900 (1940).
Constitution of the United States, Amendment XIV (ratified in 1868).
Genesis 41:1-45.
Genesis 43:32.
See, note to Exodus 7:8-11:10, New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha), copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., p. 92.
See, Exodus 10:3-4.
Exodus 10:7.
See, Deuteronomy 7:1-7, 16-26.
See, 1 Kings 18:17-46.
See, Jeremiah 38:1-13.
See, Daniel 1:3-20.
See, New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, Hebrew Bible at p. 709.
Mark 9:14-19.
Luke 9:49-50.
John 3:1-21.
See, John 4:1-42.
See, John 11:45-12:11.
See, John 18:28-19:16.
See, Acts 3:1 thru 4:21.
See, Acts 6:7 thru 8:1.
See, Acts 8:4-25.
See, Acts 1-22.
See, Acts 9:31.
See¸Acts 10.
See, Acts 16:11-40.
See, Acts 17:1-9 (especially v.6).
See, Revelation 1:9.
Exodus 3:7-10.
See, article by Theodore Walker, Jr. titled, Theological Resources for a Black Neoclassical Social Ethics, in BLACK THEOLOGY-A Documentary History, Volume Two, (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1993), pp. 37-38.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From A Birmingham Jail, as re-printed in A TESTAMENT OF HOPE: THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., (James Melvin Washington, editor), (Harper & Row, New York; 1986), pp. 298-300.
See, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/27/teen-shot-officer-not-charged/74683454/.
Excerpt of email message received November 5, 2015 from Reverend Daniel Buford, Minister of Justice, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland, California (footnotes added); published with permission.
See, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/when-theology-is-so-pro-israel-that-it-becomes-anti-christian/.
See, Ruth, Chapter 1.
See, 1 Kings 21:1-19.
Address of Marvin McMickle to Baptist Joint Committee Luncheon delivered June 19, 2015, Dallas, Texas. | <urn:uuid:f3741070-8cf9-4346-9991-88617850c3a0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wendelllgriffen.blogspot.com/2015/11/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00669.warc.gz | en | 0.955603 | 10,354 | 1.742188 | 2 |
US consumer confidence fell in April. Bloomberg reports:
Confidence among U.S. consumers fell to a 26-year low after employers fired workers and gasoline prices surged, threatening the spending that accounts for more than two thirds of the economy.
The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 63.2 this month, the weakest level since 1982, when the jobless rate approached 11 percent, the worst since the Great Depression...
The fall in consumer confidence comes as inflation expectations are rising.
Consumers polled in today's survey said they expect an inflation rate of 4.8 percent in a year, compared with 4.3 percent projected last month.
There are good reasons for the rise in inflation expectations.
In other figures released today, the Labor Department reported that the cost of imported goods climbed 14.8 percent in March from a year ago, led by oil...
Import prices rose 2.8 percent in March after a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, the Labor Department said. Expenses excluding fuels jumped 0.9 percent, the most since records began in 2001.
It is a similar situation in Japan. From AFP/CNA:
Japan's wholesale inflation rate hit a fresh 27-year high of 3.9 per cent in March as companies struggled to cope with soaring raw material and energy costs, a report from the central bank showed.
Producer price inflation accelerated from a revised annual rate of 3.6 per cent in February, the Bank of Japan said. It was the strongest rise in corporate goods prices since February 1981.
Inflation could hang around for quite a while longer, according to an ECB official. From Bloomberg:
European Central Bank council member Axel Weber said he doesn't see any scope to cut interest rates with inflation running at the fastest pace in almost 16 years...
"I fear that current inflation rates will remain for most of the year," Weber said. "It's important that there aren't any new inflationary pressures. We won't tolerate broad price pressures."
Morgan Stanley's Joachim Fels and Manoj Pradhan probably aren't surprised by all this inflation. They say that monetary policy in most of the major economies, including the euro area, are expansionary.
In the US, the Fed’s 200bp of rate cuts in 1Q have taken the actual fed funds rate way below the natural rate... Thus, US monetary policy is now firmly back in expansionary territory, as it was for most of this decade with the exception of 2000 and 2006-07...
In the euro area, our estimates also suggest that monetary policy is expansionary, though only moderately so... It should hardly come as a surprise then that inflation in the euro area is running significantly above the ECB’s comfort level...
[We] conclude that monetary policy in the three largest EM economies (China, India and Russia...) appears to be very expansionary at this stage... Against this backdrop, we reiterate our long-held view that inflation expectations are too low and investors would be well advised to buy protection against higher inflation.
Meanwhile, China's monetary policy may be expansionary but its trade surplus shrank 10 percent in the first quarter from a year ago despite a rebound in March.
The US trade balance hasn't benefited as a result. On Thursday, the Commerce Department had reported that the trade deficit widened 5.7 percent in February despite a fall in the deficit with China and a fall in the import of crude oil. | <urn:uuid:fad3da89-eefc-471f-8c90-7bb88be9b7a7> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://skepticalspeculator.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-consumer-confidence-falls-inflation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280065.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00546-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95512 | 714 | 1.78125 | 2 |
If astronomers had to name the most powerful optical observatory in the world today, their top pick would probably be the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope facility on Cerro Paranal in Chile. Its four new 8.2-meter (330-inch) reflectors nose out the two 10-meter (400-inch) telescopes of the Keck Observatory in Hawaii for total light-gathering ability. Just as importantly, the four telescopes are equipped with a growing arsenal of some of the most powerful and versatile "back end" instruments cameras, spectrographs, and the like ever built.
Moreover, the observatory's engineers hope eventually to merge light waves from all four telescopes so precisely that they can work together to give the resolution (sharpness of view) of a single telescope 200 meters wide.
VLT astronomers recently released a striking image of the Horsehead Nebula to show off some of what their instruments can already do. This view was assembled from frames taken in red, green, and blue light by the wide-field FORS2 multimode camera on the VLT Kueyen telescope. (The telescopes are named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun for astronomical objects in the local language, Mapuche.) The field is nearly 7 arcminutes wide, unusually large for a telescope this size. The resolution was limited by the atmospheric seeing to about 0.75 arcsecond. The colors are approximately true.
The Horsehead is a cloud of gas and dust that's being eroded and shaped by ultraviolet light from the hot star Sigma Orionis outside the top of the view. Bluish areas are dust reflecting starlight. Stars buried inside the dust are dimmed and deeply reddened. | <urn:uuid:f83a240f-3814-4f70-9782-29a73ed1872f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/giant-eye-views-the-horsehead/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280587.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00568-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941735 | 353 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Add a new dimension to your garden by growing a parfumerie of scented winter flowers. These are the best blooms to plant right now.
Let’s face it, winter is not the most inspiring month in the garden. Growth is slow, the soil can be soggy and boggy, and there’s less to impress when it comes to blooms and edibles. One of my plant-loving pals even turns her back on her growing space during the cold months, choosing to go dormant until she falls in love with gardening all over again in spring.
There’s nothing wrong with a cosy dose of hibernation, but less can be more, even in gardens, which is why being hit by the intoxicating fragrance of one of these scented winter plants during the “off-season” becomes a seasonal treat to anticipate.
As well as being a mini-skirted redhead on Scooby Doo, Daphne is a winter princess in the garden. A small evergreen shrub that grows to 1.5m (if that), its waxy star-shaped flowers impart an irresistible spicy-sweet fragrance with a hint of citrus – cutting a sprig or two for a small vase or teacup is mandatory.
There are a number of varieties, from pink and white ‘Leucanthe’, pure white ‘Alba’ (pictured above) and striking ‘Perfume Princess’, which produces blooms right along the plant’s stems rather than just at the tips, like the other Daphnes do, and is the longest flowering. A woodland dweller, Daphne likes partial shade and will love you and leave you if planted in heavy, wet soils. It’ll happily grow in a large pot though.
Pretty much an ugly duckling of a green shrub for some of the year, wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) becomes a fragrant swan in the colder months, with a bewitching scent akin to violets mixed with allspice. I also adore the tiny wax-paper-like flowers that bloom on bare branches. ‘Grandiflorus’ has golden yellow blooms whereas ‘Luteus’ is a subtler pale yellow, but all possess a deep burgundy centre.
They generally grow 2-4m depending on variety. Plant them in a sunny spot where they can go incognito as leafy green backdrop shrubs in spring and summer, before taking the stage in winter. Then cut them for the vase and create a fragrant sculptural arrangement.
3. Algerian iris
Unlike its spring-flowering sisters, this wee purple and yellow cutie (Iris unguicularis) blooms in winter and has the added bonus of scent! Hailing from Algeria and other areas of the Mediterranean, it likes well-drained soil and is perfect for a dry, sunny spot against a wall. The flowers can be dwarfed by the grass-like clumps of foliage so don’t forget to look for them. Cut the honey-scented blooms when they’re still in bud as they don’t last long once fully open.
It may come as a surprise that these frilly-skirted flowers can be fragrant, as many of them aren’t. But plant a hedge of the kind that is and you’ll have your own wall of scent. ‘High Fragrance’ has sweet, spicy notes (the signature scent of many winter blooms, as you’ll have gathered by now), and opens up pale pink then fades to white. Many of the sasanqua camellia varieties (pictured above), such as ‘Cinnamon Cindy’ and ‘Fairy Blush’, are fragrant, but the lutchuensis species, which has small white blooms and yellow stamens, is the sweetest of them all, with a jasmine-like fragrance – look for pinky-white ‘Scentuous’.
The first time I caught a waft of Boronia megastigma it took me a week to hunt down the culprit. It’s no glamour puss, but its cup-shaped flowers, which are either all pink or brown with a golden underskirt, have an enticing citrus and freesia perfume, with a teasing “now you smell it, now you don’t” quality. These Western Australian darlings are pernickety about their conditions, and have shallow roots that dry out easily, so don’t beat yourself up if you fail to keep one alive – I can’t, but I buy one every year as a fragrant winter treat. | <urn:uuid:8e87121f-8cf7-4c45-9275-489953d24848> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://havenmagazine.co.nz/5-best-scented-blooms-to-grow-in-your-garden-this-winter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573104.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817183340-20220817213340-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.933105 | 1,028 | 1.539063 | 2 |
“He isn’t even trying anymore.”
“She doesn’t care.”
Sound familiar? If so, you are not alone. Many couples go through times when one or both feel that they are the only one “working” on the relationship. It becomes frustrating to reflect on your relationship and see only those things that you do to make your relationship work. It can become a habit to focus only on those things that your partner ISN’T doing. When this habit forms it is likely that other bad habits form in its wake, including bouts of escalation when trying to discuss issues with your partner, or starting sentences that begin with, “You never… ” or “You always… .”
Especially if you have children together, it is important to find ways of relating to one another without damaging your closeness. One way to begin this process is called “Do Your Part.” This concept relies greatly on your ability to look closely at your thoughts and actions to bring about change in your relationship. In other words, in every situation, find a way to do the best you can. Whether that be choosing not to yell and scream, or choosing to do something nice for your partner even in times of irritation.
This does not mean you can change your relationship on your own. It takes two to make a relationship work over time. However, if both you and your partner begin a daily practice of “Do Your Part,” the need for each to focus on the other’s bad behavior will cease. This involves trust. You have to trust that your partner is doing everything he or she can to make your relationship and family life work, and vice versa. This also involves a lot of respect and kindness, both toward yourself and your partner.
“Do Your Part” can change the tone of your relationship. You will begin to process events in a different way. Instead of automatically going toward the one thing your partner did wrong, you will be thinking in “I” statements instead. Like, “What could I have done to make that conversation better?” or, “What could I do today to make my relationship stronger?”
If you would like to learn more about “Do Your Part,” and other concepts and skills to make your relationship strong, Family & Children’s Services offers a free class called Forever. For Real. In this class, couples learn together the skills needed to create a lasting and loving partnership. | <urn:uuid:9568bf39-0810-4a4e-ba6f-6853d81cc627> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.fcsok.org/2012/01/do-your-part/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281419.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00487-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964387 | 525 | 1.84375 | 2 |
WASHINGTON - A prestigious committee of scientists, epidemiologists and physicians reported Wednesday there is no evidence of a mysterious chronic illness arising from military service in the Persian Gulf War.
The group suggested, however, that the effects of psychological stress seen in all wars may be more noticeable among gulf war veterans because that conflict was so nearly devoid of more dramatic and lethal injuries.
A firm conclusion that nerve gas wafted over U.S. troops in the gulf could have opened the door to benefits for some veterans. But even if ailments known collectively as "gulf war syndrome" are found to result from chemical agents, the medical community has no cure or treatment.
Recent revelations that some soldiers may have been exposed to small amounts of nerve gas are unlikely to explain the lingering physical complaints of many veterans, the committee said. Nevertheless, it said such a possibility "has to be explored" in future research.
The observations were made by an 18-member committee assembled by the Institute of Medicine, which was asked by Congress and the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to review current research on "the health consequences of service during the Persian Gulf War."
The institute is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences. The current committee formed three years ago and issued its initial findings last year. Wednesday's 140-page document is the final, more-detailed report.
Since the end of the gulf war in early 1991, an unknown number - though possibly tens of thousands - of gulf war veterans have experienced chronic illness. Among their commonly mentioned complaints are fatigue, headache, skin rashes, muscle and joint pain, loss of memory and mood changes.
Thought these illnesses have come to be called gulf war syndrome, there is no clear-cut medical definition of the illness. Like the Institute of Medicine committee, several previous "blue-ribbon" scientific panels have said they doubt a distinct, gulf-related chronic illness exists.
A firm conclusion that nerve gas wafted over U.S. troops in the gulf could open the door to benefits for some veterans. The medical community is not ready with a cure or even treatment if ailments known collectively as gulf war syndrome are found to result from chemical agents.
For some, a definitive finding of chemical weapons exposure could shorten what Phil Budahn of the American Legion called "a rather time-consuming, cumbersome administrative process" for veterans with undiagnosed symptoms to receive financial aid.
And research linking chemical exposure to long-term ailments such as cancer could lead to broad new benefits policies offered by the Veterans Affairs Department, VA spokesman Terry Jemison said.
"There's the potential we would either identify some new clinical entity not yet characterized or a traditional disease that may be related to their service in the gulf," Mr. Jemison said. In either case, the VA would provide free treatment and, potentially, disability payments for sufferers.
Such a development appears to be a long way off.
First, the military has not yet determined that soldiers in the Persian Gulf were actually exposed to the sarin nerve gas released by an Army demolition team destroying Iraqi bunkers in March 1991, just after the war ended. Second, medical experts say sarin exposure results in obvious symptoms - death or severe, immediate illness - not the subtle, delayed symptoms of headache, stomach ailments and fatigue commonly associated with gulf war syndrome.
"Current medical literature suggests ... that long-term effects arise only when exposure was significant enough to cause symptoms at the time, but research in this area is limited and more is needed," the VA stated in a fact sheet released this week on gulf war illness.
Dr. Stephen Joseph, head of the Pentagon's gulf war illness efforts, said the military has been unable to confirm some 26 field readings taken during the gulf war by U.S. and allied soldiers that indicated the presence of chemical agents. In most cases, Joseph said, the equipment used was not sufficiently precise to identify the presence of chemical agents without corroborating evidence. None has been found. A law enacted last year enabled the VA to pay disability benefits to gulf war veterans suffering from undiagnosed illnesses. So far, though, 26,000 gulf war veterans receive compensation for known ailments or injuries while only about 550 are receiving payments under the new law, Jemison said. That's among a total of nearly 700,000 who served.
Dr. Michael Hodgson, associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut, who has consulted with veterans groups on gulf war illness, criticized the military not conducting a full-blown scientific survey to try to isolate the cause or causes of gulf war illness. The straightforward medical exams offered by the Pentagon and the VA amount to what he called a "19th century" approach to the problem.
David Addelstone, co-director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, said the VA has done a poor job reviewing claims for benefits that go beyond basic care for service-related injuries or ailments to which all veterans are entitled.
The VA conceded that while some 60,000 gulf war veterans have signed up for exams, the paperwork on all but the most recent 750 patients was inadequate to show which ones had unexplained illnesses. Of those 750 examined, 6 percent had unexplained illnesses.
The Pentagon, CIA, VA and a host of outside health organizations continue to investigate various aspects of gulf war illnesses. The Pentagon is pumping $15 million into research on effects of low-level exposure to chemical agents. The VA is overseeing some 70 Persian Gulf research initiatives. And the CIA is studying wind patterns to find out who might have come under a lethal cloud.
Debate about a mystery illness, however, increased this summer after the Pentagon revealed that thousands of soldiers may have been exposed to small amounts of poison gas when two Iraqi munitions dumps were intentionally destroyed in March 1991. Some veterans believe the gas has caused long-lasting nervous system damage even though there wasn't enough of it to cause acute problems or death.
Though it's unclear whether any soldiers had contact with the poison gas, more than 15,000 were close enough to the explosions that exposure was theoretically possible, according to recent Defense Department announcements. The Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency are now "modeling" both the explosions and the weather at the time to estimate the likelihood that any gas that was not incinerated made contact with troops.
The IOM committee's job was to review research on Gulf War illnesses and to suggest ways the military could improve data collection in the future. As part of that work, however, the panel also offered its observations about the possible causes of chronic illness in veterans, based on current research, past research, and longstanding biological principles.
"The committee has not identified scientific evidence to date demonstrating adverse health consequences specifically of (gulf war) service other than the documented incidents of leishmaniasis (a rare tropical infection), combat-related or injury-related mortality or morbidity, and increased risk of psychiatric sequelae (consequences) of deployment," the members wrote.
There are now more than 30 scientific studies of gulf war illness under way. Some are attempting to answer basic epidemiological questions such as whether there is more illness among soldiers who went to the gulf than among soldiers who served elsewhere. Others are laboratory experiments aimed at trying to learn about the effects of pesticides, chemical fumes, anti-nerve agent drugs, and other "exposures" soldiers faced. Almost none of the studies has been completed.
"The committee recognizes that studies provided thus far do not comprise a comprehensive scientific investigation of the health consequences of service in the (gulf)," the members added.
As have several other expert panels, the IOM committee paid great attention to the psychological stress caused by rapid deployment to the gulf, the harsh conditions there, ubiquitous fears of gas attacks, and sudden re-entry to American life. It also noted that these - and more obvious combat-related stresses - were probably the cause of chronic illnesses reported among veterans of every American war back to the Civil War. The gulf war, however, was different in one important way, the panel said.
"Puzzling reactions and symptoms seen during and after prior conflicts may have been incorrectly attributed to battle casualties and infectious diseases that were considered unavoidable and even relatively acceptable outcomes of war," the committee members wrote. "Thus, the lower prevalence of battle injuries and infections in the gulf theater may have unmasked psychophysiological symptoms that were present in earlier conflicts but attributed to injury and casualty."
This aspect of the report was immediately criticized by a staff member of a House subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., that has held four hearings on "Gulf War Syndrome" in the last year.
"While we feel stress could have played a part in some of the illnesses of these veterans, we still think there is something much larger going on here," said Robert Newman. In particular, he noted that most of the IOM committee's work was done before the possible nerve-gas exposure from the munitions dump were known.
The chairman of the IOM panel, however, said those revelations would not change the report because no link has been made between gas exposure and symptoms in soldiers. In fact, said, John C. Bailar III, it's not even known if the troops near the Iraqi dumps have an unusual number of chronic physical complaints.
"If that link is demonstrated by further research, then the situation changes dramatically," said Bailar, who is an epidemiologist at the University of Chicago.
Associated Press reports were used in this story.
© 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us | <urn:uuid:c7ee564c-6f0f-43f8-8f0f-2d87817593f6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1996/10/10/met_199919.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280128.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00393-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970672 | 1,954 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What comes to mind when you think about investing online? Cryptocurrency? Share trading?
You might have heard of Investment Crowdfunding – a smart investment choice?
What about investment in general? What types of investment are available to you, and which ones are the best for your needs?
Savvy investors and the wealthy will always want to explore real estate investing. Investing in solid land is the cliche that many firmly believe is the way to go.
Does this mean that only the rich can invest in real estate?
Let us give you the answer with 3 reasons why Investment Crowdfunding is the smarter choice.
Smart Reason 1: Investment crowdfunding empowers you to make your own decisions
Investment crowdfunding is a booming trend.
Singapore hosts some of the top platforms in Southeast Asia, and Indonesia has seen P2P Crowdfunding, a debt-based or project-based form of crowdfunding, channel billions of dollars in investments in 2018.
Crowdfunding basically allows large or small investors to pool funds for specific projects, campaigns or issuers. Your money is matched directly to the project or company, not through any fund or financial intermediary.
What’s so smart about this then?
- Well, with crowdfunding, you can make your own investment decisions without having to depend on managers and analysts who may not be aligned with your preferences and interest.
- Now you get to invest in what you want and like. Some of you may enjoy the thrill of investing in startups along with its associated risks.
- A number of you may feel the smarter choice is to invest in healthy SMEs.
- I’m sure most of you would also feel that property is a smart and relatively more stable investment.
Smart Reason 2: Crowdfunding allows you to invest small or large amounts
As exciting as it may be to start investing in real-world projects directly, it is smart to exercise some prudence.
Since investment crowdfunding allows small investments, and since there is also typically a continuous stream of new campaigns launched every so often, you can take it slow and start from low.
- If your investment funds are not too high, you can be smart by investing a small amount and diversifying by spreading your investment into multiple campaigns.
- If you have a higher risk appetite, and are confident of the campaign you like, then you can also be smart and go big in one or a few campaigns.
- You can be even smarter by mixing strategies – invest small amounts routinely, and then when you come across the campaign you really like, or if you get a large windfall or bonus, then you can jump in with a larger investment.
Smart Reason 3: Invest in the best property markets
Property crowdfunding is growing rapidly in many countries, especially during period of strong property market growth.
For example, Indonesia’s huge and emerging population and economy has brought about amazing opportunities for property investment, which had been taken up mainly by local investors and large investment funds or conglomerates. (Read on: 7 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Indonesia)
With crowdfunding, you can enter and invest in Indonesia all-online.
Other countries that have solid property crowdfunding platforms include the UK, US, Australia and now even parts of Africa!
Ethiscrowd.com is the smart choice which allows you to profit like a property developer
At EthisCrowd, we’re excited to combine the concept of Investment Crowdfunding with Property Development.
With just a few hundred dollars, you can invest with our crowd in truly unique property developments projects – social housing for low-income families.
From our base in Singapore, we’ve helped investors from more than 30 countries to invest in Indonesia, most of them for the first time.
This is impact investing – making money while doing good. You will also be investing in the most exciting economy in the emerging world!
Our campaigns have brought profits of between 10 to 15% on an annualised calculation.
The best part about property is that there is also asset-backing so you know that even if there are problems on the ground, that the result will be delays, or in the worst case scenario the asset is liquidated and some capital will be recouped for investors. (Read on: How Ethis Manage the Risks involved in Property Investing)
Of course, the beauty of Crowdfunding is that you can invest from almost anywhere in the world, directly into projects from your personal device.
We’re not claiming to give you smart investment advice.
In fact, what we do is the opposite – we match you with credible property developers so you get the information you need to make your own smart investment decision.
Do note though that for all real-world or ‘alternative’ investments like crowdfunding, there are real risks to your capital.
The important thing is to make sure you invest only what you can afford, and to make sure you understand the risks before you decide to invest.
Once you decide you want to make your first investment, we make it easy for you! | <urn:uuid:13fcf426-843c-453a-b74c-b1e92997b730> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ethis.co/blog/3-reasons-property-crowdfunding-smart-investment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570921.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809094531-20220809124531-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.947775 | 1,043 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Well, I wanted to do some clever wrap up to NaNoWriMo, but I feel the pressure of all the things I put off during the month ;-) So here's some more tips on getting unstuck:
Experiment -- Try to write in different places, at different times, and with different writing instruments.
Freewrite -- Choose one sentence in a paragraph and write a paragraph about it. Then choose one sentence from that paragraph and do it again.
Cluster -- Choose key words and ideas; then write associated ideas and words in clusters around them. This process often forms new ideas.
Be flexible -- Be willing to throw out sections of text that are causing problems or just don't work.
Follow a routine -- Follow a routine to get into the writing mood. Try activities like wearing comfortable clothing, using a certain pen, or listening to a particular CD or type of music.
Move -- Physically move around, stretch, or walk.
Take a break -- Get a snack or drink, talk to someone, or just relax for five minutes before starting to write again.
Concentrate -- Focus on a different section or aspect of your paper. This sometimes leads to new insights in problem areas, while allowing you to get work done on another section.
Re-read -- Read a print draft of the paper and jot down ideas while reading.
Relax! -- The more you worry, the harder it gets to think clearly.
These are from Overcoming Writer's Block. | <urn:uuid:b8963e1d-7f53-4888-aaec-57e77e962d3a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://dragonwritingprompts.blogspot.com/2006/12/latt-break.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718296.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00539-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910084 | 309 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Renowned primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall reflects on the lives of parrots upon viewing Parrot Confidential:
I have always loved parrots. As a child, I longed for one of my own, to travel everywhere with me on my shoulder. That was until I learned more about them. I became increasingly outraged and saddened by the suffering of so many of these fascinating, intelligent and extremely social birds. I have seen African Greys in the wild, watched them flying in noisy flocks, high in the trees of their forest homes. Their flight is swift and beautiful. Their calls, so raucous and screechy in the confines of a building, are part of the forest’s singing, blending with other sounds of wild nature.
Parrots do not belong in cages. If only more people understood their life in the wild and their true nature and basic needs, I believe they would think again before buying a parrot. For then they would understand the enormous demands that would be made on their time if they wanted to give their bird a satisfying life — that is, as satisfying as it could ever be in captivity.
That is why I am so delighted that Allison Argo has made a film that illustrates the true wonder of wild parrots and explains — using the experiences and voices of parrot owners — the problems and (unintended) cruelty inherent in keeping them in captivity. And it honors those who have dedicated their lives to providing sanctuary for the thousands of parrots who have been given up by their guardians — because they simply could not cope with the needs of noisy birds whose bite can remove part of a finger, nose or ear. It is a moving and beautifully made film and I believe it will make a big difference. Allison’s other nature films have been widely praised, and have received several prestigious awards. I am confident that “Parrot Confidential” will be similarly acclaimed. Please watch it. | <urn:uuid:3da1eb2b-3909-4a61-bb4a-81c60f2344e5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/parrot-confidential-jane-goodall-on-parrots-and-parrot-confidential/8568/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00303-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976214 | 400 | 2.0625 | 2 |
February 14, 2014
Nations Commit to Accelerating Progress against Infectious Disease Threats
Today the United States joined 26 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from the threat of infectious disease, and committing to the goals of the Global Health Security Agenda.
“Global health security is a shared responsibility; no one country can achieve it alone,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “In the coming months, we will welcome other nations to join the United States and the 26 other countries gathered here in Washington and in Geneva, as we work to close the gaps in our ability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.”
Over the next five years the United States plans to work with at least 30 partner countries (containing at least 4 billion people) to prevent, detect and effectively respond to infectious disease threats, whether naturally occurring or caused by accidental or intentional releases of dangerous pathogens.
“While we have made great progress in fighting and treating diseases, biological threats can emerge anywhere, travel quickly, and take lives,” said Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. “The recent outbreaks of H7N9 influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome are reminders of the need to step up our efforts as a global community. The Global Health Security Agenda is about accelerating progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats.”
Later this year, the White House will host an event bringing together nations who are committed to protecting the world from infectious disease threats to review progress and chart the way forward on building a global system for preventing, detecting, and responding to such threats.
“The United States and the world can and must do more to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks as early and as effectively as possible,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said. “CDC conducted two global health security demonstration projects last year in partnership with Vietnam and Uganda to strengthen laboratory systems, develop strong public health emergency operations centers, and create real-time data sharing in health emergencies. CDC is committed to replicate the successes in these two projects in ten additional countries this year.”
In FY 2014, CDC and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency have jointly committed to accelerate progress on global health security by co-developing a strategy and devoting $40 million toward activities focusing on advancing the U.S. government's GHS objectives in ten nations.
The FY 2015 President’s Budget will include an increase of $45 million within CDC to prevent avoidable catastrophes, detect threats early, and mobilize effective responses to contain outbreaks. The increase also would allow CDC to partner with up to ten countries in 2015 to begin implementation and accelerate successful CDC efforts including training of field epidemiologists, developing new diagnostic tests, building capacities to detect new pathogens, building public health emergency management capacity, and supporting outbreak responses.
Secretary Sebelius, Ms. Monaco and Dr. Frieden were joined at the launch meeting by representatives in Washington and Geneva from 26 other countries, three international organizations, and by other U.S. government officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom, Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Fox, and Department of Agriculture Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford, whose agencies will lead efforts to fulfill the U.S. government commitment to global health security.
“Efforts to prevent deadly outbreaks strengthen geopolitical stability and security, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “None of us, not the public health, security or agriculture sectors can accomplish global health security on our own—it is obvious that an interdisciplinary approach is the best way to make progress.”
HHS, DoS, USDA, and DoD will work closely with global partners to build countries’ global health security capacities in areas such as surveillance, detection and response in order to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance, establish national biosecurity systems, reduce zoonotic disease transmission, increase routine immunization, establish and strengthen national infectious disease surveillance and laboratory systems, and develop public health electronic reporting systems and emergency operations centers.
“The Global Health Security Agenda set forth today establishes a roadmap for progress that ultimately depends on collaboration between the health and security communities,” said Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Fox. “The Department of Defense is committed to continuing our work, together with our national and international partners, to strengthen global health security.”
Countries joining the United States to meet the Global Health Security goals at today’s launch were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, and, Vietnam.
For more information on the Global Health Security Agenda, visit www.globalhealth.gov/global-health-topics/global-health-security/index.html. | <urn:uuid:a6062cb2-6016-4e8c-a739-b0acb528941e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2014/02/13/nations-commit-to-accelerating-progress-against-infectious-disease-threats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00244-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929553 | 1,053 | 2.765625 | 3 |
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Jumping into the intercourse toy market could be intimidating, but, once you’re acquainted with the completely different sorts of intercourse toys, things get a lot easier. | <urn:uuid:34fb82a5-2e59-41a6-8105-0d8f11f3d4be> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.bestbootyworkouts.com/there%C2%92s-large-cash-in-car-vibrates/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.848181 | 1,704 | 1.53125 | 2 |
About the Book
Pictures shot August 24, 2008 in the old city centre of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pictures are mainly from the well knows areas Nyhavn and Kristianshavn, where old buildings, and the old windows as well, are well preserved.
I am sure that if you ever get to Copenhagen you will visit these places. Take a look at the old windows :-). Lots of things to look at there.
Features & Details
- Category Arts & Photography
Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
- Publish Date Aug 26, 2008
- Tags old houses, old windows, Danish architecture, Scandinavian architecture, old buildings in Scandinavia, old buildings in Denmark, old buildings in Copenhagen, house facades in Denmark, house facades in Copenhagen, window reflections, Copenhagen, Denmark, Nyhavn, Kristianshavn, reflections | <urn:uuid:e0992d20-aec1-4e9b-ae60-a53d26622581> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.blurb.com/b/335052-windows | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280872.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00318-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906736 | 187 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This piano has a wonderful sound as a result of its AWM stereo sampling; it options 88 hammer motion keys that mannequin the action of an acoustic piano and in addition provide gamers with four ranges of touch sensitivity. If you’re teaching yourself to play, you would possibly take pleasure in a mannequin that permits you to jam along with intelligent onboard rhythms or comes pre-loaded with a track library. Do you even know that the keys on this model let you know exactly what to play? Yamaha Arius has an authentic sound, pure contact, and is an absolute joy to play – both in practice and efficiency – in a sophisticated but affordable console digital piano. Prestige Pianos and Organs has a wide range of digital pianos, and we’re certain to have one that will match yours wants whether you want a digital piano for a faculty setting or you might be searching for a piano that’s straightforward to move from one performance to a different.
Switching between instruments lets you immediately test how the melody will sound if carried out by a violin, guitar, organ, or piano. Come and visit us as we speak at our retail location, or look at Yamaha digital pianos online at Digital Pianos. We carry all the popular stage digital piano piano models, including the Yamaha P-Sequence portable stage pianos and Yamaha CP stage pianos. We also carry the entry-degree Yamaha Arius digital piano vary for the funds acutely aware clients. Although the selection isn’t incredibly giant, the voices that the Yamaha P225 includes are stable and genuine sounding, as well. Roland’s high-range digital grand pianos offer the same silhouettes and sounds but are straightforward to maneuver and never want to tune.
Many DAWs include their virtual instruments and software synthesizers bundled as normal, and these can replicate all the things from vintage synthesizers to a concert grand piano. Even though for the particular everyday person, most products associated with music sound and look the same, the truth is the quality and respective costs could be wherever from a whole lot to thousands of dollars. This permits a musician to record audio information, which can be mixed with the music of different band members or put on a CD. The SP-280 comes with a lightweight folding metallic stand, so you’ll be able to take it on the go and set it up wherever. Whether or not the acquisition is for a dwelling room, faculty, concert corridor, or house of worship, choosing which digital piano to buy could be daunting. | <urn:uuid:305a965b-edd7-46ac-b2fd-bbb97f5c53f0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://popkintavern.com/fear-not-if-you-use-digital-piano-the-right-means/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571190.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810131127-20220810161127-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.943532 | 519 | 1.578125 | 2 |
An assembly line requires a steady flow of materials to specific assembly points along the line. An overhead conveyor system is a convenient solution, in that it does not occupy any floor space, yet can still transport materials a great distance. Such a system can also be used when its necessary to position assembly tools and equipment. The main challenge is that the quick pace normally found on an assembly line requires such systems to be lightweight, to make it possible for operators to move the equipment quickly and accurately and lower the risk of fatigue and injuries. Thomson has pioneered a family of products and services to meet the challenge.
The Movorail System:
The Movorail system has been a mainstay of the automotive industry for more than twenty years. Movorail is a lightweight, maintenance-free, modular crane rail system that comes in four sizes for loads up to 600 kg per rail. Due to its modularity and broad range of accessories, it is possible to build just about any imaginable type of conveyor or crane rail system. All you need to mount it is a few common tools, making the system easy to reconfigure or move to another location if neccessary.
Movorail with Telescopic Crane Rail:
In this Movorail system, a telescopic crane rail is mounted so that it can move a power tool over the hood of a car. When the work is done it can be pushed back to a neutral position allowing the car to pass.
Movorail Conveyor System:
Almost any type of conveyor system can be easily built with Movorail rails. Motorized trolleys can carry up to 600 kg. Plus, the system includes curves, switches and turntables, making it possible to bring materials from multiple locations to an assembly point.
Thomson has several units designed for lifting operations. In this case the telescopic lifting unit Movoz Z3 is suspended in a Movorail system. The lifting movement is motorized while the X and Y movements can be manual or motorized. In this application, the operator picks an engine from the conveyor system with a custom made tool attached to the bottom of the lifting unit, rotates it 180 degrees and then positions it in the engine compartment of the chassis, all while the car on the conveyor keeps moving forward. | <urn:uuid:e0115668-37a9-4e9c-9474-a4d8c746ce49> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.thomsonlinear.com/website/com/eng/industry_solutions/material_handling/assembly_line_engine.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00428-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927418 | 471 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Liana Aghajanian, AL JAZEERA AMERICA
CLAREMONT, Calif. (Al Jazeera America) — Ask Debbie Allen, a black midwife, what it’s like to give birth as a woman of color in the U.S., and she tries her best not to cry. She’s curled up on a couch at home during a moment of respite between appointments with clients and looking after her three sons. Despite her efforts, tears stream behind her black-rimmed glasses.
Allen recalls the time she went to the hospital with a black client who went into labor early. She sat with the woman for three days as staffers forced her to undergo invasive procedures. A nurse told the client she was killing her baby by resisting the treatments; a doctor said her choices were to do it their way or go home. The woman had to get a patient advocate to force doctors to answer her questions, and it took a threat from a lawyer to compel staffers to remove a feeding tube from her newborn, who was already feeding regularly from a bottle. Even under the most extreme circumstances, Allen says, she has never seen a white client treated like that.
Over the course of attending more than 700 births in and out of hospital settings and seeing how black women are treated, Allen came to the grim realization that the birth outcomes and experiences of black women in the U.S. are not just vastly different from other ethnic groups, but are far worse.
Nationwide, black women are at the greatest risk of pregnancy-related death, have the highest rates of C-sections and, compared with whites, black infants are four times as likely to die of complications at birth and twice as likely to die before their first birthday. These startling disparities have persisted for decades, and they’re no different in Los Angeles, where more than 130,000 black babies are born every year.
“Black lives, they’re threatened from the womb to the grave, so every time I see a black baby being born healthy to black parents that feel empowered, I think that’s going to make all the difference as a people in what we ask for ourselves and what we ask of others,” says Allen, who is in the process of opening her own prenatal clinic. | <urn:uuid:5a15151e-418c-46b7-9ce8-e52506bf3d27> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blackpressusa.com/los-angeles-midwives-aim-to-end-racial-disparities-at-birth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571246.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811073058-20220811103058-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.979758 | 469 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Freedom Elementary is a school built on Pride…Freedom Pride. Freedom is a two-time National Blue Ribbon Award recipient for character. While upholding the rigor of the state standards, we believe in teaching the whole child. Everything we do at Freedom, from the academic to the social to the emotional pieces of education, stands on the foundation of our nine Pride Skills: citizenship, compassion, honesty, integrity, motivation, respect, responsibility, self-discipline and teamwork.
We see it as an advantage that our students are able to attend a school that celebrates its highly diverse population. We are proud to have the opportunity to teach our students in a cultural setting that represents the community and allows our students to develop an understanding of the perspectives of people from different backgrounds, eventually leading them to be productive citizens.
Freedom believes in developing students who are prepared to be successful in the 21st century. We are extremely excited to be moving forward with our goal of providing our students with the full implementation of a STEAM2 Lab for the upcoming school year. Projects will include computer programming, robotics, engineering and many more design process activities to engage and motivate students.
We are always looking to the future at Freedom, with our students being the main focus. | <urn:uuid:35d24162-6c60-4a7c-89d9-df76c7c6754e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://freedom.lakotaonline.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00356-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960248 | 250 | 1.796875 | 2 |
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Saint Mary (the Blessed Virgin) with the Christ Child and Saint Anne. Engraving after A. Dürer.
- Dürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528 | <urn:uuid:cc36a571-1b1c-4dc4-beaf-7dcaa65bf202> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cmwhkbmy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00068.warc.gz | en | 0.850187 | 100 | 1.554688 | 2 |
by Shahid Buttar, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Today is the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, adopted 221 years ago to protect freedom in America. The principles articulated in the first 10 amendments to our Constitution have long inspired the rest of the world.
While our Founders attempted to enshrine liberty principles as constitutional norms that would trump any law, however, our government has come to routinely violate freedoms of speech, assembly, and association, while also pervasively committingunreasonable searches and seizures, violations of due process, and cruel punishment, all while unapologetically
Spanning presidential administrations from each of the major political parties, ongoing abuses such as dragnet surveillance, the undercover infiltration of First Amendment protected groups,paramilitary policing and suppression of dissent, racial profiling in the war on drugs, religious profiling in the war on terror, national origin profiling in the war on immigrants, extrajudicial assassination without trial, indefinite military detentionwithout trial, and the disturbing government secrecy that enables each of these violations reveal a whole far worse than the sum of its parts.
Recognizing the need to defend the Bill of Rights in the face of a continuing government onslaught, committed grassroots constitutionalists have raised their voices around the country this month:
- Just two days ago, the stop LAPD Spying coalition organized a grassroots mobilization at the Norwalk fusion center in Southern California, one of over 70 fusion centers around the country recently criticized by the US Senate for coordinating intelligence information collected by local police in violation of constitutional norms and without any demonstrated security benefit.
- A week ago today, on December 8, the Connecticut Coalition to End Indefinite Detention brought together over 200 supporters from across the Northeast, including students alongside retirees, Peace activists and labor organizers, African-Americans and white Americans, Muslims and Jews, all united by concerns about constitutional abuses examined in detail by renowned First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who delivered a keynote address alongside law professor Sahar Aziz.
- The same day, grassroots peace gathered at the CIA headquarters outside Washington, DC to protest the use of drone aircraft in assassinations without trial.
- Earlier this week, on December 10, supporters gathered in Asheville, NC to watch a series of short documentaries and plan actions in the new year.
- The next day, across the state in Chapel Hill staged a reading of a play dramatizing drone killings, organized by Elders for Peace.
- On December 5, pressed by grassroots supporters from across the political spectrum, the Michigan State House voted unanimously to adopt a billrepudiating the domestic military detention provisions of the NDAA.
- Today in Dallas, supporters will gather for a luncheon to celebrate the legacy of the Bill of Rights, and discuss plans to mobilize in the new year to protest the opening of the George W. Bush Center at Southern Methodist University
- Next Thursday, grassroots activists will gather at the Boeing headquarters in Chicago to protest Boeing’s role in proliferating unmanned aerial aircraft for surveillance and bombings.
What will the resistance to the national security state look like in your town? The struggle will continue beyond Bill of Rights Day into the new year, so if you need help planning actions — or better yet, strategic campaigns connecting the dots between actions to build a local movement — contact us at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee for help.
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- Defense Spending Must Be For Actual Defense - November 17, 2016 | <urn:uuid:1b0e85fd-5bbd-40a2-8056-5f2ee580cb46> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2012/12/happy-or-indignant-bill-of-rights-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281162.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00537-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912965 | 745 | 2.015625 | 2 |
July 1, 2021 — Additive manufacturing has the potential to allow one to create parts or products on demand in manufacturing, automotive engineering, and even in outer space. However, it’s a challenge to know in advance how a 3D printed object will perform, now and in the future.
Physical experiments — especially for metal additive manufacturing (AM) — are slow and costly. Even modeling these systems computationally is expensive and time-consuming.
“The problem is multi-phase and involves gas, liquids, solids, and phase transitions between them,” said University of Illinois Ph.D. student Qiming Zhu. “Additive manufacturing also has a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This has led to large gaps between the physics that happens on the small scale and the real product.”
Zhu, Zeliang Liu (a software engineer at Apple), and Jinhui Yan (professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois), are trying to address these challenges using machine learning. They are using deep learning and neural networks to predict the outcomes of complex processes involved in additive manufacturing.
“We want to establish the relationship between processing, structure, properties, and performance,” Zhu said.
Current neural network models need large amounts of data for training. But in the additive manufacturing field, obtaining high-fidelity data is difficult, according to Zhu. To reduce the need for data, Zhu and Yan are pursuing ‘physics informed neural networking,’ or PINN.
“By incorporating conservation laws, expressed as partial differential equations, we can reduce the amount of data we need for training and advance the capability of our current models,” he said.
Using the National Science Foundation-supported Frontera and Stampede2 supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (the #10 and #36 fastest in the world, as of June 2021), Zhu and Yan simulated the dynamics of two benchmark experiments: an example of 1D solidification, when solid and liquid metals interact; and an example of laser beam melting tests taken from the 2018 NIST Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series.
In the 1D solidification case, they input data from experiments into their neural network. In the laser beam melting tests, they used experimental data as well as results from computer simulations. They also developed a ‘hard’ enforcement method for boundary conditions, which, they say, is equally important in the problem-solving.
The team’s neural network model was able to recreate the dynamics of the two experiments. In the case of the NIST Challenge, it predicted the temperature and melt pool length of the experiment within 10% of the actual results. They trained the model on data from 1.2 to 1.5 microseconds and made predictions at further time steps up to 2.0 microseconds.
The team published their results in Computational Mechanics in January 2021.
“This is the first time that neural networks have been applied to metal additive manufacturing process modeling,” Zhu said. “We showed that physics-informed machine learning, as a perfect platform to seamlessly incorporate data and physics, has big potential in the additive manufacturing field.”
Zhu sees engineers in the future using neural networks as fast prediction tools to provide guidance on the parameter selection for the additive manufacturing process — for instance, the speed of the laser or the temperature distribution — and to map the relationships between additive manufacturing process parameters and the properties of the final product, such as its surface roughness.
“If your client requires a specific property, then you’ll know what you should use for your manufacturing process parameters,” Zhu said.
In a separate paper in Computational Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering published online in May 2021, Zhu and Yan proposed a modification of the existing finite element method framework used in additive manufacturing to see if their technique could get better predictions over existing benchmarks.
Mirroring a recent additive manufacturing experiment from Argonne National Lab involving a moving laser, the researchers showed that simulations, performed on Frontera, differed in depth from those in the experiment by less than 10.3% and captured the common experimentally-observed chevron-type shape on the metal top surface.
Zhu and Yan’s research benefits from the continued growth of computing technologies and federal investment in high performance computing.
Frontera not only speeds up studies such as theirs, it opens the door to machine and deep learning studies in fields where training data is not widely available, broadening the potential of AI research.
“The most exciting point is when you see that your model can predict the future using only a small amount of existing data,” Zhu said. “It’s somehow learning about the evolution of the process.
“Previously, I was not very confident on whether we’d be able to predict with good accuracy over temperature, velocity, and geometry of the gas-metal interface. We showed that we’re able to make nice data inferences.”
Click here for the full article. | <urn:uuid:2970d90e-544b-47e3-86c8-007fad9419e1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://webmoney-ukraine.com/university-of-illinois-engineers-use-frontera-to-predict-3d-printing-processes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572163.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815085006-20220815115006-00676.warc.gz | en | 0.939738 | 1,059 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Is Turkey's Erdoğan in Decline?
by Veli Sirin
Turkey's Islamist president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may have entered a decline after 11 years of increasing national political command.
Erdoğan proclaims Turkey to be a state of law and a defender of freedom of expression, even though its record in the persecution of journalists is among the world's worst, according to such international media monitors as Freedom House, in its 2014 survey, Democracy in Crisis: Corruption, Media, and Power in Turkey.
On February 2, 2015, the London Guardian reported that the Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink was indicted by a Turkish prosecutor for "terrorist propaganda" because of her writing on Kurdish affairs. Representing the leading Dutch daily, Het Parool, and producing a blog from Diyarbakır in eastern Turkey, Geerdink was arrested in a Turkish police raid at her home on January 6, the very day that the Netherlands' Foreign Minister, Bert Koenders, was in Ankara. Geerdink is due to appear in court on April, and faces a possible sentence of five years in prison if found guilty.
More broadly, Erdoğan's handling of events in Syria, ravaged by the two predators embodied in the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad and the brutal terrorists of the so-called "Islamic State" or ISIS, the latter acting with other bandits in the name of Sunni Islam, has undermined his reputation as a crafty chieftain capable of imposing on his country his authoritarian will.
On February 21, as reported by The New York Times, Turkey sent troops into Syria to evacuate army personnel guarding the reputed tomb of Süleyman Shah [c. 1178-1236], grandfather of the first Ottoman imperial ruler. The tomb was dismantled at Erdoğan's order and moved to the Turkish-Syrian border.
Until now, the monument to the predecessor of the Ottoman Empire was sited at Qal'at Ja'bar, near Al-Raqqah in northern Syria, some 20 miles from the Turkish frontier. It had been established, since 1921, as Turkish property within Syria. But Al-Raqqah is now the capital of the purported "Islamic State." Based on its Wahhabi fundamentalism, ISIS has smashed to rubble the most exquisite antiquities, and has burned libraries, along with countless Muslim shrines, Christian churches, and other historical buildings. In addition to their hated of Christians, ISIS Wahhabis destroy pre-Islamic and Muslim cultural heritage, on the argument that preservation of ancient statuary and the shrines of the monotheistic religions alike is polytheism or idol-worship.
The tomb of the ancestor of the Ottoman state -- the most powerful Islamic political entity in history -- is considered by ordinary Muslims, both Sunnis and unorthodox Alevis, to merit protection. Although the Turkish government has allowed ISIS to operate without hindrance, these considerations are of no significance to ISIS; they are tomb-wreckers and grave-robbers, as well as men and some women who blow themselves up as a weapon of mass murder, crucify, slit throats, enslave and burn people alive. The concern of the Turkish authorities for the security of the sepulcher and their soldiers stationed there was justifiable.
Erdoğan took up this challenge in a manner that showed weakness rather than strength. According to The New York Times, reports on the army incursion into Syria were quickly taken off Turkish news websites. Nevertheless, prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, a close associate of Erdoğan in leading the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), stated via Twitter that the inventory of the tomb had been returned to Turkey.
Further, the "rescue" of the cenotaph and of the soldiers stationed there was carried out through the town of Kobane, saved from ISIS by Kurdish troops. A Kurdish commander in Kobane, Enver Muslim, cooperated with the Turkish army in the Süleyman Shah tomb operation.
Erdoğan held the Turkish army back from defending Kobane, and seemed willing to let it fall to ISIS. His motivation for this remains unclear, since Turkey, as a NATO member, is considered a probable ally against ISIS. He repeatedly predicted an ISIS victory in the town, and dismissed Kobane as irrelevant to Turkish interests. A Kurdish man, Ape Nemir, aged 67, said about the situation: "Erdoğan was counting the days for the fall of Kobane. He was uttering his wish each day. Kobane did not fall, but [the reputation of] Erdoğan did. It became a source of worry for him. He is no different from the [ISIS] gangs. We also know about his hostility towards the Kurds. We refused to surrender Kobane to the gangs. We fought until the last drop of our blood and will continue to do so. It is the land of our ancestors; we will not give in to [ISIS]."
Erdoğan and his associates then scrambled to save face. Turkish deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç declared after Kobane was saved from ISIS, "The support Turkey provided for Kobane should not be forgotten." In October 2014, however, Arınç had denounced mass demonstrations for solidarity with Kobane as "terrorist acts."
Last year was good for Erdoğan. He became Turkey's president. Although he was required to sever his affiliation with the party officially, the AKP won local and presidential balloting. He suppressed the judicial investigation, beginning in December 2013, of three members of his cabinet and his son Bilal Erdoğan. They faced an inquiry alleging financial corruption linked to Iran. He drove his former allies in Fethullah Gülen's Islamist movement into a defensive posture by arrests and purges in the state apparatus. As described in the Istanbul-based Hürriyet Daily News, he opened a 1,150-room presidential palace in Ankara, the Turkish capital, with a staff of 1,150 police to guard it – one for each room. Construction of the residence was estimated to cost $615 million.
Many Turkish citizens view these expressions of narcissism with dismay. Erdoğan has sought to dampen criticism of his behavior by accusing Western Europe of persecuting Muslims.
If 2014 was good for Erdoğan, 2015 has begun badly. The Turkish "economic miracle" has ended, growth has slowed, and unemployment is rising. As he did when he was Turkey's prime minister, from 2003 to 2014, Erdoğan aggravates the polarization of society by agitating his Islamist voter base. So far, these tactics have awarded him with electoral victories.
On June 7, 2015, Turkey is scheduled to hold new parliamentary elections, and AKP seeks a full majority of ballots, exceeding the 49.3% the party won in 2014. president Erdoğan will then, it is presumed, attempt to broaden his executive powers by a constitutional referendum, which would put the Islamists at the summit of the state for a long time.
In anticipating the election, meanwhile, Erdoğan and AKP have introduced a parliamentary measure that would enhance police power, including use of firearms against demonstrators. Daniel Dombey wrote in the London Financial Times of February 27, "the opposition says [the bill] could usher in a police state." The arrogant Erdoğan told legislators, "Your duty is to make these laws in parliament, not to block them."
Above all, the confusion of Turkey's policy toward ISIS and the Kurds will not be easily forgotten. Erdoğan may believe, from his gaudy new palace, that his rule will go on forever. But other autocrats have clung to similar fantasies that were, as at Kobane, shattered by reality. | <urn:uuid:27af0581-f60a-4913-8046-c649f1909e0d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.islamicpluralism.org/2466/is-turkey-erdogan-in-decline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572089.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814234405-20220815024405-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.973067 | 1,629 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Diversification, risk mitigation, low volatility… the list goes on.
What does a smart investor’s portfolio look like? Traditional schools of thought would say that the long-established 60/40 equity and bond asset allocation model is the right avenue for success, and indeed, it’s served many investors well – there’s a reason it’s cited time and time again, after all.
But in these increasingly turbulent times, many investors are looking to alternative assets to help mitigate risk, hedge against inflation and, crucially, achieve a good return on investment (ROI).
Although ‘alternative assets’ is a relatively modern term, the concept is not a new phenomenon. Some of the earliest examples of private-capital-type investments can be traced back as far as the 1800s, for example, when individuals made investments into projects during the Industrial Revolution.
Today, the term is used to cover a range of investment instruments, from private equity and commodities, to real estate and collectibles such as fine wine.
And they’re growing in popularity. According to Connection Capital, more than two thirds of its HNW clients dedicate upwards of 10% of their portfolios to alternative assets, up from just half in 2018. Meanwhile, a third of investors say they’re planning on increasing their exposure to alternative assets over the next 12 months.
We believe fine wine forms one of the most interesting and lucrative alternative investments available. Here, we examine what fine wine investments can do for your portfolio.
Every clued-up investor knows you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket and that diversification is crucial. But a well-diversified portfolio is not simply a case of picking a range of stocks, bonds and mutual funds, as these are often vulnerable to the same systemic risk factors. Some collectable alternative assets offer lower correlation to stock and bond investments, so can provide diversification through reduced risk exposure.
Stability during a downturn
The aim of alternatives isn't always to have high short-term returns, but to protect your investments during bear markets, which can help achieve consistent returns over time. As such, alternatives are often able to dampen volatility and provide a degree of downside protection when other markets are not doing so well.
Consider this. During the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the Liv-ex 1000 – the broadest measure of the fine wine market – dropped roughly 10% from its peak in August 2008 to a low in December. At this point, it began a steady recovery, recouping all its losses by the end of 2009. By contrast, major equity indices plummeted by over 30%. Fine wine’s more consistent recovery from a shallower dip means it posted a higher total return over the full breadth of the crisis period.
A hedge against inflation
The primary drivers of fine wine prices are internal factors, including supply/demand, wine quality and brand prestige. Fine wine is, therefore, less susceptible to changes in the inflation or wider economic outlook than other financial assets. This can help it deliver favourable long-term real returns (returns adjusted for inflation), making it an investment you don’t need to worry about increasing or decreasing exposure to depending on the prevailing inflation outlook.
Return potential alongside low volatility
Fine wine has a long history of strong returns on investment. Since 2005, the Liv-ex 1000 index is up 301.6%, comparable or better than many global equity markets. Fine wine has achieved these impressive returns with remarkably low volatility relative to some other financial markets.
Low volatility plus healthy returns
Comparison of volatility and annualised return across financial assets (Jan 2005 – Nov 2021)
Source: Liv-ex as of 30 November 2021. Past returns are not a guarantee of future performance.
These impressive risk-adjusted returns are a by-product of a supply and demand imbalance, and the fact that fine wine has an inverse supply curve which becomes more pronounced as people drink a particular wine. This stability translates to peace of mind for investors who needn’t worry about ‘timing the market’.
Fine wine also stacks up well against other real-asset investments. Just take a look at the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII), an index that measures various investment-grade assets. In 2020, five of its nine asset classes had a negative return on investment. Fine wine, however, posted 13% for the year, the second-best performance only behind Hermès handbags.
Alternative investments that fall into the collectibles category are often called ‘passion assets’ because they are a tangible product that spark joy and interest. The pursuit of building a solid collection can bring an additional benefit beyond any ROI. You needn’t be a sommelier-level wine connoisseur to invest in fine wine, of course, but few would deny the charms of expanding your knowledge, and your palate, about this celebrated luxury drink while also improving your portfolio. | <urn:uuid:b5702e23-f9a1-4e61-99e4-f5257eafff2e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wineinvestment.com/learn/magazine/2021/12/why-smart-investors-look-to-alternative-assets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00666.warc.gz | en | 0.942803 | 1,038 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Expertise firms know the best way to increase cash. Anybody can say they’re selling one thing, but will you ever see it. Typically that is where it is important to discuss to your customers, and the place there are more people doing network advertising and marketing to folks however will not be being paid to do so.
As Martin Christopher in his guide, Logistics and Provide Chain Administration: Methods for Lowering Cost and Enhancing Service’ states, ‘Productiveness advantage offers a lower value profile and the worth benefit gives the product or offering a differential ‘plus’ over competitive offerings.’ Through maximizing added value and in addition cut back the cost in the same time, extra innovation might be added to the product and process.
While technical ladders have been started primarily in know-how corporations, their scope will not be restricted to technological areas, corresponding to engineering or manufacturing, but are additionally utilized in fields similar to marketing, sales, and finance.
While Business Minister Anna Saddleworth has now stated the Government would finally look at taking some motion on automobile clocking, Motoring Weekly had already investigated the problem to see if companies had been performing within the present legislation and to see how straightforward it was to get mileage altered.
For Group A nevertheless, the thousands and thousands of people that use these providers are not the customers at all. Inexperienced companies are businesses that allow you to make a living, and at the similar time make the environment a much better place to reside.
A knowledge of your services or products offerings together with an advanced ability set of using the cellphone successfully to penetrate an organization. The truth is, the perfect time to sell a know-how company is when you find yourself growing.
As biotech corporations proceed to extend and broaden within the western United States, points for biotech firms to take into accounts in correspondence for US market entry has grow to be a relatively sizzling and trending topic. When Kodak releases its line of inkjet printers in march it can turn the entire inkjet printer and ink business on its head by providing printers that price a bit of greater than the ink jet printers available on the market in the present day, however take ink cartridges that price considerably less than people who competing printers take.
What this mean is that businesses starting in 2018 must have a giant data approach proper from day one. To this finish they found five mileage correction corporations online, operating in various parts of the country, and contacted them about getting the mileage changed on our pattern car.
Why Do Some Tech Companies Appear To Hate Their Clients?
In the present day, IT options are aiding small and mid-sized corporations alike, as they compete with Fortune 500 firms for a chunk of the pie. Some state legislatures have restricted both health care and finance companies from sending customer information abroad. Outsourcing occurs when a enterprise decides to contract out sure tasks or providers to another business. Outsourcing comes about on account of economic necessity, and transpires when one firm specializing in a service or product can perform or produce it extra price effectively than a bigger company.
Jonathan began trying into Voice Over IP know-how (VoIP) and did a major quantity of analysis into what firms might provide probably the most useful and value efficient solutions, before committing again to Blue Robin, Inc.’s Enterprise Voip(TM) telephone system. | <urn:uuid:20104da1-a1e0-46c7-b421-931a0d797200> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://cursos-programatium.com/info-know-how-it.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810222056-20220811012056-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.952696 | 694 | 1.640625 | 2 |
January 20, 2016
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO— Defending human rights is a risky business in Mexico. Advocates for human rights are operating in the most dangerous environments in the world where they are likely to be kidnapped, threatened and even murdered, experts say.
Mexico is among the most dangerous places in the world for journalists and human rights advocates, according to a 2015 report by Peace Brigades International and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a U.S-based research and advocacy group.
The Mexican government in 2012 established the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. Since then, 464 people have used the program for protection, says María Celia Suárez Pacheco, director of evaluation and risk for the Unit for the Defense of Human Rights, the government office in charge of coordinating the mechanism. Of those, 194 were women.
The program is designed to provide various types of protection, including bodyguards, surveillance cameras, special locks, panic buttons, satellite phones or vehicles for at-risk people.
But the program has suffered from serious financial and staff shortages since it began, the 2015 PBI/WOLA report states. There’s a backlog of cases, according to the report, and there are delays in risk assessments. Some people have waited more than a year after contacting the program to receive a response.
Patricia Colchero Aragonés, who is in charge of monitoring prevention and analysis for the unit, says the unit doesn’t have an analysis of the conditions faced by the people who have been given protective measures. She says they plan to conduct the analysis this year.
While the program struggles to improve, human rights defenders put their lives at risk every day. Here are the stories of three women who choose to take that risk.
Norma Mesino Mesino
Mayela Sánchez, GPJ Mexico
When Norma Mesino Mesino’s talks about her sister Rocío Mesino Mesino, her voice breaks and her eyes begin to water.
Rocío Mesino Mesino was killed on Oct. 19, 2013 while supervising the reconstruction of a bridge in Mexcaltepec, a town in the southwestern state of Guerrero. The bridge had been damaged from a storm a month earlier.
Rocío Mesino Mesino was one of the leaders of the Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra (OCSS). The organization educates rural communities in the Guerrero highlands about their legal rights and helps them collect and report human rights abuses.
Another sibling, Miguel Ángel Mesino Mesino, was also a member of OCSS. He was killed on Sept. 18, 2005. Witnesses to the murder reported he was shot in the back by three men, she says.
Norma Mesino Mesino, 43, is herself a member of OCSS.
She says she thinks the murders of her brother and sister were related to their advocacy work. They spoke out on issues including responsible development and human rights, Mesino Mesino says, and that might have gotten in the way of local caciques – political bosses or indigenous chiefs. But, she doesn’t know for sure, she says, because neither of the crimes have been resolved.
“We knew that we were in danger for being defenders of human rights,” Mesino Mesino says. “In some way, you are conscious that you run risks because you are affecting [people’s] interests.”
Caciques are powerfully connected to the state and political parties, and now the growth of the drug cartels in the region has increased the danger, according to a 2015 report prepared by U.S. based Open Society Justice Initiative, in collaboration with two Mexican human rights centers, one of which is based in Guerrero state.
Guerrero is thought to be the source of between 50 percent and 70 percent of all heroin produced in the country, according to a 2015 report published by the Mexico Institute at the Washington D.C.-based Wilson Center. However, the report concedes there are no reliable figures on this.
After her sister’s murder, Mesino Mesino took over the leadership of OCSS.
“I don’t have any other way of doing justice to my siblings other than this, because we are a family of defenders,” she says.
On Oct. 13, Mesino Mesino led a caravan of women to Mexico City, the nation’s capital, to demand justice for the murder of Rocío Mesino Mesino. The participants joined public protests and held a forum that highlighted assaults on human rights defenders.
Mesino Mesino says her sister didn’t fully acknowledge the risks she was facing. Mesino Mesino takes more safety precautions: No nighttime travel, no travel to areas where there is no cellphone reception and extra care in how she reports human rights abuses.
But, Mesino Mesino says, she’s still harassed and threatened.
A 2012 national law established protections for people who are in danger for defending human rights. In Oct. 2014, Mesino Mesino applied for protections outlined by that law, but she was rejected because there were no clearly defined threats that put her at risk, she says.
Mexico’s patriarchal society tries to conceal female leaders and their work, says Atziri Ávila, coordinator of the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico.
“It’s not that there are few women defending human rights, on the contrary,” Ávila says. “There is a gender issue, that is not the responsibility of men themselves, but rather is part of the patriarchal system in which we have lived.”
The work of female defenders is less visible than that of their male counterparts, which puts female defenders at greater risk, Ávila says.
Mesino Mesino says she’s been able to heal from the trauma of her siblings’ deaths by making sure her family’s story is known, and by making herself more visible.
Soon after her application for protection was rejected, Mesino Mesino she took her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which aims to protect human rights on the American continents.
On Feb. 25, the commission requested the Mexican government provide protection for Mesino Mesino and 10 members of her family. Their lives and personal integrity were at risk, the commission found.
Mesino Mesino says she still feels threatened, but she plans to continue her work.
“Sometimes the fear turns into courage,” she says. “We can translate that fear into the struggle, into participation.”
Nadín Reyes Maldonado
Mayela Sánchez, GPJ Mexico
Nadín Reyes Maldonado says she’s felt constantly watched and followed for the past eight years. She’s never been attacked, but that fact doesn’t reassure her.
Instead, she’s nervous. Anything can happen at any moment, she says.
She says she is often followed by men who, although they do not have a uniform, have a close-shaven hairstyle, just like police or military personnel, she says.
“It is the message, and also one of the intentions,” she says. “If they do not attack you directly, they are getting through to you the idea that, ‘We are here, and if it is not now, at any moment we can do something to you.’”
Reyes Maldonado’s father, Edmundo Reyes Amaya, disappeared in May 2007. He was detained along with another man, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, in an operation which involved police and military. No one has seen them since then.
She didn’t know it then she says, but her father and Cruz Sánchez were members of the Ejército Popular Revolucionario, which translates to Popular Revolutionary Army, a guerrilla organization that rejects the Mexican government.
Their families learned of the men’s political activism when the guerrilla organization alerted them to their disappearance.
For Reyes Maldonado’s family, the news of her father’s revolutionary affiliations was a surprise, she says. But since then, Reyes Maldonado, 33, has worked to defend human rights in her community.
While she demanded publicly that her father be presented alive, Reyes Maldonado says she learned of more cases of people who fought for social and civil rights in their communities, but suddenly disappeared. She joined forces with Margarita Cruz Sánchez, the sister of Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, to create the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees Until We Find Them!, to document and report cases of forced disappearances, and to promote awareness about the issue.
The organization has documented 150 cases that have taken place since 2006, Reyes Maldonado says.
Disappearances have increased in Mexico, along with the intensity of violent crimes and human rights violations, according to a 2013 report by Amnesty International.
To date, more than 27,500 disappearances have been reported, according to Mexico’s National Registry of Data on Lost or Missing Persons.
The defenders who haven’t fallen victim to kidnappers or murder still face difficult circumstances. Women in particular struggle with intense pressure to stop their work. Intimidation and psychological harassment were the main forms of aggression towards female human rights defenders between 2012 and 2014, according to a record of attacks on women defenders by the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders.
This record, which documents cases in Mexico and Central America, aims to address the lack of an official record of attacks on women defenders in the region, says Ávila, the National Network of Human Rights Defenders coordinator.
Reyes Maldonado, who has requested protection from the national network, now follows her own cautionary measures, but her constant alertness is exhausting and stressful, she says.
She says she considers feelings of fatigue and stress as signs from her body that she needs to pay attention.
“It is important to have these protection and health measures, to take care of ourselves, because if we are not healthy, we also cannot continue (our) work,” she says.
Claudia Erika Zenteno Zaldívar
Mayela Sánchez, GPJ Mexico
Claudia Erika Zenteno Zaldívar has been harassed, intimidated and even beaten by people who want to stop her from reporting illegal construction in protected areas.
But the worst moments in her nearly 20 years of activism came when her son was kidnapped.
That was in November 2010. The 20-year-old man was held for nine days. The message from his captors, to Zenteno Zaldívar, was clear: Stop reporting the illegal construction projects.
Even that didn’t stop Zenteno Zaldívar, 50, from continuing her activism in the Xochimilco delegation in Mexico’s Federal District.
Since 1997, Zenteno Zaldívar has reported illegal housing construction in the lagoon of the Ciénega Chica, and the floating gardens, or “chinampas” of Xochimilco. All are found in the Environmentally Protected Area of the Xochimilco and San Gregorio Atlapulco public lands, as protected in a decree by the government in 1992.
Zenteno Zaldívar has reported the construction to different public offices, but she hasn’t been able to stop it, she says.
Zenteno Zaldívar says she faces harassment for her work. Dead animals have been tossed in front of her home. She receives prank and threatening phone calls. She and her family were beaten when she was trying to photograph a truck that had construction materials inside. Her car has been damaged.
Then, there was her son’s kidnapping.
“What keeps me going? The conviction that this changes and that the zone won’t continue being devastated,” she says. “I don’t want to be an accomplice to others. I don’t want to say, ‘I could have done more and I didn’t.’”
In Mexico there are no official registries for attacks against human rights advocates, says Ávila, of the National Network of Human Rights Advocates. Ávila says the lack of a reliable and official registry is an obstacle in making the work of people like Zenteno Zaldívar visible and understood.
Despite no official record, some agencies have done their best to track incidents.
The Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders published a report that registered 616 attacks against female advocates in Mexico between 2012 and 2014.
Among the most common attacks against female advocates, the initiative registered cases of intimidation, psychological harassment, threats, slander, smear campaigns, excessive use of force, illegal detentions and criminalization, according to the report.
Zenteno Zaldívar is one of the advocates that has received protection from the national government’s 2012 mechanism, she says. She benefits from some of the highest levels of security measures, but she prefers to not share the details out of safety concerns.
Zenteno Zaldívar says that, despite the benefits, these measures have limited her freedom of expression and mobility, and she considers them a form of control on her.
“When the state does its job, everything else shouldn’t be a problem,” she says.
Natalia Aldana and Rishi Khalsa, GPJ, translated this article from Spanish. | <urn:uuid:c6e918df-6a49-4ffc-a8b4-2320fc74a60f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://globalpressjournal.com/americas/mexico/mexico-struggles-to-protect-human-rights-advocates-from-harassment-death/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571147.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810040253-20220810070253-00468.warc.gz | en | 0.965184 | 2,886 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Establishment of Riparian Buffers
Riparian buffers provide various important stream functions.
- Leaves that fall into the water are a food source for aquatic animals.
- Branches and roots provide shelter for in-stream organisms.
- Overhead leaf cover shades water and keeps it cool, improving fish habitat.
- Roots hold stream banks in place and prevent erosion.
- Vegetation slows water velocity, thereby reducing runoff-induced erosion and also allowing particulates to settle out.
- Soils and root systems filter nutrients and pollutants from runoff (especially from agriculture and residential areas) before they reach reach surface waters (Haberstock, 2000).
Riparian buffers also serve to filter water by forcing it to decelerate. As non-point source pollutants are difficult to regulate and control, it is critical to provide rivers with a defense against runoff contaminants.
Riparian buffers should be established along rivers; the width should be determined based on the criteria detailed below.
The width of the buffer depends on many factors, especially the slope of the land (steeper slopes require wider buffers, since steeper slopes allow water to flow faster and water's ability to carry sediments increases exponentially with volume (Chapman, 1996), the permeability of the soil (less permeable soils require wider buffers because water takes longer to infiltrate), and the presence of overland water sources--like intermittent streams or gullies-which can render small buffers ineffective (Haberstock, 2000). The type of vegetation-such as wooded or ground level vegetation can influence buffer efficacy (Haberstock, 2000). Buffer width is measured from the floodplain edge (Haberstock, 2000). Haberstock also notes that wetlands in these areas should be preserved, because they serve to fix nitrogen and retain contaminants and sediments; the issue of wetlands preservation is detailed on another page. Ideally, a consult should be taken to determine the ideal width for an area.
However, if it is not economically feasible to establish a buffer of the recommended width, it is still beneficial to establish a riparian buffer of a smaller width. Studies have found that buffers of 20 feet of native grasses can remove up to 90% of nutrients and 80% of sediments in agricultural areas (Lutz). Furthermore, a riparian buffer does not mean that no human activity or industry can take place in these zones; for example, selective logging can take place if best-management practices are followed (for example, see pages 5-21 of this document) and some agricultural activities such as growing nut trees can easily serve as a buffer and a source of income.
Riparian buffers also are significant because they offer a potential check against the effects of increased precipitation and runoff predicted by some models of climate change (IPCC). Overhead leaf canopy mechanically slows water velocity as it falls, thereby reducing the eroding capacity of the water and the ability of it to carry other particulates.
Regulations should be established to preserve existing riparian corridors. Funds should also be made available to establish new buffers in problematic areas and to reestablish destroyed buffers. | <urn:uuid:76346ca5-1012-441f-a8e3-372789382e1a> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2011/finalwebsite/solutions/environment/riparian.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719547.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00395-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923316 | 633 | 4.40625 | 4 |
Fiat / Lancia twin cam engine history
My girlfriend recently bought a Fiat 131 "Mirafiori" automatic. Its a cute little car, and although auto with a 1.6L pushrod engine, is still quite a lively little beast. You can wind up the revs, and it does hold the road pretty well. In many ways its a good comparison to a Datsun 1600, and I'm dead certain the lil' Fiat eats the 1600 for breakfast.
Before I take on "another project" (tm), I was thinking about the history of Fiat's DOHC engines that I guess started in the 124, and progressed right through to Lancia's Integrale. I would like to know what improvements were made, and what parts are swappable. I've heard of people building 131 Abarth replicas using a 16V Integrale engine - I have no idea if there is any truth in that.
I'm thinking a 2L DOHC engine and 5speed gearbox would be a great transplant eventually. What Fiat would make a good donor? The car is worth preserving as its dead straight, and the interior is mint - a respray would make it new again though.
Any ideas? Criticisms? (aside from, finish the Alfetta and Alfasud first!!!!!!) | <urn:uuid:7c3b1020-cd14-4f8f-8421-b8a3a354c054> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/other-italian-cars/10776-fiat-lancia-twin-cam-engine-history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281419.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00487-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959316 | 274 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Grant for Anti-Racism Training
The Anti-Racism Anti-Oppression Multi-Cultural (ARAOMC) Committee still has funds from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation grant to send People’s people to a 2 1/2 day “Understanding and Analyzing Systemic Racism” workshop. The dates are September 24-26 and December 3-5. All workshops are held from Thurs. 6-9:30pm, Fri. 8:30am-6pm, & Sat. 8:30am-5pm. Full participation is important as each part builds on the previous ones. Lunch and snacks are provided. Please contact Nadine Godin-Nassaney at firstname.lastname@example.org or 269-491-1118 if you are interested in attending.
Library Books about Racism
The ARAOMC Committee is purchasing three books to contribute to the church library. Here is some information about each of them and the authors:
Privilege, Power and Difference by Allan G. Johnson
This brief book is a groundbreaking tool to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Johnson links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. This book has been used to shed light on issues of power and privilege. Allan Johnson has worked on issues of social inequality since receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1972.
Overcoming Our Racism: The Journey to Liberation by Derald Wing Sue
This book by Derald Wing Sue, a highly-regarded academic and author, helps readers understand and combat racism in themselves. It defines racism not only as extreme acts of hatred, but as “any attitude, action or institutional structure or social policy that subordinates a person or group because of their color.” This landmark work offers an antidote to this pervasive social problem. It 1) shows how each of us has a role in the oppression of others, and what we can do about it, and 2) offers a way to overcome racism on a very intimate level.
Waking up White by Debby Irving
For twenty-five years, Debby Irving sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships. As a colleague and neighbor, she worried about offending people she dearly wanted to befriend. As an arts administrator, she didn’t understand why her diversity efforts lacked traction. As a teacher, she found her best efforts to reach out to students and families of color left her wondering what she was missing. Then, in 2009, one “aha!” moment launched an adventure of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her worldview and upended her life plan. In Waking Up White, Irving tells her often cringe-worthy story with such openness that readers will turn every page rooting for her—and ultimately for all of us. | <urn:uuid:3c83b4d1-6eab-4846-bb94-33f29fad0d2e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://peopleschurch.net/news/race-matters-5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571745.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812170436-20220812200436-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.954192 | 592 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Huge U.S. corn and soybean plantings this spring will likely fail to refill razor-thin stocks enough to quell the surge in grain prices, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday.
In updated forecasts for the world's biggest crop exporter, the USDA warned that it could take several years to restore inventories to comfortable levels. It mostly maintained earlier forecasts on how many acres farmers would sow this spring, but said stocks at the end of the 2012 season would remain tight.
The U.S. government's forecasts are likely to fuel more concern globally that high prices could persist far longer than they did in 2008 when they hit record highs, as supplies remain too thin to cope with any further weather disasters.
While it is often said the cure for high prices is high prices, even with additional supplies expected this year, it is likely that the tight stocks-to-use situation will not be entirely mitigated over the course of one or even two growing seasons, USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber told the department's annual outlook conference on Thursday.
The planting forecasts were unchanged from the department's projections made earlier this month, when it projected 92 million acres of corn -- the second largest since 1944 -- and 78 million acres of soybeans, a record amount. Analysts had expected the agency to trim both forecasts marginally.
LITTLE CUSHION IN US END STOCKS
The greater surprise was in projections for tight ending stockpiles for 2011/12. While both corn and soybean ending stocks will be higher than this year's levels -- with corn forecast to be the smallest since 1996 and soybeans amounting to a few week's supply -- they suggest very little cushion for unexpected shortfalls.
It should be bullish all around even though the USDA stuck to their higher estimates than I probably would have done, said Jack Scoville, analyst for Price Futures Group.
It seems to me they're implying some very strong demand here because the ending stocks estimates remain pretty tight, really across the board, he added.
USDA said 2012 corn ending stocks would rise by 28 percent to a still-thin 865 million bushels, and soybeans stocks by 14 percent to 160 million bushels.
But USDA cut its outlook from a forecast made earlier this month for corn stocks by 23 percent and soybeans by 16 percent for 2012.
Contributing to the slim stocks will be soaring exports, which are expected to rise $9 billion this year to a record $135.5 billion.
Today there are 7 billion mouths to feed and many of them depend on American agriculture, Debbie Stabenow, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told the USDA's annual outlook conference.
China will become America's top export market, surpassing Canada. China is seen importing 60 percent of the world's soybeans and 40 percent of its cotton this year.
While the tight stocks figures were bullish, grain futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell on Thursday as investors continued to liquidate positions and seek safer havens on concerns over the turmoil in the Middle East. Wheat fell 2 percent, corn nearly 1 percent while soybeans were only slightly lower.
CORN FOR ETHANOL AT RECORD HIGH
Ethanol makers are expected to consume a record 5 billion bushels of corn this year, or some 36 percent of the harvest.
Despite criticism that using food for fuel was driving up prices and contributing to thin stockpiles, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the conference the government had no intention of scaling back on ethanol.
There is no reason for us to take the foot off the gas, Vilsack told the conference. This is a great opportunity for us because we can do it all, make no mistake about it.
Tight global commodity stockpiles have pushed food prices higher, contributing to political unrest in countries with high poverty rates and unemployment.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton struck a more cautionary tone on ethanol. We have to become energy independent but we don't want to do it at the expense of food riots, Clinton said in the keynote address.
In the United States, food prices are forecast to rise a sharp 3.5 percent this year -- nearly double the overall inflation rate.
We're keeping an eye on this but I would suggest that as a result of what we went through in 2007 and 2008 we are better prepared to respond as a country and as a globe, Vilsack said.
But some analysts caution a bad crop in the United States would change everything.
There are speculators involved... but we've had the perfect storm over the last two years, and if we don't have a great crop this year in the United States, we are going to have an even bigger storm. said Pete Nessler, president of the brokerage FCStone LLC.
(Additional reporting by Michael Hirtzer; Graphics by Emily Stephenson; Writing Russell Blinch; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) | <urn:uuid:681916b6-6ffd-438e-b158-f31466880ba2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.ibtimes.com/us-crop-boom-not-enough-rebuild-thin-supplies-454355 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00116-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963791 | 1,014 | 1.734375 | 2 |
May 26, 2015
Feed-in Tariffs Levy Larger Price Incentive for Clean Energy than European Emissions Trading Scheme
Carbon-pricing advocates regularly point to European nations for examples of appropriate and effective clean energy deployment policies. Surging growth rates for solar and wind, coupled with regional declines in carbon emissions, are cited as clear vindications of Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the carbon-trading program that the European Union instituted in 2005.
Looking closer at the data, however, it's clear that Europe owes less of its emissions reduction progress to the ETS than is commonly advertised. What's more, the impressive growth rates clean energy technologies are experiencing in several European markets are the more the results of generous deployment subsidies than the carbon price signals established by the ETS. European feed-in tariffs establish price signals - effectively rewards for avoided carbon emissions - that are many times higher than the explicit carbon price levied by the ETS.
EU Emissions Declines Owe More to Historic Circumstance than ETS
EU-15 carbon emissions have fluctuated over the last two decades, with aggregate 2010 emissions 6.5 percent lower than emissions in 1990, the base year for Kyoto protocol emissions reductions goals. However, two nations, Germany and the United Kingdom, account for all of these emissions reductions. If Germany and the United Kingdom are removed from the calculations, then the emissions from the remaining 13 founding EU member nations actually saw a 1.9 percent increase in 2010 over the 1990 levels.
Furthermore, the majority of emissions declines in Germany and the UK were achieved prior to either the signing of the Kyoto Protocol or the implementation of the EU ETS. Of total absolute emissions reductions made over 1990-2010 in Germany, half were achieved before 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was signed, and 80 percent were achieved before the 2005 institution of the ETS. The story is similar in the UK: half of total 1990-2010 emissions reductions were achieved before 1997; emissions then rose through 2005, and then decreased again in the latter half of last decade.
In short, deindustrialization following the end of the Cold War and sectoral changes in the British and German economies have driven EU-15 emissions levels down even as other nations have made insignificant or often backwards progress.
Feed-in Tariffs Create Stronger Incentive for Clean Tech than ETS
Meanwhile, it's clear that the EU ETS is not the principal driver of the rapid expansion of European clean tech segments. On the contrary, robust and generous state deployment subsidies given to solar, wind, and other low-carbon energy sources, in the form of feed-in tariffs, reliably impose a higher implicit carbon price than that levied directly by the ETS.
The per-metric tonne price of carbon dioxide emissions during Phase II of the ETS, which lasted from 2008 to 2012, fluctuated from around €8/tonne to €32/tonne ($10.64/tonne-$42.56/tonne). The average 2010 price of carbon dioxide in the ETS was €13.99/tonne ($18.62/tonne).
In comparison, German feed-in tariffs range from $114/megawatt-hour (MWh) for landfill gas to $333/MWh for geothermal (see data below). These preferences for zero-carbon power act as implicit penalties against carbon fuels like natural gas and coal. The average spot price for electricity in Germany in 2010 was €44/MWh or $58.52/MWh. If we assume average CO2 emissions from coal are 0.8 tonnes/MWh, then a $1/MWh feed-in tariff is approximately equivalent to a $1.25/tonne price on carbon dioxide emissions . The implicit carbon price levied by German feed-in tariffs, therefore, ranges from $69/tonne to $342/tonne, between three- and eighteen-times as high as the average ETS carbon price in 2010.
Average carbon-dioxide emissions from natural gas are about 0.39 tonnes/MWh, or about half the marginal emissions from coal, so a $1/MWh feed-in tariff is approximately equivalent to a $2.56/tonne price on carbon emissions. As such, the implicit carbon price levied by German feed-in tariffs when clean technologies are competing against natural gas generation ranges from $143/tonne to $702/tonne, or between ten- and forty-times as high as the explicit ETS price.
Offshore wind and solar generation benefit from some of the highest feed-in tariffs in the country, at $200/MWh and $325/MWh respectively. These translate into implicit carbon prices of $361/tonne and $683/tonne when competing against marginal natural gas generation.
As the data makes clear, European feed-in tariffs have been much bolder than the ETS. Not surprisingly, it is the nations with these generous subsidies, such as Germany, that have seen the most robust growth in clean energy, while nations like Romania and Finland - which lack such policies, but are members of the ETS system - have seen shares of electricity from renewables stagnant or even declining. Neither carbon prices nor blunt feed-in tariff subsidies are perfect deployment policies, but it is clear that direct government investment in technology provides a more powerful and effective market signal for clean energy investment than the more modest and fluctuating carbon prices established by an Emissions Trading Scheme or cap-and-trade system. | <urn:uuid:57230dac-3cb9-4064-86ad-71a537a7873f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://thebreakthrough.org/archive/feedin_tariffs_levy_larger_pri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281353.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00070-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938213 | 1,137 | 2.984375 | 3 |
“Cousins Matilda and Nancy were up tending Nancy’s two year old son Stephen Hitchcock, who was ill… they gathered up their children (George Spear, William Sykes, Andrew Hitchcock) and ran to hide on the west side of the island. After the militia left, they returned ... and found seven children. They gathered the children together, put them in the only remaining canoe and swam the canoe across the bay to Freshwater Creek and then walked to Matilda’s husbands homestead in Freshwater … later … soldiers found another child had survived under his dead mother. This child was Jerry James”. [Dept of the Interior Letter to Jan Silva, 13 March 1987; info given to dept by William James Sykes]The Blue Lake Rancheria is holding a 20th anniversary memorial and library rededication in Sylvia Daniels’ honor on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The ceremony, at 428 Chartin Road in Blue Lake, is open to the public. | <urn:uuid:64c9bf18-a7be-4b34-9c86-8fe3c9deced2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2014/04/25/blue-lake-rancheria-chairwoman-honored | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281746.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00281-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960151 | 209 | 1.664063 | 2 |
St. George is venerated by the Eastern Church among her "great martyrs" and "standard-bearers." He belonged to the Roman army; he was arrested and, probably, beheaded under Diocletian, c. 304. He is the patron of England, since AD 800; St. George is one of the "Fourteen Holy Helpers."
Many legends are attached to Saint George. The most famous is the one in The Golden Legend. There was a dragon that lived in a lake near Silena, Libya. Not even armies could defeat this creature, and he terrorized flocks and the people. St. George was passing through and upon hearing about a princess was about to be eaten, he went to battle against the serpent, and killed it with one blow with his lance. Then with his great preaching, George converted the people. He distributed his reward to the poor, then left the area.
* * * * * *
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church by Fr. Ronald G. Roberson
We are received by Patriarch Gregory III Laham at his residence in Damascus
The word “Melkite” comes from the Syriac and Arabic words for “King,” and was originally used to refer to those within the ancient Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem who accepted the Christological faith professed by the Byzantine Emperor after the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Today, however, the term more often refers to Byzantine Catholics associated with those three Patriarchates.
Jesuits, Capuchins and Carmelites began missionary activity in the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in the mid-17th century. While there were some conversions, the missionaries were primarily concerned with forming a pro-Catholic party within the Patriarchate itself. By the early 18th century, the Antiochian church had become polarized, with the pro-Catholic party centered in Damascus and the anti-Catholic party in its rival city, Aleppo.
Patriarch Athanasios III Debbas, who died on August 5, 1724, had designated as his successor a Cypriot monk named Sylvester. His candidacy was supported by the Aleppo party and the Patriarch of Constantinople. But on September 20, 1724, the Damascus party elected as Patriarch a strongly pro-Catholic man who took the name Cyril VI. A week later, the Patriarch of Constantinople ordained Sylvester as Patriarch of Antioch. The Ottoman government recognized Sylvester, while Cyril was deposed and excommunicated by Constantinople and compelled to seek refuge in Lebanon. Pope Benedict XIII recognized Cyril’s election as Patriarch of Antioch in 1729. Thus the schism was formalized, and the Catholic segment of the patriarchate eventually became known as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.
Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham welcomes his visitors to the annual celebration of "doubting" St. Thomas
In the beginning this new Catholic community was limited to what is now Syria and Lebanon. But Melkite Catholics later began to immigrate to Palestine, where Melkite communities had long existed, and especially to Egypt after that country rebelled against Turkish control. In view of the new demographic situation, the Melkite Catholic Patriarch was given the additional titles of Patriarch of Jerusalem and Alexandria in 1838.
At first the Ottoman government was very hostile to this new church and took strong measures against it. But conditions improved with the passage of time. In 1848 the government formally recognized the Melkite Catholic Church, and the Patriarchate itself moved to Damascus from Holy Savior Monastery near Sidon, Lebanon, where it had been established by Cyril VI after he fled there. This was followed by a period of growth, enhanced by the popular perception of the Melkite church as a focus of Arab resistance against the Turks. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, on the other hand, was viewed by many as dependent upon Constantinople and therefore upon the Ottoman government.
At the close of the Annual St. Thomas Mass
In the 19th century the Melkite church experienced tensions in its relationship with Rome because many Melkites felt that their Byzantine identity was being overwhelmed by the Latin tradition. This uneasiness was symbolized at Vatican I when Melkite Patriarch Gregory II Youssef left Rome before the council fathers voted on the constitution Pastor Aeternus, which defined papal infallibility and universal jurisdiction. At Rome’s request, the Patriarch later assented to the document, but he only did so with the clause, “all rights, privileges and prerogatives of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches being respected” added to the formula.
At the Second Vatican Council, Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh spoke forcefully against the latinization of the Eastern Catholic churches, and urged a greater receptivity to the eastern Christian traditions, especially in the area of ecclesiology. The Melkite Holy Synod has stated that, in the event of a reconciliation between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the Melkite Church should be reintegrated into the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. A bilateral commission for dialogue between the Melkites and Antiochian Orthodox was established in 1995, and both sides have expressed the firm intention to heal the schism of 1724.
St. Anne’s Seminary in Jerusalem, under the direction of the White Fathers (now called the Missionaries of Africa), was the main seminary for the Melkite church until it was closed in 1967 because of the political situation. There are now three major seminaries in the Melkite church: the patriarchal seminary of St. Anne in Raboueh, Lebanon; Holy Savior Seminary in Beit Sahour, Israel, for dioceses in Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza; and St. Gregory the Theologian Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, USA, for the United States and other English-speaking countries.
There are several religious orders in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. The most prominent is the Basilian Salvatorian Order, which was founded by Antiochian Orthodox bishop Eftimios Sayfi in 1683, one year before he became Catholic. The community, whose motherhouse is at St. Savior monastery in Saida, Lebanon, serves in Melkite parishes around the world, and has a special mission to promote ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. The Melkite Paulist Fathers direct an important theological institute at Harissa and administer a well-known publishing house. Altogether there are 131 Melkite priests who belong to religious orders, 108 brothers, and 532 women religious.
After the Maronites, the Melkite Catholic Church is the largest and most prosperous Catholic community in the Middle East. The majority of its faithful live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and occupied territories, and Jordan.
Ongoing emigration from the Middle East in recent years has created flourishing Melkite communities in the West. Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros presides over the Diocese of Newton of the Melkites in the United States (19 Dartmouth Street, West Newton, Massachusetts 02165) with 35 parishes and 25,000 members. In Canada, the diocese of Saint-Sauveur de Montréal, under the guidance of Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim (34 Maplewood, Montréal, Québec H2V 2M1), has eight parishes and missions, and 33,000 faithful. Archbishop Issam John Darwish heads the diocese of St. Michael's of Sydney in Australia (80 Waterloo Road, Greenacre N.S.W. 2190), which has 13 parishes for 45,000 Melkite Catholics.
Everyone's talent is pressed into service for the Thomas festival
There is also a parish in London. In addition, there has been a large Melkite Greek Catholic emigration to Latin America. There are dioceses based in Sao Paulo and Mexico City, and Apostolic Exarchates in Buenos Aires and Caracas, with a total of about 450,000 faithful.
Location: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the Americas, Europe, Australia. Head: Patriarch Gregory III Laham (born 1933, elected 2000); Title: Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek Melkites
Residence: Damascus, Syria; Membership: 1,347,000
Festivities continue in a nearby family restaurant
* * * * * *
Famille Marie-Jeunesse Chapter
Our prayers are asked for the Chapter of friends in the Lord, Famille Marie-Jeunesse, gathered in their chapter of affairs this week and whose labours will culminate in the election of a new leadership team tomorrow.
Famille Marie-Jeunesse in Ottawa, October 2009 | <urn:uuid:4c8b51fc-206c-4033-8079-610c77b323e0> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://archbishopterry.blogspot.com/2010/04/st-george-melkite-catholic-patriarch-of.html?showComment=1272135197839 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00210-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965852 | 1,814 | 2.75 | 3 |
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When his teenaged son Christopher, brain damaged in an auto accident, developed a 106-degree fever following weeks of unconsciousness, John Campbell asked the attending physician for help. The doctor's response: Why bother? The boy's life was effectively over. Campbell refused to accept this death sentence. He threatened legal action and the doctor finally relented. With treatment, Christopher's temperature subsided almost immediately. Soon he regained consciousness and today he is learning to walk again. This story is one of many Wesley J. Smith recounts in Culture of Death. In this deeply felt but coolly argued book, he goes behind the scenes of out health care system to show how a new, self-proclaimed elite of "bioethicists" threaten patient welfare by undermining the Hippocratic Oath. Under this new worldview, "death" is being redefined to include "irreversible" coma. The case is being made for organ harvesting from the terminally ill and disabled. Cognitively disabled patients are dehydrated to death by having their tube-supplied food and water withheld. Animals receive greater protection in medical experiments than people. Because of this new thinking, Smith believes that American medicine is "changing from a system based on the sanctity of life into a starkly utilitarian model in which the medically defenseless are seen as having not just a 'right' but a 'duty' to die." He sees the medical world as being transformed by Futile Care Theory, which allows doctors to withdraw desired care based on their evaluation of patients' likely "quality of life"-a development he compares to the sign in the windows of some restaurants; We have the right to refuse service. These ideas have consequences for individuals, as Smith shows in his discussion of cases like that of Robert Wendland. Brain-damaged in an accident, Wendland is able to wheel himself in a chair, and yet a court of appeals, acting on a hospital's recommendation, said that the feeding tube that keeps him alive could be removed. Bioethics ideas have consequences for policy too, as Smith shows in his analysis of medicine in the state of Oregon, where assisted suicide is covered under Medicaid but some organ transplants are not. After reading Culture of Death, it will be hard to disagree with Wesley Smith's contention that we stand at a medical and cultural crossroads and that we must embrace a new bioethics of human rights if we are to reassert the sanctity of life.
When his teenaged son Christopher, brain-damaged in an auto accident, developed a 106-degree fever following weeks of unconsciousness, John Campbell asked the attending physician for help. The doctor refused. Why bother? The boy's life was effectively over. Campbell refused to accept this verdict. He demanded treatment and threatened legal action. The doctor finally relented. With treatment, Christopher's temperature subsided almost immediately. Soon afterwards he regained consciousness and today he is learning to walk again. This story is one of many Wesley J. Smith recounts in his groundbreaking new book, Culture of Death. Smith believes that American medicine “is changing from a system based on the sanctity of human life into a starkly utilitarian model in which the medically defenseless are seen as having not just a ‘right' but a ‘duty' to die.” Going behind the current scenes of our health care system, he shows how doctors withdraw desired care based on Futile Care Theory rather than providing it as required by the Hippocratic Oath. And how “bioethicists” influence policy by considering questions such as whether organs may be harvested from the terminally ill and disabled. This is a passionate, yet coolly reasoned book about the current crisis in medical ethics by an author who has made “the new thanatology” his consuming interest.
Buy The Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America by Wesley J. Smith from our Christian Books store - isbn: 9781893554498 & 189355449X
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Customer Support: 1-888-395-0572 | <urn:uuid:e2167468-0868-4d0d-820c-3112eb2e9c6d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.christianbookstore.net/the-culture-of-death-the-assault-on/catalog-103179/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00483-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951949 | 1,007 | 1.851563 | 2 |
This week’s puns and one liners take the form of manual jokes. As normal, they come with no guarantee of hilarity or originality….
Finally found the instruction manual that tells me why my alarm clock rings. It’s about time.
I’m looking for a book on how to fix automatic gearboxes, but the library only has manuals.
Just opened the manual for my new ladder. It says “step one, then step two, then step three”…
An accountant friend of mine has borrowed six manuals now and not given any of them back. I think he’s a professional bookkeeper.
Delighted that the postman finally delivered the manual I ordered, “How to make your own watch”. It’s about time.
For sale: Midwife manuals. (Can deliver)
I saw a manual called “Ten Steps To Improve Your Long Jump”. I thought, “that’s cheating”.
A man walks into a library. The librarian says “sorry sir, all our mind reading manuals are out”.
I went to the local book shop and asked where the self help section was. The shop assistant told me that if she told me where it was, that would defeat the purpose.
“Where’s the autopilot?” “He’s off on manual leave.”
Got a new job writing instruction booklets. It’s mainly manual labour.
If you like these manual jokes, have a look here for an alphabetical list of joke topics. | <urn:uuid:9ee49f11-6c72-44fc-a426-fe776a0f500a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://punsandoneliners.com/randomness/manual-jokes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573533.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818215509-20220819005509-00267.warc.gz | en | 0.924366 | 341 | 1.5625 | 2 |
After years of preparation, the European Space Agency (ESA) is finally ready to send two powerful lasers into orbit in order to better study the Earth's winds next year.
Wind is created by contrasts in climate, and has a huge effect on a planet's weather systems. The ESA's Living Planet Program has been exploring widespread but under-examined aspects of the Earth's environment, from soil to magnetism. ADM-Aeouls, named after the Keeper of Winds in Homer's Odyssey, will study how winds operate to improve weather tracking. The information Aelous gets on aerosols and clouds will improve our understanding of atmospheric dynamics, which basically includes all motion systems of meteorological significance, like thunderstorms, tornadoes, tropical hurricanes, extratropical cyclones, jet streams, and global-scale circulations.
How's it going to do that? Lasers. The Aladin lasers and telescope built for Aeouls will generate ultraviolet light that will be beamed towards Earth. This light will then, according to the ESA, "bounce off of air molecules and small particles such as dust, ice and droplets of water in the atmosphere. The fraction of light that is scattered back towards the satellite is collected by Aladin's telescope and measured."
Because of how close it is to the planet it will be monitoring, Aeouls will be able to deliver its data in near-real time, meaning , according to Prof. Erland Källé, Director of Research at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, Aeouls will be able to improve our understanding of "oceans in both hemispheres for determining the position and evolution of jet streams and atmospheric fronts" pretty much as soon as it's turned on. | <urn:uuid:8e67188f-c322-4789-85b5-437ed479beff> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/satellites/a22178/european-space-agency-study-wind-aeouls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718957.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00437-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934661 | 356 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Philosopher Left to Muse on Ridicule Over a Hoax: Bernard-Henri Lévy, France’s most super chic intellectual, a founder of the New Philosophers movement in the post May ’68 reevaluation of Marxism seems to have put his foot in his mouth. In his latest book, he cited The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant, an actual book (You can buy it, but only in French) supposedly written by Jean-Baptiste Botul, developer of the philosophical school of the Botulists, who is actually the fictional creation of a well known French philosopher and satirist, Frédéric Pagès – here’s his blog.
Unlike the foolish dupes of the brilliant Sokal hoax, in which a professor of physics at NYU published a bogus and incomprehensible paper in Social-text and was roundly denounced by its fans for showing that the emperor was naked, Mr. Levy reacted with relative good grace.
“It was a truly brilliant and very believable hoax from the mind of a Canard Enchaîné journalist who remains a good philosopher all the same,” Mr. Lévy wrote in an opinion piece. “So I was caught, as were the critics who reviewed the book when it came out. The only thing left to say, with no hard feelings, is kudos to the artist.” [see NYTimes link above]
However, being a talker, and a talker, and one who lives by being a talker, he couldn’t keep from…talking too much:
Appearing on Canal+ television, he said he had always admired The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant and that its arguments were solid, whether written by Botul or Pages. “I salute the artist [Pages],” he said, adding with a philosophical flourish: “Hats off for this invented-but-more-real-than-real Kant, whose portrait, whether signed Botul, Pages or John Smith, seems to be in harmony with my idea of a Kant who was tormented by demons that were less theoretical than it seemed.” [Times Online]
Words, words, and words, to cover up the foolishness in his blizzard of words. In other words: It doesn’t matter that I credulously believe fake stuff that is written for fun – including accounts of German emmigrants forming a colony in Paraguay to live by the metaphysics of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – they agree with me!
Get your J.P. Botul T-shirt here! | <urn:uuid:5dcb0664-b724-4ec6-9dad-4e0bdeb55258> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://iamyouasheisme.wordpress.com/tag/hoax/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00362-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979424 | 544 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Body odor is a deer hunter’s worst enemy, an alert to animals that an ominous presence is lurking, but the science behind suppressing it to give hunters an edge oddly enough could help researchers develop a life-saving device for diabetes patients. Scientists presented the latest advances that tie together these two seemingly unrelated fronts at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
“The scent of a single person is a complex mixture of hundreds of compounds given off by bacteria, which live in our bodies and on our skin,” said Shamitha Dissanayake, who gave the presentation. Scent compounds also come from the human body itself when it breaks down molecules to make energy. The odors are emitted through the skin and breath.
These substances evaporate easily in the air and are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In a lab at Mississippi State University (MSU), Dissanayake, a graduate student, and Todd Mlsna, Ph.D., the head of the lab, are figuring out the best way to collect and analyze VOCs from body and breath odor.
Their ultimate goal is to use VOC detection to diagnose and monitor disease, but their expertise led to a unique collaboration with Bronson Strickland, Ph.D., a colleague in the MSU wildlife ecology department. He was studying odor-reducing products geared toward deer hunters.
“The hunting community, the deer hunters in this case, are always looking for ways to beat the deer, so to speak, in terms of scent control,” Strickland said. “A deer’s sense of smell, like a dog’s, can be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 times more acute than a human’s.”
Figuring out which specific ingredients of body odor spook deer is a tall order, Dissanayake said. Not only does each person give off a unique scent, but that scent varies depending on when someone eats, drinks, exercises and rests. To begin to address this challenge, he collected body odor samples from 65 subjects. Over four hours, they either wore an untreated T-shirt or a T-shirt treated with a commercial spray designed to eliminate or mask a hunter’s body odor—a task once accomplished with natural products such as skunk urine. The researchers tested a total of four products out of dozens on the market.
“It was a big challenge to handle such a complex data set with so many variables,” he said.
So, after collecting the body odor samples, Dissanayake recruited the help of a mathematician to tailor a data-crunching program for their needs. Based on his analysis of the subjects’ hundreds of VOCs, Dissanayake figured out that the sprays worked by greatly reducing the levels of 29 key compounds, either by killing the responsible bacteria, binding to the chemicals or converting them into less volatile compounds. To further narrow down the list, the next research step would entail seeing how deer react to these 29 candidates.
The techniques and analytical instruments the team used to look for deer-alerting odors overlap significantly with their methods in another area of the lab’s research: diabetes alert dogs.
Formerly known as juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes is a condition in which the body doesn’t make insulin. An estimated 3 million people in the U.S. may have the disease. When patients’ blood sugar rises or falls, they emit a different set of VOCs in their breath. Animal trainers have figured out how to get canines to sniff out changes in blood sugar levels, which can cause a number of symptoms including seizures. Specially trained dogs’ keen senses of smell have already saved some patients hundreds of trips to the hospital. But dogs are expensive, require a lot of care, and they get tired. Enter Dissanayake and Mlsna. They hope to translate their work into a portable electronic nose to do the dogs’ critical job tirelessly, 24-7.
“It’s exciting to work in this field,” Mlsna said. “We now have the combination of the analytical power and the computing power to really make sense of all these complicated data.”
A private company funded the work on the odor-eliminating sprays, and in support of the disease-monitoring research, Mlsna acknowledged funding from the National Science Foundation.
Source: American Chemical Society | <urn:uuid:a0db69ed-a794-4404-a46d-ea3a60766600> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2014/03/how-science-deer-hunting-can-help-patients-diabetes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00150-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938447 | 933 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The bridge across the Nitra river: Static and dynamic load tests had to be completed within five days.
Static and dynamic load tests completed in record time: SHP opts for QuantumX from HBM for bridge monitoring
It was an extremely short time window: Only five days were allowed for static and dynamic load tests on a new bridge across the Nitra river to be conducted by the Czech company SHP. This meant: Two teams performed measurements and tests 24/7. SHP was able to provide its contractor with a detailed analysis already the very next day. One of the secrets behind the success: utilization of HBM's QuantumX data acquisition system for measurement.
Motorways and expressways are the backbone of a country's economic success. For this reason, the Czech Republic has continually invested in the development of national primary routes since the political change in 1989. With success: The motorway and expressway network has since doubled to over 1,000 kilometers.
However, there's more to it than expansion: For quite some time, the Czech state as a contractor has paid attention to low, predictable costs and short construction periods in road construction - at the same time ensuring compliance with all relevant safety standards. Therefore, significant static and dynamic load tests are a must prior to opening a bridge to traffic.
SHP as a partner for the safety of bridges
The Czech company SHP provides safety when it comes down to such tasks. The company, founded in 1991, is located in Brno and offers a wide range of services, for example, static load tests on bridges as well as long-term monitoring and other road construction services. Since 2011, SHP relies on an own ultramodern laboratory for doing static load tests with highly skilled staff, analysis software developed in house - and HBM measurement technology.
An example is the bridge monitoring project at the R1 expressway from Nitra to Banska Bystrica in 2011.
Here, the primary aim was to check the proper functioning and safety of 24 bridges modernized within the framework of the construction project. The first three street sections' short construction period was a particular challenge. Here, SHP engineers were granted less than two months for checking the bridge structures' load-carrying capacity.
Static and dynamic load tests in only five days
This is an enormous challenge - especially since one of the bridges across the Nitra river is over 1 kilometer long. SHP performed static load tests on this bridge within 4 ½ days and, in addition with an external partner, dynamic tests that needed to be completed within half a day.
To enable this short time window to be optimally utilized, two SHP teams took measurements on the bridge 24/7. And, in addition: SHP was able to provide its contractor with a final analysis report directly the following morning after completion of the load tests.
The secret behind the success: HBM measurement technology
The test and measurement equipment used is a key success factor allowing for short response times. For this reason, SHP opted for HBM's ultra-flexible and compact QuantumX MX840A amplifier for its static load tests during which displacement transducers, in particular, were installed at the bridge.
QuantumX combines all the characteristics that are required to manage ambitious measurement projects with short deadlines: Advanced Plug & Measure technology enables sensors to be quickly connected to the instrument - and automatically identified. Measurements can be started quickly and analyzed just as swiftly. Furthermore, QuantumX - thanks to its compact size - is the ideal solution even for mobile applications at bridge structures or in other monitoring projects.
QuantumX, combined with catman®AP measurement software, also from HBM, allows fast data visualization, processing and subsequent use for final reports.
Visualization of measurement data in catman®AP
"Quick, instant analysis has now become standard in bridge testing. QuantumX allows rapid and reliable measurement data acquisition - and thus helps increase the reliability of our structures." Strasky, Husty and Partners Ltd. (SHP) | <urn:uuid:ef4ee5b6-9e4a-4de5-aafd-0f1a4df7a7f9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hbm.com/en/3397/shp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279368.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00329-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951933 | 825 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Homosexuality in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
This verse is one of the famous six "clobber" passages from the Bible that is
often used to condemn same-sex sexual activity.
In the King James Version, Leviticus 18:22 is translated: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
Although the verse appears to most readers to apply only to sexual behavior
between two males, at least two Bible translations appear to mistranslate the
verse in order to widen its scope to include lesbian sexual activity:
|Living Bible: "Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an
enormous sin" |
|New Living Translation: "Do not practice homosexuality; it is a
detestable sin. |
Topics covered in this section:
Copyright © 1996 to 2016 by Ontario Consultants on
Latest update: 2016-JAN-12
Author: B.A. Robinson | <urn:uuid:18e368c0-b3fc-43e6-9143-b5353affe220> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718309.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00404-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.888247 | 203 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Abstract: Mack C. Stirling examines the well-known story of Job, one of the literary books of the Bible and part of the Wisdom literature (which is heavy in temple mysticism and symbols), and proposes the story follows the temple endowment to the T. Following Hugh Nibley’s lead in The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, the temple endowment is not discussed. Stirling focuses only on Job’s story, drawing on analysis of literary genres and literary tools, like chiasms, focusing on the existential questions asked by the ancient author. Doing this, he concludes that Job’s is a story about a spiritual journey, in which two main questions are answered: “(1) Is it worthwhile to worship God for His own sake apart from material gain? (2) Can man, by coming to earth and worshipping God, enter into a process of becoming that allows him to participate in God’s life and being?” What follows is an easy to read exegesis of the Book of Job with these questions in mind, culminating with Job at the veil, speaking with God. Stirling then discusses Job’s journey in terms of Adam’s journey — beginning in a situation of security, going through tribulations, finding the way to God and being admitted into His presence — and shows how this journey is paralleled in Lehi’s dream in the Book of Mormon (which journey ends at a tree of life). This journey also is what each of us faces, from out premortal home with God, to the tribulations of this telestial world, and back to the eternal bliss of Celestial Kingdom, the presence of God, through Christ. In this way, the stories of Adam and Eve, of Job, and of Lehi’s dream provide a framework for every human’s existence.
[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the LDS community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.
[Page 138]See Mack C. Stirling, “Job: An LDS Reading,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 99–144. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/.]
The book of Job has challenged and puzzled interpreters for centuries. All agree that the beauty and eloquence of its Hebrew poetry are unsurpassed and that Job raises important, penetrating questions not addressed elsewhere in the Bible. Yet the meaning of many phrases and words in the book is simply unknown, which is partly responsible for multiple divergent interpretations. There is no scholarly consensus on the date, author, structure, stages of composition (if any), nature (history, narrative, story, or dramatic fiction), or meaning of the book. Not unexpectedly, no one translation of Job is adequate; meaning and translation are invariably influenced by one’s life experiences and theological presuppositions.1
I propose that the book of Job is a literary analogue of the temple endowment ritual. The book’s structure, content, and use of prose versus poetry will be important in presenting my case. Following the lead of Hugh Nibley in his The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, I will discuss only the book of Job in its literary and scriptural context, leaving the reader to make connections to the endowment.2 An overview of the literary structure of the book of Job is presented in Table 1, demonstrating the scheme followed in this exposition.
Table 1. Literary Outline of Job
B. Second Cycle (Job 15-21)
C. Third Cycle (Job 22-27)
Job becomes increasingly alienated from his community with failure of communication. Job resolves to meet God and receives four great revelatory insights.
B. Elihu Speeches (Job 32-37), poetry except 32: 1-5 (prose)
Whereas Job may well have been a historical figure (see Ezekiel 14:14, 20; James 5:11; Doctrine & Covenants 121:10), the biblical book of Job is, in my view, an extremely sophisticated literary composition designed to raise questions and invite man into a deeper relationship with God. There are many features of Job that strain credulity if the book is approached as literal history, including the quasi-partnership of God and Satan in the Prologue. Likewise, distressed humans are unlikely to converse in beautiful poetry while sitting on an ash heap, as portrayed in the Dialogues (see Job 3–27). The book of Job, like all great drama, uses dialogue (as opposed to narrative) in an attempt to penetrate the essence of things — to explicate important truths about God, man, and their possibilities for covenant relationship.
Job and his three friends start with shared assumptions and a common understanding of the nature of God, man, and the cosmos. They are in confessional unity. This quickly breaks down as Job, as a result of his suffering, begins to question previously shared assumptions.
Most of the disputes in the book of Job are related to the idea of retribution. The friends (and Job initially) conceive of a rigid order in the cosmos, created and maintained by an all-powerful and perfectly just God, where the righteous prosper and the wicked are brought to ruin, after perhaps being given a time to repent. Therefore, they reason, if a person suffers, he or she must have sinned.3 Having previously thought the same, Job comes to know by his bitter suffering that rigid retribution is false. He realizes that he is suffering innocently (suffering out of proportion to any sin), along with many others, whereas the wicked frequently thrive. Job holds ferociously to this truth, destroying the previous unity with his friends. Job is forced to entertain probing questions about the nature of God, man, and the moral order, questions [Page 140]that lead to his transformation. He comes to understand that salvation cannot be adequately encompassed by categories of sin and retribution and that truth is more important than confessional unity based on false premises.
Irony abounds in the book of Job. By irony, I mean a text that is intended to mean something different from what it seems to say. Thus, the important meaning is different from, even contrary to, the superficial or obvious meaning. For example, Job asks, “Who will say to [God], ‘What doest thou?’” (Job 9:12, rsv). Here Job seems to say that no man would venture to question God’s actions. Yet, questioning God is precisely what Job does. As another example, God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4, rsv). This appears to portray an overbearing God intimidating Job with His awesome majesty. Ironically, however, God may actually be inviting Job to a deeper understanding of and participation in creation. Superficially, this text seems to suggest that Job could not have been present at creation, whereas ironically he may well have been (Abraham 3:22–25). Irony functions to invite the reader into a creative and profound engagement with the text and to subvert conventional understanding.
Central to my analysis of the book of Job is the concept of the existential question as described by Janzen.4 Existential questions are not posed to be answered by facts or information. They are related to a process of growth and becoming, with the question posing a goal to be lived toward. The answer to the question is the transformed self, it having been given the power to move toward the goal by the question itself. The disclosure of one’s own existential questions to others admits them to the sphere of one’s own being and becoming. To share existential questions is to offer to share being. Janzen views covenant as a relationship in which participants share existential questions toward a shared outcome. In this light, the creation of earth by God for man is a covenantal act wherein God shares existential questions with man: (1) Is it worthwhile to worship God for His own sake apart from material gain? (2) Can man, by coming to earth and worshipping God, enter into a process of becoming that allows him to participate in God’s life and being?
The book of Job can be understood as Job’s spiritual journey in response to questions posed by God. Existential questions arising within God in the Prologue are shared with Job, eventually stripping him of everything dear to him. Job internalizes these questions in his darkened and bitter state during the Dialogues. He holds on, evolving toward a [Page 141]transformed understanding of God and man, and finally reaches God’s presence and experiences redemption. We will now consider Job’s journey in detail.
Prologue (Job 1–2)
Job, whose name potentially means either “Where is the divine father?” or “the persecuted one,”5 is a non-Israelite living in an unnaturally idyllic world. He is rich and healthy, has a large and loving family, and is esteemed as the greatest man of his people. Furthermore, he is a member of a community with strong social bonds, a shared religion, and a common language. Job experiences all of this as the presence and friendship of God (see Job 29:2–7) and responds by living blamelessly, serving his fellow man, and defending the poor (see Job 1:1, 29:11–25). Nonetheless, as subsequent events will demonstrate, Job is, as yet, lacking both in self-knowledge and knowledge of God. He has personally experienced only goodness, tasting only the sweet.
Despite having reproduced and being a member of an established community, Job’s situation in the Prologue is analogous in many ways to that of Adam in the Garden before the Fall. Indeed, I consider the Prologue of Job to be a this-worldly analogue of the Garden of Eden.6 I find it significant that the Prologue is composed in prose and will later make the case that the other two prose sections of Job (32:1–5 and 42:7-17) are also this-worldly analogues of other-worldly situations, events, or people. In contrast, the poetry sections of Job relate directly to events in this mortal, fallen world.
God intrudes on Job’s idyllic life by bringing Job to Satan’s attention, clearly in response to existential questions within God Himself about Job’s character and motivation and about the significance of human worship of God.7 Satan insists that Job fears God only for secondary gain and that he would not worship God “for naught,” introducing the metaphor of the “hedge” to summarize all that God has done to prosper and protect Job (see Job 1:9–10). This hedge around Job is best conceived as a many-layered veil, consisting of the nourishing and cradling conditions of Job’s life: health, family, wealth, societal fabric of shared language and religion, and perceived stable order and justice in the cosmos.8 Satan wagers that if God will tear down the hedge, Job will curse God (see Job 1:11). God gives Satan permission to proceed with dismantling the hedge, stating: “All that he has is in your power” (Job 1:12, rsv).
[Page 142]Job’s response is of utmost importance to God. The question is whether Job will hold fast to his integrity — which, in my view, consists of remaining absolutely honest but continuing to seek a relationship with God despite the loss of the hedge. Failure of integrity would result from yielding to the pressure of the crowd and admitting that his sins justify his suffering, effectively holding on to a lie in hopes of appeasing “God.” Likewise, cursing God and seeking completely autonomously to find his own way in the world would breach his integrity. Either response would be a victory for Satan, the father of lies.
Satan goes out from God, and Job’s hedge begins to collapse. Two different bands of marauding humans destroy some flocks and servants. “Fire from heaven” completes their destruction, while a great wind destroys Job’s children. The book of Job is ambiguous about the precise relationship of either God or Satan to these natural and human-initiated disasters.
After these experiences, Job proclaims that he is “naked” (Job 1:21), like Adam and Eve in the garden after eating the forbidden fruit (see Genesis 3:7–11). Job continues to bless God, so Satan receives permission to afflict Job’s skin with loathsome sores, removing a more interior part of the hedge (Job 1:21–2:7). All that remains of Job’s hedge are the societal bonds of caring friends, shared religion, and common language. These, too, will be stripped away in the ensuing Dialogues, leaving Job alone to struggle with the great moral question of whether he should serve God “for nothing.”
After Job is afflicted with the sores, his wife invites him to “curse God and die,” thus mediating the desire of Satan (Job 1:11, 2:5). In this action she precisely parallels Eve in the garden, who conveyed Satan’s desire to Adam that they eat the forbidden fruit. Job calls his wife foolish and then continues with an apparently rhetorical question: “Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10, rsv). This response is ambiguous — much different from Job’s blessing of God after the first series of calamities. Job’s irritation at his wife, combined with his hiding behind a seemingly rhetorical question, suggest that his wife has actually expressed an existential question now raging inside Job.0
Job removes himself in solitude to an ash dump, resigning himself to a dreary waste (compare with 1 Nephi 8:4–7), while describing his state in terms of bitterness (see Job 7:11, 9:18, 10:1, 13:26, 23:2, 27:2) and darkness (see Job 16:16, 19:8, 23:17, 30:26). Job has thus gone through a kind of fall, brought about, in some sense, by the machinations of Satan but nonetheless occurring at the initiative of God. The book of [Page 143]Job thereby expresses in a literary, dramatic way the idea that “it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet” (D&C 29:36). Just like Adam and Eve, Job has partaken of the bitter tree, which will make it possible for him to comprehend the sweet tree or tree of life (compare with 2 Nephi 2:15–16) and thus partake of the life and being of God. Participating in God’s life is much different than simply being taken care of by God.
In general, the sources of suffering (tasting the bitter) in this world are personal sin, the sins of others, natural disasters, and ignorance. We know from the Prologue that Job’s suffering is innocent, not the result of personal sin, although this will subsequently be disputed ever more vociferously by the “friends.” As mentioned above, the Prologue seems to imply that both God and Satan had a role in causing Job’s suffering, with the text being ambiguous about the precise level of responsibility of each. Even when Satan supposedly goes out to afflict Job, the text speaks of “fire from God” (Job 1:16). Furthermore, when we look directly at Job’s suffering, it is caused either by the sins of other humans or natural disasters, all exacerbated by Job’s relative ignorance. Such suffering, which Job experiences to an extreme degree, is part and parcel of life in this created, risky world, which is filled with people who voluntarily abuse others and which is subject to unpredictable natural events. I argue that the book of Job gives no definitive answers to the reasons for innocent suffering. The very ambiguity of the book on these points invites the reader to ponder and question.10
My opinion that the book of Job is a dramatic literary composition and not literal history is supported by the extreme nature and the stylized reporting of the first series of disasters to befall Job. In all four instances one person “alone escapes to tell” Job. Additionally, the very ambiguity regarding the source of each disaster (God? Satan? nature? humans?) fits drama more than literal history. Furthermore, God’s complaining to Satan that Satan had “moved [God] against [Job] to destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3, rsv) strains credulity beyond reason if taken as history. Finally, I doubt that the true God would literally authorize the massacre of a man’s children simply to put him to the test.
The book of Job is not primarily about suffering. It is about a journey from blissful ignorance through darkness and bitterness to a transformed relationship with God. It is about seeking an ever stronger connection to God, based on truth, no matter what the circumstances. Job’s journey is initiated by God in response to existential questions within God. The [Page 144]existential questions are then taken up by Job as a result of his suffering as he is driven to wonder what it means to be created in the image of God, why innocent suffering occurs, and what God’s relationship is to justice. In this process, Job is proved and tried at God’s initiative, much like all humanity: “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:24–25).
The tearing down of Job’s hedge can be understood as passing through a veil — passing from a protected and secure environment to a wild and unpredictable natural world. Job is blocked from returning to his previous life. He corresponds to Adam and Eve after leaving the Garden of Eden, who are barred from re-entry and direct access to the tree of life (God)11 by cherubim and a flaming sword (see Genesis 3:24; Alma 42:2-3). Thus, cherubim and the flaming sword can also be conceived as a veil, an idea supported by the presence of embroidered cherubim in the veil of ancient Israel’s temple (see Exodus 26:31, 2 Chronicles 3:14). The tearing down of the hedge will move Job into realms of experience beyond guaranteed structure, something that will open up possibilities for new levels of understanding and becoming while entailing significant risk.
We now turn to Job outside the hedge in his lonely, dark, and bitter state.
Dialogues (Job 3–27)
First Cycle (Job 3–14). After seven days of silence on the ash heap with the three friends, Job’s anguish boils over. Surprisingly for the hero of a canonical text, Job curses the day of his birth, in effect saying that it would have been better never to have been born (see Job 3:1–10). Coming close to losing his integrity, Job has lost unquestioning trust in God. He raises a series of questions, asking why he did not die at birth and why God would give life and light to one who then suffers so bitterly as to desire death (see Job 3:11–26). Job refers longingly to Sheol (the realm of the dead) as a place where he would rest from suffering. It is uncertain at this point whether Job will search for death or for meaning, but Job’s wrestling with questions suggest that he has absorbed existential energy that may give him power to move forward.
Eliphaz, the first of the friends to speak (see Job 4–5), remonstrates gently with Job, reminding him that Job himself had previously counseled and strengthened those in similar circumstances (see Job 4:1-6). Job [Page 145]should not be impatient now that trouble has come to him. It is critical to remember that Job and his friends (community) begin with a common religious language and understanding. In his journey toward a transformed understanding of and relationship with God, Job will step out of and become differentiated from his community. The friends will continue to represent conventional religion and the wisdom of tradition, relying on their own experience (see Job 5:27) and the words of the elders (see Job 15:9–12), as Job once had.
In his first speech, Eliphaz anticipates all subsequent arguments the friends will make to Job. First he asserts that certain retribution holds: “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:7–8, rsv).
In his second point, Eliphaz claims to have received a revelation, described in troubling terms: “dread came upon me, and trembling … a spirit glided past my face [and] the hair of my flesh stood up but I could not discern its appearance” (Job 4:14–16, rsv). The content of the revelation is even more troubling: that man cannot be righteous or pure before God and that man dies without wisdom (Job 4:17–21). This is precisely Satan’s position in the Prologue regarding Job — that Job would be unable to remain blameless and upright without the hedge. In contrast, God is seeking a man who will hold on to his integrity. By absorbing and expounding this spurious revelation, Eliphaz and the other friends unwittingly become representatives of Satan.
Eliphaz’s third and final point is that God will chasten man in hopes of bringing repentance before final destruction: “Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal” (Job 5:17–18, rsv). This text is a partial quote/partial paraphrase of Proverbs 3:11–12. Thus the friends — ministers of conventional religion — use the wisdom and understanding of men mixed with scripture, while unknowingly mediating Satan’s desires to Job.
Eliphaz is forced to assume that Job is a sinner because of his concept of retribution and the justice of God. He urges Job to understand the frailty and ignorance of man, admit his own sin, and lay his case before God, hoping for mercy and restoration (see Job 5:7–27). This is sage advice for any sinner. However, the reader knows from the Prologue that it does not apply to Job, and that for Job to follow Eliphaz’s advice would breach his integrity. Job’s challenge will be to “test and reject all the answers attempted by men.”12
[Page 146]Job responds (see Job 6–7) by complaining bitterly about his suffering, described metaphorically as being struck by poisoned arrows from God, and he excuses the rash words because he assumes an impending death (see Job 7:5–11). Indeed, Job loathes his life (see Job 7:13–16), which he describes as slavery imposed by God (see Job 7:1–6), and actually prays that God will kill him (see Job 6:8–9). At this point, Job has no hope of resurrection: “He who goes down to Sheol does not come up” (Job 7:9, rsv). Job laments that he has no strength, resources, or reasonable hope to continue on. Yet, the existential questions inside drive him on.
Job angrily inverts Psalm 8, which portrays man as God’s vice-regent on earth, asking: “What is man that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him?” (Job 7:17, rsv).13 This idea, which expresses gratitude to God in the psalm, now expresses horror at God’s treatment of man (Job). Job next ponders the question of why the sin of a mere mortal should make a difference to God (see Job 7:20–21). This question is critical and will recur several times in the book of Job.
Job then reproves his friends for being treacherous, presumably for failing to support his innocence in the face of his calamities (see Job 6:14-21). He pleads with them to show him his error and promises not to lie to them, clearly hoping that the friends will take his side and vindicate him (see Job 6:24–30). From this point on, Job’s suffering will stem more from rejection by friends/community than from the initial calamities detailed in the Prologue.
Bildad answers by calling Job’s words “wind” and then announcing a strict doctrine of retribution, even stating that Job’s children were killed because they sinned (see Job 8:4, niv), which the reader knows to be false.14 Bildad bases his assumption on the traditions of men handed down over generations (see Job 8:8–10). He even seems to mock Job, stating: “If you are pure and upright, surely [God] will rouse himself for you” (Job 8:6). Ironically, this does eventually happen, but not by Bildad’s prescription (see Job 42:7).
Chapters 9 and 10 put Job’s dilemma in sharp perspective. Like the friends, Job had always believed that the world was an orderly place, created and controlled by a perfectly just God who rewarded the righteous with good and the wicked with calamity. Now, as a result of his own experience, Job knows that this assumption is flawed. Disoriented, but firmly holding to the truth of his own innocence (see Job 9:15, 20, 21; 10:1), Job considers the possibility that God is simply an all-powerful bully who capriciously does whatever He pleases and calls it “right.” Having been marked by such a God for calamity, Job can never be clean [Page 147]or innocent in God’s grand scheme: “If I wash myself with snow … yet thou wilt plunge me into a pit” (Job 9:30–31, rsv); “though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse” (Job 9:20, rsv). Job laments the utter impossibility of contending against or even communicating meaningfully with such a being, who cannot be answered like a man (see Job 9:3, 11–12, 32–33).
From Job’s current perspective, God seems to “mock at the calamity of the innocent” and give the earth “into the hand of the wicked” (Job 9:23–24, rsv). Job wonders why God allowed him to be born or bothered to create him in the first place, simply then to torture him and cut his life short (see Job 10:5-9, 18–22). Ironically protesting that no one can ask God what He is doing, Job does precisely this, propelled forward by the need to understand why God is contending against him (see Job 9:12, 10; 2).
Another important theme appears in Chapter 10. After speaking of his public disgrace (see Job 10:15), Job charges God: “Thou dost renew thy witnesses against me … thou dost bring fresh hosts against me” (Job 10:17). Thus, the friends — witnesses against Job — seem to be exponents of a larger crowd phenomenon, which Job sees as coming from God. Job is still holding to his initial, untransformed understanding of God, which is shared with the community. The reader, though, already has reason to suspect that neither the friends nor their cosmic paradigm properly represent God.
Zophar now interjects to accuse Job of babbling untruth and mocking God, desiring that God would speak and properly rebuke Job (see Job 11:16). He even states that Job’s suffering is less than he deserves (see Job 11:6)! Zophar taunts Job with being unable to find out the deep things of God (see Job 11:7); Job is ironically already on a journey to do just that. Because he holds rigidly to a false paradigm of God, Zophar will be unable to join Job on the journey. Assuming that Job’s problem is sin, Zophar recommends repentance, promising restoration and temporal security: “You will lie down and, none will make you afraid” (Job 11:13-19, rsv). Zophar thus persists in doing the work of Satan by urging Job to admit guilt (breach his integrity by holding to a lie) in exchange for a (false?) promise of security.
Chapters 12–14 conclude the first cycle of the Dialogues. In my view, these critically important chapters constitute a turning point for the entire book. Here, Job reaches the greatest depths but then turns and begins his ascent toward a transformed relationship with God and a new level of understanding.
[Page 148]Job first sarcastically dismisses the friends’ wisdom, insisting that he also has understanding while ever mindful that, though innocent, he has become a laughingstock (see Job 12:1–4). Everywhere Job looks he sees injustice. He suffers while “the tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure” (Job 12:6, rsv). Job notes that God has all power (see Job 12:10, 12, 13), manifested both by control over nature (see Job 12:15) and human history (see Job 12:17–25). Accordingly, he places the blame for the injustice squarely on God, asking rhetorically: “Who … does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” (Job 12:9, rsv). Job even accuses God of bringing deep darkness to light (see Job 12:22, rsv). At this point Job is on the verge of breaking covenant, of rejecting God and going his own way in the world. Job has reached his darkest moment and deepest point of descent.
Astonishingly, Job now does an about-face, dismissing the friends as worthless physicians who speak falsely for God (see Job 13:4, 5) and conceiving a compelling desire to speak to God face to face (see Job 13:3, 10, 22–24). Job’s desire to see God, present his case, and repair his relationship is brought to powerful expression: “He may slay me, I’ll not quaver. I will defend my conduct to his face. This might even be my salvation, for no impious man would face him” (Job 13:15-16, translation by Pope).15
Job’s persistent, though not perfectly straight course to this goal will occupy the rest of the book. Job’s transformation has begun. He returns to some confidence in God’s justice, stating that God “will surely rebuke” the friends for their lies (Job 13:10) and inviting God to make him understand his current sins, if any, while admitting to iniquities in his youth (see Job 13:23-26).16
We now find Job oscillating between hope and despair. After noting that a tree, though cut down, may bud and put forth branches at the scent of water, Job laments that a man dies and rises not again (see Job 14:7-12). But then Job, in a flash of inspiration, suddenly receives his first great revelatory insight:
If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time and then remember me!
If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.
You will call and I will answer you. You will long for the creature your hands have made.
Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.
[Page 149]My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin. (Job 14:13–17, niv)
Job thus conceives of a loving God calling him back to a meaningful relationship, with redemption from sin as necessary, and of the possibility of renewal of life in a resurrection. Although this vision is not immediately sustained, it represents a dramatic shift in Job’s understanding.
As Janzen notes, this “brief but incandescent vision of a positive outcome to his sufferings arises in the very context of his darkest suspicions.”17 However, it occurs only after Job has firmly committed to seeking God’s face. Janzen further suggests that this vision occurs “in response to a hidden call and hidden divine presence.”18 God, who has been reaching out to Job since the Prologue, now has a real, though tenuous, grip on Job. This ever-strengthening grip will aid Job in his journey out of bitterness and darkness and into the presence of God.
Second Cycle (Job 15–21). This cycle features prolonged pronouncements of the fate of the wicked, combined for the first time with direct assertions of sin against Job. Job also receives two additional revelatory insights.
Eliphaz charges Job with being filled with the east wind (a figure of destruction in the prophets — see Hosea 12:1, 13–15), dangerously doing away with fear of God, and having iniquity as the source of his words/inspiration (see Job 15:1–6). He tauntingly reminds Job that he has not participated in divine councils and reprimands him for rejecting the wisdom of the aged in favor of his own prideful assertions (see Job 15:7–10). Clearly sensing that Job is dangerous to the confessional unity of the community, Eliphaz returns to his supposed “revelation” of Job 4:12–21, reminding Job that man cannot be clean before God (see Job 15:11–16) and thereby reiterating Satan’s original contention (see Job 1:9–11). Eliphaz then launches into a prolonged (windy) affirmation of certain retribution against the wicked (see Job 15:17–35), stating: “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days” (Job 15:20). Eliphaz now clearly sees Job as one of the wicked.
Job responds (see Job 16–17) by dismissing his accusing friends as miserable comforters (see Job 16:1–5), realizing that the breach between them is irrevocable: “Come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you” (Job 17:10, rsv). Job had previously hoped that his friends would serve as his advocates, attempting to vindicate him. Now, surrounded by hostile mockers and fearing a violent death (see Job 16:10–15, 17:2), Job realizes that there is no advocate for him [Page 150]anywhere on earth, and he appeals to the earth itself to serve as a witness by not covering his blood nor blotting out his cry (see Job 16:18).
In this awful state, Job receives his second great revelatory insight:
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. (Job 16:19–21, niv)
In the midst of unrelenting persecution on earth, Job, in a moment of inspiration, reaches out to a perceived advocate in heaven and prays that God Himself will provide the necessary pledge or witness on his behalf (see Job 17:2–3). This second revealed insight has a powerful effect on Job. Whereas he had previously yearned for death (see Job 3:1, 11; 6:8–9; 7:16), Job now refuses to yield to the grave or worm by letting go of his hope (see Job 17:11–16). Job has a new kind of hope, born of travail, that transcends anything he could have possessed before his “fall” (compare with Moses 5:11; D&C 29:39).
With the complete loss of community solidarity, Job’s hedge is now finally gone. He is speaking and acting freely with no hope of secondary gain in this world, with even speech itself giving no benefit (see Job 16:6). Job has not yielded to the lie nor cursed God. Satan appears to be losing. Will Job continue on his path to freely worshipping God?
Despite his revelatory insights and evolving understanding of God, Job often continues to use the language and paradigms he formerly shared with the friends, speaking of God as the source of his problems (see Job 16:7–14, 17:6). Yet, in the very same context he attributes his suffering to the mocking crowd of men: “Men have gaped at me with their mouth, they have struck me insolently upon the cheek, they mass themselves together against me” (Job 16:10, rsv). I suggest that Job’s inconsistency in first referring to God as his adversary (see Job 16:9, rsv) and then appealing to God to lay down a pledge for him (serve as his advocate) results from Job’s position between the old understanding once shared with the friends and a new understanding (paradigm) that will not culminate until Job speaks with God at the veil.
Bildad (see Job 18), resentfully perceiving that Job considers the friends as stupid cattle,19 insists that what Job is suggesting is tantamount to moving the entire earth for one man (see Job 18:1–4). Instead, the fixed moral order in the universe expels the wicked and remains stable (see Job 18:5–21). The wicked are caught in traps, are afflicted with consumption of the skin (Job!), are brought to the king of terrors, and leave no memory or descendants behind. Andersen notes [Page 151]that these are “the things most dreaded by an Israelite in life and in death as the tokens of rejection by God.”20 Bildad’s contention that the wicked leave no trace in the world rebuts Job’s hope that the earth will not cover his blood (see Job 18:17, cf. 16:18). In Bildad’s view, Job will have no witness in heaven nor on earth.
The argument continues with Job insisting that the friends are trying to “break [him] in pieces with words” (Job 19:2, rsv), consistent with Job’s practice in the Dialogues of complaining more about the friends’ verbal attacks than the calamities of the Prologue. Indeed, Job now sees the friends and the entire community, including his own wife and family, as “God’s troops” persecuting him on every side (see Job 19:5–22). Job is fast becoming a scapegoat for the crowd in a war of all against one. Job’s cry against the violence threatening him goes unanswered, prompting Job to pray that his words might indelibly be written in stone as a permanent witness. Paradoxically, as is clear from Job 19:5–22, Job still accepts the will and voice of the crowd in some sense as the voice of God, despite the contradiction between this idea and his ongoing revelatory insights.
In this turmoil, Job receives his third great revelatory insight:
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27, rsv)
This third insight is more emphatic than the first two, consistent with Job’s ever firmer grip on an understanding of God. The idea of physical resurrection and seeing God are clear in the rsv translation above. Less clear is the idea, also contained in the Hebrew, that the Redeemer/Advocate will be God Himself. This concept is expressed in the New English Bible: “I shall discern my witness standing at my side and see my defending counsel, even God himself” (Job 19:26-27).21
Zophar, like Bildad, insulted by Job’s words and attitude, now makes a lengthy statement about certain retribution against the wicked (see Job 20). He also attacks Job’s confidence in an advocate in heaven, saying that “the heavens will reveal [the wicked one’s] iniquity and the earth will rise up against him” (see Job 20:27, rsv). Implicit in this thought is the assumed correspondence between the voice of the crowd or community on earth and God’s voice in heaven. While Zophar’s words (see Job 20:12-22) have value in understanding the nature of sin and its consequences, they do not apply to Job. The friends never consider the [Page 152]suffering of the righteous because they are blinded by a rigid theology in which it never occurs. Zophar’s concluding point — “This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God” (Job 20:29 rsv) — will later be quoted by Job as he apparently composes a speech for Zophar (see Job 27:13).
Job concludes the second cycle by imploring his friends to see, as he has, that retribution does not hold in this world (see Job 21). He refutes Zophar’s last argument almost point by point, finally appealing to the testimony of travelers, who have observed much of the world, that the wicked rarely experience calamity (see Job 21:29–30). Job takes particular exception to the friends’ idea that “God stores up [the iniquity of the wicked] for their sons” (Job 21:19, rsv; see also Job 20:10, 18:15–19), suggesting, instead, that God should properly recompense each person for his or her own deeds. However, the friends’ concept of God punishing the children for the sins of their fathers does find support in scripture (see Exodus 20:5); thus, we have another instance of the friends mixing scripture with accumulated human tradition (see also Job 15:9–10).
Job observes, concerning the wicked, that they say to God: “Depart from us” (Job 21:14), leaving the obvious point unstated that they should be demanding that Satan depart instead of God. Job is familiar with this temptation, having once wished that God would “let him alone” (Job 10:20). Now, Job maintains that the “counsel of the wicked is far from [him]” (Job 21:16, rsv), while accusing the friends of concocting schemes to wrong him. Job condemns the comfort of the friends as empty and their answers as falsehood (see Job 21:34).
Third Cycle (Job 22-27). Given the increasing level of acrimony and disagreement, it is no surprise the dialogue aborts in the third cycle in a failure of communication, a failure of language itself.
Eliphaz makes a last valiant effort to make Job see things his way (see Job 22). He argues that man and his knowledge are nothing before God; therefore, man has no right to question or judge God (see Job 22:2, 11–14). Eliphaz is correct to some extent; however, the problem is that Job is actually challenging the friends’ false premise about God that all suffering is merited because God is just. Unable to see this, Eliphaz both misjudges Job’s righteousness and fails to perceive Job’s journey to a deepened understanding of God. Eliphaz holds tenaciously to the idea that he understands God correctly — and thus speaks for God — despite the contradictory evidence around him, most obviously in the life of Job.
[Page 153]Eliphaz’s distorted conception of God is clear in the rhetorical question he presents Job: “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?” (Job 22:3, rsv). Eliphaz clearly assumes the answer is “no.” Here, Eliphaz speaks falsely, saying God is indifferent to (without passion for) human virtue. In fact, the entire drama of Job was precipitated precisely because God does prize human uprightness and blamelessness (see Job 1:8).
Because of Job’s suffering, Eliphaz can see Job only as guilty, as keeping to the “old way which wicked men have trod” (Job 22:15, rsv) and languishing in darkness, insensitive to the truth (see Job 22:11). Now, for the first time, he accuses Job of great wickedness and endless iniquity (see Job 22:5). He specifically charges Job with oppressing the poor and powerless, even stripping their limited possessions for gain. Job will vigorously deny these charges under oath in chapter 31. The very unreasonableness of these accusations supports the idea that Job is being made a scapegoat for the sins of the community at large.
Eliphaz admonishes Job to “agree with God and be at peace” (Job 22:21). However, for Eliphaz this means to agree with him and the community he represents. Clearly in rivalry with Job, Eliphaz also claims that “the counsel of the wicked is far from [him]” (Job 22:18, rsv; see also Job 21:16). Eliphaz asks Job to return to God, laying his own gold (insistence on his own righteousness and understanding — his integrity) in the dust in order to make God his “gold” (see Job 23:23–25). Continuing to speak for God, Eliphaz promises Job restoration, even to the point (in niv and Pope translations22) of his making intercession for the guilty and facilitating their deliverance (see Job 22:27–30). Eliphaz now, however, clearly sees himself in this role with respect to Job. Ironically, it will be Job in the Epilogue, after coming to confessional agreement/unity with God at the veil, who will make intercession for the friends (see Job 42:7–9).
Ignoring Eliphaz, Job expresses a fervent wish to find God and present his case in person, reaffirming his previous resolution to seek God no matter the consequences (see Job 23:3–5, cf. 13:13–24). Job’s overwhelming desire is a face-to-face meeting with God, not by contrived repentance as recommended by Eliphaz (see Job 22:21–30), but in honesty and fairness.23
Pondering meeting God, Job receives his fourth great revelatory insight:
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would give heed to me. There an upright man could reason [Page 154]with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him; I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (Job 23:6–10, rsv)
Significant changes have occurred in Job. He now realizes that he can speak to God with reason and honesty (contrast with Job 9:32). He understands that God will not simply overwhelm him with His greater power and that acquittal can be expected (contrast with Job 9:20, 30–31). Not yet having seen God and despite having awareness of much injustice in the world, Job is now able to trust God’s purposes and concern for him. Finally, Job comprehends that his trials have a transforming purpose, which will bring him forth as “gold,” as something of great value to God. Job’s “golden” soul will be the answer to God’s (and Job’s) existential questions.
Job affirms that he has treasured the word of God, kept His commandments, and stayed in God’s way or path, reminiscent of the faithful in Lehi’s dream (see Job 23:11-12; see also 1 Nephi 8:30; 2 Nephi 31:17-0). Nonetheless, despite confidence in God’s purposes, Job is afraid of the prospect of further suffering (see Job 23:13–16). Job laments: “I am hemmed in by darkness, and thick darkness covers my face” (Job 23:17). Having received his fourth great revelatory insight and nearing the end of his journey, Job is more than ever cognizant of the veil of darkness separating him from God.
Job now considers not just his own suffering but that of others, particularly the poor and powerless (see Job 24:1–12), his suffering having deepened his empathy for others. While Job had always cared for the poor and oppressed (see Job 31:13–23), he now feels their suffering in a new and profound way. Like Habakkuk (see Habakkuk 1:12–13), Job is impatient for God to bring justice to all and put things right. Job reiterates once again the truth that the wicked often thrive at the expense of others, despite the assertions of the friends to the contrary (see Job 24:13–25).
Bildad interjects with praise of God’s greatness and man’s inability to be just or righteous before God, agreeing with Eliphaz (see Job 25:1–3; see also Job 4:17–19, 15:14–16). Bildad answers the question of Psalm 8 (What is man?) by saying that man is a maggot or worm (see Job 25:6)! Thus, Bildad distorts Psalm 8 to strip humans of any royal potential before God.24 Having none of this, Job sarcastically criticizes [Page 155]both Bildad’s ability to counsel and the source of his inspiration (see Job 26:1–4). Job then seems to “finish” Bildad’s speech for him by creating a parody of his position on the greatness of God (see Job 26:5–14).25 Meaningful dialogue has aborted.
That Job has maintained his integrity is made clear in his next response (see Job 27:1–6). Job takes an oath in the name of God that he will not lie and that he will continue to hold fast to his integrity and righteousness, in effect binding himself to God in covenant fidelity. He will not falsely admit (major) sin in order to avail himself of grace, as the friends have proposed, nor will he respond with evil despite his unjust suffering. Although nothing seems to justify it, Job remains loyal to God, freely worshipping him. God now seems to have the man He has been reaching out for since the Prologue. Job closes chapter 27 (see Job 27:13-23) with an apparent caricature of the friends’ (especially Zophar’s) description of the fate of the wicked, even quoting Zophar (Job speaking in Job 27:13, Zophar speaking in Job 20:29).
As mentioned, speech and language are critical in the Joban drama, where truth is presented by means of dialogue. Job and the friends had shared a common language and confessional unanimity and, thereby, a common life, a common being. The Dialogues have been a war of words where Job attacks the friends’ words (see Job 9:2, 12:2, 16:25, 19:2–3, 21:34, 26:1–4) and vice versa (see Job 8:2, 11:2–3, 15:2-3, 20:2–3). Job asks, “How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words?” (Job 19:2 rsv), illustrating the importance of speech and its relationship to being. Similarly, Job’s words, which threaten the established social order, “greatly disturb” and trouble Zophar (see Job 20:2, niv). In Job, speech and language are emblematic of and partly constitutive of being. Responding to God’s call, Job no longer meaningfully participates in the language and being of the friends. Dialogue between them is no longer possible. Job is grasping forward toward a new level of being and understanding suggested by the four great revelatory insights, which betoken a transformed understanding of God and man.
Job Prepares to Meet God (Job 28–37)
At this point in Job, we reach a new level or stage in the drama. Having tasted the wisdom of man (mixed with scripture) and found it wanting, Job has moved beyond dialogue with the friends and waits, instead, on God. In chapter 28, Job will meditate on the nature of wisdom, concluding that it ultimately must come from God. Job will review his past and present life in chapters 29 and 30. In chapter 31, Job will [Page 156]affirm his innocence and recommit himself in covenant fidelity, using self-imprecatory oaths and crying out that God will hear his words. In chapters 32–37, Job will face his last and possibly greatest test by Elihu. Elihu will try, without success, to engage Job in dialogue in order to bring him back to unity with the friends and derail his quest for God’s face.
Job 28-31 (Job Steadfast in Covenant Fidelity). Although the text does not make it explicit, I consider chapter 28 to be Job’s hymn to wisdom. Job praises human ingenuity, demonstrated by mining technology (see Job 28:1–14), but states of true wisdom that “man does not know the way to it” (Job 28:13, rsv). Yet, on another level, human mining is analogous to Job’s recent experience, occurring in loneliness away from people, taking place in darkness on hidden paths, bringing hidden things to light, and producing gold and sapphires that have been transformed by fire. These descriptions of mining apply equally well to Job’s spiritual journey. Job then moves on to consider human commerce in precious stones and metals, noting that none of these can purchase wisdom (see Job 28:15–22). Yet, the Dialogues can be understood as an analogue to human commerce. The question is whether Job’s experiences have produced true wisdom. Job’s previous statement about coming forth as gold, after being tried by God (see Job 23:10–11), suggests that he has indeed gained wisdom.
Job concludes his hymn to wisdom by noting that God knows the way to it and that God established wisdom at creation, saying: “The fear of the Lord — that is wisdom” (see Job 28:23–28, rsv). On the surface, Job seems to say that God alone knows where wisdom is and the best that man can do, since he cannot find wisdom, is to fear God. However, this seems a bit banal and echoes the words of Zophar (see Job 11:7–9), who will be judged as speaking falsely of God (see Job 42:7–9). I propose an alternative reading. God alone understands the way to wisdom — for man. The way is to create earth for man, whereupon God can then share His existential questions and, thereby, potentially His wisdom and being. Man, by responding well to these existential questions participates with God in the creative process and learns wisdom.
True wisdom is found by free entry into risky acts of creation while maintaining fidelity to God. To come forth as gold, men must participate with God in the creative process of bringing forth that gold. Seen this way, the key existential question is whether man will participate with God in creation or go his own way. Job has sought God with fidelity, and his response has been creative, departing entirely from the conventional religious thinking of the crowd. Job is coming forth as gold; he and God [Page 157]will have a new common ground on which to meet, a shared higher level of being.
Job, now cut off from dialogue with the community, reflects on his life. Chapter 29 gives the fullest description of Job’s life before his “fall.” He then perceived God’s companionship and friendship (see Job 29:2–5), even stating that “the rock poured out for me streams of oil” (see Job 29:6, rsv), reminiscent of Adam’s easy access to food in the Garden of Eden. Beyond this, Job served as champion for the poor, sick, and powerless, with men waiting for Job’s counsel “as for the rain” (Job 29:23). Job’s voice was almost like the voice of God: “I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I dwelt like a king among his troops” (Job 29:25, rsv). Thus Job served as a royal, mimetic model, expecting a fulfilling life as a friend of God and man.
Now, all of this has been inverted (see Job 30). Even the lowest stratum of society, which Job now admits to having once disdained, mocks and spits at Job (see Job 30:1–10). Having been ostensibly marked as a sinner by his calamitous suffering, Job is now clearly a scapegoat for the crowd. The difference between royal model and despised scapegoat is all in the eyes of the multitude. As before, Job attributes his troubles at one moment to God (see Job 30:11, 19–23) and, at the next, to the crowd (see Job 30:9–10, 12–15). While Job has already rejected the friends’ explanation of his suffering and the voice of the crowd (the friends) as the voice of God, perhaps he does not yet fully discern the difference between favor in the eyes of God and favor in the eyes of men. He still sees his previous material prosperity and high societal rank as evidence of the presence of God in his life (see Job 29:1–6).
Although Job assumes an impending death at “God’s hand,” Job continues to cry out to God for help (see Job 30:20), supplementing this by cries for help in the assembly (see Job 30:28). Job perceives himself as being “reduced to dust and ashes” (see Job 30:19, niv). This highly significant phrase will be critical in understanding Job’s response to God at the veil.26 In the only use of this phrase outside Job, Abraham used “dust and ashes” to refer to mortal man in general (see Genesis 18:25–27). Man arises from dust and, in death, is reduced to ashes.
Job next takes an oath of innocence (see Job 31) before God (see Job 31:2, 6, 14, 23), affirming that he has not been guilty of fourteen sins27 or seven categories of sin,28 with the number seven signifying completeness.29 Job has been faithful in all things. The oath has the effect of binding or consecrating Job in solidarity to God and his fellow man. This solidarity is perhaps brought to fullest expression in the following statement: “If I [Page 158]have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant … what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him? (Job 31:13–15, rsv). Job is thus committed to treating his neighbor as himself before God.
On five occasions, Job invokes self-imprecations — curses against himself — if he has not been or will not be true to his oath of innocence.30 The most explicit of these is Job’s statement: “If I have raised my hand against the fatherless … then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket” (Job 31:21–22, rsv). These self-maledictions are a further expression of Job’s self-sacrifice or self-consecration in absolute fidelity to God and his fellow man.
Job’s self-consciousness of his innocence and commitment to righteousness give him confidence to approach God (see Job 31:23; see also Hebrews 10:19–23; 1 John 3:16–20, 4:16–19, 5:14; D&C 121:45–46). For a final time, Job cries out that God will hear his words, being willing to wear any indictment against himself as a crown and to approach God like a prince (see Job 31:35–37). In the last self-imprecation, Job invokes a curse of the Fall that “thorns grow instead of wheat” (Job 31:40, rsv; see also Genesis 3:17–18). Job only invokes these curses because he is confident he will not have to suffer them. This suggests that Job is ready to have the Fall reversed, much like the brother of Jared: “And when [the brother of Jared] had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence” (Ether 3:13).
A narrative voice now informs the reader: “The words of Job are ended” (Job 31:40, rsv). Job has passed through the calamities of the Prologue and the dark bitterness of the Dialogues, holding on to his integrity partly by virtue of four great revelatory insights. He is prepared to meet God — except for one final test.
Job 34-37 (Job Tried by Elihu). No part of the book of Job has aroused more controversy than the speeches of Elihu, with some praising their literary style and intrinsic value and others denigrating them as banal.31 I will look in detail at what Elihu says and does before reaching conclusions.
Elihu, found nowhere else in Job, suddenly appears, introduced in prose and given a human pedigree (see Job 32:1–5). The name Elihu means “He is my God.”32 The question is whether he refers to the Lord or to Elihu himself, raising the possibility of an idolatrous connotation. [Page 159]Elihu’s anger at Job for maintaining that he is righteous and at the friends for not winning the argument is here mentioned four times. Why should Elihu be so angry?
Ironically, Elihu offers no truly new ideas. Elihu affects a sense of modesty, claiming he waited for those older and presumably wiser than him to speak first (see Job 32:6–7), but then denigrating the friends’ “wisdom” and refusing to use their speeches (see Job 32:11–17). He seems to be full of pride as well as anger. Elihu also claims to be a revelator — full of the Spirit, the breath of the Almighty, which constrains him to speak (see Job 32:8–10, 18–20; 33–34). Finally, Elihu guarantees that he will speak honestly without flattery; otherwise, he says, God would soon remove him (see Job 32:21–22, 33:3).33 This last statement rings false because God permits hypocrites and flatterers significant latitude in mortality (see D&C 50:2–8; Mosiah 27:8). One cannot trust another’s honesty simply because God has not yet “removed” him.
Unlike the friends, Elihu frequently calls Job by name, both to Job himself (see Job 33:1, 31; 37:14) and to the crowd (see Job 34:5–7, 35, 36; 35:16), and repeatedly tries to draw Job into conversation (see Job 33:5, 32; 34:33; 35:2), as God will subsequently do (see Job 38:3, 40:7). Job continually resists interchange with Elihu. Elihu, more confrontational than the friends, accuses Job of contending with God and categorically dismisses Job’s claims of innocence and purity (see Job 33:9–13). He mentions to Job the possibility of an angel mediator (presumably Elihu himself!) who will intercede for him if only Job will admit guilt, even claiming that he desires to justify or vindicate Job (see Job 33:19–32). This “justification” is precisely the opposite of the kind Job is seeking, but it illustrates that Elihu will do or say anything to entice Job to let go of his integrity.
Elihu’s perspective on divine revelation is instructive: “In a dream … while they slumber … he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings” (see Job 33:15–18). This terrified response to “revelation” is reminiscent of Eliphaz’s dread and trembling during his night vision, a vision that communicated Satan’s position from the Prologue that a man (Job) could not be truly just before God (see Job 4:12–18, 1:8–11). Elihu also reiterates Eliphaz’s idea that God uses suffering to chasten men and bring them to repentance (see Job 33:19–27, 5:17–18). This idea is true in a sense (as Elihu mixes truth with lies), but it does not apply to Job.
Elihu directs his second speech (see Job 34) to the crowd, publicly denouncing Job for sin at both the beginning and end of his speech (see Job 34:1–9, 31–37). He accuses Job of scoffing at God, walking with [Page 160]the wicked, speaking without knowledge, and adding rebellion to his original sin. He attacks Job for supposedly demanding that God “make requital” (Job 34:33, rsv) or dispense justice to suit Job. This is strange behavior for one who claims to desire Job’s justification.
In the center of this speech, Elihu portrays his vision of God (see Job 34:10–30). According to Elihu, God is in complete control of the earth, sustaining life by His breath, ruling with indisputable righteousness and justice, and bringing the wicked to their deserved and timely end without bothering to bring any man before Him in judgment (see Job 34:23–24). This “God” seems far removed from the One who sent Jesus Christ to be lifted up on the cross that men might be lifted up to God to be judged for their works (see 3 Nephi 27:14–15).34
Furthermore, Elihu’s picture of God dogging every man’s steps in order to bring punishment on him as soon as he sins (see Job 34:21–25) reeks a bit of compulsion. This suspicion is strengthened by considering Elihu’s rhetorical question: “Who gave him charge over the earth?” (Job 34:13, rsv). Elihu’s assumed “no one” suggests a God who unilaterally imposes His will on mankind. This idea is subverted by D&C 121:46, which speaks of everlasting (divine) dominion as proceeding without compulsory means, in contrast to Satan’s plan of compulsion (see Moses 4:1–4).
Elihu, amplifying a previous point of Eliphaz (see Job 22:2–3), now confronts Job with God’s supposed indifference to human wickedness or righteousness: “If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him?” (Job 35:6–7). Elihu wants Job to believe that neither he nor his righteousness matter to God. The reader, of course, knows from the Prologue that this is false. God’s fervent desire is a “golden” Job. Elihu continues to berate Job, claiming that he “multiplies words without knowledge” (Job 35:16, rsv) in demanding to speak with God about his case, and assures Job that God will not respond to his empty cry nor come to him (see Job 35:9–16). These assertions will shortly be proved false.
Elihu begins his fourth speech (see Job 36–37) with an astounding claim: “I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. I will fetch my knowledge from afar … for truly my words are not false: one who is perfect in knowledge is with you” (Job 36:2–4, rsv; emphasis added). Shortly after, Elihu extols God as one “who is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16). Thus, he puts himself alongside and equal to God in a sense. The implication is that since Elihu shares common knowledge with God, his words are the words of God. Job must therefore decide whether to [Page 161]accept Elihu as a true prophet or continue to wait on the Lord. Hoping that Job will indeed give up his quest for God and accept him instead, Elihu reminds Job once more of his sin and urges him to repent (see Job 36:17–21).
Most of Elihu’s fourth speech consists of now-tiresome perorations about God’s majesty, the certainty of retribution against the wicked, the use of suffering as temporary divine discipline, God’s inscrutable and indisputable ways, and the presence of God’s voice and power in nature. However, in three places, Elihu’s mask slips completely:
- “Behold, God is great, and we know him not” (Job 36:26, rsv; emphasis added).
- “Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?” (Job 37:19–20, rsv; emphasis added).
- “God is clothed with terrible majesty. The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power and justice” (Job 37:22–23, rsv; emphasis added).
In other words, Elihu says that man cannot find, speak to, or know God. Unlike a true prophet who facilitates his listeners’ journeys toward God, Elihu is a false prophet, doing anything he can to stop Job from meeting God.
As the reader has likely surmised, I see Elihu as a figure for Satan, much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. This idea was first proposed by David Noel Freedman:
I believe that Elihu — who comes from nowhere and disappears from the scene as soon as he is done with his speeches — is not a real person at all. Like the other participants, he has a name and a profession, but it is a disguise … He is the person assumed or adopted by Satan to press his case for the last time.35
In my view, Elihu’s otherworldly nature is also indicated by the prose introduction at his arrival. Seeing Elihu as Satan explains Elihu’s extreme anger (at losing the battle for Job’s soul to God), his pride, his absence from the Epilogue (on the other side of the veil where Job has overcome all evil), his pervasive lies, the potential idolatrous connotations of his name, his aggressive and repeated accusations of Job (Satan = adversary), and his prolonged attempts to turn Job from his course to God.
[Page 162]Understood in this light, Elihu’s speeches take on new significance, constituting Job’s final and greatest test. Rather than viewing Elihu as derivative and secondary to the friends, he should be viewed as the source of their well-intended but distorted advice. Elihu is the final barrier Job must pass before speaking with God at the veil. He thus occupies the place of Satan before Joseph Smith’s first vision (see JS–H 1:16–17) and before Moses’s greatest visions (see Moses 1:9–27). In the latter, Satan demands that Moses worship him and responds angrily when Moses refuses, frightening Moses and shaking the earth. Elihu’s angry purpose with Job is similarly to frighten him back to the disoriented state of chapters 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 12 before Job firmly resolved to seek an audience with God.
Job at the Veil (Job 38:1–42:6)
Like the Elihu speeches, this part of the book of Job has resulted in a great deal of controversy. A superficial reading sees God as a verbose, omnipotent bully (as Job had feared; see chapter 9) who paraphrases words of Elihu (compare Job 38:2 with Job 35:16) and frightens Job back into humble, unquestioning subservience. Job is seen as accepting the advice of the friends to repent and agree with God (see Job 11:13–18, 22:21–30) and as thus receiving restoration of health, wealth, and family. This reading is seemingly supported by translations of Job 42:6, which have Job repenting in “dust and ashes” and self-abasingly confessing ignorance and sin. I argue, following Janzen36 and Andersen,37 that such interpretations make nonsense of the entire book. The Lord’s words in the Epilogue — that the friends “have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7–8) — require that we interpret the book differently.
God’s coming to Job at Job 38:1 brings to culmination what both God and Job have been seeking since God first reached out to know Job in the Prologue. The Lord speaks with Job, conferring dignity on him, and challenges him to stand up and answer. God does not demand that Job give up his claim of innocence nor explain the reason for Job’s suffering but gently defends Himself against Job’s accusations of malign intent (see Job 38:2, 40:8, see also Job 12:22). There is no hint given that it is not for man to question God. Indeed, God answers Job’s questions with counter-questions, inviting him to deeper understanding.
Janzen insightfully summarizes these issues as follows:
God finally answers Job. But the answer, unlike those of the friends, gives no reason for Job’s sufferings. It is as though [Page 163]those sufferings are simply left enshrouded in the mystery of their givenness, their having happened. All God does is to deny Job’s charges of dark purpose and indifference to justice and to ask Job three sorts of questions: Who are you, Where were you? Are you able? On the face of it these questions are rhetorical and have the specific force of impossible questions to which the proper answers are, I am nothing, I was not there, and I am not able. Yet again and again throughout the divine speeches, images and motifs and themes from earlier in the book are taken up and re-presented in such a way as to engender the suspicion that these apparently rhetorical questions are to be taken ironically, as veiling genuine existential questions posed to Job. The questions, as from another burning bush, have to do with the issue of Job’s willingness to enter upon human vocation to royal rule in the image of God, when the implications of that image are intimated in terms of innocent suffering.38
Thus, the “questions of creation” addressed to Job in chapters 38–41 should be seen as a creative divine call asking for a response from Job, much like the existential questions of the Prologue. Will Job participate in and take responsibility for creation, despite unavoidable innocent suffering and the presence of evil?
God’s First Speech (Job 38–39). God steps into the tumult of opinion, which is mirrored by a literal whirlwind, finally stating His fundamental question about Job to Job himself: “Who is this?” (Job 38:2). I suggest that Job is now essentially “gold,” still blameless and upright despite loss of his hedge. God chides Job for darkening His “counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2; see also Job 12:13–22). Ironically, Job has been in the dark (see Job 23:17) but was gaining knowledge (see Job’s four great revelatory insights) as a result of absorbing God’s existential questions, and now God has come to endow him with more knowledge (see Job 42:3). God challenges Job to respond to His questions “like a man,” making God to know (see Job 38:3), thus fulfilling Job’s hope (see Job 23:7) against his earlier despair (see Job 9:32). Two chapters of uninterrupted questions related to the created order then follow.
God asks who shut in the sea and set bounds for it (see Job 38:8–11). “Sea” functions as a metaphor for primal chaos or evil — which, like Satan in the Prologue, are permitted in creation but are bounded in some way. God then alludes to a coming day when the wicked will [Page 164]be shaken out of the earth, cut off from light, and rendered powerless (see Job 38:12–15; see also Heb. 12:26). Like the sea and Satan, evil men are also permitted in the created world but are ultimately bounded (see D&C 76:98–108).
God queries Job if he has walked in the recesses of the deep, if he has seen the gates of death, and if he knows the way to the dwelling of light (see Job 38:16–21). Job has indeed walked through the deepest darkness, by the gates of death, and to the place where light dwells (in God Himself)! God asks Job to consider His creative use of water (see Job 38:22–30). God makes rain fall in the desert, even in the absence of man, to bring forth grass and satisfy the desolate land (see Job 38:26–27). Analogously, Job has been in the desert, cut off from meaningful contact with his fellow man but receiving revelatory insights from God in a creative process. God questions Job about having knowledge of the “ordinances of the heavens” and the ability to establish their rule on earth and whether he grasps the wisdom in the clouds (see Job 38:31–38). Ironically, God is, and has been, endowing Job with wisdom by His existential questions.
God implicitly affirms His responsibility for creation and its consequences (see Job 38:39–41), and asks Job to consider wild animals in the wilderness — whose natures are analogues of fallen natural man — which God permits in the world (see Job 38:39–39:30). Rule over wild, mysterious animals is analogous to divine rule over the world of fallen men, free to follow their own desires. Just as the ostrich stupidly permits her own eggs to be trampled, so does innocent suffering occur in the world (see Job 39:13–18). The poetic images of the wild ass/wild ox are particularly instructive with respect to Job (see Job 39:5–12; see also Job 6:5, 11:12). These animals roam the wasteland (like Job), having been set free (like Job without the hedge). The question is whether they will willingly return to a human master or, in Job’s case, whether Job will freely worship God without the benefit of the hedge.
Job’s First (Non) Response (Job 40:1–5). Characterizing Job as one who contends with deity, God asks him if he still wishes to correct His justice (see Job 40:1–2). God thus challenges Job to deeper understanding and loyalty, and God clearly desires an answer. Job, however, is not yet ready to respond to the Lord (see Job 40:3–5). He mentions a sense of unworthiness (niv) or insignificance (rsv) as justification for his reticence and retreats into silence. Job’s feelings of inadequacy before the Lord correspond to those of the brother of Jared in his question-and-answer session at the veil before entering into the Lord’s presence [Page 165](see Ether 3:2–14). M. Catherine Thomas’s commentary on this text applies also to Job: “As the unredeemed soul, even a guiltless one, closes the gap between himself and his Maker, he perceives the contrast as so overwhelmingly great that he is sorely tempted to shrink back, to give up the quest.”39
The image of Job “contending” with the Lord at the veil resonates with several others. The patriarch Jacob wrestled all night with a man (God) before seeing him face-to-face and receiving a blessing instead of the requested name of God (see Genesis 32:22–30). Enos wrestled all day before God, hoping to experience a remission of sins, before hearing the Lord’s voice and probably seeing His face (see Enos 1:2–8, 19). Habakkuk, like Job, struggled with the presence of violence and injustice in the world (see Habakkuk 1:2–4) before hearing God’s voice (see Habakkuk 2:1–4) and seeing God’s glory (see Habakkuk 3:3–6). Job’s experience at the veil is profitably compared with these.
God’s Second Speech (Job 40:6–41:34). God again challenges Job to answer Him (see Job 40:), asking if Job would condemn God in order to justify himself (see Job 40:8). In the rigid theology of retribution that Job once shared with the friends, they concluded he was sinful because he suffered. Job, initially locked into the same theology but knowing he was innocent, was forced to question God’s justice (see Job 9:15–33, 12:13–25). By the standards of this theology, either God or Job was unjust/unrighteous. As we have seen, that understanding of God and man collapsed for Job in the Dialogues, being replaced by fragments of new religious understanding (the four great revelatory insights) that will lead to transformation in Job, including the understanding that he does not have to condemn God to justify himself.
In order to elicit or amplify a transformed understanding of true justice (ruling in love without compulsion — see D&C 121:34–45), God ironically invites Job to use raw power and coercively solve all of the inequities in the world, punishing the proud and wicked while clothing himself in glory (see Job 40:9–14)! Job apparently demurs, probably realizing that compulsive force cannot bring good out of evil and that use of such power is corrupting. As a final tutorial, God gives Job the examples of Behemoth (see Job 40:19–24) and Leviathan (see Job 41:1-34). Behemoth is the Hebrew plural for “beast” and is probably a poetic description of a hippopotamus. Leviathan, the seven-headed sea dragon of Canaanite myth, is here likely a poetic description of a crocodile. Though part of God’s creation, these beasts are wild, ferocious, and unable to be tamed. As such, they typify the proud (see Job 41:34) [Page 166]and hard-hearted (see Job 41:24) who are unable to be led or made party to a covenant with God (see Job 40:24–41:4). Assuming responsibility for creation implies, in some sense, taking responsibility for such, yet creatively providing for redemption without using compulsory means.
Job’s Second Speech (Job 42:1–6) — Job Penetrates the Veil. Initially not prepared to speak to the Lord (see Job 40:3–5), Job now responds, bringing the book to its climax. The meaning of this text is somewhat unclear, particularly in verse 6, and I here provide two different translations:
1. Janzen translation40
2a. You know that you can do all things,
b. and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3a. “Who is this that obscures design
b. by words without knowledge?”
c. Therefore, I have uttered what I have not understood,
d. things too wonderful for me which I did not know.
4a. “Hear, and I will speak;
b. I will question you, and you will make me to know.”
5a. I have heard you with my own ears,
b. and now my eye sees you!
6a. Therefore, I recant and change my mind
b. concerning dust and ashes.
2. rsv translation
- I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.
- “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?” Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
- Hear and I will speak: “I will question you, and you declare to me.”
- I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee:
- Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Janzen follows the Hebrew consonantal text to get “you” instead of “I” (from the Masoretic vowels) at the beginning of verse 2, seeing this as a stronger affirmation of Job’s confidence in God’s power: “To say ‘you know’ is to confess one’s agreement with that which is grounded [Page 167]outside the self …. [It] is to bring one’s own views … and structures of understanding under the judgment of another knowing which far transcends one’s own.”41 Job is now able to confess ultimate confidence and trust in the Lord.
The quotation marks in verses 3 and 4 are critically important because they indicate where Job is quoting or closely paraphrasing actual words of God from God’s first and second speeches (42:3a = 38:2; 42:4b = 38:3b & 40:7b). Job thus repeats or takes up words of the Lord, making them his own and coming to confessional unity with the Lord.42 After forty-one chapters of nothing but disagreement, ending in complete failure of communication between Job and the friends, Job now makes God’s language his own. This is emblematic of entering into a higher-level covenant relationship with the Lord and participating more fully in His life and being. Job’s participation in the divine nature brings to fulfillment God’s covenant desire to share His life/being with man (see Moses 1:39; 2 Peter 1:3–4).
In verse 3, Job admits to having gained a transformed understanding of wonderful things not previously understood. What these things might be is not specified, and one would probably have to join Job, Jacob, Enos, Habakkuk, and the brother of Jared at the veil to achieve the same understanding. I suggest that Job’s transformation includes a spiritually deepened comprehension of several things: first, God’s power to rule in love without force; second, God’s infinite concern and love for “dust and ashes” (man); and third, man’s calling and capacity to share common ground with God — language and being.
Having spoken to the Lord through the veil, Job now acknowledges that he has come into God’s presence (see Job 42:5), bringing to fruition the quest for God’s face initiated soon after his calamities began (see Job 3:3, 13–22). Job stands in marked contrast to the friends. They never cry out to God nor seek His presence, trapped by complacent acceptance of a limited, conventional understanding of God. The friends confuse uncritical reception of traditional wisdom with reverence and the dispensing of platitudes about God with a true search for God’s face. Their fear of uncertainty and risk makes them incapable of joining Job and approaching God. Job’s much-praised “patience” consists of his incessant, though far from quiet or uncomplaining, push through darkness toward the face of God.
Most translations of verse 6 have Job repenting, self-abasingly, in dust and ashes, illustrated by the rsv translation above. By doing this, these translators align themselves with the friends in suspecting Job [Page 168]of some sin (pride?). However, in my view, such translations distort the meaning of the book of Job. Far preferable is Janzen’s translation, which has Job changing his mind concerning dust and ashes (concerning mankind).43As Janzen says about Job: “Now all his questions and charges are dissolved. His structures of understanding are melted down in the presence of Yahweh.” title=”44. Janzen, Job, 255.”44 As Job’s transformation to gold is completed, he understands that man’s vocation is to “take up the divine image through engagement with the partly determinate, partly indeterminate character of the world” and the potential for innocent suffering that this implies.8.”45 Thus, God spoke (in the Prologue), extending His arm toward Job, and has now taken a man (Job) out of the crowd for His name (compare to Deut. 4:34; Exodus 6:6–12). God’s covenant grip on Job is eternal.
Epilogue (Job 42:7–17)
On the other side of the veil we encounter the prose (suggesting an other-worldly state) Epilogue. Job is surrounded by a new hedge (veil) consisting of transformed language (God’s language) and a transformed covenant relationship with God. As we will presently see, Job’s new hedge is also “thickened” by free, loving relationships with friends and family, all in harmony with each other. God is present, communicating freely with humans, and Satan/Elihu is absent (compare to Revelation 20:7–10, 21:22-22:5). With mild exceptions, much seems the same as in the Prologue — except that everything is different: Job is transformed, having tasted the bitter and learned to prize the good, as are his relationships with man and God.46
As Janzen notes of the Epilogue, it is a “vision in which … the most extraordinary disclosures and insights into the nature of things are embodied in life’s ordinaries, thereby transforming them.”47 Andersen is even more explicit, saying of the Epilogue: “It was already a kind of resurrection in flesh, as much as the Old Testament could know.”48 I suggest, despite the report of Job’s death (see Job 42:17), that the Epilogue is best viewed as a this-worldly analogue of eternal life.
With words that are determinative for interpreting the book, God condemns the friends for not speaking “of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7–8, rsv). God thus rejects the friends’ interpretations of events in the world and cosmos in terms of strict retribution. God’s approval of Job’s words cannot be applied to Job’s initial dispersions of God’s justice; the approval seems to apply most specifically to Job’s four great revelatory insights, wherein his ongoing transformed understanding of God and man is brought to fullest expression. God’s [Page 169]ratification of Job’s words may also extend to Job’s determination to seek God’s face at all costs and to Job’s binding oaths in covenant fidelity to God and man.
God speaks to the friends in the language they understand — that of retribution — warning them that because of their folly, folly will be done to them unless they publicly admit wrong by offering burnt offerings and asking Job to intercede (see Job 42:7–10). God’s effort is best understood as an attempt to lead the friends from retribution to grace.49 Job functions in a priestly intercessory role50 to help rectify the friends’ relationship with God, ironically inverting Eliphaz’s probable previous expectation of serving as Job’s intercessor (see Job 22:27–30). Job graciously retains no bitterness toward the friends, having bound Satan in his own life, accounting for the absence of Satan/Elihu in the Epilogue (see also 1 Nephi 22:26). Whereas Job may have once invoked God’s justice on his enemies — the friends, see Job 27:7–10) — Job now desires that the friends partake of the new life inside the new hedge.
Job also shares his new life with previously unmentioned brothers and sisters with whom he breaks bread and who graciously participate in the restoration of Job’s fortune (see Job 42:11). God doubly restores all of Job’s material losses, following the demands on a thief in the law (see Exodus 22:4) and apparently accepting overall responsibility for Job’s suffering (see Job 42:10–12). Job receives the same number of children as before; surprisingly, only the daughters are named and inherit alongside the sons in a gentle subversion of the law (see Numbers 27:8). Job’s new life would be much less meaningful without his family. Job experiences restored health, living among his posterity for several generations (140 years).
Reading the Epilogue as a literary analogue of eternal life is much the same as sitting in the celestial room after an endowment, where ordinary things are used to signify eternal realities. Located on the other side of the veil,51 the celestial room “symbolizes the exalted and peaceful state that all may achieve through living the gospel of Jesus Christ … [and] represents the contentment, inner harmony, and peace available to eternal families in the presence of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.”52 For example, the opposing mirrors located in many celestial rooms allow one to view a “corridor of diminishing images” that give one the “feeling of looking into … the eternities … for the images in that corridor never end.”53
[Page 170]Conclusions and Discussion
The book of Job describes Job’s journey from a protected state (inside the hedge) of relative innocence and ignorance through bitter experiences to a meeting with God (see Figure 1). This meeting results in a reconstituted relationship on a higher level, indicated by Job’s making God’s speech his own, paradigmatic of participating in God’s language, life, and being. Job’s initial “fall” through the hedge resulted from God’s own questions about Job and resolve to test him — in other words, from God reaching out toward Job. Initially bewildered and disoriented, Job descended further into darkness, cursing the day of his birth, wishing to die, and questioning God’s motives and justice. Nonetheless, in a major change of direction, Job firmly resolved to seek the face of God, in effect reaching back toward God and assuming God’s existential questions. Job experienced further bitterness in conversation with three friends, rejecting their temptations to lay aside his integrity by accepting a conventional understanding of God that ultimately resulted in failure of verbal communication with his fellow man. Derided by those who once honored him, Job received four great revelatory insights that moved him progressively toward a transformed understanding of God and man. Job eventually bound himself in covenant fidelity to God and man, affirming his own righteousness with self-imprecatory oaths. Holding to the four insights and neither overcome by bitterness nor yielding to the crowd’s conceptions of God, Job passed a final test from Elihu/Satan. God then came to speak with Job, bringing to an end their mutual search for a new relationship. Job received additional knowledge and penetrated the veil, entering into a transformed life and being bound to God in a new and powerful way.
In my view, the parallels and connections between Job and the endowment are powerful and sustained. The reading I have proposed takes into account the entire book, its structure, and its use of poetry and prose, while providing a coherent and meaningful interpretation. I am unaware of any evidence that Joseph Smith used the book of Job in developing the temple endowment.54 I conclude that both result from revelation from the same divine mind. For me, finding such a close analogue of the endowment in the canon of scripture confirms the divine inspiration behind the endowment. I suggest that the book of Job can complement and amplify our understanding of the endowment — and vice versa. In some aspects, the book of Job is a mirror image of the endowment, giving a fuller description of the darkness and bitterness of the world. Furthermore, Job receives no messengers from God; instead,
[Page 171]Figure 1
[Page 172]three friends serve as ministers for Satan’s perspective. The book of Job presents Job as standing alone before God, thus placing more emphasis on the direct, unmediated relationship between an individual and God.
Although Job was not without sin, admitting to youthful iniquities (see Job 13:26), many have rightly considered Job to be a type of Christ. Job’s blamelessness and uprightness are never questioned. Job’s description of his life before the calamities is reminiscent of Christ in the premortal life. Job was clothed with righteousness, gave light and counsel to others, dwelt among his fellows as a king, and served as a role model (see Job 29:14–25; compare to John 17:5, Abraham 3:22–28, Moses 7:53). Job’s bitter experiences correspond significantly to Christ drinking the bitter cup (see Matthew 26:36–39, D&C 19:16–18) after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Job speaks of being seized by violence, suddenly losing his prosperity, having a heart in turmoil, being abhorred and spit at by the crowd, being forsaken by God, and being brought to death (see Job 30:9–23). Job’s reconstituted relationship with God in the Epilogue corresponds to Christ being raised in glory to the right hand of the Father (see Acts 5:31, D&C 93:16–17). Finally, Job’s role as mediator for the friends parallels Christ’s as mediator for mankind.
Job’s journey also has many points of contact with Joseph Smith’s early life up to the time of the First Vision. After a relatively comfortable early childhood, the seven-year-old Joseph required an open osteotomy for a typhoid abscess. Following this, his family fell on hard financial times, moving from Vermont to Palmyra, New York. There, the teenage Joseph was exposed to religious turmoil, with many churches and ministers claiming to have the way to salvation. Resisting the entreaties of men, Joseph received a revelatory insight that he should approach God directly. Doing this, he first had to withstand an assault by Satan before the veil was opened and he saw the Father and the Son. Joseph was subsequently the means of bringing the fullness of salvation in Christ to millions.
Job’s journey, however, like the endowment, has significance not only for Christ and prophets but for all. A similar conceptual framework to that of Job’s journey can be obtained by juxtaposing the Garden of Eden story and Lehi’s dream, both of which have universal application (see Figure 2). Adam, leaving the Garden and blocked by the cherubim (veil) from direct access to the tree of life (God), enters the dark world, which corresponds to Lehi wandering in the dark and dreary waste. Lehi, after praying for help and receiving a messenger from God, sees a straight and narrow path/iron rod that can conduct one through mists of darkness [Page 174](veil) back to the tree of life (God). Thus, the Garden of Eden and Lehi’s dream together recap Job’s journey. The Garden of Eden, in turn, can also be understood as a typological portrayal of the premortal life (see Table 2), occurring before the mortal state portrayed in Lehi’s dream.
[Page 173]Figure 2
Table 2. Garden of Eden as a Type of Premortality
There are several additional lessons that can be gleaned from the book of Job. Salvation seems to be about more than simply being forgiven of sin, not that this is unessential. Job was already blameless in the eyes of God — yet it was only after passing through severe trials that Job gained the self-knowledge and knowledge of God that made it possible for him to participate in the life and being of God.55 In Job’s case, the journey toward God’s face would have stalled had he simply accepted the religious certitudes of friends and community. God seems to desire, even require, creative engagement with Him and His creation as the questioning soul presses forward in search of understanding. Honest wrestling with questions about God and His work may, at times, be a more faithful response than unthinking acquiescence.
Finally, the book of Job may have something to contribute to the debate between free will and internal determinism.56 In my opinion, the most straightforward reading of Job has God not knowing with absolute certainty how Job will respond to his trials. This makes the book a true drama rather than a simple playing out of something God already knew in advance. Job does not fully make himself known to God nor does he fully know God until after he passes through his trials. Job’s actions seem to be completely un-coerced and creative, reflective of underlying free will.
Job’s solitary journey away from the crowd with its conventional, distorted paradigms to true understanding in the presence of God [Page 175]required courage, freedom, and creativity. Job freely participated in the creation of his redeemed soul and gained wisdom thereby. The book of Job serves as a welcome antidote to suggestions that blind, unthinking obedience is God’s most earnest desire of mankind.57 Although obedience to God in the absence of understanding is better than no obedience, I believe that God is hoping to develop creative wisdom in us so that we can serve as understanding partners in God’s work of creation and redemption. On the other hand, Job’s quest should not be confused with that of the modern self for totally autonomous self-creation and self-determination.58 Everything Job did was consciously done before God in search of a soul-constituting relationship with God. Those who wish to follow in Job’s steps must do as he did: hold to righteousness (see Job 27:6), stay in God’s paths (see Job 23:11), be receptive to revelation, and continually seek God’s face (see Job 13:3–22). | <urn:uuid:99ee5d2d-0c97-4e4e-af58-97207830eb1e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/job-an-lds-reading-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572581.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816211628-20220817001628-00077.warc.gz | en | 0.956303 | 22,223 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Garmin’s been teasing its entry into the smartphone market, the Nuvifone, for ages. And there had been suggestions that Asus was building an Eee phone. But the two companies have now revealed they’re joining forces to make cellphones as a team.
The original Nuvifone will be relabeled the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60, and it’s still due out sometime soon. But in the future Garmin-Asus plans to develop new hardware, running an OS that seems likely to be a version of Windows Mobile–rather than the alleged Android-based Eee phone.
The strategic alliance between these two companies makes sense. Asus’ success in its line of Eee netbook PCs combined with Garmin’s leadership in the standalone GPS unit market will create a powerful smartphone with excellent navigational services. “We believe that converged devices are an emerging opportunity,” says Dr. Min Kao, chairman and CEO of Garmin. The press release mentions the “benefits of LBS-centric mobile phones,” the location-based services technology that is going to be a key component in future cellphones.
The alliance won’t create a separate company like Sony Ericsson (whose logo the new Garmin-Asus one curiously echoes), and both manufacturers will continue to release their own products in different markets. | <urn:uuid:de2443bf-a563-4872-8119-bca77d71fd37> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fastcompany.com/1150386/asus-garmin-join-build-gps-centric-smartphones | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817032054-20220817062054-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.944409 | 296 | 1.53125 | 2 |
A bill that would ban the advertising of unhealthy foods to children could soon die on the order paper as the Senate rises for the end of the parliamentary session.
Bill S-228, introduced back in 2016, would amend the Food and Drugs Act to limit companies’ ability to advertise unhealthy foods to children under 13 years old. It was passed by the Senate and the House of Commons, but has been stuck in the Senate again since last fall.
Now with just a few sitting days left, unless the Senate votes soon to accept the House amendments, the bill will die and its proponents will have to try again with a new bill after the next election.
That would be a problem, according to Dr. Tom Warshawski, a B.C. pediatrician and chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation. He and other doctors have been working together for years to get legislation passed.
“Advertising works,” he said. “Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars marketing these products to children. They have much better data than we do, in terms of return on investment.”
While he says he can’t prove that eliminating ads for junk food would cut down childhood obesity rates – similar bans in other countries are quite new so haven’t shown results yet – he’s hopeful there would be an effect.
“All the evidence moving forward is that if you stop the advertising, you will stop the consumption and you will get less of the resulting illnesses.”
In 2015, about 12 per cent of Canadian children were classified as obese, according to Statistics Canada data.
One of the bill’s opponents in the Senate, Sen. Pamela Wallin, said she’s not against the idea of limiting advertising to children or combatting childhood obesity. What she does object to is the idea of having some foods labelled “unhealthy.”
“It basically declares that food that you might want to sell domestically or export internationally is being deemed by its own government to be unhealthy,” she said.
“So that would be a huge, huge problem for the 65,000 grain farmers that exist in this country and many more that work in the dairy industry and in all the assorted businesses, whether it’s food stands and food trucks or beverage makers.”
Warshawski isn’t so sure. Most of Canada’s agricultural exports are unprocessed foods, he said. “This bill in no way applies to them.”
WATCH: (From 2017) Where’s the evidence linking junk food ads to obesity?
Wallin said she would have no problem with a blanket ban on food advertising to children – as was in the bill’s original text.
Because the current text includes the word “unhealthy” though, she asked to have it moved to committee for further study, rather than putting the bill to a vote.
It would be up to Health Canada to define what “unhealthy” means through regulations, according to Warshawski. Health Canada, on its website, said that these regulations would restrict foods high in sodium, sugar and saturated fat.
If the bill doesn’t pass by the end of the session, Warshawski says his organization will try again during and after the election.
“I think that the public has to look at the issue and ask each party, ‘How do you sit on this particular bill and this issue of protecting children from the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages?’ and then vote accordingly,” he said. | <urn:uuid:c5f2b202-454b-4c77-b9d0-a85bfdd46451> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://globalnews.ca/news/5416804/junk-food-advertising-children-senate-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571056.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809155137-20220809185137-00674.warc.gz | en | 0.966944 | 747 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Yesterday even the BBC ran a piece explaining how the 6 million jobs in the EU chemical industry are at risk from dear gas feedstock for petrochemical production, and from dear energy prices generally. Though the interviewer could not resist trying to attack Ineos over Grangemouth, a plant which has so far been saved by US imported gas, nor resist trying to make it an interview about the Scottish referendum, he did allow his business guest to explain how three EU policies are deeply damaging to industry.
The first is the belief in green taxes. The second is the reliance on the dearest forms of electricity, especially wind. The third is the hostility to shale gas and the delays that has imposed in exploiting this new resource. As the representative of Ineos explained, US gas prices are now one third of the prices in the UK. The USA has embraced the shale revolution, whilst the EU has dithered and argued against it. The Middle East which has an abundance of cheap gas is also a large petro chemical centre. Its exports which have gone substantially to China may now divert to the EU as China is busily building her own petrochemical capacity.
If the EU and its so called single market are about retaining and increasing jobs, you would have thought the EU would draw up a plan to give the EU competitive energy and gas prices. Instead the EU spends its time drawing up regulations that ensure high and rising gas and electricity prices, the very opposite of what industry needs. Far from being a single market that can get our young people back to work and can enhance our general prosperity, the single market is becoming a regulatory conspiracy against enterprising Europe, designed to transfer more and more industrial jobs outside the EU altogether.
Germany’s BASF has recently stated they will placing most of their new investment outside the EU, as they no longer find Germany and the wider EU as competitive as non EU locations. When is the Commission, and the European Parliament, going to wake up to this job destroying reality? When will the BBC follow up an interview with the businessman with an interview putting the Commission on the spot, accusing them of taking away people’s livelihoods? | <urn:uuid:fb70611f-cc85-4551-9629-503686167b39> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2014/03/11/the-eus-dear-energy-is-very-damaging-to-industry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280791.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00361-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974103 | 440 | 1.96875 | 2 |
"Odd Squad" will premiere on Nov. 26 with two back-to-back episodes.
Here's a description of the series, followed by more photos from the show:
NEW LIVE-ACTION SERIES ODD SQUAD TO PREMIERE ON pbs kids
Multiplatform media property is designed to help kids ages 5-8 build math skills
PBS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, May 14, 2014 – Today at its annual meeting with PBS member stations from across the country, PBS KIDS announced the premiere date for its newest series ODD SQUAD. The live-action media property follows two young government agents, Olive and Otto, who use math skills and collaboration to investigate weird and unusual phenomena. ODD SQUAD will premiere Wednesday, November 26, 2014, on PBS KIDS with a special one-hour broadcast of two back-to-back episodes, along with integrated digital and offline content. The series will air on weekdays following the premiere (check local listings).
ODD SQUAD is created by Tim McKeon (The Electric Company, Fosterʼs Home for Imaginary Friends, Adventure Time) and Adam Peltzman (The Electric Company, The Backyardigans, Wallykazam!) and produced by The Fred Rogers Company and Sinking Ship Entertainment. It is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the U.S. Department of Education through the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative, a program that supports the development of innovative educational television and digital media targeted to preschool and early elementary school children and their families.
In each episode of ODD SQUAD, the young agents use math to put things right when oddness strikes. Olive and Otto solve cases ranging from disappearing zeroes to runaway dinosaurs, and the agents often find additional clues in the “Mathroom,” a futuristic space that is just a teleport away.
“We are excited to bring a new math show to the PBS KIDS line-up this November, particularly at a time when STEM education is proving to be so important,” said Lesli Rotenberg, General Manager, Children’s Programming, PBS. “Research shows that kids perform better when exposed early to math concepts, and ODD SQUAD introduces these topics in a fun and engaging way. And as viewers join Olive and Otto on their extraordinary adventures, they will also learn the importance of working together, communication and perseverance — skills that are integral to problem-solving and success in school and in life.”
The ODD SQUAD television series is part of a multiplatform media experience that will include interactive content online and on mobile. With ODD SQUAD’s digital content, kids will have the opportunity to solve cases and stop oddness, just like Olive and Otto and the rest of the Odd Squad. The show’s interactive features will include games, parent resources, mobile apps and more.
ODD SQUAD is part of PBS KIDS’ ongoing commitment to use the power of media to help open up worlds of possibilities for children. PBS KIDS serves young audiences wherever they live, learn and play — through educational apps, on TV, online and in the classroom.
Images, episode descriptions and additional press materials for ODD SQUAD are available on PBS PressRoom.
About PBS KIDS
PBS KIDS, the number-one educational media brand for kids, offers all children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online, mobile and community-based programs. Kidscreen- and Webby-award winning pbskids.org provides engaging interactive content, including the PBS KIDS video player, now offering free streaming video accessible on computer- and mobile-device-based browsers. For more information on specific PBS KIDS content supporting literacy, science, math and more, visit pbs.org/pressroom or follow PBS KIDS on Twitter and Facebook.
About The Fred Rogers Company
The company was founded by Fred Rogers in 1971 as the nonprofit producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for PBS. In the years that followed, it not only created hundreds of episodes of this much-loved program, but also extended Fred’s values and approach to other efforts in promoting children’s social, emotional and behavioral health and supporting parents, caregivers, teachers and other professionals in their work with children. The Fred Rogers Company continues to build on Fred’s legacy in innovative ways through a wide variety of media, and engaging new generations of children and families with his timeless wisdom. For more information, visit us at www.fredrogers.org.
About Sinking Ship Entertainment
Sinking Ship Entertainment is an award-winning production and interactive company that creates and produces groundbreaking kids TV and transmedia content. Since its founding in 2004, Sinking Ship has created and produced numerous children’s TV series and has been on the forefront of TV production and interactive media for kids. From being selected as one of the first partners of Amazon Studios with the upcoming series Annedroids, to achieving Nick Jr.’s highest debut of all time with the action-packed Emmy-nominated series Dino Dan, Sinking Ship Entertainment brings dynamic content to audiences around the world with shows broadcast in more than 130 countries. Other series highlights include the award-winning This is Daniel Cook, This is Emily Yeung and Are We There Yet?: World Adventure. Find out more at www.sinkingship.ca.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services.
About The Ready To Learn Initiative
The Ready To Learn Initiative is a cooperative agreement funded and managed by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. It supports the development of innovative educational television and digital media targeted to preschool and early elementary school children and their families. Its general goal is to promote early learning and school readiness, with a particular interest in reaching low-income children. In addition to creating television and other media products, the program supports activities intended to promote national distribution of the programming, effective educational uses of the programming, community-based outreach and research on educational effectiveness. | <urn:uuid:29498a9e-87e8-4bcd-af40-23d85d38d498> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in/item/37940-pbs-announces-premiere-date-for-odd-squad-from-fred-rogers-company | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720468.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00488-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93633 | 1,337 | 1.6875 | 2 |
For Olympic Games Day 2, pick a water-filled version of one of your favorite outdoor games:
Volleyball is a classic event that is great for groups. Divide the group into teams and watch them play. If the crowd is a little young for a full game of volleyball, teach them some basic moves and set them free to hit and bump the ball to one another. Consider dividing younger players into teams (or allow them to compete individually) and time how long they can hit the ball without dropping it in the water.
There are a variety of options for setting up a pool volleyball game. If your family loves volleyball (or if you want them to love swimming pool volleyball), consider investing in an inground structure. If volleyball is a new game to your family, consider starting out with an inexpensive inflatable set. ToySplash has a variety of volleyball options from which you can choose. From the inflatable set for around $10 to the deluxe Anaconda Pool Volleyball System (a great, quick setup, durable piece that will last a lifetime), ToySplash has you covered. So, get your Olympic Games Day 2 up and running with a great volleyball set from Toysplash.
Bump. Set. ToySplash! | <urn:uuid:54bf3c39-67d7-44ec-823b-2ecac3bf9a01> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.toysplash.com/waterfun/2011/05/19/olympic-games-day-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280310.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00192-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952592 | 256 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Vaccine Refusal a Driving Force Behind Measles Outbreaks, Study Finds
As trend continues, researcher fears more outbreaks of whooping cough, too
By Steven Reinberg
TUESDAY, March 15, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A look at recent measles outbreaks in the United States finds more than half of the cases involved unvaccinated children.
Vaccine refusal was also often the culprit in whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks as well, according to the new study.
"When vaccine refusal rates are high, the rates of measles and pertussis are higher," said researcher Dr. Varun Phadke, a fellow in infectious diseases at Emory University in Atlanta.
In 2000, the United States was declared measles-free. But infected travelers returning to the country have caused outbreaks, and unvaccinated children are most at risk, research has shown.
This study found that among more than 1,400 cases since 2000, more than half of patients had no history of vaccination. Most had nonmedical exemptions -- based on religious or philosophical beliefs -- not medical exemptions, researchers said.
The report was published March 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Measles and whooping cough are highly contagious, and when fewer people are vaccinated, widespread protection known as herd immunity breaks down, giving these viruses free rein to spread.
Dr. Matthew Davis is a professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the University of Michigan and author of an accompanying journal editorial. "Vaccination is one of the most effective and safest tools to protect our population against many diseases," he said.
But rates of nonmedical vaccine exemptions have increased steadily over the past 20 years, the researchers said in background notes.
Davis and Phadke agreed that states need to make it harder to obtain vaccine exemptions.
In California, where a 2014 measles outbreak led to 111 cases, legislation was passed to eliminate nonmedical exemptions to vaccination, Phadke said. He'd like to see other states follow California's lead.
"States that make it harder not to get vaccinated have lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases," Phadke said. "Strategies aimed at decreasing vaccine refusal may have an important impact on the community."
To determine how many outbreaks since 2000 were the results of vaccine refusal, Phadke and colleagues reviewed 18 previously published studies that included 1,416 measles cases. Among these patients, 57 percent had not been vaccinated, they found.
Looking at nearly 1,000 cases that had detailed vaccination data, they found nearly 600 were not vaccinated despite being eligible. In those cases, 71 percent had refused vaccination for religious or philosophical reasons, Phadke's team found. The rest had medical reasons for not being vaccinated.
The researchers also looked at 32 reports on whooping cough outbreaks, which involved more than 10,600 patients. In the five largest outbreaks, up to 45 percent of the patients had not been vaccinated or had not had booster shots, the study authors said.
However, several of these outbreaks occurred in highly vaccinated populations. This indicates that immunity to whooping cough was waning, Phadke said.
The researchers also found that in eight of 12 whooping cough outbreaks for which detailed vaccination data was available, as many as 93 percent of unvaccinated patients were intentionally not immunized.
This trend is worrisome, Phadke said. "We are going to see more measles outbreaks," he predicted.
Davis said efforts to improve vaccination coverage should involve multiple fronts.
"Outbreaks of diseases like measles and pertussis remind us that there are still ways to improve how we use vaccines to safeguard the health of children and adults across the United States," he said.
Because some vaccines are less effective than others -- the whooping cough vaccine, for example -- more booster shots may be needed along with a new, more effective vaccine, Davis said.
Also, it's not enough to just vaccinate children, he said. Outbreaks can be prevented "by doing a better job of vaccinating adults and not just trying to do the best job of vaccinating children," Davis added.
For more on childhood vaccines, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Varun Phadke, M.D., fellow, infectious diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta; Matthew Davis, M.D., professor, pediatrics and communicable diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; March 15, 2016, Journal of the American Medical Association
Copyright © 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
465 Congress Street Suite 600 | Portland, Maine 04101-3537 | (207) 775-7001 | <urn:uuid:1c83600b-957d-4ef1-85ae-b32e9e0bf3e1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.mainehealth.org/healthinformation.cfm?id=2948&action=detail&ref=61318 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279650.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00440-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968396 | 971 | 2.75 | 3 |
Laws, Regulations & Annotations
Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2017
Sales and Use Tax Annotations
590.0000 VENDING MACHINE OPERATORS—Regulation 1574
590.0350 Sales of Meals and Food Products Through Vending Machines to Students. Tax does not apply to retail sales of food products or meals, whether served hot or cold, through a vending machine or otherwise by a public or private school to its students. However, this exemption does not apply to such sales of food products and meals to nonstudents.
In those situations where sales of food products and meals are made through the school owned vending machines to both students and nonstudents, a reasonable allocation between exempt and nonexempt sales can be made. In such cases, the school can establish a representative test of the vending machine sales occurring on the affected campuses. However, before implementation of such a test, it is recommended that the school submit the proposed testing procedure to the appropriate Board headquarters' section for review so that it can determine its adequacy and advise the Board's district office serving the affected school's campuses. 10/19/83. | <urn:uuid:50b675ec-a0c9-41fe-b594-9630a17f852c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.boe.ca.gov/lawguides/business/current/btlg/vol2/suta/590-0350.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279224.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00484-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944829 | 231 | 1.703125 | 2 |
SANAA, Yemen, June 9 (UPI) -- Yemen's fragile democracy is vulnerable to severe humanitarian needs, a United Nations official said of the Middle East's poorest country.
The aftermath of the Arab Spring, the Middle East pro-democracy movement, has allowed women, young people and organizations into Yemen's political process following the 2011 abdication of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country for 33 years. However, "there's a risk the political process could fail" without humanitarian aid, said Trond Jensen, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs in Yemen.
Half of Yemen's population of 23.8 million live below the poverty line, over 14 million people require humanitarian assistance, and 13 million lack adequate water and sanitation, according to a report by the Overseas Development Institute. It added 60 percent of Yemen's children are chronically malnourished.
The country has been affected by droughts and armed conflict, as well as an influx of 240,000 refugees, many from Somalia, and only $122 million of the required $592 million in humanitarian aid has been received.
The situation in Yemen is "one of the most forgotten crises in the world," the U.N. cautioned. | <urn:uuid:c7b33c17-4532-45d9-9e19-409a34316384> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/06/09/Yemens-change-to-democracy-hindered-by-humanitarian-crisis-UN-says/4071402326776/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282140.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00126-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958081 | 257 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Editor/publisher Kenneth Yu recently lobbed these two articles in his blog: the first is Myths About Languages in the Philippines while the second, a reaction to the first, is English Remains the Only Hope of the Philippines. Here's my thoughts on the matter.
I have no real complaints about the former, although some pro-Filipino language advocates might take the article to one extreme: that the country does not need English. Which isn't really the case because no matter how you look at it, proficiency in English is still an advantage. The point of the author is that English need not be the exclusive salvation to the country's ills (nor is that truly the case) and there is room for multilingual acceptance. Language in the country is not an either/or situation but rather there is room for plurality. What some zealous nationalists might even miss out is how the author mentions that English is a Philippine language, or that English and Filipino are not in opposition to each other. A few months back, there was a heated discussion in this blog and over at several other blogs over which speculative fiction story is "more Filipino" or better assuming everything else is equal: the one written in English or one written in a "native" language (and my answer is that it depends on context rather than determined by language alone).
Now the second article is more provoking. Again, the knee-jerk reaction of pro-Filipino advocates is to bash it down. Not that it doesn't deserve to get criticized but in defense of the author, he raises some good points. The qualification here is that it should be viewed from a specific context. Is English proficiency in the country less than optimal? Yes. Is mastery of the said language necessary for business success? Yes--that is, if you're running a call center empire catering to US customers which is supposedly the agenda of the author. In that sense, the author is more or less correct.
However, let us take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The first essay talks more about a a holistic concern for the nation. The second simply focuses on one part--that of business and economics, exports to be specific. For me, they are not necessarily talking about the same thing. The former is approaching language with a more general perspective. The latter is approaching English as as mere tool for financial success. What the two however are striving to attain is prosperity and I use that word in the most general of terms.
Unfortunately, prosperity requires a lot of elements. Language is definitely a factor but it is not the only factor. I think if the Philippines is to be truly successful, yes, languages both native and foreign (and not just American English or Standard Filipino English but perhaps something Firefly-esque such as Mandarin) needs to be mastered. But other things come into play as well such as ethics, mentality, and discipline. Language alone will not save the country but admittedly it is a start.
What the second article fails to see is that prosperity can be achieved in several ways. There is such a thing as cultural prosperity for example. Christianity conquered the world with it. The same goes for the Jews. Right now, countries like India, Japan, and Korea are spreading their own cultural seeds. The Philippines could possibly accomplish the same thing if only we had more political will and less of the prevailing colonialism.
The more direct way of course is through economics and everyone seems to be intimidated by the industrial production of China. The Philippines tries to match it with is own unique brand of human labor, that of the service industry. Is this the right way to go? For me, ultimately, it fails, not because it produces Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) but because it trains us not to have an entrepreneurial mindset or pro-active sensibilities. As it is, there is a tendency to produce passive laborers constantly catering to the needs of others rather than us determining our situation. Instead of dictating and producing demand, our country is merely reactionary and ultimately our fates are decided by other countries. For me, the call center is lucrative to government and many Filipinos because it is the most familiar business model. For decades, we have been sending people out all over the world, whether to be their maids, their nurses, their servicemen, or even their engineers (and I'm not saying those professions aren't noble). The call center industry follows that line of work and the only advantage it has is that one doesn't actually need to leave the country. But other than that, we are still operating under the same stagnated business principle. It does not answer the problem of time consumption (and it is arguable that one of the biggest advantages of entrepreneurs is that they know how to leverage time). It does not solve the dilemma that other countries benefit most from such labor nor does it really foster national pride in our own products (because the products such industries produce is neither tangible or targeted at our market). OFWs and call centers, in my opinion, are short-term solutions but because our government also thinks in the short-term, no one is taking steps for a long term solution, especially when it is costs them the present (a necessary sacrifice in my opinion). Thus we perpetuate the cycle of OFWs and call center industries.
Another failing I think of the second article's paradigm is that Filipinos only need to cater to Americans, or Westerners for that matter. Japan for example has call centers of their own that attempt to teach English and many Koreans come to the Philippines to learn English. That is easily an industry in itself and our asset isn't in speaking with English accents but rather speaking in our own Standard Filipino English. And you know why? Because our linguistics are more similar to Asia's compared to America's. Take for example vowel sounds. Filipino has five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and therefore five vowel sounds. The same goes for Japanese. American English, on the other hand, has five vowels but sixteen vowel sounds. The letter "a" can sound like an "ah", "ae", "aw", or some combination thereof. Standard Filipino English might not sound right to an American ear but it's more comprehensible when speaking with fellow Asians. I've heard stories of Asians wanting to learn English not from Americans but from Filipinos because our English is better understood. We're capitalizing on that fact to a certain extent but it hasn't matched the expansion of the Western call center culture we have in the country.
At the end of the day, what I'm advocating is to look at the bigger picture and not fall into the pit-trap of oversimplification. As I said before, I have no disagreements with the first article and I don't think anything I have mentioned here contradicts the author's thesis. However, we must also acknowledge that language is not the only element in the formula for success and while this is a part of the solution, it is not the only solution nor is it an absolute one. As for the second article, the argument nonetheless has value despite its limited scope and one should prepared to appropriate what applies and discard what doesn't*. Whoever said we can't build both a good English and Filipino backbone?
*This advice also applies to many other fields, such as writing. | <urn:uuid:f678d424-b604-4cac-b2a6-3000e203b4ee> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2008/03/language-and-economic-theory.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284411.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00457-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967592 | 1,488 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Procuring an abortion was a serious crime in the Regency period and when illegal abortionists were caught, the newspapers were relatively free with the details.
The papers were full of reports in the regency period and they followed a pattern with some variations; a servant, away from home and without any family support is seduced and made pregnant by a gentlemen or cleric; often a relationship is started but the asymmetry of power between the two parties makes the relationship fail, even if success was ever part of the plan. Sometimes the man would procure and abortion or even attempt it themselves; if the women were expelled from the house when they became pregnant they would try to poison themselves. Sometimes they would keep the pregnancy a secret, leave their employ at the last moment and then have the child in a dismal lodging house.
Liza Ann Layton was a servant who found herself away from home in Ipswich working for a James Robertson or Roberton . She was seduced by Robertson during the course of her employment and Robertson suggested to her, according to Layton, that he would procure an abortion “by the application of surgical instruments which, he stated, would not produce as much pain as a day’s illness”. There were two failed attempts one afternoon in 1816 when Layton was about four or five months pregnant, leaving Liza desperately weak and bleeding in bed. A few days later Liza’s mother saw Robertson in the bedroom with her daughter with his hands under the blankets and later smuggled a bundle out of the room in his greatcoat.
This was not the only time Robertson procured an abortion for Liza, and of course himself. The relationship continued after the first termination but the details are hazy; Robertson moved to London and Layton followed him and there was at least one more abortion when she became pregnant again. There was another period of estrangement when Layton was addicted to laudanum, but this was a relationship of sorts and Liza was not abandoned by Robertson when she became pregnant.
When the law caught up with Robertson he was charged under the 1803 “Ellenborough Act” which had made abortion after about 20 weeks a felony which carried a maximum life imprisonment. This new law was first specific English law that made abortion an illegal act; earlier the procedure had been covered by common law and the belief that the soul came into the foetus at about 16- 20 weeks and banned abortion after that date. It seems that women had regularly used methods of abortion in the first months of pregnancy for centuries and this was deemed as merely regularizing the menstrual system, not destroying a life.
Robertson’s alleged attempt had been made at “ four or five months” into the pregnancy and was therefore illegal under the new Act and the previous common law. Robertson strongly protested his innocence and so impressed the onlookers that four individuals offered sureties of £1000 to add to Robertson’s own bail of £2000.
He absconded before his trial at the Old Bailey, running away to Holland via Gravesend. The story goes cold at this point; it would be hard for Robertson to continue his trade in Holland after the publicity; the most shocking part of this story was that he was a medical doctor, a surgeon to the Middlesex Militia, a member of the Royal College of Physicians and lecturer in Midwifery.
Not all women had the benefit of a medical man to botch an abortion for them. In 1811, Rebecca Holden, in the curious wording of the newspaper report “poisoning herself with a poisonous drug” to end her pregnancy. This may have been arsenic or a quack medicine that coyly promised to cure “female obstructions”. (See above)
Widow Welch’s Pills were a well known abortion inducer well into the twentieth century and would have contained a natural abortifacient such as pennyroyal. The advertisement hides its main aim with a torrent of other ailments, but it is particularly good for “female obstruction” which could be interpreted as inducing the onset of menstruation in a young woman or moderating the menopause, but actually meant abortion
Other methods were available. In February 1812, Eliza Counter was accused of libelling the Honourable Basil Cochrane by saying that he organised a steam bath for his mistress to procure an abortion.
The Reverend William Jennings was accused in 1812 of administering calomel to his maid Sarah Weeks in an attempt to poison her with mercury. Sarah then gave birth to a dead child while suffering from symptoms that sounded exactly like mercury poisoning, including excessive salivation and an immense swollen tongue that were symptoms of toxic amounts of calomel.
On 12 January 1813, in Bushley Park, Worcestershire, the servant Judith Beale ( “Spinster , 17”) took advantage of her mistress’s absence by inviting her boyfriend James Foster over for the night. She subsequently became violently ill in the mornings afterwards, and James, fearing the worst, procured mercury for Judith, assuring her that he knew of several people who had taken it without a problem. Judith believed him, took three- fourths of the mercury and died.
Savin- an extract of the poisonous tips of juniper, called ” cover shame ” in English folklore-was used by Phoebe Sparrow, 22 of Dudley in 1813 by her cohabitating partner after four months of pregnancy. Phoebe took no more poison after that, perhaps she was pressurized into taking the original dose, but delivered her baby dead after eight months due to the weaknesses caused by this juniper based poison. It was this active ingredient that gave gin the reputation as an abortion inducer. It was “ mother’s ruin” in more ways than one.
Many thousands of abortions were arranged successfully but anonymously in this period by trusted local women who only ever appeared in the newspapers when the process was unsuccessful. Occasionally, women away from home with no contacts fell into the hands of what we could call quack doctors. Dolly Rosthorn used the services of a John Buckley of Bolton in 1814 to abort a child that many papers suggested he was the father of. He botched the abortion so badly and caused so much pain that the jury considered this to the capital crime of murder; he was doing it deliberately, so was hanged at Lancaster gaol on March 19th, 1814.
There is more social history of this kind- all new material- in my book. Please consider buying one ( shop around for price! ) or recommending to your local library.
Publishers details here
My chapter by chapter introduction here | <urn:uuid:78df26b0-70b3-4ff6-b006-013254208c36> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://about1816.wordpress.com/2017/02/11/a-regency-abortion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571502.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811194507-20220811224507-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.986054 | 1,378 | 2.53125 | 3 |
I love stumbling across something random on Netflix and this week I just so happened to stumble across Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things which definitely got me thinking.
Now, I’m not a minimalist at all nor am I a hoarder – for one I’m not a big shopping fan – but the documentary did raise some interesting points about whether or not, over a number of decades being exposed to some fairly insidious advertising techniques, we have collectively and inadvertently bought into a culture of compulsive consumerism.
One of the questions it was suggested to ask yourself was if the goods you are buying are adding value to your life. If they are great, purchase them but essentially, it’s just adding a moment of mindfulness before getting sucked into the next fashion fad and spending for the sake of spending.
I won’t say too much more about the programme as I’d rather people watch it themselves and make their own minds up or head over to the website of the people behind the programme and book:
So, Have We All Been Brainwashed?
Probably – who hasn’t even just once in their lives purchased something, not because it added real value to our lives, but because of the supposed prestige that came along with wearing/owning that item.
I came from a really disadvantaged background where money was very tight – always. It never bothered me until I got to high school and the fact that I was bullied on a daily basis for living in social housing and not having the “right” trainers or clothes with the most fashionable label. My first job was as a paper-girl at 13 (without a bike!) where I trudged the streets for a measly £5.00 per week 6-days a week getting up at 6 am. I knew as soon as I got that job what I was going to buy when I’d saved up enough money – a pair of Adidas trainers. It took me 5 weeks to buy a super discounted pair but I still remember how proud I was when I got those trainers.
Did it stop the bullying? No, the damage was already done but I don’t blame the children who bullied me anymore. They were brainwashed and victims themselves of a culture that celebrates “things” over “people”.
Can We Change the Compulsive Consumer Culture?
Definitely – I think the tide is already turning. So many of us now are realising that we were duped. We bought all the wonderful make-up, clothes, technology, cars, holidays, etc but we still feel unfulfilled. What’s that all about?
I’ve come across so many people recently who have made the decision to turn inwards towards themselves, as well as reconnecting with other people rather than things, and in doing so have found genuine peace and happiness. Once that peace is discovered, the compulsive consumer illusion tends to shatter irrevocably pretty quickly.
It doesn’t mean that we have to live like hermits and give up all our belongings, just a priority re-adjustment on what’s really important and brings more lasting contentment. It also doesn’t mean that we’ll never be sad, angry, hurt, confused or feel unfulfilled at times – it’s about facing those feelings and not quashing those emotions with short-lived and shallow distractions.
Having said all that, this is all just my take on our current culture tendencies, as inspired by the documentary and my own observations. Give the documentary a try yourself and let me know what you think in the comments 🙂 | <urn:uuid:c76284ba-8816-4e01-9f13-db81f8d7b95b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://myholisticlivingcouk.wordpress.com/category/home-garden/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572192.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815145459-20220815175459-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.977609 | 755 | 1.828125 | 2 |
When Zong Yi took delivery of his Tesla Model S earlier this year, there was a problem. He lives in Guangzhou and he picked the car up in Beijing. That's a 3,750-mile trip without a single charging station along the route. So he built his own – 16 of them – and paid for every one out of his pocket.
Zong figured he could bring a charger with him and plug in at hotels along the way, but he wanted to make the roundtrip from Beijing to Guangzhou semi-regularly – which is like saying you want to drive from San Diego to Anchorage every now and then. Nuts, sure, but he also had the altruistic motive of setting up a charging network for future EV drivers.
He took to Weibo – China's Twitter-like social network – to start gauging interest and contacting property owners along the route that had a beefy electrical outlet near their parking facilities. Zong committed to donating and installing the chargers himself, and then the owners of the space could offer it for free or charge for charging.
"Seven hours of charging costs the property owners about 30 yuan [about $5] in electricity," Zong told Chinese news outlet Caixin. "But if the driver has a meal or spends the night at the hotel, this can become a profit model."
After hundreds of response from both potential users and business owners, he narrowed it down to 16 cities with a four-star hotel and free parking that's easy to find.
The hotel is the key part. Since he didn't buy Supercharger stations from Tesla, instead opting for standard quick-chargers that require owners to hang around for up to eight hours while their cars juice up. And to make the nearly 4,000-mile trek, you'd have to own a Tesla, since it's the only EV that has the range to make it from stop to stop.
Zong left Beijing on May 25 and he's about halfway home. When asked what it cost, he said it was about twice the price of the Model S, which starts at around $120,000 in China. | <urn:uuid:828fb228-a01b-4f88-a630-5ca8d9326574> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jalopnik.com/chinese-tesla-owner-builds-his-own-damn-charging-netwo-1605578789 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.983999 | 437 | 1.695313 | 2 |
If you’re not sure which anti virus www.antivirushub.net/spectrum-internal-server-error/ to work with, you might be astonished to find out that you have many no cost programs in existence. Some of them use firewalls and other wines use a distinctive module to make a rescue boot drive to suit your needs. Some are and so advanced they are capable of monitoring process level actions. It’s important to choose an anti-virus that’s simple to use and provides a clean and intuitive interface. Then you can certainly rest assured it can easily protect your computer from viruses and other or spyware.
Antivirus for free gives a lot of advantages, which include no 12-monthly subscription service fees or annual programs. In addition, it is an wonderful choice for those on a budget, since it doesn’t hit you up for a single penny. There are also a lot of downsides to no cost antivirus, on the other hand. Below most of us talk about some of the main options that come with free antivirus programs. You can download the most up-to-date versions directly from the internet. To start, just comply with these steps.
Think about a free antivirus security software, keep in mind that they can may shortage the features and quality with their premium counterparts. Many are ad-supported and collect sensitive information without your knowledge or consent. Others only enable you to download all their trial version and automatically charge for the full version. Additionally , free anti-virus programs are not as powerful as their industrial counterparts. You happen to be wasting your time downloading something that might not protect you fully. | <urn:uuid:b73f7f5a-c304-4cb5-94fc-53b977cdee64> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://fisoft.com.vn/uncategorized/anti-virus-for-free-what-you-need-to-know | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571234.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811042804-20220811072804-00069.warc.gz | en | 0.946784 | 346 | 1.734375 | 2 |
In the land of women
Lots of companies fret about keeping women in the workforce. Principal Financial has figured out how to do it.
(Fortune Magazine) -- Suzanne Vocal wasn't looking for a job. She was working as an agency planning specialist at State Farm Insurance, which had singled out the ambitious 28-year-old brunette as "high potential." The company helped finance her MBA, placed her in the Austin office near her family, and in 2006 tasked her with one of its thorniest problems - coming up with better HR policies to entice State Farmers to stick around. While looking for "model" companies, Vocal came across a Des Moines insurer called Principal Financial Group. It offered enviable perks, like flexible schedules, two onsite gyms, and a soon-to-open early-childhood-education center. Plus, as Vocal looked more closely at the company's website, she noticed that many of Principal's leaders were women, a big draw in her mind. Vocal certainly didn't see how State Farm could beat Principal's offerings, so she decided a different game plan was in order. She joined them, moving halfway across the country to work as a market intelligence manager.
Vocal had stumbled upon what women in Des Moines have raved about for years: Principal (PFG, Fortune 500) is one of the most female-friendly workplaces in America. Nearly two-thirds of the company's 13,438 employees are women. They hold 50% of the 1,700 most senior positions, and five of 14 directors - that's 35% - are female, vs. the insurance industry average of 16%.
True, at nearly 6-foot-10, Principal's CEO, Barry Griswell, is about as alpha male as they come. But, notes Griswell, who just celebrated his 20th year in the job, "my mother was a single parent who raised my brother and me and worked two jobs. It's been important to me to know that women have equal pay, equal access - all the things that men have." It helps that Principal has a long history of recruiting women: A 1966 Des Moines Sunday Register ad trumpets job openings for "mothers of schoolchildren" with part-time hours and summers off. While those jobs were more secretarial than C-suite, Principal gained a reputation for being a friendly environment where open positions were often filled by word of mouth. The company introduced flexible work schedules in 1974, decades before it became trendy. Says one young mother who left a teaching job to come to Principal: "I had friends who are working moms here, and they told me about it. I didn't even look at positions at another company."
The groundwork for Principal's 2001 IPO, however, proved a critical turning point. The company needed to hire aggressively, and Griswell knew that great benefits would be integral to inspiring employees in an increasingly competitive environment. He brought on HR veteran James DeVries who, after parsing the data, concluded that if employees stay longer than three years, the chance they'll leave decreases. He focused, then, on programs that would support them through the more vulnerable points in what he calls the "whole career life cycle." For example, in addition to 12 weeks off after the birth of a child, women can now return part-time and build back up to full-time. What's more, Principal has invested $8 million in a subsidized early-childhood learning center that will open this fall. Twenty percent of enrollment will be reserved for infants, so new mothers can be within walking distance all day. DeVries says those measures cost the company very little. "It's a virtuous cycle," he says. "Just about every metric you review around employee productivity has increased: Our sales results are higher than they have ever been, our investment performance is great, our stock price has tripled."
Principal's most valuable benefit, however, is one that's much harder to quantify than perks or paid time off. Often unspoken gender stereotypes hold women back more than antiquated policies, notes Lois Joy, a research director at women's think tank Catalyst. But at Principal, employees aren't forced to choose between flexibility and furthering their careers, notes Ellen Lamale, the company's chief actuary, who was promoted to VP while she was working part-time. Or there's the case of Valarie Vest, a regional client service director. Midway through her second maternity leave, her bosses called, offering her a promotion. While some might have assumed that more responsibility - much less a post that involved relocating to another city and more travel - was ill-suited to a new mom, Vest's supervisors simply thought she was the best person for the job. She quickly accepted, and now, two years later, she manages ten people. "I don't ever assume anyone might or might not want an opportunity," she says. No doubt that's exactly what her reports are counting on. | <urn:uuid:55c1632c-e3fb-4afe-94d5-501705d08f52> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://archive.fortune.com/2008/01/18/news/companies/principal.fortune/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284411.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00460-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983797 | 1,017 | 1.609375 | 2 |
All forms need to be returned to supervising instructor.
Program Enrollment Application
The Application for Enrollment form gives the instructor and the CWE office important student information that may be needed during the semester. This form should be submitted to your instructor to begin the process.
Student personal information (name, address, etc.) including number of units taken during the current semester, number of CWE units requested and the major or certificate program the student is enrolled in at Saddleback College.
Employer information including name, address, weekly hours worked, and paid or unpaid status.
Job Oriented Learning Objectives
Job Oriented Learning Objectives FORM
Under California Law, a community college may grant unit credit for Cooperative Work Experience. Each of the three parties - the college, the employer, and the student - must mutually agree in writing to a plan, known as the "Job Oriented Learning Objectives". The objectives form should be completed and signed by the supervisor by the fifth week of instruction. The final evaluation of the completed objectives with all final signatures should be returned to the instructor by the end of the semester.
A learning objective is a measurable goal that you set for yourself (with the help of your supervisor) to be accomplished through your work experience. It will make use of some new habits, skills or information above and beyond your routine performance on-the-job.
The Learning Objectives form serves three purposes:
It is a record of the specific objectives that the student has identified for the current semester.
It is a record of how well the student has accomplished these objectives. This rating is given by a representative of the firm for which the student works and is used by the student as a self-evaluation. The instructor rating is recorded in the official school records as the student's grade for the course.
It is the employer's certification of the average number of hours that a student works each week.
The first thing a student should do is to decide on three very specific things to strive to learn on the job. These three objectives must be very specific so the student can measure his/her achievement. At the same time, the objectives must be something that can be finished by the end of the semester. Guidelines to assist students in writing learning objectives are available in on the "How to write Learning Objectives" webpage.
Student Time Report FORM
Credit for work experience is based on a certain number of hours worked. The Student Time Report verifies the actual number of hours worked each week to justify unit credit.
Students will fill in the number of hours worked for each week of the semester. If work begins at 8:00 a.m. and finishes at 5:00 p.m., students will compute the number of hours worked. Example: eight hours a day, five days a week would be forty hours for that week. DO NOT include lunchtime as hours worked. Holidays and vacation days ARE NOT to be included as hours worked. DO NOT list hours worked as "9-5" or "12 to 5", just list the total amount of hours worked per week. At the end of the semester the student will total all hours worked and indicate hours in the appropriate space. At the end of the semester the student and the supervisor must verify the hours worked and BOTH MUST SIGN the Time Report. Students will give the signed time sheet to the instructor.
Employer's Evaluation of the Student
Employer's Evaluation of the Student FORM
This form is to be filled out by the student's work site supervisor at the end of the semester. The work supervisor will discuss the evaluation with the instructor during the end of the semester meeting at the work site and the instructor will keep this evaluation for the student file. This information will help the instructor give the student the final grade they have earned for the semester. The student can study the Evaluation of Student by Employer form to see how they will be evaluated thus giving them a better understanding of what is expected of them during the Cooperative Work Experience course.
Student Program Evaluation Survey
Student Program Evaluation Survey FORM
In order to keep the Cooperative Work Experience program as viable and efficient as possible we ask the students to evaluate the program. This evaluation will help us to make any needed changes in our procedures and practices. This evaluation should be completed at the end of the semester and returned to Instructor in a sealed envelope.
Note: The CWE student must have all forms completed, signed and returned to the instructor by the end of the semester. These documents will make up the student's individual file that is kept in the CWE office. Student's failure to complete their file will result in an incomplete grade. | <urn:uuid:21cd6aa0-357c-4f59-b075-cb48820f8228> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.saddleback.edu/cwe/student-forms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279915.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00276-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951892 | 950 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Dialogue in regards to the points to think about when writing an essay about literature. Getting a degree in this English literature is an extended course of that requires perseverance, patience and adaptability in work from college students, as they will take care of works of assorted authors that are distinguished by genre, time and manner of writing. It is believed that the examine of literature, together with English one, shouldn’t be as sophisticated because the research of Chemistry or Law , but how we compare things that are not comparable. These disciplines discover and describe realities of our world from multiple views.
This ebook contains 5 full size observe exams with all questions answered and explained. It features a assessment of take a look at topics protecting particulars take a look at takers have to know, equivalent to poetry,prose fiction, and drama. It additionally contains sample scholar essays with critiques of their strengths and weaknesses, in addition to an in depth glossary defining a hundred seventy five literary and rhetorical terms.
Simplifying Rudimentary Criteria For literature essay samples
At all times learn with a pen in hand,” Landeis says, including that mere underlining typically isn’t enough to represent the beginnings of an essay. If the poem occurs to be lengthy or difficult in content material, chances are you won’t have sufficient time to learn it multiple times for which means or go back to a stanza and surprise what the writer’s intent might have been.
Purchase AP prep books on your AP courses, reminiscent of: 5 Steps to a 5 English Literature. (Up to date yearly) Work by means of them at home to supplement your classroom coursework. We have now the 2016 edition of 5 Steps available in the Magnet, however chances are you’ll wish to use essentially the most current prep books because the Could testing date nears.
You might analyze a book’s themes by first brainstorming some ideas and enthusiastic concerning the impression you get when studying it. Novels are full of symbols and allusions, and most authors have one factor How To Analyse Literature to say about the world. The first goal of making a literary analysis essay is to steer your potential readers that you have supported the idea you are rising.
Trouble-Free literature essay examples Plans Uncovered
In AP English Language lessons, you will be taught that nonfiction makes use of the same parts that fictional literature makes use of for various reasons. The place AP Literature might use imagery, diction or syntax for emotional effect or characterization, AP Language analyzes these identical devices for his or her use in argument. You’ll learn about types and types of essays, methods of persuasion and biographical elements that make up an writer’s argumentative type. In Literature you’d examine Jonathan Swift’s essay «Modest Proposal» for its satire; in Language you would look at the occasions in Swift’s life that occasioned the essay.
For the AP® English Literature Free-response part you might be required to put in writing three essays. They may be argumentative, analytical or expository relying on instructions. This part assessments your potential to read and interpret numerous literary works, as well as your capability to speak your ideas in a stylized, coherent response.
There isn’t any doubt that a character’s relationship with one or more family members or buddies in a guide or play can have a drastic affect on the story as a whole. In the poems william play Hamlet, the relationships that Hamlet, the main character, has with Gertrude, Claudius, and Ophelia, are a majority of these relationships. These relationships affect the theme of insanity in the play.
Writing captivating synthesis essays is something which continues to hassle a very good number of college students. 5 — Have students read and assessment the responses from teachers on their own. Generally, students simply want to listen to something explained a unique way or with different phrase selections.
As a result of Hamlet hates his mom and new father, it causes him to have numerous angst. He thinks lots about killing himself. And when he finds out Opheila would not love him the way he loves her it makes him much more upset; this is the reason he jumped into Ophelia’s grave at her funeral after he escaped from the pirates who took over his ship and killed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet’s additionally upset that his associates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not like him anymore and try to lure him because the king asked them to.
College students aren’t expected to make use of the thesis to stipulate their essay. There have been a number of scoring notes added, resembling that the thesis does not essentially need to be a single sentence, but the separate sentences have to be in shut proximity. | <urn:uuid:766ae9b2-dc32-4b21-b3e0-7d739b4ce0a4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://ando-travel.com.ua/explaining-clear-cut-products-in-literary-essay-topics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571147.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810040253-20220810070253-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.953777 | 1,000 | 2.609375 | 3 |
What Are Follow-Me Drones and How Does Follow-Me Technology Work?
Unless you’re racing one through an abandoned factory, controlling a drone is not hard.
Still, you do need to keep looking at your phone or controller and use at least one hand. This isn’t ideal if you want to do something else at the same time: narrate a video, climb a mountain trail, or juggle running chainsaws.
This is where follow-me technology comes in. Instead of having to steer the drone by controlling every single movement, you simply set it to chase you around like a friendly dog who thinks you have a pork chop in your pocket.
How Does Follow-Me Technology Work?
Unlike a faithful hound, drones can’t smell or even “see” in the way we do. Their senses are all electronic, so they have to use one of these follow-me technologies:
- Object recognition
- Radio-frequency controller tether
- GPS or GLONASS (GLONASS stands for “Russian GPS”)
Note that these capabilities are built right into the drones that have them – if your model doesn’t have follow-me technology, you can’t make it work that way by bolting on a few extra components. When looking for a new drone, don’t forget to look for extra capabilities you (or the few friends you trust enough to operate your buzzing baby) may want someday.
How Different Follow-Me Technologies Work
As you would expect, each of these methods have advantages and disadvantages, particularly in terms of how much each costs and how well it works.
Most drones’ primary sensor is the onboard camera. With some fancy programming, some of them can also learn to recognize and pursue a designated object: you, perhaps, a radio-controlled car, or an animal.
This follow-me technology has only been on the market since 2016 (thanks, DJI), but works surprisingly well. You may however run into trouble when visibility is low: when it’s too dark, in fog, or when obstacles like trees get in the way of the drone’s sightline.
This is perhaps the simplest way to get a drone to keep its camera on you (or another object) and stay close. Some drones are capable of triangulating the radio signal from the controller, whether this is Bluetooth, wi-fi, or some manufacturer-specific protocol.
Aside from having to keep the controller with you or whatever object you hope to film, there are two main problems with this method. Firstly, it’s difficult for a drone to estimate the distance between it and the controller, so orbiting shots may look a little wonky. Secondly, Bluetooth in particular is notoriously unreliable: if an obstacle gets between you and your drone, it may just wander off until the controller gets back into range.
Following the controller by going towards its location as determined by satellite is another method. This does away with the problem of the drone losing touch with either the visual image of the subject or an electronic signal. On the downside, GPS isn’t accurate enough to keep you centered in the frame, nor is it fast enough for action shots.
How Follow-Me Drones Work in Practice
Most drones with follow-me technology (at least, those worth having) use a combination of the above technologies. The strengths of one often cancel out the weaknesses of another. In addition, it’s a very good idea to invest in a model with some kind of obstacle detection and avoidance system (or alternatively, plenty of extra propellers and other spares).
More expensive drones can even auto-navigate around barriers and get you back in frame as quickly as possible. The type of drone you have also affects what kinds of shots you can get. You may be limited to having the drone tag along behind you showing only your back, orbit in a circle to show your surroundings, film in a constant direction if you want a particular background, and usually adjust altitude and orientation on the fly.
Whichever you choose, don’t expect its follow-me function to work like magic the first time you take it on a hike. Take it to an open area, try it out, and review the footage you get. Each drone has its own little quirks, and the best way of learning about them is to experiment a little.
Best Follow Me Drones
Some drone manufacturers have made follow-me mode a standard feature of their drones. However, only a few work best with this technology. Below are the four best follow-me drones you can get.
DJI Mini 3 Pro
At only 2.4 by 3.5 by 5.7 inches, the DJI mini 3 Pro is smaller than the other drones on this list; however, it’s as capable as they are. DJI developed this drone to be light and portable while upgrading its camera and adding front-facing sensors to navigate through obstacles. This drone is small but powerful.
This model is ideal for you if you are looking for a drone that weighs less than 250 grams, but is still able to take shots of a high quality, and can offer you all of the cool features that are found on larger and more expensive drones. If this defines what you are looking for, then this model is exactly what you need.
Why You Should Get the DJI Mini 3 Pro
The DJI Mini Pro offers the following features:
- 48-megapixel camera capable of shooting 4k resolution video at 60fps. The camera can tilt to record 9:16 footage making the drone suitable for shooting social media content.
- Weighs Less Than 250g At Take Off
- A battery that can last for 34 minutes between charges.
- Excellent obstacle avoidance
- A high-resolution camera that shoots 4K
- Lightweight and portable
- Vertically- tilting camera with photo and video support
- Its light weight makes it sometimes unstable in strong winds
- The extended battery pack is a paid addon
- Only 1GB of internal storage
DJI Air 2S
The DJI Air 2S weighs a little less than 600grams. It’s an upgrade compared to the DJI Mini 3 Pro since it has a better camera and improved obstacle sensors. It is, however, a tiny bit more expensive than the Mini.
Why Should You Buy the DJI Air 2S?
If you buy a DJI Air 2S, you’ll enjoy the following features:
- A 1-inch CMOS sensor that can shoot 5.4K video at 30fps and 4K at 60fps, making the drone ideal for photography.
- A signature feature known as “Mastershot” enables it to get the best shot at any given point.
- Active track and Spotlight feature, allowing the drone to follow the desired object easily.
The drone also has a larger internal storage capacity than the DJI Mini 3 Pro at 8GB, with the option of additional storage through an SD card. You can buy the base model at $1000 or the detailed fly more combo for $1300. The detailed Fly More Combo comes with additional batteries, neutral density filters, and a case.
Common benefits of using the DJI Air 2S are as follows:
- Takes videos at 5.4K resolution
- The drone has an AirSense transponder
- Excellent collision prevention and avoidance features
- Improved camera sensor
- 7.5 miles maximum video transition and can follow objects easily
Some of the drawbacks of buying the DJ Air 2S include:
- There are few image filters and application-based editing options.
DJI Mavic 3
The Mavic 3 is an expensive drone, but it is well worth the price.
DJI Mavic 3 comes in three versions, the Mavic 3, the Mavic 3 fly more, and the Mavic 3 Cine equipped with the Hasselblad sensor. The Mavic 3 has a takeoff weight of 895 grams, while the Mavic 3 Cine weighs 899 grams. The Mavic 3 is the solution if you are looking to take shots of the highest possible quality.
Why buy The DJI Mavic 3?
Buying a DJI Mavic 3 gives you the following features:
- A new dual-lens camera capable of recording 5.4K videos
- Lens capable of 14x optical and 28x digital zoom and taking 4K videos at 120fps.
- Collision avoidance sensors
- 1TB of internal storage for the DJI Cine Premium
The base model starts at $2050, which includes the drone, a battery, remote control, extra propellors, and a protective case. The Fly More Combo sells at $2999 and adds two more batteries, some filters, and a multi-charger.
The advantages of DJI Mavic 3 include:
- Dual lens Hasselblad sensor camera
- Different zoom modes
- 20MP raw stills, 4K and 5K video capture
- Improved flight times
- Excellent collision avoidance capabilities
- A premium, sturdy built
The disadvantages of using DJI Mavic are as follows:
- The drone is expensive even for the base model
- Battery life is average for the price
Holy Stone HS720
The Holy Stone HS720 is with a weight of 500g still a compact drone. It has a maximum range of 999 meters and has 2800 milliamp hours, good enough for twenty-five minutes of flight time. This drone is cheaper than the others in the list, but still very impressive.
Why Buy the Holy Stone HS720?
Anyone who buys the Holy Stone HS720 will enjoy the following features:
- Ease of operation due to its well-designed remote control with an LED display and programmable joystick functions.
- A 2K camera with image stabilization and a 100-degree wide-angle mode. The camera can rotate up to 90 degrees enabling users to take their shots from different angles.
- Ability to capture shots up to 70 kilometers with high-definition footage per hour.
- It comes with various flight modes, rivaling the DJI Mini 3 Pro.
Some of the benefits of the Holy Stone HS720 include:
- It’s affordable compared to the other drones on the list
- Has different flight modes
- Can do decent shots and videos
- Compact and sturdy design
- Simple to operate
- Well-designed remote control
Some of the drawbacks of the Holy Stone HS720 include:
- The camera quality is not as good as that of the other drones
- Lacks obstacle sensors
- Shorter flight time compared to the DJI models
The drones featured in this post guarantee the best experience to their users. With the information provided, you’re best suited to choose one that fits your needs and budget! | <urn:uuid:5eb6e722-f93d-4b0e-8c7c-aacc6e75c109> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://dronegem.com/the-4-best-follow-me-drones-in-2022/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573760.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819191655-20220819221655-00675.warc.gz | en | 0.930378 | 2,308 | 2.25 | 2 |
Reports generated at the Sperry Gyroscope Company on various aspects of the Klystron, 1945-1947; photocopy of the Wave Guide
Handbook, 1944-1945, prepared by the Radiation Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; paper by V.F. Kovalenko
on the history of microwave electron-beam tubes, 1940; and printed patents for the various elements of the Klystron, 1936-1949.
Brothers Sigurd and Russell Varian worked in collaboration with Prof. William W. Hansen beginning in 1937 to invent and perfect
the Klystron, a device for generating high-power microwaves. Much of the work was conducted at the Sperry Gyroscope Company.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
This collection is open for research. | <urn:uuid:5625bb16-9b22-49b1-8243-be15941aa7b1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt329035rj/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281226.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00378-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860687 | 278 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Accounting is something that businesses will always need. Without accounting, investors can’t analyse companies’ financial health easily and government’s can’t collect tax revenue. Singapore is one of the business hubs in Asia and multinationals will always need accounting professionals. Many CFOs hold accounting degrees although this is slowly changing.
Note: All salary figures include CPF contributions from your employers. This means that your take-home salary will be less than these figures.
Let’s start with the salary of accounting graduates. According to Seedly’s 2022 fresh graduate salary guide, the median salary of a NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) graduate is $3,400. For reference, the median 2022 salary of a graduate across all industries is $3,800.
According to 2021 data, the average salary of a fully-employed Singaporean is $4,600.
|Median 2022 NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy)||$3,400|
|Median 2022 graduate across all industries||$3,800|
|2021 Fully-Employed Singaporean||$4,600|
While this figures may not seem impressive, being an accountant can be a stepping stone into more well-paid roles including investment banking and being a finance manager. The average salary of a finance manager in 2021 is $112,000. This tells you that accounting may not be suitable if you’re someone who’s not passionate about finance. But accounting would be a great stepping stone to larger higher ranking finance positions that have much higher salaries and room for advancement.
Obviously salaries and money isn’t everything. There’s also the workload and stress from working in accounting. Let’s talk about several things that you should take into account. One would be student debt and being able to afford an accounting programme at a local university. While some students take on student loans, an alternative might be to take a short 3-month Xero bookkeeping course that would give you some exposure to accounting software and creating journal entries. Three months is a small price to pay if this means finding out if you’re suitable to a life (or four years in NUS) of accounting.
You don’t have to be good in math or be able to solve differential equations in your head to be good at accounting. But you should be comfortable with basic arithmetic at the very least and have a good head for numbers. You can’t rely on a calculator for basic problems like 11 x 200 and you have to be able to understand how the three financial statements work with one another.
Here’re a few good finance blogs to read to see if you’re interested in finance and accounting. Contact our accounting instructors if you have any questions or if you want to chat about how life as an accounting is like.
Check out this video by NUS accounting students that talk about studying accounting in NUS! This might be helpful if you’re seriously considering accountancy. | <urn:uuid:69315126-c2e9-4427-a2e5-1da1f92b0cb2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wlpacademy.com.sg/should-i-take-an-accounting-degree-in-singapore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571198.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810161541-20220810191541-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.939019 | 635 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Richard Adams, University of Cambridge
Richard - It’s amazing logistical problem. So, how does that happen? In animal development, it’s done by dividing and conquering the problem. We begin to make big decisions during development first and then you make more and more specialised decisions. So development begins by dividing that first fertilised cell into many, many cells. These cells, to the outside the observer, look very similar to each other. There's not necessarily any particular structure to the embryo.
Chris - Just a ball of cells.
Richard - Just a ball of cells, but of course we’re clearly much more complicated than that, so the embryo must transform itself. That takes place in remarkable morphogenetic process - which means a change of shape of this ball of cells - and the process is called gastrulation. It literally means the formation of a stomach. What the embryo is doing is changing itself from a single population of cells into 3 concentric tubes of cells. The innermost tube is going to form the gut and associated organs. The intermediate layer of cells is going to form connective tissue and muscle, and the structural components of the body, and the outermost layer of the tissue is going to form our skin, and our central nervous system, our brain and our spinal cord.
Chris - How do those cells know who they are? So, if you go from this ball of cells where one cell just divides, makes two and then two become four and so on, how do they know, “I'm going to become the inner tube that's going to become a gut and I'm going to become the tube around that, that's my muscles and I'm going to become the outer layer that's going to be the skin.” How do the cells get addressed?
Richard - Remarkably, very early in development where there's first divisions which might build an embryo that has maybe 10,000 cells. Many of those cells don't yet know what they're going to become, but they're going to be organised and influenced by a signalling centre, a small population of cells that are going to send out small diffusive signalling molecules that are going to induce the cells to take on the identities of endoderm or mesoderm.
Chris - And these are these different layers.
Richard - These are the different layers. Initially, these cells are sitting in concentric rings around the signalling centre and they must physically transform themselves into a structure that is physically a concentric series of rings. So, the whole embryo must transform itself physically from one shape into new shape which is now an endoderm surrounded by mesoderm, surrounded by ectoderm.
Chris - So, when the cells are making these decisions as to what to become under the influence of these signals coming out of other cells to say, “You Richard, you're going to become a gut or so on”, does that irreversibly influence what genes are turned on, how the DNA is controlling those cells then?
Richard - At that point, yes. The first irreversible decisions are made, and now, the repertoire of decisions that that cells is able to take it is restricted. And then subsequent decisions would define which part of the gut for instance that cell would perform and which some subtype of cell of this progeny would be able to produce within the gut itself.
Chris - How do the cells move around in the embryo so that the ones that should be in the middle and making this gut tube are there and the ones that are on the outside to make the skin are in the right place as well?
Richard - The movements are very varied and interesting. Some are, just as Helen just described involving the cytoskeleton that change the shapes of cells, the cells are able to move on each other. But within the embryo, many cells are stuck together on structures of tissues. These populations of cells are able to transform themselves in much more sophisticated ways. So for instance, they can pull themselves in one direction which causes the tissue to elongate in another direction. This kind of transformation is the one that takes us from a ball of cells to an elongated embryo which is recognisable as a developing embryo.
Chris - When things work out, it’s great because you have a perfectly proportioned, a perfectly developed baby, but we know it doesn’t always work out like that. There are some neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Is that when one of these occurs, things like spina bifida and so on? Is that because the cells haven’t migrated to the right place during development?
Richard - That's a problem that we’re very interested in in our lab. We don't really know the details, but it’s something to do with the communication within cells which enables them to collectively change shape. In the case of neurulation, it’s a sheet of cells that is trying to just roll itself up into a cylinder and that cylinder is the precursor of the spinal cord. If this rolling process is incomplete then the two edges are unable to fuse and the spine remains unfused, and that is the lesion of spina bifida.
Chris - If we can understand through work like yours then why that goes wrong, that will potentially give us insights into how to prevent it going wrong or how to put it right when it does.
Richard - We would hope that what we can find are clues as to the underlying causes, what is physically wrong with the behaviours of cells, and that would give us clues as to how we might be able to intervene in the future. | <urn:uuid:b75dbee7-1e30-4464-8afc-8a5a0f5bd5f4> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/interviews/interview/1000543/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988718866.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183838-00003-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968275 | 1,156 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Deciding on the path that’s right for you can be challenging. There are many choices of graduate professional programs, and the overlap among these choices can be confusing. Here are some factors that set Pitt’s Counseling program apart:
- You can craft your own personalized educational experience. Our students make several choices that allow them to tailor their education. This includes having the option to explore a range of topics or zeroing in on an area of interest right from the start. Our students choose elective coursework in the areas of trauma and grief counseling, child and adolescent counseling or clinical rehabilitation and disability. Our students benefit from a wealth of clinical training options at over 70 training sites throughout the University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and across the greater Pittsburgh area, including world class institutions like UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. Students make these and other choices in consultation with their faculty mentor whose goal is to foster students’ success, growth and satisfaction with their individualized education.
- We emphasize hands-on skill building. Professional counseling involves applying a range of skills with a diverse array of clients. Our faculty believe that the most impactful way of building these skills is to practice. Our courses involve engaging in extensive video-recorded practice sessions with simulated clients. These “clients” include professional actors, program alumni who give back to the program by acting in this role and course instructors. Video recordings are used to give highly individualized feedback to maximize skill development. We keep our class sizes small (less than 30 students) to ensure that we are able to deliver this intensive training experience.
- We are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), advocacy and social justice. Our program’s historical roots in rehabilitation counseling and disability-focused training means that promoting DEI has always been a major focus. In recent years, our work in this area has greatly intensified. We have expanded opportunities for students to engage with diverse cultures and perspectives. One example is the work that our students and faculty are doing at the SHRS Wellness Pavilion in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood.
- Train with our world class faculty. Our faculty are expert clinicians, educators, scholars and leaders who are dedicated to serving our students and our community. They bring to teaching and mentorship their expertise in working with a broad range of clinical and non-clinical populations, approaches to counseling and clinical work, program development, community-academic partnerships, rigorous clinical research and leadership in local and national professional organizations.
Counseling alumna Victoria Bonin (MS '16) feels that the Counseling program at Pitt set her up for success.
“Pitt built a foundation of knowledge and skills for me to be able to be flexible and build further upon. The program has a variety of courses in it to help with a wide variety of options to choose from for a career. I chose to study at Pitt for the small class sizes, opportunities to be interactive and have in-depth discussions,” says Bonin.
Written by: Eric Meyer, PhD
Director and Professor, Clinical Mental Health Counseling | <urn:uuid:45ba42ad-107d-468e-a6e9-cccfaad76af7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.shrs.pitt.edu/news/top-reasons-pursue-your-master-s-counseling-pitt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571502.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811194507-20220811224507-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.952276 | 640 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Master: Responsible Gaming Marketing Practices
Creating an informative marketing strategy can drive players to adopt healthy playing behaviors and increase player retention. Here’s how
To remain competitive and compliant, operators need to be proactive in their approach towards socially responsible gaming.
The key is to develop personalized and responsible marketing strategies that differentiate between players and segments them into different groups based on their risk level.
By dividing players into different risk-based segments, operators can use marketing strategies to both encourage healthy gaming behaviors as well as reduce the number of players who become at-risk – all while increasing retention.
Here are a few quick ways to identify players and communicate with them appropriately.
Differentiate Between VIP and At-Risk Players
One of the major challenges that brands face when it comes to responsibly communicate with their players is the many similarities VIP, and at-risk players demonstrate. Intuitively, both VIP and at-risk players are likely to have large deposits and betting activities.
To differentiate between VIP and at-risk players, Optimove creates a bespoke weighted scoring system for each operator. The scoring system consists of player attributes that could indicate if a player is developing at-risk behavior.
React to Suspected At-Risk Behavior in Realtime
Operators need to have the ability to react to realtime events that could indicate problematic behavior. Some activities detected in realtime can easily be prevented, whereas, if left unattended, could contribute to the player’s risk level.
By leveraging Optimove’s realtime capabilities, you can easily identify players who are exhibiting the first signs of unhealthy behavior and trigger a website pop-up encouraging the player to take a timeout and refrain from making an additional deposit.
Furthermore, players exhibiting signs of this behavior can easily be excluded from any other promotional campaigns they were meant to receive that day.
Create Customer Journeys that Cultivate Healthy Gaming Habits
The interactions you have with a player have a tremendous effect on the likelihood of adopting healthy habits or developing problematic behaviors on their part.
For instance, one of the most important interactions an operator will have with a player throughout their lifetime is the welcome series, which can greatly influence players’ future behavior. Optimove research suggests that, on average, 75% of players who self-exclude do so within the first month.
As operators and regulators push for a more socially responsible gaming environment, it is important that marketing strategies shift to accommodate this new focus.
Interested in hearing more? Contact us or download the full details on all four marketing practices here. | <urn:uuid:3c78795f-a821-478e-9eb2-ceaf88acb2df> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.optimove.com/blog/how-to-master-responsible-gaming-marketing-practices | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570692.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220807181008-20220807211008-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.96212 | 527 | 1.515625 | 2 |
By Paul Paz y Miño, The Ecologist
28 October 2015
It was all going so well for Chevron – a New York court had ruled that a $9.5 billion judgment against it set by Ecuador's supreme court for massive pollution deep in the Amazon was corrupt and fraudulent. But then its star witness broke ranks and admitted, in another court, that he had lied, and the only bribes were coming from Chevron. Will Ecuador's pollution victims finally get justice?
In 2009, faced with a likely multi-billion dollar verdict against it for massive, deliberate pollution at Lago Agrio in the Ecuadorian Amazon with oil spills and oil production wastes, Chevron began fabricating an elaborate story of bribery, corruption and ghostwriting to strike back.
Sure enough, the lawsuit went against Chevron. On 14th February 2011, the Ecuadorian courts ordered the company to pay $9.5 billion dollars and to offer a public apology for the damage – failing which, the compensation would double. The ruling was upheld in January 2012 and in November 2013.
In the end, the company failed to apologise, and Ecuador's supreme court left the damages at $9.5 billion. But by then Chevron had fled Ecuador – and the problem was, how to collect the money. Ecuador resorted to the US federal courts in New York in its bid for justice.
Chevron had its story ready. It claimed everyone and everything against it was part of a scheme – the evidence, the contamination, the Ecuadorian villagers, all the environmental and human rights organizations – everyone.
The company spent millions to concoct its cover story. And it worked. In March 2014, New York federal judge Kaplan ruled that Chevron's conviction in Ecuador's courts was "fraudulent" – making the $9.5 billion uncollectable.
In his decision, based on violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Kaplan found that the plaintiffs' lawyer, Steven Donziger, committed mail fraud, engaged in coercion, and paid bribes in order to win the judgment.
There was only one big problem: the verdict hinged upon the testimony of a completely non-credible witness – who has now admitted on the stand that he lied about it in exchange for payments from Chevron.
It all looked like a slam dunk
Back in 2009, someone at Chevron was probably jumping up and down exclaiming 'slam dunk!' The company had found someone they could buy who was willing to say what they needed to pull together their fabricated fraud story in Ecuador.
How did they 'find' him? Easy, he came to Chevron asking for a bribe to help Chevron get out of its massive legal problems in Ecuador. That should have been a red flag, but fueled by their own arrogance and legal hubris Chevron moved forward with Guerra as their star witness.
It turns out that rather than a Bond-esque spy thriller with intrigue and a sophisticated plot, the story for Chevron is more like 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle'.
Alberto Guerra, who we explained before is a corrupt ex-judge, claimed that the legal team for the Ecuadorians offered him a bribe to ghostwrite the judgment against Chevron. Guerra said he asked Chevron for a bribe first, and they turned him down, so then he went to the Ecuadorians.
Despite the fact that Guerra was acknowledged by judge Kaplan himself to be less than credible, his testimony was allowed to stand. And yes, this is the same judge that forbade evidence of actual contamination.
The argument was that Guerra's testimony fit the 'circumstantial evidence' against the Ecuadorian legal team. Except that evidence has also evaporated.
The lies unravelled as Chevron tried to sue Ecuador in a trade tribunal
The sweetest irony is how this has all come about. Chevron brought a separate case to the International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague under the US-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty. In obvious forum shopping (which has been called out by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals) they were hoping to pin their financial liability on the Ecuadorian tax payer.
Only their entire effort is backfiring – like when that body recently denied Chevron's claim that an agreement with the government of Ecuador released them from civil liability. Much like the actual evidence it presented in Ecuador, Chevron is hanging itself with the very action it hoped to use to escape justice.
Guerra claimed that the bribe of $300,000 he was offered (at one point he also said it was $500,000) was to work with the presiding judge Zambrano to ghostwrite the judgment. When asked about it before the Hague Tribunal he said: "Yes sir, I lied there...I wasn't being truthful."
Zambrano has denied this from the beginning and all the forensic evidence backs it up. You see, also as part of Chevron's Hague action, the government of Ecuador hired the world's top computer forensic analyst to review the document. As Courthouse News reported this week:
" ... forensic expert Christopher Racich testified that he found a running draft of the judgment against Chevron on Zambrano's hard drives. Ecuador now argues that this forensic evidence – which Courthouse News reported exclusively early this year – proves Zambrano painstakingly wrote the ruling and saved it hundreds of times throughout the case. Chevron has not been able to produce emails between Guerra, Zambrano and the purported ghostwriters, Donziger and Fajardo, Ecuador's forensic expert says."
The seemingly never ending stream of Guerra lies doesn't stop there. At first Guerra said that he had thumb drives with the judgment on it to prove his claim. Then later he admitted that he didn't. Then he said he has calendar entries of his meetings with the Ecuadorian legal team. Then he admitted that he didn't. Guerra also claimed he had agreed with Zambrano to cut him in for 20%. Now he admits that too was a lie.
Chevron claims evidence of meetings with Guerra and Zambrano backs up their claims. But no, Guerra now says no meetings he ever had with Zambrano had anything to do with Chevron. Oops.
As Donziger put it: "Chevron has now been busted by the lying testimony of its main witness. The latest iteration of Guerra's testimony proves clearly that Chevron paid its star witness huge sums of money to present false evidence to frame the very people in Ecuador the company poisoned."
The only bribe was the one that Chevron paid
Indeed there is evidence of a bribe – Chevron bribed Guerra to make up this story. And unlike the lie about ghostwriting, there's actual evidence to back this bribe up.
Guerra, a man with less than $200 in his bank account at the time, admits that he said all these things to get more money out of Chevron. He and his entire family now live in a house Chevron bought for him, drives a car they gave him and live on $12,000 per month from the oil giant. How's that for evidence?
At this point, I'm sure you are asking yourself: How on Earth did Chevron get this witness on the stand in a NY Federal Court in the first place, and what did they think would happen once his true story came out? (The Ecuadorians tried to save Judge Kaplan from the embarrassment.)
Well, they were certainly worried about how Guerra would do – which is why they coached him for 53 straight days before his testimony. It clearly wasn't enough.
Chevron's polluted house of cards has come crashing down around them. Guerra is a liar – and he freely admits it. Chevron can either double down and insist Guerra was "before it before he was against it" or denounce him now – in which case they can never argue he's credible by any stretch.
There's a lot of provably unethical and illegal behavior here – all of it from Chevron's camp.
Now they should face racketeering charges
"We intend to bring these significant developments to the attention of the Second Circuit panel in New York", said Deepak Gupta, appellate lawyer for Steven Donziger.
In addition to what he calls "overwhelming evidence of pollution on the ground", Gupta believes the tribunal members "have also been presented with far more thorough evidence rebutting Chevron's corruption allegations ... There's a very real possibility that the arbitrators will reject Judge Kaplan's findings."
The Federal Appeals Court should completely throw out Kaplan's verdict. It depends entirely on Guerra's false testimony and the judgement against Chevron has been conclusively proven to be legitimately written by Zambrano – as the Ecuadorian appeals court had already determined.
Chevron and their lawyers should be investigated and brought up on charges. They have intimidated judges in Ecuador, bribed others, falsified evidence, and coached Guerra to submit false testimony in US Federal Court and made a complete mockery of the our judicial system, not to mention the mis-use of a trade agreement to go after the government of Ecuador.
Amazon Watch will be calling for such an investigation. We know Chevron is never likely to admit they lied and schemed to create this false RICO attack. Nor will they stop trying to attack us and our funders. They need to be held to account.
Chevron: 'We're going to fight this until hell freezes over'
We look forward to the day they try to peddle this always preposterous and now utterly discredited RICO verdict in Canada, where Ecuador last month won the right to pursue its claim. Perhaps we will all get a chance to see Guerra take the stand once again. If so, it can only get worse for Chevron.
"This is no longer just a cause in Ecuador – this is a cause for any country where the same thing could happen. We have a responsibility beyond our own interests", said Ecuador's environment minister, Lorena Tapia.
"We know this isn't an easy path, but we are very convinced of our arguments, and there is no way we will step down or stop doing everything we can to get the oil company to respond."
A Chevron company spokesman once said that it would fight this case to the bitter end: "We're going to fight this until hell freezes over. And then we'll fight it out on the ice."
That looks like what is about to happen.
Paul Paz y Miño is Director of Outreach and Online Strategy at Amazon Watch. Paul is also an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and served on the board of Peace Brigades International USA. Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulpaz
This article is an extended (by The Ecologist) version of one originally published on Amazon Watch. | <urn:uuid:a694f5b7-ddcf-47f5-b984-0ff108c058ec> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/2015/1028-chevrons-star-witness-in-9.5-billion-ecuador-oil-pollution-claim-admits-i-lied | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279489.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00018-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974659 | 2,216 | 2.015625 | 2 |
The candidacy of B. C. Vladeck, General Manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, for the House of Representatives, on the Socialist ticket, is lauded in editorials which appeared in the New York World-Telegram and the Jewish Morning Journal.
The Telegram urges the election of Mr. Vladeck in the following terms:
“To voters of independent mind, irrespective of usual party leanings, we specially recommend B. Charney Vladeck, Socialist candidate for representative from the Eighth Congressional District, Brooklyn.
“Mr. Vladeck is a highly educated liberal who has made his business experience produce practical and progressive benefits of labor. He is not only a thinker, but an excellent speaker. When he ran in the same district in 1930, he got the biggest vote ever polled for a Socialist candidate for Congress in the East.
“Mr. Vladeck, we think, is the kind of a man a reconstructive Congress needs to help liberalize its thought and speed up its action. He should be elected.”
The Morning Journal says: “. . . we recommend the Socialist candidate for Congress, Mr. B. C. Vladeck. He is an able and energetic person, an excellent speaker, familiar with general and Jewish problems, especially East European problems, a communal worker and leader, who occupies an important position in the public Jewish life of New York ; a man of moderate views who is far from being a fanatical party man.” | <urn:uuid:df28c722-87e5-4d6e-b187-ffe18992d10d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.jta.org/1932/11/03/archive/papers-laud-vladecks-candidacy-for-congress | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719677.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00561-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932692 | 312 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Buying an old house is a good deal like selecting a horse. Having found an animal of the desired type and breed, the question arises, “Is it sound of wind and limb?” Houses nearing or past the century mark also have their spavins and these should be recognized by the prospective buyer. He can thus form some estimate of how extensive replacements are needed, even on first inspection. This is of prime importance since it has direct bearing on the worth of the house.
Whether built of stone, brick, or wood, such structures may have rafters, sills, and main beams so decayed that new ones must be added. The foundation may need rebuilding and door and window frames may be so weathered that they also must be replaced. Beware of a house where floors slope and side walls are out of plumb. This means extensive shoring which is slow and expensive.
For a truly pessimistic report on the health of an old place turn to a trusted carpenter or contractor. He congenitally dislikes old buildings and will point out all defects with ominous head shakings and subtle suggestions for new building. In this way the prospective buyer will know the worst, painted at its blackest. Somewhere between it and the rosy view of the real estate agent will lie the truth. Therefore, it is well to do some inspecting independently. Knowledge of what are the weak spots in old houses and where to look for them will save much time and effort in the initial stages of house hunting.
The skeleton of an old house is akin to that of a modern steel structure. Hand-hewn timbers, morticed and pinned together, take the place of riveted steel beams. Since a timber frame is subject to rot, either dry or damp, one of the first places to look for unsoundness is the sills (the beams which rest on the foundation and into which are set floor joists, corner posts, and other main uprights). It is a simple matter to give them the jack-knife test at intervals of two or three feet. Stick the blade in as far as possible. Then try to turn it around. With a sound beam this cannot be done. If there is dry rot, the beam will often crumble under a slight pressure of the fingers.
Go over the sills on the north side of the building first. Here there is less sunlight and snow remains longer. Consequently decay from excessive moisture is not unusual. Roof rafters and plate beams (the long timbers on which the lower ends of the rafters rest) should also be knife-tested since long neglected leaking roofs eventually result in their decay. Unsound corner posts and other uprights connecting sills and plate beams are harder to detect since they are concealed between the outside boarding and interior plaster. Note the walls themselves and the corner boards extending vertically from foundation to eaves. If a corner of the house is enough out of plumb to be visible to the eye, or if the corner boards are loose, examine further as it may indicate decay beneath. | <urn:uuid:f420eb86-364e-4754-a203-e9a7a58047d5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/17804/40.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281746.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00292-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960337 | 619 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Advancements in computer vision, object recognition, and related technologies are leading to new levels of sophistication in augmented-reality applications and presenting new ways for humans to relate to the natural world.
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Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears. | <urn:uuid:521bc9c6-e817-404b-9811-e752ec03c253> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/7/95057-mainstreaming-augmented-reality/abstract | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00054-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.849786 | 229 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Figure 1. This map depicts the area in northern Alaska in which subsurface temperature and pore-pressure conditions are conducive to the occurrence of gas hydrates. Also shown is the location of the Eileen and Tarn gas hydrate accumulations in the Prudhoe Bay area. NPRA = National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
|AccessibilityFOIAPrivacyPolicies and Notices| | <urn:uuid:60e52f5f-9513-44df-a714-84cc2e67c42d> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1454/fig1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720380.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00056-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894229 | 92 | 1.898438 | 2 |
It's hard to imagine Kansas legislators could come up with a worse idea for funding repairs to state university buildings than applying a surcharge to local property taxes collected in university communities, but it seems they have succeeded in doing just that.
Members of a Kansas Senate task force assigned to look at ways to address $663 million in deferred maintenance at the state's six universities are considering a proposal that would tack an additional fee onto student tuition to help cover those costs. Their plan calls for increases of up to $5 per credit hour for Kansas residents and $15 per credit hour for out-of-state students.
The proposal comes at a time when tuition already has skyrocketed at state universities; at Kansas University, tuition for Kansas residents has doubled in the past five years. Adding a maintenance surcharge would exacerbate the tuition inflation that many fear is preventing Kansas students from seeking a university education.
Legislators continue to express the opinion that the Kansas Board of Regents and individual universities have been irresponsible in allowing their campuses to fall into such serious disrepair. In hindsight, it's always possible to second-guess how money was spent, but the fact remains that tight funding decisions made by the state Legislature have greatly contributed to the current situation.
For instance, a number of legislators have pointed to previous funding provided under the "Crumbling Classrooms" program. What did universities do with that money, they ask.
Well, in the first place, the Crumbling Classrooms funding was approved more than a decade ago - and it fell well below the estimated need even at the time. Although the regents provided a list of $288 million capital improvement needs in the fall of 1994, the 1996 Legislature approved only a $163 million bond issue to address those needs.
Is it any wonder the universities are falling behind?
The percentage of state university budgets funded by state tax dollars declined from 49 percent in 1985 to 29 percent in 2005. During that time, state universities have been forced to raise tuition to fund such essential items as lab equipment and salaries that are competitive enough to prevent top faculty members from being lured away by other universities.
Now, legislators apparently think it's a good idea to compound that problem by raising tuition to cover another expense that should be a state responsibility.
On the contrary, raising tuition for this purpose is a very bad idea both for students and for Kansas. Legislators need to go back to the drawing board to find a solution to the maintenance issue. | <urn:uuid:e8973e2e-e4eb-4e2c-834d-e5586e3e88de> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/feb/08/another_bad_idea/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280929.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00423-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96754 | 500 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Hello and welcome to this week’s lesson where I will be showing you a clever way to learn how to play the 3 draw half step bend in tune on any harmonica.
Most people struggle with hitting the 3 draw half step bend in tune because it is such a small and subtle bend. If they practice it with a chromatic tuner they usually see that they are bending too deep but then really struggle to work out how to do it properly.
There is a simple solution to this problem which is using another harmonica as a reference pitch for the bend.
If you are trying to play the 3 draw half step bend on the C harmonica you are aiming for a Bb note. So if you play this note on another harmonica that doesn’t require bending, you can hear what it should sound like.
I suggest that you play the 4 blow on a Bb harmonica to hear what the bend should sound like on the C harp.
Learn what the vibrations feel like
Not only do you learn what the note should sound like but your mouth learns what it feels like to vibrate at that pitch. This makes it much easier to play the bends – as if by magic!
Try this on all keys
You can do this trick with any key harmonica as long as you have enough other harmonicas as references. I highly recommend that you download my reference chart for the 3 draw half step bend on all keys by clicking the button below.
Good luck and thank you!
Good luck with your bends and thank you so much for taking part in this lesson. I hope it was useful for you. If you enjoyed it please feel free to share it with your friends on Facebook and/or Twitter.
If you have any questions just send me a wee email.
See you next Wednesday for the next harmonica lesson! | <urn:uuid:2071ba6c-3bd3-4285-bf05-abd2b5e343ef> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.tomlinharmonicalessons.com/awesome-trick-to-play-the-3-draw-half-step-bend-in-tune/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571090.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809215803-20220810005803-00067.warc.gz | en | 0.943753 | 384 | 2.453125 | 2 |
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Tips to Heal/Treat Dry Skin
Scott: We're shooting this in November, and in most of the country, everybody's starting to deal with dry skin, at least for the next couple of months. What's the best way to deal with that outside of slathering lotion on every couple of hours, which seems like could do more harm than good in terms of clogging pores and things like that? What can we do?
Dr. Jeanette Jacknin: Right. Well, just make sure your lotion isn't too heavy. It's not a topical gel. If you have acne or things like eczema or psoriasis, it can flare up. With your artane topicals you have to be careful which ones you use. A humidifier in your room is great.
If you take a hot shower, of course it feels wonderful when you come in from the cold, but it actually dries your skin more.
Dr. Jeanette Jacknin: So you should ideally take a warm shower. I know it's hard when it's freezing outside, but at least put a moisturizer on all over your body right after the shower. That's when it's absorbed the best.
Dr. Jeanette Jacknin: So, that should help. Also, other drying: watch for your laundry detergent. Sometimes that more a sensitivity issue than a drying issue, but all these chemicals work on your skin. You're in those clothes all day long, and they have been washed in one detergent or another. Sometimes people's skin reacts better with one than another.
RATE THIS VIDEO: powered by mojirater | <urn:uuid:3cce861c-bc3c-4004-8793-97734893ae43> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ihealthtube.com/video/tips-healtreat-dry-skin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572161.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815054743-20220815084743-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.943917 | 418 | 1.992188 | 2 |
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