Do you need some good news?
This may seem like a silly question. After all, we just finished weeks of celebrating – Christmas and the New Year.
Today's Gospel presents a final word of good news for Christmas season – before our lurching back into Ordinary Time. (Even though Ordinary is just what some of us might crave right now…) And I know I need the good news.
Even though we have just spent weeks eating lots of our favorite foods, seeing some of our favorite people, singing some of our favorite carols, giving and receiving gifts, being surrounded by the beauty of lights and colors and such, my hunch is that it has left many of us feeling a little empty. Or maybe a lot empty.
If you are in that boat, know that you are not alone. If you are in need of some really good news, it's okay; you really are not alone.
When I looked at the lectionary, and today's Gospel text was the opening verses of John's Gospel, I was genuinely excited. These are some of my favorite verses of scripture. To have the opportunity to explore and preach on them seemed my good fortune. That was several weeks ago. Then, the more I read, the more I exegeted, the more I came up short.
The thing is: I could spend my time this morning talking about how theological John's Gospel is – especially this passage.
I could spend my time talking about the poetry – the function of the first 14 verses as the prologue to John's Gospel.
I could spend my time giving vocabulary lessons by way of theological conversations about things like incarnation, Trinitarian overtones, high Christologies, the Johannine Community, the concept of the Logos, and all that implies, and so forth. And if you know me well, you know that most weeks I would probably very much enjoy doing that.
But I need more than that. And chances are, if I need more than that, so do you.
What I would rather do with my time this morning, with the chance to hold John's words fresh on our lips and close on our hearts, is to really do that – to hold them close on our hearts. Because this passage, if it is about anything at all, is most importantly about Light. And it's about Life.
And it's downright scandalous if we're paying attention.
It's about the scandalous God we worship. The scandal of Incarnation (ah! There's a good theological vocab word. We'll come back to that.). It's about the scandal of a God who took on our humanity – and not just as a mask – but became one of us. And not out of judgment or ransom – but out of love and grace.
It's about a scandal that our God – our grace – our salvation – is predicated on Light and Life – full of Truth and Grace.
These words from John's Gospel ought to scandalize us. And again, let me be candid: I am in need of being re-scandalized by the Gospel. It seems one thing to talk about a baby – it seems an entirely different thing to swaddle that story with the cosmic love language of John's prologue.
What is really scandalous – and what is so often lost – is that John's Gospel is a dramatically intimate Gospel. The God revealed here is not a God lost in the eternity and the stars – but a God who dwells with us – that is also right there in these verses. Listen again – in verse 14 we hear the proclamation that the word became flesh and lived among us. You do not have to dig too deeply into commentaries to read that what this verb "lived" really means is that God pitched a tent among us.
Okay, so for most of us, if we are going to pitch a tent, it means we are going to have to leave – to escape – to drive somewhere, then hike somewhere from there – and pitch our tent. We pitch tents to reclaim something simple, to encounter a different kind of life than our normal world of mattresses and cable and fast food and cell phones buzzing.
That's not what this Gospel means. It means that God moved in. God took up residence among us. God moved into the neighborhood. God bought the house next door and moved in and shares life with us. We call this Incarnation – but that's a theological vocab word that often makes the truth of this feel even more inaccessible. And an inaccessible incarnation is no incarnation at all.
God moved into the neighborhood. And here's the miraculous, scandalous thing about that truth – God didn't just move into your neighborhood. God moved into my neighborhood. God moved into her neighborhood. God moved into the inner city of East St. Louis, and God moved into the old mansions of Ward Parkway. God moved into Spanish Harlem, and God moved into Beverly Hills. God pitched a tent among refugees from South Sudan, and set up camp among orphans in Haiti.
Instead, God chose to dwell among us because we needed light. We needed love.
Because God so loved the world – remember – that God came down to live with us.
True, we have an enormous capacity to screw things up. We are quite good at exercising selfish motivations, at seeking power and control, even – at worst – at the loss of life and livelihood of others.
But also, we dwell in darkness – some of our own creation – and God is a God of life and a God of light. God chose to move into our neighborhood that we might see, feel, touch, hear, understand, the fullness of grace that is the light of God.
Do you need some light and life?
Do you ache for the fullness of God's grace?
The scandal, again, and the beauty of this Gospel is that the light is not our responsibility. The light is a gift for us.
I also find this good news in the passage: we do not have to ignore our darkness. God does not ignore the darkness – hear again in the opening verses – God's life is the light of all people.
This light shines in the darkness. The darkness does not overcome the light. The light does not eradicate the darkness, but shines within it. God moving into the neighborhood is risky – God does not protect God's own self by staying beside the darkness, but dwells and lives and moves in the midst of the darkness. But God's own truth is this – that the light always shines.
There will never be a darkness absent of God.
As you listen to this likely-familiar passage, and you hear again the proclamation, the promise that Jesus and the light of Christ "is more powerful than any darkness," do you wonder if it's all bull? Do you find that truth easy to sing, but nearly impossible to grasp? Have you sat in darkness that felt pretty God-forsaken?
I do not want to offer you pithy statements and call them spiritual truth. But I can offer you the hope that I hold on to – and sometimes it allows even a glimmer of light to break through – and that is often enough. Sometimes it is just enough, but enough nonetheless.
What I think John's Gospel is really about is not philosophical or theological systems, but the scandalous truth that God breaks in – that God breaks in, not to wipe away our human reality, but to dwell in it. To get dirty alongside us. To struggle and wrestle and weep and wonder alongside us.
The heart of the light and life that we all need to hear this morning – some of us maybe for the first time, and some of us maybe for the thirty-seven-thousandth – is that we are not alone. We are profoundly not alone.
Maybe your darkness is the darkness of terminal illness, and the search for healing that will not come in physical form.
Maybe your darkness is the darkness of loneliness, of feeling isolated and alienated from a sense of home or familiarity.
Maybe your darkness is the darkness of financial insecurity – the darkness of days between one paycheck ending before another one comes. Or the darkness of looming debt.
Maybe your darkness is the brokenness of a relationship you cannot envision how to heal. Maybe your darkness is the open wound of grieving the loss of someone – to a new place, to a new person, to death.
Maybe your darkness is couched in fear – of the future, of losing someone, of being unloved, unappreciated, unwanted. Or a fear of security, of the unknown, of forces that seem bigger and more powerful than your ability to survive.
Maybe your darkness is the irrational and yet all-encompassing reality of depression. Maybe it's the darkness of not knowing why you get out of bed in the morning.
Maybe your darkness doesn't feel so much like darkness. But it also doesn't so much feel like light. Maybe your darkness is better named as listlessness or apathy.
But friends, here's the truth I know I need to hear again and again – I am not alone in the darkness. You are not alone in the darkness. We are not alone in the darkness.
Out of love and out of grace God chose to move into your neighborhood, to keep you company, to show you light and love and life in the midst of your darkness – self made or not.
Maybe you don't understand all this talk about darkness. Maybe you are glowing, shining in the light and life of Christ. Maybe you are like John the Baptist in this passage – called to testify to the light – called to speak and act in ways that point the world to God's grace and light. By our lives we help light break through the darkness.
And the truth here is that happens, most of the time, not in big ways, in grand miraculous gestures, but in small, intimate ways.
It happens in the earthy mud that Jesus touches to a blind man's eyes.
It happens in the ordinary water and cloth that Jesus used to wash his disciples' feet.
It happens in the ordinary cup of water we offer Jesus as he sits with us at the well.
It happens as Jesus weeps with his friends after his friend Lazarus dies.
The light breaks through in the ways we share joys and grief, hope and fear with one another. In ways that we confront our own darkness, but do not give in to it.
Do you need some good news this morning?
Hear the good news that the word became flesh and moved into your neighborhood.
 Kimberly Bracken Long, Feasting on the Word, Year B, volume 1, 145.


text:
Q: How to specify multiple conditions in sqoop? Sqoop version: 1.4.6.2.3.4.0-3485
I have been trying to import data using sqoop using the following command:
sqoop import -libjars /usr/local/bfm/lib/java/jConnect-6/6.0.0/jconn3-6.0.0.jar --connect jdbc:sybase:db --username user --password 'pwd' --driver com.sybase.jdbc3.jdbc.SybDriver --query 'SELECT  a.* from table1 a,table2 b where b.run_group=a.run_group  and a.date<"7/22/2016" AND $CONDITIONS' --target-dir /user/user/a/ --verbose --hive-import --hive-table default.temp_a --split-by id

I get the following error:
Invalid column name '7/22/2016'

I have tried enclosing the query in double quotes, but then it says:
CONDITIONS: Undefined variable.

Tried several combinations of single/double quotes and escaping $CONDITIONS and using a --where switch as well.
PS: The conditions are non numeric. (It works for cases like where x<10 or so, but not in case where it's a string or date)

A: In your command --split-by=id should be --split-by=a.id, I would use join instead of adding extra where condition, also I would convert date to (specified string value) VARCHR (using sybase specific function)
sqoop import -libjars /usr/local/bfm/lib/java/jConnect-6/6.0.0/jconn3-6.0.0.jar \
--connect jdbc:sybase:db \
--username user \
--password 'pwd' \
--driver com.sybase.jdbc3.jdbc.SybDriver \
--query "SELECT  a.* from table1 a join table2 b on a.id=b.id where a.run_group=b.run_group and convert(varchar, a.date, 101) < '7/22/2016' AND \$CONDITIONS" \
--target-dir /user/user/a/ \
--verbose \
--hive-import \
--hive-table default.temp_a \
--split-by a.id

A: A workaround that can be used: -options-file
Copy the query in your options file and use the switch.
The options file might be as:
--query
select * \
from table t1 \
where t1.field="text" \
and t1.value="value" \
and $CONDITIONS

Note: Not sure if it was a particular version issue or not but --query directly in the command just refused to work with $CONDITIONS. (Yes, I tried escaping it with \ and several other combinations of quotations)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I have lived in Vancouver since I was five. For the first sixteen years I lived here, I never knew any of my neighbours except those directly beside me. It was not until I took action and organized a neighbourhood block party that I finally got to know more of the neighbours around me.
The weird thing is, there are communities here. People connect online, through sports teams, though unions, through professional associations, and through religious affiliations. Yet throughout most of Vancouver, there is no real conception or resiliency in terms of community here you live. It is as if we have forgotten what community "where you live" means, and why it is extremely important.
What happened to Vancouver's sense of community?
What is the cause of this deficiency? Are people more individualistic now than they use to be? Has the value of community been eroded? Has the advent of the internet and the expansion of our digital universe caused more and more of us to live the majority of our lives online? Does this "meta-life" disrupt our former understandings of our physical world? These questions might seem like they elicit the root causes. Yet if one of these were the root cause then we might expect a lack of mechanisms and support for building community.
Vancouver does have support for community events, and mechanisms are in place to help strengthen a greater sense of community in the city. What is critically missing is the willpower, determination, and political drive to facilitate such activities in a meaningful way that relate to community in the geo-proximal sense of the word: the community where you physically live. We have all the pieces in place, but no one seems to be there to put the puzzle together.
I could speculate it has something to do with the forty-hour work week, or the challenges most adults face in balancing work, hobbies, social life, families, and maintenance of everything else they are involved in. It could be after a long day's work the last thing you want to do is to walk around the block with a clipboard and piece of paper, knock on every door and collect signatures, saying the same thing over and over again: 'would you be interested in having a community block party?' Or maybe we are now more sensitive to rejection, and fear the answer 'no' over and over again from our fellow neighbours. It could be a confluence of all of these things.
Could block parties be the solution?
Yet regardless of the root cause of this malaise or blasé attitude the majority of citizens in Vancouver, we do have a viable solution. The reality is in our day and age, we need to recognize that 'community' is an umbrella term that should be subdivided. Community can manifest in many different ways, so we must be specific in order to best understand what kind of community we're dealing with, and how it is occurring. We should also recognize community in the geo-proximal sense, has been neglected for many years. This form of community needs to be now more than ever, as more of our lives are lived in the digital realm.
All of this can be achieved with a simple mechanism that has been part of our city's history for a half century or more: the neighbourhood block party. I coordinated and hosted these in the Oakridge neighbourhood area for four years in a row in my early twenties, and I can attest to the power of a simple event that brings people together. This is the type of community that has been in retreat for the past few decades. Yet, it is also the type of community we need in order to be socially vibrant and help us bridge existing intercultural gaps.
According to reports published in 2011 and 2017 by The Vancouver Foundation, a local NGO, a portion of people in Vancouver still feel isolated, lonely, and disconnected with other people. These feelings are not exclusive to immigrants, the elderly, and youth. Rather, they are found in the population at large. These findings are nothing new to Vancouverites, or at least should not be. More research should go into understanding this problem more comprehensively. We should not wait for the results of such research when a viable solution that does work, has worked, and will work again is right in front of us and is readily available for us to access.
One obstacle to having consistent neighbourhood block parties is finding an organizer willing to do the leg work. As I have witnessed, many neighbourhoods ebb and flow in throwing block parties. Some years they do not have any, and this can stretch for years. Some neighbourhoods in Vancouver have never had a neighbourhood block party.
Block parties are great way to meet neighbours, form friendships, share stories, as well as great food if you are doing a potluck, while building a community where one lives. It has been something frequently overlooked but its power should not be underestimated. It is one of the more basic mechanisms we have for community events that are non-commercial and focused on people. It is also a great way to include everyone and begin bridging what intercultural gaps we have. We should see more of these in Vancouver. Yet who has the time to organize such an event with work, school, family, and the other communities one belongs too? There is a way forward to help further facilitate this process. The question is not can we do it, but rather will we?
One solution would be to push for our municipal government to get involved. If a community seems to want to have a block party but cannot because of other social obligations or business, then municipal social planners or community workers could get involved and contribute the 'leg work' of organizing a block party.
Alternatively, community centres could hold neighbourhood block parties that are not commercially-focused and simply about bringing people together and getting to know your neighbours. Community centre workers would be involved in organizing these events. Of course what might be needed in this second solution is for our social planners to enact a policy that would compel community centres to act as legitimate vehicles for community events rather than the events they currently are holding, which tend to be commercially-focused in my opinion.
Vancouver, do we still value community where we live? Or will we continue to be a disconnected, isolated city? Have we all forgotten what it means to know our neighbours and have a greater sense of community where we live? I certainly hope not, and plan to continue organizing neighbourhood block parties where I live. I hope some of you out there will do the same. Maybe together we can advocate for our government to get involved and invest more in community events that serve communities—not commercial interests.


BRIDE is a model driven engineering tool chain based on Eclipse for the development of ROS components, systems and applications.
Afterwards start BRIDE as usually and go into the "Help" menu and select "Check for Updates". If there are updates in the generated plugins in the repository, Eclipse should install them during the update process.
You can find detailed examples and tutorials on the ROS wiki pages.


Imagine you're visiting the Tortoise Exhibit at the London Zoo. Kneeling down to observe their lumbering movements, you mull over what thoughts they're capable of and how they might communicate. Careful though, or you might be magically whisked into their world, as this master wordsmith was.
Barnaby the Tortoise had been alive for longer than he could remember, which to him meant that he had been alive altogether too long. Still, as old as he was, he wasn't the old coot of the Tortoise Exhibit in the London Zoo. That was Francis, a real old wheezer, who spent most of his time putzing about, eating cabbage, and lecturing the younger tortoises about the coming apocalypse, today being no different.
actually been more cabbage than there had ever been in London.
Francis leaned to one side, opened his mouth, closed it again and leaned to the other. "Oh, it's been so long since I was here, and what with the end drawing near, I thought it might be a good idea to visit the old pool again." He looked at the stagnant puddle just beyond the cabbage.
Barnaby grumbled but moved aside.
"The what?" Barnaby's mouth hung open, and regrettably, his cabbage fell into the dirt.
"You don't think he had a point?" Ethel asked, pecking at his shell nervously.


Put another way, Event-Stream was updated to include Flatmap-Stream as a dependency. The latter was then modified to include the bitcoin-stealing malware.
Everyone using Event-Stream in their projects is urged to make sure they don't have a tainted version and update to the latest Event-Stream version 4.0.1.
The malware "steals Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash funds stored inside BitPay's Copay wallet apps." Copay issued a statement warning developers that if they are "using any Copay version from 5.0.2 to 5.1.0, you should not run or open the app." Version 5.2.0 contains a security update. "Users should assume that private keys on affected wallets may have been compromised," so Copay advised to immediately send all crypto funds from affected wallets to a brand-new wallet based on version 5.2.0.
Given the side effects of Windows 10 Updates, it's recommended that you wait at least seven days if not more before installing quality updates. Change your settings to control when Windows Updates are installed.
Microsoft explained that a trio of bugs were responsible for knocking out Azure and Office 365 for 14 hours last week.
Two hospitals — Ohio Regional Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Martins Ferry, Ohio, both of which are owned by Ohio Valley Health Services & Education Corp. — were hit with ransomware attacks on Nov. 23. No patient data was compromised, the hospitals said. Few details have been released other than the issue reportedly was expected to be resolved by Nov. 25.
Consumer groups from seven European organizations will file GDRP complaints against Google for tracking the movements of millions of users even when "Location History" is turned off.
As for GDRP fines, German social media platform Knuddels was hit with a GDRP fine after a data breach exposed the personal information of 330,000 users. Their email addresses and passwords had been stored in plain text.


text:
Still No. 1: 'Citizen Kane'
Take two: Nearly ten years after the AFI's first 100 Years... 100 Movies countdown, Vertigo (No. 9) and Raging Bull (No. 4) managed to collect enough votes to displace The Graduate (No. 17 now, No. 7 then) and On the Waterfront (No. 19 now, No. 8 then) for ranking in the Top Ten of the new Top 100. But Citizen Kane remains -- as before, and very likely forever -- No. 1. And, hey, you'll get no argument from me over that.
Other titles in the upper echelon: The Godfather (No. 2 now, No. 3 then), Casablanca (No. 3/No. 2), Singin' in the Rain (No. 5/No. 10), Gone with the Wind (No. 6/No. 4), Lawrence of Arabia (No. 7/No. 5), Schindler's List (No. 8/No. 9) and The Wizard of Oz (No. 10/No. 6). Safe titles? Maybe. Great titles? Definitely.
David Germain of The Associated Press compares and contrasts the 1998 and 2007 lists here.
Posted by Joe Leydon at 6/20/2007 10:05:00 PM
Labels: "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies", Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Godfather
Nice to know Scorsese broke into the top ten.
I haven't seen the full list yet, but The Sixth Sense??? Man, 1999 had way better films. Weren't Magnolia or American Beauty even nominated?
Anyhow, I'll probably go over the list tomorrow and bitch some, but at least the top ten is respectable...
Joe Leydon said...
Well, don't me started about The Sound of Music (No. 40)...
To put a movie like Raging Bull at number 4 is one of the worst misjudgments I think I've ever seen. How does a poorly written, thematically incoherent movie like this - with a characters that are nothing more than ciphers & a pretentiously self-important mix of eye candy boxing scenes with opera music - rank so high on the list?
Nothing more clearly illustrates the infantilisation of American culture - by which I mean the preference for style over substance & the appearance of profundity - than the elevation of this dreadfully medicore movie to the top ranks. It's deeply depressing.
Rat here, rat now
R.I.P.: Joel Siegel (1943-2007)
Where for art thou, Optimus Prime?
Michael Caine and Sean Connery: Geriatric Gangstas...
Inconvenient truths
Saddest. President. Ever.
Justice is served
And if you think it was his worst movie, just reme...
Early weekend b.o. report
Don't write those obits for film critics just yet
Andy Griffith: Hot property
Cats That Look Like Hitler
Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their...
'Indiana Jones' redux
First word on 'Transformers'
More AFI post mortem
The Worst Movies Ever - response to SchulteFiaja
The Worst Movies Ever - Part 2
The Worst Movies Ever
R.I.P.: Antonio Aguilar (1919-2007)
Hollywood makes strange bedfellows
Revenge is sweet, or: There's really something to ...
Preview of dying attractions?
Hop fast or 'Die Hard'
Another bundle of joy for Julia Roberts
Trailer alert: '3:10 to Yuma'
LOL at 'DOA'
'Four' is the new No. 1
George Clooney: Action hero
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you look ...
'Fantastic' fun
So goes Spielberg, so goes Hollywood (and the rest...
'Round midnight
Just in time for Father's Day
R.I.P.: Mr. Wizard, a.k.a. Don Herbert (1917-2007)...
'Killer of Sheep'
The Top 10 Reasons Why 'Hostel 2' (Reportedly) 'Un...
And now, another episode of 'Stuff I Wouldn't Dare...
Don't mess with Texas (if you want Texas money for...
Summer hits, summer bigger hits
Legendary poster
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! Fr...
Speaking of movies based on dolls.. er, sorry, I m...
Thundercats, ho!
Spike strikes again
Does this mean 'Knocked Up' will air uncut on netw...
Tyson in Bollywood
The (few) naysayers were wrong: Actually, 'Knocked...
He wants his MTV (Award)
It's bean fun this week for Hugh Grant
A big b.o. hit a-birthing?
Viewer alert: 'Comanche Station'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Profile photo of Philippe M. Gaudard
Philippe M. Gaudard
pgaudard@schneiderwallace.com
Philippe Gaudard joined Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP in 2021 as an Associate Attorney in the Emeryville office. Philippe's practice focuses on complex litigation, with an emphasis on representing employees in employment class actions.
Philippe is admitted to practice law in all state courts of California and the United States District Court for the Southern, Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California.
Philippe received a Master of Laws (LL.M) in General Studies with a Specialization in Media, Entertainment, and Technology Law and Policy from the University of California – Los Angeles. Prior to that, Philippe graduated with two Masters degrees in Corporate Law and Intellectual Property and New Technologies from the Business Law Institute of Aix-Marseille University, France.
Before joining the firm, Philippe gained significant experience in Personal Injury, Employment and Business litigation while serving as an associate attorney at a boutique law firm in Los Angeles, California. Philippe also served as a Junior Counsel for a global corporation headquartered in Irvine, California, where he handled business and legal affairs and advised executives on strategic initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, corporate development and compliance between North America and Europe.
Before dedicating his full time and energy to his legal education and career, Phillippe was a professional surfer and competed in the qualifying series and Junior tour of the World Surf League.
Philippe is fluent in English and French.
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, Master of Laws (LL.M.)
Aix-Marseille University, Business Law Institute, Master of Laws
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
United States District Court for the Southern District of California
United States District Court for the Central District of California
United States District Court for the Eastern District of California


text:
Too drunk to drive a donkey cart
HAPPY TRAILS. Traveling in vintage style, Ethiopians make fine use of a donkey cart. With the amount of water Jesus turned into wine at a wedding in Cana, he could have rendered over 1,000 people too drunk to drive a donkey cart. Photo by Wikimedia.
OF ALL THE MIRACLES Jesus could have performed to launch his ministry—healing the sick or raising the dead—his first miracle on record was to liven up a party with enough wine to get more than 1,000 people legally drunk.
At least by today's measure of a drunk.
It figures.
That's what his Pharisee critics might have said.
These Jewish scholars would later watch Jesus enjoying himself at a party and declare: "He's a glutton and a drunkard" (Matthew 11:19, NLT)….
At Jesus' direction, the servants filled six stone jars with water. Jewish households kept stone containers like this filled with water to wash away ritual defilement, such as that from touching a dead animal. Clay jars wouldn't work. They had to be discarded if a ritually unclean person touched them. But stone containers were defile-proof.
Each jar in this home could hold "twenty to thirty gallons" (John 2:7). That's a total of at least 120 gallons (454 liters), and as much as 180 gallons (681 liters).
"Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies," Jesus told the servants.
Fine wine poured into the cup.
Three five-ounce glasses of table wine—a total of 15 ounces (.44 liters)—could raise the blood alcohol content of an average-sized person well beyond the .08 percent used today as a measure of impairment. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, and 15,360 ounces in 120 gallons.
Do the math.
Divide 15 ounces into 15,360 ounces.
Jesus had miraculously produced enough wine to render at least 1,024 people unfit to drive a donkey cart.
This wasn't the watered-down, budget wine sometimes served late into the party, when anything crossing the palate tasted like a blur.
"A host always serves the best wine first," the master of ceremonies said to the groom after drinking wine from heaven's vineyard. "Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!"
Excerpt from Understanding Jesus: A Guide to His Life and Times, released in February 2013.
Print edition, $9.99
Kindle edition, $7.99
Category: BlogTag: cana, donkey cart, drunk, grape juice, jesus, miracle, water into wine, wine
Greg Burke
In my neighborhood the donkey cart remains the favored method of transportation today!
Greg, you still live in Kenmore huh?
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text:
Aemilius Christian Friedrich Speirmann (* 31. Juli 1773 in Arolsen; † 19. April 1825 ebenda) war ein deutscher Beamter, Gutsbesitzer und Abgeordneter im Fürstentum Waldeck.

Leben
Speirmann war der Sohn des Geheimen Kanzlisten Christian Carl Ludwig Speirmann (* 16. Dezember 1736 in Mengeringhausen; † 2. April 1816 in Arolsen) und dessen Ehefrau Dorothea Friederica Louise geb. Meisner (getauft 4. Dezember 1735 in Arolsen; † 18. Februar 1803 ebenda). Er war evangelisch und heiratete am 12. Oktober 1800 in Arolsen Ernestine Sophie Friederike Cramer (* 26. März 1776 in Arolsen † 5. Februar 1846 ebenda), die Tochter des Hoffouriers Johann Caspar Cramer († 1800) und dessen Ehefrau Eleonore geborene Klinghammer († 1820). Der Neffe, Carl Friedrich August Speirmann, wurde ebenfalls Abgeordneter.

Speirmann erhielt 1792 die Anwartschaft auf die Stelle des Vaters und wurde 1794 Regierungssekretär in Arolsen. Am 15. Januar 1800 wurde er zugleich auch Geheimer Kammerregistrator. Am 14. Januar 1804 erfolgte die Beförderung zum Geheimen Kanzleisekretär in Arolsen. Am 18. März 1817 wurde er auf eigenen Wunsch zur Landständischen Kammer versetzt. Da der als Nachfolger vorgesehene Kammerschreiber Ernst Friedrich Goette Speirmanns Stelle de facto wohl nie antrat, kehrte dieser in seine alte Position als Geheimer Kabinettssekretär zurück.

Er war Herr auf Haus Cappel. Mit diesem landtagsfähigen Gut war die Mitgliedschaft in den Landständen verbunden. Er war damit (vor 1814) bis zu seinem Tod am 19. April 1825 Waldeckischer Landstand.

Literatur
 Jochen Lengemann: MdL Waldeck und Pyrmont 1814–1929. Biographisches Handbuch für die Mitglieder der Waldeckischen und Pyrmonter Landstände und Landtage (= Politische und parlamentarische Geschichte des Landes Hessen. Bd. 24 = Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen. Bd. 48, 16). Historische Kommission für Hessen, Marburg/Wiesbaden 2020, ISBN 978-3-923150-76-2, S. 409.

Weblinks

Landstand (Fürstentum Waldeck)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Cittatesoro's Blog
Uncategories Sisodia rulers who ruled from Udaipur
Sisodia rulers who ruled from Udaipur
1. Rana Ari Singh II – reigned 1762-72
The incompetent successors and the ungovernable temper of Ari Singh led to the further decline of Mewar. He has often been accused of unfairly occupying the throne by removing his nephew, Rana Raj Singh II. Ari spent the first few days of his reign antagonizing and estranging the nobles of Mewar. The Rana had to surrender the district of Nimbahera to the Holkars who threatened to sack Mewar if not complied with. Amidst such conflicts and battles for domination, Rana Ari Singh fell at the hands of the Bundi Prince.
2. Rana Hamir Singh II – reigned 1772-78
Once the most powerful clan of Rajasthan and North India, the Sisodiyas of Mewar had lost their sheen by now. With frequent successions and no ruler being able to restore their pride or revive the state of affairs; Mewar lost all its hope. After the demise of Maharana Ari Singh II, he was succeeded by son Maharana Hamir Singh II. When Maharana Hamir Singh II ascended the throne, he was just eleven years of age. The young ruler did not rule long and died at the age of sixteen years under mysterious circumstances reigning for a very small span of time. His younger brother Maharana Bhim Singh, who was eight when Maharana Hamir Singh II died, succeeded the throne of Mewar after him.
3. Rana Bhim Singh – reigned 1778-1828
Maharana Bhim Singh was the sixty seventh ruler of the Mewar Dynasty. After 40 years, he was the 4th minor that was crowned king at the age of 10! Maharana Bhim Singh too was hard pressed for money and is said to have borrowed money from the king of Kota for one of his marriages.
To get rid of the Maratha menace, Bhim Singh joined hands with the British,
4. Maharana Jawan Singh – reigned 1828-38
With the likes of legendary Maharana Pratap and his son Maharana Amar Singh, or celebrated Maharana Sanga and Maharana Kumbha; the Sisodiya clan of Mewar who trace their lineage to the Sun God, produced abundant folklores of heroism, chivalry and patriotism. He ruled Mewar for a span of ten years. Amongst failed attempts and laid-back policies with no signs of improvement, he died at a young age with no nominated heir. Sardar Singh, son of Shivadan Singh of Bagore branch of Sisodiyas, the descendants of Maharana Sangram Singh II; succeeded Maharana Jawan Singh.
5. Maharana Swaroop Singh – reigned 1842-1861
Maharana Swaroop Singh ascended the throne in 1842, after the death of his predecessor Maharana Sardar Singh. Maharana Sardar Singh had no son and before his death, he formally adopted his brother Swaroop Singh as his nominated heir.
6. Maharana Shambhu Singh – reigned 1861-74
Maharana Shambhu Singh, son of Shardul Singh from the Bagore branch of Mewar, the descendants of Maharana Sangram Singh II; was adopted by Maharana Swarup Singh as his nominated heir. Maharana Shambhu Singh ascended the throne as a minor and a British Political agent was appointed to guide the young Maharana. Maharana Shambhu Singh was considered a liberal and well managed king of his times. But with his untimely death at a young age of twenty seven years, his dreams of a revival of his homeland to the ancient golden times were stalled.
7. Rana Sajjan Singh – reigned 1874-84
Maharaja Sajjan Singh brought back glory to the Sisodiya dynasty. He was a cousin of Shambhu Singh and succeeded him after his death. Being a minor, he was assisted in the administration of Mewar. Like his ancestors, he served in the development of his people. A man of brilliance, Maharana Sajjan Singh ruled for a mere ten years. As a visionary, he revived the glory and pride of the Sisodiyas and Mewar in the short span of time he served; his era considered to be a Renaissance in itself.
8. Maharana Fateh Singh – reigned 1884-1930
The Suryavanshi king of Mewar. Like a true Suryavanshi and following ancestral footsteps, Maharana Fateh Singh ascended the throne with a visionary approach towards Mewar. Born to the Shivrati branch, the descendants of the fourth son of Maharana Sangram Singh; Maharana Fateh was first adopted by Gaj Singh and later by Maharana Sajjan Singh, the ruler of Udaipur, both of whom had no heir.
9. Maharana Bhopal Singh – reigned 1930-55
A man with a vision is most definitely the strongest. This suffices the tale of a king who envisaged a life for himself and his people and fought the evil outside and within. Maharana Bhopal Singh of Mewar was born to Maharana Fateh Singh. At a young age of sixteen, he was paralyzed from waist down but this did not deter him from replicating courage and bravery of his forefathers. He ascended the throne in 1930 after his father's death, but was exercising power since 1921 after the British curbed his father Maharana Fateh Singh's power and advised him to resign in favor of his nominated heir.
10. Maharana Bhagwat Singh – reigned 1955-84
Maharana Bhagwat Singh was just another seventeen year old boy from the Shivrati branch of Mewar, the descendants of Maharaj Arjun Singh, the fourth son of Maharana Sangram Singh II; when Maharana Bhopal Singh adopted him as his heir. Ascending the throne, Maharana Bhagwat Singh witnessed the Indian historical shifting.
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package org.glob3.mobile.generated;
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}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
jax-beaches.com
An Egypt Holiday Experience
Uncategorized / By jaxbeaches
Our best holiday yet has to be our Egypt family holiday last winter.
It was freezing cold in the desert, temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius, but most of the flights to Australia were on business class.
As a frequent traveller, I am well aware that Egypt holidays come in all shapes and sizes and this experience was no exception.
First thing I noticed was the seating arrangement in the plane was a mess, there was no obvious place for seats to sit.
The layout was confusing, there were no toilets in the first class cabin and everyone shared beds in the cabin taxis.
I felt uncomfortable and I was wondering why everyone was sleeping in the same cabin.
Looking back I realise that most people were either very generous (through generous tips) or had no need for such luxury.
I made a point of speaking to a few people on the plane who were travelling on their own.
It was clear that even though they were travelling on a tight budget, they were not spending their money on western foods.
Many of the waiters in the restaurants were highly paid and earned their money through tips.
I noticed that their Wardrobe department was almost bare, which I thought was interesting as generally everything in Egypt is so extravagant.
I found a great contrast with our western world, where almost everyone strive to wear the same old worn out clothes.
I hoped that our Egypt experience would be one of the best family holidays we have ever experienced, but it didn't disappoint.
Even before we arrived at the airport to leave, we were sold the "historical mystery" of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The story was interesting and at times frightening. I felt that it could be a pyramid scheme or a con.
Anyway, the boarding call for the planes had been moved forward so that the plane was flying towards the pyramids.
Somehow as we were about to leave the airport we were unsure if we were heading towards the pyramids or somewhere else.
The plane seemed to be on its side, with its nose resting on the ground and its wings stretching out in a 90 degree angle.
Shortly before the last passengers boarded, one of the flight attendants appeared and announced that the plane was going to drop down into a Plane Stub.
There were some panic attacks from some of the passengers who felt that the plane was descending into their airplane.
The Plane Stub was a large overhead compartment in the lower deck of the plane.
There were many rows of seats that had been original in the manufacture of the aircraft and they were all unselved.
After the pauses in the crowd at the gates at the final stage, the plane started to descend slowly.
Each passenger was issued a card that identified which of the passengers were first, second and third on the plane.
I became anxious once again as the descending started, I had to get off as the surging noise got to me and I was afraid I would get pushion.
I got down from my perch, I could see the ground was now beneath us and I was surrounded by a garden of pyramidal structures.
Within a count of a few seconds all of us got surrounded by the ravishing display of power displayed by the pyramids of Giza.
The tour over, over the course of which we saw most of the Great Sphinx and the majority of the King's mortuary temples, was over in about twenty minutes.
And then we had to come back through visa and customs. My agent in Hong Kong, pick up one of the representative offices and return to pick up the rest of our group going to the Egypt in the November-December 2003 season.
To be continued …
Visit Newport Beach California
belongs in Paris
Cancun Is Back And Better Than Ever!
Visit Spain's History
Forget the Talking Tarot – A Magical Journey To Egypt
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The Denton Community Theatre was a local theatre company located in Denton, Texas in the United States.  It serves as one of the oldest community theatres in the North Texas area having been in existence since 1969. It is located at the historic Campus Theatre on West Hickory Street.  In 2020, it merged with another local theatre company (Music Theatre of Denton) to form a new company - Theatre Denton.

Throughout the Denton community, people, businesses, and educators are working together to better implement the arts into the Northern Texas area. The goal is to develop a more livable community by supporting the growth and more responsive use of artistic and cultural resources that exist in Denton.

History

The Campus Theatre was a classic movie house built in 1949. Denton needed a movie theatre that would cater to the "students on campus" (University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University). The Campus Theatre was built, one of several state-of-the-art movie houses in the southwest at the time of its construction. The Campus Theatre remained open as a movie house until 1985. It had been a place to go on weekends to see picture shows, bring dates, and watch the latest movies in the grand theatre. The Campus Theatre now left alone, needed a new owner.

DCT has conducted numerous educational programs, both artistic and theatrical, for children and adults of all socio-economic levels, nationalities and races.

With a journey to find its permanent theatrical home, DCT first leased the Firehouse Theatre, which is now known as Central Fire Station. It then moved to the Denton Civic Center, which could not facilitate many of its productions. The DCT was in need of a new residence.

In 1990, DCT found a new home through the Campus Theatre. DCT saw the potential and renovation of the building as beneficial to all the arts organizations and groups in Denton. DCT proposed that the Greater Denton Arts Council expand the Arts Complex to include the Campus Theatre.

Late 1990, the Campus Theatre was purchased by GDAC. An architect was hired and plans for renovating the building were developed. DCT leased the building from GDAC, and is the resident and managing company since construction was completed in May 1995.

In 2011, DCT opened its PointBank  Black box theater for extra rehearsal space and their ever-growing Theatre School program, as well as a possible alternative performance venue.

References

Culture of Denton, Texas
Theatres in Texas
Theatres completed in 1949


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Talk on flood risk reduction
On 16 August 2013, Center for Law and Policy hosted a talk by Laila Kasuri, a recent graduate from Harvard College with a concentration in environmental sciences and engineering, titled "A Decision Support System for Flood Risk Reduction in the Indus Basin." The participants included Harvard alumni, law professors, and lawyers.
Ms. Kasuri explained Pakistan's water management problems during floods, which cause widespread devastation, and the opportunity Pakistan has to use the recent 2010 floods to have proper flood management regulations put in place. After describing the problems faced in Pakistan, Ms. Kasuri presented a case study on the Mississippi River, the largest river in the United States, and the U.S. government's response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Ms. Kasuri noted that certain tools used and techniques employed by the U.S. government after the flood were instrumental in providing a sustainable framework for effective flood disaster relief for the future. These measures can be applied to address Pakistan's water management problems with the Indus River.
Instead of employing reactionary stopgap responses to floods, long-term government legislation is needed in order to put effective water management methods in place, such as the U.S. government did after the 1927 flood with the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MRT). The use of hydraulic modeling technology, used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, can help Pakistan determine the least value lands around the Indus, which could serve as the best areas for flood water diversion. Ms. Kasuri demonstrated this by creating three maps of a sample area in Southern Punjab and Northern Sindh. The first map indicates where valuable agricultural lands are situated around the river. The second map displays population density in the sample area, and the third map shows general land use by the population in the area. By making an aggregate map of the former three, the land best suited for floodwater diversion can be pinpointed. With a diversion channel, water can be directed to low lying, low value lands in Dera Bugti, backwater areas in North Jacobabad, and to a reservoir that can be created, potentially, in Sukkur.
Ultimately, policy makers will have to make decisions keeping in mind the rising population and monetary restraints, but the 2010 floods created an opportunity for them to readdress Pakistan's flood management issues. To start, a centralize flood plan should be created to address where diversion channels can be created to reach lands that can more properly deal with flood water. People who live in those areas should be informed of the flood risk they are exposed to and those who relocate should be properly compensated. Better land use and improved infrastructure, especially along the Indus, will also go a long way in helping Pakistan develop their water management and flood response regulations.
The talk was followed by a Q&A session. In the end, Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad [LL.M. (Harvard); Founder and Director, Center for Law and Policy] thanked Ms. Kasuri for sharing her views on this issue of national interest.


Life and days as an insurance guy mainly Health & Life as well as other businesses. Family and fun.
Jay Carlton's Snapchat username is @insureguy. Follow him for more about Health & Life Insurance and business.
Jay Carlton currently has a total of 7 reviews with an average rating of 5 out of 5.
An expert in health insurance, Jay shares the important things you need to consider when reviewing your plans.
It's particularly helpful to consult him whenever you have questions. His advice on Snap is always free. And actionable.
One of my favorite interactors because of his humor. He will make you laugh and you will get a ton of information along the way! He is a great guy!
Jay's snaps are a fantastic example of "taking Snapchat to work", and you get to see that Jay can have lots of fun as an insurance guy! I've learned a lot, and he's really funny too!
Jay is funny, kind and smart - I'm blessed to know him and grateful for his support!
Jay is a wonderful part of the snapchat community! You can learn lots from him and he is easy to talk to.
Love to watch Jays stories. He is also great at connecting with snap friends.


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Guardian publishes pro-Corbyn letter signed by anti-Semites (Update)
By Adam Levick on July 9, 2019 • ( 58 Comments )
The Guardian published a letter yesterday signed by 100 'Jews' (see below) objecting to a previous letter by over 100 Labour MPs protesting the Labour Party's decision to readmit Derby North MP Chris Williamson, a Corbyn ally, back into the party after he was temporarily suspended for suggesting Labour was "too apologetic" about antisemitism.
The letter (Jewish support for Chris Williamson, July 8) repeats the familiar smear that the real aim of Jews and others who accuse Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters of antisemitism is to undermine the Labour party's leadership and "all pro-Palestinian members" – a version of what's known as the Livingstone Formulation. This term, coined by Professor David Hirsh, refers to a line of argument insisting that Jews raise the issue of antisemitism cynically and dishonestly in order to silence criticism of Israel.
The full list of signatories to the letter includes extreme (non-British) anti-Israel, pro-terrorist voices such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, antisemitic conspiracy theorist Richard Falk, and anti-Zionist British Jews who've been expelled from Labour for antisemitism, such as Tony Greenstein and Jackie Walker.
Most notably, it also includes hardcore anti-Semites, such as Michael Morgan (though his name was subsequently deleted from the list) and Elleanne Green – neither of whom, by the way, are Jewish.
As many no doubt recall, Green is the founder and administrator of the now infamous pro-Corbyn antisemitic Facebook group "Palestine Live". In addition to the anti-Jewish hate (including Holocaust denial) found on the Facebook group she administers, research by David Collier and Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed that Green has used the group to personally express antisemitic beliefs and disseminate (or 'like') extreme antisemitic material and conspiracy theories – including at least one neo-Nazi article.
Whilst it's not uncommon for the Guardian to publish op-eds and letters about Israel and antisemitism by Jews who represent a minuscule anti-Zionist fringe within the community, the extremism of many of these signatories is especially troubling.
Though the Guardian occasionally acknowledges – albeit perfunctorily – the profound fears of the Jewish community amidst a Labour Party that has become institutionally antisemitic, their editorial decisions more often than not suggest an ideological inclination to legitimise those racist voices within the hard left who believe the entire row is some sort of anti-Corbyn plot hatched by 'Zionists'.
UPDATE 1: See a scathing editorial by the Jewish Chronicle about the Guardian letter here, and a statement by the Board of Deputies here.
UPDATE 2: At some point after our post, the letter was deleted from the Guardian's site "pending investigation".
Forbes fibs on Netanyahu's alleged warmongering (CAMERA)
Summary of BBC News portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians (BBC Watch)
Channel 4 News suggests PA leaders aren't responsible for poor governance (UK Media Watch)
Tagged as: anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Campaign Against Antisemitism, Chris Williamson, David Collier, David Hirsh, Elleanne Green, Guardian, Israel, Jackie Walker, Jeremy Corbyn, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Richard Falk, Tony Greenstein
UKMW prompts Daily Express to retract article with multiple 'Tel Aviv capital' claims
The Guardian newspaper: Decades of baiting British Jews
Pingback: Britain's notorious antisemites claim a friend. The Guardian. | Now in its 14th year of publication.
peterthehungarian says:
What is really scary that the article in the Jewish Chronicle condemning the Guardian's open antisemitism is just an excuse for a longish and completely irrelevant Trump bashing.
jeff21st says:
Yes, Peter. I just read the first few paragraphs of that Jewish Chronicle article, and it really does a disservice trying to set up an argument against Corbyn and Labour in this way. The press is now so partisan it cannot even agree on a given set of facts.
Pingback: 07/09 Links Pt2: The politically correct Quran; Warren I Would Push Israel to 'End Occupation' of Palestinians; Ilhan Omar Admits Lying to High School Students – 24/6 Magazine
koufaxmitzvah says:
Still supporting Trump? He's going to be outed real soon as a sure fire pedophile, but, yeah guys. He's so abused by the Media.
Still showing of your rather petty partisan bonafides?
"Still supporting Trump?"
O.K. good. You've made the assertion. Now back it up. Show me where this support is inherently beyond question in what I or peterthehunagrian wrote. It should be easy for a wiz bang such as yourself. Go ahead. Have at it.
P.S. Your down vote was added in with the down votes from a couple of antisemites, so congratulations on that, idiot.
I'm an anti-Semite because I downvoted a moron like you, Jeff?
Hey man, if you haven't figured this out yet, you're a complete dumbfuck.
No, you got backward. I knew that you would. You are a moron because you down voted with antisemites on a comment, the content of which you didn't understand.
Sorry, but it's not my job to make sure the comments don't go over your head.
No Jeff. I was commenting on you and Pete. Or did you forget your two comments that preceded mine on this thread? The ones where you two brought up politics by complaining about Trump being abused by the JC?
Jeff, do all GOPpers have this type of attention span?
Hey Jeff. Your boy Donald dingles little girls. He also likes to get peed on. Have a great week.
You misunderstood the comments.
Edward says:
km smoked too much medical maijuana.
peterthhungarian says:
A very hard case of TDS. Pointing out that an article condemning the antisemitism in a UK paper should not sink into irrelevance by being filled with the criticism of a US president is not support of Trump. Regarding his "outing as a pedophile" – the only person who has been outed as a frequent flyer on Jeffrey's "Lolita-express" is Bill Clinton.
Alexa, Put koufaxmitzvah back in his straitjacket.
I see above that Elleanne Green says she thinks, "there is no hope." Good. Then logically her next step would be to give up. That's what people do, when there is no hope. But Elleanne is a liar, so of course she is lying about this.
She also supports the claim there is a "Rothchild Caliphate." Jews don't have caliphates, but a Rothchild one certainly would be far, far superior to anything she or her pets could ever replicate, especially from a humanitarian and human rights perspective. One glance at the ME is all the proof needed.
Sorry, I misspelled "Rothschild" twice. I guess I'm getting old.
Do you know how you sometimes have a mental image of someone without ever having met the person? For some reason, I have always pictured you as a fair-haired twenty-something (not because of the "21st." I think that you've mentioned that you live in LA. Maybe that's why.)
I don't live in LA. I used to live in the SF Bay Area, but I'm originally and forever a New Yorker now living in exile.
I'll take the twenty-something as a compliment. I am "forever young."
Ok, just keep us out of the same room when there's sports on TV. LOL!
You have certainly demonstrated that you don't know good journalism.
Farmer, an anti-Semitism apologist, who likely also believes that complaints about anti-Semitism are given "too much ground."


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text:
Home :: Military :: Library :: News :: 2004 :: April ::
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
BURUNDI-DRC: Deployment of UN Kivu Brigade under way
NAIROBI, 15 Apr 2004 (IRIN) - Deployment of a brigade of UN peacekeeping troops to the Kivus, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remains on track and the entire unit could be operational by 31 May, the military spokesman of the UN Mission in the DRC, Maj Abdou Thiam, said on Wednesday.
"The brigade headquarters is already set up in Bukavu," he said at a news conference in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. "Some of the Uruguayan blue helmets have already arrived in Uvira. The South Africans will soon deploy to Rutshuru."
When fully deployed, he said, the unit, known as the Kivu Brigade, would operate along the entire DRC-Burundi frontier. This was the reason for the visit to the Kivus and Burundi by the commander of UN forces in the DRC, Gen Samaila Iliya.
In Burundi, Iliya met the Burundian chief of general staff, Germain Niyoyankana, to discuss the deployment. Thiam said that the close proximity of Bujumbura's airport to Bukavu would make the Burundian capital ideal to serve the brigade's activities.
Iliya also held talks with the Burundian army's chief of operations, Brig-Gen Celestin Ndahyisaba; the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Burundi, Berhanu Dinka; the chairman of the Joint Ceasefire Commission, El Hadj Alioune Samba; and other civilian and military officials. Thiam said these meeting centred on the coordination of efforts to monitor the DRC-Burundi border and enforce the arms embargo in eastern DRC.
During his visit to the eastern city of Goma, Iliya met the commander of the 8th Military Region, Gen Obed Rwibasira, for discussions on the coordination of UN troops and those of the Armed Forces of the DRC. Together they toured the province of North Kivu, where Obed addressed his men. The tour also presented Iliya with an opportunity to express condolences to the South African contingent, which lost six soldiers on 6 April when their armoured vehicle plunged into a river.
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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Charter School "Push Out" Myth Is Debunked in a New Study of Newark
First Lady Michelle Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker sit with children at the Maple Avenue School in Newark, N.J., Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010.
A common critique of charter schools is that the publicly funded but privately operated schools of choice systematically "push out" students who require specialized services or are struggling academically. As Adam Kho, Andrew McEachin, and Ron Zimmer recently discussed on this site, prior studies have failed to find evidence that such students are more likely to exit from charter schools than from traditional public schools. However, while informative, these studies have at least two limitations. First, they do not use research designs capable of distinguishing the causal effect of attending a charter school on student mobility from the effect of pre-existing differences between students who enroll in the charter or traditional public school sector. Second, they do not speak to whether any across-sector differences in student attrition are specific to charter schooling or rather a product of students attending a school they chose instead of a school to which they were assigned.
In a new study released by the Wheelock Educational Policy Center, we use data from Newark, New Jersey to address both of these limitations. Our results represent the clearest evidence to date contradicting the common claim that charter schools systematically push out hard-to-serve students.
To carry out this study, we take advantage of Newark's use of a universal enrollment system that assigns students to all traditional public and the large majority of charter schools (from here, "participating schools"). The centralized system offers students seats according to an algorithm that takes into account the student's rank-ordered school assignment preferences, priorities that schools have for certain students (e.g., sibling at the school, student lives in a particular neighborhood), and a randomized lottery number used for breaking ties between students with similar preferences and priority status. Our analyses rely on our ability to observe school placements and students' rank-ordered school assignment preferences revealed within the school assignment process.
We apply a recently developed strategy that uses the randomized component of the enrollment system to estimate the causal effect of enrolling in a charter school on later student outcomes. As in a more conventional random assignment study, this research design compares the later outcomes of students who enrolled in a charter school to students who enrolled in a traditional public school who were equally likely to be offered a charter school seat but were not because of how the random lottery numbers happened to fall. The study looks at 13,868 students who participated in the city's universal enrollment system over a span of four years, 2014-15 through to 2017-18.
We find that attending a participating Newark charter school substantially reduces student mobility. On average, students were about 22.4 percentage points less likely to leave their school in the next two years if they enrolled in a participating charter than if they had enrolled in a traditional public school.
A complicating factor when interpreting this result is that Newark's charters are in such high demand that most students attending one are also attending one of their most preferred schools. That is, perhaps the effect we have unveiled is not specific to attending a charter school but rather also occurs for students who enroll in a traditional public school they preferred. Our ability to observe students' school preferences allows us to investigate this issue in a novel way. In particular, when we add to the regression controls for the student's rank order of the school, the estimated effect of enrolling in a charter school is cut by more than half but remains a statistically significant 9.6 percentage points. Thus, both charter schooling and enrolling in a preferred school independently reduce student attrition.
We find that enrolling in a charter school not only decreases student mobility for the average charter entrant but also for students within subgroups that charters are often accused of pushing out. Enrolling in a charter school rather than a traditional public school causes a 10.8 percentage point reduction in the probability that students with a disability leave their school within the next two years. English language learners are about 16.3 percentage points less likely to exit their school if they enroll in a charter than if they had enrolled in a traditional public school. Enrolling in a charter school doesn't significantly impact the mobility of Hispanic students. And the effect of enrolling in a charter school on student mobility does not depend on the student's test scores the year before they entered the school.
Finally, we take the opportunity to dig deeper into the question of why the percentage of students within charter schools who receive special education services is lower than in traditional public schools—a common pattern in cities like Newark with a sizable charter presence. In particular, using our causal research design we show that enrolling in a participating charter school increases the likelihood that a student with a disability is later declassified out of special education, but it does not impact the probability that a student is newly identified for special education services. These results mirror those from Boston reported in a recent paper by Tuft's Elizabeth Setren that was also highlighted in Education Next. The results provide further evidence suggesting that this enrollment gap between charter and traditional public schools is in part explained by differences in how the sectors classify students.
Our study of Newark's charter sector provides new insights and challenges some common beliefs about the factors that drive student mobility and demographic differences between charter and traditional public schools. To be clear, our results do not exclude the possibility that charter schools have inappropriately excluded students in some specific cases. Rather, our finding that, on average, enrolling in a charter school reduces the likelihood that a student exits their school strongly suggests that such behavior is not systematic within participating charter schools in Newark. And the fact that this result holds also for students with disabilities and English learners implies that charter schools do not systematically push out such students who enroll. Rather than focusing on push-out, policymakers seeking to reduce enrollment gaps between charter and traditional public schools should instead look for ways to increase demand for charter schools within targeted subpopulations.
Marcus A. Winters is an associate professor in Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He is also faculty director of the Wheelock Educational Policy Center. Allison Gilmour is an assistant professor at Temple University College of Education and Human Development. Colin Shanks is a PhD candidate in economics at Boston University.
The post Charter School "Push Out" Myth Is Debunked in a New Study of Newark appeared first on Education Next.
By: Marcus A. Winters
Title: Charter School "Push Out" Myth Is Debunked in a New Study of Newark
Sourced From: www.educationnext.org/charter-school-push-out-myth-is-debunked-study-of-newark/
Published Date: Tue, 11 May 2021 15:13:00 +0000
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Entertainment Reviews, Entertainment TV and Films
Rush Hour (1998) review
Rush Hour is an action, comedy, buddy cop movie that was released in 1998. It was directed by Brett Ranter, with writing by Ross LaManna and Jim Kouf, music by Lalo Schifin and was produced by Roger Birnbaun, Jonathan Glickman and Arthur Sarkissian. Members of the cast include Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Ken Leung, Tom Wilkison and Tzi Ma.
Warning this review will contain spoilers, if you have not seen this movie, I recommend it as it is a very entertaining flick.
The story revolves around detective Lee of the Hong Kong Police force with some seriously good martial arts fighting skills, and LAPD detective James Carter a confident and very loudmouth cop. They are brought from two different counties where they must work together in order to rescue Soo Yung the daughter of the Chinese consul Solon Han, who has recently been kidnapped by the Infamous crime lord Juntao. Juntao threatens to kill Han's daughter unless a large ransom is paid, (This is also seen as payback against Han for sending Lee to bust up his criminal operations in Hong Kong). At first Carter tries to keep Lee away from the investigation so he can try and solve the crime by himself, however after some major bonding time which included a great dance scene to the song "war" the two decided that working together is the only way to save Soo Yung.
Later on, they come to a restaurant that Juntao is hold up in, it there that we learn the shocking identity of the crime lord, that is none other than Thomas Griffin (The British Police Commander and close friend of Solon Han) When he finds out about both Lee and Carter, he has his right-hand man Sang Calibri Bold stay behind to kill them. Fortunately, they both made it out unharmed, however Juntao then raised the ransom to 70 million dollars as punishment for the two cops trying to track him down.
For their off-duty actions Lee was ordered back to Hong Kong and Carter was taken off the case. But Carter, (with the way of words he has) manages to convince Lee that they are the only ones who can stop Juntao. (Also did a forget to mention he snuck onto the plan in order to do the convincing). They both soon find out that Griffin is Juntao. In the final battle they are able to rescue Soo Yung and disarm the bomb strapped to her chest, Carter subdues Sang and Griffins is taken into custardy. As a reward for saving his daughter Han sends both Lee and Carter on a well-earned holiday to Hong Kong, Carter is also offered an FBI place, but he rejects the offer as he wishes to remain in LAPD. The movie ends with them both on the flight to Hong Kong and Lee closes the movie with a sing song of "WAR".
This was a brilliant movie. One example of this was thanks to Jackie Chan and his amazing marital arts fighting scenes. This was great because it made the fight scenes more entertaining and who doesn't love a bit of good old marital arts fighting, an example of these fight scenes was when Lee broke into the US embassy, and he thought against the people who he was supposed to be helping (although the embassy didn't know at first that he was the man Han sent for, so we'll let Lee of the hock there). Chris Tucker's James carter was also a brilliant addiction to the movie because he's loudmouth attitude made the movie extremely funny and amusing.
I also thought that the villain reveal was great as well, this was because Griffin revealed that he sees himself as a collector of priceless object. By using his identity of Juntao and his hold over Hong Kong he could smuggle as many Chinese artifacts he wanted out of the country. But when Lee and Han ruined his operations and took back all the artifacts, (that he felt belong to him) Griffin made a plan to make them all pay him back for everything they took.
I also really liked the use of the song War by Edwin Starr. This was good because not only is it a great song to listen too it was also a great song for Lee and Carter to dance to. Also, it was fitting that this song be the ending number.
Overall, I thought this was a great Buddy cop movie and again if anyone hasn't seen this movie, please do watch it because it is so good.
ben4
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What we do in the Shadows (2015) review
Lewis Walker
Brilliant review, Ben! Rush Hour is definitely one of my favourite comedy movies of all time. I love the action and fight sequences too.
19/08/2022 at 12:12 PM - Log in to Reply
Thanks Lewis and yeah Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker work great together.
19/08/2022 at 1:04 PM - Log in to Reply
Agreed, I don't think it would have worked as well with anyone else!
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Алекса́ндра Па́вловна Жига́лова (род. 15 сентября 1929 года) — советская и российская актриса театра. С 1960 года работает в Оренбургском областном драматическом театре имени М. Горького. Народная артистка Российской Федерации (1999).

Биография
Родилась в селе Стрелецкое Белгородской области. В 1946 году окончила среднюю школу в городе Белгород, начала свой творческий путь актрисы во вспомогательном составе труппы Белгородского театра драмы им. Щепкина. В 1960 году была принята в труппу Оренбургского областного драматического театра имени М. Горького, где работает и по сей день.

Театральные работы

 «Отец» А. Стриндберг — Кормилица
 «Великодушный рогоносец» Ф. Кроммелинк — Кормилица Романи
 «Три сестры» А. П. Чехов — Анфиса
 «Прощальная гастроль князя К.» по Ф. М. Достоевскому — Фелисата Михайловна
 «Очень простая история» М. Ладо — Лошадь Сестричка
 «Невидимый любовник» В. Газенклевер — Дама
 «Бесталанная» И. Карпенко-Карый — Явдоха
 «Клинический случай» Р. Куни — Мамаша
 «Берег неба» В. Асовский, Л. Зайкаускас по мотивам произведений Тонино Гуэрры — Почтальон
 «Ричард III» У. Шекспир — Герцогиня Йоркская, мать короля Эдуарда IV, Кларенса и Глостера

Звания и награды
 Заслуженная артистка РСФСР (1967)
 Народная артистка Российской Федерации (26 января 1999 года) — за большие заслуги в области искусства
 Орден Дружбы народов (22 августа 1986 года)
 Благодарность Министра культуры и массовых коммуникаций Российской Федерации (30 августа 2006 года) — за многолетний плодотворный труд, значительный вклад в развитие театрального искусства Оренбуржья и в связи с 150-летием со дня основания Оренбургского государственного областного драматического театра им. М.Горького.

Примечания