If you want to stroke the hand of Lady Luck, then head for the south side of the island. Gambling is legal only on the Dutch side with 9 casinos, including Rouge et Noir, Coliseum, Atlantis and Lightning. However, the largest is Casino Royale at the Maho Beach Hotel.
Also at the Maho, is The Gizmo Overlounge a hip night club with house music and a trendy setting.
The Studio 7 discoteque at Grand Casino in Mullet Bay is a popular place to hang out with locals and dance to the latest hits. It starts late, so head to the infamous Cheri's Bar first, only a five-minute walk from the club, for a few drinks and friendly conversation. Other hotspots are the News Music Cafe, Greenhouse, Indiana Beach and Amnesia.
The sidesplitting Comedy Club has stand-up comedians everyday except Monday nights.
Most of the comedians are from HBO or Carsons, and they bring in large crowds. Most resorts have live performances, such as limbo dancing, fire-eating entertainers and live music, for guests and visitors.
In Philipsburg, The News is favored for dancing and provides live concerts every other night. Another somewhat offbeat option is the AXUM Jazz Cafe, which offers an eclectic selection of entertainment, such as live jazz and reggae music, dramatic presentations and poetry readings. The cafe also serves as a gallery for the Caribbean's finest contemporary artists to display their works of art.
Sun Star Cruises, a party and dinner cruise boat, offers Sunset Dinner Cruises, Moonlight Party Cruises and Special Custom Charters. The four-hour sunset dinner cruise includes two glasses of wine or champagne, dinner buffet and entertainment. On the other hand, the Moonlight party features two glasses of wine or rum punch, snacks, entertainment and a nightly dancing contest. Special custom charters are catered for weddings, anniversaries and special events.


Second in a series of commemorative ornaments from the West Volusia Historical Society.
They are available for $12, or in a cushioned plastic display box for $14, or as a key-chain for $13 (including sales tax).
You can purchase here online. Or call us at 386.740.6813, send an email to delandhouse@msn.com, or stop by the Conrad Center at 137 W. Michigan Avenue in DeLand. Open Tuesday - Saturday, 12 noon to 4 pm.
The 1st ornament in the series - the Courthouse - is also available. Buy both of the ornaments in the series for $25 (Sales Tax Included).
IMPORTANT: Use the scroll down arrow to select your purchase option BEFORE you click on the Buy Now button.


Gut schütteln. Aus mindestens 15 cm Entfernung auf die gesunde Haut sprühen.
Butane, Isobutane, Propane, Aluminum Chlorohydrate, Cyclopentasiloxane, PPG-14 Butyl Ether, Parfum, Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Disteardimonium, Octyldodecanol, BHT, Dimethiconol, Propylene Carbonate, PEG-4, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Coumarin, Eugenol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.


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I first tried Four Pillars 'Rare Dry Gin' on Wednesday night when I ran into Adam Gottschalk (ex-Dxcel) and Wendy Yang (ex-Q Bar / Q-Mex) who are working with the company. We met on a south Sanlitun side-street, they had an open bottle from a tasting earlier that night, and I sampled it there and then. I found it quite potent in terms of flavor and a bit phenolic. Admittedly, I'd tasted some 30 ice wines earlier that day so my taste buds might have been off.
The next night, I went to a trade tasting at Parlor and tried several cocktails made with Four Pillars. This spirit, made in the Yarra Valley in Australia, pours at 41.8 percent.
The best cocktail I tried was the Negroni, with this pretty punchy gin — some distinct citrus, bitter and spicy elements — embracing the vermouth and Campari in its grip. One of the company's partners, James Gosper, said they use whole oranges in the process and that it works well in a Negroni. Sold me.
The gin and Watson's tonic was good although using a spirit that costs rmb400-plus per bottle–I'm basing that on a retail price of almost 70 dollars at Dan Murphy's in Australia–seems a bit excessive in such a drink.
Coming in third was the martini. I found those same punchy attributes made for a pretty intense drink. Maybe a different vermouth, one that involves whole oranges, would have worked better? Or perhaps I should have the martini before the Negroni.
Anyway, interesting times at Parlor, and it will be fun to try this gin at some venues around town. Also good to meet lots of people, including some I haven't seen in ages, like Frankie Zou of Domus, Moto Ichuyama of Mokihi / Twilight, Eric Li of Mao Mao Chong, event planner Ian Syer, and Ethan Liu of Diageo. Plus a few others whose names I had forgotten and, I believe, who had also forgotten mine. That doesn't seem to matter, though, when you're already on your third drink.


ME: are you paying for dinner?
@4ScoreN20Bowls: It is possible to chew and swallow $80 of shrooms in the length of time it takes the cop to walk from his car to yours.
@crunchenhanced: I like my women how I like my microwaved food. Hot as hell on the outside and cold as ice on the inside.
@HomeProbably: The human liver can withstand up to 97% damage and make a full recovery. Yet not one doctor will accept this as an argument for alcoholism.
@realHamOnWry: Sometimes you'll hate a person when you first meet because it saves time.
@girl_a_whirl: A spider crawled on my son's hand today. I did what any father would do. I mean, Luke Skywalker seems like a productive member of society.


Robotics is very fun because I get to build. We also have a game called Rover Ball which is very fun.
Robotics teams are made of six members. The team travels to competitions. This year it was in St. Louis, MO. For the 2016 World Expo we won the master programmer trophy. People from all around the world came to St. Louis for the competition.
This year the challenge was Waste Wise. Our team did research on recycling plastic water bottles.
Our meetings are fun, too. We have snacks and on our last session we will have an awards ceremony.
Why did the cook go to the doctor?
We like the iPad App Smash Hit because it is really fun. We like how you can hit the diamonds. Smash hit has cool music and the background graphics are excellent.
We love robotics! We like it because you program and build with LEGO bricks. .You can build things like hotels, an Oreo cookie, cake, houses and simple machines. You can also get snacks. You get snacks like chips and tangerines. You program EV3 to do do tricks. There is something called Mars Mission. You program the EV3 to get things and push things. Our project is called MineCraft world. Hope you join robotics. Bye bye!!!!
In Lego Robotics we have built the biggest creations. For example one of our projects is called Minecraft World. The girls are jealous and take pieces from us. We have built 7 big creations. We do cool stuff and build amazing things. Our creations are cool, because there are a lot of people in our group. We have snacks. That is what we do in Lego Robotics.
Swimming is so fun in Wise School. It has the best techers ever.
There are so many people who swim. It is at the pool.
1.Why was 6 afraid of 7.
2.Why did the bird go to the library?
To find a book worm.
3.What intstrument do you find in the bathroom?
4. What do you call a busy girl?
5. Where dose the U.S. keep there army.
Here are some important things to know about cooking and baking. You always want to measure the ingredients that you use. Make sure that your food is not over cooked or under cooked. Do not over season your food. You also want to make sure that everything has a good consistency. For example, if you make whipped cream do not over whip it or it will become butter. Do not underwhip it or it will not be creamy.
We love cooking and baking.


text:
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text:
Joachim Yeshaya
Moses' Blessing Through the Eyes of a Karaite Poet and Commentator
https://thetorah.com/article/moses-blessing-through-the-eyes-of-a-karaite-poet-and-commentator
Aaron ben Joseph (ca. 1250–1320), a Karaite exegete from Constantinople, wrote poetry for each Torah reading. His poem for Moses' blessing of the tribes, in conjunction with his prose commentary, Sēfer ha-miḇḥār, offer a glimpse into the world of Byzantine Karaite biblical interpretation.
Vezot HaBerachah
Twelve tribes, from The Pictorial Bible and Commentator, 1878. Wikimedia.
Aaron ben Joseph: Exegete and Poet
Cover page of Sēfer ha-miḇḥār by Aaron ben Joseph, 13th c. work, 1835 printing.
The Byzantine Karaite author Aaron ben Joseph ha-Rofe (ca. 1250–1320), also referred to as Aaron the Elder,[1] lived for some time in Crimea, where he may have been born, but was primarily active in the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. He authored a Torah commentary ספר המבחר, (Sēfer ha-miḇḥār, The Choice Book), which has earned a central place in the Karaite library and has been well studied over the centuries. This innovator in a number of fields is also credited with reforming the Karaite prayer book, a signature feature of which was the insertion of his own poetry (in the form of introductions to each Torah reading).[2] He possessed a combination of skills (exegesis and poetry) reminiscent of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167), his renowned Rabbanite predecessor.[3]
Just as signs of poetic creativity can be identified in Aaron the Elder's exegetical works, signs of exegetical thinking can be discerned in his poetic compositions. A good example of exegesis in poetry can be found in Aaron the Elder's poem for the final Torah portion, pārāshat Zōt ha-bĕrākhā, Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12 (for the full poem, see appendix).[4]
Line 1—The Man of God Blesses Jeshurun
The poem starts with an introduction (line 1):
אִישׁ אֱלֹהִים בֵּרַךְ לְשִׁבְטֵי יְשֻׁרוּן הַבְּרוּרִים
The man of God blessed Jeshurun's selected tribes.
The epithet "man of God" picks up on the language of the verse which introduces the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy:
דברים לג:א וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּרַךְ מֹשֶׁה אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי מוֹתוֹ.
Deut 33:1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the people of Israel before his death.[5]
In contrast to the biblical verse, the poem avoids mentioning Moses by name, a common feature of medieval Hebrew poetry about biblical heroes,[6] and instead relies on context,[7] which makes it immediately clear that Moses is the subject of the verb בֵּרַךְ. Aaron ben Joseph's use of the poetic name Jeshurun to refer to Israel builds on the final verse of the blessing's introduction:
דברים לג:ה וַיְהִי בִישֻׁרוּן מֶלֶךְ בְּהִתְאַסֵּף רָאשֵׁי עָם יַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
Deut 33:5 Then He became King in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people assembled, The tribes of Israel together.
Line 2—The Rain of Rebuke and the Dew of Blessing
The poem's second line is slightly further removed from the biblical text:
הִנֵּה מְטַר תּוֹכֵחָה וְטַל בְּרָכָה פִּיו וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ מַמְטִירִים
See, the rain of rebuke and the dew of blessing pour out of his [Moses'] mouth and tongue.
Aaron the Elder introduces here the element of rebuke, which is absent in the biblical text and seems contrary to its spirit. This same idea appears in his prose treatment of the verse in Sēfer ha-miḇḥār. In fact, the gloss in his commentary gives us the key to understanding the thinking behind the poetic line:
וזאת הברכה. כמו שהוכיח לישראל כן ברכם קודם מותו
"This is the blessing." [Moses] not only rebuked Israel but also blessed them before his death.
The point is clarified in the supercommentary to Sēfer ha-miḇḥār called Ṭīrat Kesef,[8] written by Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski (d. 1844) in nineteenth-century Crimea.
ר''ל שבא וזאת בוי''ו החבור לחבר הברכה אל התוכחות שבדברי השירה להורות שבמעמד אחד נאמרו.
Meaning to say, the term "and this" opens with a vav (i.e., a conjunction) to connect this blessing with the rebuke in the words of the song, to teach that they were said at one time.
In other words, the "rain of rebuke" refers to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, which is negative in tone, while the "dew of blessing" refers to the poem in Deuteronomy 33, which is positive in tone. Aaron the Elder's point is that the opening term "and this" is meant as a contrast: "that was a rebuke, while this is a blessing."
The poetic images of the "rain of rebuke" and the "dew of blessing" are explained in Berakha ben Joseph ha-Kohen's (eighteenth-century Crimea) piyyūṭ-commentary on Aaron the Elder's poems:[9]
ואמר הרב כי כל מה שיצא מפי משה רבנו עליו השלום, בין תוכחתו בין הברכה שברך אותם, כולם לתועלת ישראל, ומתועלים מן מאמר היוצא מפיו כמטר וטל שהם מרווים הארץ ומולידים ומצמיחים אותה, וכמו שהטל והמטר מועילים לארץ תועלת גדולה כן ברכת ותוכחת משה רוענו עליו השלום מועיל לישראל תועלות גדולות, ולכוונה זאת תאר הרב ברכת ותוכחת משה רוענו עליו השלום, לטל ולמטר מצד תועלתו, כמו שמשה רוענו עליו השלום תאר ודימה דבריו כטל ומטר, כמו שכתוב: יערף כמטר לקחי תזל כטל אמרתי, וכולי [דברים לב,ב].
And the Rabbi [Aaron ben Joseph] meant that everything that came out of the mouth of Moses our Teacher―Peace be upon him―not only his rebuke but also the blessing with which he blessed them, everything was for the benefit of Israel. They could do well from the teaching coming out of his mouth just as the rain and the dew saturate the land and make it sprout and grow plants. Just as the dew and the rain are of great benefit to the land, so the blessing and rebuke of Moses our Leader―Peace be upon him―is of great benefit to Israel. And therefore, R. [Aaron ben Joseph] described the blessing and the rebuke of Moses our Leader―Peace be upon him―in terms of dew and rain and their benefit, just as Moses our Leader―Peace be upon him―described and likened his words to dew and rain, as it is written: "May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew [Deut 32:2]."
Berakha ben Joseph does not discuss the exegetical point about the function of the word וזאת, but he does add an important element here. Aaron's poem employs imagery from Deuteronomy 32 to introduce the poem in Deuteronomy 33, further tying the two biblical compositions together as his rebuke vs. blessing comment does.
Line 3—YHWH Came on / from Sinai
Line 3 reads,
רֹאשׁ דְּבָרָיו יוָי אֲשֶׁר בָּא בְּסִינַי בְּהוֹד וַהֲדָרִים
He [i.e., Moses] opened his words with "YHWH who came on Sinai" (cf. Deut 33:2) in majestic splendor.
The poem is ostensibly quoting the opening line of the blessing of Moses, except that
The word order is shifted;
The spelling of the Divine Name is different;[10]
The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר is not found in the biblical text;
The preposition attached to the word "Sinai" here is בְּ instead of the biblical מִן "from":יְ־הוָה מִסִּינַי בָּא , "YHWH came from."
This last part of the paraphrase is not simply an issue of spelling or word choice; it changes the meaning of the text. Aaron the Elder discussed the fourth detail about the preposition in Sēfer ha-miḇḥār's gloss on the verse:
ה' מסיני בא. י''א המ''ם מקום בי''ת
"Hashem came from Sinai." And some say the mēm is in the place of a bēt.
In other words, even though the biblical text says that YHWH came "from Sinai" it means he came "upon Sinai." The motivation for such a reading is likely to make the verse fit the story in Exodus 19, in which YHWH descends onto Mount Sinai to reveal his message to Israel.
Unfortunately, the Karaite exegete rarely cited his exegetical models by name, and his commentaries are peppered with expressions such as וי''א "and some say." Here again, Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski's supercommentary is particularly useful. In this case, he notes Aaron's source explicitly:
י''א המ''ם מקום בי''ת. כן פירש הגאון רב סעדיה
And some say the mēm is in the place of a bēt. It was R. Saʿadya Gaon who interpreted in such a way.
What we learn from the poem that is not in the commentary is that Aaron the Elder, in all likelihood via Abraham Ibn Ezra's commentary to Deut 33:2, adopts Saʿadya's reading as correct—despite the fact that Saʿadya often polemicized aggressively against Karaites—which is why he changes the preposition to the "correct" one.[11]
Lines 4–5—Blessing of the Tribes
The next lines (4–5) read:
נִחַל לְעַמּוֹ תּוֹרָה צֶדֶק וּמִשְׁפָּט וּמֵישָׁרִים
He allotted to his people Torah (cf. Deut 33:4), justice, law and righteousness.
בָּרֵךְ יְבָרֵךְ לְבַָנָיו הַיְּקָרִים
Surely, he blessed his [i.e., Jacob's] precious sons.
The first line here includes a rewording of the first half of Deut 33:4:
דברים לג:ד תּוֹרָה צִוָּה לָנוּ מֹשֶׁה
Deut 33:4 Moses commanded us a law.
Line 5, however, is a bridge to the bulk of the poem, as it forms a good introduction to the actual blessing of the tribes dealt with in lines 6–18. As Aaron the Elder rewrites the blessings, he follows the order of tribes in the pārāsha, from Reuben to Asher, including the omission of Simeon. Yet in contrast to the biblical text, in which Levi and Joseph get extra long laudations, in the poem each tribe is allotted one line, with two exceptions: Reuben and Levi are each given two lines.
To get a sense for how he rewrites the blessings, we will look at two examples: the two-line blessing of Reuben (lns 6–7) and the one-line blessing of Naphtali (ln 17).
Lines 6–7—Reuben
The blessing of Reuben reads:
יְחִי רְאוּבֵן / וְאַל יָמוֹת כְּמוֹת סוֹרְרִים
Let Reuben live, and not die the death of rebels;
וּמְתָיו / לֹא יִפָּקְדוּ מִסְּפוּרִים
So that none of his few men will be missing.
The poem starts with a word for word citation from Deut 33:6, יְחִי רְאוּבֵן וְאַל יָמוֹת "Let Reuben live, and not die" to which Aaron the Elder adds, "the death of rebels," which seems to refer to the gruesome death of the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, mentioned in Numbers 16 in conjunction with Korah's rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Yet the poetic addition might also allude to Reuben's own misconduct with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Gen 35:22).[12] Reuben's wrongdoing is mentioned also in Sēfer ha-miḇḥār on Deut 33:6:
וי''א יחי ראובן בחיי העולם הבא ולא יזכר עליו עון פילגש אביו
And some say, Let Reuben live in the World to Come, and may the iniquity with his father's concubine not be remembered.[13]
The next line is more interesting for our dual-genre analysis. The word מְתָיו as part of a request that Reubenites not go missing obviously reflects the words of Moses' blessing, וִיהִי מְתָיו מִסְפָּר "but let his men be numbered" or "though his men be few" but the exact concern is only clear once we read the gloss of Sēfer ha-miḇḥār on Deuteronomy 33:6:
ואמר יחי ראובן, כלומר שבטו, שהוא הבכור והקדימו, והטעם כשיעברו חלוצים לפני אחיהם בני ישראל לא יפקד איש במלחמת האויב כי יצא מהמלחמה ויפקד ולא יחפר ממנו איש אלא יהיו מתיו ואנשיו במספרם, כענין עבדיך נשאו את ראש אנשי המלחמה אשר בידנו ולא נפקד ממנו איש [במדבר לא]
And he said: "Let Reuben live," that is, his tribe, for [Reuben] is the firstborn and the eldest, and the meaning is that when they go out as spearheads in front of their brothers, the sons of Israel, not a man will be missing in the war with the enemy, for they leave the war without any missing or buried man; rather, their people and their men will be in full muster, as in [the biblical verse]: "Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our command, and there is not a man missing from us." (Num 31:49)
Aaron is drawing on multiple biblical sources to round out his reading. First, he explains that the reason Moses is worried about Reuben's numbers is because this tribe (admittedly along with Gad) has promised to be the vanguard during the upcoming war in Canaan. Furthermore, Aaron interprets the blessing as a hope that no soldiers of Reuben at all will be killed, in keeping with what happened with the war against Midian, during which no Israelites were killed. In other words, he is translating the line, "and let his men remain the same number."
Line 17—Naphtali
Aaron the Elder's remarkable success in introducing identical or similar language in his prose and poetic treatments of the biblical text is highlighted well in his treatment of the blessing of Naphtali:
וְנַפְתָּלִי שְׂבַע רָצוֹן יִהְיֶה בְּאֵין מַחְסֹרִים
Naphtali will be sated with favor (Deut 33:23) without shortages.
The first part of this verse is clearly taken from the biblical text,
דברים לג:כג נַפְתָּלִי שְׂבַע רָצוֹן וּמָלֵא בִּרְכַּת יְ־הוָה יָם וְדָרוֹם יְרָשָׁה.
Deut 33:23 O Naphtali, sated with favor and full of YHWH's blessing, take possession of the west and south.
The second part, however, rewrites the positive description "full of blessing" with the inverse "without shortages." The connection between these two phrases is made in his gloss on the verse in Sēfer ha-miḇḥār on Deut 33:23:
שבע רצון. כמו זקן ביתו [בראשית כד] שאינו חסר מכל דבר ומלא ברכת ה'
"Sated with favor." Like "the oldest of his household" [Gen 24:2, referring to Abraham's most senior servant], who does not lack anything and is full of the blessing of Hashem.
In other words, the meaning of "full of blessing" is being without shortages.
Lines 19–21—The Death of Moses by a Divine Kiss
We noted above one example where Aaron the Elder followed the interpretation of Saʿadya and Ibn Ezra, despite the fact that they were rabbinites and not Karaites. In fact, Aaron the Elder made use of other rabbinic exegetical works in writing his poem. A good example of this is the section about the death of Moses (19–21):
וַיַּעַל נְבִיא יוָי אֶל הַר הָעֲבָרִים
Then the prophet of the Lord [i.e., Moses] ascended (Deut 34:1) to Mount Abarim[14]
וַיָּמָת שָׁם בִּנְשִׁיקַת אַדִּיר הָאַדִּירִים
And he died there (Deut 34:5) by a kiss from the Mightiest One [i.e., God];
וַיִּקְבֹּר אֹתוֹ בְּמָר דְּרוֹר מְקוֹם אַבְקַת עֲפָרִים
He buried him (Deut 34:6) with flowing myrrh[15] in the dust of the earth.
The biblical text says nothing about a "kiss of death." In the corresponding passage from Sēfer ha-miḇḥār (Deut 34:5), Aaron ben Joseph writes:
ונכון הוא שמת בנשיקה וזה סוד גדול
It is correct that he [i.e., Moses] died by a kiss, but this is a great secret.
Although this confirms that his poem and his commentary were on the same page in this regard, it does little to explain the basis for this description, which seems to be an interpretation of the final phrase in the verse,
דברים לד:ה וַיָּמָת שָׁם מֹשֶׁה עֶבֶד יְ־הוָה בְּאֶרֶץ מוֹאָב עַל פִּי יְ־הוָה.
Deut 34:5 So Moses the servant of YHWH died there in the land of Moab, according to the mouth of YHWH.
In context, "mouth" conveys the sense of "command," and thus ʿal pī ʿădonāy means "at God's command." And yet, the literal meaning of ʿal pī ʿădonāy is "by the mouth of YHWH," which prompted the midrashic legend found in multiple rabbinic texts that Moses died by a divine kiss.[16] Admittedly, this is one of the rare instances where Aaron favors a dĕrāsh interpretation over a pĕshāṭ reading (even though the latter is found in ibn Ezra, whom Aaron often uses).
In an attempt to explain this unusual choice, Berakha ben Joseph ha-Kohen suggested in his piyyūṭ-commentary:
ונראה שהנשיקה שאמרו חכמים הוא דרך דרש, אבל הרב מסכים לזה כמו שאמר הרב בספרו ה'מבחר', ונכון הוא שמת בנשיקה וזה סוד גדול. רוצה לומר שהנשיקה יש לה סוד שאינו כפשוטו אלא רומז אל הדבקות העצמיי כמו שביארנו
And it seems that the kiss which the sages talked about is by way of dĕrāsh, yet R. [Aaron ben Joseph] approved of it, as he said in his Sēfer ha-miḇḥār, "It is correct that he [i.e., Moses] died by a kiss, but this is a great secret." That is to say, the kiss holds a secret not according to its plain meaning but refers to an internal dvēqūt ('dedication, clinging on [to God]')[17], as we have explained."[18]
According to Berakha, Aaron the Elder did not really accept the rabbinic midrash, but only used the famous comment as a metaphor for his own allegorical secret, which had to do with Moses' relationship with God. Clearly, Berakha is bothered by Aaron's wholesale adoption of a purely rabbinic motif, and yet it is unknown whether Berakha is correct in his circumscribing of this adoption or whether Aaron really did simply accept the dĕrāsh.
The End of the Poem: Moses' Incomparability and Sanctification of God
The poem ends with two more sections:
Lines 22–27 deal with Moses' incomparability as a prophet; e.g. lines 22-23:
כִּי מִי כְמשֶׁה מִכָּל הַיְצוּרִים יְדָעוֹ יוָי פָּנִים אֶל פָּנִים מְאִירִים
For who is like Moses among all creatures? Whom the Lord knew face to radiant face (Deut 34:10).
Lines 28-35 are devoted to the sanctification of God, including a reference to the angelic sanctification in Isaiah 6:3 (lines 28-29):
יְדִידַי קַדְּשׁוּ לָאֵל הַבֹּחֵר לוֹ מִבְּחוּרִים בְּשִׁלּוּשׁ קָדוֹשׁ בְּמַהֲלָל וְשִׁירִים
My friends, sanctify God, who chose him [i.e. Moses] among the chosen ones, by repeating the word qādōsh "holy" three times and by means of praise and songs.
This unit is concluded by a florilegium of the first three verses from Isaiah 6, i.e., including the angelic sanctification, and is followed by a colophon, still extant in the Karaite siddur:
נשלמו הפיוטים שחבר רבינו אהרן ב''ר יוסף, תנצב''ה המזוקקים ככסף
Here comes an end to the piyyūṭīm—refined as silver—which our Rabbi Aaron ben Joseph composed, may his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life!
Exegesis and Poetry
Aaron the Elder's poetic prefaces to the Torah readings and his Sēfer ha-miḇḥār along with the Crimean (super)commentaries they generated open up the intellectual world of medieval Byzantine Karaite Judaism. The fact that Aaron wrote both poetry on the pārāshā and a prose commentary allows us to understand many of the obscure referents in his poetry and to see how exegesis underlies some of the otherwise inexplicable elements. Finally, we can see how, despite being a Karaite, he was attuned and even open to rabbinic exegesis, not just of fellow pĕshāṭ readers like Abraham Ibn Ezra, but even the midrashic tradition.
Complete text of Aaron ben Joseph's poem for pārāshat Zōt ha-bĕrākhā (Deut 33:1-34:12) with English translation.
אִישׁ אֱלֹהִים / בֵּרַךְ לְשִׁבְטֵי יְשֻׁרוּן הַבְּרוּרִים
The man of God [i.e., Moses, Deut 33:1] blessed Jeshurun's selected tribes, see,
הִנֵּה מְטַר תּוֹכֵחָה וְטַל בְּרָכָה / פִּיו וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ מַמְטִירִים
the rain of rebuke and the dew of blessing pour out of his [Moses'] mouth and tongue.
רֹאשׁ דְּבָרָיו יוָי אֲשֶׁר בָּא בְסִינַי / בְּהוֹד וַהֲדָרִים
He [i.e., Moses] opened his words with "YHWH who came on Sinai" (cf. Deut 33:2) in majestic splendor,
נִחַל לְעַמּוֹ תּוֹרָה / צֶדֶק וּמִשְׁפָּט וּמֵישָׁרִים
he allotted to his people Torah (cf. Deut 33:4), justice, law and righteousness,
בָּרֵךְ יְבָרֵךְ / לְבַָנָיו הַיְּקָרִים
surely, he blessed his [i.e, Jacob's] precious sons,
Let Reuben live, and not die (Deut 33:6) the death of rebels,
וְזֹאת לִיהוּדָה / וְעֵזֶר יוָי יִהְיֶה לּוֹ מִצָּרִים
and this [he said] of Judah: may the Lord help him against his enemies (Deut 33:7),
וּלְלֵוִי אָמַר / נֹשֵׂא תֻמִּים וְאוּרִים
And of Levi he said: carry your Thummim and Urim (Deut 33:8),
יִמְחַץ מָתְנֵי קָמָיו / וְלֹא יְקוּמוּן סֹרְרִים
smite the loins of his foes and let the rebels rise no more (Deut 33:11),
וּבִנְיָמִין יְדִיד אֵל / שָׁכַן בְּמִשְׁכְּנֵי אֵל הַטְּהוֹרִים
and Benjamin, beloved of God, rests in God's pure habitations (Deut 33:12),
וּלְיוֹסֵף אָמַר תְּבֹרָךְ אַרְצוֹ / וְלוֹ מִשְׁפָּט בְּכוֹרִים
of Joseph he said: blessed be his land (Deut 33:13) and may he have the birthright (Deut 33:16-17),
וּזְבוּלוּן יִשְׂמַח / בְּנֹפֶת צוּף נְהָרִים
and Zebulun rejoices (Deut 33:18) with streams of choice honey,
וְיִשָּׂשׂכָר בְּאֹהָלָיו / יֹדְעֵי בִינָה בְמֶחְקָרִים
and Issachar [rejoices] in his tents (Deut 33:18), gaining insight in unexplored depths (Deut 33:19; Ps 95:4),
וְגָד כְּלָבִיא יִשְׁכֹּן / וְיִטְרֹף כַּכְּפִירִים
Gad is poised like a lion to tear off [arm and scalp] like lions (Deut 33:20),
וְדַָן כְּגוּר אַרְיֶה / יְרַד בַּגִּבּוֹרִים
and Dan is like a lion's whelp (Deut 33:22) who wins against the warriors (Judg 5:13),
וְנַפְתָּלִי שְׂבַע רָצוֹן / יִהְיֶה בְּאֵין מַחְסֹרִים
Naphtali will be sated with favor (Deut 33:23) without shortages,
וְאָשֵׁר מִבָּנִים בָּרוּךְ / יְהִי רְצוּי אֶחָיו הַכְּשֵׁרִים
Asher is the most blessed of sons, the favourite of his honest brothers (Deut 33:24),
וַיַּעַל נְבִיא יוָי / אֶל הַר הָעֲבָרִים
then the prophet of the Lord [i.e., Moses] ascended (Deut 34:1) to Mount Abarim,
וַיָּמָת שָׁם / בִּנְשִׁיקַת אַדִּיר הָאַדִּירִים
and he died there (Deut 34:5) by a kiss from the Mightiest One [i.e., God],
וַיִּקְבֹּר אֹתוֹ בְּמָר דְּרוֹר / מְקוֹם אַבְקַת עֲפָרִים
He buried him (Deut 34:6) with flowing myrrh in the dust of the earth.
כִּי מִי כְמשֶׁה / מִכָּל הַיְצוּרִים
For who is like Moses among all creatures?
יְדָעוֹ יוָי / פָּנִים אֶל פָּנִים מְאִירִים
Whom the Lord knew face to radiant face (Deut 34:10; Exod 34:29),
בְּרֵאשִׁית וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת / קָרָא וְדִבֶּר אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים
"In the beginning" (Gen 1:1) and "these are the names" (Exod 1:1), he said, as well as "these are the words" (Deut 1:1),
אֵיךְ יִמְתַּק בְּהֶבְדֵּל אוֹרוֹ / אוֹר שְׁנֵי אוֹרִים
How will the light of the two lights [i.e., sun and moon] be agreeable compared to his [Moses'] light?
קוֹל לְפָנָיו קֹרֵא / פִּתְחוּ שְׁעָרִים
a voice will call before him: Open the gates (Isa 26:2),
יָבֹא זַךְ נֶאֱצָל / מִבֵּין שְׁנֵי הַמְּאוֹרִים
a pure righteous [people] will enter between the two lights,
יְדִידַי קַדְּשׁוּ לָאֵל / הַבֹּחֵר לוֹ מִבְּחוּרִים
my friends, sanctify God, who chose him [i.e. Moses] among the chosen ones,
בְּשִׁלּוּשׁ קָדוֹשׁ / בְּמַהֲלָל וְשִׁירִים
by repeating the word qādōsh "holy" three times and by means of praise and songs.
וְאִמְרוּ בְפַחַד וּמוֹרָא / יֵשֵׁב עַל כֵּס מְהֻדָּר בַּהֲדָרִים
And say with fear and reverence: may He sit on a most glorious throne,
יוֹשֵׁב עַל כִּסֵּא רָם וְנִשָּׂא / וְשׁוּלָיו מְלֵאִים אֶת הַהֵיכָל
the One who is seated on a high and lofty throne, and whose skirts [of His robe] fill the Temple (Isa 6:1),
שְׂרָפִים עֹמְדִים מִמַּעַל לוֹ / שֵׁשׁ כְּנָפַיִם שֵׁש כְּנָפַיִם לְאָחָד בִּשְׁתַּיִם
seraphs standing in attendance on Him, each of them having six wings: with two he covered his face,
יְכַסֶּה פָנָיו וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְכַסֶּה רַגְלַיו / וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְעוֹפֵף
with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly (Isa 6:2),
וְקָרָא זֶה אֶל זֶה וְאָמַר / קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ
and one would call to the other, Holy, holy, holy! (Isa 6:3)
יְהוָֹה צְבָאוֹת / מְלֹא כָל הָאֶָרץ כְּבוֹדוֹ
The Lord of Hosts! His presence fills all the earth! (Isa 6:3)
[1] This epithet is to distinguish him from his fourteenth-century successor, Aaron ben Elijah of Nicomedia, also known as Aaron the Younger.
[2] Aaron ben Joseph's cycle of 54 poems for the pārāshōt (Torah readings) appears in: Siddūr ha-tĕfillōt kĕ-minhag ha-yĕhūdīm ha-qārāʾīm, 4 vols. (Ramle, 1961–64; reprint of Vilna, 1891), vol. 1, 264-91. For a good introduction to Karaism on this site, see Daniel Lasker, "Biblical Exegesis as a Source of Jewish Pluralism: The Case of the Karaites," TheTorah.com (2017).
[3] The inquiry in this paper originated with a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2010-2016 on The Introduction of Liturgical Poetry in the Karaite Prayer Book from Moses Dar'ī to Aaron ben Joseph; one of the outcomes of this project was a volume dealing with the interdependence of exegesis and poetry among various medieval and early modern Karaite scholars, and parallel phenomena among some of their Rabbanite counterparts, see Joachim Yeshaya and Elisabeth Hollender (eds.), Exegesis and Poetry in Medieval Karaite and Rabbanite Texts, Études sur le judaïsme médiévale vol. 68 / Karaite texts and studies vol. 9 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017).
[4] This paper is based on a lecture entitled "Aaron ben Joseph's poem for the final Torah portion considered in light of Karaite and Rabbinic exegetical sources and (super)commentaries" delivered in May 2019 during a conference on New Perspectives on the History of Karaism organized at the Université libre de Bruxelles. For a similar dual-genre analysis applied to Aaron the Elder's poem for pārāshat Yitrō, see "Aaron ben Joseph's Poem for Pārāshat Yitrō considered in light of his Torah Commentary Sēfer ha-miḇḥār," in Exegesis and Poetry in Medieval Karaite and Rabbanite Texts, 207-227.
[5] English translations of the Hebrew poem are my own; translations of the Hebrew Bible are taken from the JPS Hebrew-English TANAKH. Aaron the Elder's poem for the final Torah portion is rhymed and its first four lines form an acrostic that spells the name "Aaron." However, it does not feature a meter. The text is discussed here as it appears in the Karaite prayer book, see Siddūr ha-tĕfillōt kĕ-minhag ha-yĕhūdīm ha-qārāʾīm, 4 vols. (Ramle, 1961–64; reprint of Vilna, 1891), vol. 1, 291.
[6] See for example, the rabbinic piyyut for rain on Shemini Atzeret which references multiple biblical heroes (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron) without mentioning any of their names.
[7] Although Moses is the only person to be called this in the Torah, the appellation אִישׁ אֱלֹהִים or "man of God" is a title applied to several biblical figures outside the Torah (Josh 14:6; Ps 90:1; Ezra 3:2; 1 Chr 23:14; 2 Chr 30:16). It is interesting to note that Aaron ben Joseph himself in his Sēfer ha-miḇḥār (Gozlow; Eupatoria: Finkelman, 1835, Deut 33:1) discusses this honorific title by mentioning some of these biblical figures:
איש האלהים. וכן נקראו שמואל ואליהו ועדו החוזה ודוד ואלקנה ופינחס
The man of God. Thus are called Samuel, Elijah, Iddo the Seer, David, Elkanah and Phinehas.
[8] This supercommentary was printed with the 1835 edition of Sēfer ha-miḇḥār.
[9] This piyyūṭ-commentary entitled Sēfer ṭūḇ ṭaʿam (The Book of Fine Taste) was completed in 1758; the most accessible text today is Sēfer ṭūḇ ṭaʿam lĕ-ha-Rāḇ Bĕrākhā ben Yōsēf ha-kōhēn, ed. Joseph Algamil (Ramle: Makhōn Tifʾeret Josef, 2000), 408–421 (poem on pārāshat Zōt ha-bĕrākhā).
[10] The contracted spelling יוי is used in Aramaic targums and also in other Karaite sources, see Joachim Yeshaya, Poetry and Memory in Karaite Prayer: The Liturgical Poetry of the Karaite Poet Moses ben Abraham Dar'ī, Études sur le judaïsme médiévale vol. 61 / Karaite texts and studies vol. 6 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014), 56-57.
[11] See ibn Ezra (ad loc.):
ויאמר הגאון ז״ל (האמונות והדעות ג׳:ח׳): כי הר סיני, ושעיר, ופארן קרובים, וזה הכתוב הוא על מעמד הר סיני. ואמר: כי מסיני – כמו: בסיני, וכן: משעיר.
The Gaon [Saʿadya], of blessed memory, said that Sinai and Seir and Paran are all close to one another, and that this verse refers to the Relevation at Sinai. Although the verse mentions Sinai with a mem, it is here used in the sense of 'upon Sinai', the same being the case with the word Seir.
English translation from The Commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch, trans. Jay F. Shachter (New York: Ktav, 2003), 5.171 (with slight adjustments). This verse is discussed by Saʿadya in The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, trans. Samuel Rosenblatt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948), 164-65.
[12] Editor's note: For a discussion of this story and how it was interpreted in Second Temple and rabbinic literature, see Shani Tzoref, "Did Reuben Lie with Bilhah? Yes, No, We Don't Talk about It," TheTorah (2013).
[13] This passage, which seems to reflect rabbinic discussions (cf. bSan 92:1; Targum Yerushalmi on Deut 33; Avot de-Rabbi Natan 2:45), is also treated in Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski's supercommentary to Sēfer ha-miḇḥār and in Berakha ben Joseph ha-Kohen's piyyūṭ-commentary on Aaron the Elder's poems. For more on Byzantine Karaite conceptions of the World to Come, see chapter 15 ("Afterlife and Eschatology") in Daniel Lasker, From Judah Hadassi to Elijah Bashyatchi: Studies in Late Medieval Karaite Philosophy (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008).
[14] The Karaite poet mentions the name of the mountain range Abarim, whereas Deut 34:1 mentions the names of Pisgah (the northern part of Abarim) and Mount Nebo (the highest peak of Pisgah).
[15] Myrrh was used in ancient burial rituals as an embalming material, an offering to the departed and a means to cover the odor of the dead body.
[16] Rashi and Maimonides embrace this reading, though Ibn Ezra does not. Cf. Michael Fishbane, The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 17-19 and 24-26. Aaron the Elder most probably adopted this reading from Maimonides; see Daniel Lasker's chapter on "Maimonides and Karaism—Mutual Influences" in From Judah Hadassi to Elijah Bashyatchi: Studies in Late Medieval Karaite Philosophy (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008), 155-89. During his lecture "From Judah Hadassi to Aaron ben Joseph: A Lost Century and a Half?" delivered in May 2019 during a conference on New Perspectives on the History of Karaism organized at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Prof. Lasker argued that Aaron ben Joseph followed Nissi ben Noah's recommendation to integrate rabbinic sources in Karaite writings. As to the motif of Moses' death by a divine kiss, numerous other Hebrew poems kept it in circulation; see T. Carmi, Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 95, 266-74; Leon Weinberger, The Death of Moses in the Synagogue Liturgy (Ph.D. diss. Brandeis University, 1963). The poetic motif also appears much later in a different context for instance in Rainer Maria Rilke's poem about Moses' death, see http://rainer-maria-rilke.de/100188dertodmoses.html and Samtliche Werke, vol. 2 (Frankfurt a.M. 1963), 102-3.
[17] In other words, the kiss is regarded here as referring to the soul's union with God at the moment of death. This mystical concept of dvēqūt also inspires Judah Gibbor―one of the leading Karaite scholars in Constantinople early in the Ottoman period (second half of the fifteenth century through the first or second decade of the sixteenth century)―in his poem for the final Torah portion in the Karaite prayer book:וְצִיר אֶל הַר עָלָה / וְשָׁם כָּבוֹד גָּלָה / וְנִדְבַּק בָּעִלָּה / כְאַחַד הַחֲבֵרִים "and the messenger (i.e., Moses) ascended to the mountain and there he revealed (God's) glory, he clinged on to the (First) Cause (i.e., God) as one of the ḥavērīm (companions)," see Siddūr ha-tĕfillōt kĕ-minhag ha-yĕhūdīm ha-qārāʾīm. 4 vols. (Ramle, 1961–64; reprint of Vilna, 1891), 393. Both Aaron the Elder's and Judah Gibbor's cycles of poetic prefaces to the Torah readings are still currently recited in Karaite synagogues in Israel. I am grateful to Prof. Daniel Lasker, Prof. Miriam Goldstein and Chief Rabbi Dr. Moshe Firrouz for this comment.
[18] Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski, in his Ṭīrat Kesef, also has a lengthy gloss to this passage.
Dr. Joachim Yeshaya is Doctor-Assistant in Hebrew Literature at Catholic University of Leuven (BE). He holds a Ph.D. in Arts from the University of Groningen (NL), and is the author of Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt (Brill, 2011) and Poetry and Memory in Karaite Prayer (Brill, 2014). Yeshaya is the co-editor (with Elisabeth Hollender) of Exegesis and Poetry in Medieval Karaite and Rabbanite Texts (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2017), and (with Elisabeth Hollender and Naoya Katsumata) The Poet and the World: Festschrift for Wout van Bekkum on the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday (Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2019). Since January 2019 he has been serving as editor for De Gruyter's multivolume Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR).
Karaites
Twelve Tribes
Moses, Blessing
Who Is the Eshet Chayil?
Prof.Jacqueline Vayntrub
Levites: A Transjordanian Tribe of Priests
Prof.Alexander Rofé
How to Not Address Source Criticism
Dr. RabbiAdam Mintz
Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts: The Prehistory of Chanukah


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Posts Tagged 'Gone in 60 seconds'
Tags: Beckham, BMW X5, cloning, contactless, David Beckham, fraud, Gone in 60 seconds, hacking, hi-tech, police, rfid, RFID blockers, rfid protect, rfid protected, rfid shield, rfid skimming, theft
Going, going, gone – RFID car-jacking!
It's the stuff of movies. A criminal gang that sets out to steal hundreds of cars, each in under 60 seconds, using the latest in high-tech gadgets to facilitate their heist. But for David Beckham, Hollywood fiction became a reality when in April 2006 criminals used a simple laptop and RFID scanner to crack the electronic door locks of his BMW X5. Once the locks were cracked they then fired up the ignition and drove away – gone in just 15 minutes!
So how was this possible? After all the RFID industry has gone to considerable lengths to reassure us that 'contactless' chips and 'smart keys' are 100% secure, and not vulnerable to 'skimming'.
John Holl, a journalist with Forbes Autos throws some light on the matter saying,
"…Back in 2004, when keyless technology was still new and touted as unbreakable and secure, Dr. Aviel D. Rubin, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, examined this possibility (with his students). Within three months they had successfully cracked the code embedded within the ignition keys of newer model cars, theoretically allowing them to steal the autos."
"It was a trial-and-error process," Rubin said. "We wanted to see if it could be broken and found out that (surprisingly) it could!"
The technique requires a laptop, an RFID scanner and software capable of probing for encryption weaknesses. It only takes about 15 minutes for the software to explore millions of possible encryption answers, before finding the one that fits with the vehicle's unique identity. The thieves then submit an identical code to the vehicle, which allows them to 'boost' it.
15 minutes – it's not long. About the time it takes to park up, leave your vehicle and order at a restaurant, which seems to be what happened to the Beckhams. And it just goes to show that no security system is 100% fool-proof, however peace of mind may soon arrive as British company RFID Protect hopes to manufacture RFID shielding sleeves that are specifically designed to protect a vehicle's 'smart key' against unauthorised probing.
Original article at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13507939/ns/business-autos/
NEWSFLASH: Update September 2012
This month sees AutoExpress reporting on a new twist to this story. It transpires that BMW has at last accepted that there is an issue with its keyless entry systems on cars issued between 2007 and September 2011. BBC's Watchdog television programme highlighted a problem with certain models (specifically BMW X5 & X6) in June of this year, and since then a number of high profile cases have come to light. One story in particular demonstrates the problem that BMW is now facing, because when London-based consultant Eric Gallina had his car stolen from outside his home he couldn't understand how thieves had taken it. Mr Gallina still had the two factory-issued master car keys in his possession, and there had been no evidence of vehicle break in (i.e. there was no broken window glass at the crime scene).
AutoExpress reported that Mr Gallina was told by police officers,
"…nine other BMWs with keyless entry had been stolen in the Notting Hill area within the past month and a half."
Apologists for BMW have issued security guidance to owners of these models, although it is not clear whether an actual 'fix' for the problem is available at the time of writing. According to AutoExpress BMW have issued the following advice,
"…[until the fix is available to all models], where ever possible park your car out of sight, in a locked garage, or under the cover of CCTV cameras."
Easier said than done, and some will wonder whether this guidance from BMW has really been thought through, or goes far enough to address such a serious security flaw?
Original article at: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/bmw/60264/bmw-owners-offered-fix-hi-tech-theft


When a school, sports team, or brand is big, its merchandise becomes a target for people to reproduce in a similar, cheaper way. Yes, I am talking about counterfeiting. It has come to the attention of KGW.com and FishDuck.com that there is a decent amount of counterfeit Ducks apparel being sold on the internet. Especially Marcus Mariota jerseys!
Kylie Iboshi reported that if you go to Google and type in "Cheap Mariota Jersey," numerous replicas of Mariota's Oregon Ducks jersey will pop up. For a real, Nike/Oregon-produced No. 8 jersey, the price is $89.95, but the counterfeit replicas are selling for $26.89. That's a big price difference!
"Pretty much anything that we make and license, you could probably find somebody who could counterfeit it," said Matt Dyste, UO Director of Marketing and Brand Management. Dyste and the University of Oregon do the best that they can to protect the brand but with all of the different jerseys the program produces, it's getting harder and harder to protect it. .
Dyste explained that they are a bigger target now after this past season. When a large amount of counterfeit gear is being sold, it potentially costs the university and its suppliers tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Not only is the university on the losing end of things due to counterfeit gear, the fan buying the gear is on the losing end too! When fans see that $26.89 price they most likely think they're getting a sweet deal, not a cheap reproduction from a side producer. The majority of counterfeit gear is sold online. When the university finds a website that is selling counterfeit products, they send out a legal warning (it's called a Take-Down notice) for the site to stop their business. Oregon sends anywhere from six to 15 Take-Down notice warnings a month.
As fans, it's hard to tell what's real and what's not sometimes. Especially through the internet. However, it is important to be aware of the problem in occurrence and keep your eye out for it. No one wants knock-off gear — get the real thing! It'll be of higher quality and benefit the school and program that you are supporting.
Visit the linked website to take a "Real or Fake" quiz based on pictures of Oregon gear so you can see what fake merchandise really looks like!


St Andrews Road, Maidstone, ME16.
Dr D McGavin is a doctor offering a variety of health care advice to patients. Based in St Andrews Road, Maidstone, Dr D McGavin is a general practitioner.
Dr D McGavin is in St Andrews Road Maidstone. You can view a list of neighbouring businesses by going to the St Andrews Road page.
If you would like a list of other doctors hospitals & medical establishments listings throughout Maidstone, please visit the General Practitioners section of this website.
Note: the pin is positioned at the postcode centre, and may not correspond with the precise location of St. Andrews Road.


Hello :) I'm so glad you found my page. You will quickly notice it is very new and not quite finished, but I hope we will still meet so that I can hear about your birth dreams and wishes.
I offer free consultations either via telephone or in person.
Homebirth and waterbirth are safe, peaceful, affordable and personal options for birth. In a world full of hurry, my hope is that your birth will be full of harmony, joyful private celebration, and that you are empowered. Research shows homebirth and midwifery care to be optimal for a majority of birthing families.


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Autodesk, Inc. has announced the availability of the Autodesk SketchBook Pro App for iPad, a new professional-grade paint and drawing application designed exclusively for the iPad. The app is available on the App Store at at www.itunes.com/appstore.
The Autodesk SketchBook Pro App for iPad combines high-quality digital pencils, pens, markers and airbrushes with a Multi-Touch gesture-based user interface, enabling users to create everything from quick sketches to high-quality artwork. Geared for both occasional doodlers and professional illustrators, SketchBook Pro transforms the iPad into the ultimate digital sketchbook. Using the same paint engine as its desktop and mobile counterparts, the new SketchBook Pro App for iPad delivers a complete set of sketching and painting tools through a streamlined and intuitive user interface.
"The launch of the iPad brings both creative professionals and consumers unparalleled sketching capabilities on a mobile device," said Samir Hanna, vice president of digital concept at Autodesk. "The SketchBook Pro App for iPad provides a fun drawing and painting environment that also applies widely to professional artists and designers from all industries."
Key new features in the Autodesk SketchBook Pro App for iPad include:
· Full-screen 1024 x 768 work space with support for any device orientation
· An innovative Multi-Touch interface that delivers an immersive and streamlined experience
· 75 brushes with customizable settings, including synthetic pressure sensitivity and brush modes for free sketching and creating straight lines, ellipses and rectangles
· Six full-resolution layers per sketch with complete control over layer order, visibility and opacity
· A built-in, live news page that alerts artists to upcoming events and highlights featured artists and their SketchBook creation
The Autodesk SketchBook Pro App for iPad is available for US$7.99 exclusively through the App Store on iPad at www.itunes.com/appstore. Also available on the App Store is Autodesk SketchBook Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch. To learn more about the SketchBook products, visit www.autodesk.com/sketchbookpro.
Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software to help customers experience their ideas digitally before they are built. Fortune 100 companies ¾ as well as the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects ¾ use Autodesk software tools to design, visualize and simulate their ideas to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation for competitive advantage. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.
Autodesk, AutoCAD and SketchBook are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Multi-Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
0 Responses to "Autodesk Releases the SketchBook Pro App for iPad"


2/04/2015�� [Low Intermediate] How to fold a 3-point ninja star. I was asked by Rob (of Rob's World YouTube Channel) to try to design a 3 point ninja star, and finally, after many disappointing attempts, came... So you wanna be a ninja? this set of 12 Stealthy Japanese throwing blades are a must for any martial art enthusiasts. We tried these guys out one day and we must say. Great purchase. They are weighted perfectly for the beginner and will leave you wanting to toss all day. The stainless blue steel knives will make a fine addiction to any collector.
The Points Banana, one of three Bonus Bananas in action on Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode is one of the three regular modes in Fruit Ninja. In this mode, the player must slice as many fruits as they can in sixty seconds, while avoiding the purple bomb. how to put a word document attatchmen in google docs This video will show you how to make a double sided (heavy) Ninja Star! Origami: Double Ninja Star Designed by: MaMa to Asobou: Tanoshii Origami Made by: Suhas Sunder In this video, I explain how to make a throwable Japanese double sided - double layered Ninja Star (Shuriken) out of paper.
The Batman Ninja Helmet is a piece of Legendary (5-star) gear that can be evolved from the Epic (4-star) gear, Sengoku Helmet, which can be obtained by ranking in the top 5% of certain Online Battle seasons or as a random drop from character packs that give legendary gear, the only confirmed pack to have this gear at this time is The Dawn of Justice Triple Pack.
You will need two bills to make a ninja star. To begin, fold the first dollar bill in half lengthwise. It does not matter which side of the bill you place face up on the table. However, the pattern on your finished star will vary depending on what side you began with.
(I wanted to make sure these would be useful, after all!) Now, I had seen the cheap version of normal ninja star pins available on Amazon, but I wanted to make these straight from the game. Now, I had seen the cheap version of normal ninja star pins available on Amazon, but I wanted to make these straight from the game.
The Points Banana, one of three Bonus Bananas in action on Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode is one of the three regular modes in Fruit Ninja. In this mode, the player must slice as many fruits as they can in sixty seconds, while avoiding the purple bomb.


I actually encourage people around me to open the corresponding online service that their bank provides because you can check whether the sweldo already arrived. You don't need to put your card in ATM to check.
1. Visit your bank's website.


This has been a rough spring. Not only do I have allergies that turned into a sinus infection earlier this month, but I then I developed a lingering cough that I thought was bronchitis, so today I went to the doctor and it turns out I have strep throat. Well, the bacteria might be making me sick, which is pretty unfortunate since I just joined a gym, but they are not stopping me from writing. I am wondering if I should spray my keyboard with disinfectant. Nah. It would probably short-circuit, and then I'd have to write by hand. And I can't read my own handwriting after the first paragraph!
Additionally, one of my cockatiels was unwell and so I took both of them to the vet. Poor little things, they both had blood drawn, and while Peachfuzz powered through it like a champ, Zim screamed his head off during the entire exam and then he bit the vet — twice. Guess who's a favorite at the animal hospital?
Progress on the second Corrugated Sky anthology is going well. We're revising our first drafts and hope to publish the book early this summer. I've completed my last encyclopedia entry on Ray Bradbury, although I have a few things to tackle for the editor to clear up some rough patches and fill in a few gaps. I've submitted a chapter proposal for an academic book on the First World War, and with most big projects off my desk I can turn to editing my novel for one last time.
I've revisited my thought process about how many words/hour editing should count for and decided that the 1,000 words per hour is really not unrealistic. I was toughing it out at 750 words an hour, but I was kind of cheating myself given the amount of work I was putting into the editing process. I'm happy to say that I am now ahead in my weekly word-count goal by more than 5,000 words, and I intend to stay there.
Stay well, stay pollen-free and bacteria-less, and I'll see you on the next page!


The Jazz Hole Live with Linus, this month featuring a 2016 live set from The Jewellery Quarter Festival Jazz Festival in Birmingham, UK by The Mitch Perrins Atlantic Quintet! Bandleader and composer Mitch Perrins on drums, Nick Dewhurst on trumpet, Tommaso Starace on alto saxophone, Gareth Fowler on guitar and Mike Green on bass. British drummer and composer Mitch Perrins honed his skills in New York City over the course of ten years. His new Survival Suite is an homage to his experiences in the US and is now being performed to audiences around the globe. Check out www.mitchperrins.com for more information.


Coburn, a notoriously hard worker who often arrives at work at 4 a.m., has been going through intensive chemotherapy for the recurrence of his cancer and is waiting until February for the results of tests that will color his future plans.
Coburn's term is set to end in January 2017.
If Coburn steps down, a special election would be held in 2014 to find a replacement.


J Food Sci Technol. 2018 May;55(5):1880-1888. doi: 10.1007/s13197-018-3105-2. Epub 2018 Mar 14.
Antiglycation and antioxidant activities of mogroside extract from Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) fruits.
Liu H1,2, Wang C3, Qi X2,4, Zou J2, Sun Z1.
1College of Food Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 People's Republic of China.
3College of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, 315100 People's Republic of China.
Shanghai OPM Biosciences Co., Ltd., Shanghai, 201321 People's Republic of China.
4Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048 People's Republic of China.
Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) is one kind of medical and edible plants with various health-promoting properties. Recently, its hypoglycemic and antidiabetic activities have been reported, but the underlying mechanism remains to be explored. The current study was aimed to investigate the antioxidant and antiglycation activities of mogroside extract (MGE) from Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle). The results showed that compared to glycated BSA, MGE at middle (125 μg/mL) and high dose (500 μg/mL) significantly inhibited BSA glycation evidenced by decreased fluorescent AGEs formation, protein carbonyls and Nε-(carboxymethyl) lysine (CML) level at 500 μg/mL by 58.5, 26.7 and 71.2%, respectively. Additionally, the antiglycative activity of MGE (500 μg/mL) was comparable to aminoguanidine (AG) at the equal concentration. However, the inhibitory effect of MGE on glycation-induced increase of fructosamine level and decrease of thiol level was not remarkable. MGE was a potent peroxide radicals scavenger (851.8 μmol TE/g), moderate DPPH and ABTS radicals scavenger with IC50 1118.1 and 1473.2 μg/mL, respectively, corresponding to positive controls ascorbic acid of IC50 9.6 μg/mL, and trolox of IC50 47.9 μg/mL, respectively, and mild reducing power. These findings suggest that MGE may serve as a new promising antiglycative agent against diabetic complications by inhibiting protein glycation and glycoxidation.
Compliance with ethical standardsThe authors declare that there are no competing interests.


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Q: Gradle Breaks out of Bash for loop I have a version history that I'm trying to run a gradle build on and in my bash script I have
while read -r version
do
    git checkout $version
    gradle clean
    gradle javadoc
    ...
done < version-history.log

which is trying to get the documentation for every tagged release of my code. The problem is that gradle runs a build once and then breaks out of the for loop. I tried encapsulating it in a function call, but it still manages to break out of the loop. Is this behavior intentional? How can I prevent it from doing this? My gradle version is
------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 6.2.1
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2020-03-01 17:25:20 UTC
Revision:     <unknown>

Kotlin:       1.3.61
Groovy:       2.5.8
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.7 compiled on September 1 2019
JVM:          13.0.2 (Oracle Corporation 13.0.2+8)
OS:           Linux 5.5.6-arch1-1 amd64

A: Gradle consumes the input for some reason, which is what causes this behavior. Appending </dev/null to the gradle call seems to fix the problem, try
while read -r version; do
  git checkout $version
  gradle clean </dev/null
done <version-history.log

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


International Day celebrates our school's diverse and international community.
During the school day students will 'travel' to country stalls run by parent volunteers to learn more about their contemporaries cultures, traditions, dance, dress, food, and languages.
Each student will carry a 'passport' and travel across the continents to gather interesting facts and broaden their horizons.
Students may wear their traditional costume or colors to enjoy this multicultural day.
Parents are invited to join their children to tour the country stalls anytime between 3:45 – 5:00 p.m. Cultural performances will also take place during this time.


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Jim Falter
Jim Falter was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York and grew up in the outer suburbs of New York City. He attended college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earning a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in chemistry. After repeatedly crossing the Charles River over several New England winters, he decided to pursue graduate studies in a more benign climate. He eventually earned a Masters degree and then PhD in Oceanography from the University of Hawaii first studying the dynamic redox structure of permeable sediments under Frank Sansone and then studying how ocean waves controlled the uptake and recycling of nutrients by coral reef communities under Marlin Atkinson. During his graduate studies, he also worked as a data analyst for the Coral Reef Biome at the Biosphere II Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Following the completion of his PhD, he remained in Hawaii working as an Assistant Researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. While at HIMB Jim continued to learn how strongly coupled the pathways of photosynthetic production and respiration were in coral reef communities under the prevailing conditions of nutrient limitation common to most reef environments. He was also fortunate to work with some talented people on a collaborative project studying how ocean waves drive circulation in coral reefs, how drag and the flow structure surrounding reef communities can change under the presence or absence of passing waves, and how this changing flow structure affects rates of nutrient uptake by benthic reef communities.
Jim moved to the University of Western Australia in early 2009 to continue working on problems related to the oceanic forcing of circulation, water quality, production, calcification, and nutrient uptake in shallow benthic communities on the Ningaloo Reef Tract. In 2010 he became a Research Fellow within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at UWA. His current research is focused on understanding how the growth and metabolism of coral reef communities respond to environmental change; particularly within the context of increased ocean warming and acidification. He conducts most of his research through a combination of field studies, numerical modelling, and work in flumes and other mesocosms.
Cruises:
Perth Canyon: First Deep Exploration


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Artificially Intelligent Game Bots Pass the Turing Test on Turing's Centenary
Daniel J Oppenheimer
BotPrize winners were scored as more human-like than half their human competitors.
AUSTIN, Texas — An artificially intelligent virtual gamer created by computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has won the BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that it was more human-like than half the humans it competed against.
The competition was sponsored by 2K Games and was set inside the virtual world of "Unreal Tournament 2004," a first-person shooter video game. The winners were announced this month at the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games.
"The idea is to evaluate how we can make game bots, which are nonplayer characters (NPCs) controlled by AI algorithms, appear as human as possible," said Risto Miikkulainen, professor of computer science in the College of Natural Sciences. Miikkulainen created the bot, called the UT^2 game bot, with doctoral students Jacob Schrum and Igor Karpov.
The bots face off in a tournament against one another and about an equal number of humans, with each player trying to score points by eliminating its opponents. Each player also has a "judging gun" in addition to its usual complement of weapons. That gun is used to tag opponents as human or bot.
The bot that is scored as most human-like by the human judges is named the winner. UT^2, which won a warm-up competition last month, shared the honors with MirrorBot, which was programmed by Romanian computer scientist Mihai Polceanu.
The winning bots both achieved a humanness rating of 52 percent. Human players received an average humanness rating of only 40 percent. The two winning teams will split the $7,000 first prize.
The victory comes 100 years after the birth of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, whose "Turing test" stands as one of the foundational definitions of what constitutes true machine intelligence. Turing argued that we will never be able to see inside a machine's hypothetical consciousness, so the best measure of machine sentience is whether it can fool us into believing it is human.
"When this 'Turing test for game bots' competition was started, the goal was 50 percent humanness," said Miikkulainen. "It took us five years to get there, but that level was finally reached last week, and it's not a fluke."
The complex gameplay and 3-D environments of "Unreal Tournament 2004" require that bots mimic humans in a number of ways, including moving around in 3-D space, engaging in chaotic combat against multiple opponents and reasoning about the best strategy at any given point in the game. Even displays of distinctively human irrational behavior can, in some cases, be emulated.
"People tend to tenaciously pursue specific opponents without regard for optimality," said Schrum. "When humans have a grudge, they'll chase after an enemy even when it's not in their interests. We can mimic that behavior."
In order to most convincingly mimic as much of the range of human behavior as possible, the team takes a two-pronged approach. Some behavior is modeled directly on previously observed human behavior, while the central battle behaviors are developed through a process called neuroevolution, which runs artificially intelligent neural networks through a survival-of-the-fittest gauntlet that is modeled on the biological process of evolution.
Networks that thrive in a given environment are kept, and the less fit are thrown away. The holes in the population are filled by copies of the fit ones and by their "offspring," which are created by randomly modifying (mutating) the survivors. The simulation is run for as many generations as are necessary for networks to emerge that have evolved the desired behavior.
"In the case of the BotPrize," said Schrum, "a great deal of the challenge is in defining what 'human-like' is, and then setting constraints upon the neural networks so that they evolve toward that behavior.
"If we just set the goal as eliminating one's enemies, a bot will evolve toward having perfect aim, which is not very human-like. So we impose constraints on the bot's aim, such that rapid movements and long distances decrease accuracy. By evolving for good performance under such behavioral constraints, the bot's skill is optimized within human limitations, resulting in behavior that is good but still human-like."
Miikkulainen said that methods developed for the BotPrize competition should eventually be useful not just in developing games that are more entertaining, but also in creating virtual training environments that are more realistic, and even in building robots that interact with humans in more pleasant and effective ways.
Behavior Artificial Intelligence
Kopp's Weekly - Fall Is Officially Here
Cracking the Genetic Code of Brain Tumors
Dan was publications editor for the College of Natural Sciences from 2006-2013. He is now communications manager for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
Guest - Lauren on Thursday, 04 October 2012 16:55
This is so cool! Especially the use of genetic algorithms to create the behaviors! My freshman year in high school I studied genetic algorithms and a little about neural networks, so this is awesome to see some real-world uses for it
This is so cool! Especially the use of genetic algorithms to create the behaviors! My freshman year in high school I studied genetic algorithms and a little about neural networks, so this is awesome to see some real-world uses for it :)
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Dark Horse kicks off a new Terminator title this week. In a world without Kyle Reese how could humanity stop that which they do not understand?
Dr. Elise Fong finds herself in the crosshairs of a T-800, technology that humanity cannot even comprehend at this stage as this story is set around the same time as the first Terminator movie. The reader and the characters are unaware as to what the T-800 wants with her or why he wants to terminate Dr Fong. Unknowingly, she is also the target of Farrow Greene, a disgrace former CIA agent that has turned to a life of bounty hunting to make ends meet. Things get interesting when Farrow comes face to face with a T-800.
They cross paths in pursuit of Dr. Fong. Farrow is not one to back down from a fight, she is tough as nails but her rival will not stay down even after being hit with everything and the kitchen sink. Something is not right and there is nobody to tell them what Skynet is. Whilst this issue is intriguing, it is still lacking something totally new, it lacks the breathe of a fresh concept. Instead, we are left with another Terminator trying to complete a mission. There is no reason why Dr. Fong is a target for this T800 and no explanation as to why Farrow is hunting her down too. This makes for the only intrigue in this issue.
With Jamal Igle on art, the expressions are legible and easy to follow. There is no overt use in detail and shading, making this issue an easy read. Your eyes float from frame to frame adding pace to the comic where necessary. Nothing too pretty or two glitzy is on show in these illustrations. Instead, they match the nature and tone of the Terminator Universe.
This is a good read, but it showcases nothing that we have not come to expect of the Terminator franchise. T-800s chasing unknowledgeable victims go hand in hand with this book. It just happens that the athletically built and ripped Farrow Greene is closing in on the same target. When it comes to throwing down, Farrow does not lose. But this could be the one bounty that gets away, especially when you have to fight one of Skynet's soldiers.


You might specify the meaning of the acronym in parentheses.
and is not consistent with the remainder of the file.
Extending the descriptions would be nice (but feel free to omit it).
> +Options are passed not as URL parameters.
> +In case of command line usage, they are passed as command line arguments.
> +In case of avio_open2() usage, they are passed as last parameter, AVDictionary **options.
Same consideration as in the case of the crypto protocol.


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Five Questions for Lean Content Creator Stephanie Hay
Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference, who has created content for a number of startups.
In our ongoing exploration of how people actually implement Lean Startup methods in their workplaces, we're asking practitioners to share their techniques. We're starting here with a conversation about content with Stephanie Hay, the leading voice behind Lean Content, which she describes as "finding the 'right' words to acquire customers before building products." Her advice is the kind of nuts-and-bolts information you'll find at this year's Lean Startup Conference, which will feature in-depth sessions on the how-tos of Lean Startup—including a session lead by Steph.
Steph has incredible energy, as you'll see in this video of her 2012 Lean Startup Conference lightning talk, where she discussed testing language that "helps people find you, understand you, and choose you." When not at CrossFit, Steph tests content at Work Design Magazine, which she co-launched in 2010. She has also mentored at 500 Startups, co-organized the DC Lean Startup Circle, and co-founded FastCustomer. We asked her five questions about how, exactly, clear content gets created. Among her answers is a simple test for assessing whether your company has a content problem.
1. How do you iterate on the content side without confusing customers, or seeming as if you lack focus, commitment or are just plain flaky?
Steph: Segmentation and timing. Work Design Magazine has 5,000 email subscribers who comprise a variety of audience types within the commercial architecture and design industry. So we segmented the list by audience type, and secondarily decided which ideas we were going to circulate when and to whom.
For example, we decided to test whether a print edition was feasible. The assumption was that architects and designers would pay a premium for a beautiful, high-quality journal full of the most popular content from the previous quarter, complete with tons of high-resolution images. A secondary assumption was that furniture manufacturers would want to advertise in that journal.
We segmented the audience between likely readers and likely advertisers. We created eight different versions of "sell" content—describing different value propositions of why they'd want to subscribe to receive it (or advertise in it), what they'd pay, and when they had to decide (a deadline).
We then sent it to targeted groups of about ten users each, followed up with them personally two and four weeks later, and stuck to the deadline as our drop-dead date for learning.
Within a month, we learned that both audiences were lukewarm on the product. So, essentially we saved time and energy associated with the massive overhead of printing a publication—not to mention the risk of keeping it going—and punted on it for now.
The next month, we tested the ideas of events taking the same approach—and it turns out, this was a big revenue source. Readers pay to get tickets for high-quality, in-person content (panel discussions) in cities around the country, and manufacturers and other vendors pay to be associated with that content.
That's the iteration part. If we just sent all our ideas to everyone, whenever we had that idea, it wouldn't leave room for iteration. It would be a blanket approach and, ultimately as you suggested, dilute the messaging and demonstrate a lack of focus.
I think the hardest part for any startup is to rein in the desire to "throw shit against the wall and see what sticks" versus being more strategic in their focus and truly iterating. A content-first approach is a lower-cost, lower-risk way of achieving the same.
2. How does lean content integrate into the rest of the lean product development cycle?
Steph: For me, it leads. If you create a Google doc that describes a small chunk of an interaction—the language you'd use to "sell" an upgrade from a premium model, for example—and you circulate that to some power users, what do they say? Do they ask questions? Do they want to sign up?
Same thing with the email; if you send an email "selling" an idea, and you see the open rates are super low, that means people aren't interested in what you have to say (or at least, your subject line isn't compelling).
I try to make the content focused on what I can learn from it. Normally, that means including two possible conversions: (1) "learn more" and (2) "get on an email list." If people go straight to (2), that's a great sign.
If they open it but don't click, that's a sign your content isn't hitting.
If they click through more often on "learn more," I direct them to a page with more "sell" content. And that page of course includes a conversion to "get on the email list." If the user lands here but doesn't convert by signing up, I expect the content isn't compelling enough. The sell isn't there.
I iterate on the email content and page content over a course of time, maybe one to two months, usually based on the number of people in my test group and/or uniques on a landing page.
You can learn a lot before even sketching wireframes, and you should, because the layout doesn't matter if the "sell" doesn't hit.
Content needs to "sell." The words need to resonate. Once you nail those, it gives the team wind in its sails to keep moving forward.
Plus, UX designers and developers love it when they already have the "right" content done. It makes their jobs easier to not have to think about what to say—so ultimately they can run faster, and what they create is then more effective right out of the gate.
3. What do you need to know before you create content that is able to be found, understood, and helps you get chosen? How do you go about collecting and analyzing this data?
Steph: I do a ton of research in the Google Keyword tool. Seeing monthly search numbers for organic searches is revealing of the kind of language people use—and the kind of possibilities (numbers-wise) for specific markets.
For example, for Work Design Magazine, do people search for "work design" or "workplace design" or "workspace design" or "designing for work" or … you get it. I put all of the terms into the Google Keyword to better understand the lexicon of my target market, which of course I can then work into H1s, title tags, and even subject lines or blog-post headlines. This is all catered toward trying to speak the user's language.
Using the "top content" tab in Google Analytics helps me understand what qualified visitors are looking for. When they come to the site, let's say through organic optimization, do they stay and read more articles? I'm focused on the ones who do. They see something intriguing. So I want to write more of the kind of content people are finding and staying to read.
Getting them to "choose" requires the kind of strategic, iterative approach to learning what content "sells" as described in the first two answers.
4. You've spoken about the fact that people on the inside of a product fail to explain it clearly to others. Why do you think clarity is so difficult and how can people start to recognize that they're being unclear?
Steph: Clarity is difficult because we know how it's built (or what we want to build), and we have motives for how we want things to go (really well, blowup style).
So naturally, we say too much that the prospective customer doesn't care about, or we don't say enough of the "right" words that they need to hear to arrive at the "aha" moment.
But this is where the notion of "lean content" comes into play. Before you have a product, it's possible to find the language that "sells" the product. It's the minimum amount that needs to be said in order for a person to say, "Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?" or "How do I pay for this?" or "Where do I sign up?"
Those are a-ha moments. They're ready to buy.
Responses like "Interesting, good for you," or "Cool, email me more information" or "I'll get back to you" are lukewarm, non-committal responses. There's no urgency, specificity, or indication of action. They indicate you either haven't sold the real value or you're selling to the wrong person.
It's a challenge to hear these not as compliments (and false optimism that there's a business behind what you're saying) but instead as signals that you're not communicating value obviously with the "right" prospective customer.
But with awareness and discipline, you'll only arrive at the real language (and buyer) faster.
It means humbling yourself to really hear what people are telling you, politely, rather than hiding behind the lukewarm.
5. What tests can people run right now to decide if they have a content problem?
Steph: One lightweight test is to print out the content you've got on your website, probably your homepage and sign-up page. Then call your mom or friend and try to have a conversation—a natural conversation—using your own content. See how that works.
If you find that the conversation is one-sided, or that the person you're talking to can't understand what you're promising/asking/selling, then you have a content problem.
The mistake startups make is thinking they need a copywriter who can "polish" their words. Great content effectively sells; the only way to write effective content that helps build businesses is to tie content to conversions. Most startups don't get this. They think it's the layout of the page or the function of the product. Of course, these are important, but they assume someone understands your words enough to sign up in the first place.
Have any startups failed because they've had too many people scrambling to sign up?
So as another test, go out on the street and find anyone willing to listen. The person doesn't have to be your target audience -- you're just trying to test if you can be understood when selling your own product.
If you tell people what you do in 10 seconds and ask them, "Would you need something like that," and the person says, "I'm not sure I understand," then you have a content problem.
If the person says, "I don't need it," then you *might* have a content problem (of pitching the real value), but at least the person understands what you're selling.
If the person says, "Tell me more," then you *might* have a content problem of pitching the real value quickly enough, but at least you're heading in the right direction.
If the person says, "OMG I NEED THAT," you're winning. Stick with that.
Then the job shifts to discover only what you need to say to keep the conversation going and to direct it to a conversion that grows a business. Inherent to this is then also to begin discovering who the market is that understands the conversation and converts quickly and at the highest value. This naturally refines the messaging over time.
(Notice that both of these tests require no code. Just conversations with friends and strangers. Imagine if everyone started here and decided which businesses to build based on their ability to explain them in the first place.)
Learn more from Steph and other practitioners at this year's Lean Startup Conference. We sell conference tickets in batches; when one batch sells out, the price goes up. We've got a new batch on sale today, so register now for the best price.
Highlights from Our Webcast on Lean Startup for En...
Lean Startup Implementation Lessons
Five Questions for Lean Content Creator Stephanie ...
Getting Engineers into the Lean Startup Cycle


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Dobrydnivka  (ucraniano: Добриднівка) es una localidad del Raión de Mykolaivka en el Óblast de Odesa de Ucrania. Según el censo de 2001, tiene una población de 155 habitantes.

Enlaces externos

Localidades del Raión de Berezivka

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


One of their friends toasted Jenna + Andrew and shared their love story as documented by a series of texts between friends. It was the sweetest! These two. Soul mates.
Their fall wedding day was beautiful! I love that they planned everything within walking distance. When it came time to get married, we all strolled over from the Bed & Breakfast to the wine cellar at Ravine for their ultra romantic, candle lit ceremony. The celebration continued in the Restaurant and when the party was winding down, there was a bonfire out back where they continued the party.


The Institute of Sacred Music announces the retirement of Peter S. Hawkins, professor of religion and literature, effective at the end of the fall 2019 semester.
Peter S. Hawkins joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School in 1976 after receiving the Master of Divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in 1974 and the Ph.D. in English at Yale in 1975. With Prof. John Wesley Cook, he joined the faculty of the Institute of Sacred Music in 1985, a move that brought the program in religion and the arts to the ISM. During his long career at Yale and beyond, he helped to shape the field of religion and literature, and the lives of hundreds of students.
Recognized internationally as a leading scholar in Dante studies, as evidenced, for example, by Dante's Testaments: Essays on Scriptural Imagination (1999), The Poets' Dante: Twentieth-Century Reflections (2001), and Dante, A Brief History (2006), Hawkins has broadened his work well beyond this field. His research in the history of biblical reception has led to three co-edited volumes to which he also contributed essays – Scrolls of Love: Ruth and the Song of Songs (2006), Medieval Readings of Romans (2007), and From the Margin I: Women of the Hebrew Bible and Their Afterlives (2009). With Paula Carlson he edited the four-volume Augsburg Fortress series Listening for God: Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith (2004); with Anne Howland Schotter he co-edited Ineffability: Naming the Unnamable from Dante to Beckett (1984, reissued 2016). He has also written on twentieth-century fiction (The Language of Grace: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Iris Murdoch, 1983, 2004), Utopia (Getting Nowhere: Christian Hope & Utopian Dream, 1985), the NAMES Project Quilt ("Naming Names: The Art of Memory and the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt," 1993). His most recent book, written with Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg, is The Bible and the American Short Story (2017).
Hawkins is also noted as a speaker: He gave the 2006 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School (published as Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come, 2009) and in 2018 was the James W. Richard Lecturer at the University of Virginia. He has held residential fellowships In England at Oxford, Cambridge, and York, and in Italy at the Centro Studi Ligure (Bogliasco). During his time on the faculty of Boston University (2000-2008), he founded and directed the Luce Program in Scripture and the Literary Arts, and was awarded the Metcalf Prize for Excellence in Teaching there. Since his return to YDS and the ISM, he has also taught in Yale College's Directed Studies program for freshmen.
Throughout his career, Hawkins's devotion to the subject matter of his discipline is rivalled only by his utter commitment to students and the teaching enterprise. In fact, his life has been filled with testimonies, both formal and informal, to the fact that for him, teaching is not a duty, but a privilege; not a skill, but an art. Many of us have sat spellbound in classrooms and lecture halls as he leads his listeners through passages of Scripture, of The Divine Comedy, and of other formative texts, probing questions not only of origin and form, but also of their significance for and impact on our world.
Peter Hawkins looks forward to having more time to write, and remains open to continue teaching on an occasional basis here and elsewhere as opportunities arise. We will hope, therefore, that continued collaboration may be possible between the ISM and this extraordinary scholar and teacher.


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Nadia Sawalha says her body-confident Instagram posts 'embarrass' teen daughters
Nadia Sawalha says her body-confident Instagram posts 'embarrass' teen daughters
Nadia Sawalha has admitted her teenage daughters are often left "really embarrassed" by her body-confident snaps on Instagram.
The Loose Women panelist, 55, has been an advocate for self-love and body positivity for a while now, often stripping off for snaps and videos shared with her 327k followers.
Nadia often shares snaps of herself in underwear showing off all angles of her body, as she combat's the stigma around sharing untouched snaps showing cellulite and other "imperfections".
But doing that and raising teen daughters Maddy, 17, and Kiki, 13, simultaneously is a tricky challenge, and Nadia says she often finds her daughters cringing at her posts.
Nadia says her teen daughters are often 'really embarrassed' by her posts on Instagram
(Image: For more tips and to watch Nadia's family reality show visit The Sawalha-Adderleys: Family, Films & Fun)
In an exclusive chat with Mirror Online, Nadia revealed: "They [her daughters] say they find it really embarrassing. They say they don't know how I do it. They say 'Oh God not again'.
"But I expect them to find me embarrassing because I am embarrassing.
"The people I worry most about when I post things on social media are my daughters."
Nadia often shares body-positive snaps on social media
(Image: PR HANDOUT)
She added: "The thing is, I actually do it for them. The reason I'm doing all of this is because I want my daughters to have less stinking thinking than I had. That's all I want."
Not being one to shy away from tackling social media norms, Nadia says things really changed for her after she chose to take part in Loose Women's Body Stories campaign a few years back.
The campaign saw the ladies strip off to their undies, without filters or airbrushing, in a bid to encourage people to embrace their scars, birth marks and stretch marks.
The Loose Women panelist often shares underwear snaps on social media in a bid to promote self love
Nadia admits she hasn't always been as body confident as she is now
(Image: nadiasawalha/Instagram)
Admitting that she hasn't always been confident with her appearance, Nadia revealed: "I haven't always been like that.
"Every single day, I still have to work at it. It all tipped off for me when we did the body stories with Loose Women and we had to stand in our underwear for a big campaign.
"I was mortified. I mean I wasn't sleeping for days before. But after that feeling of doing it, and being on the side of a bus and the world just didn't stop turning… so it just planted a seed."
Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids by Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley is published by Coronet, £14.99
She added: "So now, it's been a gradual process for the past year, but I really got into my stride and have been following some younger Instagrammers who really inspired me.
"Some of my posts – before I send them out – I am just completely beside myself with fear about it. But when I post it, and read all the comments, I cannot tell you how much strength it gives me."
*Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids by Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley is published by Coronet, £14.99
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