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dave199 last won the day on September 9 2015
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dave199 replied to Kenadian's topic in FIFA World Cup / Bids
This does give us a reason to build a new stadium that can be used as the centre piece for a 2028 Olympics as the article stated. I imagine those groups who previously tried to secure an NFL team a couple years ago would go at it again if stadium plans begin. It's all speculation now.
I'm shocked that a joint 3-way bid is actually going to happen. I'm having conflicting feelings on this. On one side, I'm thinking I would rather be greedy and bid solo with a chance to host it by ourselves. But on the other hand, I have a feeling that FIFA would award this 3-way bid which atleast would give Canada a hosting gig and possibly a brand new stadium. Logistics may be challenging. I'd love to see their plan on that.
Canada in Rio.
dave199 replied to Faster's topic in Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Games
I hope the investments in Swimming and Athletics increase after the performance at these games. This is where the bulk of the medals are. Penny Oleksiak and Andre de Grasse will be gold medal favourites come time for Tokyo 2020. And the great thing is they're so young and have lots of years ahead of them. Hopefully the male swimmers will fully develop and medal the next games.
I think Canada gets 2 medals tomorrow and we beat our highest medal total from 1996.
Why haven't the Japanese been dq'd as well? They clearly stepped on the line.
Just estimating how many more medals we should probably win and I'm thinking we tie the record medal count of 22 the country achieved in Atlanta
What do you guys think of De Grasse's chances for a medal in the 200m now? He's definitely a darkhorse
I'm so happy DeGrasse medaled in the 100m. God its been so long since Canada won a medal in this event.
A new Canadian Olympic star is born. I never expected Canada to do so well in the pool. All these medals are bonus as no one predicted us to medal in the pool. Canada should surpass its medal total from London, or dare I say surpass Atlanta 1996 (22 medals). Faster, your probably the best person to ask this. How many legitimate medal chances are left?
dave199 replied to SkiFreak's topic in 2026 Olympic Winter Games Bids
I find it unrealistic the feds financially back both a Calgary 2026 Olympics and Canada 2026 World Cup. We're going to have to pick one to bid for. I can't wait to see how this unfolds.
Toronto?
dave199 replied to LuigiVercotti's topic in 2024 Olympic Games Bids
How serious is a Toronto Winter Olympics? It really does seem like an odd ball move and an uphill battle. Let's just wait for 2028.
It would have been exciting to see Toronto enter the race but no one can fault John Tory for saying No at this time considering the tight time constraints. Had city council continued the study in 2014 instead of voting it down it would have been a different story now. Considering the city went through all this the past couple months, we can safely assume Toronto will be back for 2028.
Let's see how Los Angeles pans out. I still don't think they'll win but you never know. If LA comes back for 2028 they'll probably be considered the front runners as its due to come back to North America and they bid for 2024. Toronto will be a not too far second
A source to the Toronto Star is saying the answer will be a no.
Don Peat @reporterdonpeat 17m17 minutes ago John Tory announcement on Sunday? "Mayor Tory will make an announcement at Toronto City Hall's 50th anniversary celebration" #TOpoli Let's see if this is true. Coming for a SunMedia reporter


Vol. 36/174 (2005) pp. 343-352.
About those who minister the Word of God, Thomas of Celano points out that St. Francis used to say that "the preacher must first secretly draw in by prayer what he later pours out in sacred preaching; he must first of all grow warm on the inside or he will speak frozen words on the outside" (2C 163). This is enlightened advice, as well, for catechists, religious education teachers and others who have the opportunity to minister the Word of God. That is, before speaking, teaching or preaching one needs to set aside adequate time for prayer to draw in deeply God's inspiration and listen to the Word.
According to Celano, the beauty of the preaching of St. Francis flowed from his love of God and an ardent desire to invite others to experience the same thing.
This is the heart of a Franciscan perspective regarding storytelling in the ministry of the Word—to speak life-giving and profound words; to use words and gestures in order to transport the hearers of the Word toward the things of heaven.
In exploring storytelling within the Franciscan tradition, it is amazing to note that the origins of the Franciscan fraternity began with a story‑parable that St. Francis received from Christ while in prayer. This was prompted by Pope Innocent's insistence that Francis try to discern God's will regarding permission for his rule of life.
When [Francis] presented himself and his followers before Pope Innocent to request a rule for his life, it seemed to the Pope that their proposal for a way of life was beyond their strength. A man of great discernment, he said to Francis: 'My son, pray to Christ that through you he may show us his will, so that once we know it, we may confidently approve your holy desire.' … [Francis] prayed intently and devoutly exhorted his companions to appeal to God.
…In praying, the answer came to him and he told his sons the news of salvation. Thus, Christ's familiar speaking in parables is recognizable.
'Francis,' [Christ] said, 'Say this to the pope: "Once upon a time there was a poor but lovely woman who lived in a desert. A king fell in love with her because of her great beauty; he gladly betrothed her and with her had lovely children. When they had grown up, having been nobly raised, their mother said: 'Dear children, do not be ashamed because you are poor, for you are all children of a great king. Go joyfully to his court and ask for what you need.'…They presented themselves boldly to the king: they were not afraid to look at him since they bore his very image. When the king saw his likeness in them, he was surprised, and asked whose sons they might be. When they said they were the children of the poor woman who lived in the desert, the king embraced them. 'You are my heirs,' he said, 'and my sons; have no fear!'…The king then sent orders to the woman to send all his sons to be fed at his court.'' This parable made the saint happy, and he promptly reported this holy message to the pope.
In fact, Mark points out in his Gospel that Jesus "did not speak to them without a parable" (Mk. 4:34). The parable was a new method of teaching that Jesus chose to use. Parables and stories teach a natural wisdom of morality, of healing, of compassion, of values and ethics. Jesus wanted to imprint a picture on our minds that would touch us with a lasting impression in the deepest part of our spirit. Jesus wanted us to get the picture, the bigger picture.
Stories, parables, fables, anecdotes and illustrations are thrown alongside the biblical word to help us to see the "bigger picture" in life. They help us to understand there is more to life than our own limited and narrow spheres of experience. They create pictures in our minds and enlighten our imagination to comprehend a greater dimension of life than we normally are used to experiencing. That is what Jesus tried to accomplish with his disciples and with the crowds that flocked to hear him speak: to take them to a place where there is new way of living, loving and healing; a new world that these people never could have imagined on their own. Such is the task for those who minister the Word to God's people—to open people's imagination toward the things of heaven.
In his reflections, Frank Seilhamer highlights the essence of Jesus' use of the parables in his teaching.
Parable is the translation…of two Greek terms—parah meaning 'near' or 'vicinity' and ballo meaning 'to throw'—that mean 'to throw along side of.' What is involved is a story created to be thrown along side of a true‑life situation to drive home the central point the storyteller is trying to make. As Jesus demonstrated, a good picture is worth a thousand words…which a person can visualize, then pin to their memory.
By sprinkling illustrations…throughout your presentation, you will grab the imagination of your listeners in a way that films or television are hard pressed to duplicate. Never forget that as a communicator you are appealing to the most powerful image-producing mechanism on earth…the human mind. It thrives on images. Good stories are triggers that release an explosive, powerful, positive form of communication energy.
This is wise advice for each of us who minister God's word. As catechists, teachers and preachers, we want to make a point and to fix that point in our listener's minds¼for people to remember our message by. To assist in this, a good collection of stories, anecdotes and illustrations is an attractive and valuable resource.
Stories and parables ring true to human life with fresh insights into truths that are taught by the catechist or repeated from the pulpit. These truths can become so familiar and well known that people no longer hear them. The creative use of the imagination, as it were, "dresses up" these truths through storytelling in new garments so that we take notice of them and a moral or spiritual truth can be extracted.
The rabbi replied. 'I will explain this by way of a parable: 'Truth was accustomed to walk about as naked as Truth was born. No one allowed Truth to enter a home and everyone who encountered Truth ran away in fright.
'Truth followed this counsel and dressed in the garments of Parable. Ever since then, Truth and Parable have walked hand in hand, and everyone loves them both'.
In my own preaching experience, I discovered this same principle. By and large people do not hear, pay attention to or seek the naked truth. However, when the same message is "dressed up" in the garments of a story, of a parable, they not only listen, but also take the message home with them.
For me, beginning to tell stories was not really a conscious decision. It emerged from within me as natural as could be for a priest of Irish heritage—as if there is some storytelling gene. This is not to say that I have not spent considerable time researching storytelling as an art form or that stories just pop up easily. For over 25 years I have collected numerous volumes of storytelling books, and have hand‑written enough stories, so far, to fill twelve composition books. I have also filled thirty‑eight journals with quotations. The difficult part for me, however, when I am asked about the how's and why's of storytelling, is trying to describe my approach to using storytelling within ministry of the Word.
Two of the biggest obstacles in moving from simply telling a story to becoming a storyteller are risk and fear. Yes, it is a risk to get into a story so that it becomes real or somehow rings true to human life, with all the nuances of voice inflections, posture and facial expressions that emerge from the story. Marshall McLuhan once said so well: 'The medium is the message.' As storytellers in ministry of the Word we are the medium through which the biblical message is communicated. Communications experts tell us that 7% of communication occurs through the words used, 38% through the way the words and the voice are used, while 55% of communication occurs through non‑verbal body language. Indeed, the medium is the message.
Are you afraid people will laugh at you? Or, maybe, is it that they are laughing with you, within the setting of the story? This was a big hurdle for me when I first began my preaching ministry. I was so concerned about what the congregation thought that I hesitated to take many risks and venture into "deep" waters. I was suffering from what could have been called "paralysis of perfectionism." If one takes no risks then one cannot fail, but, alas, neither can one succeed. Face your own obstacles; take the necessary risks to overcome your own fears. If you haven't heard it already, fear can be understood as an acronym: False Expectations Appearing Real.
What changed my preaching style actually changed my future ministry as well. What began as personal, journal‑writing therapy, collecting positive quotations and stories quickly assumed a new perspective when I took what was then a big risk and shared some stories and quotations from my journals in my preaching.
When people would come up and ask for a copy of this quotation or that story I was amazed! These were my "personal" stories and quotes, and other people found them helpful too! Gradually I took more risks and told more stories; now people seem to expect me always to come up with a good story. A bonus to storytelling ministry, from my experience, is that people tend to listen more attentively and enter into the story with the catechist, teacher or preacher, enabling him or her to make the connection with the biblical word, the stories of their lives and the kingdom of God.
The exemplum is a classic fable or popular anecdote to which has been added a moral…They were used in sermons, much as parables were used by Christ. The oldest known Christian examples occur in the homilies of Saint Gregory the First (c. 600).…In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, certain monks developed the narration of the exempla into an art that was very successful. This was in large measure due to the example set by the Dominicans and by prelates such as Jacques de Vitry; known to have compiled a number of collections of sermons with stories.
Jacques de Vitry was a translator of a major collection of sermon stories written in the thirteenth century by another Dominican, Jacob de Voragine. De Voragine's collection became known as The Golden Legend, the most popular book of the Middle Ages next to the Bible.
Therefore, we may be reassured, as catechists, and others who engage in the ministry of the Word, that when we use stories, parables, illustrations and anecdotes, we are not being faddish or simplistic, but stand in good company with a rich heritage.
The ministry of the Word, be it catechetics, teaching or preaching, seeks to invite people to faith…to make a connection of the Word with their own life…to open people's imagination to picture a new way of living, of loving, of healing. Our task, then, is to involve people in a personal way to find a key to their own stories of faith and struggle.
Now I will try to answer a couple of questions that I am often asked: Where do you find these stories and parables to use in catechesis or preaching? What kinds of resources are available?
In fact, God is continually sending us stories, illustrations and modern‑day parables, so many that it is a wonder that we miss seeing this. Remember St. Francis' admonition to "first secretly draw in by prayer, to grow warm on the inside." We have to learn to listen to our own inner voice that nudges us to take notice; then take the next step and write the story or illustration into our own collection. In this way we develop our own collection of resources, our own exempla, from which we can invite people to faith and open their imagination toward the things of heaven.
I began to choose only those stories that have that mysterious, archetypal quality that speaks to something profound within us, some deep desire of the human heart.
…Like prayer, they took me along with them and somehow effected in me inner transformations not unlike those experienced by Francis and his companions…Whoever told the first stories was not only remembering but reliving, as well. And what he or she remembered was conditioned by what had happened within, those unforgettable changes in attitude and behavior that reveal the Spirit's presence in our lives. The stories, then, are the incarnation of the efficacy of God's Word… and their very retelling itself becomes an effective word.
So the first resource is so obvious that most people miss it—observation. Life abounds with delightful stories, anecdotes and modern‑day parables if only we pick up on them. They are in the people we meet, in the newspapers we read, in the television programs we watch. Yes, indeed, we can learn a lot by observing life. This is more than just casual observing. It is what Jesus spoke about when He asked us to see, not just look; to listen, not just hear. It is attentiveness, alertness to life, seeking to see the hand of God in events, searching actively for the significance of what is taking place around us.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells the following parable, "A man scatters seed on the ground. He goes to bed and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens" (Mk. 4:26‑29).
Storytelling in ministry of the Word and catechesis is like the scattering of seeds. The stories contain within themselves a dynamic life‑force that is capable of sprouting, growing and bearing fruit in the lives of the listener's without the storyteller knowing how it happens. Therefore, it is the primary task of a storyteller simply to keep telling the stories, just like the farmer who scatters the seed.
There is a delightful story by Jean Giono that illustrates how being faithful to the scattering of seeds in storytelling ministry can bring forth an abundance of good things.
In the 1930s a young traveler was exploring the French Alps. He came upon a vast stretch of barren land. It was desolate. It was forbidding. It was ugly. It was the kind of place you hurry away from. It had been devastated during World War I.
Then, suddenly, the young traveler stopped dead in his tracks. In the middle of this vast wasteland was a bent‑over old man. On his back was a sack of acorns. In his hand was a four‑foot length of iron pipe.
The man was using the iron pipe to punch holes in the ground. Then from the sack he would take an acorn and put it in the hole. Later the old man told the traveler, 'I've planted over 100,000 acorns. Perhaps only a tenth of them will grow.' The old man's wife and son had died, and this was how he chose to spend his final years. 'I want to do something useful,' said Elzeard Bouffier.
Twenty‑five years later the now not‑as‑young traveler returned to the same desolate area. What he saw amazed him. He could not believe his eyes. The land was covered with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five miles long. Birds were singing, animals were playing, and wildflowers perfumed the air.
The traveler stood there recalling the desolate area that once was; a beautiful oak forest stood there now—all because someone cared.
This miracle occurred because someone was faithful to sowing the seeds. Storytelling will plant seeds of faith and hope in people's lives that will take root and grow in abundance. If you are faithful to sowing the seeds of God's Word, the empty wastelands of desolation and despair can be transformed.
And so, let me encourage you to use stories, parables, fables, anecdotes and illustrations. You will find that people will begin to get the bigger picture as you help them envision the kingdom of God, to imagine a new way of living, loving and healing. They will enter into the story with you and take something home with them.
The master gave his teaching in parables and stories, which his disciples listened to with pleasure—and occasional frustration, for they longed for something deeper.
Yes, and the shortest distance from the Gospel to people's lives is through a story. So tell them well and tell them often.
Author's Note: Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR, works at Franciscan University, Steubenville Ohio. He is the author of numerous books and articles on storytelling, and most notably The Sower's Seeds series of storytelling resources published by Paulist Press. This article expands and refines ideas presented in two previous articles, "Storytelling as Ministry" and "Picturing the Kingdom of God: Storytelling in Preaching," both published in The Priest, December, 1994 and September 1996, respectively. These articles are also available on his website at http://www.appleseeds.org.
Speaking, Revised & Expanded. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004, p. 74.
 Anne Pellowski, The World of Storytelling. NY: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990, p. 57.
 William R. White, Speaking in Stories. Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1982, p. 24.
 Cavanaugh, The Sower's Seeds. p. 7.
 Cavanaugh, The Sower's Seeds. p. 1.


I've been up at the lake the last couple of days and it's been lovely. We strung the tissu between two trees and did lots of photographing.. it's a lovely place to hang out. I haven't been motivated to actually practice any choreography, which is becoming a more pressing problem as faerieworlds is in 2 weeks and I've only got the first 1/5 of the dance choreographed. The bugs, the sun, the breeze, the beauty, the big box of gingersnaps, all seem to distract me though. Also, the lack of music.. and the lack of mirrors. I'm pretty spoiled by my living room performance space I guess.
There was much adventure in rigging. Darrell was the mastermind and had a whole bunch of tools and confusing-looking gear.. several tree-scrapes, rope burns, failed attempts, near-death frights, trips to the hardware store, and hours of precarious ladder-balancing later we managed to string a cable between two trees and hang the tissu from it. It works really, really well! I'm very impressed with Darrell. We were describing the idea to lots of folks before we tried it, and got lots of skepticism and nay-sayers, but the amount of tension on the cable is just perfect - a little bouncy but that actually makes it more comfortable to bounce and drop and stuff, and it feels super safe.
Originally we wanted to hang it at 30 feet but we had only a 16 foot ladder. The first time we tried rigging I climbed all the way up the rope to a 30 foot tree branch and then freaked out and my body seized up and brain stopped working, and I had to BREATHE and slide back down the rope and shake for a while (got a nice rope burn on my shin from that one) and we decided rigging lower down, from the ladder, was the way to go this time. We've got ideas for setting up a belay so we can rig from higher heights but this time it just wasn't gonna happen. Plenty of height for close-up shots though.. the far-away silhouettes will just have to be next time.
on Wednesday. Tissu dancing is one thing.. tissu hanging-and-posing is a bit different, and pretty tough on the ol' arm muscles - most especially at 6:00 am! (try to squeeze your fists hard enough to support your body weight right after you wake up.. combined with morning stiffness and chilliness.. that photo shoot was TOUGH!) The light was just beautiful though, with some mist on the lake and everything really still.. I think we got some really beautiful photos.


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Home > Insights > Fintech or Die: Five Ways Microfinance Can (and Must) Respond to the Digital Age
Fintech or Die: Five Ways Microfinance Can (and Must) Respond to the Digital Age
Originally published by NextBillion.net
MicroSave founder and managing director Graham Wright seemed to enjoy playing the provocateur at the 2016 European Microfinance Week, aiming some pointed (and well-justified) barbs at the ways fintech is being leveraged in loan products for low-income clients. He used terms like "rapacious consumer lending" and "automated loan sharking" to describe many popular digital credit products in emerging markets, and decried interest rates that, in Kenya, average at least 49 to 641 percent per year, and often damage the credit-worthiness of poor borrowers. (Check out this video to hear him make his case in a live debate.)
But though his critique drove a lot of the discussion around fintech at the event, Wright's views on its potential in microfinance are far more bullish than his criticism of its current uses might suggest. We spoke on the sidelines of the conference, and he was unequivocal about fintech's vital importance to the microfinance sector and broader financial inclusion space. "Very soon, if MFIs don't develop a strategy and implement fintech behind that strategy, I think they will simply become irrelevant and slowly but surely shrink and die," he said. "There's a great range of fintech that is being adopted by MFIs, and that is useful."
But how can microfinance institutions go about leveraging fintech in their products and practices? Wright laid out five basic options:
The first way MFIs could potentially use fintech is to set up their own e-money system, he said, like Equity Bank in Kenya. "If you look at Equity Bank now, the vast majority of their transactions are conducted at agents. The vast majority of their loans, 85 percent, are pushed out automatically from the system, and then cashed out and repaid through agents – so there's a bank that is really leveraging fintech to its full potential."
Another option for MFIs is to use their outreach to create a cash-in/cash-out agent network. "We've seen this with World Vision in Cambodia, with Finca in DRC, and so on," he said. "It's expensive to do, but is an important and high-potential role for MFIs in areas where there are inadequate agent networks."
A third option is simply to "ride the rails," he said, using the payments systems that a fintech or mobile money system provide in order to make loan disbursements or repayments. "You've got a very large range of MFIs doing that, a lot of them using the Musoni system that allows them to have the back-end integrated with those payments systems."
The fourth option is to use fintech's data capability to facilitate communication, loan decision-making, and other essential banking functions. "We see a lot of Indian MFIs using this – there's an organization called Artoo that provides an excellent tablet-based system for loan officers to screen SMEs and facilitate loan decision-making. And of course you've also got a growing number of cloud-based core banking systems that tailor to the needs of MFIs specifically – Oradian is an example of that."
"The fifth option that we always put on the table for MFIs is to wait and watch," he said, "because everything is moving so quickly, it's terribly difficult to figure out what to do, and we're not really sure which of these fintech companies will survive and blossom into the future. But that period for being able to wait and watch is rapidly disappearing. … Fintech offers opportunities to reduce cost structures, improve loan decision-making, improve communication with clients, and so on, that MFIs really do need to leverage into the future."
Wright also gave a run-down of how fintech is transforming financial service delivery in India, a country that has become the global hotbed of digital financial inclusion. He described how MicroSave is helping the Indian government with the gargantuan task of digitizing government-to-person payments: These amount to about $35 billion, he said, and the objective is to digitize almost all of them. The organization is also working with some of India's new payments and small finance banks, to help them deliver products over the country's emerging digital infrastructure. "Ultimately what we're all working toward is a full digital ecosystem, serviced by 200,000 agents providing cash-in/cash-out, and leveraging the Unified Payments Interface, which will create a digital footprint for each and every Indian citizen." According to Wright, this work will eventually allow India to "democratize credit," by turning the lending process on its head: "In the future … we believe and hope that, as an Indian citizen, I'll be able to open up my digital locker to a variety of banks, saying 'I need 10,000 rupees, repayable in a year. What rates of interest and what package can you offer me?' So we invert the relationship and make the banks bid for the customers, instead of the customers being supplicant to the banks." And he added that these innovations aren't just relevant to India, because more and more countries are looking to emulate its model. "We're receiving increasing numbers of calls from governments across the globe, saying 'Can you help us understand what's going on in India, and tailor it for our country?'"
In a characteristically frank and insightful discussion, Wright also shared his views on whether microfinance has turned a corner, after years of controversy and disappointing impact studies. (Money quote: "The industry lived this lie for way too long, that we are funding microenterprises.") Check out the full Q&A below.
Germany Sets out GPFI Priorities
Universal Financial Access 2020 – Video

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


That's a legitimate question, and it's one of the reasons I frequently recommend that people use a second malware scanner to supplement their main antivirus program. But even that suggestion involves running a program already installed on your PC (and thus, possibly compromised), while something evil may be running in memory.
I'm going to recommend two ways to scan for infection in a clean environment. Pick which makes the most sense to you, or–if you're really paranoid–use both.
Only the minimum, basic code loads when you boot Windows into Safe Mode. It's a good bet your malware infection won't be running in this environment.
On a safe computer, download the SUPERAntiSpyware Portable Scanner and save it to a flash drive. This self-contained malware program (in the form of a DOS .com executable file with a Windows user interface) gets updated regularly, so you can assume the version you just downloaded is up-to-date.
Then boot the suspect PC into Safe Mode. Press F5 just before Windows starts loading (it may take a few tries to get the timing right), and select Safe Mode from the resulting menu.If you don't see a Safe Mode option, press F8.
Once the PC is booted, insert the flash drive. Unlike Windows' normal mode, nothing automatic happens when you plug in a drive, but if you select Start then Computer (or My Computer) the drive will very likely be there. Open it, double-click the program file with a name that starts with SAS and ends with .COM. Once the program is up, click Scan your Computer.
It's possible that your PC won't see a flash drive in Safe Mode–some do, some don't. If yours falls into the second category, boot it normally, then copy the SAS…COM file onto your desktop. Then boot into Safe Mode and run the scanner.
If Safe Mode doesn't seem quite safe enough, you can skip Windows, altogether. To do so, on a safe computer download the F-Secure Rescue CD.
This "CD" comes in the form of an .iso file (which itself comes inside a compressed .zip file). It's important that you run the .iso file in a program that knows what to do with it; merely copying the file to a CD will not have the desired effect. When you double-click the .iso file, there's a good chance that some program on the computer will automatically load and ask for a CD-R onto which it can burn the file's contents. If that doesn't happen, download and install ISO Recorder.
Once the disc is complete, place that disc in the PC you wish to scan and boot your PC off the CD. It will boot a text-based version of Linux.
Using a wizard, F-Secure will update its database over the Internet, then scan your PC.
At least, it can do that if it can find the Internet. Linux may not have access to any special drivers for your networking hardware, and certainly won't have your WiFi password. Your chances of getting through are greatly enhanced if you use ethernet.
If you can't get an Internet connection, there's a workaround: On a healthy computer, you can download the latest update and put it onto a flash drive. The F-Secure Rescue CD manual (a .pdf in the .zip file) explains how.
But the F-Secure Rescue CD comes with a very serious warning.
If it has to alter Windows system files to clean your system, it may render Windows unbootable. That's something to consider before you decide to take this route.


Kalamazoo native Jordan Klepper's parody of talk show host Alex Jones has been cancelled by Comedy Central after one season. That's the bad news. The good news is Klepper is getting a new show next year.
TVLine says Klepper's new show will debut in the summer of 2019 and will be a weekly half hour series of interviews with normal people. More good news. It appears that there won't be many jobs lost as much of the staff is expected to follow Klepper to the new show.
The Opposition never really became a "buzz" show, partly because the show it was created to make fun of was already so out there itself. The comments section of the TVLine story reflect that, with some big fans and others bemoaning Comedy Central trying to mold him into the next Stephen Colbert rather than playing to his strength, interviewing.


I warned you that I would keep sharing, so here's another gut-buster from the older daughter.
It's the small joys sometimes, folks, the small joys.
This entry was posted in A Funny Thing Happened... and tagged chicago, jokes, kindergarten life, SAHD, Stay-at-home Dad. Bookmark the permalink.


Veritasium, a science video blog posted something interesting about what is currently happening in Facebook.
Veritasium created a video highlighting how Facebook has started monetizing the access and distribution of information and content. Content creators and basically anyone who posts something on Facebook are being encouraged to pay to get their message out. But the problem is the underhanded way Facebook is going about to make you avail of the service not to mention the service Facebook is offering is not delivering as advertised.
Veritasium's first video highlighting this issue.
Unfortunately what is happening to Facebook is only natural. Facebook has grown so big that it needs to generate revenue anyway it can and the only products it can sell or monetize, other than advertising space, are information access and publicity. There's already a conspiracy theory that Facebook is secretly selling their users information to governments and companies. So now Facebook has turned itself like a magazine or postal service.
So why the fuss when one can simply choose not to use the service? The problem is Facebook is surreptitiously using their filtering ability to make you pay them to deliver your content to your audience. Like what it says in the video, you have 1,000 page likes but only 50 get to see your posts.
Right now the only people that get affected with this scheme are those who have Facebook public pages. The users of those pages are mostly companies or individuals using it for marketing and advertising.
I think the days where the idea that Facebook is a free platform for you to publicize yourself or your company is long gone. Maybe it was still like that 2 years ago.
The fact of the matter is Facebook is not free nor any of the social media services like Google, Twitter or even Youtube. A while back there was a lot of brouhaha about Youtube, which is now owned by Google, enforcing draconian copyright laws which affected all Youtube creators. Basically most Youtube videos operate under the "fair use" doctrine; meaning most Youtubers use some form of copyright material in their videos but transform them into something new.
As much as people complain about the practices of Youtube or Facebook, people forget that nothing is really free. All those free services and web space cost money.
During the mid to late 2000s, individuals and later companies saw the advantages of social media from a marketing and promotions standpoint. They saw a cheap and cost effective alternative to traditional marketing and promotions. Sometimes with enough time and work put into it, you can market and promote yourself or your product for FREE through social media.
It is still possible to do that today but Facebook should not be looked upon as THE only option and place to market and promote yourself; especially when it's not as free and as effective as it used to be. People should look at Facebook as just one branch of the social media tree.
I learned that it is important to know what you want to get out of Facebook and from social media. At first, I was excited of a way to stay in touch with friends. But as time passed, attitudes of people in Facebook changed. Facebook morphed from a way to stay in touch and connected to friends and family to a networking tool.
I started getting random people I don't know or haven't met before send me friend requests. And the ones who I do know from high school or wherever, I don't really want to stay in touch with them. I have nothing against using Facebook for networking but I just realized that it wasn't what I wanted to use Facebook for. I don't find it attractive to have over a thousand people on my friend list which most of whom I don't know.
I felt weird sharing my personal thoughts and opinions on my wall to strangers. So I ended up creating a Facebook public page specifically for things I don't mind sharing publicly. But after doing this, I just stopped altogether from posting anything personal on my private Facebook account.
Now I only use my private Facebook account as another form of email. Surprisingly it's faster to get in touch with someone on Facebook than through email.
At the end of the day, all I can do is be careful of what I post. Facebook is just a tool that has the possibility to be beneficial or harmful depending on how I use it. Nothing is perfect but it's good to know about those fake Facebook accounts and Facebook's manipulation of access control of people to your posts.
It's just more things to be wary about whenever on Facebook.


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has to interact with the CA.
which the CA will issue credentials.
operator as a "delegated credential".
(*) indicates changes to the wire protocol.
o  Drop support for TLS 1.2.
certificate as well as the delegated credential.
working key for the TLS handshake.
use in prior versions of the protocol is explicitly disallowed.
not conflict with X.509 semantics.
entire certificate and the delegated credential, cannot.
TLS 1.3 [I-D.ietf-tls-tls13], where DC is delegated credentials.
credentials, within an operator network.
credential is no longer valid.
CertificateVerify.algorithm sent by the server.
used, where the type ProtocolVersion is as defined in [RFC8446].
by the client and server.
encoded [X690] SubjectPublicKeyInfo as defined in [RFC5280].
certificate's public key, using the scheme.
1.  A string that consists of octet 32 (0x20) repeated 64 times.
2.  The context string "TLS, server delegated credentials".
3.  A single 0 byte, which serves as the separator.
protocol attacks involving delegated credentials.
course moves that complexity to the TLS stack).
This document defines the following extension code point.
client MUST abort with an "unexpected_message" alert.
the extension unless TLS 1.3 or a later version is negotiated.
type advertised by the client in the "signature_algorithms"
even if the client advertises support for delegated credentials.
indicated in the server's CertificateVerify message.
indicated in the server's "supported_versions" extension.
verify the signature in the server's CertificateVerify message.
o  It has the DelegationUsage extension.
system controls, physical security or hardware security modules.
number of probes that a server can perform.
discussions, ideas, and bugs they have found.
Conference on Computer and Communications Security , 2015.


text:
Liberals raise questions about Conservative candidate who previously appeared in a video with Faith Goldy
Scheer says he won't have anything to do with Goldy and is accusing the Liberals of trying to distract from their record in government and their own problematic candidates
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer listens to questions during a campaign event in Ottawa on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019. Scheer decided against taking a break from campaigning on the first weekend of the election campaign.Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS
KANATA, Ont. — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is on the defensive again about one of his would-be MPs.
Several Liberals took to social media today to share an appearance Tory candidate Justina McCaffrey, a noted dress designer, made in a years-old online video with far-right political commentator Faith Goldy, as part of a pitch for a television show.
Goldy was among six Canadian people and groups banned by Facebook in April after the platform decided they had broken its policy on spreading hate.
Banned by Facebook for spreading online hate, yet Faith Goldy is embraced by Andrew Scheer's Conservatives. Scheer & Goldy spoke at the same rally this year, and today he campaigns with Justina McCaffrey, Faith Goldy's "best friend." They even pitched a TV show together. Watch: pic.twitter.com/u6HO7Vy9HC
— Maryam Monsef (@MaryamMonsef) September 14, 2019
The Liberals also raised comments McCaffrey made about Trudeau being "preoccupied" with Quebec and francophones — comments she is apologizing for in a statement, but without mentioning Goldy.
Scheer says he won't have anything to do with Goldy and is accusing the Liberals of trying to distract from their record in government and their own problematic candidates, including one accused of making anti-Semitic comments who has since quit the race.
The Conservative leader says his party has been open about issues with its candidates, including some who have apologized for past comments, using it as a way to draw a distinction with Justin Trudeau.


text:
Jan-Frederik Uys, né le 3 janvier 1994 à Potchefstroom, est un joueur sud-africain de rugby à XV évoluant au poste de deuxième ligne avec la franchise des Bulls.

Carrière

Formation
Jan Uys débute le rugby sous les couleurs de son lycée du côté de Stellenbosch avant d'être sélectionné avec l'équipe de la Western Province U16. Il va gravir tous les échelons des jeunes de la province des U18, U19 et U21.

En club
Jan Uys commence à la Western Province en 2013 où il dispute la Vodacom Cup.

Il rejoint la Section paloise en 2015 et intègre son centre de formation mais ne dispute aucun match en professionnel.

Il s'engage ensuite avec le CA Brive en Top 14en juillet 2016 et signe son premier contrat professionnel avec Brive en janvier 2017. Il marque son seul essai en France face au Stade aurillacois en Pro D2 .
Jan Uys et le CA Brive remontent en Top 14 grâce à leur victoire (28 à 22) dans l'access match contre l'équipe de Top 14 du FC Grenoble au Stade Amédée-Domenech de Brive .

En juin 2020, il quitte la Corrèze et rejoint le Super Rugby avec la franchise des Bulls dirigé par Jake White en Afrique du Sud  mais ne dispute aucun match.

Il dispute cependant la Currie Cup avec les Blue Bulls et remporte le championnat  sud-africain en 2021.

Il dispute la même année un match de la Pro14 Rainbow Cup, lors de la finale avec les Bulls, en étant titulaire et s'incline face aux Benetton Rugby Trévise.

Il s'engage avec le FC Grenoble à partir de la saison 2021-2022.

Statistiques

Palmarès
 Championnat de France de Pro D2 :
 Vice-champion (1) : 2019 avec le CA Brive
 Access match :
 Vainqueur (1) : 2019 avec le CA Brive
 Currie Cup :
 Vainqueur (1) : 2021 avec les Blue Bulls
 Pro14 Rainbow Cup :
 Finaliste (1) : 2021 avec les Bulls

Notes et références

Liens externes

Joueur sud-africain de rugby à XV
Deuxième ligne (rugby à XV)
Joueur de la Western Province
Joueur du CA Brive
Joueur des Blue Bulls
Joueur des Bulls (rugby à XV)
Joueur du FC Grenoble
Naissance en janvier 1994
Naissance à Potchefstroom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The month of August, 1987 saw a dozen documented circles appear.
At Westbury in wheat on the 30th July 1987. This photograph is one of the first showing the interest of British Military helicopters. Pairs of circles with these proportions were seen regularly in the early years. These were found in a field with a later set of three circles forming a straight line. The smallest circle was 14.3 feet diameter CW with a swirl of 5.2 feet diameter laid in reverse. The large circle was 26.9 feet in diameter, with spiral of 6.6 feet diameter laid in reverse.
Andrews traced the army pilot and the Ministry of Defense sent the photographs to him.
A month after the two circles appeared a larger circle was superimposed over one of the original two. This smaller circle of 16.4 feet had a new circle of 49.2 feet partially laid on top. Where the original swirl was now overlaid with a radial splay of the wheat stalks. The forces involved were extremely powerful, blasting many of the plants out of the ground. Whole plants with roots and soil still attached had been thrown out of the circle and lay limp on the surrounding wheat.
Beckhampton and Bratton Castle Nr Avebury, Wiltshire.
Nine circles appeared in the month of August. The formations were triplet-in-line, and a cluster of five circles with another single circle nearby. The dates of the respective circles are unknown. The triplet had two smaller outer circles about 25 feet in diameter, one CW and one CCW. The larger inner circles was about 56 feet in diameter CW.
This picture shows the same circles as the one to the left.
A rare photograph showing the original team of researchers at work - Dr. Meaden (left), Pat Delgado (Centre rear) and Colin Andrews (Center front).
The double ringed circle was in wheat. The central circle was 53.7 feet in diameter, CW, while the first ring was 3.7 feet wide CCW and the second ring was 3.3 feet wide and CW.
This was the first formation visited by George Wingfield and was the first time he met the CPR team at work. Gloria, his wife, witnessed a small blue flashing object moving in the field to the right of the team, as she sat on the hill overlooking the field.
I have shown just some of the circles made at that time.
The photographs below show how one field became recipient to several circles. I have not attempted to blend the two pictures of the same field but they are shown side-by-side. Included in the upper right is a larger circle imposed over a smaller one.
Winterborne Stoke, Nr Stonehenge, Wiltshire.
A spectacular discovery. Four circles were found in this field at Winterbourne Stoke. One of them had a single ring placed around it. All the plants were compressed flat to the ground due to the lateness of the season. It was an impressive site to see flying from Stonehenge to Warminster.
The large circle was 83 feet in diameter, the ring was 7.5 feet wide, and the outer band was 4.25 feet wide. The two side-by-side circles to the right we laid in opposite rotations, CW and CCW.
two crop formations and directly over both. Between the two, just seconds apart at the flight speed of the jet, communications was lost with the pilot.
A full air, sea and ground search was put into effect by the Control Centre at the secret base. An American transport aircraft flying off the south coast to the south west of Winterbourne Stoke, spotted the Harrier and shadowed it. The crew reported that the ejector seat was still in the craft, but the pilot was missing. The crew video taped the aircraft. The Harrier remained on a straight path and eventually crashed into the Atlantic when it ran out of fuel.
Two days later, the body of the pilot was found near the crop circle and to the east of it. Andrews was interviewed by the military crash investigators. They asked many questions about the crop circles and any strange effects or readings measured by researchers. A full account of these strange events appeared in the Flying Saucer Review in an article written by Andrews.


text:
Why Is It Important To Know Who Owns Your XR Training Content?
In 2019, enterprises that adopted extended reality (XR) training technology saved $13.5 billion that would otherwise have been spent on traditional learning. There's no doubt that the use of XR technology for training is becoming increasingly popular, but who actually owns XR content once it's created and where is it stored?
The ownership of XR content is determined through negotiations. During the negotiation phase, organizations typically have two options for owning their XR content:
Purchasing the Source Code in a Source Package
Licensing the Finished Product in a Binary Package
Developing an XR training program is a creative and exciting process. Once extended reality content is developed and the official program is launched, though, who actually owns the source files, assets, and final product?
We're here to provide you all you need to know about XR content ownership!
In this article, we will explore who owns XR content, differentiate between source and binary packages, discuss where source files and assets are stored, and compare and contrast two ownership options.
Who Owns XR Training Content?
XR content is owned depending on the purchasing and licensing of the project. The ownership of the final XR program, source code, and assets is decided during the negotiation phase of project planning.
When completing the negotiation phase of an XR training program, it's critical to complete the following four steps:
You must understand what you're buying
Acknowledge what you can and can't do with your content
Know whether or not you receive your source code
Understand licensing for assets in your project
By completing this 4 step checklist, you can ensure that your organization understands exactly what you're getting out of your XR program regarding the licensing and purchasing of content. Determining who owns your XR assets is essential because it affects how you can update, refine, and deploy your program.
Source Package vs. Binary Package
Let's dive into the two options for owning XR training content.
Source Package — Purchasing the Source Code
If you purchase the source code of the project, you will be delivered a set of files that create the exact output of your project. The source package is the individual components of an XR project that are compiled to make an optimized and functional program.
The source package is a combination of source code, graphics, video, and other assets. Organizations can customize their assets within the source package to tailor their XR content to their current need.
Purchasing the source code is best if your organization is looking to have the independence to modify and republish XR content as needed, provided you have the capacity to do so.
Binary Package — Licensing the Finished Product
If you're purchasing or licensing the finished product, you should receive what's referred to as a binary package. This is the program itself with no ability to modify it. A binary package is the result of source code and assets that are combined into the final program that you run.
Essentially, a binary package is the optimized program that contains necessary assets for the device you're looking to use, whether it be a headset, computer, or tablet. Any changes you want to make will require you to contact your vendor, therefore limiting organizations' agency to modify their training.
Licensing the finished product is best if your organization doesn't have the internal capacity to make changes to content and has a trusted partner to do so. Additionally, there may be a lower upfront cost, but may cost more over the lifetime of the content.
Read More: How To Create Original VR Content: Everything You Need To Know
Manage Source Files And Assets In A Source Code Repository
XR content is typically stored in a source code repository in the form of code, files, and assets. Source files are the heart and soul of your XR program. Source files are the instructions that describe how the learner will view and interact with the experience.
Source files and digital assets are stored in a digital repository, such as Unity Collaborate or Git + Large File Storage (LFS). Both sources make it more convenient for teams to share content, save large files, and sync their projects with others on remote servers. Selecting the proper repository for XR content storage will depend on the skillset and disposition of your team or external vendor.
XR file sizes are quite large and can easily become a barrier to organizations looking to make an investment in XR training. With proper planning and deployment, though, organizations can ensure that they don't encounter unexpected licensing costs or problems when storing XR content in repositories.
2 Examples Of XR Content Ownership
Let's explore two examples of how XR content can be created, owned, and managed: one with a limiting external vendor and the other through a more flexible partnership with Roundtable Learning.
Receiving the Binary Package from an External Vendor
When organizations outsource their XR program to an external vendor, they're at the mercy of the vendor, their release, and production schedules. A standard program lifecycle with an outside vendor and purchased binary package typically follows these four steps:
The organization pays for access to the developed content
The external vendor develops the program
The program is installed onto the device
The training program is completed by learners
Receiving a binary package from an external source limits organizations to licensing the content that has been made for them without the ability to modify it themselves. Since the organization in this scenario doesn't own the source code, they can't pivot to new hardware or software on their own schedule as their organizational needs dictate. Therefore, the organization doesn't own the source files and can only run the program on licensed devices.
Licensing the Source Package from Roundtable
As opposed to working with a partner that locks your organization down, Roundtable provides the flexibility to store and manage your XR content how you'd like. Licensing the source package from Roundtable comes with the following benefits:
Freedom to choose instructional designers — Organizations have the unique opportunity to use their own internal instructional design team, utilize the large community of experienced Unity developers, or collaborate with Roundtable's instructional designers.
Ability to move, update, and redeploy content — Licensing your XR program's source package allows organizations to own their source files and manipulate them how they'd like.
Power to use existing materials — Roundtable welcomes organization's existing content and works with you to rebuild material for our platform. This adds an element of personalization to your XR program.
In this scenario, the source package contains code and assets that organizations can use to customize content and collaborate with others. A partnership with Roundtable Learning allows you to own your source files, granting you more independence regarding modifications and republishing capabilities.
Are You Ready To Own Your XR Content Ownership?
In this article, we've covered the basics of XR content purchasing and licensing for both binary and source packages. We've also provided a negotiation stage checklist and examples of content ownership to help you along your XR program journey.
To do more with your XR content, get started here.
Bob Baskette
CTO and Founder
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Si le feu était à la maison, que sauveriez vous?
Somehow the conversation comes around to fire. Our coresident Kevin McIlvoy, a novelist and editor, has posted this quote on his website.
-Jean Cocteau, in response to an interviewer.
It's late at night and we've gathered in Bridget's studio at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), and we're streaming 70s classics from YouTube and drinking cheap Malbec. Having been in our studios since 8 AM, working on our books and visual art projects and whatever, now it's time to unwind.
Bridget, who is working on a short story collection, seems strangely upset.
They had an old furnace, she tells us, which sent flames through a vent in the floor to heat the rooms.
A world-renowned authority on Buddhism, author of innumerable classic books on world religions, Jeffery is writing a book about Crestone, Colorado, a village in the high Rockies, a uniquely spiritual place where dozens of faiths have a presence, and if he thinks Cocteau is flippant, what does that say about the rest of us?
That night, flames burst through the windows of my friend's house, and the attic, where we would have been playing, was gutted. Flames filled my dreams long afterward.
Luckily, Ethan Jackson, a visual artist who makes installations involving natural light, chimes in to break the awkward silence.
Which, he adds, led to the extinction of eight-foot tall flightless owls on the Hawaiian islands.
Conversation quickly veers to a new topic: eight-foot tall extinct Hawaiian owls? None of us is exactly sure how carrying fire in outrigger canoes resulted in owl extinction, but the hour is late, and Ethan is breaking out the bourbon.
Not too long afterward, we return our glasses and empty bottles to the barn's kitchen, and trek through darkness toward the Fellows' Residence, since we'll be up at 7 AM for another day of paradise.
Just before coming to VCCA, I finished writing a research grant, four hundred pages of dense, technical prose, with subcontracts, budgets, consultant agreements, manuals, survey results, and two dozen letters of support. One of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life.
Compared to that, writing a book is easy, I joke: just a matter of cutting yourself open and ripping out pieces of your liver.
For three weeks, I'm one of two dozen writers, composers, painters and visual artists at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), in Amherst, Virginia, trying to save the fire. We've stolen precious time from jobs, family, and other responsibilities to come here; some of us have Airbnb'ed our apartments, and a few are essentially homeless, moving from one residency to another between permanent domiciles. For some the fellowship money makes this possible, for others it's the protection from emails, texts, bosses, coworkers. For all, it's a way to get work done with minimal interference, and a bit of companionship, even inspiration, from other Fellows.
Life is simple here: Oatmeal or hard-boiled eggs for breakfast in the Fellow's Residence, then a few hundred yards stroll to the Studio Barn, then a break at midday to grab a sandwich or last night's leftovers in the lunchroom, and then retracing the same few hundred yards home at night. Maybe a mid-afternoon break to walk through the marsh past beaver-gnawed trees, or to ride a bike with no brakes down hilly Stage Road, or to drive to Sweet Briar College for a quick swim. Despite rumors of wild parties and affairs, life at VCCA appears pretty tame, with most Fellows heading back to their studios after dinner to put in a few more hours of work.
An old Southern plantation in the shadow of Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, the VCCA campus is filled with wildlife, flowering vegetation, and incredible birdsongs at morning and at dusk. A Norfolk and Western train periodically curves on tracks below the eastern flank of the campus, rattling and squealing as it passes. My Nike FuelBand monitor has the lowest number of Fuel Points and steps taken since I was in the hospital a few years ago. But the lack of physical activity masks a time of intense emotion, of being able to give one's self fully to work for weeks at a time with minimal distraction.
For me, it's a chance to work on a nonfiction book, a collection of twenty-plus essays, trying to pull them into a coherent narrative. After ten days, I've gone through the entire manuscript and written a few new pieces, and need to put it aside, like a ball of dough, to rest for a while. Then I turn my attention to a novel that I've been dreaming about for over a decade, for which I've sketched out four generations of family trees, and notes on eighteen chapters.
I find myself back in the 1960s, strangely enough, just a few years after Tommy's house burned down. So long as no one streams Netflix, the wireless network at the VCCA studios is fast enough to research that era, and I quickly find the Estes Model Rockets catalog I've been dreaming about, Catalog #691, from 1969, the year of the moon landing, all 132 pages of bright Kodachrome. I flip through the PDF, discovering all the rocket models we assembled in our efforts to Meet the Space Age Challenge—the Astron Alpha, the Astron Drifter, the Astron X-Ray (with its visible payload chamber which could hold a raw egg), and even the Semi-Scale Saturn 5, the same rocket that launched the Apollo 11, which made a successful moon landing on July 20th, 1969.
Were our dreams in those days of being rocketeers, and landing on the moon? Or did we just revel in the possibilities of combustion, whether packing model airplanes with firecrackers or launching coffee cans skyward with M-80s? It seems to me more the latter: we dripped liquid glue across carefully-assembled model cars to watch them burn, and we annihilated our sisters' Barbies in baths of lighter fluid. We threw matches at one another, we aimed magnifying glasses until piles of leaves began to smolder, we raided our chemistry sets to make gunpowder and stink bombs, and we launched the model rockets not only heavenward but sideways, across neighbors' backyards, just to see what would happen. The TV News, showing napalm and carpet-bombing, was an accelerant for our explosive reveries.
In my VCCA studio, I relive those days, frantically typing out one chapter after another of my novel. At night, unable to sleep, I find myself scrawling three or four pages of notes that I can barely decode by morning.
My fellow VCCA'ers seem to be engaged in comparable paroxysms of conflagration. Some focus on the incandescence of darkness. Piper Weiss is writing about evil, in a nonfiction book about a beloved tennis coach from her adolescent days who turned out to be a would-be child abductor, and on whom she seems to have had a crush. He rented an isolated cabin and filled it with torture devices, blacking out its windows, and surrounding it with high-tech motion detectors and closed-circuit cameras, and shot himself to death when the police closed in. Lisa Borders is writing a novel about an elementary-school teacher from Jersey, a would-be poet, who goes clubbing by night in the East Village and returns in the morning to her classroom still stinking of the night. And Andrew Hladky, a British artist whose paintings are dark forests of three-dimensional paint that rise high off the canvas, fills the darkness with occasional startlingly bright globs of primary colors like tiny suns.
Others work in the realm of light. Using mirrors and lenses and computer-based modeling, visual artist Ethan Jackson is making progress on bringing the Sun itself indoors, tracking its movements with a mirror set to Julian time, which began in 4713 BCE, so an incandescent globe will inhabit the top of a rotunda, just below the ceiling, unmoving all day. Crestone, the spiritual haven in Jeffery Paine's book, is high in the Colorado mountains, rising close to the sun, seemingly illuminated with celestial holiness. Mary Page Evans lugs her oils and canvases into the fields to paint rushing clouds as lit by the sun. And Steven Gilbert, a painter in his eighties who has been at VCCA at least twenty-five times, toils on abstract paintings in his light-blasted studio, but, because of his dimming vision, must carry them outside into sunlight to see if his imaginings have been realized in the light of day.
We all are doing something with fire, it seems to me. For the rest of my stay, I can't help but see everything in terms of darkness and light.
The night of my fire, my narrow escape, Tommy's mother was down the block visiting a friend. There was a lightbulb in the hall closet, up against some blankets and sweaters, which caught fire. My friend's toys were melted, his older brother had to jump out a bedroom window. Days after the fire, Tommy and I wandered through the devastation, wobbling across a door that spanned a hole in the second floor landing, making our way upstairs to the attic playroom where armies of toy soldiers had melted into leaden puddles, and the telephone resembled a Dali clock. Breathing an unforgettable stink of wet charcoal and burnt carpeting, we imagined what would have happened if we had played at his house instead of mine that night.
The time at VCCA goes quickly. We work, we do readings and PowerPoint slide shows at night, we drink, we talk, we drive the rural roads, we make midnight burger runs to a nearby Hardee's. One night we set up for ping- pong in the basement, where we find a dead vole beside the table. After Andrew sweeps it up in an electronics manual, and tosses it outside into the night, five of us spend the evening running around the table, serving, running, receiving. Every few days, Fellows leave and new ones arrive, until finally my time is almost up.
The night before I go, a group of us head out in celebration to the Devil's Backbone brewpub, up in the mountains, a place full of mounted bears and beery locals. We're all near the end of our residencies, and soon we'll go back to our usual lives, but I guess like the ancient Polynesians we'll do our best to save the fire, to carry it to the next point of landing.
As we get up to leave, a local guy approaches Andrew.
"Hey man, a guy at our table says you've been staring him down," he tells Andrew.
Someone else from his table pulls the drunk guy away before anything can happen to Andrew, who is the least threatening of our crew, and we rush out of Devil's Backbone, past tall flickering gas lanterns and across the dark parking lot, and then pile into our cars, roaring down the mountain and back toward VCCA, where our home fires are burning.
David Hellerstein is a physician and writer in New York. His books include Battles of Life and Death (essays), Loving Touches(novel), A Family of Doctors (memoir), and Heal Your Brain (nonfiction). He has published many essays and stories in theNorth American Review and has been a contributing editor for NAR for over twenty years. While at the Virginia Center of Creative Arts in March 2016, he worked on a nonfiction book and a new novel.
Illustrations by Matt Manley. Matt has been working as a freelance illustrator for over twenty years. His illustration is primarily figurative and symbolic with surrealist leanings, and past client work includes editorial, corporate, medical, book, and higher education. Though in the end his work is technically digital collage, the process integrates both traditional and digital media. Collage elements are original oil paintings and drawings, with occasional scanned found objects and photos added to the mix, all united in Photoshop .


Rebecca Glade is originally from South Dakota. She received her Bachelor of Arts majoring in Theatre at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Rebecca spent most of her professional career in Saint Paul, MN. She toured with Climb Children's Theatre and performed in numerous Fringe Festival productions.
Rebecca worked professionally as a magician's assistant which started her down the path to Macau, where she currently resides with her husband. She currently is the president of the International Ladies Club of Macau, a social and charity organization, and is thrilled to lend assistance to TheatreArtLife.
In her free time, she is exploring a new culture, creating amazing friendships, and attempting to make pie in her toaster oven.


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Louisiana Lottery's Fan's Choice VIP Experience Promotion Rules
Contest Description:
Louisiana residents who are at least 21 years of age are invited to submit one entry for the Lottery's Fan's Choice VIP Experience giveaway for a chance to win a College Football Gameday Prize Package to a specified football game at their choice of one of eight participating Louisiana universities: the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, Louisiana Tech University, McNeese State University, Nicholls State University, Northwestern State University, Southern University, Tulane University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Entries will be accepted only through the form on the Lottery's website on the following dates: Sept. 10 through Sept. 16, 2018. Fans must select their favorite team to be entered into a random drawing for that team's College Football Gameday Prize Package.
Eight universities have created customized College Football Gameday Prize Packages that include tickets to a home football game as part of the Louisiana Lottery's sponsorship of their athletic teams. The Lottery requires both the winners and guests attending to be at least 21 years of age. Items included in each College Football Gameday Prize Package vary and are specified below.
Northwestern State University
Oct. 13, 2018 against Sam Houston
Two game tickets
One parking pass
Two T-shirts
One Demon towel
Two journals
Four koozies
Oct. 20, 2018 against UTEP
Two posters
Two polo shirts
Two cups
Two koozies
Two megaphones
Two sports bottles
Two flags
Two tumblers
Two rings
One drawstring backpack
Oct. 20, 2018 against Texas State
Two sky box tickets
Oct. 20, 2018 against SMU
Two Glazer Family Club passes
Three T-shirts
Three caps
Three car magnet logos
Oct. 27, 2018 against Central Arkansas
Two VIP access passes
Oct. 27, 2018 against UIW
Two suite passes
Two sideline passes
Two tickets to the Colonel Athletic Association tailgate
One polo shirt
One T-shirt
One cap
Oct. 27, 2018 against Jackson State
Two north end zone tickets
One set of pom poms
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Oct. 27, 2018 against Arkansas State
Two suite tickets
Two ULL caps
One coach signed football
Eligible participants can submit one entry during the Louisiana Lottery's Fan's Choice VIP Experience giveaway by choosing one college sports team from the seven options listed. To be considered, entries must be submitted electronically through the designated form on the Lottery's website by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. Participation requires the user to agree to the rules on the Louisiana Lottery's website. No entries will be accepted in person, by mail or through any method other than the Lottery's designated form. All required information on the contest entry form must be completed in full, and entries may not be changed or altered once submitted. Incomplete or inappropriate entries will be disqualified at the Lottery's sole discretion. Only one entry per person is allowed.
Winner Selection:
One entry will be randomly selected by Lottery personnel from the field of entries submitted for each of the participating Louisiana universities for a total of eight winners.
Winner Notification:
Winners will be selected and notified (via the email address and phone number provided with their entry) on Monday, Sept. 17. Winners have two business days after any form of attempted communication by the Lottery to verify their eligibility status or their prize will be forfeited; the Lottery may, at its discretion, assign an alternate winner in those cases. Once confirmed, winners will be announced on the Lottery's social media platforms.
The Louisiana Lottery's Fans Choice VIP Experience promotion is open to Louisiana residents at least 21 years of age. Residency and age will be verified prior to announcing the winner. The following individuals are excluded from participating in Louisiana Lottery promotions:
Any member of the Board of Directors, officer or employee of the Louisiana Lottery Corporation.
Any spouse, child, brother, sister or parent residing in the same household of any Louisiana Lottery employee, officer or member of the Board of Directors.
Any employee of any company or vendor awarded a contract or subcontract to conduct business with, assigned to perform services for or provide goods to the Louisiana Lottery for any duration in the 2018 calendar year. This includes but is not limited to advertising agencies, gaming system vendors, printers, auditors, promotional product suppliers, etc.
Any spouse, child, brother, sister or parent residing in the same household of any company or vendor awarded a contract or subcontract to conduct business with, assigned to perform services for or provide goods to the Louisiana Lottery for any duration in the 2018 calendar year.
Any person who falls into one of the categories listed above or who does not meet the age and residency requirements will be deemed ineligible to participate.
Winners agree to allow the Lottery to use their names and images for promotional purposes. All contest participants agree to comply with these rules and accept the Lottery's interpretation of them in executing the promotion. Winners will be required to sign and return a liability waiver prior to receiving their prize package elements.
The Louisiana Lottery is solely responsible for conducting and administering this contest. The Louisiana Lottery shall have no responsibility or liability for any actual or claimed harm that may arise due to promotional materials or prizes. Participants agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Louisiana Lottery Corporation and its promotional partners.
The Louisiana Lottery is not responsible or liable for any error, omission or any technical problem related to its promotions, including but not limited to entries and submissions, website problems, applications problems, Internet problems or problems with a participant's computer. If for some reason a promotion is not capable of running as originally planned, the Lottery has the right to modify, suspend or cancel all or any portion of the promotion's rules.
The Fan's Choice VIP Experience winners and their guests are responsible for all other costs, including transportation to the game, lodging, or food or beverage they may require to participate.
The prize has no cash value and is nontransferable. The Lottery reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal value in the event that any portion of prize is unable to be fulfilled. No purchase is necessary to submit an entry for the contest.
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Versailles 8539 Sage Mahal 5'3" x 7'7". Machine-Loomed of 100% Viscose with No Backing. Made in Belgium. Vacuum regularly & spot clean stains. Professional cleaning recommended periodically.
The Versailles 5'3" x 7'7" Rug by Kas at Baer's Furniture in the Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Orlando, Naples, Miami, Florida area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.


Romanza, meaning romance in Italian, is our newest everyday blend replacing our previously well known "Trio". This very fine blend of Italian & French varietals, opens with black cherry cola, ripe berry and a sweet oak nose followed by hints of leather, spice and tobacco. Luscious mouthfeel with soft silky tannins are propelled to a persistent clean finish. The richness and depth of these flavors capture the soul and spirit of true romance.


Project Completion : FIVE ACRE BARN HOTEL — Blee Halligan. Caribbean. London. UK.
to house five lofty rooms with mezzanine bed decks and double height living spaces. Entirely clad in cedar shingles, the new building sits comfortably in the garden landscape and will weather down to a silver-grey over time. Stainless steel gutters match the shingles to create a seamless object form with an undulating saw-tooth roof line. The historic barn has been converted to include a social living space, open plan kitchen and the owner's accommodation.


A Valk Holiday Home Fantastic apartment with full sea view at the beautiful Sant Pol beach in S'Agaró at the Costa Brava.
Wonderful apartment on the boulevard in S'Agaró with direct access to the beautiful sandy beach of Sant Pol. Quiet setting at the end of the boulevard with a large balcony with full sea view. Spacious interior, quality furniture and equipped with airconditioning and free Wi-Fi. Shops, restaurants and terraces are around the corner or can be reached in just a few minutes on foot. Because of its location at the beach the apartment is great for kids as well. Famous Playa de Aro is just 5 min. away as well.


A young cowboy and cowgirl tradition. Leather prewalkers with leather soles and Velcro closures with a round toe. Allow for your child's growth by buying a size above your child's normal shoe size. All man-made materials.


the white is up first, only 5 shots, would not come together with wads. guess this gun is going to be shooting paper patched bullets.
reg, cci 209 I let the barrel cool for about 5mins between shots. checking to see if it needed longer.
W209 primers, let the barrel cool for 5mins, checking to see if it needed longer. unknown reason flier killed my group grrr.
100yrds target, 4 sight adjustments, 2 touching, and I pulled the last bleeping bleep da bleep shot.
WoW! That 4th one is AWESOME!
my last target would of been better, if I did not pull the last shot. it was just one of those you just knew you pull right after you pulled the trigger.


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Cozy Inn closes ... for now
Bill Allen selling popular tavern after nearly 39 years as its owner, operator.
Cozy Inn closes ... for now Bill Allen selling popular tavern after nearly 39 years as its owner, operator. Check out this story on chillicothegazette.com: http://ohne.ws/28O6LzL
Chris Balusik, Reporter Published 2:44 p.m. ET June 22, 2016
Bill Allen, owner of the Cozy Inn, center, is selling the business with help from his son, Matt Allen, left, and daughter, Stephanie Miller. Allen has owned the Cozy Inn for 38 years.(Photo: Jess Grimm/Chillicothe Gazette)Buy Photo
CHILLICOTHE - A week ago, patrons of the Cozy Inn off Western Avenue were getting ready to usher in another weekend the way they always had for nearly the last four decades.
The drinks were flowing, a conversational buzz filled the room and owner Bill Allen certainly was someplace where everybody knows his name.
This week, the bar stools sit empty, rows of liquor bottles rest on shelves behind a darkened bar with nobody to pour for and Allen is hoping the tavern — considered by some to be a true Chillicothe institution — will find another generation of operators willing to continue the work he's done for almost 39 years.
"Well, I'm 72, almost 73 years old and can't go much further with this," Bill Allen said Tuesday. "I didn't make that decision, the body did. I just can't go any further so it's time to pass it along to someone."
The Cozy, well-known for its cheeseburgers and its Friday potato soup days during the cold-weather months, shut its doors at the close of business Saturday, the decision agonized over and arrived at just a couple days earlier. Patrons found a note from Allen on the door announcing his retirement, thanking all the "wonderful patrons, vendors and employees over the years," and providing contact information for his children, Stephanie Miller and Matt Allen, for anyone interested in purchasing the tavern and keeping its legacy alive. With that latter thought in mind, the sign calls the closure temporary.
Miller and Matt Allen both live in Columbus and have helped with the bar, but realized that logistically it would not be possible for them to operate the business on a daily basis. It wasn't an easy decision, since much of their early lives were spent around the Cozy.
The owner of the Cozy Inn has closed the business to retire. (Photo: Jess Grimm/Chillicothe Gazette)
"Matt and I grew up with this," Miller said. "We had our own booster seats here."
"She (Miller) got proposed to by her husband here," Bill Allen added, "What more can you ask?"
The building has provided a mental scrapbook of memories like that for the family, with Bill Allen noting there have been so many special moments over the decades that it's difficult to single out any as particular favorites.
He and his children mentioned some of the numerous fundraisers conducted in support of several causes, Ohio State football Saturdays, the feeling of the bar the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving and the years of hosting the Cozy Inn golf tournament.
His customers have helped create several memories as well, as have those who have worked for the Cozy — including three different employees over the time he's owned it with close on 30 years each with the business.
Matt Allen said word of the closure started to trickle out through Facebook with messages of thanks and support sent online that he and his sister have passed along to their father, who has no real interest in the social media tool himself.
"People have been talking about their favorite memories," he said. "We grew up here, too, and we all have memories here, so they just wanted to share 'thanks for the memories' and 'we look forward to seeing what the next generation does with it.'"
Bill Allen had wanted to own his own business since high school, but initially ended up working for a couple decades at the paper mill. In the late 1970s, he finally took the plunge.
While he's had to make the same type of business decisions others have to keep up with changing times, the core philosophies of treating customers like family and being involved in the community have stayed the same, helping build a loyal clientele.
"What's unique about the Cozy is it's lasted about 40 years and it has weathered all kinds of economic changes, it's weathered all kinds of new businesses," Miller said. "This place has weathered everything and we think it's going to continue into the future."
That's what the family is hoping to find in its search for a buyer — someone from a younger generation looking to take on a business with an established history who is interested in pushing that brand forward.
"We think it's a legacy, it's an institution, and it needs to keep going," Matt Allen said.
Read or Share this story: http://ohne.ws/28O6LzL


Join us this Easter! We are offering many worship options over Easter weekend as well as other exciting events. Click here for all the details!
Olive Branch Community Church is located in Corona, California. Here you'll find a casual environment with a relevant message and a fun and safe environment for your children.
Join us this weekend at any of our four services!
Olive Branch Community Church is located at 7702 El Cerrito Road in Corona, California.
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A place where we respond to current events, dig deeper on important issues, and answer some of life's big questions.


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After Inauguration Day, Alex Weisman (Communication '10) needed an escape.
Five weeks later, as if by magic, Weisman had an offer to be on the show.
"All of the timing was a little too perfect," he said.
The show received critical acclaim in London's Palace Theatre since its premiere in July 2016, boasting sold-out performances. It won a record nine Olivier Awards, including Best New Play and Best Director.
Following a successful run in the West End, the play will open in New York on April 22 at the newly-renovated Lyric Theatre. The Broadway production will feature seven members from the original cast and several new actors, including Weisman in an undisclosed role.
Madeline Weinstein (Communication '14) will also join the Broadway cast, but could not be reached for an interview.
Although Weisman is prone to becoming "starstruck," he said he is approaching this opportunity just as he would any other role.
Weinstein will make his Broadway debut after a decade based in Chicago, he said. In the past, he recurred on NBC's "Chicago Fire" and performed regularly at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and with the TimeLine Theatre Company.
Now, he'll have the chance to perform in one of the season's most anticipated productions.
Based on an original story by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" picks up 19 years after the original series leaves off. As it was in London, the play will be split into two successive parts.
Weisman said the play stands on its own, and does not rely on the fame of the Harry Potter franchise to draw audiences in.
Weisman said he grew up as a "casual fan" of the series, having read the books and watched the movies once. However, after re-reading it, he realized how special the series really was.
The jump to Broadway marks the next big step for the NU alumnus, who performed with The Titanic Players improv team and was a member of Northwestern Sketch Television while on campus. Before he makes the leap, Weisman will make his final run in Chicago as Jordan Berman in "Significant Other," a play produced by About Face Theatre and Theater Wit.
Communication Prof. Gail Shapiro, who taught Weisman for three years while he was at NU, said Weisman is a "courageous actor" who is not afraid to lose himself on stage. Although he was always a tenacious performer, Weisman's work became more meaningful and inventive over time, she said.
Communication senior lecturer Melissa Foster, Weisman's former vocal coach at NU, said his genuine spirit and energy are two features that distinguish his talent and personality.
After he was cast in the play, Weisman took his mom to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios for Mother's Day — the first time either of them had been.
Walking through real-life interpretations of the series' most iconic settings, Weisman said the reality of being cast in the latest entry finally hit him.


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Peter Stanley
Dr Peter Stanley is a professor of history at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. He has published twenty-five books, mainly on Australian military social history, such as Tarakan, Quinn's Post, and Men of Mont St Quentin (also published by Scribe). In 2011, he jointly won the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History for his 2010 book Bad Characters: sex, crime, mutiny, murder, and the Australian Imperial Force. He wrote Black Saturday at Steels Creek as head of the Research Centre at the National Museum of Australia, in partnership with the Australian National University's Centre for Environmental History, and with the people of Steels Creek.
Black Saturday at Steels Creek
RRP: $32.99 Pub date: 29 Apr 2013 Category: The environment Cover view
Men of Mont St Quentin
RRP: $35.00 Pub date: 31 Aug 2009 Category: True war & combat stories Cover view


It was an interesting week politically. Many of the debating presidential candidates proved the inmates are really in charge of the asylum. Former Vice President Al Gore wants a global carbon tax at a time energy is becoming tight and the global economy is running into really rough times. Politics: ya gotta love it.
Larry Pratt from Gunowner's of America (www.gunowners.org) jumps on board and discusses this week's church shootings in Colorado as an example of a law-abiding armed citizen stopping a gunman.
Then Harold Hoffman of Britannia Radio (www.britanniaradio.co.uk) logs in from the U.K. to examine the Treaty of Lisbon, discussing the effects it has on the Security and Prosperity Partnership here in the U.S. Since Harold is an accountant by training, we'll also chat (or yell) about the emerging global monetary crises, which will make the "subprime" mortgage fiasco pale by comparison.
John's boralogue sets the Christmas spirit and also examines why economic policy in a republic tends to zigzag left and right without any marked changes.