We could begin this teaching and dialogue about the prophetic by first exploring the numerous testimonies, many have received in my early days of primarily functioning around some of the mainstream gifts of the spirit, associated with the prophetic department of the five-ascended ministry calling.
I could also do a brief highlight of some of the best materials, whose view on the subject of the prophetic ministry is mainly focused on a particular topic and direction which of course, are needed in the broader perspective of divine agenda. And on the other hand, I could also share with you, countless testimony of some highly-gifted servants of God, whose grace and giftens in the prophetic are known to be on the cutting-edge of current spiritual emphasis amongst their contemporaries.
Within the current mixture and perversion, we're witnessing today, there are still those among us today who carries an undefiled, authentic prophetic grace, and they speak in a clear, divine order of their mandate, and you will be somewhat captured and enthralled with the great testimonies of these individuals as you hear or read their accounts.
But the truth is, my intention is not to merely get you interested by intrigue, or exited, based on the testimony and manifested gifts related to the charismatic side of the ministry of the prophetic.
My honest intention is to systematically, in the spirit of simplicity, lead you behind the performing stage of what the prophetic ministry, grace and office is all about. My desire is for us to explore and precisely locate the spirit and the man behind the gift or calling of the prophetic ministry.
As a new testament prophet, whose primary assignment is to teach, skill and equip the Saints for their own work of ministry, I passionately long to infuse your spirit and your entire being with a passion that will awake what is already locked inside of you through the information, revelation and experience you may have as you journey with me through that which I have received of the father in my days of training and development on the spirit of the prophetic.
My hunger is for your total man to know how to see, hear, understand, accept and relate to this seemly mysterious ministry gift. Therefore, in this note on the prophetic, you will find patterns that give insight into what I call, THE CALLING, THE PREPARATION and THE RELEASE to function.
A FOUNDATION THAT SHAPES THE CALL INTO THE PROPHETIC.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God.
This overhead scripture gives the accurate instructive, doctrinal framework that ought to guide our approach to any matter of divine engagement and initiative in life. The Lord in several occasions has used these words to guide, secure, and protect my heart from all forms of strange, ancient, doctrines and extra-biblical notions and philosophies, currently being awakened to challenge and frustrate the present reformation and redemptive agenda of the father for creation.
This is the day were all followers of the Lamb are requested to trim their lamp wick in anticipation of his arrival. Yet, only those whose lamps are filled with oil and are burning with greater intensity of Christ light will be able to survive the battle of falsehood loitering at every corner of our community in this season.
The conscience of our faith in the hope of our calling must be kept pure and in the right direction of divine intention, least our conscience becomes overridden by powerful, ancient demonic interference, designed to sway us off the track of sound spirituality.
Our ability to judge things both natural and spiritual must be guided on the state of our spiritual maturity which reflects an intense sense of discernment. The spiritual man judges all things while he is not judged by no man. Maintaining the scope of divine activity within the framework of biblical tenets and values are highly required in this hour.
The word of God Is the finality of spiritual understanding and the finalization of the standard that define and approves all forms of spiritual calling and experiences. Therefore, to grow within the ever-increasing reality of the word of God gives us the right spiritual foundation and insight into how we are to approach any matter, including that of the ascended ministry gifts.
It is highly important that we can precisely trace how we've been invited and introduced to the ways and things of the Spirit, including, the numerous ways and manners we received our ministry assignment and mandate.
One of the reasons for this is that it gives a clear picture of the spiritual philosophy that defines or shape the framework of what we term as our mandate assignment. This also helps to correct, adjust and further develop the foundational template required for sound, biblical perspective to life and ministry initiative.
The father will use various means and method to invite us to see his designed purpose for us. However, such means of invitation may not necessarily represent his consistent, reliable pattern and principle for divine assignment.
A good example of this is, the call of Moses through the burning bush does not make the 'experience' of the burning bush a consistent, reliable doctrinal premise of how we must be called or invited to the ministry. I need to make this clarification and distinction, and there are so many other examples in the word of God that we can examine as unique to how the Lord will call individuals.
The mistake many have made in the past, and unfortunately are still making today is the fact they assumed that as long as there's some form of result in terms of miracle, signs and wonders been produced through their gifts and ministry, the manner they step into such ministry should not matter or bother anyone for that matter.
If there's no clear biblical footing to how the father invites us to share in his redemptive and restoration agenda, many will continue to use their own yardstick, or so-called spiritual experience somewhere, or through some means to legitimize their position of being given a [prophetic] ministry assignment which in most cases does not represent nor reflect the accurate biblical value standard for divine invitation. If the footing our calling and invitation to ministry is inaccurate, the entire construct of life and ministry will eventually become defected., it's only a matter of time.
Therefore, the means of how we engage in what is known in the word of God as the way, the truth and [life] experience of Christ defines the footing and orientation to how we step in any form of ministry assignment, but in particular, the prophetic office and its various organs of ministry.
This primary insight of introduction which we shall still further consider will guide and direction our hearts through the spirit of discernment as we seek clarity, context to the precise foundational footing of the spiritual [material] substance that shape the templates that ultimately forms the inner value structure of what we term as ministry or the prophetic, or any ascended ministry grace.
If this perceptional understanding is not well-seated within us, it's only a matter of before the house of what we term ministry starts to crack from its very foundation. For if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
About five years ago, the Lord granted me a rare opportunity within the vastness of his grace to train and interact with few brethren back then with regards to some of the core character components, the nature and function of the prophetic ministry. Somehow, after the training, I was not opportune nor permitted to speak, nor publish the material on my blog which I will usually do with most of my materials for reasons only known to the father.
Not too long ago, I began to sense and feel the urgency in my spirit to revisit the subject, but I must admit that I have somewhat, unduly procrastinated on the matter until late 2015 when I received a message from a very dear brother who wanted my view on the ministry of a prophet. I felt convicted, and instantly recognized that it was the Holy Spirit indirectly prompting me to update and release the material for the spiritual edification of those who might need certain fundamental understanding, or clarification regarding the subject on the prophetic.
I could still remember the very first time I tried putting a comprehensive material together relating to this subject, was about two decades plus ago. This was just before the apostolic reformation stream began to gain popularity in some part of the [Nigerian] West African church community where I have had the opportunity to pioneer a work for the lord for about two decades plus. Back then in the early 80s when I gave my heart to the Lord, the subject or the ministry of the prophets was at his pick in terms of giftens and manifestation.
The focus then was mainly founded on two premises; 1] the use of the gift for personal [material and emotional] blessing. 2] The use of the gift for eschatological end time events. The intensity of global political realignment caused many to major the prophetic on not just the coming of Christ but also on the manifestation of the anti-Christ-known as the man of Sin.
Back then, I was doing a series of study on the fivefold ministry gifts, and of cause, my major was in the prophetic office and its various organs of ministry, but unfortunately the material got missing in one of the commercial computer centers we were using back then for our ministry stuff. Those were still in the days of floppy disk storage, and of cause virus infection was quite high back then. The truth was, losing those resourceful materials was quite painful and I could not just summon up courage and motivation to rewrite the material again after the incident.
Having operated in the prophetic grace for almost three decades, I have witnessed few extreme streams of the prophetic, and I have been graciously opportune to also see various seasons of prophetic shifts and emphasis function both within the body of Christ and across the nations respectively. And if I may quickly add, I Have also witness lots of gimmicks, weird, unbiblical and satanic stuff imported into the house of God in the name of Christ and the prophetic ministry just as we can see today.
This misrepresentation has caused a huge dysfunctionality and damage to the image of Christ and his Body across the globe that when people today hear that you are a prophet, their immediate reaction is to look at you first with a very suspicious perception, and I truly do not blame them because many have sadly been injured and hurt to the point of almost been destroyed by these impostors who send themselves and represent their own selfish interest in the name of a prophet.
The truth is, there is a lot the body of Christ is yet to know and thoroughly understand in terms of the precise footing and foundation of the character nature and functionality of all the ascended ministry gifts, but in particular, the office and gift of the prophet.
Through this note, my aim is to introduce you to the office and ministry of a prophet from the point of one who is graced with a watchman's spirit and priestly prophetic teaching foundation, and maybe, you can journey with me on a narrow, ancient route that may possibly recalibrate your heart, sight and hearing capability.
It is indeed my desire that your faith and that of many within the present kingdom advance will gets energized with the capacity to press beyond the boundaries men and religious system has set in both defining and measuring what they assume as the prophetic ministry.
This resource should help in identifying what I call a prophetic spirit, a prophetic gift and the office of prophet. I have through the grace of God used my own personal experience and revelatory insight in the word of God to highlight the office of the prophet, built on a solid foundation of biblical truth and its guiding doctrines.
I pray and hope that you will open your heart to the truths locked in the material because it has been written through the divine guidance and inspiration of the Spirit. There is nothing of self-glorification or man's agenda here. My desire is to see that the corporate body of Christ quickly and accurately return to the apostolic pattern given to her at the ascension of our lord.
We cannot venture into the knowledge of things, whether they be things in the heavens of heaven or things beneath the earth or within the innermost being of man without first having the knowledge of the Holy One. This basic point I am flagging is essentially crucial to the issues we are going to further consider, and I desire us to reexamine the foundation that ought to give us that proper orientation in both engaging and interpreting the mind of the Lord with regards to the knowledge and culture of his kingdom.
As a student of the scripture, I have discovered that even those who have been given to the body to teach and instruct us on basic principles, values and precepts of the word of God to some degree, share a bit of misconception, prejudices, and misrepresentation for various obvious reasons.
And therefore, I believe that reexamining the core footing that defines our theological prism of ideology inconsistent to biblical truth is highly necessary in order to have a correct, solid, holistic, unbiased spiritual footing as we press into the reality of what constitutes a precise, standardized knowledge of accessing the kingdom of God.
Firstly, the very spiritual footing that both carries and form the shape of the foundation of what is intended to be built as a spiritual edifies plays one of the most important roles in the journey of life. The outpouring substance of what is intended to be shaped as a template of our inner, cast spiritual structure must first align with the revelatory design of the heavenly temple pattern.
However, this is a huge challenge since not everyone had the right spiritual discipleship program to access the knowledge of the Spirit through a precise, standardized, revelatory knowledge of Christ and the kingdom. One may quickly argue that isn't that one of the reasons why salvation, through being born again was given?
Yes, that is one of the reasons, but we can equally also agree that not everyone duly understands, or have come to agree that the core purpose of salvation is not just to make it to heaven but to mature us in all knowledge and dealings of life.
True, biblical, precise teaching on salvation ought to teach us how to bring heaven down into our present domain, in a manner that affords us the grace to reflect the glorious beauty and grace of the kingdom of God to creation and humanity through our reborn and regenerated spirit-man. Salvation and redemption were given to create an equalized position for everyone to perfectly access the doorway into the revelation of Christ and his kingdom for all.
Hence, redemption becomes the schoolmaster that prepares us for the position of the sonship nature of the second man, the last Adam, who has become the pattern and template of how we see, receive and function in the ministry we've all been assigned. This further background knowledge gives us insight into what we are examining as we are being called to ascend to another reality in the climbing unto the mountain of the Lord.
The further we move into the day of the lord, the more resolute and determine we must become in embracing the virtue of suffering and the challenges presented to us in the spirit of joy and the fruit of the spirit as a necessary divine requirement in the preparation to be better equipped for the service of the ministry of Christ and his kingdom.
The word suffering among most Christians today has been tagged with a negative unacceptable experience. Yet, when we consider scripture carefully we see how the lord use the ministry of suffering to refine and perfect his vessels of honor.
Suffering is not just about the lack of food, good clothing, money, nice house, the lack of education, job and so on. There's [tribulation] suffering the lord has ordained and called his own into in an order to get the best of himself out of them.
The fact that Christians across the globe live in different political and socioeconomic realities, and to a large degree, those realities affect and shape their spiritual orientation and outlook of their faith. In order words, what some others consider as the norm in their part of the world may turn out to be persecution in another region or context.
By default, the environment we grew up plays a huge role in the shaping and the construction and formation of our lives orientation and general outlook. Here's a good example, a believer who grew within a war zone environment, and a Christian who developed within an environment of peace, financial security and wealth will certainly not have the same faith perspective, insight to correct life's value, and the preferred, operational value template and the opportunity to annex resources for productivity.
While this may not be categorized as a general principle, the fact remains that the realities of these two groups are a world apart, and that does impact on their life's view and spiritual prism.
Another example I have personally noticed in the last 15 years or so of my stay in South Africa, having the opportunity to pioneer a fellowship, preach and teach in various churches within the provinces, I can confidently say that I've noticed a significant difference in the response system of the people to the gospel message.
Furthermore, there's a unique character attitude many Christians display as they interact, perceive and even react to both the message and the messenger of the gospel from place to place. This concept I am relating to carries both a positive and a negative viewpoint that may not necessarily be seen or noticed on a face value relationship except the Lord opens one's eyes to see it.
When you gather ministers of the gospel together in one place and give the task of preaching from the same text scripture, you are certainly going to get varieties of insight and interpretations, and that is true. However accurate is their revelation, you can rest assured that forty percent of what they might have said or taught are shaped directly or indirectly from the environment that shaped their perspective and life orientation.
This is a fact that cannot be denied. We are all products of our environment, either good or bad, and that's the reason the Lord uses what is called a standardized knowledge of the spiritual [principle] truth to refine, balance or equalize our spiritual orientation so we don't only reflect the experience of the environment that has shaped us, but rather see life and its various complex dealing through the eyes of Gods eternal design for us.
This simple, but, profound truth helps us to precisely interpret the whole concept of our lives, either from a positive or negative experience through the prism of the kingdom of God. Regardless of where we came from and the color of our skin or gender, our spiritual lens view changes to the father's eternal designed blueprint for. Whether we are born with royal blood, or we are from an African linage of the slave trade, it really does not matter again, as our stature and identity in the kingdom of God bring us all back to that point of our true original state in the father, the state of sonship.
Unfortunately, not many understand this concept of life within the Christian faith, and therefore, the Lord often use certain parallel kingdom value principles like tribulation, or even temporal lack to awaken the spiritual faculty of his own chosen people, and to also to help them create that sense of spiritual understanding in measuring up to that spiritual standard in accessing the portal of humility and the rest of the fruit of the spirit that truly enriches their soul.
We are told that we can only enter the kingdom through much suffering. This suffering is the glorious pathway into the life and virtue of kingdom culture. Whatever way or condition we've been naturally born, or whatever place or location we maybe current located, if we've not been through the access point of suffering, the experience of our spiritual orientation will certainly not be completed or lopsided. Therefore, it will be highly challenging for you or me to relate and understand the key spiritual building components for the kingdom life and its representation.
There's a single binding principle that allows every member of the church of Christ to see and interact with each other according to the stipulation of the ministry of the tree of life. Before we can truly and effectively access the glorious life of the kingdom, the valley conditions of our lives must be filled up, the mountains must be made plain, and the uneven roads must be straightened out. These are dimensions of ideological beliefs and standards we've inherited that must be given up to the new life and culture of the kingdom we are entering.
Everyone whose desire to ascend into the reality of true kingdom lifestyle must come through this doorway of tribulation. The wealthiest people within the body of Christ have their own seasons of suffering. My point is, this is not about the lack of money. Spiritual suffering is not poverty and poverty is not spiritual suffering.
A believer can amass all the wealth of this world but he or she is completely poor unto the true riches of the kingdom. There's a poverty every believer must experience, regardless of how rich they may be, they must constantly seek this dealing of the spirit from the father to keep and maintain the sense of spiritual wealth in their journey towards the tree of life.
The Greek word gnosis means knowledge. This knowledge denotes various things to various traditions and civilizations, it just depends on the perspective of who is defining the source of such knowledge. However, the scripture emphatically clarifies and declares that the Lord gives wisdom and out of the pronouncements and declarations of his mouth comes [gnosis] knowledge and [insight] understanding [Proverbs 2:6].
Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are produced and released through direct contact and relationship with the God of heaven and earth. All knowledge and wisdom come from God's divine approval, including the ones Lucifer was allowed to have, and he's currently using to lie and deceive his followers and the world in general.
Very few people have this basic spiritual understanding of knowledge in their heart. Therefore, it becomes highly difficult for these individuals to understand the divine operational pattern and purpose of the father when it comes to his use of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding regarding any matter. Keep this profound statement to heart because it will later bring perspective to our discussion when we start studying a critical value standard with regards to the spiritual technology unraveled through the tribulation and suffering of the life of Job.
To have spiritual knowledge or experience without a thorough, biblically sound, prophetic understanding of its main reason and objective is a breeding ground for deception, misguidance, and of course, highly dangerous as we can see this manifestation today in the mainstream traditional and new age churches. The essence of spiritual [revelatory] knowledge is not to merely expose scripture or the display of spiritual gift in a manner that dazzles and mesmerize our audience to the point that it gives us entree to some pseudo influence that leverages our so-called visionary agenda in the construction of some wonderful and lofty ministry dream.
When we do not thoroughly follow the divine protocol standard of ministry initiative, and we vigorously pursue the promotion of our own definition of ministry, we have indirectly given into the spirit of deception and delusion, regardless of how seemly effective or prosperous the ministry might look on face value.
The power of blind spot in building ministry does not confine revelatory understanding sublime, bias, deceptive interpretation of the word of God, but also set the stage for the spirit of pride and arrogance which ultimately opens us and our ministry to a full-blown witchcraft activity. A truth that has not set you free from the false agenda to use truth, people, or even a revelation as we see today to build something you term ministry for yourself in the name of the Lord is not the truth, but a lie that camouflages itself as an agent of truth from the pit of hell.
An ascended, purified truth on the other hand, primarily seeks to call you to submit your preconceived idea of truth and its intentions to the scrutiny and refining process of your heart and conscience before the father, as he works his way through every aspect of your life until you're able to see the wisdom in you to relinquish all forms of power, knowledge, and wisdom, which then leads you to the next phase where the father begins to show you his eternal, intended objective for his wisdom over any situation.
When the perspective of knowledge is not in alignment.
There were things, situation, and conditions about my life I thought I had a perfect spiritual insight and understanding of until the next phase of my life began to unfold before my very eyes, and then I gradually realized how I had presumed the progressive voice and dealings of the intentions of the father for me.
There's no mistake in the Lord, nor in his calling upon your life, or in your followership of his divine purpose. We only find ourselves in a difficult position when we build our dream and expectation on a false sense of spiritual purpose that is not resonating, nor consistent with the Father's unfolding eternal, progressive objective for us.
We don't own ourselves nor our future. Hence, we cannot dictate, or sway the prophetic program and events designed to shape and determine the ultimate manifestation of the assignment of our representation. For in Christ we ought to live, move and have our entire being. This is the way of true spiritual knowledge and fulfillment.
When the father called Abraham and gave a covenant of promise, all he said to him as part of his side of keeping of the covenant was for father Abraham to work with him in the heart of integrity and perfection. There's no greater promise and a blissful future than to have a contrite and pure heart as we passionately follow the father.
The blessing of prosperity and a good family life stem out of the wisdom and knowledge that flows from the cleanliness of our well or stream. The security of our future is not in the material we possess, or in the tranquility of our marriages or ministry as highly important and necessary as they may be. We are quick to forget that we live on a battlefront that requires we constantly maintain that position of rest and trust in the ever-abiding presence and glory of the Lord.
Many indeed long for a future they can predict, determine and control to suit what they've envisioned and wanted in their days of youthful dream. Yet, wisdom is daily teaching and guiding us to understand that things are not usually the way we believe they should turn out in our narrow spiritual perspective.
Even then, as we grow in the things of the Spirit, we come to a day where the Lord takes our dream and fashion them into something even greater and beautiful than we can ever imagine. For all things work for the good of them who love the Lord and are called after his purpose. My personal security should not be built around how I've been able to manage my past or present condition for a better, secured tomorrow as we've been commonly taught in the days of unbalanced faith prosperity theology.
Rather, my security, confidence, and hope should be established on how I respond to the daily call of yielding myself to the father's voice in full assurance of his guidance and provision as I match towards the field of my prophetic purpose.
The dreams I had of a perfect, undisruptive spiritual community, having spent the better part of my life battling to create for myself a seemly, a legitimate spiritual platform that can enhance the advancement of the assignment of the kingdom did not turn out as I had thought, and to some degree, I was disappointed in myself for the singular fact that I did not prophetically see some of the unfolding reality of my life.
Furthermore, I have also learned with time and through the crucible purifying process of the Spirit that my primary calling, duty, and assignment, regardless of my outward state is to daily carry my cross and follow Christ. Though our outer man may be wasting away through persecution and tribulation, yet the inner man is daily being renewed through the life and grace we have in Christ. For that is my primary and the most important calling, to take up my cross and follow him wherever he leads.
Following Christ may sound so easy to many today when we consider how Christianity is been preached and projected from the liberal, humanist, material driven gospel preachers. However, it is now turning out to be one of the most challenging processes of the faith culture as present apostolic [voice] fathers bring to view the correct standard of the gospel of Christ kingdom. This is turning to become highly challenging for today's Christians to accept since they've been hardly schooled in the principles of knowing and following the accurate doctrines of the way, truth, and life of apostolic Christianity.
Following Christ requires that your entire faculty, aspiration, motivation and desire, all lineup with his intention and not yours or someone's else. Following Christ is beyond the preaching or teaching of the gospel. To follow Christ is to completely yield to his will and counsel in everything you think, imagine, and desire. To follow Christ is to become a bondservant.
To follow Christ means to completely abandon every form of humanist wisdom or agenda that may sound or even look intelligent and let his voice alone guide you. Where the cross will daily lead me, only the one I am following knows. This is a critical aspect of understanding the spiritual nature of an advanced prophetic orientation.
For this is what I call the protocol of the divine regulatory process of maturity in applying the divine wisdom and kingdom resource. This is the big revelation behind the wisdom the father applied when he sanctioned Satan to touch Job and destroy everything he ever built. Job's spirituality, authority, reputation, business, wealth, and family were all completely brought to ruins except for his soul. What a way for the father to boast of his own. I question how many of today's believers can the father confidently boast has he did with the life of Job before Satan.
It is an unfortunate reality that not every spiritual leader within the fraternity of the present apostolic reformation have clearly been taught to understand the mechanism of accessing the pure, undiluted, undivided apostolic knowledge that comes from the Holy One.
One major point that immediately highlights this deficiency is the fact that in the past three decades, the major part of the church has been pursuing the knowledge of God for its own selfish purpose and gain. Many within the church has sought knowledge and ministry gift illegally to build a ministry for themselves to the degree that today, the ministry has become a business and family affairs.
The ministry has become what leaders dreamt and build for themselves, and later pass on to their groomed, biological children to inherit. This unfortunate, unbiblical and ungodly act of leadership misguidance has greatly exacerbated the number of illegitimate churches and ministries now opening up across communities within the nations.
When we consider the staggering number of folks who claim they are prophets or have been called into the prophetic ministry, one immediately see that something is wrong. The craving for the prophetic ministry from many is completely outside the legitimate restorative intention of the father. What we are seeing today with regards to what is being called the prophetic ministry is majorly build on the principle of demand and supply.
As the world becomes more uncertain and the world's economy continues to collapse, many have become even more desperate and afraid of what their tomorrow hold, and therefore, they need someone who can look into the crystal ball and tell them about their tomorrow. Now we see desperate young men and women go into what they term as a pastoral school who later graduate them into some so-called spiritual leadership position.
The issue of unemployment and rebellion to leadership has led to many of the openings of what is called churches, and many have paid some so-called bishop to anoint them into the office of a prophet while they continue to consult the powers of darkness to give them some form of power to perform healings and miracles.
This unfortunate trend has brought a great deal of shame, not just to the church of the Lord, but also to those who stand in the position of leadership, and this is one of the reasons why we need to consider this article as a remedial solution to the present unfortunate state of the ecclesia. Much of what is defined to be the operation of the knowledge or wisdom of God in most of these churches are a powerful demonic operation, camouflaging to be the legitimate operation of the heavenly pattern.
Ignorance of the way, truth, and life of the kingdom are no longer accepted, we must go up higher in our spiritual vision to clearly understand and identify the precise apostolic operating wisdom of the father. Then, we won't get betrayed and deceived by the lies of the foe sounding like the truth to many ears today.


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                //epubEmbedFont: ["<%=FONTS_DIR%>/font1", "<%=FONTS_DIR%>/font2"],
                //epubChapterLevel: 1,
                //latexEngine: "pdflatex",

                //citation rendering
                //bibliography: "<%=RESOURCES_DIR%>/bibliography",
                //csl: "<%=PANDOC_DIR%>/default.csl",
                //citationAbbreviations: "<%=PANDOC_DIR%>/citationAbbreviations",
                //natbib: true,
                //biblatex: true,

                //math rendering
                //latexmathml: "latexMathML.js", //url to local copy
                //latexmathml: true, //embed
                //mathml: "mathML.js", //url to local copy
                //mathml: true //embed
                //jsmath: "jsMath/easy/load.js", //url to local copy
                //jsmath: true, //use jsMath but no embedding or linking
                //mathjax: "mathJax.js", //url to local copy
                //mathjax: true, //link
                //gladtex: true,
                //mimetex: "mimetex.cgi", //url to local copy
                //mimetex: true, //url defaults to /cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi
                //webtex: "script" //url to local copy or service
                //webtex: true //url defaults to the Google Chart API
            }
        }
    },

    watch: {

        source: {

            files: "<%=SOURCE_DIR%>/**/*", //Watch all files so we also rebuild when, for example, we add an image. grunt-contrib-watch doesn't support the standard way of defining files.
            tasks: ["pandoc:build"],
            options: {spawn: false}
        }
    }
};

module.exports = function configure(grunt) {

    grunt.registerMultiTask("pandoc", "Convert files from one markup format to another", function pandocMultiTask() {

        var path = require("path"),
            loDash = grunt.util._,

            normaliseOption = function normaliseOption(option, value) {

                var isShortOption = option.length === 1,
                    normalisedOption = isShortOption ? loDash.sprintf("-%s", option) : loDash.sprintf("--%s", loDash.dasherize(option));

                if (grunt.util.kindOf(value) !== "boolean") {

                    normalisedOption = loDash.sprintf(isShortOption ? "%s %s" : "%s=%s", normalisedOption, value);
                }

                return normalisedOption;
            },

            normaliseOptions = function normaliseOptions(options) {

                var normalisedOptions = [];

                Object
                    .keys(options)
                    .forEach(function eachOption(option) {

                        var values = options[option];

                        if (grunt.util.kindOf(values) !== "array") {

                            values = [values];
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                        values.forEach(function eachValue(value) {

                            if (value === false) {

                                return;
                            }

                            normalisedOptions.push(normaliseOption(option, value));
                        });
                    });

                return normalisedOptions;
            },

            buildQueue = function buildQueue(options, files) {

                var normalisedOptions = normaliseOptions(options),
                    queue = [];

                files.forEach(function eachDestination(destination) {

                    var normalisedFiles = destination.src.filter(function filterFile(file) {

                            if (!grunt.file.exists(file)) { //According to the documentation, I need to filter out non existing files. However, according to my observations, these files are already filtered out.

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                return queue;
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            runPandoc = function runPandoc(args, done) {

                grunt.util.spawn(

                    {cmd: "pandoc", args: args},

                    function onDone(error, result) {

                        done(error, String(result));
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            runTask = function runTask(options, files, done) {

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    configuration.pkg = grunt.file.readJSON("package.json");
    grunt.initConfig(configuration);
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};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Process transmitters differentiate themselves from pressure sensors through their increased range of functionality: They feature integrated displays, offer high measuring accuracies and freely scalable measuring ranges, communicate via digital bus signals and can be delivered with a multitude of case variants and also worldwide Ex approvals. Through connection to diaphragm seals, they are also suitable for the harshest operating conditions.
Can the connector be altered?
The electrical connection cannot be altered.
Can each pressure transmitter measure any medium?
No, the materials stated in the data sheet are to be checked by the customer for resistance.


If you can get over their flakiness, you're in for a seriously passionate romance.
Cuffing season is coming to an end, so you have but a few weeks to find a lover to eventually hate—if you're into that sort of thing. Coincidentally, we're also in the midst of Pisces season, which has us all moody thinking about former flames, future loves, and what it's actually like to date a Pisces.
To find out the details, we checked in with our astrologer Annabel Gat, who shared that romantic relationships with Pisces are pretty damn great if you can handle a little flakiness in exchange for the intense whirlwind of romance.
Everybody deserves at least one illogical, passion-ridden love affair before they die, so if you've yet to encounter one or are in dire need of a distraction during these trying times, we highly suggest setting your sights on a Pisces lover.
Once you find your manic pixie dream Pisces, here's what you can expect from them.
So you've swiped right on a Pisces—congrats! The first thing you need to know about your new Pisces lover is that they're not going to be great with plans, but it's usually worth it when you two do finally get together. "They can be very flakey, and time is not linear to them," says Gat, "but that's sort of what makes them dreamy and magical and exciting people to be with." Pisces people are also big night owls, so if you're hanging out with a Pisces, don't be surprised if you end up stumbling home at the crack of dawn, whether they end up accompanying you or not. Even if they aren't the type to get fucked up on a Friday night, Pisces tend to stay up late into the night—which could mean partaking in some transcendental meditation together until sunrise. Pisces are also voracious media consumers, so you can expect them to be down for a cozy movie marathon or a concert date.
Gat says Pisces share qualities with demisexuals, or people who need to feel an emotional connection before they're interested in pursuing anyone sexually. "If you don't talk to a Pisces about how you feel, all the kisses in the world are probably going to be a bit boring for them," says Gat.
Pisces is a Water sign so they tend to be very in tune with their emotions. And while they are extremely romantic, they prefer to give and receive physical affection in private. "They don't love PDA," says Gat, "but they do like being worshipped by the person they're with." So, don't stick your tongue down their throat in public, but do make out with their entire body in private.
Pisces are incredibly romantic, but hold on the Hallmark cards for the Pisces in your life because they're not big fans of cheesy displays of affection. Instead, Gat says engaging in intimate, late night conversations where they can feel comfortable delving their private dreams and desires is a solid way to swoop a Pisces off their feet.
Pisces tend to be extremely present when they're with you and very attentive to your needs. And while they might want reciprocation, they're not great about asking for it. "They definitely have a lot of hopes and dreams for their relationships, but one of the struggles about being a Pisces is learning to stand up for what your needs are," says Gat.
When Pisces break through their own emotional barriers and ask for what they're not getting, they often build strong, long-lasting relationships. This is in part because the foundation of their relationships, whether romantic or platonic, tend to have a solid emotional connection.
As mentioned, Pisces aren't super easy people to make plans with, so it's best to take an easygoing, low-stakes approach to any sort of date. Meet up with them before any timely functions so you can tell them in person that they need to stop admiring their glistening highlight for the fifth time and start calling a ride. Opt for explorative nature hikes over expensive tickets to see their favorite artists, and learn to deal if they're running 15 minutes late—that's not going to change and you're probably going to live.
However, if things get to the point where their flakiness is really bothering you, the best solve is to sit down with your Pisces lover to explain that you feel disrespected or taken advantage of when they bail on you. So long as they actually show up for the conversation, a Pisces will be receptive to that kind of emotionally honest talk.
In fact, when it comes to communicating feelings, Pisces are fantastic conversationalists. They'll hear you out and offer articulate explanations of what's going on inside their heads and especially their hearts. They'll let you know that being together makes them forget about their worldly stressors, like the fact that their rent is due tomorrow or that their boss might hate them.
This doesn't necessarily mean that all Pisces prefer open relationships or are bad at monogamy, but it might take some work to get them to be be honest about their feelings and not just tell you what you want to hear.


text:
module Algolia
  module Account
    class Client
      class << self
        # Copies settings, synonyms, rules and objects from the source index to the
        # destination index. The replicas of the source index should not be copied.
        #
        # Throw an exception if the destination index already exists
        # Throw an exception if the indices are on the same application
        #
        # @param src_index the source index object
        # @param dest_index the destination index object
        # @param opts [Hash] contains extra parameters to send with your query
        #
        def copy_index(src_index, dest_index, opts = {})
          raise AlgoliaError, 'The indices are on the same application. Use Algolia::Search::Client.copy_index instead.' if src_index.config.app_id == dest_index.config.app_id

          begin
            dest_settings = dest_index.get_settings

            raise AlgoliaError, 'Destination index already exists. Please delete it before copying index across applications.' if dest_settings
          rescue AlgoliaHttpError => e
            raise e if e.code != 404
          end

          responses = MultipleResponse.new

          # Copy settings
          settings = src_index.get_settings
          responses.push(dest_index.set_settings(settings, opts))

          # Copy synonyms
          synonyms = src_index.browse_synonyms
          responses.push(dest_index.save_synonyms(synonyms, opts))

          # Copy rules
          rules = src_index.browse_rules
          responses.push(dest_index.save_rules(rules, opts))

          # Copy objects
          objects = src_index.browse_objects
          responses.push(dest_index.save_objects(objects, opts))

          responses
        end

        # Copies settings, synonyms, rules and objects from the source index to the
        # destination index ans wait for the task to complete.
        # The replicas of the source index should not be copied.
        #
        # Throw an exception if the destination index already exists
        # Throw an exception if the indices are on the same application
        #
        # @param src_index the source index object
        # @param dest_index the destination index object
        # @param opts [Hash] contains extra parameters to send with your query
        #
        def copy_index!(src_index, dest_index, opts = {})
          response = copy_index(src_index, dest_index, opts)
          response.wait(opts)
        end
      end
    end
  end
end


text:
Op-ed: Fake Meat Won't Solve the Climate Crisis | Civil Eats
Op-ed: Fake Meat Won't Solve the Climate Crisis
A new report questions the dramatic environmental claims that alternative proteins can save the planet, disrupt the status quo, or challenge the power of the corporate food industry.
By Philip H. Howard
Photo CC-licensed by Ted Eytan
When you're told there's a simple solution to a very complex problem, you're probably not getting the whole story.
Today's meat consumption is a good example. Meat and dairy are increasingly under the world's microscope as livestock—which rely on huge quantities of feed crops and occupy nearly 80 percent of global farmland—accounts for between 14 percent and 30 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It's also the source of more frequent antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, and much of the global livestock and seafood industries have been exposed for unsafe and abusive working conditions.
This complex web of problems requires more than one answer. And yet "alternative proteins"—from plant-based to lab-grown "fake" meat and dairy—are being promoted as a simple solution. Products like the Impossible Burger, with its 15-plus ingredients, are now in supermarkets and fast food establishments worldwide. Lab-grown chicken has been on the market in Singapore since late 2020 and will likely soon be approved in the U.S. and elsewhere. These products are being sold as a "win-win-win" for animals, people, and the planet. According to Patrick Brown, the outspoken CEO of Impossible Foods, livestock is "the most destructive technology on earth," and meat substitutes are "the last chance to save the planet."
"Alternative proteins and their sustainability credentials rest on shaky ground—as chemical-intensive, heavily processed foods, they have major impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate change."
Dramatic claims about plant-based meat, lab-grown meat, and "cellular agriculture" have already succeeded in drawing billions of dollars to the sector, including from big-name investors like Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Governments are now paying attention as well. China is readying major investment in lab-grown meat as part of its latest Five-Year Agricultural Plan, and the U.S. government is ploughing $10 million into a National Institute for Cellular Agriculture. Denmark is also backing alternative proteins through a $98 million plant-based food fund.
But these products and their sustainability credentials rest on shaky ground, as I show in a new report out today, "The Politics of Protein," from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).
Firstly, the idea that these alternative proteins can save the planet is highly speculative. These claims are based on a narrow assessment of which products can deliver the most protein for the least CO2. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Products like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger source their ingredients from chemical-intensive (and therefore fossil fuel-intensive) monocultures and rely on heavy processing—all of which has major impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate change.
Factory farming clearly has huge impacts of its own, but the environmental and social impacts of livestock vary massively. In some parts of the world, raising animals helps to use limited land and resources efficiently, buffer against food shocks, and provide livelihoods where few options are available. Livestock contributes to the livelihoods of 1.7 billion smallholder farmers in the Global South, and plays a crucial economic role for approximately 60 percent of rural households in developing countries.
Highly processed alternative proteins may therefore be more harmful than animal source foods in some contexts, depending on how they are produced.
Secondly, the idea that these products can "disrupt" the status quo and challenge the power of the corporate food industry is highly misleading. Start-ups may have initiated the boom, but nearly all of the world's meat and dairy giants have now rolled out their own "fake meats" or bought up existing players. Nestlé, for example, has acquired Sweet Earth, while Unilever has bought up The Vegetarian Butcher. JBS, the world's largest meat processor, has snapped up another market-leading meat-free brand, Vivera, adding to its portfolio of more than 100 brands—including organic meat lines.
"Nearly all of the world's meat and dairy giants have now rolled out their own 'fake meats' or bought up existing players."
Many of these corporations are also investing heavily in lab-grown meat and seafood manufacturers in the hope that these products will soon be market-ready. These are the exact same firms that dominate sales of conventional (factory-farmed) meat and dairy, i.e., the products that alternative proteins are supposed to replace. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to know who is behind the brands, and increasingly hard to avoid the world's agribusiness giants—even when opting for a so-called alternative product.
Thirdly, plant-based and lab-grown meats are being promoted on the basis that they are the only alternatives that people are willing to eat. In reality, eating habits can and do change dramatically, as evidenced by the fact that meat and fish consumption has doubled over the last half century. Another major dietary shift—toward more diverse diets and less processed foods—is now possible, and urgently needed.
But rather than accelerate this change, alternative proteins are likely to reinforce "center of the plate" diets that are insufficiently varied and heavy on processed foods (whether that central item is conventional meat or an imitation). So far, rising consumption of alternative protein purchases has not led to a reduction in meat and dairy sales.
The food industry in fact has a long history of reshaping eating habits not for the good of society but for their own bottom line–e.g., it invented fish sticks to dispose of large blocks of frozen fish, and high-fructose corn syrup in response to a rapid increase in U.S. corn production.
Finally, these products promise to get people more protein with less damage, but do we really need more protein or new sources of it? Although we've been told for decades that more protein is needed to feed a growing population, most people in the Western world eat much more protein than their bodies can use there is no global protein shortage. Even most children in low-income countries are getting enough high-qualty protein.
Protein deficiencies are rare, but are most prevalent in parts of the world that have insufficient access to food more generally. In other words, what we see is not a protein gap, but a food gap. But by framing the debate so narrowly, companies have helped focus attention on simplistic silver bullet solutions—which are not simple at all.
"The food industry has a long history of reshaping eating habits not for the good of society but for their own bottom line—with fish sticks, high fructose corn syrup, and more."
The hype around alternative proteins also diverts our attention away from solutions that are already working on the ground: shifting to diversified agroecological production systems, strengthening territorial food chains and markets, and building "food environments" which increase access to healthy and sustainable diets. These pathways respond holistically to challenges whose breadth and depth have been well-evidenced. They entail transformative behavioral and structural shifts. They require sustainable food system transitions, not merely a protein transition. Yet without a consolidated set of claims and claim-makers behind them, these pathways are systematically sidelined.
"Ultimately, we don't just need to change the products we're eating—we need to change the entire food system."
How do we move toward systemic change instead? We can reclaim public resources from Big Protein and address concentration of power across the food system, including through new approaches to antitrust and competition law. We can also strengthen alternative supply chain infrastructures as a means to build up and support existing independent producers—not just those who start companies with the intention to sell them to the existing industry giants. And we can build regional food strategies that reconnect crops and livestock, use land and resources efficiently—and deliver on the multiple aspects of sustainability.
The rise of highly processed alternative proteins is symptomatic of broader problems in the way we approach food systems: looking through a narrow lens, focusing on breakthrough technologies, and listening to those who shout the loudest. It is time for governments to stop subsidizing the largest food processors in the world and further reinforcing their power, based on claims that are dubious at best and highly misleading at worst. Ultimately, we don't just need to change the products we're eating—we need to change the entire system.
This article has been updated to better reflect the number of ingredients in an Impossible Burger.
Philip H. Howard is a faculty member in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University, a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, and the author of Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? (2021). Read more >
See 15 comments
Richard Grant
The terms "animal meat", "plant-based meat", and "lab-grown meat" are descriptive of their source.
If you Google the term "fake", the results include designed to deceive or cheat, not real, counterfeit.
Using "fake" may save a number of characters that headline writers could use elsewhere, but it puts the thumb on the scales for "conventional meat".
Do people who use "the fake meat industry" also say --
For electric bulb manufacturers, "the fake lighting industry"?
For auto manufacturers, "the non-animal-pulled vehicle industry"?
For pharmaceutical manufacturers, "the non-magical-healing-formulas industry"?
Diana Rodgers, RD
I'm glad that the fake meat industry is being exposed for what it is, but I'd like to point out a couple of things in this article. Firstly, livestock globally only contribute 5% to GHG emissions. That 14.5% was based on Livestock's Long Shadow and has been highly criticized because it was looking at a full LCA for cattle but compared it to only emissions from transportation. Because we don't have full LCA numbers for transportation, it's inaccurate to compare LCA numbers with tailpipe emissions from transportation. Anne Mottet and Frank Mitloehner have written about this, as I'm sure the author knows.
Secondly, in the US, we only consume about 2oz of beef per person per day - this is not "too much". The article linked in this post incorrectly assumes that 46 g of protein for women is for the optimal amount for all "average" women however this is based on the "ideal bodyweight" of 125lbs for women, and the RDA is the MINIMUM requirement, not the optimal level of protein. The average weight of a woman in the US is 165lbs, the at 0.8g per kg of bodyweight, the average woman in the US needs far more than 46g of protein per day, especially those over 40 or who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Beef is more than just protein, it contains critical micronutrients that even high income countries are commonly low in. I cover all of this in the book Sacred Cow: The Case for Better Meat and speak specifically about why animal-sourced foods are critical at solving our undernutrition issues here: https://sustainabledish.com/the-curse-of-plenty-overfed-and-undernourished/
Lynne Pledger
Amazing that there is no mention here of 100% grass-fed beef—regeneratively produced—as the best answer to the multiple woes offered by the conventional, corn-based feedlot system. In terms of both health and environmental concerns, raising and finishing cattle on pasture offers multiple benefits: produces healthy protein, builds soil fertility, avoids the ills of chemical fertilizers and biocides, protects against droughts, and floods, sequesters carbon...and has been proven in the field and in peer-reviewed journals.
I totally agree, grass fed best. How do animals stay ggrass fed in winter though? Silage?
Jennifer K Moore
It's so exhausting/annoying/absurd when people make this argument. The #1 reason vegans and vegetarians eat plant-based meat is to eliminate or reduce harm to animals. Any positive environmental impact is just a plus. It is about animal cruelty vs. animals' wellbeing, and I don't understand what's so hard to understand about this. Please stop talking about environmental impacts when the overwhelming amount of deforestation is because of land use dedicated to raising livestock and the food those animals are eating.
Your number one reason for being a vegetarian is animal well being, but for others it is the belief that meat-eating is bad for the environment. To address two statements in your message that I believe are misguided: 1. Cattle can be raised on existing grasslands with no increase in deforestation and with tremendous carbon sequestration - a net climate benefit. 2. Cultivation of cropland kills and maims wildlife and destroys habitat, whereas livestock can be raised humanely and killed painlessly. These are documented facts. It is a mistake to assume that all meat eaters are thoughtless and cruel.
Louis Wentz
Have to disagree. Recent studies are indicating that millennials are eating less meat or rejecting altogether because of environmental considerations. I have transitioned to a plant dominant diet for the health benefits. Vegan may be an animal welfare choice, but if people are eschewing meat for health reasons or buying Beyond Burgers as transition food to a more plant based alternative, there is still an overwhelming animal welfare and environmental benefit.
Carter Randolph
Science - true science - has shown that grass fed and finished cattle raised in a rotational grazing system actually sequester carbon on the ground. All tillage systems including so called no-till - put carbon in atmosphere so fake meat offers no solutions to carbon in atmosphere. Then there is the nutrition issues: multi-species grass pastures create grass finished beef that is full of phytochemicals - something we need to thrive. Vegetables have similar levels as grass finished beef but fake meats like corn fed beef have very low levels of phytocehemicals. There is a big differenced between nutrition and calories and nutrition requires far more than the 13 things USDA measures on labels. Real Grass FED/FINISHED BEEF sequesters carbon and can be produced on hillsides not suitable for grains. Further using LEY Farming, you eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers that generally are produced from oil.
The USDA incentive machine needs to be changed to eliminate subsidies of paid to Buffet and others to produce corn - which today is around 5% protein but historically was over 10% protein -- ethanol needs sugars not proteins. The food system will change when the government gets out of the food business -- a business the government is destroying not to mention the disease that is a result of empty calories instead of producing nutrition
Tina Max
You are ruining the lives of animals by referencing synthetic foods being harmful. There is no irrefutable evidence that this is so. Meat is derived from caged, tortured, suffering innocent animals who have caused you no harm. Instead, why don't you target a diet consisting of something even better, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grain that have thrived in the sunshine, not from some poor miserable being that caused you no harm.
Tamarque
Nice article but misses THE major issue: Consolidation of ownership of food that can be patented for profit. we have heard Monsanto state their goal is to own all the world's seeds that they can patent; ie, the goal of GMO seeds. Bill Gates has the same nefarious and fascist goal of controlling the world thru food and promotes fake meat which can be patented for profit and control. These billionaire people have no humility about nature and seek to gain complete control over our natural life processes for profit and power. And while Bill Gates wants to control the human consumption of protein via fake meats he also promotes a eugenics goal of ridding the world of 15% of the population. Guess who the target population for elimination is!!!
Karen Renfro
Appreciate this article. very interesting, but I was disappointed there is no mention of the Regenerative Farming movement which uses old sustainable methods as part of a comprehensive and environmentally-rejuvenating system. The main culprit in modern agri-business is all the adulterated foods on the market which are not only laced with toxic chemicals but add to the problems of pollution, animal cruelty, disease in humans, animals and devastation of nature.
Laura Haker
Thank you, Mr. Howard, for your reasoning on food sustainable production rather than new-fad, fake-food lab systems. Give me, any day, the healthy land, cattle, grassland, and the good old fashioned farmer.
This was an eye opening article. I feel like the increasing availability of 'ethnic food' and Asian supermarkets in the US has made it possible that people will eat less red meat. Tofu? Lentils?
There's a lot of delicious Indian and Asian food that's quite easy to cook if you have the right spices. But how to get people interested and familiar with all the possibilities? There's some chinese and japanese restaurant chains, how about a chain of fast food Indian restaurants?
Barbara DElia
But it save needless torture and death of innocent beings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Musk cucumber, (Sicana odorifera), also called cassabanana, casbanan, or sikana, perennial vine of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to the New World tropics and grown for its sweet-smelling edible fruit. The fruit can be eaten raw and is commonly used in jams and preserves; immature fruits are sometimes cooked as a vegetable. In temperate areas the musk cucumber can be cultivated as an ornamental annual but may not bear flowers or fruit.
The musk cucumber vine is fleshy and tall, with many tendrils. It can grow 12.5 metres (40 feet) long, with leaves up to 30 cm (12 inches) across. Both male and female flowers are yellow and borne on the same plant, but the male flowers are smaller. The oblong or cylindrical orange-red fruit may be 60 cm (24 inches) long.


text:
Arts & Culture	(9)
Entertainment Columns	(9)
Golden Knights/NHL	(9)
Kats	(9)
Local	(9)
Celebrity	(7)
The Strip	(7)
Local Las Vegas	(3)
Downtown	(2)
NHL	(1)
mc-entertainment	(1)
NHL Awards	(1)
Vegas Golden Knights	(1)
June 19th, 2019	(1)
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June 3rd, 2018	(1)
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June 21st, 2017	(2)
SLS Las Vegas owner Alex Meruelo gets big OK from NHL's Bettman
By John Katsilometes / RJ
June 19, 2019 - 7:13 pm June 19, 2019 - 7:13 pm
"Clearly, if you can be licensed to own a casino operation in Nevada, you're OK," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said of new Coyotes majority owner Alex Mereulo.
Golden Knights' 'Stick Salute' party overtakes The D Las Vegas
Minutes after they saluted several thousand fans at 3rd Street Stage on Fremont Street in its "Stick Salute to Vegas," members of the Vegas Golden Knights made their way to dinner at The D Las Vegas.
Panic! at the Disco survives a shower on the Strip
June 7, 2018 - 3:27 pm June 7, 2018 - 11:03 pm
A clip of PATD to air as part of today's Stanley Cup Final pregame show on NBC. Game 5 between the Golden Knights and Washington Capitals airs at 5 p.m. from T-Mobile Arena.
Panic! at the Disco to play ahead of Game 5 on the Las Vegas Strip
June 6, 2018 - 2:45 pm June 6, 2018 - 9:53 pm
Panic! at the Disco is planning a splashy (pun intended) performance for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.
T-Mobile Arena opening doors for Golden Knights fans for Game 4
Doors open at 3:30 p.m. for the 5 p.m. start, admission is free and the same security policies for live games inside T-Mobile will be enacted.
How the L.A. Kings recruited a star on the Las Vegas Strip
April 14, 2018 - 9:07 pm April 15, 2018 - 12:29 am
Vegas entertainer Lorena Peril has sung the national anthem at several L.A. Kings games, butnever when the team has faced the Golden Knights.
Vegas stars present for 'Toys for Tots' show at Westgate
November 24, 2017 - 6:28 pm November 24, 2017 - 6:28 pm
The ninth annual "Toys for Tots Celebrity Benefit Show" for the United States Marine Corps toy-donation program is set for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at Westgate's Internatioal Theater.
NHL Expansion Draft: An armored fan, the Clark High drum line and much more
June 21, 2017 - 10:35 pm June 21, 2017 - 10:35 pm
Las Vegas freelance photographer and avid Golden Knights fan Shawn Hickey donned a suit of armor during the NHL Expansion Draft on Wednesday.
Golden Knights could be a great one, says The Great One
"This city has a great hockey foundation and we're really excited about hockey coming to Las Vegas," Wayne Gretzky said. "This is tremendous organization. (Las Vegas Knights General Manager) George McPhee has done a tremendous job putting the team together. They are going to surprise a lot of people this year. As Nashville showed, if you finish in the top eight, anything can happen."


Bitclave aims to change the standard businesses and customers interaction based on smart contracts and removing middleman. It focuses on eradicating the traffic generated by bots on ads which companies pay to advertise. It aims to design a consumer-centric platform which will allow the users to track their performance not by views on the ads but based on the results. The team members are reputed and know what they have to do. The white paper also is great and explains every bit of the project and the roadmap seems practical. The web design is very simple which makes it more professional.
As it has one the greatest team and helps almost everyone as all of us use the internet and the companies which have to pay for their ads. Everyone would get benefited from it and the userbase is pretty huge so there are chances of a large community in the future I would really like to be a part of it.
A search engine? At the first glance, it's a big no-no for an investor as it's obvious no one has a chance against Google. But if you read further, they actually have valid points on why we should search with them. Our every move and click is being tracked on the Internet and sold to advertisement companies to let them know what we are interested in, what we want, what we do. We are talking about millions of dollar worth of information. They allow you to decide which information you want to share with these advertisement companies and let you sell it to them, therefore making you money. I think if they are able to sell your searches for millions, why wouldn't you do it and get the money?
bitclave is a decentralized search engine platform that intend to compensate the user for using its platform for seraching contents with fear of data bridge. the project which will be web and mobile based and 1 billion of token will be offer for sales.
I had to say it got me interested. First of all, the marketing aspect seems to be doing well. The descriptions of the idea and the whole design gives it a really professional look and easily explain their goals and how they are going to achieve it.
Everything that we do in the internet is being tracked. Every click we do, every word we search. It's being stored and then sold to advertisement companies. This project attack the problem of our data being sold without our consent. They want to users to be able to decide what they want to share and with whom. You then could personally sell your searches to a company and together you can work out which ads you want to see. Seems like a scenario when everyone ends up with profit and happy.


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DBG Founder and CEO Attends Harvard Business School Program
It is one the most prestigious business schools in the world with graduates that include billionaire Michael Bloomberg and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, to name a few. Harvard Business School, the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, recently hosted a week-long professional development program called Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management which brought together 160 social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders from across the world – including the Downtown Boxing Gym's founder and CEO Khali Sweeney.
Khali was nominated for the program by a group of nonprofit executives and accepted after completing an application process.
"For me to go back to school after the experience I had with school growing up, to go back to someplace like Harvard? Harvard was never even in my universe," he says. "For me to be accepted by a group of academics and nonprofit peers and to be pushed hard and to come out better for it – it was just a beautiful experience – once-in-a lifetime for me."
The training session was rigorous with more than a dozen case studies, reading assignments and nightly homework. Khali stayed for the week in the school's graduate student housing and spent the entire time immersed in the study materials.
"I had to read all night long. I couldn't answer my phone. There was no TV in the room," he said. "I'd take notes all night, wake up in the morning and go look at what I highlighted, and brush my teeth reading it. Then I'd memorize my key points because I wanted to go in there and be prepared."
And he was. Khali took part in structured and informal group discussions and larger classroom presentations led by faculty members. He and other participants analyzed the successes and failures of real nonprofit organizations, exploring how today's leaders are tackling a broad range of challenges. The program was designed to teach strategic perspectives and leadership skills and deliver practical tools to drive change.
"The professors brought everything to life before your eyes," Khali says. "It wasn't just charts, it wasn't just graphs, it wasn't just words on a chalkboard. They brought the words to life. The professors were so excited about giving you this information. To hear these professors talk, you were on the edge of your seat."
Khali returned home with a wealth of knowledge, newly forged friendships and even some Harvard swag. The program was sponsored by the business school's Social Enterprise Initiative, which aims to "educate, inspire and support leaders across all sectors to tackle society's toughest challenges and make a difference in the world."
"What it did for me was it reinforced the fact that I have an excellent team and I'm proud to be with the team that I'm with because a lot of the things they were talking about are things that we have already started doing or things we've already done at the Downtown Boxing Gym," he said. "Our team and our board share the same vision, we're all on the same mission together. It reinforced that we're on the right track."
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Sports | Northland Outdoors
Warm summers spur more winter ticks for moose
The Isle Royale study used 20 years of data to track winter tick impacts.
A bull moose on Isle Royale with extensive hair loss due to winter ticks. A new study found that warmer summer temperatures lead to more ticks the next winter. Contributed / Sarah Hoy
By John Myers
Pity the poor Isle Royale moose in winter, losing weight daily with little of nutritional value to eat, wolves closing in for the kill and sometimes thousands of blood-sucking winter ticks clinging to their body.
Each tiny tick may not suck much blood on its own, but imagine tens of thousands of ticks on a single moose. That loss of blood can cause anemia and weakness, and make moose easier prey for wolves.
But the worst part is the itch, and moose are scratching so hard to get rid of winter ticks that they can remove 50%, even up to 80% of the hair on their bodies by the end of an average winter. It's that thick hair or fur that makes moose suited to survive cold winters, but not if they rub their skin bare.
Unlike other ticks, like wood ticks, which may spend just a few days on a host, winter ticks hang on all winter, transforming from larvae to nymph to adult on the moose while consuming blood.
A cow moose with extensive hair loss caused by scratching as the moose tries to rid itself of huge winter tick infestations. A new study by Michigan Tech researchers found warmer summers lead to more ticks the next winter. Contributed / Sarah Hoy free
"The hair loss doesn't kill them, but it makes them more susceptible to everything else going on around them, at a time when they are essentially starving without much to eat," said Sarah Hoy, a Michigan Technological University biologist who studies moose on Isle Royale and the lead researcher on moose and tick study on the island.
In a study published Monday, Nov. 22, in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Hoy and other Michigan Tech researchers found that warmer summers are the biggest factor in how many ticks are on moose the next winter. It's summer when female ticks lay eggs, and those eggs survive better when it's warm, so there are more of them to grab onto moose and hitchhike in the winter.
"It's the biggest correlation we could find between ticks and hair loss and climate change," Hoy said. "It's the summer before winter that matters most."
Temperatures in July appear to be the most critical, the study found. The study used 20 years of data on moose hair loss and then checked weather data to compare. The study seems to indicate that longer, warmer summers, which are expected as climate change intensifies, may mean more problems for moose, especially in places like Minnesota and Maine already on the southern edge of their range. (Duluth just had its warmest summer in 147 years of records. Five of the top 10 hottest summers have come since 2000. Seven of the warmest 10 summers have come since 1983.)
The Isle Royale study did not find much correlation between the length or severity of winters and the amount of hair loss due to ticks, Hoy noted. That's contrary to some previous assumptions that shorter winters might spur more ticks. That may be happening in some areas, but not on Isle Royale where Lake Superior-influenced winters remain pretty tough.
The new study could help explain why in some areas of North America, such as the Northeastern U.S., winter ticks appear to be a growing factor in the decline of moose populations. It may be the region's rapidly warming summer temperatures. (In Minnesota, it's another parasite, brainworm spread through deer, that appears to be the biggest problem for moose.)
Across North America, deer and elk also get winter ticks, but they tend to rub them off gradually, over the fall and early winter, as the ticks jump on. For whatever reason, moose don't start scratching until late winter, when tick numbers have reached epic proportions. By then it's too late.
John Vucetich, who leads the now 63-year study of moose and wolves on Isle Royale and who was part of the tick study, said that may be because moose, which came to North America about 14,000 years ago over the Bering land link, are relative newcomers. There were no ticks where they came from in Europe and Asia. Deer and elk, natives of North America, appear to have figured out how to deal with ticks over the millennia.
"No parasite wants to totally destroy their host, so they have this balance worked out with deer and elk. … But that hasn't happened yet with moose," Vucetich said.
Winter ticks on a moose. A study published by Michigan Technological University scientists found that warmer summers produce more winter ticks, which can accumulate to tens of thousands on a single moose, spurring the moose to scratch off its protective coat of hair. Contributed / John Vucetich free
Eating less on warm summer days
Next up for the Isle Royale moose and wolf researchers is a study on the impacts of summer heat on moose nutrition. It turns out moose eat far less on warm days, and don't eat at all when it's very hot. Too many hot days in any one summer may mean moose head into winter with less fat, and are less suited to survive hard winters.
"I don't know if you have experienced this, but when it's really hot out, you often don't feel like eating much … because digestion creates even more heat," Hoy noted. "It's the same way with moose. When it gets too warm on a summer day, they are going to seek out thick conifer cover, or maybe some inland waters, to move into, and they aren't going to be thinking about eating."
That nutritional study is expected to be published soon, Hoy said.
A young bull moose on Isle Royale that scratched off large amounts of its hair due to an infestation of winter ticks. A new study found that warmer summers produce more winter ticks on moose and more hair loss. Contributed / Sarah Hoy free
Winter survey on for 2022
After being canceled for the first time in 63 years in 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns for the researchers, the annual Isle Royale winter moose and wolf survey is back on for 2022, Hoy said, at least as of now.
Each winter, scientists fly over the island and conduct a thorough search to determine an estimate of moose and wolf numbers. That last happened in 2020, when there were an estimated 1,500 moose and about a dozen adult wolves on the island.
Since then moose, which had been eating themselves out of house and home, almost certainly have decreased in number, with many starving over the past two winters.
Wolves, now all transplanted to the island from other areas in recent years, or offspring of those transplants, appear to be doing well, feasting on moose and sorting out their pack relationships, Hoy said.
One issue, however, may be that most of the wolves now on the island appear to have come from the same group of wolves transplanted from Michipicoten Island on Lake Superior. That could mean they share genetic backgrounds, and that could eventually spur the same genetic problems that doomed Isle Royale's native wolf population in recent decades.
RELATED: Read more coverage about Isle Royale
At 45 miles long, Isle Royale is the largest island on Lake Superior, sitting about 14 miles off Minnesota's North Shore from Grand Portage. The island is a national park and mostly designated wilderness with few human visitors in summer and none in winter. There are no other major predators on the island, no hunting is allowed and moose are the only large prey species, making it a unique wild laboratory for the ongoing wolf-moose study.
Moose came to the island around 1900, peaking at 2,445 in 1995 and hitting bottom at just 385 in 2007. Wolves are relatively new to the island, having crossed the ice from the North Shore in 1949. Their numbers reached a high of 50 in 1980, and 24 wolves roamed the island as recently as 2009.
Climate change, spurring far fewer years of ice bridges between the island and the mainland, reduced the number of new wolves venturing to the island in recent decades and reduced the pack's genetic diversity. With no new wolves coming to the island, the animals inbred and developed genetic deformities that doomed their survival, spurring the National Park Service's dramatic wolf reintroduction effort in recent years aimed at maintaining some natural limit on the island's moose.
Wolves were trapped in Minnesota, Michigan and on Ontario islands of Lake Superior and moved to Isle Royale in 2017 and 2018, the basis for the island's current wolf revival.
John Myers reports on the outdoors, environment and natural resources for the Duluth News Tribune. He can be reached at jmyers@duluthnews.com .
Related Topics: ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARKNORTHLAND OUTDOORSDULUTH
Area MnDNR Conservation Officer Weekly Reports - January 19, 2021
By Joe Albert, Communications coordinator | Division of Enforcement
Inside the Outdoors: Honor your wild harvest by putting it on the menu
Inside the Outdoors with Mike Rahn
By Mike Rahn
'They love to run'; retired dog sled champion thrives in retirement with own trails at home
90 minutes east of Fargo, one of the world's most successful dog sled racers is settling into retirement. When the snow falls, there is no slowing him down.
By Taylor Budge
Wildlife refuge in western North Dakota earns its own merits next to well-known park
It's a unique spot and a stark contrast from what the Theodore Roosevelt National Park has to offer to the southwest. Visitors looking for a hike around a lake with a chance to spot captivating wildlife will surely enjoy their time at the Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge.
By Race Archibald
Back to Hack makes fun of winter cold


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Home > UMLL_JOURNALS > MJIL > Vol. 23 > Iss. 1 (1999)
Extraterritorial Application of the Federal Antitrust Laws: Expanding Their Criminal Reach Under Nippon Paper
James A. Griffith
James A. Griffith, Extraterritorial Application of the Federal Antitrust Laws: Expanding Their Criminal Reach Under Nippon Paper, 23 Md. J. Int'l L. 103 (1999).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mjil/vol23/iss1/6
Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons, International Law Commons
All Issues Vol. 37, Iss. 1 Vol. 36, Iss. 1 Vol. 35, Iss. 1 Vol. 34, Iss. 1 Vol. 33, Iss. 1 Vol. 32, Iss. 1 Vol. 31, Iss. 1 Vol. 30, Iss. 1 Vol. 29, Iss. 1 Vol. 28, Iss. 1 Vol. 27, Iss. 1 Vol. 26, Iss. 1 Vol. 25, Iss. 1 Vol. 24, Iss. 1 Vol. 23, Iss. 1 Vol. 22, Iss. 2 Vol. 22, Iss. 1 Vol. 21, Iss. 2 Vol. 21, Iss. 1 Vol. 20, Iss. 2 Vol. 20, Iss. 1 Vol. 19, Iss. 2 Vol. 19, Iss. 1 Vol. 18, Iss. 2 Vol. 18, Iss. 1 Vol. 17, Iss. 2 Vol. 17, Iss. 1 Vol. 16, Iss. 2 Vol. 16, Iss. 1 Vol. 15, Iss. 2 Vol. 15, Iss. 1 Vol. 14, Iss. 2 Vol. 14, Iss. 1 Vol. 13, Iss. 2 Vol. 13, Iss. 1 Vol. 12, Iss. 2 Vol. 12, Iss. 1 Vol. 11, Iss. 2 Vol. 11, Iss. 1 Vol. 10, Iss. 2 Vol. 10, Iss. 1 Vol. 9, Iss. 2 Vol. 9, Iss. 1 Vol. 8, Iss. 2 Vol. 8, Iss. 1 Vol. 7, Iss. 2 Vol. 7, Iss. 1 Vol. 6, Iss. 2 Vol. 6, Iss. 1 Vol. 5, Iss. 2 Vol. 5, Iss. 1 Vol. 4, Iss. 2 Vol. 4, Iss. 1 Vol. 3, Iss. 2 Vol. 3, Iss. 1 Vol. 2, Iss. 2 Vol. 2, Iss. 1 Vol. 1, Iss. 2 Vol. 1, Iss. 1


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Hercegovačka Goleša (Servisch cyrillisch ) is een plaats in de Servische gemeente Priboj. De plaats telt 430 inwoners (2002).

Plaats in Servië

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


If you are interested in applying we encourage you to visit the School and meet with our recruitment and admissions staff. This is neither a requirement nor expectation if you are planning on applying to the programme.
You may also have the opportunity to engage with students or alumni, or attend a class lecture.
You must register via this form to visit Saïd Business School. We are unable to accommodate walk-ins or stand-by visitors.
A request to visit the campus must be submitted at least 5 working days before the scheduled date.
Visits can only be accommodated on weekdays during regular business hours and are subject to availability.
You need to report to the main Saïd Business School front reception on arrival. If you are attending a (prior-arranged) class lecture, you will need to arrive fifteen minutes before the scheduled class time.
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Please only make travel arrangements once we have confirmed your visit.
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"Bush Putin has eliminated or co-opted all other centers of political influence. There is a puppet legislature, a weak judiciary, and a neutered press. The Evangelical Russian Orthodox Church has become a tool of the state. Symbols of empire and the Cold War Soviet past, including smearing of dissenters as unpatriotic the anthem, have been restored. And, as in Cold War Soviet times, the leadership is constantly telling the people that they are threatened by foreign enemies— Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Russia Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltic states, the United States—as well as by internal extremists rebels." - The New Yorker
Everywhere I look, we Americans are saying bad things about the extremism, aggression, or human rights abuses of foreign countries. Meanwhile, at least two of the three leading Presidential candidates are war criminals who support an unprovoked invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq - but people are more angry at the third for being an "elitist," as if that's the bigger crime even if it were true. It's like we project onto others the evil that we don't want to see in ourselves.
Another example of this comes from Martin Marty:
William Franklin Graham famously called Islam a wicked and evil religion, but I don't think he called for its extinction through violence, as in war. Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, a wild politician, did call for the bombing of Mecca to shatter the Muslim center. Now, Parsley—as in Rod Parsley—is the flavor of the month among the controversial clergy being spotlighted in the camps of the three presidential campaigners. Parsley, pastor of Ohio's mega-est megachurch, twelve-thousand-member World Harvest Church in Columbus, calls for "destroying" Islam.
Parsley is most explicit in his well-selling Silent No More and in broadcasts to large and presumably assenting audiences. While Americans know that some who claim Allah would like to destroy Christian civilization, citizens often overlook the tit-for-tat or tat-for-tit (that is, "who started it?") calls for war from militants on both sides. As reported in Mother Jones (March 12), Parsley says there is a war and he wants bigger war, as America can only "fulfill its divine purpose" by seeing to it that Islam, "this false religion, is destroyed." Though he spells out no specific strategy, he writes things like, "We find now we have no choice. The time has come" to destroy "this anti-Christ religion," inspired by demons who spoke to Allah.
Shall some Muslims be spared—the moderates down the street or anywhere else, for example? No: "mainstream believers" in the "1,209 mosques" in America drink from the same well as do the extremists whom all citizens condemn. Screaming that he does not want to be "another screaming voice moving people to extremes," Parsley has plunged into presidential politics in the hope that he will find policies that will help "destroy" or lead to the "destruction" of Islam, the goal of his war.
It seems to be the most militant and bloodthirsty of Christians who are most condemnatory and afraid of Islam for being militant and bloodthirsty.
People on opposite ends of a conflict often have similar personalities and values - only their dogmatic beliefs are different, and it is the dogma that is the source of the conflict.
If liberal and Christian societies face a threat from Islam - whether through mass immigration or terrorism from extremists - this can be mitigated through defensive measures on our borders and coasts, and in immigration laws. But a Holy War against the world's 1 billion Muslims as a means for the United States to fulfill its "divine purpose?" This is the talk of fanatics. The more influence they have, the more understandable that Iran would want to develop nuclear weapons. The Soviet nuclear deterrence kept the craziest anti-communists from getting elected and pushing the button. With neocon advisers and support from people like Parsley, what is to deter a President McCain from all-out war against Islamic states?
And how would we be any better than the terrorists we claim to be fighting?
Labels: Culture, politics, religion, war


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