GREENVILLE, S.C. — East Tennessee State men's basketball coach Steve Forbes described Saturday's performance at Furman as disgraceful.
Less than two days after losing an overtime heartbreaker to Southern Conference-leading Wofford at home, the Bucs were soundly defeated 91-61 by Furman at Timmons Arena.
Down by nine at the half, the deficit grew to as many as 34 late in the second half.
It was the worst SoCon loss in Forbes' four seasons as ETSU coach. It was his second-worst loss overall, only behind a 35-point defeat in his first season against a Villanova team that went on to win the national championship.
The result marked a 53-point turnaround from the team's first meeting, a 79-56 ETSU win in Johnson City on Dec. 29.
"We couldn't guard them," Forbes said. "There was one stretch where they may have scored 10 straight times. It was a disgraceful effort. It was disgraceful to ETSU, to the program we've built since I've been there.
"I was doing everything I could to get them to go and they didn't compete. I apologize to the people who came to the game and the people who wasted their time watching it on television. From Thursday to now is disgraceful. I won't tolerate it and we'll get it fixed."
Furman (20-5, 9-4) hit 12 of 18 from 3-point range and shot 32-for-50 overall (64 percent). The Bucs (19-7, 9-4) were ice cold from 3-point range, hitting just 2 of 14.
Jeromy Rodriguez led the Bucs by going 10-for-12 from the field to finish with 21 points, also grabbing seven rebounds. Tray Boyd added 13 points.
Furman had five players in double figures, led by Matt Rafferty, who had 19 points and five assists, and Andrew Brown, who hit 5 of 5 from 3-point range in a 17-point effort. Clay Mounce added 15 points, Jordan Lyons 14 and Alex Hunter 11.
"Nobody but Jeromy showed up," Forbes said. "We were no-shows offensively and no-shows defensively. Alex Hunter had his way off the ball screen. He and Clay Mounce were nonfactors in the last game. Brown was a nonfactor in the last game and he destroyed us.
"We didn't follow the game plan. The guards were taking bad shots. Jeromy was having his way inside and he should have touched the ball every time down the court. Instead, we had guards taking 3-point shots that were contested."
Mounce scored Furman's first nine points as the Paladins jumped out to a 12-4 lead. Furman continued to lead most of the game with ETSU leading at only one point afterward, 17-15 at the 11:51 mark.
Down by 13 late in the first half, ETSU scored on a pair of Isaiah Tisdale free throws followed by a steal and layup by Patrick Good to cut the deficit to 41-32 at the break.
The Bucs then closed to six points 49-43 off a Boyd 3-point shot at 14:31 of the second half before the Paladins pushed the lead to 18. Furman then blew open the game with a 22-2 run.
"We couldn't get in position — and time and time again we couldn't run our offense," Forbes said. "There was no physicality. When you play like that, this is what happens. We're going 6 a.m. on Monday and 3:30 (p.m.) on Monday and we will do that the rest of the week or the rest of the season until we get it fixed. I'm not going to have this."
Both teams return to action on Thursday. ETSU hosts The Citadel at 7 p.m. at Freedom Hall and Furman hosts UNC Greensboro.


text:
package graphql.schema;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import static graphql.Assert.assertNotNull;

public class GraphQLInterfaceType implements GraphQLType, GraphQLOutputType, GraphQLFieldsContainer, GraphQLCompositeType, GraphQLUnmodifiedType, GraphQLNullableType {

    private final String name;
    private final String description;
    private final Map<String, GraphQLFieldDefinition> fieldDefinitionsByName = new LinkedHashMap<>();
    private final TypeResolver typeResolver;

    public GraphQLInterfaceType(String name, String description, List<GraphQLFieldDefinition> fieldDefinitions, TypeResolver typeResolver) {
        assertNotNull(name, "name can't null");
        assertNotNull(typeResolver, "typeResolver can't null");
        assertNotNull(fieldDefinitions, "fieldDefinitions can't null");
        this.name = name;
        this.description = description;
        buildDefinitionMap(fieldDefinitions);
        this.typeResolver = typeResolver;
    }

    private void buildDefinitionMap(List<GraphQLFieldDefinition> fieldDefinitions) {
        for (GraphQLFieldDefinition fieldDefinition : fieldDefinitions) {
            fieldDefinitionsByName.put(fieldDefinition.getName(), fieldDefinition);
        }
    }

    public GraphQLFieldDefinition getFieldDefinition(String name) {
        return fieldDefinitionsByName.get(name);
    }

    public List<GraphQLFieldDefinition> getFieldDefinitions() {
        return new ArrayList<>(fieldDefinitionsByName.values());
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }

    public TypeResolver getTypeResolver() {
        return typeResolver;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "GraphQLInterfaceType{" +
                "name='" + name + '\'' +
                ", description='" + description + '\'' +
                ", fieldDefinitionsByName=" + fieldDefinitionsByName +
                ", typeResolver=" + typeResolver +
                '}';
    }

    public static Builder newInterface() {
        return new Builder();
    }

    public static class Builder {
        private String name;
        private String description;
        private List<GraphQLFieldDefinition> fields = new ArrayList<>();
        private TypeResolver typeResolver;

        public Builder name(String name) {
            this.name = name;
            return this;
        }

        public Builder description(String description) {
            this.description = description;
            return this;
        }

        public Builder field(GraphQLFieldDefinition fieldDefinition) {
            fields.add(fieldDefinition);
            return this;
        }

        public Builder fields(List<GraphQLFieldDefinition> fieldDefinitions) {
            assertNotNull(fieldDefinitions, "fieldDefinitions can't be null");
            fields.addAll(fieldDefinitions);
            return this;
        }

        public Builder typeResolver(TypeResolver typeResolver) {
            this.typeResolver = typeResolver;
            return this;
        }

        public GraphQLInterfaceType build() {
            return new GraphQLInterfaceType(name, description, fields, typeResolver);
        }

    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


June 1919, Lodi, California, Roy Allen sells his first root beer for a nickel. Allen eventually took on a partner in 1922, Frank Wright, and together they formed A&W Root Beer, the name originating from the first letter of each of their last names. Although several different types of stands and restaurants were created to serve up their delicious, frothy, A&W Root Beer, one of the more intereting ones was the barrel stand. Literally, a giant barrel with walk up windows, several of these were made and distributed all around California and the west.
Although the barrel A&W Root Beer stands are for the most part long gone, a few still reside in California, just no longer as root beer stands.
For years an orange with black stripes giant barrel has been in Boron serving up food and is one of these former A&W stands. It's basically a food stand with a small outdoor eating area consisting of a few tables and some picnic benches. The giant barrel has a walk-up window, and the place serves all sorts of the usual fast food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, tacos, etc. At one point it was painted white and called Dinky's. Now, it is just called simply "Barrel" which seems much more fitting.
Across the street are three giant stone turtles, for no apparent reason. They are surrounded by a low wooden fence and are located in a dirt parking lot. There's basically a small, medium, and large turtle and they have painted circles on their shells. Looks like they have square wooden eyes. There's also a small donkey and a large strange rock shaped thing on the other side of the parking lot.
Boron, California is also home to the largest open-pit mine in California and the largest borax mine in the world. In addition to the barrel food stand and the giant stone turtles, there is also a rather large tire (just to the right of the turtles) and a very large dump truck on display.
Four additional former A&W Root Beer stands still exist in California. All four of them are in San Diego county in El Cajon, San Diego, National City, and Escondido. There is also a former stand in Mesa, Arizona and Amarillo, Texas.
Rosendo's Taco Shop: 1408 East Main Street, El Cajon, California 92021 - formerly Variety Barrel and then El Barrilito.
El Indio De Tijuana Taco Shop: 810 North Broadway, Escondido, California 92025 - formerly Michael's Drive In.
1550 Palm Avenue, San Diego, California 92154 - formerly Barrel of Flowers and then I.B. Printing.


We will gladly file claims for all dental insurance plans in order to assist you in receiving your maximum benefits. If you direct your insurance company to pay its share of the fee directly to our office, you need only pay the deductible or co-payment portion at the time of treatment.
*If you do not see your dental insurance plan listed, please call our office and we can verify if we are a provider for their network.
CareCredit is the credit card exclusively for healthcare services. With no up-front costs and no pre-payment penalties, CareCredit lets you pay over time and frees up cash and credit cards for the other things you want or need. CareCredit offers monthly payment plans for healthcare procedures not commonly covered by dental insurance, including dental treatments. Plus, you can use your card again and again to pay for additional treatment for yourself or family members in any CareCredit practice.
No up-front costs, no pre-payment penalties.


Install the content pack for NSX for vSphere to add the dashboards for viewing log information in vRealize Log Insight.
Click the Download tab and locate the NSX-v for vSphere Content Pack.
Click the menu icon on the top right of the NSX-v for vSphere Content Pack and select Install.
In the NSX-v for vSphere Content Pack window, enter the following settings, and click Install.


text:
La Roca és un mas a uns quants centenars de metres al sud-est del nucli de Sant Joan de les Abadesses (al Ripollès) inclòs a l'Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya.

Arquitectura
Es tracta d'una masia construïda aprofitant el desnivell del terreny, de planta quadrada on en un extrem d'aquesta hi ha una torre que havia estat colomar. El conjunt d'edificis es comunica a partir de l'era de batre. Separada del conjunt del mas hi havia una pallissa que conserva la seva forma original i que actualment ha estat unida al cos principal de la masia per noves edificacions de tipus granja i que han engrandit tota la masia. Les teulades són a dos vessants excepte la del cos de la torre, que és a quatre vessants. Les obertures principals són finestres d'arc de mig punt i l'entrada a l'habitacle del mas es fa per mitjà d'unes escales exteriors.

La fisonomia d'aquest mas permet relacionar-lo amb els de la Torre i el Covilar.

Història
La masia de la Roca ja ve citada l'any 1397 en un capbreu de l'abat de Vilalba del monestir de Sant Joan de les Abadesses amb el nom de masoveria Roca Guixera. Al llarg de tots els segles posteriors aquest mas ve citat sempre en diversos documents amb el nom de la Roca. Havia posseït una teuleria, actualment en desús, anomenada la teuleria de la Roca.

Referències

Patrimoni monumental de Sant Joan de les Abadesses
Roca

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


These crock pot stuffed pork chops are filled with a savory seasoned mixture of bread crumbs and chopped vegetables. The boneless stuffed pork chops are slow cooked to perfection with potatoes and more stuffing mixture.
Boneless pork chops are butterflied, thinned, and then stuffed with the nicely seasoned stuffing mixture. This is a complete meal in one pot, great for any day of the week, and the slow cooker makes it easy.
Add a salad or steamed vegetables and biscuits for a full and satisfying everyday meal.
To butterfly, cut each pork chop horizontally through the center but not quite through the other side. Open the chops up and flatten.
Put a square of plastic wrap over an opened pork chop. With the flat side of a meat tenderizer or similar tool, gently pound the chops to thin out. You want the chop thin enough to roll around some of the stuffing. Repeat with the remaining pork chops.
Season the flattened pork pieces with salt and pepper and set aside.
In a skillet over medium-low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the celery, carrots, and onion to the pan and cook, stirring, until tender.
Pour vegetable mixture into a medium mixing bowl and add the breadcrumbs, chopped pecans, sage, parsley, and thyme. Taste and add salt and pepper, as needed. Add the beaten egg and mix until the ingredients are moistened.
Pat a few tablespoons of the stuffing mixture on each chop; roll up and secure with a toothpick.
Place the cut-up potatoes in the slow cooker or crockpot and dot with 2 or 3 teaspoons of butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Place the stuffed pork rolls on the potatoes in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with remaining stuffing mix.
Cover and cook the stuffed pork chops and potatoes on low for 7 to 9 hours, or until the pork chops are fully cooked and the potatoes are tender.
Add chunks of carrot, onions, or other root vegetables to the slow cooker along with the potatoes.


text:
Q: Update all occurence of a specific column in entire database I have Asset table and assetid(column) in many table use
I want to update all occurences of tables in all occurences of inserts in database
assetid(column) WHERE value has 878 to 1 FROM all tables in database
I know normal update
update AdminInterests set assetid = 1 where 878

I just want to how to apply update through entire database in all tables

A: One potential solution is that you could read database meta data tables and build a dynamic query to find all the columns/attributes you'd like to update and then run an update against them. It's quite a lot of work to do that but does provide a solution. It's also a programmatic solution rather than one that you can do with a query.

A: You could use this query to create all the needed UPDATE statements.
SELECT 'UPDATE ' + T.TABLE_SCHEMA + '.' + T.TABLE_NAME + ' SET assetid  = 1 where asssetid = 878;'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES T
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C
ON T.TABLE_NAME = C.TABLE_NAME
AND c.COLUMN_NAME ='assetid'

And then you can execute those UPDATE statements.
Sample Demo Here

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Artichoke: (herbal)Hepatic insufficiency, liver problems, provides iron and vitamin B.
Cranberry: (herbal) Reduces the content of blood glucose, diabetes.
Turmeric (root): Above all anti inflammatory, arthritis liver, eliminates cancerous substances, psoriasis, fungi.
Hawthorn (herbal): For example all kinds of heart problems, hypertension, antioxidant.
Ginseng (root): Above all insomnia, fatigue, chronic fatigue, neutralizes stress, increases mental capacity and memory, cholesterol, blood sugar, diabetes, immune system, cancer, aphrodisiac, impotence and flaccidity.
Ginkgo biloba: (herbal)Above all antioxidant, attention and memory, stimulates performance, improves circulation in legs, head, heart, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, impotence, depression, hangover.
Ginger (root): Above all anti-vomiting, dizziness, pregnancy, good for the heart and circulatory system, chronic fatigue syndrome, sinusitis.
Yellow flax (seeds): Above all rich in omega 3, anti carcinogenic, antioxidant, beautiful skin, heart.
Marshmallow (herbal): Firstly blows, bruises, burns, pimples, frostbite, sprains, arthritis, stings, skin itching.
Chamomile (flower): Above all digestive, ulcer, gastritis, cholesterol, sinusitis, anti carcinogenic, spasms in menstruation.
Olive: For example hypertension, tachycardia, increases good cholesterol, antiviral, antibiotic.
Licorice (root): Above all acidity, ulcers, sores in the mouth, heavy digestion, smoking, liver protector, hepatitis B, alcoholism, cirrhosis, antiviral, flu, cold sores, chronic fatigue, stimulant, natural aphrodisiac.
Nettle (herbal): Above all cough, bronchitis, pharyngitis, acts on the bronchial epithet increasing bronchoalveolar secretions.
Valerian (root): For example relaxing effect in situations of stress and insomnia.
Maca (root): Above all has been shown to stabilize hormonal health and aid fertility, meaning this maca for women is ideal for rebalancing libido.
Herbal promoting immune system function to detoxifying the body to soothing the stomach, consequently aloe offers many potential benefits for health and well-being, as it is contains an amazing assortment of nutrients, including: 20 minerals, 12 vitamins, 18 amino acids, 200 active enzymes, Glycoproteins that ease pain and inflammation, Polysaccharides that assist with tissue repair and healing, Natural antibacterial complexes.
Spirulina: is a wonderful food because it contains 18 types of amino acids and vitamins that our body needs. It contains rich amounts of vitamins in which β-carotene and vitamin B complex are significantly high.


You're a giant manta ray gliding gracefully through the sky. Face-down and head-first you skim the lagoon surface with an outstretched wing. Prepare to plummet, spin and soar through the high seas at high speeds on this smooth, floorless coaster.
"Absolutely fantastic, didn't know what the ride was about, but came off raving about it I like all kinds of park rides BUT nothing competes with this ride Fantastic"
"I don't really like rollercoasters but this made me like them."
"Brilliant ride scary but great"
"Even though the position is not the greatest its new and exciting."
"On our return from a hectic, yet amazing family holiday to Orlando this Easter we thought about our highlights. For both my children, boys aged 9 and 14, the best place ever was SeaWorld. Both boys love aquatic animals and spent much of the..."


text:
module Fog
  module Volume
    class OpenStack
      module Real
        def list_volumes(options = true, options_deprecated = {})
          if options.is_a?(Hash)
            path  = 'volumes'
            query = options
          else
            # Backwards compatibility layer, when 'detailed' boolean was sent as first param
            if options
              Fog::Logger.deprecation('Calling OpenStack[:volume].list_volumes(true) is deprecated, use .list_volumes_detailed instead')
            else
              Fog::Logger.deprecation('Calling OpenStack[:volume].list_volumes(false) is deprecated, use .list_volumes({}) instead')
            end
            path  = options ? 'volumes/detail' : 'volumes'
            query = options_deprecated
          end

          request(
            :expects => 200,
            :method  => 'GET',
            :path    => path,
            :query   => query
          )
        end
      end
    end
  end
end


Get your little one's fandom started with this adorable Wake Forest Demon Deacons Arch & Logo bodysuit!
Infant_Black_Wake_Forest_Demon_Deacons_Arch_And_Logo_Bodysuit http://images.fanatics.com/lf http://dmimages.ff.p10/chains/2121887.txt false We are unable to customize this item with the text you have entered. Please try a different entry again. Your current entry cannot be processed due to guidelines for past and present player names. Please create a new entry.


Noteworthy items on certified MBEs, national corporate members of NMSDC, minority business opportunities and more.
Read about how NMSDC has helped your business community in Detroit, MI, this year's host to the NMSDC Conference and Business Opportunity Exchange.
Diversity has become a business buzzword in recent times, with numerous C-suite executives viewing it as simply a tick-box exercise, alas. And yet a growing welter of evidence suggests the manifold advantages of utilising diverse supply chains – engaging suppliers from ethnic, racial and gender minorities – are too significant to be ignored.


Wikipedia will soon provide a search engine. Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company which owns and operates Wikipedia, has allocated $250,000 last year for the development of the search engine. However, information about this development has been made public only this month.
The new search engine will be named 'Knowledge Engine by Wikipedia' and aims to provide a system for discovering reliable and trustworthy public information on the Internet. However, there are certain roadblocks that need to be overcome to create a fully operational transparent search engine.
Wikipedia's search engine will rival Alphabet's Google, Microsoft's Bing and other search engines. The search engine will provide results from content located on Wikipedia and its sister websites. It will also pull data from other sources such as OpenStreetMaps and non-text sources to provide relevant contextual items.
Knowledge Engine will be open source, transparent about how a piece of information originates and allow access to metadata. It will also protect users' privacy, not display advertisements and emphasize community building and sharing of information.
No launch dates have been announced as of now.


This Micro Conversion Kit fits multiple handgun models, into one platform, and helps convert your pistol into the ultimate submachine gun.
It is significantly improved from previous generations of the Micro Roni Stabilizer. Available for select Gen 3, 4, and 5 Glock models.
This Micro Conversion Kit is a lightweight and sturdy platform for Glock handguns. It has a barrel shroud made of aluminum with a polymer body. The extended stabilizer, which now comes standard, enables one-handed firing for better shooting performance. It also comes with a Velcro® strap fastener which provides a custom fit to any user. MCK is the most cost effect conversion kit in the world. Fastest assembly/disassembly conversion kit on the market. Improving accuracy dramatically up to 200 yards. MCK comes in two versions, one is a NON-NFA product (with standard long stabilizer brace), and the other is a NFA product (with stock).


BROWSE C-SERIES MODELSWHO USES THE C-SERIES?
All C-Series tripods come with one leg that can be removed to convert the tripod into a Monopod.
The tripod legs can be adjusted to 3 different position angles: high, middle, and low. You can adjust according to your needs.
The semi-automatic adjustment clips will allow you to easily position the angle of the tripod legs and to collapse for packing.
The T-Lock knobs allow you to turn the knob a mere quarter turn to be able to extend or contract each section. The C40i and C50i do not include T-Lock knobs.
The two section center column will allow you to place the column upside down for low-to-the-ground shots.
The C40i and C50i uses a tab (clamp the tab) locking mechanism for the leg extensions.
The C4i, C4c, C5i, and C5c use the T-Lock (twist the knob) locking mechanism for the leg extensions.
"The C5c is my favorite tripod ever! It's light, stable and well designed."
Alex works to achieve his stated goal to "make beautiful photographs that inspire and motivate people" through his nature, commercial and fine art photography.
Alex began his photography career taking backpacking trips through various landscapes, including the High Sierra and Columbia Ice field. More recently, he has focused his lens on Arizona's deserts, the High Sierra and the Grand Canyon. In his spare time, Alex organizes the AZ Photo Guild, a Southwest-based photography group that hosts educational workshops, photo walks and backpacking photo trips.
Alex's favorite tripod is the Fotopro C5c (he owns the blue one). He appreciates its light weight, rugged durability and ease of use.


text:
Entering Deeper Water
You are here: Home» Theology» The Year of Matthew (2020) =>>» Entering Deeper Water - John 4:5-42
4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.
It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink'. 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)* 10Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink", you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.' 11The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?' 13Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.'
15The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.' 16 Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come back.' 17The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, "I have no husband"; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!' 19The woman said to him, 'Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.' 21Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.' 25The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming' (who is called Christ). 'When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.' 26Jesus said to her, 'I am he,* the one who is speaking to you.'
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'What do you want?' or, 'Why are you speaking with her?' 28Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?' 30They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, eat something.' 32But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.' 33So the disciples said to one another, 'Surely no one has brought him something to eat?' 34Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest"? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving* wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps." 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.'
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I have ever done.' 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.' 43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee 44(for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet's own country). 45When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
I am sick. The mysterious blend of body, and something else that makes us... us, has refused to work. The body is fine, but relating to other people, especially people who need things from me, is difficult.
If I sit down with a sheet of paper, I can draw circles— six of them— to describe some contributing factors to this illness. Circles one and two have some obvious similarities, although the events they describe are widely separated in time. The third circle bears no relation to either of them, but has a lot in common with the issue I've labelled circle six. And circles six and two do have some connections.
There are moments when these connections feel very speculative; I wonder if I imagine them. Yet, as I said to my doctor, all my pastoral experience suggests I'd be a fool to ignore them; somehow, they are working together to 'gum up the works' that is me. She signed me off for more sick leave without hesitation; she knows a couple of these same circles.
Experience suggests that if I insist on drawing hard and firm lines of the "a = b + c" variety between the circles on my page, which represent the oddly connected events in my life, I will not get well. Healing comes from swimming among the not-quite-definable connections and images, and letting mind and brain and spirit do what they do, which is march in their own dimension, at their own pace, in ways we can only glimpse.
We do this all the time; it is how we function to be us. It's just that being sick makes it much more visible. This normally invisible process is how we live and grow and become more fully human— or not. We pretend we're in charge. We pretend to know cause and effect, and rationality and free choice, forgetting that rationality is an organisation and interpretation— an important rationalisation to be sure— but always a constructed story of prior feelings, which we never quite understand. Hume said reason is a tool of the passions.
Our rationality is always self-serving. It justifies us to ourselves, so it is always suspect. It must always be open to being undone and lost to something deeper, and to swimming way out of our depth. There is a word for our refusal to do this: idolatry. It is idolatry because it is our transient, only half-understood self, claiming to know better than God. My search for hard and definite connections is not only a desire to understand myself in my sickness; it is also my attempt to preserve myself over against my creator and master.
Which brings us to the Gospel of John. John uses a surface narrative of the Jesus tradition— in this case, the story of meeting a woman at a well— and crafts it to invite us, even to provoke us, to enter into deep water which will drag us under, drown us, remake us, and, finally begin to slake our thirst for life. If we will only enter in. If we will only drink.
John is far removed from that kind of juridical and forensic theology which reduces the cross to some sort of cosmic transaction between the Father and the Son. That kind theology seeks to heal a soul with the logic of engineering. It thinks it can explain what is going on within the grace of God. Of course we long to know and to understand what is being given to us, and how it works, but in the end, we can only submit to the swirl of grace around us and witness to what is done to us and given us. We can say he "told me everything I have ever done... he has known me," but to explain the mechanics of that is an act of hubris, and finally, an idolatry, because it pretends to know the mechanics of the unknowable.
John's gospel is, in some ways, very simple: God has loved us from the beginning. Jesus shows us God. If you have seen him you have seen the Father. Follow him, stay with him, and your thirst will be quenched.
But John knows the deep truth of all this, its fuller appreciation and experience, comes from living within the swirl of the imagery, and that like me in my current sickness, we will never be able to define quite what it was that heals us and makes us well. We will know only that we met someone who knew us and "who told us everything we ever did." If we insist on owning this process, as fundamentalism does, then God will not reject us, but we will almost forever hold God at an arm's length until we finally give in and allow ourselves to be drowned in the healing.
This drowning is our greatest fear, of course. In his poem When the Last Day Comes, Kevin Hart says "women will clasp their sons as men," and "there will be time for us to say the right things at last." We long for such a time of restoration and healing. But then he says, "everything is stripped from us, even our names," and we shudder at his words. We are our names... except that our names are our idea of ourselves. Yet if God desires for us "what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived," (1 Cor 2:9) then how can we hold onto even to our name? This too, would be an idolatry and a refusal of completion and salvation.
Before we finally enter the text of John, there is something to say about exegesis, which seeks to discover what John meant to say, and eisogesis, which is the reader imposing their own ideas upon the text, or importing them in. It's generally seen as inappropriate.
I used to work in a computer programming company, home territory for a=b+c kind of knowledge. There is no place there for imagery or allusions. In the case of one complex piece of software, there was a young woman in our client company who could enter data at astonishing speed. My boss, the programming genius, often employed her as a kind of stress test whenever she updated the software. She was watching her enter data into a new version of the program one day, and suddenly cried out, "Stop! What did you just do?"
Jenny filled out the next form more slowly, so that she could be observed. My boss said of her own program, "Good grief! I had no idea you could do that!" Because John has entered the deep water, his Gospel will trigger in us ideas and healings and connections which he never anticipated.
So what more or less loosely connected circles has John drawn on his page as invitation for us?
Firstly, the story carries the symbols and the meaning. It is not meant to be literal truth, or biography; it does not matter, for example, that a sprig of hyssop cannot support a sponge full of cheap wine. (We will come to this incident in John 19:29 shortly.) Insisting the translation must be wrong, and that hyssop must be a textual corruption of a spear (see, for example, R Brown Gospel According to John XII to XXI, Page 909) is the kind of wooden literalism that draws hard lines between the circles, that process I have also called 'owning' or taking control of the story, according to our logic and presuppositions.
Then, especially for men like me, there is the problem of our sexist assumptions. We are enculturated to look down upon women, especially a woman who has had five husbands. And to reduce the gospel to moralising; this is one of the great sins of the church. And also to look down upon Jewish people; we emphasise how much Nicodemus, coming by night, was in the dark. So we forget, perhaps a little, or perhaps we don't see it at all, that Nicodemus is the picture of us all. We are all in the dark, even those of us who are wise, and leaders of our people. We all need a rebirth.
Nicodemus and Photini— at least some of the tradition gives the woman of John 4 a name: Photini means the luminous one— Nicodemus and Photini are not foolish. They're playing the language game of their culture.
[Additional note: It's not that I'm an expert on Jesus' culture. Rather, I ask what other option is there than that she is stupid, and being used as a straw prop? Plus, the conversation sounds like conversations I had with First Nations folk in Central Australia. There is something playful about it. In our language and culture, we would say Jesus has spoken to her in metaphor, and she is extending the metaphor, rather than not understanding the metaphor. She is not uncomprehending, rather, she knows there is stuff she does not know.]
She asks, "How did you get this Living Water? The well of life is deep; are you greater even than our ancestor Jacob? Don't play word games with me. Show me what you say is true."
This is no uncomprehending question. She knows what's at stake, and adds a little barb: "Don't think you are superior to me just because you are a Jewish man. We Samaritans are children of Jacob too— even we women." If we belittle her, or if we reduce the question into a sectarian argument between Jews and Samaritans, it's fair to ask how much else we are missing!
So much is made of her coming to the well at noon: she is obviously a woman of poor reputation, or she would have come in the cool of the dusk with all the other women, we say. Those five husbands prove this to be the case. As we say in Australia, women are reduced to 'damned whores or God's police,' and this blinds us to everything else. We belittle the victims, and the outsiders, the ones who so often bring us the Christ.
So it is, that until this year, directed to focus upon her morality, I have barely seen two of John's circles; circles widely separated in the gospel, just like some of those on my sheet of paper, and yet so obviously connected. Jesus sits at the well. To the woman, he says, "Give me a drink." "It was about noon." (John 4:6) The Greek is hōra ēn hōs hektē.
On the cross he says, "I am thirsty," and they give him a drink. It was hōra ēn hōs ⸃ hektē— about noon.
Is the cross the well?
The drink was common wine, like we might use in the communion in a poor church, soaked up in a sponge, held up on a branch of hyssop. As Brown points out, John's retelling of this tradition is devoid of the Roman mockery of Luke's telling. It is differently told from Mark and Matthew. John reworks the narrative which carries his meaning to grab our attention. It is the moment when Jesus drinks of the wine, the moment when all is finished, and done.
We are meant to wonder, "How could you hold up a sponge-full of wine on something little stronger than a sprig of parsley?" for, of course, you can't. But he doesn't mean us to go down a literalistic rabbit hole and look for a textual corruption. He wants us to ask, "What else would you do with a sprig of hyssop?" Well, at Passover, you used it
to sprinkle the blood of the paschal lamb on the door posts for the Israelite homes. [Exodus 12:22] In describing how the death of Jesus ratified a new covenant, Hebrews 9:18-20 recalls that Moses used hyssop to sprinkle the blood of animals in order to seal the earlier covenant... in John 19:14 we noted that Jesus was sentenced to death at the very hour when the slaughter of the pastoral lambs began in the temple precinct... (Brown pp930)
And when the wine is drunk, and he is dead, our thirst is quenched. From his body flow blood and wine until now. (John 19:34)
I note other conjunctions of time and place in John, which intrigue me. Nicodemus came at night, and when Judas received the bread, and then went out, "it was night." (John 13:30) The woman comes in the noonday.
Themes of light and dark abound throughout the fourth gospel. Here, Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman takes place at high noon, in, you might say, the "fullness of light." (John Petty)
There is also a story of Jacob at a well where he first meets Rachel.
6[Jacob] said to them, 'Is it well with him?' 'Yes,' they replied, 'and here is [Laban's] daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.' 7He said, 'Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.' 8But they said, 'We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.' (Genesis 29:6-8)
Loose associations and allusions flow everywhere here. What stone needs to be removed from the well for this woman in John 4? What makes a well a place of Living Water rather than a dry tomb in the rock? How are the flocks gathered together and watered— who are they?
In Genesis 24:10-16, Abraham's servant meets Rebecca, who will be Isaac's wife, at a well. Is there a hint in John of the "boy meets girl at the well" motif? At these points of betrothal the long story of the faith of Israel moves forward; they are turning points. Is there something happening here between Jesus and this woman, a kind of betrothal? He has crossed all sorts of conventions to speak to a woman who is alone; is there a sexual tension in the conversation?
Despite that question, Petty shares my reaction against our tendency to portray the woman as sexually promiscuous.
The passage is not about the woman's sexual life. Nor it is about her marital history. In all of the four gospels, Jesus never expresses even a scintilla of interest in anyone's sex life, except to stick up for so-called "sexual offenders" when they are criticized or derided by others.
Petty understands that the apparent shift of subject, the non sequiter across to the number of husbands, is actually nothing of the sort. If we are not blinded by morality, and read the conversation as a conversation of faith versus idolatry, and of salvation, there is no change of subject at all. He goes on to say
The "husbands" are symbolic. After their conquest of the region in 722 BC, the Assyrians took about 30,000 native Israelites out of the region and imported people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24) into Samaria. As people are wont to do, they intermarried with each other and with the native, Israelite, population.
These peoples are the woman's "five husbands." The one she is currently with, who is "not her husband," is Rome. Herod the (so-called) Great had ruled the region on Rome's behalf from 37 BC to 4 BC...
I might interject here to point out the lack of separation between religion and faith and politics in the culture of Jesus. Acquiescence to Rome is an idolatry.
Jesus compliments the woman because, as he said herself, "What you have spoken is true." She has no husband. Samaria has had relations with five peoples, and is currently occupied by another who wants nothing to do with her.
Jesus redefines the woman and Samaria. She is not an outcast, half-breed, heretic--she is a truthteller! The Samaritan woman acknowledges and ratifies Jesus' interpretation of her national history. "Lord, I see that you are a prophet."
There is a remarkable survey of the commentary on the text of Lent 3a at A Trivial Devotion: Five Husbands? where Sandra Schneider's commentary is reproduced.
The dialogue on the five husbands is integral to the discussion of Samaritan faith and theology, and the "husbands" are therefore symbolic rather than literal...
First, the exchange about the husband occurs...not as prelude to theological discussion but in the midst of it, that is, after the woman has perceived Jesus' implicit claim to equality with the patriarchs and before she acknowledges him to be a prophet...
Second, if the scene itself is symbolically the incorporation of Samaria into the New Israel, the bride of the new Bridegroom, which is suggested by the type [of] scene itself, then the adultery/idolatry symbolism so prevalent in the prophetic literature for speaking of Israel's infidelity to Yahweh the Bridegroom would be a most apt vehicle for discussion of the anomalous religious situation of Samaria...
The third point...Jesus' revelation to the woman who symbolizes Samaria, of her infidelity is not a display of preternatural knowledge that convinces the woman of Jesus' power (and thus her helplessness before him), embarrassing her into a diversionary tactic in an effort to escape moral exposure. Rather, it is exactly what she acknowledges it to be when she says in response to his revelation, "I perceive that you are a prophet" (John 4:19). Jesus' declaration that Samaria "has no husband," is a classic prophetic denunciation of false worship...
In summary, the entire dialogue between Jesus and the woman is the "wooing" of Samaria to full covenant fidelity in the New Israel by Jesus, the New Bridegroom. ... (John Ashton [b. 1931], "A Case Study: A Feminist Interpretation of John 4:1-42", The Interpretation of John (Studies in New Testament Interpretation), 247-49)
And in reply to the woman's declaration that he is a prophet, Jesus says, "I am," (Ἐγώ εἰμι) as in "Before Abraham was, I am."
The conversation comes to the question of what makes dark or light, tomb or well, death or life. It comes to what will gush up in us to eternal life, life in a new dimension and reality. To what will feed us seemingly without food, to the simple rituals of water, wine, and scraps of bread, which seem trivial to those who have not seen, and yet can make us drunk (Sychar) on life because they bring us to the fountain of life.
My witness comes from an education in the sciences, and an over-masculised reliance on logic and control. That which could not be replicated and controlled in laboratories and field trials was of little value. Emotions were mostly a sign of failure; to show gentleness was to become a target. I thirsted for knowledge, only slowly realising that what I was seeking was meaning and purpose in a life which terrified me. Meaning and purpose came only as I embraced the imagery of the gospels and let it pull me into the even greater terror of deep water, way out of my depth. It's not only words that matter here, or metaphors, but the deep water of compassion and service which is equally terrifying. Then the words of John become healing. I believe I hear someone who is meeting the same Spirit. I can leave behind the jarring burden of my old life and enter a new reality.
Andrew Prior (2019 Lent 3)
Also on One Man's Web
John 4:5-42 - Seeing the single tree (2014)
We who are left behind - Matthew 24:36-44
Grasping a nettle - Matthew 3:1-12
No one is unworthy - Matthew 3:1-12
Tears and Laughter - Matthew 11:2-11, (12-18)
It begins with Joseph - Matthew 1: 1-17, 18-25
It's like being in paradise... - Matthew 1:1-17, 18-25
In such a child as this... Matthew 1:18 - 2.18
The Fires - Matthew 3:1-2, 9-17, 4:1-3
Freedom - Matthew 3:13-4:3a
Finding the Golden Lamb - John 1:19-42
The Lamb and The Day of Mourning - John 1:29-42
Living in the Spirit - Matthew 4:1-11
Wait! - Matthew 17:1-9
Entering Deeper Water - John 4:5-42
I was there... John 9:1-41 (Lent 4)
Finding toilet paper in John 11 - John 11
By the way... Matthew 20:17-34, 21:1-11, 12-19
Thomas on the way to Emmaus - Luke 24:13-35, John 20:19-31
Finding Life and Being - John 10
Because of the works themselves - John 14:1-14

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Council of Corfu and especially the overwhelming majority of nobility were friendly with the Venetians.
They did not expect protection from the collapsing Byzantine Empire, and because of the ever-present Turkish threat, they asked at 1386 AD for the protection of the Republic of Saint Mark.
Venetians knew that Corfu was a key strategic location to guard their naval interests in the region, and also a very fertile island for agriculture, therefore they bought the island from the kingdom of Naples, paying an amount of 30,000 gold ducats.
Then disembarked their forces in Corfu led by the "Admiral of the Gulf," Giovanni Miani.
The Venetians sent army to capture the two forts, and while Aggelokastro surrendered almost immediately, the Angevins and Corfiots of Kassiope resisted furiously, the Venetians got angry to such an extent that after the conquest of the castle they destroyed it completely and for this reason there are now only remnants of that fort.
Thus started the second long period of Venetian rule in Corfu that lasted more than 400 years, actually 411 years, 11 months and 11 days precisely.
Venetians established the feudalistic system to rule, There were three social classes, the nobility of aristocrats, the citizens (civili) and the poor people (popolari).
In the next painting we see a typical snapshot of medieval Corfu, currently called Nikiforos Theotokis street, apart from the costumes have not changed much since then.
Agriculture had developed with the planting of many olive trees, Arts and Science were also evolving now that Corfu had links with one of the great empires..
The Venetian era left indelible marks on Corfu in all areas such as art, musical tradition, culture, the singing pronunciation of language, Corfiot cuisine and most noticeably the architecture of the city and the villages.
The constitution in Corfu, and in all the Ionian islands during the Venetian occupation was exclusive, all political power was in the hands of the nobility, the only Venetians were the General Proveditor of the Sea who wielded the greatest political power, and his Judiciary flanked by Vailos and his two consultants.
All the rest were local nobles whose names were written in the Golden book (libro d`Oro).
Centuries later during the era of the second Ionian state, only the people whose names appeared on this list were allowed to take their coffee on the Liston area! In early editions of the Libro d`Oro the names all the noble of Byzantine origin, also Byzantine soldiers and large landowners were written, but later many wealthy civilians who were able to offer financial support to the Treasury of the state, were added too.
If we look at the names in the libro d`Oro, we see, with surprise that most names known in the city of Corfu today are written there, but few of the common village names.
The Venetians did well to protect the city of Corfu, but despite their military measures in the first centuries they failed to protect the island's countryside which saw many tragedies and often paid a heavy toll in barbarian raids.
It also suffered from pirate attacks, especially during the first two major Turkish raids, one in 1537 and the second in 1571.
In 1537 AD the Turks invaded and seized 20.000 men from the countryside to sell as slaves in Konstantinople and Egypt,.
The countryside was devastated, so many Greeks from Peloponnese, Epirus and Crete came as migrant workers to the island, and later became part of the resident population.
More recently especially under the British rule, many immigrants came from the small Mediterranean island of Malta, the original home of many, mainly Roman Catholic, Corfiots.
Following the raids of 1537 Corfu was almost deserted, and a few years later, in 1571 the Venetians lost Peloponnese, Crete and Cyprus, all three islands were conquered by the Turks,.
This created the inevitable large wave of refugees from these areas looking for new home, and the Ionian Islands was the ideal destination, so by this coincidence the Turks both depopulated and helped repopulate Corfu.
The Venetians also gave impetus to this migration stream for at least two additional reasons, firstly to revive the dead countryside, and secondly to encourage people with great spiritual, military, technical and economic potential to leave the Turkish dominated land- which would also weaken the Ottoman occupiers, and at the same time strengthen Venice.
A large group of refugees came from Nafplio and Monemvasia, half of them settled in the area of Lefkimi and build Anaplades village, the others scattered on the northeast coast, from Pyrgi up to Kassiopi.
Their leader was the chieftain Barbatis, and the area south of Nissaki is called Barbati after him.
There is a suburb north of the city called Stratia, formerly known as Anaplitochori.
The largest group of all was from Crete, many settled in Garitsa, just south of the city, and the most prosperous new arrivals moved into the city itself.
Others built the village of Saint Markos in the north above Ipsos, whilst in the south of Corfu the villages of Stroggyli, Messonghi, Argyrades and Kritika were also established by Cretans.
All these populations introduced elements of their tradition and culture to Corfu, especially the Cretans who contributed much to the formation of the Corfu idiom which anyway was constantly evolving, the prefix "chi" instead of "tis" is pronounced like this only in Crete and the Ionian Islands.
Later on around 1800, a large group of refugees from Souli, after its destruction by Ali Pasha, fled to Corfu and most of them settled in Benitses, their descendants today constitute about 70% of the Benitses population.
The Venetians tried to convert the population to Catholicism, but they did not succeed, and later for political reasons, as they had come into conflict with the Vatican and especially after the loss of Cyprus in 1571, they abandoned any such effort, and justified this religious tolerance with the famous saying "Siamo prima Veneziani e poi Cristiani", which means, we are first Venetians and then Christians.
Indeed to be liked by both faiths they organized and established many common religious events in which both faiths took part , some of these events are still observed today.
The failure of the Venetians to protect the countryside and suburbs of the town from Turkish incursions roused wide public discontent.
Moreover, especially after the loss of Crete and Cyprus, Corfu was the most important possession after Venice herself, and therefore they decided to increase the island's defences.
The Venetians made the most ambitious defense plans, by constructing the largest and most modern fortifications of the age for Corfu..
From 1576 to 1588 they built a new fortress on the hill of San Markos in the west of the town, then cleared the open space in front of the old fortress to make the vast Esplanade Square.
They joined the two fortresses with a wall that protected the whole city from the west, with powerful defensive systems like the bastions of Raimondos, St. Athanasius and the bastion of Sarantaris, also they built four main city gates for residents and two more gates for military purposes.
The four main gates of the city were the Porta Reala, the Porta Raymonda, the gate of Spilia and the gate of Saint Nicholas.
Porta Reala was of unique beauty and was demolished without reason in 1895 creating an international outcry.
These defensive plans were made by the engineers Michele Sanmicheli from Verona and Ferante Vitelli.
Fortifications were constantly enhanced and later in the 17th century another wall was added outside the existing one, designed by the engineer F. Verneda, following the third great Turkish siege in 1716 which was successfully repulsed by the Prussian Marshal Johann Mattias Von Schulenburg, who then had responsibiliy for the defense of Corfu.
After the Turkish invasion of 1716, Venetians fortified the island of Vido too, and the hills of Avrami and Saint Sotiros, they also built a fortification for the area of San Rocco (today Saroko).
The 1716 siege of Corfu was part of the Seventh Venetian-Turkish war, the occupation of this strategic importance`s island would open the path for the occupation of Venice and then the rest of Europe.
Turkish forces estimated that were 25000-30000 men along with auxiliary and irregulars and 71 ships with about 2,200 guns, if we add the crews of the ships they were reach a total power of 45-50,000 men.
On the contrary the military forces of Venice was only 3097 men, of whom only 2,245 combatants. Corfu New fortress where the big fights held, had 144 guns and four mortars.
Marshal Johann Mattias Von Schulenburg who had the responsibility of Corfu defense, managed to successfully deal with the chaos that prevailed within the local population, locals trying in every way to leave the island or take refuge in the mountains.
He immediately ordered the recruitment of those who were able to fight and so secured several reservists and revived the morale of the besieged.
The siege had begun on July 8th when the Turks landed in Ipsos and Gouvia and ended after many cruel and deadly battles on Saturday August 22th.
Meanwhile at 20th of August an unprecedented storm scattered the Turkish ships and drowned many Turkish soldiers and sailors.
This storm and the salvation of the city, was attributed by the common people to a miraculous intervention by St. Spyridon, and ever since then there has been a litany, and a procession of Saint Spiridon on 11th August.
But despite people's believe, the historic truth is that two were the main causes for Turkish defeat, first the strong resistance by the defenders up to the last minute, and second the defeat and destruction of the Ottoman army in Peterwardein by Eugene of Savoy, which forced the Turks to retreat.
Yielding the victory to divine intervention, we misrepresent history and underestimate the heroism of the defenders.
Final losses for the defenders were about 800 dead and 700 wounded while for the Turks losses were high and reached 6,500 men, among those killed was Muchtar, grandfather of Ali Pasha.
Fighting alongside Corfiots were Venetians, Germans, Italians, 4 Maltese ships, 4 Papal galleys, 2 galleys from Genoa, 3 galleys from Tuscan, 5 Spanish galleys and even Portuguese forces who also participated before the end of the siege.
The Jews of the city showed great courage in fighting, equipped at the expense of the Corfiot Jewish community and under the leadership of the son of Rabbi himself.
General Proveditor of Corfu was Antrea Pizanis who had the leadership of the light fleet and adjutant of Marshal Schulenburg was the Corfiot Lieutenant Dimitrios Stratigos.
Marshal Schulenburg was honored for his determination and bravery to life pension from the Senate of Venice and his statue can still be seen at the entrance of the Old Fortress, also everyone who showed bravery during the fighting was honoured.
The Turkish failure in Corfu was a historical event of enormous importance, a landmark that influenced the historical course of all Europe and especially of Greece.
Very few know that without the bravery of Corfiots and many Europeans the course of the Turks certainly would have not stop here and the Ottoman Empire could expand instead of collapsing, with obvious implications for the nascent Greek nation and Europe itself.
Unfortunately it was not treated by historians with deserved importance, the Turkish invasion to the West was permanently blocked, they overlook the fact that without this victory today`s Greek state might not existed!
Τhe repulse of the Turkish invasion of 1716 has been very important event for Western Europe at that era, it was celebrated with impressive events in Europe, the oratorium Juditha triumphans by Antonio Vivaldi was written because of this event and played in all the major theaters for many years.
This was the last of many Turkish attempts to expand their empire into Europe.
The period of Venetian rule left many positive elements in the culture and civilization, but was also marked by many dark spots, there were numerous popular uprisings, mainly in the villages due to the authoritarian rule of the Venetians and the arbitrariness and lawlessness of the ruling class of nobles,.
Relations between people and nobility was like relations between slaves and master, and there were many bloody uprisings.
Corfu was very important to Venice, and remained an integral territory of the State until the fall of Venice to the French.


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As self-driving car testing drives forward in Pa., experts and lawmakers turn their eyes to safety regulations
Home > Mobility21 News > As self-driving car testing drives forward in Pa., experts and lawmakers turn their eyes to safety regulations
And just last week, Pittsburgh-based self-driving car developer Argo AI announced the formation of an independent safety council designed to monitor the company's practices.
Stakeholders can agree on one thing: Safety is important.And as the Pennsylvania Senate prepares to consider legislation that could make it possible to conduct self-driving testing without a person behind the wheel, the issue is more important than ever.
Certain details about Argo AI's committee remain murky. But as the technology advances and may soon be on Pittsburgh streets, experts agree any move to improve self-driving safety is a good thing.
"It's always good to see an autonomous vehicle company getting independent advice because independence is absolutely essential for safety," said Philip Koopman, a professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who has been active in the space since before self-driving vehicles existed.


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Indigenous Communities Challenge Big Oil in Belize
Groups push to keep US Capital Energy out of Sarstoon Temash National Park
Sandra Cuffe
The old school bus rattles along the dirt road, heading through the rainforest to the southernmost reaches of Belize. The sign would be easy to miss. Morning glory vines climb the small, rusted notice off to the right, nearly blending in with the banana plants and palm-thatch roofed houses in the Mayan community of Midway. Sarstoon Temash National Park. No Hunting, Fishing, Logging Or Fires.
A few hundred feet down the road, there is another rusting metal sign outside a small building that serves as the community health clinic: U.S. Capital Energy Belize. Oil Company Working For The Community. Like the clinic, the school and pre-school across the road are painted in the Texas-based oil company's colors, yellow and green. Even the metal garbage bins around here are emblazoned with the company slogan: Energy that becomes life. The road ends where it meets the Caribbean Sea in the small Afro-indigenous Garifuna community of Barranco, one of the villages buffering the park.
Photo by The Advocacy Project Temash River in the Sarstoon Temash National Park, near where US Capital Energy has been conducting seismic tests.
The Belizean government created Sarstoon Temash National Park — a 42,000-acre swath of waterways and lands rich in biodiversity that forms part of traditional Mayan territory — in 1994 without community consultation, but local communities have largely come to embrace the protected status of the area. And they have refused to cave to US Capital Energy as it attempts to develop oil prospects both in and outside of the park, pointing to the lack of consultation as well as the government's double standards when it comes to environmental protection.
"I mean, [the Belizean government is] going to tell me you can't go and cut the leaves you want to make a thatched roof without their permission, you can't go and fish, and you can't do farming there — but it's okay for a company to come and put a big rig in there?" says Tricia Mariano, president of the local Barranco branch of the National Garifuna Council, a group that works to preserve and strengthen the culture of the Garifuna people. "It's contradictory," she says, laughing.
Communities in the Toledo District of Belize have pursued two distinct paths of resistance, advancing a local indigenous conservation model within the park while also challenging oil permits and exploration activities on their traditional lands through the legal system.
On the ground, local communities have worked tirelessly to manage the park and protect its diverse wildlife. Local management efforts were initially supported through a co-management agreement between the Sarstoon Temash Institute of Indigenous Management (SATIIM), representing the Mayan and Garifuna communities living in the buffer zone around the park, and the Belizean government. The government terminated the agreement in July 2013 and has all but abandoned the region. However, community rangers continue to monitor the area.
"We've declared that we have a right to manage and patrol this region because these are our ancestral lands. So what we have done is that aside from our rangers — community rangers — we have also deployed traditional leaders to participate in these patrols," SATIIM's then executive director Gregory Ch'oc, told me when I met him at his office in earlier this year in Punta Gorda, capital of Toledo District.
Ch'oc brought out maps to help visualize the region he was describing. One displays the results of a community mapping exercise, demarcating sections of the park used for the gathering of medicinal plants, ceremonies and other activities in different colors. The other map shows US Capital Energy's 200 miles of seismic lines cutting through the national park and community lands.
Along with the seismic lines themselves, the roads that the company built to conduct exploration in the area have made the area much more accessible to poachers and illegal loggers, making the community rangers' job particularly challenging. "There's a lot of logging and there's a lot of hunting, especially by people from across the border, on the Guatemalan side," says Anasario Cal, head SATIIM park ranger. Poachers go after peccaries, armadillos, and all kinds of wildlife to sell game meat, he says. "It made it a lot easier for them. The government does nothing to try to assist [SATIIM] to try to discourage illegal encroachment in the park." The handful of community rangers do what they can, Cal says, but people simply put their illegal activities in the park on hold when patrols are in the area.
Protection on the ground has proved challenging, and local groups — including SATIIM, the Toledo Alcaldes Association, the Toledo Maya Cultural Council, and the Maya Leaders Alliance — have pursued a parallel path through the court system to protect and assert collective indigenous ownership over ancestral Mayan lands. Ch'oc knows the history like the back of his hand, and he took me through the recent highlights.
Although Mayan communities launched their first legal challenge against the Belizean government over land rights in 1996, the most recent battle began in 2006, when the Supreme Court of Belize quashed US Capital Energy's seismic testing permit. In October 2007, the Supreme Court delivered an historic ruling, determining that the Mayan communities of Conejo and Santa Cruz hold customary title to their lands and ordering the government to respect and demarcate their territory. The ruling was based in part on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ratified by the UN General Assembly only five weeks prior.
The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling in 2010, finding that all Mayan communities in Toledo District hold customary collective rights over the land and resources. Nonetheless, the government continued to approve US Capital Energy activities within the region without obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of the local Mayan communities.
In 2013, SATIIM filed another lawsuit against the government and US Capital Energy, and in April 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that the permits granted to the oil company for oil drilling and road construction were unreasonable and unlawful, but did not explicitly render them void. The permits were set to expire at the end of the April, but US Capital Energy announced its intention to proceed with drilling activities regardless, and the government waived the permits' expiration date.
The Mayan communities of Toledo organized several public protests in the months following the ruling. Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow has stated that he is open to dialogue with community leaders regarding oil development in the park, but refuses to sit down with SATIIM. Barrow was a lawyer for SATIIM in the successful 2006 case against US Capital Energy's seismic testing permit, but is now a staunch supporter of oil development.
Conejo, Crique Sarco, Midway and Graham Creek — Mayan villages buffering the Sarstoon Temash National Park — have denounced attempts by US Capital Energy to divide communities with respect to their stance on the company's presence in the area, and remain firm in their resistance to oil development. Another Mayan village in the same area, Sunday Wood, is in favor of oil development. "The communities are forest-dependent people," Ch'oc says, sitting outside the SATIIM office, where a breeze offered some relief from the sweltering afternoon heat in Punta Gorda, capital of Toledo District. "We don't want our lives, our communities, to be shattered as a result of the exploitation."
Ch'oc, who stepped down from the helm of SATIIM in August, believes that the Mayan communities' resistance has resonated beyond Toledo District. "I would say that the case, the SATIIM case, initiated a grassroots awakening that unleashed thereafter cases after cases that came up, public interest cases," he says. "It showcased that if an isolated group of Indigenous people can summon the courage and resources to mount a vigorous challenge against the government, [anyone can]."
Environmental organizations in Belize mounted, and recently won, another such vigorous challenge against offshore oil concessions in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Following widespread public opposition to drilling in the reef that's second in length only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, including a people's referendum, the Supreme Court ruled all offshore oil contracts null and void last year due to the lack of adequate environmental impact assessments.
Unfortunately, back in Toledo District, US Capital Energy began drilling inside the Sarstoon Temash National Park last month. But Mayan communities buffering the park haven't given up, and continue to pursue action on the ground and in the courts.


Scouts from Alhambra and Grantfork and Scout Leader Brad Grotefendt had a very informative visit to the firehouse. The Scouts were taught some basic first aid skills, 911 calling protocol and an overview of the fire and rescue equipment. The firefighters were outstanding in teaching the scouts such life saving lessons.
PSR Rosary and server training will be Wednesday, Jan. 30. Rosary training will begin at 6:30 p.m. and server training for fourth-grade and up will begin at 7 p.m. All parishioners are welcome and encouraged to attend.