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Why were early Mormon leaders so critical of traditional Christianity?
Why have the LDS Prophets made the following statements regarding the beliefs and teachings on traditional Christians?
"What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world."
Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 270
"...all the priests who adhere to the sectarian religions of the day with all their followers, without one exception, receive their portion with the devil and his angels."
Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., The Elders Journal, v. 1, no. 4, p. 60
"Nothing less than a complete apostasy from the Christian religion would warrant the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, v. 1, p. xl
"Brother Taylor has just said that the religions of the day were hatched in hell. The eggs were laid in hell, hatched on its borders, and then kicked on to the earth."
Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, p. 176
"When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was groveling in darkness."
Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 73
"With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world."
"The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God"
"Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century."
Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, p. 167
"Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom."
Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 10, p. 127
"What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast."
"What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing... Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God."
"Believers in the doctrines of modern Christendom will reap damnation to their souls."
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, see pp. 45-46
Each of these statements expresses that Christians of their day were utterly deceived, ignorant, and unsaved. Why did they have such negative views of traditional Christian teachings?
MR. TOODLE-OO'D
PrincelegantPrincelegant
What do you want to know, exactly? One answer to your question "Why have they made these statements?" would be "Because they believed them". What would make this a bad answer? – Matt Gutting Aug 2 '15 at 18:49
For what it's worth, the accuracy of the transcriptions in The Journal of Discourses is widely disputed. Also, the scene of Christianity was very different back then than it is today. – Matt Aug 2 '15 at 19:34
Do you want a response for each quote? I'd spell out how you think they all relate to each other or at least what general theme they all have in common that you would like addressed in an answer. – intcreator Aug 3 '15 at 0:43
It's a matter of need. It's pragmatic. If there's nothing wrong with extant Christianity, then there's no need for restoration (e.g. LDS Christianity). So I don't quite understand the question. Are you simply looking for a rundown on what portions of 19th century "mainstream" Christianity that the LDS disagrees with? That might be answerable. – 3961 Aug 3 '15 at 18:13
Look Good, Mr. Bultittude. Thanks for your efforts. – Princelegant Aug 3 '15 at 22:46
The central piece of theology that all these revolve around can be found in the third statement cited:
Nothing less than a complete apostasy from the Christian religion would warrant the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This is one of the core points of LDS theology: that the apostasy spoken of by Paul, the "famine of hearing the words of the Lord" that Amos prophesied, has already occurred. With intense persecution bringing about death of the Apostles faster than they could organize to choose new ones, eventually the unbroken line of authority was lost, and the Church began to lose its grip on the doctrine. The historical record suggests that this happened alarmingly quickly: the second-century Christian author Iranaeus wrote a series of five books to refute the teachings of multiple different Gnostic sects that were beginning to take strong root within the church already!
Wherever the Great Apostasy began, it's hard to look at the history of the Church without seeing evidence that it was complete at some point around the conversion of Constantine, if not before it then very soon afterwards. With the high honors the State heaped upon the Christian religion, with authority in the Church becoming one of the fastest and surest routes to political power, it's hard to say with a straight face that the organization of schemers that emerged in this period was the same one set up by He who said "my kingdom is not of this world"! ("Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom.")
This puts another quote by Brigham Young in perspective, by the way:
The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth.
-- Brigham Young: The Man and His Work, 4th ed., p.126-129
By the sixth century, the Athanasian Creed had emerged in common worship, which defined the "necessary" faith as believing in the Trinity, "the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible." If we take John 17:3, which equates eternal life with knowing God and Jesus Christ, at face value, a disturbing contradiction emerges: the Church had somehow come around to a position in which it dogmatically defined as necessary for the salvation of all believers to hold a belief that would in fact disqualify them from salvation! ("What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world")
With the true Church in apostasy, many reformers attempted to use their knowledge and scholarship to piece together the true principles of the Gospel, but without the lost line of authority, their answers could only get so far. None of the Reformers even managed to set up the organization described by Paul in Ephesians chapter 4, and the problems he spoke of in the same passage are quite instructive:
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
There could really only be one solution. If we turn the quote from Joseph Smith around, it implies what that solution is: A complete apostasy from the Christian religion would require the establishment of the Church again, by restoration rather than reformation, which is the central message of Mormonism: that original Christianity was restored by revelation and authority from God, as it was originally founded by revelation and authority from God, with apostles and prophets to lead it as in ancient days. The basic meaning of all the quotations cited in the question above is simply this: that the fulness of the restored gospel can only be found in one place, and that any other religion, no matter how sincere or how hard they may genuinely try to get the Gospel and the requirements for salvation right, is missing necessary details, the absence of which will hold their adherents back.
Mason Wheeler♦Mason Wheeler
Great answer, Mason. its interesting how there are so many ministers of many of today's Christian sects that still reject so many of the plain and simple biblical teachings, preferring instead the convoluted traditions from such politically motivated sources as the Nicene Creed and other 'creeds' that followed. They seem to prefer inventing false research regarding Joseph Smith's history, to discredit him, rather than accept his clear understanding of those simple Bible truths. It almost seems to justify all of those quotations of the early LDS leaders – Princelegant Aug 3 '15 at 22:39
@Princelegant: Glad I could help clear it up for you. :) – Mason Wheeler♦ Aug 3 '15 at 22:50
Mason's answer is excellent, but I'm one of those mormons who tends to give it to people straight.
The perfectly candid answer to your question, "why did the early leaders say those things about traditional christianity?" is, "because it's the truth".
This isn't the kind of stuff that's preached over the pulpit in LDS churches (at least not anymore), coming closer to Christ and showing charity and love to your fellow man are the norm in most meetings, but I think we live in a world where more people need to hear the hard truth.
[...] Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, [...] (1 Nephi 14:10)
Many modern sects of traditional Christianity would have you believe that as long as you believe, that's good enough, that it doesn't matter which church you belong to, as long as you're a good person, read the Bible, and keep the commandments. Some even go as far as to say that as long as you're "saved" (you've accepted Christ as your Saviour) then it doesn't matter what you do for the rest of your live because everyone that is "saved" goes to heaven.
These are all clever and malicious lies created by the Devil himself. The truth is that there is only one true church of Jesus Christ. The rest are schisms of a church founded by the devil with the clandestine purpose of bringing the souls of men close enough to Christ to convince them they are following Him, while denying them the essential life saving ordinances necessary to be saved in the kingdom of God.
And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church. And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was the founder of it. (1 Nephi 13:4-6)
Satan desires nothing more than to destroy the souls of men, and to accomplish his goals he devised a very cunning plan. By mingling the doctrines of God with false doctrines, he created an institution of religion whose followers reject the true messengers of God by convincing themselves they already have the truth, and that the true messengers, sent by Christ himself, are evil.
Satan allowed this church to maintain 90% of the truth, but denied them many plain and precious doctrines which are essential for salvation and exaltation. I'm sure you've heard the old adage, "The best lie is 9/10ths truth." Satan was the first to realize this.
I used to wonder why Satan even tried, I figured he had to know that he didn't stand a chance against God Almighty, why even put forth the effort? Now that I've grown wiser it's obvious to me that Satan has been gaining ground for thousands of years. Every year the world grows more wicked, look at the world we live in today, religion has been removed from government, from schools, Christians are persecuted for upholding traditional family morals, and abominable sins against nature are being embraced by the world as pure, wholesome and good.
The Christianity which was established and grew during the Great Apostasy was a deadly trap laid by the Devil, designed to ironically keep those that desired to follow Christ away from His true Church. This is why the LDS church spends so much time doing missionary work with other Christian denominations, because we know the desire to serve Christ is in their hearts, they've heard the good news, and they want more than anything return to the Father in Heaven, but they are ignorant to the fact that they have damned themselves by uniting with a Church that does not hold Christ's authority to preform essential saving ordinances. They must accept God's living Prophets, and be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is the only Church on earth today unto which Christ has given authority to minister to the world.
ShemSegerShemSeger
And @ShemSeger what makes you think the same apostasy hasn't happened to the LDS church, with all the changes they have been making in their ordinances and their ignoring of the newly revealed truths? After all, it was revealed to Joseph Smith that the church would again be lead into apostasy. – Princelegant Aug 7 '15 at 14:51
@Princelegant The same way I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I have received my witness from the Father, and I cannot deny the truth of it. – ShemSeger Aug 8 '15 at 3:25
@Abstractioniseverything. I'd be interested to know what you consider "generalized misconceptions". The Gospel is the good news that Christ has paid the debt for us to receive our Salvation. The irony in mainstream Christianity is that despite their righteousness there is no one with the authority to perform the essential soul-saving ordinances in order to receive all the blessings promised to us by the saviour. It is only through His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where this authority has been restored. The Book of Mormon is the proof of this. – ShemSeger Jan 20 '17 at 6:15
Traditional Christianity would have you believe that as long as you believe, that's good enough, that it doesn't matter which church you belong to, as long as you're a good person, read the Bible, and keep "the commandments. Some even go as far as to say that as long as you're "saved" (you've accepted Christ as your Saviour) then it doesn't matter what you do for the rest of your lives because everyone that is "saved" goes to heaven." This is a Ludacris indictment and a generalization. The bible nowhere teaches this, I for one consider this to be 'The broad gate.' The narrow one is faith. – Abstraction is everything. Jan 20 '17 at 6:21
@Abstractioniseverything. Fair enough, I'll admit that was too general. See my edits. – ShemSeger Jan 20 '17 at 6:28
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July 4, 2011 – it's Independence Day in the U.S. All day the flags have been flying, boats departing the harbour, cars parked in every spot throughout Waikiki, restaurants with ocean views jacking their prices up for dinner specials. And why? Well, just like every other country's independence day the U.S. celebrates with massive fireworks displays. Tonight is no different as Ala Moana park has been filling up with campers since yesterday in preparation for viewing the fireworks that start at 2000hrs.
Gorgeous! I remember regular fireworks displays off Waikiki Beach the winter we spent at Ala Wai Marina.
We spent Canada Day in Cowichan Bay — lunch and dinner with friends, no fireworks.
Nice job with the photos! We are missing our boat and look forward to our return to her in Oct. Wishing you fair winds and calm seas.
Mixed results? I'd say they were pretty fantastic! Thanks so much for keeping up with the blog. It's great to follow your adventures!
Oh WOW, bloody beauty mate!
glad to hear that you are well and getting lots done – both from a tourist perspective and on the boat!
We look forward to seeing more posts and pictures!


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Home / Fulltext / Effect of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation experimental evidence from a classroom intervention
Effect of Reciprocal Teaching on the Reading Motivation: Experimental Evidence from a Classroom Intervention
The objective of this research exercise is to examine how reciprocal teaching affects 7th-grade students' reading motivation in the subject of English. To meet the desired objective, the study employed a quasi-experimental design. The intact classes were randomly allocated to the experimental and control group. The experimental group was instructed with reciprocal teaching strategies, while the control group was taught with the traditional method. The Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) was administered before and after the intervention. The study employed Pretest-Posttest Nonequivalent Control Group Design for data collection. The data was analyzed using the independent sample and paired sample t-test. The results of the study revealed that the motivation level of students who were taught with reciprocal teaching is significantly higher than those students who were taught with the traditional method. These results suggest that reciprocal teaching should be incorporated in teacher education programs as appropriate instructional practice for reading.
Reciprocal Teaching, Experimental Evidence, Classroom Intervention
In the modern education system, the student's ability to read and comprehend text is important for learning outcomes. Reading skills, reading comprehension, and students' approach toward reading play a pivotal role in their academic success. Despite the fact that reading plays a major role in academic success, the students enrolled at the elementary level consider reading as boring and inconvenient (Guthrie, Klauda & HO, 2013; McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). Most students at the elementary level report a low level of attention in reading activity and lesser capability beliefs concerning their reading and understanding capacity (Conradi, Jang, & McKenna, 2014; Fulmer & Frijters, 2011; Gambrell, 2015).
In developing countries like Pakistan, these negative attitudes toward reading arise due to the new reading challenges at the elementary level, less use of teaching strategies in classroom instructional practices, and less ability of teachers to motivate and engage the students in reading (Kazi & Iqbal, 2011; Teevno & Raisani, 2017). There is growing evidence that positive psychological strengths of students such as motivation and engagement play a crucial role in students' success. Then the researchers turned to investigate human resources to get competitive advantages. Special attention is diverted toward human positive psychological traits such as motivation and how to use this positive psychological construct for competitive advantages. Existing literature documents that different factors such as motivation, engagement, and emotional quotient are positively associated with students' performance (Fulmer & Frijters, 2011; Grabe & Stoller, 2002; Guthrie, Klauda & HO, 2013; Husamah & Pantiwati, 2014; Soonthornmanee, 2002).
Motivation to learn is aiming to achieve the learning goals, engaging in academic activities, and getting awareness of the strategies and methods to achieve them (Brophy, 2004; Wentzel, 2020). According to Deci and Ryan (1995), there are two common kinds of motivation, inherent and extrinsic motivation. Deci and Ryan (1985) argued that inherent motivation is related to the inner needs and requirements of the students. Children at an early age are curious, very energetic, lively and remain inspired for an extended period of time without any reward (Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, with the passage of time, intrinsic motivation decreases in some aspects of life and students need some extrinsic motivation.
Reading motivation improves students' activities that enhance learners' ability to read and comprehend texts properly. Soonthornmanee (2002) argues that students should improve their motivation for better reading performance (Maleki & Zangani, 2007). Though many students know how to read, they are not motivated for reading (Royse, 2001). Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) argued that students' motivation for readings regulates their optimistic or undesirable feelings about reading. Similarly, highly motivated readers use different strategies to compensate for their comprehension process and usually read for pleasure. These students consider reading in their daily activities, take challenges during their process and become good readers. According to Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), reading motivation is defined as "one's own purpose, idea and desire related to the title, action and results of the reading".
A growing body of research showed that explicit teaching and strategic reading is very important to motivate language learners. In line with this, Paris et al. (1983) argue that planned reader can recover their motivation for reading and "failure to be strategic in reading may result from either developmental inability or poor learning". Similarly, Palincsar and Brown (1984) find that some teaching strategies help learners to increase their attention to the context, avoid reading motivation failure. Reciprocal teaching is an instructional practice especially designed for reading comprehension. The existing literature document that reciprocal teaching positively influences the reading comprehension of the students (see, for instance, Palincsar, Brown & Martin, 1987; Spo¨rer, Brunstein, & Kieschke, 2009; Schu¨nemann et al., 2017; Tarchi & Pinto, 2016). In a similar vein, existing literature reveals that reading motivation is positively associated with different reading outcomes such as reading comprehension (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000; Kanonire, Lubenko & Kuzmina, 2020; Guthrie, Klauda & HO, 2013). Hence, instructional practices can influence the reading comprehension of the students indirectly through the channel of reading motivation (Kanonire, Lubenko & Kuzmina, 2020; Guthrie, Klauda & HO, 2013).
More recently, some studies have explored the outcome of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of the students. For instance, Kavani & Amjadiparvar (2018) explore the influence of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of intermediate level Iranian students. The results of the study reveal that reciprocal teaching positively influences the reading motivation of the students. Similarly, Sporer and Schünemann (2014) examine the effect of reciprocal teaching along with self-regulated learning on the reading motivation of the students. The results of the study reveal that reciprocal teaching positively influences the reading motivation of the students. There are only a few studies in the existing literature that explore the influence of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of the students. Hence, a key objective of this research is to examine how reciprocal teaching affect 7th-grade students' reading motivation in the subject of English. This study is different from existing literature in the sense that existing literature practice reciprocal teaching in small group settings while this study is based on the whole classroom setting. Second, this study investigates the effect of reciprocity on the reading motivation of the students in the Pakistani cultural context. There is hardly any study that investigates the effects of reciprocal teaching in the Pakistani cultural context.
In order to meet the desired objective of the study following hypotheses were tested.
H01: There is no significant difference between the mean score of experimental and control groups in the pre-test of reading motivation.
H02: There is no significant difference between the mean score of experimental and control groups in the post-test of reading motivation.
H03: There is no significant mean difference between pre-test and post-test scores of reading motivation of the experimental group.
The study used "Pretest-Posttest Nonequivalent Control Group Design". The participants of the study were the 7th-grade students studying English at a typical public sector school in district Muzaffarabad. The sample consists of the 90 7th grade students in the intact classes, with 45 students in each experimental and control group. There was a 45 minutes daily intervention for eight weeks in each group. The researcher herself taught both the experimental and control group to avoid any instruction related bias. The experimental group received reciprocal education, while the control group received traditional grammar-translation education.
To measure reading motivation, this study adopted the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ). This questionnaire assesses the different dimensions of reading. The questionnaire is designed for children to reply to each question on a 1 to 4 scale where scale can be defined as "1 = very different from me, 2 = a little different from me, 3 = a little like me, and 4 = a lot like me". MRQ was given to the student in the classroom, with the researcher reading each item to them. The researcher herself administered the final version of MRQ as pre-test and post-test
By taking into account the local setting, the MRQ was translated into Urdu. To make the translation more accurate and reliable, the back-translation method was used to make the correspondence of the English and Urdu version of the RRQ. Moreover, for the accuracy of the translation, the MRQ was translated with the help of a bilingual professor in the subject of English and Urdu. The final version of the MRQ encompassed questions in both the first & second language of the students that is Urdu and English, respectively. The sub-constructs wise information regarding different questions of the final version of MRQ is reported in table 1
Table 1. Sub-constructs of MRQ with Relevant Statements
S. No
Sub-constructs
Statements no.
Reading Curiosity
2,6,11,15,18
1,3,5,10,12
Reading Involvement
4, 7,14,16,17
The validity and reliability of the instrument were checked. The researcher requested the experts to review the questionnaire for assurance of content validity. These experts comprised of the supervisor of the study and university faculty member with five years' experience of teaching the subjects of educational psychology at the university level.
Pilot Testing
To ensure reliability, a questionnaire was pilot tested on 90 students of 7th graders bearing similar features. The Cronbach's alpha values are presented in table 2.
Table 2. Cronbach alpha for MRQ
Sub-scales
Cronbach alpha value
The adopted instrument with the established theoretical background and empirical support can be directly tested by the confirmatory factor analysis without employing the exploratory factor analysis (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; Kline, 2013). The confirmatory factor analysis allows the researcher to explicitly specify the indicators for each construct (Kline, 2013). Hence, to check the construct validity of the MRQ, confirmatory factor analysis was used. The appropriate sample size is important for the correct estimation in the framework of structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis. The online calculator designed for structural equation modelling was used to calculate sample size for confirmatory factor analysis. The sample size for four constructs and eighteen items should be greater than 88. Hence, MRQ was administered in two 7th grade classes with 45 students in each classroom. These were the students in another girl's higher secondary school in the same city. The results of confirmatory factor analysis are reported in Table 3
Table 3. Factor Loading for Items in the MRQ (CFA)
Latent
Reading Efficacy
Mot_9
.876**
Mot_13
.725***
Note: Loadings are standardized loadings from the maximum likelihood estimation. ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01
The results show the standardized factor loading for confirmatory factor analysis. Nearly all of the factor loadings were statistically significant at 5 percent level of significance (p<.05).
Results of the Study
The study employed an independent sample t-test to check whether the group that was taught with reciprocal teaching and control groups were equal in pre-test scores. The results of the t-test are reported in Table 4
Table 4. Results for Mean Difference of Pre-test Scores
t-test
Test of homogeneity of variance (Levene's test)
Equal variances assumed
Above table 4 show that Levene's test of homogeneity is insignificant (F=1.029, p=0.313), which validate that the variance of the two groups was roughly equal. Moreover, the mean difference in pre-test between the group that was instructed with reciprocal teaching and the control group is statistically insignificant (t=1.24, p=0.219). Therefore, the hypothesis "there is no significant difference between the mean score of experimental and control groups in the pre-test of reading motivation" was accepted.
To analyze the second hypothesis, the descriptive statistics related to the post-test is presented in table 5.
Table 5. Descriptive Statistics for Post-test Scores
SE (mean)
The results reported in table 4.11 show that the mean score in the post-test of the group that was taught with reciprocal teaching (M=60.12, SD=7.73) is more than the mean score in the post-test of the group that was taught with the traditional method (M=51.35, SD=5.97).
The study employed the independent sample t-test to check the mean difference in post-test scores of reading motivation. The results of the test are presented in Table 6
Table 6. Results for Mean Difference of Post-test Scores
The results reported in Table 6 reveal that the variance of two groups is approximately equal as the null hypothesis of homogeneity of variance was not rejected (F=3.017, p=0.095) at a five percent level of significance. The results further reveal that the mean difference of post-test scores between the two groups was statistically significant (t=6.014, p=0.000). Hence, the hypothesis "there is no significant difference between the mean score of experimental and control groups in post-test of reading motivation" was rejected. The results validate the claim that reciprocal teaching strategies enhance the reading motivation of students.
Finally, the study employed the paired-sample t-test to check the mean difference between pre-test and post-test of the group that was taught with reciprocal teaching strategies. The descriptive statistics are reported in table 7.
Table 7. Descriptive Statistics of the Experimental Group.
Dependent measure
posttest
The results reported in table 4.13 show that mean scores of the post-test (M=60.12, SD=7.73) is higher than the mean scores of the pre-test (45.61, SD=5.45) of the experimental group.
To test the last hypothesis, the paired-sample t-test was used. The results are reported in table 8.
Table 8. Results of mean difference in Pretest and Posttest Scores of Experimental Group
t-value
Pair pretest-posttest
The results reported in table 8 show that the mean difference (MD=14.50, SE=1.59) of pre-test and post-test of the group that was taught with reciprocal teaching is statistically significant (t=9.12, p=0.000). Hence, the null hypothesis "there is no significant mean difference between pre-test and post-test scores of the reading motivation of experimental group" was rejected. Hence, these results again validate the claim that reciprocal teaching strategies enhance the reading motivation of the students.
The students who enjoy reading are more likely to comprehend texts better as they allocate more time to reading. Hence, reading motivation plays a pivotal role in reading comprehension. Existing literature finds a positive and statistically significant association between reading motivation and reading outcomes, such as reading comprehension (Barber & Klauda, 2020; Miyamoto, Pfost & Artelt, 2019; Schiefele et al.,2012; Schaffner & Schiefele, 2016). More recently, some studies have explored the link between instructional practice and reading motivation. For instance, Wigfield et al. (2015) explore the effect of concept-oriented reading instruction on reading motivation. Hence, this study examines the effect of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of the 7th-grade student in the subject of English. The results of the study reveal a statistically significant positive effect of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of the students. These results are in line with the literature that explores the link between strategy acquisition and reading motivation (for instance, see Aarnoutse & Schellings, 2003; Miyamoto, Pfost & Artelt, 2019). Similarly, these results are consistent with few studies that find evidence for the positive effect of reciprocal teaching and self-regulation procedure on reading motivation (Spörer Schünemann, 2014; Kavani & Amjadiparvar, 2018).
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of reciprocal teaching on the reading motivation of the 7th-grade students in the subject of English. To meet the desired objective, the study employed a quasi-experimental design. The intact classes were randomly allocated to the experimental and control group. The experimental group was instructed with reciprocal teaching strategies, while the control group was taught with the traditional method. The Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) was administered before and after the intervention. The study used "Pretest-Posttest Nonequivalent Control Group Design" for the collection of data. The data was analyzed using the independent sample and paired sample t-test. The results of the study reveal that students who were instructed with reciprocal teaching strategies were on average more motivated and enjoyed reading than those students who were taught with traditional teaching practices. Hence, it is concluded that reciprocal teaching positively influences the reading motivation of the 7th-grade students in the subject of English. Moreover, the findings of the study support the claim that reciprocal teaching is the suitable instruction practice to improve reading motivation and enjoyment in the subject of English. Hence, the study suggests that reciprocal teaching should be incorporated in teacher education programs as appropriate instructional practice for reading.
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Guthrie, J. T., % Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, % R. Barr (Eds.), Hand-book of reading research (pp. 403- 422).
Guthrie, J. T., Klauda, S. L., % Ho, A. N. (2013). Modeling the relationships among reading instruction, motivation, engagement, and achievement for adolescents. Reading Research Quarterly, 48(1), 9-26.
Hidi, S., % Harackiewicz, J. M. (2000). Motivating the academically unmotivated: A critical issue for the 21st century. Review of Educational Research, 70(2), 151-179.
Husamah % Pantiwati, Y. (2014). Cooperative learning STAD: Motivation, thinking skills, and learning outcomes in Biology students. International Journal of Education Learning % Development (IJELD), 2(1), 77- 94.
Kanonire, T., Lubenko, J., % Kuzmina, Y. (2020). The Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation on Reading Performance in Elementary School. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 1-13.
Kavani, R., % Amjadiparvar, A. (2018). The effect of strategy-based instruction on motivation, self-regulated learning, and reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learning. Cogent Education, 5(1), 1556196.
Kazi, A. S., % Iqbal, H. M. (2011). Use of language learning strategies by students at higher secondary level in Pakistan. International Journal of Social Sciences and Education, 1(4), 557-574.
Kline, R. B. (2013). Assessing statistical aspects of test fairness with structural equation modelling. Educational Research and Evaluation, 19(2-3), 204-222.
Maleki, A., % Zangani, E. (2007). A survey on the relationship between English language proficiency and the academic achievement of Iranian EFL students. Asian EFL Journal, 9(1), 86-96.
McKenna, M. C., Kear, D. J., % Ellsworth, R. A. (1995). Children's attitudes toward reading: A national survey. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 934-956.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Inicio	NOTICIAS	Obama: Israel can defend itself with overwhelming force
Obama: Israel can defend itself with overwhelming force
Itongadol.- U.S. President Barack Obama used his nationally televised address on Tuesday night to make his case for military action against Syria, even as he recognized that diplomatic steps could render a military strike unnecessary. He told war-weary Americans that the use of chemical weapons posed a threat to U.S. security and that America, with modest effort, "can stop children from being gassed to death."
Obama said that Syria\'s chemical weapons could end up posing a threat to American troops, as well as U.S. allies like Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
On the question of whether Syrian President Bashar Assad would retaliate for a U.S. military strike, Obama said, "We don\'t dismiss any threats, but the Assad regime does not have the ability to seriously threaten our military. Any other — any other retaliation they might seek is in line with threats that we face every day. Neither Assad nor his allies have any interest in escalation that would lead to his demise. And our ally Israel can defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakable support of the United States of America."
Citing the new diplomatic efforts, Obama said in his speech that he had asked congressional leaders to postpone a vote on legislation he has been seeking to authorize the use of military force against Syria — a vote he was in danger of losing.
Obama\'s move gives crucial time for negotiations on a Russian proposal for international inspectors to seize and destroy Syria\'s chemical weapons stockpile as efforts to avert U.S. military action shift from Washington to the United Nations.
In the interim, Obama said he had ordered the U.S. military to remain prepared to carry out attacks if needed, maintaining a credible pressure on Assad. Directly addressing criticism over his own vow of limited strikes, Obama said some lawmakers felt there was "no point in simply doing a pinprick strike in Syria."
"Let me make something clear: The United States military doesn\'t do pinpricks," Obama said. "Even a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation can deliver."
Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Obama recalled the use of deadly chemical weapons in the European trenches of World War I and the Nazi gas chambers of World War II, and insisted that the international community could not stand by after the chemical weapons attack last month in the suburbs of Damascus.
He blamed the chemical weapons attack squarely on Assad and warned that a failure to act now would encourage tyrants and terrorists to use similar weapons.
"Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used," he said.
Obama\'s speech was seen as a critical one for his presidency, though for reasons different than when plans for it were announced last week. It was intended as the climax of the administration\'s pitch to persuade Congress to endorse military action in Syria. Polls showed that Americans, wary of another Middle East conflict, oppose the strikes. Lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum declared they would vote against the measure.
Syria\'s announcement this week that it would accept a Russian plan to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile added new uncertainty. Obama\'s speech was closely watched for signs of how much stock he put in prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough.
He did recognize some potential. Obama noted he was sending his top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, to Geneva for talks on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Obama said he would continue his own discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that the U.S. and its allies would work with Russia and China to secure a U.N. Security Council resolution "requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control."
Obama said the Russian initiative "has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad\'s strongest allies."
But in his 16-minute speech, Obama generally made the case for military action. His arguments were both practical and emotional.
"If diplomacy now fails and the United States fails to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons," he said. "Other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using [it].
"America is not the world\'s policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong. But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act."
U.S. officials say more than 1,400 people, including at least 400 children, died in the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Damascus. They say victims suffered uncontrollable twitching, foaming at the mouth and other symptoms typical of exposure to chemical weapons banned by international treaty. Other casualty estimates are lower, and Assad has said the attack was launched by rebels who have been fighting to drive him from power in the civil war that began in March 2011 and has so far claimed the lives of more than 100,000 civilians.
Russia has blocked U.S. attempts to rally the U.N. Security Council behind a military strike. But Monday, after Kerry\'s remarks, Russian officials and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem spoke favorably about requiring Syria to surrender control of its chemical weapons.
Muallem said Tuesday that his government was ready to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile "to thwart U.S. aggression." He also said Syria was prepared to implement a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers cautiously welcomed the Russian offer as not only a means to avoid U.S. military involvement but also a way to avoid casting a difficult vote on authorizing the use of force. After a flurry of briefings over the past week, a briefing for senators scheduled for Wednesday was canceled as events moved quickly.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said he was hopeful that a diplomatic solution could be reached, although he remained skeptical of Russia\'s offer.
"A credible threat of military force will have to remain on the table if diplomatic efforts are to have any hope of succeeding," he said.
But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an outspoken critic of involvement in Syria, said Americans "want nothing to do with the Syrian civil war. We fail to see a national security interest in a war between a leader who gasses his own citizens and Islamic rebels who are killing Christians."
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday that the world would become a more dangerous place if Assad\'s use of chemical weapons against civilians went unanswered. Shapiro warned of wide-ranging consequences for inaction, including from Iran. He said that a response was required that would deter Syria from conducting similar actions in the future and also harm its ability to carry out such attacks.
Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press – September 11th, 2013
Obama: \»Israel puede defenderse a sí mismo con una gran fuerza\»


***In one laboratory test, 12 rabbits were used, six in the control group, and six in the case group. A single I ml dose of bacteria was injected into the bronchial area of each rabbit. After the injection, the temperature rose rapidly during the first 24 hours, a fever resulting from a respiratory infection.
***Treatment was started on the experimental group 24 hours after injection of bacteria. Following the guidelines of traditional Chinese medicine point selection principles, Du 13 and Ren 17 were selected. The Infratonic Instrument was used on these two points. Each point was treated for 15 minutes. For the first three days, treatments were twice per day, morning and afternoon. Thereafter, treatments were every day, once in the morning. Total treatment was 12 days.
Figure 1. Reduced fluctuation in body temperature of rabbits treated by Infratonic indicates strong immune response.
***Experimental and control group temperature changed after injection of bacteria according to Fig. 1. From the figure we can see that, at a time of high fever, the Infratonic resulted in a rapid initial drop in temperature, but that the temperature did not drop down too far. Gradually declining temperature without wild fluctuations means that the body's internal temperature regulation is functioning properly. This allows the body to sustain a strong self defense.
***In the control group we see that the temperature dropped very rapidly but rose again rapidly. This causes the defense ability of the body to be slow. Self regulating temperature maintenance in the control group was poor throughout the first five days.
***Blood samples were drawn from each rabbit to test for blood serum antibody concentration two days, seven days, 14 days, and 21 days after the initial infection. This antibody value is a very important indicator of the function of the immune system to defend against outside invaders.
Figure 2. Blood serum antibody level of rabbits after bacterial injections. Shows accelerated immune response in the rabbits treated with the Infratonic.
***From figure 2 we see that the blood serum antibody level in the experimental group receiving the Infratonic rose much higher and much earlier than that of the control group. After only two days of treatment, the case group antibody level had increased by a factor of five over that of the control group. Even after three weeks, the control group hadn't reached this antibody level. After seven days the case group antibody level was seven times higher. The highest difference was 8 times. This result indicates that the Infratonic emits a signal similar to that of the Qigong master in its physiology function. The Infratonic shows a very significant ability to strengthen the immune function.


It's been more than six years since Suzuki stopped selling automobiles in the United States. But its withdrawal from the market here didn't spell the end of its obligations. It still has to support those vehicles it's sold here over the years, and that includes repairing them when a recall is required.
Case in point: this latest notice issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for over 30,000 Suzukis in the United States, all of which will need to be have their front passenger seat bottom cushions replaced to ensure the airbags keep working.
As happens from time to time with many automakers' vehicles, the Occupant Classification System (OCS) may fail to detect if it's a child or an adult riding shotgun. Since that could result in the airbag deploying in a crash, potentially injuring the child onboard, Suzuki's had to issue a recall an array of 2010-13 Kizashi sedans and 2006-13 Grand Vitara sport-utes.
Now by our count, Suzuki sold a little over 100,000 of those (about 20k Kizashis and 80k Grand Vitaras) in the calendar years affected – which are, we should note, different from model years.
Yet it's only recalling 31,302 of them. That's because only those fitted with leather seats are being recalled, the shrinking of the leather over time having been identified as the cause of the interference with the OCS. So apparently less than a third of customers went for the leather option.
Either way, dealers (or what's left of them) will have to replace those problematic seat cushions to keep the airbags functioning properly. So if you have a Kizashi or Grand Vitara in your driveway, you'll want to keep an eye on your mailbox.


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Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum
Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, the Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum was the home of one of Orange County's first female physicians from its completion in 1889 until her death in 1924. The house was moved to its current location at the corner of Civic and Sycamore in 1975 and was soon restored to its former glory soon thereafter by the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society. It is now open for tours the first Saturday in the months of February, April, June, August, October, and December.
Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum.
Photo of Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle
Part of the medical museum.
Welcome to the Dr. Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum.
The Howes, Willella and her husband Dr. Alvin Howe, arrived in Santa Ana in 1878 and Willella completed her medical studies in 1886. Construction on the house began in 1887 and was completed two years later, the same year Orange County was founded. A tragedy of sorts struck the family in 1890 when Dr. Alvin Howe was accused for performing an abortion on a local woman, a crime at that time. He was eventually acquitted, but left Santa Ana for San Francisco rather than live in the community with the accusation still hanging over his head. The Howe's were divorced by 1897, and Willella then married local rancher, Edson Waffle.
Dr. Howe-Waffle practiced medicine from her home for 38 years and delivered over 1,000 babies during that time. She was dedicated to serving the medical needs of the community to such an extent that she died at a patient's bedside at the age of 74. After her death the home was converted into apartments during World War II and was eventually scheduled for demolition in the early 1970s. It was saved through the efforts of Adeline Walker and her Friends of the Howe-Waffle House which later became the Santa Ana Historical Society.
The society and the city agreed to move the house in 1975 with the society paying for the restoration and foundation work. The 2.5-story, 12 room house was restored to appear as if Dr. Howe-Waffle had stepped out for a moment, to return in a few minutes. The home features both leaded and stained-glass windows, revolving bookcase, and pocket doors. The medical museum displays authentic late 19th century medical instruments, equipment and supplies and consists of Dr. Howe-Waffle's office, exam and waiting rooms.
Official site run by the Santa Ana historical Society.
Is the Howe-Waffle House haunted? Read this article and determine for yourself.
120 Civic Center Dr. West
First Saturday of Feb, Apr, June, Aug, Oct, and Dec from 12:00-4:00
Medicine and Mental Health
Created by Steve Tinker on March 15th 2016, 11:02:04 am.


Boston, MA. (August 13, 2015) – Inc. magazine ranked O'Neill Consulting Group No. 2394 on its 34th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. O'Neill has twice received this distinction, having first been honored in 2014. The list represents a comprehensive look at one of the most significant segments of the economy—America's independent entrepreneurs. Powerhouses such as Intuit, Zappos, Clif Bar, Microsoft, GoPro, Patagonia, Dell, Timberland, and Oracle have gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 500|5000.
The 2015 Inc. 5000, unveiled online at Inc.com and with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc., is the most competitive crop in the list's history. The Inc. 5000's aggregate revenue is $205 billion, generating 647,000 jobs over the past three years.
To view O'Neill Consulting Group's profile on the Inc. 5000, please visit: http://www.inc.com/profile/oneill-consulting-group.


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Q: What trig identities must one know to derive the others? My TA told me in problem section one day that every trig identity could be derived from just 2: the Pythagorean identity and the double-angle identity (or he might have said the half-angle identity).  I'm a bit dubious that every trig identity could be derived from just these two.  What would you say the minimum number of identities one must know to say derive every identity on the wikipedia page?
If it is possible to derive all of the identities from just 2, can anyone recommend a source that takes that approach?

A: I think that Apostol's Calculus book might contain this idea in detail:
If you are willing to believe that sine and cosine are continuous, and have proved that a continuous function on a dense subset of an interval has a unique continuous extension to the interval, then once you know
(1) $\sin(0) = 0$, $\cos(0) = 1$, $\sin(\pi/2) = 0$; $\cos(x) > 0$ for $x \in [0, \pi/2)$,
(2) $\cos(a - b) = \cos(a)\cos(b) + \sin(a)\sin(b)$ for all $a, b$, and
(3) $\sin(-x) = -\sin(x)$ for all $x$.
you can derive $1 = \cos^2(a) + \sin^2(a)$ by setting $b = a$ in the second formula.
You then can find that cosine is even (set $a = 0$).
Assumption 3 may not be necessary, but I confess, I forget how to show that the sine is odd without it.
Then you can set $b = -a$ to get
$$cos(2a) = \cos^2(a) - \sin^2(a) = 2\cos^2(a) - 1.$$
Applying this to $a = x/2$, you get
$$
\cos(x) = 2\cos^2(x/2) - 1 \\
\cos(x/2) = \sqrt{\frac{\cos(x) + 1}{2}}
$$
from this, you can determine cosine of all numbers of the form $\frac{\pi}{2} \frac{1}{2^n}$; using the addition formula, you can determine cosine at all points of the form
$$\frac{\pi}{2} \frac{k}{2^n}$$
where $k$ is an integer. These form a dense subset of the interval $[0, \pi/2]$.
You can then also show that for $x$ small, $\sin x$ is also small, so that (using the addition/subtraction formulas) cosine is continuous on this dense subset; it therefore has a unique continuous extension to $[0, \pi/2]$. The same goes for sine, and you're on your way.
@Semiclassical suggested, in comments above, that an addition formula, together with $\sin^2 + \cos^2 = 1$, might suffice, but that a half-angle formula might not. The conjecture about half-angle formulas is correct, as the following shows:
Let
\begin{align}
Sin(x) = \begin{cases}
\sin(x) & x = \frac{p}{2^k} \pi & \text{for $p, k, \in \mathbb  Z$} \\
0 & \text{otherwise}
\end{cases}\\
Cos(x) = \begin{cases}
\cos(x) & x = \frac{p}{2^k} \pi & \text{for $p, k, \in \mathbb  Z$} \\
0 & \text{otherwise}
\end{cases}
\end{align}
Then $Sin$ and $Cos$ satisfy $Sin^2 + Cos^2 = 1$ and the half-angle formulas, but they are not the same functions as $\sin$ and $\cos$, and hence need not satisfy the other formulas. In particular, they fail to satisfy the addition formula.

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Info & generic photos are from Konig's website, sizing affects the look of the wheel.
Just type in the wheel model "Hypergram" and then submit. Then it will show you all of the wheels that are in stock.
On order = # of wheels they have on order.
If you're looking to get a discounted price, please email us!


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Front page / News / Summer in The Art Museum
Back to the list of articles
Summer in The Art Museum
This summer, two exhibitions will be seen in the courtyard of the Rauma Art Museum, to which entry is free. Both exhibitions are on display until 9.8.2020.
Sanna Saarinen's Opposite / Side by Side exhibition celebrates the 25th anniversary as an artist. The exhibition can be seen in the art museum's magazine and stable in the museum's courtyard. The exhibition deals with encountering difference and finding similarities. There are bird sculptures on display that depict people striving from different backgrounds. The multi-part, colorful textile work, on the other hand, reflects human nuances and personality. The textile work discusses with a work built of old roofing sheets in the same space, the sheet metal work reflects the impact of history and experiences on our own worldview.
Animal sculptures by Ilona Tala from Huittinen can also be seen in the lawn area of the Art Museum's courtyard. The sculptures correspond to animals of almost the right size. The sculptures, reminiscent of 3D modeling, are made of metal and are partially transparent.
– I have sought to ensure that transparency reminds us of the transience. And that is why the subject of my art is often animals, through which I try to describe our relationship with nature and different feelings, Tala says.
The works are colorful, creating a contrast to the material used. With colors, the artist also depicts and emphasizes the atmosphere of the works.
KaffeBar pop-up Ilona
The pop-up café Ilona of Wanha Rauma's KaffeBar will open in the idyllic courtyard of the Rauma Art Museum on Wednesday 1 July. at 10 a.m. The pop-up café is named after the artist Ilona Tala, whose summer exhibition can be viewed during coffee breaks.
Showcase-exhibition
The Showcase exhibition, which is part of the art museum's 50th anniversary program, starts on June 25, 2020 at the Rauma Art Museum. The large-sized display case, located in the lobby and museum shop of the Art Museum, serves as a venue for changing exhibitions during the anniversary year. The purpose of the showcase exhibition is to present local art alongside the museum's changing exhibitions. The Showcase exhibition series consists of four exhibitions whose artists were selected through an open search at the beginning of the year. Marko Mertala, Mari Aspola & Maija Esko, Kirsi Kuusisto and Rose-Mari Torpo were selected as artists. Marko Mertala will start the Showcase exhibition series on June 25, 2020. His exhibition consists of stone figures made of Satakunta red sandstone.
There are two main exhibitions inside the Rauma Art Museum; Abandoned village and Kannas. The main exhibitions are on display until 9.8.2020.
www.raumantaidemuseo.fi


Note: SAGE_ROOT=/opt/sagemath-8.3 (sage-sh) jean-pierre@ToshibaJPO:~$ sage-sethome "C:\Users\jean-pierre\Documents \SageMath\IPYNB" Sage home directory set to 'C:\Users\jean-pierre\Documents\SageMath\IPYNB' Close and restart all Sage sessions for the new setting to take effect.
I precise that I have executed SageMath-8.3.exe as Administrator. I restart the installation without admin right to see if it's better. I will tell you if it is not the same.
but I have a question, why there is a space between \Documents and \SageMath\IPYNB in the message I got, while my command did not include this space ?.
no, I have the same behavior when the installation is done without administrator rights.
"I do not like to have the default working directory here" It's not supposed to be there. There is a bug in the current version of the sage-sethome script; that's all. I'll be uploading a new version of the installer shortly that contains the fixed version. In the meantime, the existing installer gives you the option to specify your starting directory when you first install, and that does work.
"moreover the file fstab has been renamed fstab.d": It has not. /etc/fstab and /etc/fstab.d are to different things (the latter is a directory, in fact). I just want to make that clear in case anyone else reading is confused. Also, normally you shouldn't have to mess with these files at all; this is what sage-sethome is supposed to do. It's unfortunate that it has a bug, and I'm sorry for that.
The only problem is that one of the options is being written as "usr" by sage-sethome, when it should be "user". It seems perhaps when I wrote the file a character got accidentally deleted or something, because it used to work correctly. The fstab files are unfortunately very finnicky and have to be exactly correct, or the mounts simply don't work (and there isn't much of a useful warning either).


text:
Grant Llewellyn awarded national music prize
Credit: Michael Zirkle courtesy of NC Symphony
On Sunday evening, conductor Grant Llewellyn received the 'John Edward's Memorial Award' from the Welsh Music Guild, the most prestigious non-competitive award given in Wales for services to the nation's music.
Born in Tenby, Grant regularly appears with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales touring throughout the country with events ranging from symphonic concerts, to national holiday celebrations, to outreach projects such as 'Feel the Music' for young children and tailor-made activities for those with special needs. Recent highlights include leading the St David's day celebrations and remembering Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in a concert including a new commission by Richard Jones. In 2013 he led a large scale tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and in the summer he appeared at The National Eisteddfod of Wales festival where he conducted Fauré's requiem, in Welsh.
Tags: Grant Llewellyn


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*Alaskan Salmon 2018 catch to arrive soon! NO salmon until late October.
Low Temp Pasteurized Milk- See photos from our visit to Jersey Girls Dairy.


text:
Bracken's "We know About The Need" is the first album on Anticon. to hit the streets in 2007 - a work of 11 tracks on which typical, foggy Anticon.-styled beats meet abundant string arrangements and what media calls AntiFolk these days. A whole lot of melancholia is to be found, too, mixed up with a certain restlessness like the one man experiences when waking up after a nightmare, impossible to fall asleep again. Due to this "We Know About The Need" is not to be called an "easy" album anyway, but one that's made for attentive listening sessions in which it might grow compared to the first impression it makes.
February 9th is the streetdate for The End's new album "Elementary" , which is due to be released on Relapse Records then. Dark, heavy Hardcore influences and brutal, exceeding walls of sound meet epic choruses and harmonies that almost fit to be filed under Pop - not in a sense of mainstream radio Pop, of course. This fusion is at least interesting as a wider audience will gain access to guitar-based Hardcore through this but at the same time there might be voices bemoaning a point of sell-out of the HC movement. Leaves me kinda undecided so the best recommendation might be to check this one on your own at your local record store.
Southern Lord are about to put out "The Resurrection Of Whiskey Foote" on February 23rd, which is the third longplay workout of Maryland-based The Hidden Hand, an eleven track masterpiece of epic, down-to-earth Doom Rock. The four piece band of Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Dave Grohl, Bruce Falkinburgh - also responsible for the whole recording process - and Evan Tanner delivers a raw and high-proof view on the dark side of classical heavy Rock, ravaging through a running time of 42+ a bit minutes evoking pictures of deserted land and endless motorcycle rides in the heat of a hot summers day. Nice one.
25.01.2007 Le Widerstand @ Neue Heimat / Hamburg
14.01.2007 Astoria Frühclub @ Astoria (ex-Tanzhall...
11.01.2007 Le Wünderwelt @ Neue Heimat / Hamburg
09.01.2007 La Musica Obscura @ III & 70 - Ground F...
29.12.2006 Adventures In Electronic Music Pt. 3 @ ...


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After every build, we update the status of its commit, which is most relevant for testing pull request. This scope gives us the permission to update the commit status as the build starts and finishes.
Building a new repository on Travis CI is as easy as enabling it in your profile and pushing a new commit.
Updating the webhook required for us to be notified from GitHub on new commits or pull requests requires this API scope. Additionally, your user needs to have admin access to the repository you want to enable.
Note that for open source projects, we don't have any write access to your source code or your profile.


Focaccia is thought to have originated with the Etruscans or Ancient Greeks. The yeasted flatbread comes from the northern shores of the Mediterranean. This class offers a twist on this classical antiquity with balsamic caramelized onion and goat cheese.


text:
using System.IO;

namespace agsXMPP.Xml.Dom
{
	/// <summary>
	///
	/// </summary>
	public class Document : Node
	{
		public Document()
		{
			NodeType = NodeType.Document;
		}

		public Element RootElement
		{
			get
			{
				foreach (Node n in this.ChildNodes)
				{
					if(n.NodeType == NodeType.Element)
						return n as Element;
				}
				return null;
			}
		}

		#region << Properties and Member Variables >>
		private string	m_Encoding	= null;
		private string	m_Version	= null;

		public string Encoding
		{
			get { return m_Encoding; }
			set { m_Encoding = value; }
		}

		public string Version
		{
			get { return m_Version; }
			set { m_Version = value; }
		}
		#endregion

		/// <summary>
		/// Clears the Document
		/// </summary>
		public void Clear()
		{
			this.ChildNodes.Clear();
		}

		#region << Load functions >>
		public void LoadXml(string xml)
		{
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(xml))
            {
                DomLoader.Load(xml, this);
            }
		}

		public bool LoadFile(string filename)
		{
		    if (File.Exists(filename))
			{
				try
				{
					using(var sr = new StreamReader(filename))
                    {
					    DomLoader.Load(sr, this);
					    sr.Close();
					    return true;
                    }
				}
				catch
				{
					return false;
				}
			}
		    return false;
		}

	    public bool LoadStream(Stream stream)
        {
            try
            {
                using(var sr = new StreamReader(stream))
                {
                    DomLoader.Load(sr, this);
                    sr.Close();
                    return true;
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

		public void Save(string filename)
		{
			using (var w = new StreamWriter(filename))
            {
			    w.Write(ToString(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8));
			    w.Flush();
			    w.Close();
            }
		}
		#endregion
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Making Monday Marvelous #63 - C.R.A.F.T.
Oh my goodness, that pot pie is too funny! Thanks for hosting, have a great week.
Thanks for the mention, Jamie 🙂 It was a nice surprise!
Thank you for hosting the party. I linked up the best homemade vanilla extract recipe, that will be ready in time for holiday gift giving.
I'm new to blogging and for some reason a couple buttons, including yours, aren't showing up on the page I made. I. Will add a text link at the bottom of my post today.
Thanks for hosting this fun link party again this week!! I'm off to browse and be inspired!
Hi, I am totally new to this (in fact, this is the first time that I have ever linked a craft idea to a site), and I accidentally put my name in stead of the craft name! Oops! I'm entry number 198. Is there any way that you can delete it and let me do it again with the project name?
Thank you so much for hosting this week, Jamie!


Researchers and leaders in the transportation industry gathered recently at Mississippi State University for the Composites in Transportation Symposium to explore the possibilities of a technology that is revolutionizing the design, production and use of land, air and sea vehicles.
Participants were eager to discuss how to overcome barriers using composite materials by creating partnerships that serve manufacturing needs and research interests. Composites are making transportation modes more efficient, said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. James O. Poss, director of strategic initiatives for MSU's High Performance Computing Collaboratory. "Although I was an early skeptic, I now understand that composites are literally the fuel upon which all our modern vehicle systems are going to be made," Poss said.
"The low end of the job market for unmanned vehicles will be somewhere around 90,000 jobs and $40 billion; the high end is hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars." Composite materials offer a range of advantages for industries, including lighter weight, higher strength, corrosion resistance and more flexible design capabilities, he said. Not only can they improve transportation modes' performance immediately, they can lower costs over time, Poss emphasized.


Residential Reverse Osmosis – Water City Inc.
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The most common type of Reverse Osmosis system for homes is the under-sink unit. This type of system fits neatly in the cabinet space underneath a kitchen sink.
Contact Water City for a free consultation!


text:
Posted in: Nuts and Volts
A Night at the Opera?
April 17 Jeff Eckert
Over the years, many of us have been tempted (or hounded, in the case of Google Chrome) into trying a browser other than the one we're used to. In many cases, the old won over the new because: (1) It is too much trouble to reset all your passwords and favorite sites; and (2) All browsers are pretty much the same, anyway.
Somehow, the Opera browser has survived even though it commanded a paltry 1.33 percent of the market as of 2016. Recently, the folks at Oslo-based Opera AS (www.opera.com) introduced the Neon browser, which seems to be worth a try. It isn't really revolutionary, being built atop the same engine as the old one. However, it is "designed to allow users to focus on the most important part of the Internet: the content. Opera Neon will provide users with fun ways to interact with web content, including the ability to drag and push things around, and even to pop content out from the web."
Most obvious is the user interface, which spreads icons of your favorite sites over the display window instead of in little lists on the periphery. It comes with a built-in ad blocker, plus the left sidebar includes a video player, image gallery, and download manager. It also features a video pop-out that lets you watch videos while browsing other pages, and a split-screen mode that allows two pages to be viewed simultaneously.
In addition, in a trial run on my machine, site access was noticeably faster than with Firefox or Safari. Neon is still a "concept browser," so rather than replacing the current one, Opera will just incorporate some of its new features into the flagship browser. Windows and Mac users can give it a try for free by linking to www.opera.com/computer/neon.
Posted on 04/17 at 12:00 pm
3D Printable Tractor Beam
Sure, it would be great to have a USS Enterprise-style tractor beam so you could drag alien spaceships out of the sky or even pull your Jeep out of the mud. Sorry, Grasshopper, but we're not there yet. However, you actually can build your own single-sided acoustic tractor beam, i.e., a device that is capable of trapping and pulling an (extremely small) object using sound waves. We're not talking about conventional sonic levitation which involves using sound waves to push things away. These tractor beams — based on decades-old fundamentals of physics used to create optical traps — can actually pull objects toward the source. Well, sort of.
According to the inventor, Asier Marzo (a research assistant at the University of Bristol; www.bris.ac.uk), "When you move the tractor beam, the particle moves, but otherwise the trap is static. It can levitate small plastics; it can also levitate a fly and small biological samples. It's quite handy."
He continued, "We can modulate a simple wave using what's called a metamaterial, which is basically a piece of matter with lots of tubes of different lengths. The sound passes through these tubes, and when it exits the metamaterial, it has the correct phases to create a tractor beam."
The beam can be built from readily accessible components, such as those available from Arduino (www.arduino.cc) for about $70. There are three designs of the device, each with trapping profiles suitable for different object sizes relative to the wavelength of sound used.
For any practical frequencies, the size of trappable objects is limited to a few millimeters.
Posted on 04/17 at 11:46 am
Video Games Turn 50
March 17 Jeff Eckert
It seems odd, but last year marked the 50th anniversary of the video game console. The original unit — known as the "Brown Box" — was invented in 1966 by Rudolf Henry Baer, a German-born engineer who was working at Sanders Associates at the time. The device was the first interactive video game system to use a home TV set as the viewing screen, and a later version went into commercial production as the Magnavox Odyssey system.
In subsequent years, Baer helped develop other consoles and consumer games and, in 2006, was awarded the National Medal of Technology for "his groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development, and commercialization of interactive video games, which spawned related uses, applications, and mega-industries in both the entertainment and education realm." He passed away in 2014 at the age of 92. ►
Posted on 03/17 at 2:24 pm
Make Your Raspberries Touchable
If your Raspberry Pi project could benefit from a touchscreen, Winstar Display Co. (www.winstar.com.tw) has you covered. The company has introduced the model WF50BTIFGDHTX five inch HDMI interface mini computer display, employing a resistive touch panel and offering a WVGA resolution of 800x480 pixels. It comes with a control board with an HDMI interface and a 40-pin connector on board; it is specifically designed to simplify Raspberry Pi connection, assuming you also buy the WWHDMI-00 HDMI connector.
The unit isn't just for the Pi, though; it can be used with any embedded system that has an HDMI output (cable not included). A capacitive version is under development and will be released "soon." Authorized distributors don't seem to stock it yet, and pricing info is unavailable as of this writing. Maybe by the time you read this ... ►
World's Smallest Transistor — Sort of
January 17 Jeff Eckert
According to the laws of physics, an operational transistor gate can be no smaller than 5 nm, which is about a fourth the size of today's commercially available 20 nm gate transistors. This is because below 5 nm, a phenomenon called "tunneling" takes place in which the gate barrier can no longer keep the electrons from zipping straight from the source to the drain terminals, and the transistors can't be turned off. However, lawbreakers at Berkeley Lab (www.lbl.gov) observed that this is true when we're talking about silicon, but not necessarily other semiconductor materials. By using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as the semiconductor material, they managed to create a gate only 1 nm in length. (One nice thing is that MoS2 is not a particularly exotic or expensive material and, in fact, is sold in auto parts stores as a lubricant.)
Part of the explanation as to why the device works is that "electrons flowing through MoS2 are heavier," so their flow can be controlled with smaller gate lengths. This is something of a head-scratcher, given that yours truly has always been led to believe that all electrons have exactly the same mass. (In fact, Prof. John Wheeler — no slouch in the physics field — went so far as to claim that all electrons are the same because, in fact, there is only one in the entire universe, and we are just looking at it on different slices of space time. But let's not go there.)
Another factor is that MoS2 can be produced in thinner sheets (≈ 0.65 nm) which also helps to control the current flow.
As with most early developments, it's a long way from commercial implementation. As observed by Berkeley scientist, Ali Javey, "We have not yet packed these transistors onto a chip, and we haven't done this billions of times over. We also have not developed self-aligned fabrication schemes for reducing parasitic resistances in the device. But this work is important to show that we are no longer limited to a 5 nm gate for our transistors."▲
Hardware Design Competition At Diptrace
Diptrace PCB design software is holding a hardware design contest for college students and is offering Ca$h to the winner!
Diptrace PCB Design software is holding a design competition open to all college and universtiy level students. If you need extra cash for college or whatever, check out the details at http://diptrace.com/community/student-awards/ Submissions are accepted October 1, 2016 - December 1, 2016.
Posted on 10/16 at 9:55 am
Posted in: Developing Perspectives
The Art of Electronics: What Constitutes the Atomic Level?
June 16 Bryan Bergeron
A recurrent theme when teaching electronics to others is deciding on what constitutes the atomic level of the art; that is, should you discuss the flow of electrons, the fundamentals of Ohm's Law and discrete components, ICs and other component-level modules, or complete devices at the system level? I guess it all depends on where you're coming from.
I have to admit a bias toward low level electron physics, simply because that's how I was first exposed to electronics — the flow of electrons or positrons across barriers and through various crystalline lattices. However, building up from first principles doesn't seem to fit with the needs of today's enthusiasts.
For example, take a typical microcontroller. It would take months of study to fully understand the path of an electron from an input pin, through the hundreds or thousands of gates, to one or more output pins. After all that effort, you'd have no better understanding of how the microcontroller operates. No, in this case, a functional understanding at the device level probably constitutes the atomic level. Sure, there are possible exceptions such as internal pull-up resistors in the I/O but — for the most part — a microcontroller can be considered a black box with signal and power inputs and signal output.
The same can be said for single board computers, from smart phones to handheld games. From a system's perspective, there's quite a bit to understand, from both the hardware and software sides. It can take months to fully understand a smartphone platform at a high level, and Ohm's Law isn't going to help in the process.
So, are component-level electronics dead? I wouldn't go that far, but I'd say it has become a niche specialty or interest in the electronics enthusiasts community — akin to those who specialize in tube amplifiers. After all, someone has to work at the component level to design the power supply and other system components in the drones, phones, and other consumer electronics.
Looking at my own work in electronics over the past few decades, I can clearly see the progression from component to system level work. I started out with tube and transistor checkers on my workbench, and spent much of my time adjusting the bias on tubes and trying to figure out whether a blown transistor was an NPN or PNP variety with an ohmmeter.
Later, when I worked on commercial communications gear, I simply swapped out boards to identify the faulty circuit. The board went back to the manufacturer for repair. I didn't even have to heat up my soldering iron.
Today, I'm more apt to turn on my 3D printer than my hot air reworking station, simply because that's where the action is. I can spend an afternoon creating a robot platform on my printer or the same amount of time replacing a faulty IC on a circuit board. I feel guilty admitting it, but I now get more satisfaction out of creating something of my own design than in simply reworking a circuit. However, time and money being what they are, it's simply fiscally irresponsible devoting hours and dollars to repairing something that can be replaced with a few clicks of the mouse, with immediate drop shipping from China.
Today, I'd rather spend my time building and flying a drone, focusing on high level topics such as power supply selection, battery charge duration, and maximizing RF signal strength, instead of focusing on what's happening in the controller circuit.
Has your interest in electronics evolved over the years, or has it remained steadfast on a particular topic or level? Either way, I'd like to hear your story, and what you've concluded from your experience. NV
Wall Light Switches: Relics of the Tungsten Age?
May 16 Bryan Bergeron
Given the increased popularity of multi-function light bulbs, it's clear that the traditional light-only bulb and the associated 110V circuitry are on their way out. I'm not talking about the compact fluorescent (CFC) or even LED "replacement" bulbs, but smart bulbs that do much more than produce heat and light.
I replaced the Tungsten bulbs in my home with 500K or daylight CFC bulbs almost a decade ago. It was an expensive upgrade; in part because the original Tungsten bulbs were still perfectly functional. About a year ago, I started replacing the CFC bulbs with LED bulbs. Again, I tossed completely functional fluorescent bulbs to move up to a cooler operating/more compact light bulb. An added feature was the ability to dim the LED bulbs — something I couldn't do with a standard CFC.
More recently, I upgraded several of the CFC light bulbs to multi-color LED bulbs that I can operate from my Apple iOS device. With a simple app, I can change the brightness and hue of the lights, set a timer to wake me with light, and operate the lights when I'm away from home. The technology has been around for years, but I'm just getting to the point where I no longer need to look for the light switch when entering a room. My Wi-Fi enabled light bulbs are always on, awaiting my next command. As such, there isn't a need for the light switch.
My latest journey in light bulb technology does more than simply replace one light source for another. No, the latest generation of always-on "light bulb" replacements makes use of the house wiring and light fixtures, and happens to produce light almost as an afterthought.
For example, Sengled (available at Home Depot and Amazon) offers an integrated microphone/speaker LED bulb that plugs into a standard socket. With the proper peripherals, the bulb supports voice control of cloud connected devices, as well as the ability to detect glass breaking. The Sengled Pulse base serves as a Bluetooth speaker ($150/pair) that is by no means cheap when compared with a standard battery-powered Bluetooth speaker. I found the Pulse to be the ultimate in a low clutter stereo speaker setup.
Then, there are the Wi-Fi repeater bulbs which replace the clunky plug-in desktop repeaters.
At the top on my wish-list for future light bulb "replacements" is an odor detector bulb for my refrigerator that emails me when produce or milk products go bad. I also want an emergency flashlight with a bulb that automatically dials 911 at the press of a button. There are replacement car headlights and tail lights that provide collision avoidance detection, as well. I can even envision a doctor's penlight that doubles as an optical test device that can diagnose a variety of eye conditions.
As manufacturers are proving, just about any electronic device imaginable can be made to fit the size and power limitations of a traditional screw-in light bulb. I expect the typical technology leapfrogging, with superior offerings from the likes of Philips, GE, and eventually Apple.
Anyone interested in a slightly used set of first generation smart bulbs? NV
Indestructibles: The Lure of Tube Audio Equipment
March 16 Bryan Bergeron
My Sony integrated amp with copper chassis and huge toroidal transformers was a tour de force in my audio setup before the power mains took an indirect lightning hit. Because the microcontroller was fried, I couldn't even get the unit to power up.
Without access to spare parts — including a new microcontroller assembly — I was at the mercy of factory certified technicians. And — because the unit was just out of warranty — I was going to be out $100 plus shipping in order to get an estimate on the repair.
Well, that amp is still sitting behind my workbench. Someday, I'll find an identical amp on eBay, buy it for parts, and cobble together something that works. In the meantime, I decided to rebuild a McIntosh 240: a hot, bulky, but virtually indestructible tube amplifier. I spent a weekend replacing the electrolytic capacitors and swapping out the dozen vacuum tubes, one at a time.
The McIntosh 240 — like many other amps from the '60s and '70s — is unimpressive on paper. A mere 40 watts per channel, total harmonic distortion a whopping 0.5%, and a stripped down weight of 56 lbs. Plus, no remote.
Output is via massive potted output transformers through old-fashioned terminal strips. For less than the price of the vacuum tubes, I could have bought an NAD 3020D or similar solid-state stereo amplifier with superior specifications, the form factor of a paperback, and the all-important remote.
Although I'll concede on the specifications front, I'll counter that I prefer the warm coloration that vacuum tubes provide. Most of all, I know that I can repair the amp — regardless of what happens. The transformers are a bit scarce, but can be found on eBay and other online sources.
Otherwise, everything is ordinary electronics stock — capacitors, resistors, diodes, and vacuum tubes. Schematics and manuals are freely available on the Web, and there are numerous third parties that cater to vacuum tube amp owners.
Do I miss a remote? I can live without one. Am I concerned that vacuum tubes are about as far from "green" as an electric toaster? Not really, because I use the amp maybe 30 to 40 minutes a day.
Besides, I'm saving one more device from the landfills. And lightning strikes? Bring them on!
In this era of disposable unrepairable electronics, I suspect that there's a growing demand for the simpler but workable electronics of the past.
If you've recently turned to vintage repairable electronics, I'd like to hear about it. NV
When All You Have is a Hammer
February 16 Bryan Bergeron
A friend in the marketing business contacted me about a project for a local retail store. He wanted to track customer satisfaction as customers exited the store by placing an Arduino-controlled survey taker. Customers would press one of five buttons as they left, indicating their experience from Very Satisfied to Not Satisfied. My friend envisioned five buttons connected to an Arduino, an LCD display, perhaps a beeper for button press feedback, and a battery pack capable of supporting the device for a week.
Seemed like a simple enough task. Too simple, in fact. After working up a straightforward program and defining the base hardware, we naturally progressed to planning a Wi-Fi interface so the counter could be accessed and reset remotely. That would require a simple web page, and maybe a couple hours of programming. We even evaluated a solar powered charger to obviate the need for a plug-in charger.
With plans in hand, we stood back, looked at the hardware and software involved, and the total cost. Then, we revisited the requirements. After a sanity check, we decided the complex Arduino-enabled survey device was overkill.
Starting over without a preconceived product, we identified a solution of five digital mechanical tally counters (or clickers) sold for coaches. We found suitable counters ranging from $2 to $5 each on Amazon. The counters — each the size of a walnut — easily fit on a plastic face plate with cutouts for each counter. And it worked. No batteries to worry about. No programming. And fully reusable counters once the survey was finished. Sure, there was no web interface and no way to check the tally at home on a smartphone, but there wasn't a need.
The take-away from my experience was to avoid preconceived solutions to new problems. Sometimes expertise in one area unnecessarily narrows the range of options that should be considered when assessing a problem.
The caveat, of course, is that you shouldn't pass up a chance to learn and expand your skill set. If your goal is to learn to work with an Arduino or other microcontroller and you have the time and funds, then go for it. Given the challenge above, why not have that Wi-Fi interface? Or, automatic cloud upload?
Go wild with the web interface, with visual and audible alarms, and graphics. Just don't lose touch with what features and functions are really required. Experimenting is fantastic, but know when and how to apply your skills to practical problem solving. NV