The city is said to have 172,000 people, but, like most smaller cities outside of the Tokyo/Osaka/Northern Kyushu areas, it is bleeding young people, and dying. I asked someone where the busy part of town was, and they mentioned "Ginza Street". When I arrived at the long shopping arcade around 6:30pm, it was ghostly silent except for the sounds of a few high school students going by on bicycle. Not a small number of buildings in the city looked abandoned, and some cats surprised me when jumping out of what I thot was the window of somebody's house, but coming closer, saw that it was a hole into a really dilapidated "cat house".
But the comic book scene happened in the morning, just a few meters away from the church in the parking lot of a convenience store. My stomach wasn't right, so I had sat down on a curb in front of the store. An elderly Japanese man came out, and sat on a block behind me, but soon came over and sat by me. We had a good talk, but with his old-folks' accent/mumbling (probably caused by him not having many front teeth!) I couldn't understand more than around 30% or so. Then one of his friends came down to sit by him. The 3 of us talked about things in that city, island etc. We talked about bicycles, as many people ride a special bicycle path there (I did too around 13 years ago), about the Hiroshima Carp baseball team who won their league pennant this year for the first time in 30 years, fishing, sightseeing etc.
Then they asked me what I was doing there. I pulled out my Japanese 1858 Great Controversy, and showed them. They didn't say much, and I didn't press it, just told them that I came to go to the church just across the way. But around a minute later, the second man who came to sit (who was drinking sake) started talking about religious things. He said Japan has many gods, and we respect them all. I mentioned something about how we should worship the one true Creator God. His voice got a little edge to it, and before I knew what was happening, I saw the first man riding away on a scooter. That's when things got interesting.
He started talking about how we must have the sun to live. I said the one who created the sun is more important than the sun. Then he asked me if I knew about "Evolution" (all this was in Japanese). I said "yes", and then took a light tone, (perhaps it seemed almost mocking to him?), asking him if it was possible that a rock could, over time, turn into a human? He said that it is like a child comes from its mother. I asked him if his mother's mother's mother was an ape or a rock. He seemed to soften a bit, and said "Well, all the gods are the same, they all lead to the same place", to which I replied, "There is only one true God – Jesus Christ. He made everything, and we should worship him". Suddenly his eyes changed, and he picked up his cane pointing to me like he was going to hit me, and said "You'd better not ever say things like that in Japan! Get out of here!" It was all so sudden, and comic-book-like, here's an old man with a palsied arm starting to get tipsy, suddenly angry to the point of violence about being told that there is only one true God. I was smiling, and thinking he was half-joking at first, but when I saw his grip tighten on the cane, and his face turning a bright red (perhaps 1/2 from the sake?), I decided I'd better go, so picked up my backpack, and without turning around, walked away. I did notice that there was a young man at the smoking stand watching us, and could hear the old man talking excitedly to him as I walked away. Who knows, maybe a seed was planted in the young man's heart?
Yes, the Great Controversy is alive and well, and being played out in big and small ways all over the world. Just as the title says, it's between Christ and his angels, and Satan and his angels. We have a big role to play too. May we be ready to fulfill that role at any moment, even if it is like a comic-book scene. And yes, the thot did cross my mind, that doing this same thing in this same city around 80 years ago would have gotten me thrown in jail or worse. Let's work to redeem the time, because that will happen again, but on a global scale in the end-times.
After arriving at Hong Kong airport on June 22nd and exchanging some money, i found a $40 (hkd) (5.5usd) bus to the city. There was very little other than trees and hills and sea for the first 30 minutes, and i was starting to wonder if this was really the super city i had heard about. Well, that was answered quite breathtakingly after coming around one curve to see what may be the largest container dock in the world – what a sight! The mounds of containers forming a little city by themselves, with 5 or 6 huge cargo ships willing to piggyback them to ports afar….just thinking about how much time and energy went into just getting all these containers to this one place, let alone producing all the stuff that is in them is mind-boggling. Yet, somehow it gets done.
The Seventh-day Adventist church in Happy Valley (love that name!) is having Prayer Meeting as i arrive. It is all in Cantonese, so i just sit in the back and look thru the hymnal. There are only 5 attendees, and as they break up to leave they ask me individually about where i'm from, my purpose here, and where i'm staying. When i tell them i might stay at the McDonald's or in the park, they look a little flustered, and walk off, except for the young man who calls a friend who he thinks might be able to help me, but gives up when no one answers.
So i see them all off, then sit down on the steps to spend the nite. Fortunately there is a ledge high above the door which keeps out most of the rain, as the last stages of a tropical storm pass over. It is a good time to reflect on the goodness of the Lord, and think about the many things that have happened in my life. To enjoy a passing cloud, to hear a bullfrog praising God, to see the rain coming down in sheets in the lights of the horse racetrack over in the distance, to see the parade of luxury cars and taxis going by, feeling the wetness, feeling the hardness, all the sensory things that make life, life……to wish for sleep – ha! Sleep finally does arrive around 3am, as i learn i don't have to just sit, i can actually lay down (a little slow on things). My bottom on my pants gets a big red "C" on it from the plastic bag i've put under me to keep me dry, but it just brings a smile to me and many memories of the supermarket i got that bag at in Thailand over a year earlier, and of course of the many people i met and stayed with there, and what "might have happened", had the school kept going, had the friend decided to start our own school, etc etc.
Morning comes early, and hot. I've had a long sleeve shirt on all nite, partly because of the chill, but also to keep the mosquitos off, and it has worked perfectly, for which i'm most thankful. Taking it off to reveal just the short sleeve shirt below feels nice for a while, but then the red, itching welts pop up pretty quickly, forcing me to get a move on. There are 7-11s everywhere, and like in many SE Asian countries there is a huge selection of different kinds of soy drinks to choose from – yum. The nuts and raisins brought from Japan are enjoyed in a little park with the soy milk and rolls. Breadmaking skills never really arrived in the Far East outside of the former French areas, but it is palatable.
The Chinese Union Mission office is my main goal for the day, so i head off to the subway (MTR) to the place where i found it on the web. I really hate Google, but their map search is the best i know of. Today tho, it produces an epic fail. No one around the station where i get off, and go to the place marked on the map has even heard of the area, let alone the building name! I quickly find out that Hong Kong is very different from my expectations of something similar to Singapore in English skills, as i find many people cannot even read English, let alone speak it. In the city center there are lots of foreign-looking people, and lots of signs in English, but just a couple of miles from there plants you firmly in Chinese-speaking territory. Finally one man pronounces the address i've written in Roman letters, in Cantonese, and tells me i need to go to a place 4 train stops away. How to find the place once i get there? I have not a clue, but have come this far so……. Getting off at that station i look for an area map, when i notice right below the exit sign a list of places it serves, and there is the name of the building i'm looking for! Thank you Lord for helping me this far.
The Chinese Union Mission office is located on the 12th floor of an office building way outside of the city center, in a mostly residential area. The lady i'd contacted before on the internet seems a bit flumfluxxed about why i've come, but quickly becomes very friendly and helpfully introduces me to the publishing director who talks with me over 20 minutes about this book and Ellen White. We have some common ground as he went to school at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee (i didn't go to school there, but have been there many times), but lose our common ground when he says regarding Ellen White books being published in the Chinese language: "We have too many Ellen White books already". Perhaps he meant that there are many books not being read enough, but more talking reveals that he has some problems with Ellen White. He gives the same reasons as many others have about why this 1858 edition of The Great Controversy is not necessary, with the main reason being that Ellen White got better and better as she went along, and corrected her earlier works. Ouch. I agree that everything has to be read in context, but believe there are no mistakes in the earlier works. He then shows his views regarding the Bible, as he says Paul told the people in Corinth that a woman should cover her head, and not teach over a man, but that was just because Corinth was such a wicked place. So we must consider all the context of everything written. I keep mostly quiet, but demure a bit, saying that all the words in the Bible are inspired, to which he seems to politely disagree. He mentions that next year the General Conference is instructing to print many Great Controversy books, to which he shows his reluctance to perform, saying that he would rather give Desire of Ages to someone who doesn't even know about Christ, unlike those in Western societies. I agree that to non-Christians, Steps to Christ should come before The Great Controversy.
read more from "hong kong"
From the 24th to the 29th i was in Seoul, Korea. The new Japanese church in Yongsan-gu were extremely hospitable hosts, letting me stay there, making sure i had enough to eat, taking me to see other Seventh-day Adventist institutions and to the public sauna/baths, and even letting me give the sermon/1858 Great Controversy study in the church on Sabbath with around 15 in attendance. This was truly amazing. Being in Japan for 15 years, i've only been asked once before to give a sermon. And here, with a pastor i've never met before, he trusts me to feed his very youthful flock without even having ever met me! Amazing.
The pastor had told me in a email that he wanted me to give a testimony, so i was expecting 10 minutes or so during the Sabbath School time. But when i arrived, he said i was the main speaker! When i told him i'd like to study chapter 32 of the 1858gc with everyone, he said i could do my testimony and then the study, which we did after putting all the chairs in a circle. I guess there were around 15 present. I think 3 or 4 of the people are not SDA and maybe not even Christian yet. Even tho over half of the people were Korean, they were typical Japanese style with keeping quiet most of the time. After the study one couple seemed deeply affected, and asked a few questions. It was a great experience for me to be able to carry out a study in Japanese. One nice thing was, there was no spirit of doubt in the writings of Ellen White, and there was no put-down of myself either, both things that are quite common in my travels. I gave everyone a book, and pray that the Holy Spirit will work on hearts now. Around 1/2 of the people stayed all afternoon, and we had a little sundown-worship too. The pastor told me there are quite a few young pastors in the Japan Conference who are very dedicated, and waiting for opportunities to help lead the starving sheep into green pastures. May God hear their earnest cries, and incline his ears to my heartfelt prayers that something be done to awaken the sleeping church in Japan.
The pastor said that he read that Japanese were 30 times more likely to become Christians while outside of Japan, rather than in their own country. I can believe it, because i've heard of quite a few cases like that myself. He said even a Japanese ambassador's wife was baptized into the SDA church last year! But really, one of the best ways to evangelize the Japanese, may be to approach them when they are not in their comfortable "cocoon" of this island nation. Then again, maybe a certain nuclear reactor will drive them out of their cocoon soon!!
Thanks for everyone's prayers to come back into Japan. I was forced for the first time to buy a ticket back to Korea before i could leave Seoul. But Asiana airline refunded all except around 35usd after i arrived in Osaka, so not too bad. The immigration officer didn't say anything, but again, that may have been because i did have that ticket carrying me back out of Japan, something they like to see.
I really have to get a visa soon. More and more it is on my heart and hands that i need to WORK for my own health's sake, and especially to help spread God's words in the various countries. Please pray that if it is the Lord's will i stay here in Japan, that the Lord will open the way. I just want to follow where he is leading 🙂 Thank you Jesus for this wonderful experience in Seoul, and i pray that the Yongsan Japanese Church will grow brighter and brighter in leading many to Jesus there.
if you take the bible as it reads….
Yesterday morning i went to a Sunday church called "Kohitsuji Chapel" in Nakamozu. A Seventh-day Adventist Sister had met the pastor last summer, and had given the 1858gc i had translated 10 years ago to him. After the service the pastor talked with me about a minute, very nicely, and i showed him the book etc. and asked him about keeping the sabbath. He said "If you take the Bible as it reads, Saturday is the Sabbath". He looked down, changed the subject, and moved away soon after. May God work on that seed!!
Well, the time spent with Gospel Ministries International was a little over 3 months. It has now been 10 days since i was told to vacate the place, and as there seems to be no more news forthcoming about this, i guess this will be a wrap-up, at least from my perspective.
David Gates kindly asked me to join GMI at the General Conference Session last June, and i went to volunteer my service there in July. I helped with odds and ends, and learned video editing, went on a couple of trips to run a video camera, and spent most of the time with media.
A little over 2 weeks ago now, i received a email from one of the leaders "J" with a very angry tone about what i had written concerning Br. Gates' sermon "Converging Crises" in March of 2009. I had emailed the review of that sermon to Br. Gates before posting it, and am glad to say that several people have seen this review on my blog, and were benefited by it. But this leader did not know about it (as he was not even involved with GMI then i don't think).
It seems like probably that email went to several other people at GMI, and one person talked to me about the mocking tone in my post. While not agreeing to having done anything wrong, i did see after our talk that i had used two words that were wrong, and repented, and deleted them the next morning.
Then on Sunday evening, exactly 10 days ago, the manager of personnel (J) talked with me. About 3 or 4 minutes into his talk, he said that if i write anything slanderous on my blog concerning him, that he would sue me. I could hardly believe my ears, and asked if this was the spirit of Christ. After that, not much else even registered, as the spirit of the dragon was abundantly evident. Near the end of his 45-minute talk, he asked me if i know what happened to "tattlers" in his elementary school. I told him i didn't, and he said they got beat up. Of all the people who have threatened me with bodily harm in the last 20 years, why is it that they are ALL fellow-believers???
He asked if i had followed Matthew 18 in pursuing problems i have with Br. Gates' sermon. I told him i did follow the first part, but not the second part. I did mention during his talk that we should rebuke public sins publicly, but i did not push that point. That was my mistake. When error is propagated publicly, Matthew 18 does not apply, as it is not between "he and you alone". Of course it is best not to show dissension among God's remnant people, so we should try to settle differences without going public, but as the response from Br. Gates in March 2009 was showed no sign of even discussing the problems in his sermon, i published the review, hoping it would help others of God's flock who have questions regarding the message.
I'm thankful that i did not raise my voice during the "talk", something which i no doubt would have been eager to do if this had occured 25 years ago. So i thank God for working on my emotions. I mean, how can we get too excited about ourselves when we think of what our dear Saviour went thru – and at the hands of his own people?!
One of the strange things is, is that Br. Gates, the man who originally asked me to join, has not contacted me at all on this…. Two of the other leaders had a problem with what i had written, and i'm cast out. Is this the way a Christ-centered, Faith-based ministry should be run? The personnel director gave me two days to find a new place to stay, and i'm very thankful that a couple did take me in quickly.
The meetings by David Gates at the Spanish-speaking church in Richmond Virginia from September 14-20 are over now, and i think went off well overall, even tho i didn't understand hardly anything – ha! It was fun to pick up a few Spanish words tho, and the refrain from the them song is still going thru my mind: "Mas alla del sol" (Far, over there, the sun). Compared to Japanese it is super easy, as many words can be picked out of a conversation just because they are closely related to English.
About 80-100 came every nite, and we heard some good testimonies from several individuals during the meetings saying that they feel a stronger need to prepare for Jesus' coming. I handled one of the video cameras, and it was kind of hard to keep standing on a metal chair for 2 hours or more gazing at a tiny screen, trying to keep the head and sometimes body too not in the center of the screen where it would look unnatural, but in one of the "thirds" on usually the right side (i ran the camera on the right facing left), or on the left (when he would stretch over and look at the people to the far left of him. But it was fun too in a strange way, and i seem to be getting better at keeping the camera steady.
We were able to give an overview Bible study to the lady at the counter of the Quality Inn where we stayed at. America is so amazing to be able to have sincere discussions openly with people like this. The pastor is really evangelistic minded, and was always talking to people and trying to open doors to them. That is one big area where i need to improve, because my nature is to shy away from people, and keep my nose stuck in a book somewhere.
The only real problem i could tell, was the overall lack of solemnness. This is not just a problem with what i saw in Richmond, this is something that is all thru the ranks of us people who proclaim to have the last message of mercy to a dying world. Many times we like to saw joking things etc. that are not true, and then just write it off as a "joke", and have a good laugh about it. Is this the way to act to help prepare a character to stand before a holy God?
God's ministers should give the straight, solemn message, without trying to tickle the funny bone. It hit me with force, how different the atmosphere was during the Awakening meetings in the 1960s with what we have in the pulpits now. It was so earnest, solemn, and the people were poring over the words of God to see if these things were so. Where is that today? I don't know of anyone on the planet doing it consistently, altho, of course i haven't heard every SDA pastor speak!
I had not planned to go to Indonesia. Even after 4 1/2 years of travelling since leaving Japan, i had never made even one contact in Indonesia, and had no desire to go and visit. After getting the 1858 Great Controversy translated into Bahasa Malaysia in 2007, i had thot that maaaaaybe i should think about going to Indonesia because the languages were so similar. Of course i had read on the internet that there are many Seventh-day Adventists (200,000 in 2010), and knowing how the people in Sabah are very receptive to Ellen White books, i had slightly considered that perhaps a similar response would be seen in Indonesia.
Well, after 5 1/2 weeks of what appears to be mostly fruitless time spent in Malaysia (except for meeting one young SDA), wondering why pride, having maids work on the Sabbath, worldliness, and strange conspiracy theories (the last is probably stopped by now) had entered the church, and why not even one person would study the 1858 Great Controversy with me, i caught a late nite flight to Jakarta. The information on the internet was not good, saying that this city is bland, polluted, and a bit dangerous. Of course there was a bombing of the Marriott hotel here not too long back too, so that element is something to watch out for also. So i came a bit concerned about safety, and not expecting much in the way of spreading the Great Controversy book. But was i ever wrong! OK, the safety problem is mostly as described, but i didn't actually encounter it. There are quite a few thieves, and the corruption of everybody, especially govt. officials, makes everybody out to be a thief it seems, but the reception of the 1858 Great Controversy book by Ellen White is just astounding! The only other place that has ever come close in reception of this book is Sabah Malaysia, and that was 4 and then 3 years ago. It is a different story there in both respects now tho.
At the Jakarta airport i had no hassle at all in purchasing a visa for 25 US dollars. The girl pasting the visa in the passport had the veil over her head, but her nice smile almost made me think i was at a tourist information center. I kind of made friends with one elderly man from Malaysia, and gave him a pamphlet on health, and then after around a 30-minute wait in a scene extremely different from the huge, efficient Bangkok airport, i walked thru customs and then into a little hallway lined with money changers and taxi booths. There were quite a few men there plugging for customers, but after changing 27sgd, i walked thru them just smiling and shaking my head "no". Of course many of the taxi drivers would not take such an easy "no", so they would follow me asking where i'm going, where i'm from, etc. etc. There was a large, outdoors all-nite fast food place, but that didn't look too inviting outdoors, so i went back inside, and found a little cafe, and hung out there all nite nursing a cup of hot milk with some almond-taste chemical in it.
read more from "blessing after blessing – indonesia"
I was raised in Tennessee, living here until age 22, and then again for several months in 1997-1998 time frame. Now i'm back again.
I made it to the GMI "compound" near the McDonald road church near Collegedale Tennessee today after a couple of false starts the last two days 🙂 I have a nice room, and the people seem nice. Please pray that i can have patience, and do what the Lord wants me to do here. They provide lunch, but breakfast and supper is on my own, so am about ready to cut up that big green pepper i put in the bag last Tuesday and maybe munch on some peanut-butter crackers.
It sounds like lots of people have just moved out, and lots moved in, so things are in quite a state of flux right now. Sounds like my first work will be helping in tidying up and maybe a little construction, and then maybe they will train me in video editing. So even if i don't get a whole lot of private time to work on my animation project, hopefully there will be good results from the editing training. Of course i hope to be of service to them too. I sure hope and pray that the 1858 Great Controversy book and animation project can get propelled forward by my association here.
Lord, what do you want me to do? I've prayed much about this, and you've led me here. Here i am now, please use me. I need more patience, and pray for it abundantly, and also that i can give the straight truth to everyone i meet. I've tried and tried and tried to find places to get to working on the animation project, and nothing has ever worked out. PLEASE Lord, make it work out — soon. Amen.
The pics from my travels from January – April 2010 are up now on the left side of this page. Take a look and let me know which one you have the best reaction to. Be warned, one of them is a bit grotesque!
even we just meet for three days but you as like a fire to burn my spirit up, now i more study about the bible and great controversy. you know, last sabbath I made a lecture in church about spiritism and this coming sabbath they asked me to continue it with Shaking, please pray for me to burn their spirit be faithful. and you know three of my high school students ask me to make a bible study, then suddenly one of them want to be baptized, so this coming sabbath they will come to my church for bible study and to hear the lesson of shaking. they are catholic, protestant, and pantecost. please pray for those students. I saw Jesus is coming soon, many people out side very hunger and thirst of the Words.
Last Sabbath I preached about the "Great Controversy between Christ and his angels and Satan and his angels" and that all of us are involved in it, it doesn't matter if we want or not. Day by day, with every decision, with every sought and word we are in one of the two companies: of the white banner or of the black banner.
It is very interesting: I preached the last three Sabbaths but in three different countries: in Thailand, then in Romania and than in Moldova. On Sabbath morning I preached in the house of my brother and in the afternoon we went in the city (about 30 minutes by car from my friend village) to present the GC book there. The pastor invited me to preach and it was a very nice time. There were not many people (in the evening not all the people come to the church) but the brethrens participated very active and interested. Then I sold 9 GC books (my friend will collect the money later). I did plane to go on Monday to the Moldavian Union to speak with the brother which is responsible with the literature about the CG. Unfortunately on Monday it was official public holyday and my flight was on Monday night. But my Moldavian friend promised me to go on Tuesday to talk about the book. Do you know? In Moldova they bind the books very nice, like the English GC from India!
It got down to around 8C last nite, the coldest i've experienced in over a year – brrr. My jet-lag is slowly lifting, and my mind is starting to work again.
My friend's mansion (Japanese-style! – meaning "small apt.") is so very clean and quiet, very different from most of where i've been in the last 9 months. She likes to study the 1858 Great Controversy book, and we are spending good time going over the questions, and answering other questions raised by other church members around here. Her husband is non-christian, but doesn't mind that i'm here. It is sad to see that while most all of the SDA church members are very compromised with the world, the few strong ones are a bit wacko.
The main man who invited me to come loves this 1858gc book, and wants me to give a testimony about my work in spreading it. I really am happy that someone is interested in the book here in my beloved Japan, but afraid that the "Reform" label will somehow get attached to it, so am a bit wary. It is really too bad, because this man and the others in the group that my friend has met are really sincere, strong, faithful, loving Adventists, just not in the right Adventist camp. May God use me to bring them back into his body. Anyone with Bible or SOP quotes for them? When i visited him last year, i gave my personal testimony about my own mother leaving the SDA church over the gold medal to the pope scandal, but that i don't agree with what she did. I also showed from Revelation 3:14-21 and Ezekiel chapter 9 how we MUST be in the SDA church. It is God's last church, defective as it may be, he still loves it, and not those churches that draw people away from it.
updated 4/15 4:40pm — I went to the airport this morning, and was told by the ANA staff that as the ticket was purchased under a different person's name, i cannot fly using that ticket. Well, maybe this is the best? I often wonder EXACTLY what is God's will for me to do? I want to follow perfectly like Jesus did, and while i know for sure i fall many times, much of the time i just wonder what it is EXACTLY that i am to do every day…….
Then i went to see a formerly-homeless friend. I've known him for around 11 years, helped him with a tent, gave him food and money when he had no friends sleeping under a blue tarp by the river, helped him get into govt. welfare and get his own apt, and even tho we have studied a lot of the Bible together, he shows absolutely no interest. To tell the truth, he even told me today in a nice manner that i should stop trying to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, because many people don't care to hear it. And he is about to die it seems. He cannot even hardly walk the 100m to the supermarket to buy his food. And he is telling me this…. I makes my heart almost burst with grief at my friend's hard heart and his choice of eternal death. Nearly every country i travel to people say "our country is the most difficult for evangelism", but like recently when i told them the story of this formerly-homeless friend, they just couldn't believe it.
Lord, please open everyone's eyes in Japan. I love this country, and hate to see almost the whole island under the sway of the wicked one – choosing eternal death. Use me Lord! Use any means at your disposal to save even one. I want to see some of my Japanese friends in heaven!
I flew into Singapore from Jakarta on Wednesday, and a good friend whom i've indebted myself to several times already cheerfully agreed to meet me at the airport. He drove me to a shopping center that has lots of travel agents, and East Asia worked with me to get a flight to Osaka on Monday (Thai airways) for 497sgd (355usd). If i could wait another week, the price would come down around 90-100sgd, but that is not acceptable right now, so i went thru my waist pouch that i haven't used around my waist for a year or two now, and looked for anything that might be of value to a money changer. Singapore dollars – no need to change 🙂 Fortunately, when here a couple of months ago a couple of supportive fellow-believers helped me out, and most of that is still left. But hmmm, well, this Thai baht shouldn't be too necessary anymore – throw it in. What about this Indian rupee note? ahhh, throw it in the pot too. Oh yeah, the jackpot Indonesian rupiah (i say because 100,000idr = 11usd).
The 3 Indian guys in the booth don't bat an eye, but quickly ring out the total on a paper and hand over the sgd. In counting it, i think i'll have 19sgd left over after paying for my ticket. But, surprise! I didn't count one 50 note, so have 69sgd – sweet 🙂 The elderly couple hosting me for the 5 days while here remind me that i sold 10 Thai 1858gc while here last time, and they need to pay for that – another 60sgd. wow! I'm up to almost 100usd, and still have my 30usd and 2,000jpy to spare. How's that for being taken care of?!
I sure do thank the 2 people in Indonesia who purchased 1858 Great Controversy books so that i have this opportunity to make it to Japan without resorting to something else 🙂 And of course the 2 in Singapore that made it possible for me to go to Kota Kinabalu, then Jakarta, then Manado, then Jakarta, then back to Singapore again – thank you! Made God richly bless all of you, and may your job not give you Sabbath problems A-san!
Most of the pics are from Pune, but some from Mumbai, and then Bangalore and Tamil Nadu at the end. Please note the pics are in order from last part of stay to first part of stay.
5 months and 6 days after arriving in mumbai, i write standing up at a recharge center in the Bengaluru (or whatever this city's name is when you read this – think BLR) airport. 5 months and 6 days. Wow. Has the total life time spent in this country really been close to a year now? (1998, 2006, 2009) While focusing mostly on the last two weeks of my entire stay here, i want to reflect a bit on my total time in India on this journey.
India is really a country where the impossible, and totally illogical, is a daily occurence. How can it be that you see cows and dogs and pigs and humans all scrounging thru the trash bins (together sometimes!) and when mentioning how this is not seen in most of the world you get a blank stare like "that's impossible"? How can you really call a populace civilized when they explode HUGE fireworks right in the middle of the street? What kind of education is it that produces many people that cannot explain a simple event with any sort of understandability? Or a culture where the rickshaw driver would rather yell and scream at you for 15 minutes (thus losing revenue) than accepting the fare he originally agreed to?
Please note that these are large generalizations. Saying that Americans are fat, or Japanese are clean is also a generalization. But these types of things are so common, as to almost identify a culture. Being someone who likes to ask questions, who likes to know the whys and hows of things, it was humbling to be told by so many people how to walk and talk and carry my bag etc etc. Yes, i believe this was God's plan – to push down any pride i had remaining from my 48 years of life-experience. I can even be told now that i mustn't clean the kitchen or toilet or floor etc., and keep on smiling and doing it anyway (only servants or women are supposed to get dirty inside the house it seems).
The purpose to come to India – to find young people willing to do animation to make the Great Controversy into a movie was stillborn. It is possible that a couple of people i met might help in the future, but as for setting up a little training school and doing the work – nothing got accomplished. But still i'm sure God DID lead me here. I had a wonderful, precious time homeschooling 2 children for the majority of the time. They taught me some more patience, and hopefully i got good experience that will be put into practice elsewhere as i hope to start or help in little schools and homeschools. If someone ever starts a "school of the prophets", that would be a dream come true. And who knows, perhaps that is God's will for me in the future. I had many wonderful talks, especially with the father at the house where i stayed most of the time, and i was fortunate to meet several people who are strong with Jesus.
And the last 2 weeks of my stay were like "icing on the cake", and i mean that in a good way (mostly). It started out with a bus ride from Pune to Bangalore that was supposed to be 17 hours, but wound up being 23. The bedbug or whatever it was bites kept me itching almost uncontrollably for 2 days, and then normal painfully for about a week. Yes, the trains are much better, even with their stream of beggars, but i was just glad to get a ticket on any means of transport to reach my destination. I tried to call the pastor friend who said he would pick me up, but the call placed on the phone of a nice man i met on the bus wouldn't go thru, so i asked a rickshaw driver at the ending point if he could call. He called somebody, then cut the phone, turned to me, and said "50 rupees i take you there". I said "can you please call again and let me speak"? He agreed, and after satisfying him with a 10-rupee note for the call, he walked off, and i walked (dragged) the 40kg of books and calendars with me to the travel office down the road where the pastor met me. He was very gracious, and said something about being in the area since 4am when he had taken someone to the train station. It was after noon now, so i knew he had a lot of patience waiting for me. He took me to his church which is being renovated, and it was just good being with him again after a 6-week or so absence from our first meeting in Bombay.
After a bath and applying gobs of soothing jelly medicine that he so kindly purchased for me, i took a nap. He and his wife gave me their own cot-bed, and slept on the floor themselves on a little rice throw-mat. I felt bad putting them out like that, but protesting didn't help things, so just accepted their hospitality cheerfully. That is one of the great things about India, there are so many bad things here i guess, that people who are in your group are looked after quite well, and worried over and watched over carefully. In all the 15 years i lived in the Japan with its 20+ landings at its airports, i never once was greeted by anyone. And i've never been taken all the way to the airport yet by anyone either, altho last time i was taken to a train station near the airport. But here, two pastors who have never met me before greeted me at the Mumbai airport in July, and, well, just tonite, i had three people go along with me to the Bangalore airport, just to make sure everything went well for me. That's some hospitality! Of course, without that hospitality, it would be difficult to get here by public transport, as it is not connected well (hard to understand bus system and extremely overcrowded), and taxi drivers often charge what long-time foreigners here refer to as "skin tax" which is about a 5times surcharge.
The pastor in Bangalore took me to many of his church members' homes and businesses to talk and pray with them. He tries to meet with all his members in their homes once a week. This close contact is key, i believe, to keeping people healthy and strong in their church experience. I had many precious interviews, trying to lift the people up to look more closely to Jesus for everything.
read more from "india! at last"


A by-election has been called for Thursday 3rd. May for the Bideford East District Council seat, previously held by UKIP. The Liberal Democrats will be fighting a strong campaign and have selected Jamie McKenzie, a Bideford Town Councillor, as their candidate. We need all possible help and support to win this marginal seat. If YOU can help in Jamie's campaign, tel: agent, Stephen Potts on 01237 238543.


FRANKFORT — House Speaker Greg Stumbo is blaming the Senate for the demise of a tax-incentives bill in this year's legislative session designed to help lure a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to the Kentucky Speedway in Gallatin County.
But Senate President David Williams said Stumbo's action is a move by the Democrat-controlled House "to try to blame us for everything that went wrong" in the session.
"They had ought to be called on it," Williams said.
State lawmakers wrapped up the 2009 General Assembly last Thursday without taking up any additional legislation, including tax incentives for the 72,000-seat track near Sparta.


The Flow Cytometry Core Facility (FCCF) at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center &Research Institute was established in 1990 to provide a centralized flow cytometry service for Cancer Center members and University of South Florida faculty with cancer related research interests. Flow cytometry is an indispensable analytical tool for cell biology, immunology, and translational research efforts at the Cancer Center. This technology provides a means for rapidly and accurately analyzing multiple characteristics of biological particles, as well as the ability to rapidly isolate and purify cell populations of interest for the purpose of assessing immunological function and molecular distinctions, cell culture cloning, and animal transplantation studies. The FCCF is staffed with highly trained instrument specialists with a combined 21 years of researchbased flow cytometry experience. The facility houses five benchtop analyzers, two high-speed cell sorters, a bead array analyzer, an automated bead sorter, and a fluorescent microscope. The FCCF provides several services including multi-parameter analysis, cell sorting, data analysis and graphics programs, instrument training, project consultation, flow cytometry courses, and application workshops. It also houses a current literature base including cytometry journals and textbooks;vendor information on instrumentation, reagents, and services;and handbooks on flow cytometry-based methodology, procedures and techniques. Overall usage in the FCCF has increased more than 180% since the 2000 CCSG submission as a result of investigator recruitment, increased instrument capacity, and the initiative to train users to operate the benchtop cytometers, which allows them unlimited independent access. Over 39 peer-reviewed investigators across all research programs routinely access the FCCF, totaling 88% usage of acquisition service, 85% usage for cell sorting, and 80% of service training. Usage is expected to grow with investigator recruitment over the next few years. The Core Facility provides critical support for the scientific programs at the Cancer Center by giving investigators access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, cutting-edge cytometry applications, and exceptionally trained staff committed to contributing to outstanding scientific research efforts to understand and control cancer biology.


A Maseno University student was on Friday arraigned for impersonating a KCSE candidate and sitting for the ongoing exams at St Joseph Nyansakia Mixed Secondary School in Bomachoge, Kisii County.
Mr Davis Ongiri was arrested on Thursday night after officials received intelligence that he was a 'fake' candidate.
The suspect had done six examination papers before he was seized and booked at Ogembo Police Station.
He was charged before Senior Resident Magistrate Margret Nafula with falsifying information that he was a genuine KCSE exam candidate when he knew it was false.
The prosecution asked for more time to allow police to investigate the incident.
Ms Nafula ordered the suspect detained until November 19, when he will return to take a plea.


text:
DotNetNuke Goes to the University. Learn How!
DotNetNuke is the foundation for hundreds of thousands of websites around the world. Many of these websites are used by institutions of higher learning to enable students, teachers, administrators and alumni to communicate and collaborate.Please join me for our next Showcase Webinar on February 23rd, at 10 AM PST. You will hear "live" from Cornell and University of New Orleans about how they used DotNetNuke to build powerful and highly collaborative web sites. Can't make it? Register anyway to receive a recording of the event.
Joining me will be Robin Parker from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and Walt Brannon from the University of New Orleans (Member of Louisiana State University System) We will also be joined by Cuong Dang, Social Media Technology Manager at r2Integrated and DotNetNuke Core Team member.
REGISTER: http://bit.ly/iiF6Xk
To build, deploy and manage a University or College web site with limited resources
How to integrate social networking features into your site.
How university web site developers implement content workflows to ensure content is accurate and approved before being published
To provide secure access to sensitive areas of your web site and ensure only authorized content contributors are able to change key site content
To deploy a web site for hundreds of non-technical content contributors
How two developers used third party application modules to control development costs while extending the functionality of their site
How University web manages leveraged 3rd party DotNetNuke design and development services to rapidly deploy their sites.
Robin Parker, Web and Database Programming Manager, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University (www.johnson.cornell.edu)
Robin successfully deployed a rebranded CMS-based web site that created a larger applicant pool, attracted top faculty and improved employment prospects for graduates of the Johnson School. Robin also recently launched a new Alumni Portal which uses ActiveSocial modules to enable over 13,000 alumni to communicate and network.
Walt Brannon, Manager Messaging and Media Systems, University of New Orleans (uno.edu.com)
Walt recently released a suite of new web properties for the University of New Orleans (one of LSU's campuses) in record time. Walt created multiple web portals with unique URLs for the colleges (i.e. College of Science, College of Liberal Arts) and deployed document sharing and collaboration across colleges and departments.
Cuong Dang, Social Media Technology Manager, r2integrated
Cuong leads the marketing effort for the open source technology platform, DotNetNuke (DNN), and decision making in front-end engineering implementation of projects. Dang came on board with DotNetNuke as a Core Team member focusing on the user experience for DotNetNuke product development. He is currently a team lead of the DotNetNuke User Experience Team and a DNN skinning expert. He is a Wrox author on DotNetNuke and Web Standards, and has conducted extensive training throughout the country on the DNN platform.
By: Richard Dumas

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
'Youth'
Until legislation in the 1990s, in England and Wales, children and young people under 17 were the 'juveniles' who were processed in a juvenile justice system and prosecuted in the juvenile court set up by the Children Act 1908. Since the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, the criminal court for minors has been the youth court, with the upper age raised from 17 to 18[713] and, since implementation of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, minors who have offended are now dealt with in a youth justice system. There are youth offending teams and youth offending panels providing youth justice services and operating with a published youth justice plan, within a system overseen by a national Youth Justice Board.[714]
In England and Wales, the word 'youth' has also gradually emerged through successive versions of the Code for Crown Prosecutors to refer to the child or young person; before that, the reference was to the juvenile, or a young person, or, in its penultimate version, a youth offender.[715] Similarly, in Northern Ireland, where different legislation and terminology apply to many aspects of the treatment of minors, the same trend is to be found. In 1999, Northern Ireland re-named its juvenile court as the youth court (Criminal Justice (Children) Order 1998, article 27) and s 63 of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 raised the upper limit from 17 to 18 years.
'Juveniles' have not disappeared from policy and administration: the Juvenile Offenders Unit at the Home Office sponsors the Youth Justice Board and 'is responsible for youth justice policy, law, processes and organisation covering 10 to 17 year olds in England and Wales'.29 There is also still a Juvenile Operations Management Group in the Prison Service and juvenile secure accommodation. Further, in Youth Justice – The Next Steps,30 the companion document to the Green Paper Every Child Matters,31 the juvenile reappears in references to juvenile sentences, juvenile court orders and juvenile custody.32
Neither juvenile nor youth are morally or culturally neutral terms. 'Juvenile' has pejorative connotations: it suggests, perhaps, the offender as 'young and silly'. Arguably, however, 'youth' not only has more negative associations but is inherently gendered. If our associations with the word youth are pleasant ones of youth clubs, youth and community projects, or youth orchestras and choirs, where the two genders mixed on equal terms and the age range was not confined to older teenagers, there is no problem with the word 'youth'. However, Burney suggests that 'youths hanging about' have become 'the universal symbol of disorder and, increasingly, menace',33 so that the meanings constructed around 'youth' are negative.
The significance of this change in terminology is increased by the abolition, in the Crime and Disorder Act 1988, of the presumption that children aged 10-13 years old are doli incapax: that is, incapable of being held criminally responsible.34 From the tenth birthday, a child can legally be prosecuted and punished, so that a 'youth' in the criminal justice system now refers in law and practice to a girl or boy aged 10-17 inclusive. This has been widely criticised, not least by those concerned with the rights of children.35 Children in Trouble, a report by the children's charity Barnardo's, criticised this 'tendency to criminalise children unnecessarily and at younger ages, and a corresponding tendency to treat them as adults too soon'.36 Such a trend is encouraged by the use of the word 'youth', with its connotations of the older male person. Further, if policy and practice is – consciously or otherwise – geared to older male youths, then there is a risk that female youths – as well as younger youths of both sexes – will receive inappropriate responses to their offending.


Curzon Park has a fabulous setting for a round of golf, set as it is within a loop of the River Dee. Laid out on meadowland, it possesses a whole host of challenges that will excite and frustrate all levels of golfer.
An excellently looked after course, maintained by dedicated greenstaff, making it all the more appealing to play.
The par 4 and 5s are very long and will test your irons, and especially your knowledge of them.
The greens play fast and true, so familiarise yourself with them beforehand on the practice greens. The course offers a good test for all levels of golfer , a point reinforces by the par of 72.
Facilities include bar, trolley hire, catering, club hire, changing rooms, clubhouse and pro shop.


text:
Q: How does multiplying matrices in backpropagation work I'm new to neural networks and im tasked to create my own neural network in python. So far i've managed to create layers with their own weights, outputs, and derivatives. I'm currently working on the back propagation process and i'm having some trouble with it. Here is the current logic i have for my algorithm. In the picture, assume '*' as element wise multiplication like np.multiply. ydtf is the derivate from each node of each layer and weights are the weight connections that each nodes received from the layer before it. I'm sorry if the transposes are wrong.

It turns out, i've found out why my backpropagation dimensions are wrong :

Question is, is this logic correct? if not, what do i have to do to automate backpropagation exactly? does this process rely on the comparison between how many nodes each layer has?

A: Your question is referring to back-propagation, but you seem to be describing forward-propagation, (if this is a mistake check the bottom of my answer for more details).
Imagine we have a neural network with 5 input nodes, 3 neuron nodes and 1 output node. All of these nodes are connected with weights (lines).

To create the matrix for the Neuron array we will have to loop through each neuron in our network. Let's take N 0 for example.
The equation for N 0 will be N0 = (I 0 * W 0) + (I1 * W 1) + (I2 * W 2) + (I3 * W 3) + (I4 * W 4).
This is the easiest way I can present it in an equation. The simplest way put is this - the value for the next matrix is equal to the sum of all the weights and inputs going into that neuron.
Bear in mind that this is merely a simple equation, excluding any kind of bias or activation function, etc.
Your question wasn't quite clear and so I might have mis-interpreted what you said. If my answer has not rectified your question then please check out some of my previous answers which may help.
Does Back Propagation and Gradient Descent use the same logic?
How does the Gradient function work in Backpropagation?
I hope one of these responses answers your question, have a good day!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Crypto exchange Binance faces investigation by IRS, Department of Justice: report
by Michael McSweeney
May 13, 2021, 1:13PM EDT · 1 min read
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is reportedly facing an investigation by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as well as the Department of Justice, according to a report by Bloomberg.
According to the report, officials from the DOJ and the IRS have "sought information from individuals with insight into Binance's business," citing unnamed sources. Bloomberg's report noted that "[t]he federal agencies haven't accused Binance of wrongdoing."
Bloomberg reported in mid-March that Binance was facing an inquiry from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over whether the exchange allowed U.S. residents to trade on its platform.
Minutes after Bloomberg's report became public via headline newswires, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted: "So much FUD today. It's a pain for some, an opportunity for others." That message was similar to one he issued in the wake of Bloomberg's CFTC report in March.
"We take our legal obligations very seriously and engage with regulators and law enforcement in a collaborative fashion.," a Binance spokesperson told The Block when reached. "We have worked hard to build a robust compliance program that incorporates anti-money laundering principles and tools used by financial institutions to detect and address suspicious activity. We have a strong track record of assisting law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States. We don't comment on specific matters or inquiries."
In recent months, Binance has sought to beef up its regulatory advisory team. In March, Binance hired former U.S. senator Max Baucus as a regulatory advisor, and later that month the exchange added two former members of the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) to its advisory team.
As previously reported, Binance has faced regulatory scrutiny in Europe for its stock token trading service. The offering drew a public warning from regulators in Germany.


text:
Biografia
Inizia il suo apprendistato presso la società Fonolux di Roma assistendo le grandi montatrici dell'epoca come Adriana Novelli, Jolanda Benvenuti, Dolores Tamburini.
Dopo aver lavorato nel cinegiornale Obiettivo ha collaborato con Tatiana Casini Morigi, e in seguito, come assistente al montaggio con Nino Baragli, Ruggero Mastroianni, Maurizio Lucidi, Alberto Gallitti, Franco Arcalli.
Debutta come montatrice con Luigi Magni che le affida il montaggio del film Faustina.

È stata tra i fondatori dell'Associazione montatori cinematografici (AMC) nel 1980.

Nel 1986 è candidata al Ciak d'oro per il migliore montaggio con il film Piccoli fuochi.

La sua carriera è stata ripercorsa nel documentario Visioni senza tempo - Anna Napoli e il montaggio cinematografico (2022) di Claudio Costa.

Filmografia parziale

Montaggio
 Faustina, regia di Luigi Magni (1968)
 Vacanze in Val Trebbia, regia di Marco Bellocchio (1980)
 Con... fusione, regia di Piero Natoli (1980)
 Il pap'occhio, regia di Renzo Arbore (1980)
 Colpire al cuore, regia di Gianni Amelio (1982)
 Così parlò Bellavista, regia di Luciano De Crescenzo (1984)
 Piccoli fuochi, regia di Peter Del Monte (1985)
 Separati in casa, regia di Riccardo Pazzaglia (1986)
 32 dicembre, regia di Luciano De Crescenzo (1988)
 Angela come te, regia di Anna Brasi (1988)
 Domino, regia di Ivana Grassetti (1988)
 Étoile, regia di Peter Del Monte (1989)
 Non più di uno, regia di Berto Pelosso (1990)
 Il segno del comando, regia di Giulio Questi (1992)
 Un amore rubato, regia di Rodolfo Roberti (1993)
 Babylon : la paura è la migliore amica dell'uomo, regia di Guido Chiesa (1994)
 Soldato ignoto, regia di Marcello Aliprandi (1995)
 Ci vediamo in tribunale, regia di Domenico Saverni (1996)
 La Venere di Willendorf, regia di Elisabetta Lodoli (1996)
 Le stagioni dell'aquila, regia di Giuliano Montaldo (1997)
 Kidnapping - La sfida, regia di Cinzia TH Torrini (1998)
 Un uomo perbene, regia di Maurizio Zaccaro (1999)
 Unruly - Nessuna regola, regia di Philippe Bérenger (1999)
 Mirka, regia di Rachid Benhadj (2000)
 Quando una donna non dorme, regia di Nino Bizzarri (2000)
 Non ho sonno, regia di Dario Argento (2001)
 Uno bianca, regia di Michele Soavi (2001)
 Il testimone, regia di Michele Soavi (2001)
 Operazione Rosmarino, regia di Alessandra Populin (2002)
 Don Gnocchi - L'angelo dei bimbi, regia di Cinzia TH Torrini (2004)
 When Children Play in the Sky, regia di Lorenzo Hendel (2006)
 Miacarabefana.it, regia di Ludovico Gasparini (2009)
 Tutti al mare, regia di Matteo Cerami (2011)

Premi e riconoscimenti

Ciak d'oro
 1986 - Candidatura al migliore montaggio per Piccoli fuochi
 1990 - Candidatura al migliore montaggio per Stesso sangue

Note

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Your search of chris has 8 results.
O'zapft is - The Oktoberfest has started!
With the traditional tapping of the first barrel of Oktoberfest-beer, 178th Oktoberfest has started.
With the surrounding clouds and stars in this tent, you may feel as though you are truly in a "Bavarian Heaven".
The vintage festival area, focusing on history and tradition.
A lot of visitors come to the Oktoberfest for the amusement rides, the roller coasters and their countless varieties.
The guarantee for great fun in the festival tents is not just the beer. The music is quite important, too.


The earliest encounter with the police I can recall, occurred when I was 5-6 years old. The Chief of Police in our small town (Southern Pines, NC), lived next door. He was a genial fellow, like Andy Griffith. As my mom had three children, Chief MacDonald and his wife, who were older with no kids, took a shine to my sister Shelly and me.
We often visited Mrs Mac. One day when my Mom and Dad went somewhere? I took Shelly and we walked next door to Mrs Mac's house for cookies and milk.
I was the oldest, and like a second Mom, so she generally did what I told her to do. After she skated away, I continued to skate up and down the sidewalk, letting the old man catch me and give me a swing, giving Shelly time to get home. When I thought she had been gone long enough to get home, I skated back down the walkway away from the man, and kept on skating toward my home.
I don't know if he came after me or not, because my parents arrived in their car and rescued me. My 4-year old sister had skated home and told them about the old man.
Later my Dad and I rode around in Chief Mac's car looking for the man. We found him in the process of walking out-of-town. When I spotted him I yelled, "There he is." Later, after Chief Mac took Dad and me home, I think he arrested him for vagrancy.
Dad told me later, as the man "hadn't done anything," and I was a child, he thought maybe I had "made up the story." So, based on what my Dad told them, they let the man go.
Back then we were supposed to be seen and not heard. I cannot see that happening today!
I had a couple of experiences like that when I was a child. I still remember them and am disturbed by those memories. You were quick thinking even as a child.
Let's hope that being arrested frightened him off approaching any other little girls.
What a fantastic sister you proved yourself to be from an early age. You dealt with the situation really well, but I'm sad the adults didn't take your accusation seriously.
When I was 12 I stood at a lonely bus stop waiting for my school bus. That day the rain poured out of the sky as I waited. I looked up the hill and watched for the bus, and as I did so a car swerved slightly on it's approach of me, as if it were braking heavily in the rain. The man stopped the car right next to me and offered me a lift. I politely said no thanks and then pointed out that my bus was at the top of the hill and he sped off.
He didn't frighten me but I thought it was odd so I told my teacher who called the police. The police asked me for details but I could only tell them the car was a blue saloon and the man was probably between 50 and 60. They told me that if something like that should ever happen again I should note down the registration number of the car. They said he probably meant me no harm but he shouldn't offer young girls lifts.
A few weeks later it was raining cats and dogs again and as I watched for my bus I saw a blue saloon approaching me, swerving once again.
The man stopped the car and offered me a lift. It was, of course, the same man. Again I politely said, "No thanks." But that time the man lost his patience and aggressively ordered me to "Get in the car!" I refused and he started to open his door and I really believed that he was about to attempt to force me into the vehicle. Luckily though my bus again appeared at the top of the hill and I told him this and he fled.
I wrote down the registration details.
I arrived at school visibly shaken. The teacher called the police but the police decided I must be fabricating the whole thing without doing any checks. They wouldn't even take the registation details down.
I was a good kid with good grades and no history of lying.
Fortunately we moved house shortly after. I was really afraid standing at that bus stop after that.
After THE WAR there were many demobbed guys without jobs. They wandered from place to place picking up work where they could find it. Still they had no right to pick up litle girls.
For a long time, I think many people were in denial about the dangers children faced from adults. Your story made me angry.
That was a close call! So many kids today would not have survived that. It appears you have had a good head on your shoulders from an early age.
Yes, I was fairly clever at age 5. Too bad I was not so clever as an adult.
This is why so many abuses go unstopped and undetected.
I'm glad you were okay and I admire your presence of mind!
What an amazing story. Wow. That was scary.
I was about the same age as you, four or five. a Miami policeman and his family lived behind us in a new housing development, I was good friends with the daughter of the policeman we played together almost everyday. My Daddy had given me a new fishing rod for my birthday and I showed it to my friend. I kept it in a kind of cupboard at the back of our carport. It wasn't locked ,our neighborhood seemed safe and besides we had a cop behind us. My rod went missing shortly thereafter, I was heartbroken, no money to replace it I was lucky to get one in the first place.One week-end I was playing with my friend in her carport and her Daddy was putting away some tools in their cupboard when I spotted my rod I yelled" that's my new fishing rod!" He slammed the door shut and said no it wasn't. I went straight home and told my Mama. She told me not to tell my Daddy as he would have gone over there and started a fight and ended up in jail. Hard lessons to learn at an early age.
Oh that makes me so angry.
I can see this…hear this too. I am so sorry.
You have a remarkable memory.


The ceramic parquet from Porcelanosa has five new tones, plus anti-slip technology which strengthens it slip-resistance features.
This material creates nanostructured surfaces without having its colour scheme or texture changed.
The ceramic parquet by PAR-KER™ from Porcelanosa increases its aesthetic possibilities with Orleans, it new porcelain tile series.
Its resistance, durability, and excellent quality make it the perfect option for big architectural projects and public spaces. Qualities which can be achieved through the Nanoker technology, which provides surfaces with anti-slip features, with textures that are not only smooth and pleasant but also long-lasting which, hardly need any maintenance at all.
Resistant to water, chemical agents and impacts; this ceramic parquet has excellent properties for terraces and bathrooms.
Its five colours: Grey, Roble, Nut, Arce and Natural; are available with or without the anti-slip technology. As well as that, they come in the same format: 19.3cm x 120cm x 1.1cm.
These tones, with their great brightness and chromatic possibilities, allow for spaces without any separations or differences to be developed. A brand new design on the horizon.


text:
warble
======

A project to try to detect melody patterns in recorded voice.
The eventual goal is to be able to detect sentence type
(declarative, yes/no question, wh-question, tag question, echo question, command, etc.)
and possibly other things.

The (informal) report I wrote for this project can be found [here](http://jcelliott.github.io/warble/)

### Dependencies ###

* python (2.7)
* matplotlib (1.2.1)
* aubio (0.4.0-alpha)
  * libsndfile
  * libsamplerate
  * FFTW
  * SWIG (to build python modules)

#### Error building libsndfile on osx ####
* I ended up commenting out #include \<Carbon.h\> in programs/sndfile-play.c
* built fine on linux

#### Error building aubio: ####
* Download release version from website (0.3.2)
  * Add libm to linker flags: LDFLAGS=-lm make
* or download latest from repo (0.4.0-alpha)
  * Add libm to linker flags: LDFLAGS=-lm ./waf build

TODO
====

* add tests!
* add a real options parser
* intonation filtering based on time
* weight pitches based on duration or pitch change
* smoothing (averaging) filter

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
This week's syllabus: Sept. 6-12
By golfdigest.com
Time to resume the weekly digest from the world of college golf. As always, your feedback and comments are more than welcome.
THE FAB FIVE
My look at the top five teams in the country right now
[__
__[#image: /photos/55ad7066add713143b4219e1]|||Alabama_small_logo|||
__[#image: /photos/55ad7066b01eefe207f66e1a]|||Southern_cal_logo|||
__[#image: /photos/55ad7066b01eefe207f66e17]|||Ucla_logo|||
__[#image: /photos/55ad7066add713143b4219dd]|||Florida_small_logo|||
__[#image: /photos/55ad7067b01eefe207f66e25]|||Purdue_logo|||
STAT OF THE WEEK
2__
Number of double eagles VCU's Mark Jargren made during his team's qualifying for this week's Scenic City Invitational. The freshman from Helsingborg, Sweden holed his second shot with a 5-iron on the 494-yard second hole at The Country Club of Virginia's Westhampton Course on Monday. The next day he holed a 3-wood on the 542-yard 10th hole. Suffice it to say, he earned a spot on the traveling team and will make his official collegiate debut this weekend.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR__
â¿¢ So much for easing into the start of the season. At next week's Mason Rudolph Women's Championship, hosted by Vanderbilt, 10 of the top 11 teams in the country in the Golf World/NGCA preseason coaches' poll will be in the field (the only missing squad is Pepperdine). It's the one time we'll see all these schools together until the NCAA Championship next May, and then only if we're lucky and they all advance.
"It will give everybody a chance to see where they stand," said Vanderbilt coach Greg Allen. "I think it's great."
â¿¢ With all the coaching changes this past summer, particularly on the women's side, there will be a lot of getting-to-know-you-sessions going on in the coming weeks. How teams fare in the fall will be influenced largely on how long the acclimation process takes. Perhaps this is where the likes of Shauna Estes at Arkansas and Shelly Haywood at Arizona might have an advantage. While taking over the head coaching duties, being assistant coaches at their respective school keeps the transition time from being to onerous.
Consider that at Arizona, Haywood already saw her two senior leaders, Alison Walshe and Mary Jacobs reach out to make the change as easy as possible. "They have come to me and said Shelly, we'll help you. You've got us.' I'm trying to figure out who to hire as an assistant and Mary said, Shelly, we'll help you.' For them to step up and say that. That's what you need."
TOURNAMENTS TO WATCH
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Purdue Midwest Shootout
Host: Purdue
Kampen Course, West Lafayette, Ind.
Field: Arizona, Bowling Green, Dayton, Eastern Illinois, George Mason, IUPUI, Kent State, Loyola, Michigan, Missouri, Northern Illinois, Oakland, Purdue, Rice, SMU, Western Illinois
Defending champion: New event
Skinny: For teams concerned about the .500 rule, a few new events have been scheduled bringing together a "diverse" assortment of teams that can help a team improve its record. This one-day, 36-hole event is among them. With the Kampen Course also hosting the NCAA Championship next spring, it isn't much of a surprise that a team with Arizona's marquee value would make the trip and we're guessing that this is the first time the Wildcats and IUPUI have been in the same field in a regular-season tournament.
Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational
Host: Toledo
Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio
Field: Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Kent State, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, UNC-Greensboro, Oklahoma State, Southern California, TCU, Texas A&M, Toledo, UNLV.
Scenic City Challenge
Host: UT-Chattanooga
Council Fire GC, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Mid-Pines Intercollegiate
Host: Boston College
Mid-Pines Inn & GC, Pine Needles, N.C.
__WOMEN
Cougar Classic__
(For live scoring, link here to Golfstat)
Yeaman's Hall, Hallahan, S.C. (Par 72, 6,154 yards)
Field: Alabama, Charleston, Florida State, Furman, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Mississippi, Mississippi State, North Carolina, N.C. State, UNC-Greensboro, Notre Dame, Penn State, Richmond, South Carolina, South Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M
Defending champion: Florida State (nine-over 873); Lauren Hunt, North Carolina (six-under 210)
Skinny: Twelve of the 20 teams in the field played at NCAA regionals last spring, with seven finished in the top 30. Texas and Texas A&M compete for the first time, giving the event more of a national flavor says College of Charleston coach Jamie Futrell. Another addition to the line-up is in-state rival South Carolina.
Mary Fossum Invitational
Sept. 8-9
Host: Michigan State
Forest Akers West, East Lansing, Mich.
Field: Ferris State, Grand Valley State, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kent State, Michigan, Michigan State
Missouri, Toledo
Lady Northern/Badger Invitational
Sept. 9-10
Host: Wisconsin
University Ridge GC, Verona, Wis.
Field: Central Florida, Drake, Georgetown, Illinois State, Iowa State, Minnesota, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma, Samford, SMU, Wisconsin, Xavier
Chip-N Club Invitational
Host: Nebraska
Woodland Hills GC, Eagle, Neb.


Our Preventing a Toxic Workplace Culture training programme doesn't just give you the bad news - the appalling cost of a toxic culture - it explains what you can do to build a positive culture. This is simple to explain, but it isn't easy. It isn't just about training staff or developing a policy. It will only work if your good intentions become a SYSTEM that runs through everything you do and is embraced by your entire organisation.
It isn't enough for senior managers and board members to go along with the idea of establishing a positive culture. This new initiative has to be led, pushed through and championed by those at the top of the organisation.
Go public - announce what you are doing.
Agree the membership of a steering group.
Agree a senior manager to lead the project - and how you will make sure this person is acceptable to the workforce.
Agree the implementation and annual review plan.
Agree the code of conduct and consequences for breaking the code of conduct.
Make all staff aware of the scale, harm and cost of workplace abuse – against colleagues, subordinates, clients and whistleblowers.
All existing and new staff sign – and sign again every year – an undertaking that they will not behave in unacceptable ways.
One. Abusive, threatening and intimidating behaviour and work sabotage.
Two. Deception, manipulation and lying.
Three. Working to further self-interest not the interest of the organisation.
A toxic workplace culture is one where those who raise legitimate concerns are seen as threats. In a toxic culture reputations, status and enhancing careers become more important than providing a good service. This should be turned on its head. In a positive culture raising legitimate concerns and challenging should be welcomed and rewarded.
The idea of the "pre-mortem" can help here. This is a regular (six monthly or annual) meeting where key staff discuss, What's one of the worst things that could happen in our organisation? The group assume it has happened and then write the report on the history of the disaster - why it happened, what went wrong and what needs to change.
Make the plan for the next year – what could be done better?


Posted on November 23, 2008 November 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. It's getting clearer to me that PM Aso's "economic stimulus package" of cash back to citizens is nothing more than a bribe to voters. Yes, to voters. Again, as the plan nears approval, it's still unclear whether NJ residents also get any money. However, it's pretty clear why this fence sitting: NJ can't vote, so they don't count. Even though they spend money like citizens, so they should count.
Thus this is not an economic stimulus package (which would naturally and unequivocally include everyone in Japan who spends money). It's a political stimulus, to popularity polls for the LDP. Because as critics point out below, it's unclear that it'll have any economic effect at all. It didn't before.
Is the current government ready to repeat that blunder as early as this year or early next year?
The answer is probably yes, according to numerous governors and mayors across the country as well as most commentators.
Criticism for a planned ¥2 trillion cash handout program, formally decided by the government led by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito on Wednesday, hasn't ceased over the weekend, reviving the memory of the 1999 coupon program that cost ¥700 billion but had little benefit for the economy.
Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa, appearing on a TV news program Saturday, waved a ¥10,000 bill before the camera and argued that the government should not be scattering cash around among people with no strategic economic focus.
"The previous coupon handout program boosted the individual consumption portion of gross domestic product by only 0.1 percent. The Economic Planing Agency admitted that it had little economic effect," Matsuzawa pointed out.
Dozens of governors and mayors similarly have called on the government to spend that amount of money, if ever it will, with a clear strategic focus.
"(The government ) will spend ¥2 trillion, which is equal to the budget of the Tottori Prefectural Government for five years. I cannot even visualize that amount of money," Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai said Thursday.
Under the program announced by Prime Minister Taro Aso, the government plans to distribute ¥12,000 to every citizen, plus an additional ¥8,000 for each child 18 or younger and elderly person 65 or older. Whether foreigners will be covered has not been decided yet.
The handouts are supposed to total ¥2 trillion, nearly three times as much as the notorious coupon program.
Analysts say the handouts are as unlikely as the 1999 coupons to spark a consumption boom, because people probably won't spend much amid the global financial crisis and a looming rise in the unpopular consumption tax, which Aso said may be increased in three years.
Even government economists agree. Kaoru Yosano, economic and fiscal policy minister, revealed at a news conference Oct. 31. that the Cabinet Office estimated that doling out ¥2 trillion in cash will boost total GDP by only 0.1 percent.
What particularly astounded local government leaders was Aso's decision to let municipalities decide whether to put an income cap on applicants so people making a lot of money would not be eligible.
Mayors worry about chaos at their municipal offices as thousands of people are expected to rush to apply for the handout in a short period of time, and local officials would have a giant task checking the annual income levels of applicants.
Norihisa Satake, mayor of Akita and head of the national association of mayors, argued that it's simply impossible for city offices to handle all the clerical work.
"If 137,000 households (in Akita) come to City Hall over two weeks, about 10,000 people will come a day," said Satake, adding the building only has parking for 400 automobiles.
The central government reportedly hopes to start handing out the cash after having a second supplementary budget enacted by the Diet in March.
But March is also the time when workers at municipal offices are extremely busy as the fiscal year ends later in the month.
"Even if we stop all the (other) work, we would not be able to handle (the applications). Do Diet members understand the reality of this?" Satake asked at a news conference in Akita last week, according to minutes of the conference posted on the city's Web site.
I think that if we (nj) taxpayers get excluded from this plan (not that I really want this money…..and I would prefer it to be used on something really useful)we should REFUSE to pay taxes until we get included. It is time to stop being second class citizens. We have all duties without any benefit.
I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone that NJ will not be on the receiving end of any handout. In fact I would be stunned if we were included. Could you imagine how much flak the government would get for "giving free money to foreigners who could just leave the country". Perhaps we'd all use it to secretly fund Nth Korea or terrorist groups?
What a disgrace. Even if it could be shown that a plan like this could be effective — and previous evidence shows that it isn't — it could be done cheaply and fairly by simply issuing a tax rebate.
How about Japanese people living abroad? Do they get money, despite not paying taxes to the Japanese government? If they're eligible, it makes this program that much more of a vote-buying farce.
If so-called free money is given to foreigners, it reduces the gain that comes from all that heavy negotiation. The idea is to negotiate and bicker for advantage. And giving back what was gained, that just spoils it.
Giving back what was won is something foreigners do.
Exactly and as they say on JTV, it will cost more than what they want to give away because someone has to pay overtime to City Hall officials who will handle this. By the way, make them busy so they won`t send me reminders about taxes 🙂 Not included foreigners don@t need to go there to get it, so as paying.
Debito here. One thing a friend told me today was that if they really want to stimulate the economy effectively and equitably, how about dropping the Consumption Tax (at 5%) to zero for one full month?
That way, anyone who spends money will get a tax rebate. And it will definitely stimulate consumption, since we had that month's tax holiday from "temporary gasoline taxes" in April, and drivers rushed to the pumps to take advantage.
A consumption tax holiday doesn't involve high administration costs, registering people to get their rebate, or even separate consumers by nationality.
I hope Aso flies across Japan on a hot air balloon dropping 1man yen bills on everyone.
The average joe would probably head straight for the local pachinko parlour, lose, and all the profit will be sent across the Sea of Japan to prop up the N.K. regime.
I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone that NJ will not be on the receiving end of any handout.
Drew, in case you don't know you can get a refund for the first three years of payments.
2kyu: Yep, I did know that.. I passed the 3 year barrier quite some time ago, so now I'm just flushing money down the toilet.


It's Time You Jump on the Argan Oil Train (If You Haven't Already)!
The cosmetic world has been dipped in the "liquid gold" also known as argan oil. The antioxidant-rich oil has begun to take over the shelves of beauty supply stores, drug stores and online retailers like Amazon. With argan oil's revitalizing and hydrating properties, it's no wonder this ingredient has skyrocketed in popularity in many hair, skin, and nail products. If you haven't jumped on the argan train already, now is the time to add it to your beauty routine.
Argan oil is a natural ingredient that is extracted by pressing slightly roasted kernels of the argan tree fruit. The argan tree, scientifically known as Argania Spinosa, is a tree native to south-western Morocco. The oil derived from the argan fruit contains compounds that have promising antiviral and antioxidant properties. Additionally, the residue left over after pressing the kernels is rich in valuable proteins, which can contribute to a number of benefits for your hair, skin, nails, and health.
How Is Argan Oil Made?
Because of the labor intensive process to extract argan oil, the powerful ingredient comes at a price. For a single person, only 2-2.5 liters of oil are obtained from 100 kg of dry fruit and it takes up to 58 hours of hard work. However, to produce large quantities of argan oil for cosmetic purposes without compromising the quality, women's cooperatives have been started in south-western Morocco. These cooperatives prepare argan oil by cold pressing argan kernels. Using this technology, 4-6 liters of oil can be obtained from 100 kg of dry fruit after 13 hours of work by a single person.
What Can Argan Oil Do For You?
In cosmetic products, argan oil brings hydration back to the skin, helps rid acne, makes hair shine, treats brittle nails and softens cuticles. Argan oil is jam packed with fatty acids, vitamins, and carotenes that support healthy skin by reducing flaky skin and adding sheen and strength to hair fiber. Because it is filled with antioxidants, argan oil is ideal for those with oily skin because it won't clog pores and will help balance out the skin's natural oils, reducing acne and breakouts. Not only does argan oil hydrate the skin and help clear acne, it also has anti-aging properties that prevent oxidative damage from carcinogens, pollution, and harmful UV radiation.
Aside from being a beneficial component of cosmetic products, argan oil has also been proven to have cardioprotective properties as well as chemoprotective properties. Rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and unsaturated fatty acids containing omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, cooking with argan oil is a heart-healthy alternative to fattier oils and butter (just make sure it's food grade). Argan oil has many active ingredients such as, carotenes, sterols and phenolic antioxidants which have exhibited anti-proliferative activity meaning it can be used as a natural remedy to delay the onset of cancer.
Whether you're on the hunt for new hair, skin, or nail products or simply looking for a way to incorporate healthier choices into your lifestyle, you can trust argan oil as a powerhouse ingredient in your cosmetic products or diet and reap its many benefits.
Therapeutic potential of argan oil: a review. Authors Hanae El Monfalouti, Dom Guillaume, Clément Denhez, Zoubida Charrouf. 4 November 2010.
I love pure and natural ingredients.


The MOD Pizza chain, which offers made-to-order pizza fast, is in a sector that can be a revolving door of new hires and rarely a career option for employees. But Scott and Ally Svenson wanted to make their company a good place to work. Staffers clocking more than 26 hours a week have medical, dental and vision coverage. Employees, or the MOD Squad as they're known, also receive coaching in life skills such as budgeting, computer skills and leadership training.
The chain, which has grown to more than 100 restaurants and 3,000-plus employees, also makes an effort to hire individuals with a range of disabilities. It promotes heavily from within; 11 of 14 general managers have risen through the ranks. The payoff: a very loyal staff.
CAMPS is a nonprofit organization that provides small and midsize manufacturers and their strategic partners an opportunity to network and to learn more about issues affecting the sector. To address the shortage of workers, CAMPS supports several training programs. The group also has mapped the state's medical device supply chain.
With its students opening or managing more than 200 spas, barbershops and salons, Evergreen Beauty College styles itself as the Business School of Beauty. In addition to cosmetology training, Evergreen has a five-month program to help students develop financial literacy so they can manage their personal finances and run a business. The family-owned trade college has campuses in Everett, Bellevue and Renton.


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