The National Indoor Arena (NIA) has become an established part of Birmingham life in the past two decades – but its £20.6 million revamp aims to bring the city inside.
The huge investment intends to keep the arena at the forefront of the events business amid growing competition from Europe and beyond, although the inspiration for the redesign lies closer to home.
Part of the refurbishment, which will add almost 65,000 sq ft of floorspace, will reflect Birmingham's heritage, with nods to the Jewellery Quarter and its history as The City of 1,000 Trades.
It will also add new eateries to bring people in at all times of the day, with more than 16,000 sq ft of space created for food and drink operators overlooking the canal.
NIA managing director Phil Mead said that while the venue remains a success, it has never made the most of its city centre location.
"You don't get too many arenas in the city centre with views over a canal," he said.
"You don't get many with glazed frontages. It will look very dramatic and give a real sense of arrival. At the moment you arrive by the car park."
He added: "We are making a big change to the customer and client experience including bigger rooms backstage for the artists.
"For many of them their whole experience of Birmingham is backstage at the NIA, so we want to make it a good one."
A key part of the plan for the new NIA is to better reflect the city, particularly its heritage.
The first mezzanine floor will be designed to reflect the Jewellery Quarter, with diamonds and golden chains dotted around.
The second mezzanine focuses on industrial heritage, with hints of copper and mesh.
The most significant change will be the extension of concourses and new areas to improve the customer experience.
These concourses will expand from 20ft to 72ft wide while a new Barclaycard lounge and improved corporate areas will offer luxurious spots for a drink while waiting.
The new canal-side area will be split into four or five food and drink establishments and Mr Mead said there had been no shortage of interest.
He said: "We are looking at brands that are complementary to both the arena and Brindleyplace. So far, we are quite advanced in selling the units.
"And selling that space is bringing in new revenue, as is the sponsorship itself."
The arena will re-open in September with work completed by the end of December although Mr Mead refused to give anything away about the artists in the running for the opening night.
The business plan is to bring more people in and continue to attract world-class events which he said would be under threat without improvements.
The likes of Drake, The Vamps, Riverdance and Lee Evans were among those to perform at the arena this year, but Mr Mead said demand for artists' time has never been so high.
He said: "We are still very busy today. Before we started the development we were in use for a good 200 days a year, which is a pretty strong programme.
"But there were a few reasons we needed to redevelop. The arena was getting a bit tired, although well-maintained, but the big thing for us as operators, as well as the city, is our market share. The market is incredibly competitive.
Over the last 15 years every city in the UK has built an arena or tried to.
"In entertainment, artists like Lady Gaga can only play so many dates, so you need to stay in the Premier League to keep them coming here.
"It is slightly different for things like Disney On Ice, where they can have a different show for Europe and the US.
"For international sports events, we are bidding against other cities all the time.
"For the World Indoor Athletics it was a city in America, and for other events we are always up against European cities. It gets difficult to do that when your venue is getting tired.
"It is already working in that we have won the bidding for a few big events," he added.
"The first tender was the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships. The tender was up and Manchester, London and Sheffield were after it.
"That event is like the Wimbledon of badminton. It is beamed all over the world into something like 130 million households," said Mr Mead.
"The work we are doing was a big part of winning it again and we have secured it until 2021.
"The same applies to the World Indoor Athletics. Without the redevelopment we have been able to show it would have been a harder sell."
Cliff Richard has been the most prolific performer at the NIA, with a total of 67 nights, while events like Gladiators and the Eurovision Song Contest and world championships in BMX, indoor athletics and gymnastics have put it on the map.
Mr Mead said the main arena bowl had served the NIA well and few changes will be made aside from adding extra leg room.
He said: "The bowl itself is a neat design but one of the things our audience feedback showed is they would like more leg room.
"We are replacing all the seats in the bowl and have managed to create extra room without major changes."
Construction work, being carried out by Bam, will take 16 phases, taking in everything from the back-of-house, to toilets, to the the giant concourses. Three towering sky needles – to represent gold, silver and bronze – will also be added later, along with the giant glazed facade.
The exterior will also feature a "wonderwall" – a giant wall of mood lights looking over the city.
A key part of the refurbished NIA will be sharing in customers' digital conversations.
That includes technology to locate people and communicate through email and social media.
Mr Mead said bringing in additional revenue was key to ensuring Birmingham City Council had a return on its loan.
"We couldn't go to the city and say 'give us £20 million' and then wait for it to come," he said.
"We had to show good reasons and we were able to do it by coming up with the right business model to increase revenue, which we have borrowed against."


text:
ELLE DUMONT '20
Endangered Animals & Global Warming
It is no secret that Earth is slowly heating up; ice and snow are melting rapidly and sea levels are quickly rising. NASA's website presents statistics surrounding climate change. Ice sheets have decreased by 413 gigatonnes per year and the sea level has risen 3.3 millimeters per year. Along with the consequences of more heat waves and stronger and more intense hurricanes, animal populations are endangered.
Mr. Simcoe's APES class at Saint Ursula delves into the ideas of climate change and its effects on animals, while also studying solutions to the problem. Mr. Simcoe says that this crisis is affecting all parts of our world, but the most rapid and alarming changes are occurring in the Arctic: "Polar bears and walruses are two noteworthy species that are in immediate danger due to there being less and less sea ice, which is a crucial part of their habitat."
Polar bears have less ice and land to hunt on and are therefore forced to swim for miles on end in order to find food. The polar bear population has dropped from the exhausting swim, killing many. Similarly, the ringed seal relies on sea ice and snow dens for breeding. Early warming causes premature separation of the cub from a mother and hunting becomes harder.
Another species that is vulnerable due to the dramatic change in weather is the koala. These furry animals live in woodlands in Australia. Their thick fur and skin pose as an issue in the rising temperatures. Koalas will struggle to adapt to the heat with their heavy coats. On top of this, the increase of greenhouse gasses, Co2, produces less protein in the eucalyptus leaves that the animal feeds. Not only do they struggle to adapt, but their food also becomes sparse. Koalas' habitats are increasingly being destroyed by drought, bush fires and development.
The monarch butterfly is another example of a species that is endangered. Monarchs are listed as a "threatened phenomenon." Climate related threats to these insects include: drought, storms, and changes in precipitation. Temperature is the trigger for these butterflies to migrate and reproduce. The alteration in temperature and precipitation throws off the migration and reproduction patterns and therefore threaten the population.
What can we do to help save the existence of these animals? Mr. Simcoe teaches that "locally, you can support species in your own yards by planting pollinator gardens, trees, and basically trying to bring nature back into our human impacted world." Helping these animals can be as simple as taking shorter showers or carpooling. Emission from cars increase carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap the sun's heat here on Earth and warms our planet. Take this into consideration the next time you turn down a ride from a friend. Other things you can do is to grow your own food, recycle, and don't waste food. These simple little alternatives will help the planet.
Mr. Simcoe manages the composting at Saint Ursula. He stresses the importance of this is because it produces new soil, which helps to alleviate the major environmental problem of global soil loss and degradation. When we throw organic waste into landfills, this produces methane. "Composting rather than allowing this material to add to our climate change problem, takes this waste and turns it into a valuable resource. Humans HAVE to do this in order to continue to survive and thrive!" Mr. Simcoe states.
One thing people forget about is their voice. Spark conversation for climate conservation. Tell others about what you know and share the dangers and threats global warming poses. And while you are at it, plant a tree!
#environment #teacher

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package xworker.swt.interactive.design;

import java.util.List;

import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Event;
import org.xmeta.ActionContext;
import org.xmeta.Thing;
import org.xmeta.World;

import xworker.swt.design.DesignTools;
import xworker.swt.util.SwtUtils;
import xworker.swt.util.ThingCompositeCreator;

public class ReplaceList {
	private static final String DATA = "__ReplaceList_Datas__";

	public static Object create(ActionContext actionContext) {
		Thing self = actionContext.getObject("self");

		ThingCompositeCreator creator = SwtUtils.createCompositeCreator(self, actionContext);
		creator.setCompositeThing(World.getInstance().getThing("xworker.swt.interactive.design.prototypes.ReplaceListShell/@list"));

		org.eclipse.swt.widgets.List list = (org.eclipse.swt.widgets.List) creator.create();

		List<Thing> widgets = self.doAction("getWidgets", actionContext);
		if(widgets != null) {
			for(Thing widget : widgets) {
				list.add(widget.getMetadata().getLabel());
			}

			list.setData(DATA, widgets);
		}

		actionContext.g().put(self.getMetadata().getName(), list);
		return list;
	}

	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	public static void listSelection(ActionContext actionContext) {
		Event event = actionContext.getObject("event");
		org.eclipse.swt.widgets.List control = (org.eclipse.swt.widgets.List) event.widget;
		int index = control.getSelectionIndex();

		List<Thing> widgets = (List<Thing>) control.getData(DATA);
		Thing replaceThing = widgets.get(index);

		if(replaceThing != null) {
			DesignTools.insert(control, replaceThing, DesignTools.REPLACE);
		}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/07/04 (04 Jul 2014)
Dembski, William A.
Criticism of Dembski's "Explanatory Filter": Vindicated
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Sat, 2008-12-06 15:33. Dembski, William A. | antievolution | criticism | explanatory filter | intelligent design | william dembski
I've been saying that there were problems in William Dembski's "explanatory filter" for a long, long time. Dembski has finally admitted that was the case.
At the February 1997 NTSE conference, when I brought up the "traveling salesman problem" solved by genetic algorithm as an example that countered Dembski's EF, he responded that his logic was sound and his premises were true, therefore his conclusion followed. Dembski in that instant dismissed empirical data as having any bearing on his work. It only took the better part of twelve years for Dembski to repudiate the soundness of his logic presented then.
Unacknowledged Errors in "Unacknowledged Costs" Essay
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Tue, 2007-10-09 15:16. Specified Complexity | Dembski, William A.
Back over the summer, William Dembski was talking up "Baylor's Evolutionary Informatics Laboratory", and one of the features there was a PDF of an essay critiquing the "ev" evolutionary computation program by Tom Schneider. Titled "Unacknowledged Information Costs in Evolutionary Computing", the essay by Robert J. Marks and William A. Dembski made some pretty stunning claims about the "ev" program. Among them, it claimed that blind search was a more effective strategy than evolutionary computation for the problem at hand, and that the search structure in place was responsible for most of the information resulting from the program. The essay was pitched as being "in review", publication unspecified. Dembski also made much of the fact that Tom Schneider had not, at some point, posted a response to the essay.
There are some things that Marks and Dembski did right, and others that were botched. Where they got it right was in posting the scripts that they used to come up with data for their conclusions, and in removing the paper from the "evolutionaryinformatics.org" site on notification of the errors. The posting of scripts allowed others to figure out where they got it wrong. What is surprising is just how trivial the error was, and how poor the scrutiny must have been to let things get to this point.
Now what remains to be seen is whether in any future iteration of their paper they bother to do the scholarly thing and acknowledge both the errors and those who brought the errors to their attention. Dembski at least has an exceedingly poor track record on this score, writing that critics can be used to improve materials released online. While Dembski has occasionally taken a clue from a critic, it is rather rarer that one sees Dembski acknowledge his debt to a critic.
In the current case, Marks and Dembski owe a debt to Tom Schneider, "After the Bar Closes" regular "2ndclass", and "Good Math, Bad Math" commenter David vun Kannon. Schneider worked from properties of the "ev" simulation itself to demonstrate that the numbers in the Marks and Dembski critique cannot possibly be correct. "2ndclass" made a project out of examining the Matlab script provided with the Marks and Dembski paper to find the source of the bogus data used to form the conclusions of Marks and Dembski. vun Kannon suggested an easy way to use the Java version of "ev" to quickly check the claims by Marks and Dembski.
(Also posted at the Austringer)
Dances with Popper: An Examination of Dembski's Claims on Testability
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Fri, 2007-08-24 14:59. Dembski, William A.
Posted by Wesley R. Elsberry on May 8, 2004 03:34 PM (Original)
Otto: Apes don't read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes, they do, Otto, they just don't understand it.
("A Fish Called Wanda")
In his new book, The Design Revolution, "intelligent design" advocate William A. Dembski invokes the late philosopher Sir Karl Popper as an authority on "testability" (ch. 39, pp.281-282). Perhaps Dembski has read Popper, perhaps he hasn't. It's certain, though, that Dembski does not understand Popper, and has a long history of not understanding Popper. Which is surprising, because Popper was an extraordinarily accessible philosopher.
Dembski bases his chapter on "Testability" in The Design Revolution (ch.39) on an essay he posted to the Internet in 2001. Between these two, Dembski switches from the term "falsifiability" to "refutability" instead. This is an odd thing for Dembski to do. It is explainable as a response to criticism that I made of his use of "falsifiability" in 2001, as I showed then that Dembski's use of "falsifiability" differed markedly from that of Popper, who defined its usage in science and philosophy. The new version of Dembski's argument shows a continuing misunderstanding of Popper and overlooks the fundamental flaws in Dembski's argument.
Specified Complexity Depends Upon Implicit Design Conjectures
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Wed, 2007-08-01 22:33. Specified Complexity | Dembski, William A.
William Dembski's No Free Lunch contains the following passage:
The presumption here is that if a subject S can figure out an independently given pattern to which E conforms (i.e., a detachable rejection region of probability less than alpha that includes E), then so could someone else. Indeed, the presumption is that someone else used that very same item of background knowledge -- the one used by S to eliminate H -- to bring about E in the first place.
[No Free Lunch, p. 75]
Because Dembski's framework is based upon the elimination of alternative explanations, what we end up with here is the situation that Dembski is attributing the complement of the probability that can be assigned to chance hypotheses to an implicit design conjecture, the one that underlies a particular "specification". When the "saturated" probability of the alternative is less than 1/2, Dembski says that we should prefer "design" as our causal explanation, and because we have this relationship between the specification and the putative causal story, we thus are adopting that particular causal conjecture.
Specified Complexity and Reliability
(Originally posted to talk.origins, retrieved via Google Groups.)
From: "Wesley R. Elsberry"
Subject: Re: Designer as a Scientific Theory
Message-ID: #1/1
X-Deja-AN: 388825198
Approved: robo...@ediacara.org
Organization: Online Zoologists
Newsgroups: talk.origins
In article ,
Ivar Ylvisaker wrote:
>Wesley R. Elsberry wrote:
>>In article
>>wrote:
IY>[with much snipping]
IY>I don't think that Dembski will accept Wesley's version of
IY>a filter that detects intelligent designers. Wesley's
IY>filter stage 3 passes only those phenomena that we know are
IY>caused by intelligent designers. I assume that Wesley is
IY>referring to man and, maybe animals as designers but not to
IY>unknown supernatural beings. Dembski wants to go further.
Yes, Dembski *wants* to go further. Unfortunately, we do not
have in hand the justification to do so. Is it contained in
Dembski's forthcoming book? Somehow, I doubt it, but I do
look forward to seeing Dr. Dembski try.
Finite Improbability Calculator
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Mon, 2006-10-16 03:54. Specified Complexity | Dembski, William A.
The Finite Improbability Calculator is a collection of routines to permit exploration of very small probabilities. Many antievolutionary arguments are based upon an argument from improbability: some phenomenon is so improbable that it must be due to an intelligent agent.
Select an operation to perform from the list.
Enter the parameters for the operation.
Press the button for the operation.
Results appear in a table at the top of this page.
Change of Base
Specified Anti-Information
Dembski's p_origin
Dembski's M/N ratio
Dembski's p_local
Dembski's p_perturb
Error in dembskis
Hazen Functional Complexity
Old Base
New Base
Return to Operations list
Enter a positive integer in the box:
PERMUTATION & COMBINATION
Total elements
Selected elements
Length of uncompressed string:
Length of program/input pair that produces the string:
Number of different symbols in strings:
Dembski's p_origin and M/N ratio
PORIG APPROXIMATION (p.301) &
M/N RATIO APPROXIMATION (p.297)
Perturbation tolerance:
Perturbation identity:
Number of symbols:
Length of string:
Page numbers refer to "No Free Lunch".
PLOCAL CALCULATION (p.293)
Number of items in system (e.g., 50):
Number of copies of each item (e.g., 5):
Number of possible substitutions per item (e.g., 10):
Total number of items available (e.g., 4289):
DCO PPERTURB APPROXIMATION (pp.299 & 300)
Number of subunits (N):
Different types of subunits (k):
Perturbation tolerance factor (q):
Perturbation identity factor (r):
Error Measurement
Expected Value
N (number of possible configurations)
M(Ex) (number of functional configurations)
Notes on calculations
Factorial: The point here is to permit calculation of factorial(n) where n can be a large number, say the number of proteins which an organism codes for. However, even a "double" floating-point number overflows at 1.7e308. So factorials are calculated here using a logarithmic representation. The Stirling approximation is used for very large n, and a logarithmic version of the classical iterative method is used for smaller n. Stirling's approximation is taken as
n! ~ n^n e^(-n) sqrt(2 * pi * n) (1 + 1/(12n))
Change of base: Calculated as
new exponent = (old_exponent * ln(oldbase)) / ln(newbase)
Permutation and combination: Uses the factorial function discussed above.
permutations = n! / (n - k)!
combinations = n! / k!(n - k)!
Specified Anti-Information is an application of the "universal distribution" of Kirchherr et alia 1997, expounded in Elsberry and Shallit 2003. SAI is a framework intended as an alternative to Dembski's "design inference". The SAI of a bit string is defined as
SAI = max(0,|y| - C(y))
where |y| is the length of the bit string of interest and C(y) is the Kolmogorov complexity of y. Since C(y) is uncomputable, mostly we should speak of Known Specified Anti-Information, which is just the maximum SAI that can be established by application of known compression techniques.
SAI is defined for bit strings, but often we deal with strings based on a symbol set with cardinality > 2. It is straightforward to determine the length of a bit string needed to represent such a string, though, using the "change of base" function presented earlier. The second part of the SAI section permits SAI to be calculated for such strings.
Something to note here is the apparent difference in ease of application of SAI with the various measures introduced by Dembski.
porig approximation (as per NFL p.301):
porig ~ symbols^(-length (perturbation_tolerance - perturbation_identity))
The discussion on page 301 implies that functional proteins may themselves be considered "discrete combinatorial objects" to which this formula would apply. With a little exploration, then, one can verify that any functional protein of length 1153 or greater has an origination probability smaller than Dembski's "universal small probability".
plocal calculation (as per NFL p.293):
plocal = (units in system * substitutions / total different units) (units in system * copies)
M/N ratio approximation (as per NFL p.297):
M/N ratio ~ ((combinations(length, tolerance * length) * (symbols-1)(tolerance * length)) / (combinations(length, identity * length) * (symbols-1)(identity * length)))
There is a discrepancy between the result which Dembski reports for his example calculation of an M/N ratio on p.297 and what the Finite Improbability Calculator reports. Plug in symbols=30, length=1000, identity=0.2 and the result comes out as 5.555117e-223, whereas Dembski reports 10^-288, or a factor of 10^-65 off. Jeff Shallit noted this error in Dembski's text some time back.
DCO pperturb approximations (as per NFL pp.299 and 300):
pperturb (p.299) ~ ((combinations(length, tolerance * length) / (combinations(length, identity * length)) * (symbols-1)(length * (tolerance - identity))
pperturb (p.300) ~ (symbols)(length * (tolerance - identity))
That error might be measured in a unit called "dembskis" that scaled things in terms of orders of magnitude came up in discussion of errors in an essay by Marks and Dembski. The reference unit of error for the measure is taken from the case mentioned above in the M/N ratio calculation note, where Dembski had an error of about 65 orders of magnitude. "Dave W." formalized the notion with an equation, and W. Kevin Vicklund suggested using a rounded-off value of 150 as the constant in the denominator, based upon Dembski's figure of 10^150 as a universal small probability. Thus, the final form of quantifying error in dembskis (Reed Cartwright proposed the symbol Δ) is
Δ = | ln(erroneous measure) - ln(correct measure) | / 150
There is not yet a consensus on what to term the unit, but two proposals being considered are "Dmb" and "duns".
The calculation is made per the 2007 PNAS paper by Hazen et al.. Given a number of possible configurations, N, and a (smaller) number of functionally equivalent configurations, M(Ex), one obtains the functional complexity metric, I(Ex) as:
I(Ex) = - log2(M(Ex) / N)
Dembski, William A. 2002. No Free Lunch. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Elsberry, Wesley R. and Jeffrey Shallit. 2003. Information Theory, Evolutionary Computation, and Dembski's "Complex Specified Information". http://www.antievolution.org/people/wre/papers/eandsdembski.pdf.
Hazen RM, Griffin PL, Carothers JM, Szostak JW (2007) Functional information and the emergence of biocomplexity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104 Suppl 1:8574-81.
Kirchherr, W., M. Li, and P. Vitanyi. The miraculous universal distribution. Math. Intelligencer 19(4) (1997), 7-15. http://www.cwi.nl/~paulv/papers/mathint97.ps
The Finite Improbability Calculator was first coded in spring of 2002, following publication of William Dembski's book, "No Free Lunch". The original utilized a Perl CGI script. The FIC was ported to a PHP instantiation in January, 2004, with routines added for calculating Specified Anti-Information. The FIC then was altered to work within a Drupal page using the "PHP code" option.
The name of this page was inspired by "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by the late great Douglas Adams.
Does ID Get a Pass?
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Wed, 2006-02-08 18:21. Dembski, William A.
On Friday, Feb. 3rd, I was able to pose a question to Greer-Heard Forum headliners Michael Ruse and William Dembski. Here's a transcript of that segment:
WRE:Actually I'm interested in a public policy aspect of this whole thing. Last month, I got on the Web of Science database search and looked up the term "cold fusion" and it came up with 900 papers there. "Cold fusion" is the poster child for the "not-ready-for-prime-time" physics theory, something that is not ready for going into 9th grade biology, no, physics textbooks. We see the process of science in things like plate tectonics, and the endosymbiotic theory, the neutral theory, and punctuated equilibria, these are things that have earned a place in the textbooks, because the people put in the work, they convinced the scientific community that they had a point, and that's why they're in the textbooks. So, what I'd like to hear from both of you is, is there a justification for giving intelligent design a pass on this process?
Ruse: No.
Dembski: That was short, but I think I can expand on that a little bit. A few years back, I wrote a paper, in fact I think I delivered it at a conference that I think that you attended, what was the title, Becoming a Disciplined Science, Pitfalls, Problems, various things confronting intelligent design, and in that paper I addressed what I thought a real concern for me that intelligent design would become in instrumental good used by various groups to further certain ends, but that the science would get short-shrifted, and I argued that the science was the intrinsic good, and indeed that's my motivation, ultimately. I could make my peace with Darwinism if I had to, and I'm sufficiently theologically astute to do the fancy footwork, but it's the science itself that I don't think holds up, and that's what motivates me to critique Darwinism and develop intelligent design. But as I argued in that paper, intelligent design has to be developed as a scientific program, otherwise you, you can't get a pass, I'm with you on that. And I was not a supporter of this Dover policy. Once it was enacted, once the Thomas More Law Center was going ahead with it, I did agree to be an expert witness there, but I think it is premature.
Dembski's "intelligent design" questions for teachers: Answered
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Sat, 2005-10-15 20:22. Dembski, William A.
William A. Dembski has a number of questions that he'd like to have students pose to their teachers. These questions quoted from Dembski are rendered in italics.
Here are some answers for the teachers to give their students in reply.
1. DESIGN DETECTION. If the universe, or some aspect of it, is intelligently designed, how could we know it? Do reliable methods for detecting design exist? What are they? Are such methods employed in forensics, archeology, and data fraud analysis? Could they conceivably detect design in biological systems?
A. We know about "design" because of our prior experience. Our appreciation of "design" comes about through an inductive process, as David Hume noted over two centuries ago. Nothing so far discovered by science has changed this. Scientists have developed a number of techniques and protocols to aid them in distinguishing artifacts that have been made by humans and other animals from things that have simply weathered or been subject to some non-volitional process. These techniques, however, have had nothing to do with conjectures posed by "intelligent design" advocates. Humans who alter the genetic information of bacteria and other organisms sometimes patent the exact changes made. Matching the genetic information in an organism to the changed genetic sequences would establish that the organism inherited that information from such an altered source. Again, this sort of process is not based upon and has not benefited from work done by "intelligent design"
advocates.
Additional reading: The advantages of theft over toil, an article that clearly lays out problems in the sort of procedure that is common to "intelligent design" approaches to "detecting design". Information Theory, Evolutionary Computation, and Dembski's "Complex Specified Information" is an in-depth analysis of the claims that Dembski made concerning "design detection" up through 2003. There are also chapters devoted to this topic in Mark Perakh's Unintelligent Design and the anthology edited by Matt Young and Taner Edis, Why Intelligent Design Fails.
» read more | 16560 reads
Of Frauds and Fingerprints
Submitted by Wesley R. Elsberry on Tue, 2005-08-02 09:07. Dembski, William A.
Over on his weblog, William Dembski has a post making reference to an article on a means of "fingerprinting" textured surfaces, like paper. It is an interesting article. But look what Dembski has to say about it:
The Logic of Fingerprinting
Check out the following article in the July 28th, 2005 issue of Nature, which clearly indicates how improbability arguments can be used to eliminate randomness and infer design: "'Fingerprinting' documents and packaging: Unique surface imperfections serve as an easily identifiable feature in the fight against fraud." I run through the logic here in the first two chapters of The Design Inference.
Well, it is a little troubling how to proceed from this point. Did Dembski fail to read the article? Is Dembski simply spouting something that ID cheerleaders can nod sagely about without regard to whether it happens to accord with reality? Whatever excuse might be given, the plain fact of the matter is that the procedure and principles referred to in the short PDF Dembski cites have nothing whatever to do with Dembski's "design inference", and cannot be forced into the framework Dembski claims.
IDC advocate Mark Hartwig:
The intimidation tactics, however, signal something important about Darwinists. That "something" was explained in an insightful little piece by one A.J. Obrdlik. Published in 1942, it was a study of "gallows humor" in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. In that article, Obrdlik made a very keen observation:
Gallows humor is a reliable index of the morale of the oppressed whereas the reaction to it on the part of the oppressors tells a long story about the actual strength of the dictators: If they can afford to ignore it, they are strong; if they react wildly with anger, striking their victims with severe reprisals and punishment, they are not sure of themselves, no matter how much they display their might on the surface.
With the growing success of the Wedge, I'm sure we're going to see a lot more of this stuff. But Darwinist tactics will become a lot less intimidating as people realize that they signify not strength but panic.


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Weedend Update is Now! Pick of the Week, this Sunday, Taste of Abbot Kinney!
Lot's going on this weekend…..and get ready to eat with the Pick of the Week, which is a charity driven event, 'Inside Out Community Arts' Taste of Abbot Kinney.
If you don't know about Inside Out Community Arts, it is a wonderful organization that helps kids. After school arts programs and support are offered. Middle school and high school teens have a place to call home. It's a great organization. So treat yourself, and enjoy a delicious and tasty Sunday while helping out a good cause.
Cecilia Najar, a former food writer started the event three years ago as a fundraiser for Inside Out Community Arts.
Cecilia always loved what this organization stood for and how it helped out so many kids. Now Inside Out Community Arts produces the event itself. After the event production costs, all proceeds go to Inside Out Community Arts.
This year's Taste of Abbot Kinney has worked out the kinks. Yes there was a bit of a situation last year, when they ran out of food...BUT they have brought in the big guns to run the show this year. The fearless leader and 2011 event chair is Joe Miller, chef and owner of Joe's restaurant. Adam Gertler (below left) is the event reception host, from the Food Network.
Taste of Abbot Kinney includes a VIP Tasting Package (3:00 – 6:30 pm), and a Tasting Tour Package (4:00 - 6:30 pm). The event will include a DJ, live music, exclusive tastes, cocktails and demonstrations from some of the street's Executive Chefs including Joe Miller and Yoshi Shima.
Participating restaurants include: Gjelina, Hal's Restaurant & Bar, Joe's Restaurant, Lilly's Frenc Café & Bar, Shima Sushi, Primitivo, Casa Linda and Lemonade. The opportunity drawing includes hotel and rstaurant packages from such destinations as: Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Hotel Wilshire, Hotel Erwin and Terranea Resort and original art by Ellie Riley.
Taste of Abbot Kinney's event venue is 901 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, courtesy of Continuum. This venue was formerly the legendary design studio for Charles & Ray Eames.
See below under Sunday Events for more details.
Don't forget….Music tonight at several local restaurants…see the Restaurant/Bar Page for specials too!
In Santa Monica stop by Duncan Miller Gallery, who offers an opening reception for their latest exhibition of Marilyn Monroe photographs.
In addition to the "12 Photographs" large-format portfolio from Lawrence Schiller, this show contains a tightly-edited selection of iconic prints from known photographers who captured Marilyn, *including Philippe Halsman, Milton Greene, Bob Willoughby, Murray Garrett, Benn Mitchell and others.
Close by, Venice MoZaic is hosting their monthly Celebration of Art, Music, and Poetry at The Talking Stick Coffee Lounge.
Hosted by Nickie Black, DJ Noj will be spinning as well as Zebra Party, MoZaic Childen, VeniceVille and special guest Sista Jean. Others include Maryam, Substance, Ordell Cordova, and JNae will also be featured.
Or plan a trip this weekend to Joshua Tree…and enjoy an art walk in Joshua Tree, the HWY 62 Art Tours.
Check out this lovely Joshua Tree Vacation rental. Just say you heard about it on KTR Promo and that you would like to attend the art exhibiton and you get a 10% discount…Yeah!
Fullerton anyone? Say what? Yes, I'm going, cause I love this artist. Thought I would put it up, you never know who's checking the site. If you are in the area, you won't want to miss this special lecture happening today.
Artist, Jim Dahl will be be speaking from 2 00pm till 4:00 pm as well as showing 10 new paintings of chairs and childhood past. Refreshments will be served.
This exhibition, entitled Primary Chairs is currently on display at the New Community Café at the Fullerton Public Library. Jim Dahl is a wonderful artist.
Today is the day to get out of LA….go ahead, take a trip to Joshua Tree and enjoy some nature, art and music.
Stop into Joshua Tree Gallery, who will be having am artist reception for Tour De Force and to celebrate HWY 62 Art Tours in conjunction with the Morongo Basin Cultral Arts Council.
The Red Arrow Gallery and JTAG 61597 + 61607 B HWY62, Joshua Tree, CA 92252 will be offering a fun event from 4:00 pm till 6:00 pm. JTAG & Red Arrow Gallery will host a live concert by Tim East and guests.
JTAG's exhibition, Tour De Force will feature artists, David Burnham, Kim Chasen, Karen Florek, Frederick Fulmer, Marcia Geiger, James O'Keefe, Naomi Parker, Drew Reese, Steve Rieman, Suzanne Ross and Tobi Taboada.
Red Arrow Gallery presents new paintings by Deborah Martin.
Altered Space Gallery presents new work from Tanya Clarke's 'Liquid Light' series. This artist is wonderful, I've seen her work. She uses reclaimed plumbing and low-voltage lights to breathe life into hand sculpted solid glass drops Opening runs from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Also in Venice, from 6:00 pm till 9:00 pm Marine Contemporary features artist, Stephanie Pryor.
There's always Bergamot Station….located at 2525 Michigan Ave.
Next go to Craig Krull Gallery (B-3), and enjoy the opening reception for Peter Alexander from 5:00 pm -7:00 pm.
Craig Krull Gallery is participating in the Pacific Standard Time (an initiative of the Getty). 310.828.6410; http://www.craigkrullgallery.com.
Another Pacific Standard Time show ….Larry Bell will be featured at The Frank Lloyd Gallery (B5B).
Another…at the Schomburg Gallery, who is having a reception for Fred Lisaius and Margaret Francis.
Track 16 (C-1) offers a group show featuring artists, Abraham Lacalle, Miki Leal Baldini Baker as part of the Spanish Syndicate exhibition.
The Robert Berman Gallery has some incredible Pacific Standard Time exhibitions on view, so b sure to take a look, if you have not yet seen them.
Transformation (D-5) just opened see image, Robert Heinecken…pop in and enjoy as well as Paid to Play at (C-2 ).
Gallery 9 has a new location, 3830 Main Street. Tonight's event, the 2nd annual Peace Project exhibit, Peace Rises will premiere in their new space!
This year, artists from around the world joined hands with The Peace Project to help the country of Sierra Leone rise to its feet. Celebrate this remarkable achievement and to view this year's Peace Project exhibit featuring visions of peace from over 400 artists worldwide.
A collection of black and white photographs by Jeremy Fokkens taken during Operation Rise will be on display. Silent Auction with Functional Art donated by Whole 9 members and items donated by international brands and local proprietors.
Blue Five Art Space presents artist, Argishti Musakhanyan. This event runs from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
The opening reception will run from 7:00 pm till 10:00 pm. In case you have never been, they always offer snacks and a nice bar too. Corey Helford Gallery is located at 8522 Washington Blvd., in Culver City 90232; www.coreyhelfordgallery.com.
Come on out and support a fabulous non profit, Inside Out Community Arts.
Don't be shy cause, this year's Taste of Abbot Kinney has worked out the kinks. Yes there was a bit of a situation last year, when they ran out of food...BUT they have brought in the big guns to run the show this year.
The fearless leader and 2011 event chair is Joe Miller, chef and owner of Joe's restaurant. Adam Gertler is the event reception host, from the Food Network.
Participating restaurants include: Gjelina, Hal's Restaurant & Bar, Joe's Restaurant, Lilly's French Café & Bar, Shima Sushi, Primitivo, Casa Linda and Lemonade.
The opportunity drawing includes hotel and restaurant packages from such destinations as: Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Hotel Wilshire, Hotel Erwin and Terranea Resort and original art by Ellie Riley.
This year's silent auction will feature hotel packages at Hotel Erwin, Hotel Wilshire, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.
A recent addition is a prestigious collection of original artworks by twentieth century masters, Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Miro, Renoir, Dali, and more donated by the Andrew Weiss Gallery.
All guests are also invited to participate in the Opportunity Drawing which will feature special items from Abbot Kinney merchants, tickets to LACMA's "California Design" exhibit, and packages at local restaurants including James Beach, Gjelina and Terranea Resort.
Taste of Abbot Kinney's event venue is 901 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, courtesy of Continuum.
Enjoy the weekend…and I'll see you at the art walks and maybe on Abbot Kinney too, Bon Appetit!


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Plymouth State University Sites > Faculty & Staff > Faculty Profiles > Frances Strayer, LICSW
Coordinator of Field Education, Social Work; Health and Human Enrichment Cluster
BA, University of Wisconsin; MSW, University of Connecticut
Email: fdstrayer@plymouth.edu
Office: Samuel Read Hall 226; Phone: (603) 535-2377
About Frances Strayer
I began my social work career as an emergency service clinician at Genesis in Laconia and a community organizer for Senior Housing in Sandwich, NH. I then moved on to public schools in 1986 and spent the next 30 years at Ossipee Central School and Moultonborough Central Schools , retiring from Moultonborough School District in July of 2015. I also maintained a small private practice with adolescents from 1994-2008. I have been a teaching lecturer at PSU in 2008 and 2015-16. I have also been on the advisory board for the Social Work department since 2002.
Volunteer-Community Work
I live with my husband in a house we built in Sandwich, NH. We have two grown children. My passions outside of work include family activities, hiking, wild life tracking, gardening, biking, swimming and international travel.


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How Do Aries Flirt?
Destiny Duprey
How do you know if an Aries is flirting with you? Aries is not known for being subtle and shy.
In fact, this Mars-ruled zodiac sign is represented by the Ram — an animal who does not let anyone or anything get into the way of their true desires.
When an Aries flirts with you they are blunt and assertive.
When an Aries zodiac sign flirts with you, it can feel like you're being hunted.
RELATED: These 5 Zodiac Signs Are The Biggest Attention Seekers
If an Aries is interested in a person, they flirt by cranking up the charm.
Not only are Aries very strong and full of will power, but they are known to be sexually fueled and passionate.
You will immediately know when you have caught the attention of an Aries.
Your phone will be ringing with consistent double texts and they will make sure every inch of your soul is appreciated and caressed.
The Aries will show you just how strong and competitive they are in a playful game of Uno or at a sporting event with a couple of friends.
Maybe you haven't come across an Aries just yet, but when you do, you'll instantly know!
That is why we have made you a cheat sheet to mark when you think an Aries might be flirting with you.
When an Aries flirts, they want people to see them in action.
An Aries will invite you everywhere they go.
An Aries knows exactly how to make a surprise entrance.
What better way to do so with mesmerizing eye candy like yourself?
RELATED: Aries Zodiac Sign Guide: Personality Traits, Dates, Love Compatibility And More
When an Aries is flirty, they drop hints about their plans.
An Aries will be sure to let you know how much they're feeling you by inviting you to any event they are attending.
They want to be the center of attention and the best way to do so is by bringing someone to show off!
They do not like being bored at home and sitting around staring at the walls.
You will find yourself on the wildest adventures with an Aries.
Once they start asking you to accompany them in their special events, that's when you'll know they are totally into you.
An Aries flirts when they are showing you off to their friends.
An Aries will show you off any chance that they can get.
One of the most obvious signs of an Aries flirting or showing their interest in you is by showing off their skills every second of the day you're together.
Being a fire element means they will not be afraid to take big risks in showcasing their many talents.
RELATED: Best & Worst Personality Traits Of The Aries Zodiac Sign + Their Perfect Love Match
Aries are protective as a form of flirtation.
By showing how physically fit they are, the Aries will always ensure that they're partner or crush feels safe at all times.
You'll catch them carrying all of the groceries on one arm while holding a tray of coffee.
If the Aries plays a sport, they'll invite you to all of their games to demonstrate their athleticism.
RELATED: Best Colors For Aries
Aries zodiac signs are direct when they want you to know they are interested.
An Aries will not play hard to get.
If you thought you would have to extract any emotions or feelings from an Aries, you're absolutely wrong.
Subscribe to our horoscope & zodiac newsletter
Want to know what's in store for your zodiac sign? Sign up for our free newsletter & get your personal horoscope straight to your inbox daily!
The Aries will not mislead you, in fact, they'll be super vocal about their feelings toward you!
This sign does not like when someone isn't being authentic with them, in return, Aries zodiac signs are sure to let others know how they feel about them.
Because of their determination and persistence, an Aries will almost definitely let you know what they want with you as soon as they're sure of their feelings.
3 Zodiac Signs Who Will Have A Great Day On December 21, 2021
Sun In Capricorn Horoscopes For All Zodiac Signs, December 2021
10 Truths About Scorpio Men In Love, Relationships & More
An Aries will continue to flirt with you whether they are actively seeking a relationship or a casual hookup.
You won't ever feel confused or anxious about an Aries, and you can bet that they will not play mind games with you!
Aries flirt because they are on a mission, and love is a game of war they want to win.
RELATED: 13 Brutal Truths About Loving An Aries (As Written By One)
Aries' flirting style is part of their archetype.
Per astrology, the roots of Aries' personality can be understood with Greek mythology.
The god of war was named "Ares," who just so happened to be the son of Zeus and Hera.
Ares was physically aggressive and had a scandalous affair with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
Is it a coincidence that this astrological sign is paired up with a figure like this? I don't think so!
RELATED: How To Tell If You Look Like An Aries Zodiac Sign
More for You on YourTango:
The Zodiac Sign You'll Have The Best Sex With
Zodiac Signs That Can't Stop Cheating, Ranked From Most To Least Likely
The Prettiest Zodiac Signs — And The Most Attractive Feature Of Each One
The Zodiac Signs Who Make The Best Husbands
Destiny Duprey is a writer who covers astrology, love and relationships, and spirituality topics.


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Perigord Blanc, Perigueux and central Dordogne
Perigord Blanc
Search Perigueux hotels
Visit Perigord Blanc
Perigord Blanc is the name given to the central region of the Dordogne, centred around Perigueux. Whilst it is in the Dordogne department it is some distance north of the Dordogne river.
Explore the Perigord Blanc
The name of White Perigord comes from the white chalk of the region which is used in the building of the towns and villages of the area. The white chalk plateau where the stone comes from is a little further north in the Perigord Vert region near Riberac. The Perigord Blanc is split by the River Isle that runs through the centre of the area and passes through Perigueux.
Although less visited than the other regions of the Dordogne, it has several attractions that will interest the visitor.
The capital of the Dordogne department and the most important town in the Perigord Blanc is Perigueux, a beautiful town with an incredible multi-domed cathedral and a lovely medieval centre. It has important Roman remains and an excellent museum of Roman items - the Gallo Roman Vesunna Museum. Its cathedral is UNESCO listed as an important stop on one of the pilgrim routes to Compostela in Spain.
See Perigueux travel guide
Chancelade Abbey
Near to Perigueux the Chancelade Abbey still has some remnants of the original 12th century building and has some 13th century frescoes to admire.
See Chancelade Abbey travel guide
East of Perigueux is the town of Sorges, known as the 'gourmet capital' for its coveted black truffles. As well as the pretty village to explore there is an ecomuseum with lots of information about the history and cultivation of truffles.
See Sorges travel guide
Le-Bouquet Garden
On the edge of Sorges is a very individual garden where dozens of patterns have been created using trimmed box and other shrubs.
See the Le-Bouquet garden travel guide
In the west of the Perigord Blanc are a cluster of small towns which are pleasant to explore.
Saint-Astier sits on the edge of the River Isle and has a pleasant centre with a mix of half-timber and Renaissance houses. On the edge of the village is a network of underground lime quarries that can be visited.
See Saint-Astier travel guide
To the west of Perigueux is the small town of Neuvic which has an attractive chateau and park which can be visited in the summer. There are also some half-timber houses, the Maisons Doublaudes, that have been restored and can be visited.
See Neuvic travel guide
South of Neuvic is the town of Mussidan which is considered to have one of the best markets in the area. Market day is Saturday.
See Mussidan travel guide
Saint Germain du Salembre
In the centre of Saint Germain du Salembre is a beautiful building called the Chateau de Saint Germain du Salembre. It is private but you can admire its beautiful balcony from the street.
See Saint Germain du Salembre travel guide
Montpon-Menesterol
A quiet town whose two churches have fine organs that are the main sights of the town.
See Montpon-Menéstérol travel guide
Attractions to visit in the Perigord Blanc
The Chateau de Montreal
An attractive castle and gardens with a charming church and stable block. One of the past owners of the chateau travelled to the New World and renamed an Indian Settlement Montreal. Little did he know this would grow into the second biggest French speaking city in the World!
See the Chateau of Montreal travel guide
The Chateau of Neuvic in Neuvic is open to the public in the summer as is the Chateau of Puyferrat in Saint-Astier.
This area is heavily forested and the Foret de la Double to the north of the region is very attractive, reminiscent of the forests of story books and much loved by walkers and fishing enthusiast.
For the other parts of the Perigord see: Perigord Pourpre, Perigord Noir and Perigord Vert.
Hotels in and near Perigueux
Map of Perigord Blanc and places to visit
Perigord Blanc places to visit
Chancelade Abbey is an attractive abbey close to Perigueux.
Chancelade Abbey guide
Chateau de Montreal
The Chateau de Montreal is a small chateau with decorated rooms to visit.
Chateau de Montreal guide
Isle River
The Isle river passes through some of the Dordogne's quieter villages and countryside.
Isle River guide
The churches of Montpon and Menesterol have notable church organs.
Montpon-Menesterol guide
Mussidan is a pleasant market town in the north of the Dordogne.
Mussidan guide
Mussidan Villages
Some pretty villages near to Mussidan.
Mussidan Villages guide
Neuvic is home to the Chateau de Neuvic which is open to visits in the summer.
Neuvic guide
Perigueux is a stunning town with a medieval centre and roman remains.
Perigueux guide
Saint Astier is a pleasant market town.
Saint Astier guide
Saint Germain de Salembre is a small village with an attractive private chateau in the centre.
Saint Germain du Salembre guide
Sorges is known as the truffle capital of France.
Sorges guide
The Le Bouquet garden
The Le Bouquet garden is a unique garden with 50 parterres and motifs created with clipped box hedges and other plants.
The Le Bouquet garden guide


San Francisco featuring Tango Teacher and performer Chelsea Eng.
We toured Chelsea around San Francisco to our carefully chosen locations focusing on urban architecture, structures and textures. Chelsea very patiently keeping warm as the weather started to chill by the water .


Tinkerbelle is a tinkerer in the newer Disney movies, but I don't know if that's a reboot of her backstory, or if she never had a backstory when she was first conceived (rimshot?). It could be both, in a way.
Btw, tonight I'm going to have nightmares about giving birth to Johnny 5.
Just wikipedia'ed it. She was a literal tinkerer from the start…like a tinsmith. Later in she was more of an inventor-type. Interesting. So I was mostly wrong.
In the original Barrie book, Tinkerbell is a tinker by occupation, though her voice also sounds like a bell.
Modern evolutionary psychologists say men create in order to impress women, in order to find more desirable mates, in order to have more children.
This is not entirely silly and does somewhat relate to the myths of Hephaestus. Men DO want to please women and will use the power to create to do so at times. Though this is a side effect to the creative impulse I would say and not its real motivation.
There is something more basic in human beings, in both men and women and especially in children, which desires to create without any direct benefit from the act of creation. This is of course, the false musings of Jung and the modern evolutionary biologists aside, because, as you already said, we are made in the image of a Creator God.
Jung was mostly a researcher. I wouldn't call his musings false, per se. He had a lot of good insight. Campbell was a mixed bag.


As a business owner, choosing the right painter for your commercial painting job is a responsible task. You don't want the added stress of wishing you had chosen a different painter after the job is done.
That's why you can't go past Castle Painting's five-year guarantee on all your commercial painting projects.Get yourself a qualified Sydney painter who stands by his work with a 5 YEAR GUARANTEE!
Castle Painting offers a 5-YEAR WARRANTY on all services.


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Мими Кодели () е албански политик.

Биография
Родена е на 11 септември 1964 година в Тирана. През 1986 година завършва "Финанси" в Тиранския университет. Допълнително придобива магистърска степен по публична администрация и докторска степен по икономически науки.

Политическата ѝ кариера започва през 2002 година, когато е назначена за заместник-кмет на Тирана. Тя е член на Социалистическата партия на Албания, а от 2007 година е в нейното ръководство. През 2013 година е назначена за министър на отбраната.

Източници

Възпитаници на Тиранския университет
Министри на отбраната
Албански министри
Албански политици
Родени в Тирана

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Angelina College is committed to ensuring every student/athlete has the opportunity to succeed both on the field or court of play and in the classroom.
Such success begins with a high quality learning environment, with the college and entire athletic department fully committed to providing the most efficient and effective support for all student-athletes to help them achieve a first class education with the goal of helping each student move on to the next level, whether it?s in athletics or academics. Many of our former Roadrunners have gone on to complete their degrees at institutions of higher learning.
AC's athletic academic advisors provides academic, educational and personal development support for all student-athletes, trainers and managers.


← Sucker for A(ny) Man in Uniform?
Earlier this afternoon I was sitting at the kitchen table poking my way through the interwebs when I heard a commotion coming from the other side of the room.
I muted the TV as I stood up to try and see where the sound was coming from. It only took a second to see that it was Savannah.
She was fast asleep, curled up in one of her spots on the couch but, for once, she wasn't snoring. I could tell she was dreaming and that the hair on the back of her neck was standing up.
Being the good "Dad" that I am, I grabbed my camera and ran over to capture her movements. I don't know what Savannah was dreaming about but she was nearly barking and she doesn't normally bark.
In fact, I think I heard her "barking" more in the 90 seconds of video I captured than I have in the past 6-9 months.
I don't know what she was dreaming about but the way she was barking and carrying on it must have been good.
Because I don't have the video feature with WordPress, to see the video you'll have watch it on YouTube by clicking here or on the image below.
Gallery | This entry was posted in Daily Life and tagged daily life, humor, pets, postaweek2012, Savannah. Bookmark the permalink.
Savannah is adorable. I hope it was a happpy dream.
Savannah was chasing bad guys. What a little toughie. 😉 I love Savannah. She needs to have a regular weekly post.
That almost makes up for the Cheetos post. Almost.


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Criticism of President Trump's Syria Decision Escalates: How Should Christians Relate to Him?
Jim Denison | Denison Forum on Truth and Culture | Friday, October 11, 2019
#Turkey
#Syria
#opinion
#Donald Trump
Turkey is continuing its offensive on Kurdish-held areas of northern Syria this morning. The BBC reports that at least eleven civilians have died while tens of thousands have fled their homes. The offensive began two days ago after President Trump moved American troops out of the area.
When the president announced that he was withdrawing our forces from this region, reaction was swift even from his most consistent supporters. Franklin Graham asked his readers to pray with him that the president would reconsider his decision. Pat Robertson warned that "the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen." And Sen. Lindsey Graham, usually a staunch defender of the president's foreign policy, called the decision a "major blunder."
For more on the Kurds and Syria, please see my website article, "Who are the Kurds? Why is Turkey invading Syria? How should Christians respond?"
The questions we receive most
The questions our ministry has received most frequently since President Trump's election can be summarized this way: How can Christians support a president whose policies and personal character they find objectionable? We could ask the same question about governors, mayors, and many others in political office.
Let's begin with this note: Denison Forum is a nonpartisan ministry. Our purpose is not to support political candidates or parties. Rather, our mission is to offer biblical perspective on contemporary issues, seeking to equip Christians in using their influence to advance God's kingdom in our culture.
As a result, my purpose today is not to offer personal commentary on the president but to help us think biblically about ways Christians can relate to him as a leader and a person.
Relating position and person
Scripture consistently teaches that we are to respect our governing authorities.
Peter was clear: "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good" (1 Peter 2:13–14). Paul added: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God" (Romans 13:1).
Note that Peter and Paul made these statements when Nero, one of the most notorious and ungodly leaders in history, was the Roman emperor. In fact, he later ordered the execution of both apostles.
Their injunctions make clear that whatever we think about those in public authority, we are under the clear biblical mandate to respect their position and pray for them. We'll say more about this subject shortly.
Public leadership and personal character
God often surprises us with the people he uses to advance his kingdom agendas. For instance, he used the Egyptian pharaoh to elevate Joseph and save his people. He used the Persian King Cyrus to liberate the Jews from their Babylonian captivity.
In the same way, some evangelicals see President Trump as a Cyrus-like leader whose chief responsibility is to protect the nation. I know pastors who distinguish between Romans 13 leadership and Sermon on the Mount personal character. They say they would not want Donald Trump to teach Sunday school in their church, but they want someone with his strong personality to lead our nation in these days. They note that "he's our president, not our pastor."
Similarly, some prioritize the president's leadership agendas over concerns about his personal character. For instance, many Christians voted for Mr. Trump because they valued his pro-life stance and campaign promise to make nominations to the Supreme Court and other judicial positions that are consistent with this commitment. They appreciate his strong support for religious liberty and for the State of Israel as well.
On the other hand, many Christians believe that personal character is foundational to public leadership. They point to the clear biblical expectations of overseers and others in church leadership (cf. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1) and assert that such integrity is essential to all effective leadership.
They also consider the president to be America's global representative and model for our national culture and character. As John the Baptist rebuked King Herod for personal immorality (Mark 6:18), they believe Christians should oppose President Trump if they object to his personal character.
Four biblical principles
Whatever our position on President Trump's public leadership and personal character, it is vital that we relate to him in ways that honor our Lord and advance our witness. Consider four biblical principles.
One: We are commanded "to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people" (Titus 3:2). Jesus taught us to go directly to others (Matthew 18:15), saying about them only what we would say to them.
Two: When we object to the president's decisions or actions, we should turn our concerns into intercession (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Oswald Chambers notes: "Discernment is God's call to intercession, never to fault finding."
Three: We should defend biblical principles when they are relevant to political decisions. For instance, I respectfully disagreed with President Obama when he reversed his position on same-sex marriage. But we should do so in biblical ways, refusing to slander others and "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15).
Four: We should pray for our leaders to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. Our Lord's call to sacrificial discipleship (Luke 9:23) is for everyone. The "fruit of the Spirit" is his intention for us all (Galatians 5:22-23).
What matters most today
I am sure that some reading this article would want me to make an unconditional personal endorsement of the president, just as others would want me to state the opposite. But as I noted earlier, my mission is not to offer personal opinion but nonpartisan biblical perspective on cultural issues. My goal is to advance a movement of culture-changing Christians.
Therefore, I believe God's people should measure everything we say and do by two questions:
Will this glorify my Lord?
Will it lead more people to him?
Our calling is not to win debates but souls. If Christians drive people away from Christ through the way we support or oppose the president, we have lost far more than we might gain.
Ten thousand millennia after the Trump administration has ended, Jesus will still be King.
What matters most in eternity is what matters most today.
The Daily Article Podcast is Here!
Photo Courtesy: Anna/Unsplash


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Preparation of a Master Plan for Development of a Food Development Center
Government of Brunei Darussalam, 700,000, 2012-2014
Agriteam was contracted by the Government of Brunei to lead the development of an Agrifood Innovation Center, including the planning, preparation of recommendations for activities, facilities, equipment and process mapping, human resources development, opportunities for international collaboration, study tours, environmental assessment and project appraisal, and preparation of inventory of materials and documentation.
Cambodia Agriculture Market Information Project (CAMIP)
Global Affairs Canada, $4.2M, 2006-2010
As increasing numbers of Cambodian farmers are moving from subsistence farming to farming with a marketable surplus, elements of farm management have become an increasing priority. In response, Agriteam developed CAMIP to improve the Cambodian Agricultural Marketing Information System and build the capacity of various government agriculture departments to provide useful market intelligence to farmers and agribusinesses in 11 provinces and Phnom Penh Municipality.
Key project activities included: upgrading and expansion of existing hardware and software infrastructure, including data collection/processing; building the capacity of national government personnel in market analysis and provision of market intelligence; building the capacity of extension providers to produce and disseminate agriculture market information; and increased farmer understanding of agriculture market information through the use of Farmer Marketing Schools. Due to the scarce technical and management capacity within the Cambodian agricultural market information sector, Agriteam adopted a strategy of using Canadian expertise to begin the project while recruiting and training Cambodians to replace the Canadians over the course of the four-year project.
Technical Assistance to Support the Implementation of the Women's Plan of Action
Asian Development Bank, USD $700,000, 2001 – 2003
This technical assistance consultancy supported the Government of Fiji in implementing its Women's Plan of Action, and to meet its international commitments in the area of gender equality. Agriteam assisted the Ministry of Women, Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation and the Task Force on Gender Mainstreaming to begin systematically assessing and analyzing national and sectoral policies and programs for gender responsiveness. Agriteam's team of international and domestic consultants increased capacity among gender focal points and officials in the planning units of each ministry to undertake gender-responsive policy, planning and program development; implemented gender audits of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, audited select policies and programs in each ministry; developed a gender assessment framework, including tools, materials and gender-sensitive indicators; and generated two technical publications on the gender audits in Agriculture and Health for replication in other ministries.
Women's Support Project, Phase II (WSPII)
Global Affairs Canada, $12.2M, 1996 – 2001
WSP II, was a complex, six-year project to build capacity in gender equity policy and planning in Indonesia. WSP II worked with more than 20 partners in government (at both the national and provincial levels), six academic institutions, and 150 civil society organizations to raise awareness and mobilize both government and non-government stakeholders around the issue of gender violence. The project's approach to institutional capacity development had two main thrusts: (i) strengthening the capacity of Indonesia's national Ministry for Women's Empowerment to work with its strategic partners for gender mainstreaming; and (ii) developing the capacity of the strategic partners from government, academia and civil society to undertake and/or contribute to gender-responsive policy, planning and monitoring.
In addition to working with multiple partners in Indonesia, WSP II also developed regional linkages by facilitating a workshop that brought together national government bodies from the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Canada, to share insights and lessons learned from each country.
WSP II achieved many notable, high-level results, including a gender analysis policy directive from the President of Indonesia to include gender mainstreaming in the five-year National Development Plan, and the production of Indonesia's first National Plan of Action for Eliminating Violence Against Women (EVAW), and establishment of a permanent National Action Committee on EVAW reporting to the President.
Skills for Conflict Prevention: Engagement, Partnership Brokering, Negotiation, Facilitation (Skills Ph1)
Global Affairs Canada (START Program), $811,000, 2013 – 2014
The project worked to build peace during Myanmar's transition from authoritarianism to democracy through building the advocacy and negotiation skills of two ethnic minority groups (Pa-Po and Danu) located in semi-autonomous regions of the country. Agriteam and partners worked with minority civil society groups to provide them with the skills to advocate for their interests with the government, and also to help their communities develop through effective collaboration and stronger participation in law-making and development planning, and the advancement and inclusion of women. The most significant accomplishment of this project was overcoming a history of conflict between one of the targeted ethnic groups and the Burmese government and bringing them together to conduct peaceful talks for the first time.
Local Governance Support Program in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (LGSPA)
This governance and peace building project was implemented in the fragile and conflict-affected Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao in Southern Philippines. The goal of LGSPA was to support the Government of the Philippines' and the Autonomous Region in creating sustainable communities characterized by economic growth, peace, social equity, environmental sustainability and good governance. LGSPA engaged all 118 municipalities and two cities in the Region, all six provincial governments, the ARMM Regional Government, and the Local Government Unit Leagues, building local government capacity in leadership and management, effective service delivery, resource generation and management, economic growth, and participatory governance/peace building. The project also worked on the demand side of governance, supporting civil society organizations, NGOs, peace networks, academia, media groups and Muslim religious leaders to improve their capacity in advocacy and participation in local governance consultations. Chief among LGSPA results is the establishment of a Muslim Mindanao Halal Certification Board, an important step toward developing the halal industry, generating economic growth and reducing poverty in the region.
Private Enterprise Accelerated Resources Linkages, Phase 2 (PEARL 2)
PEARL2 contributed to poverty reduction and job creation in the Philippines by working with over 50 Business Support Organizations (BSOs) to assist in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Designed to support the Government of the Philippines' National Small and Medium Enterprise Development Plan, PEARL2 delivered support through three channels: delivering business support services in areas such as business strategy, productivity, marketing, exporting, management and sustainability; providing a responsive funding mechanism ($1.3M) to business and industry associations, research and academic institutions and government agencies to support sub-projects in SME growth and development; and working with the Board of Investments and local investment promotion groups to enhance regional investments. As a result, partners enhanced their skills, numerous operations, training, and instruction manuals and advocacy studies on SME development were developed and utilized, and SME competitiveness was increased, leading to strengthened markets, to job creation and an improved climate for business investment.
Local Government Support Program (LGSP II)
Global Affairs Canada, $32M, 1999 – 2006
The goal of the Local Government Support Program (LGSP II) was to contribute to equitable growth and poverty reduction in the Philippines through more effective and participatory local governance. In collaboration with the national Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the program assisted municipalities, communities, CSOs, NGOs, donors and the private sector to plan and deliver sound economic and social programs in response to citizens' needs. At the local level, Agriteam developed the capacity of 205 Local Government Units (LGUs) in leadership, planning and management, service delivery, revenue generation and community engagement. 22 LGUs developed investment promotion plans and 73 entered into joint ventures with the private sector, an innovative financing approach for the Philippines at the time.
At the national level, LGSPII strengthened the DILG, municipal leagues and NGO associations in systems leadership, intergovernmental cooperation, policy reform, local government performance measurement, development planning, and the assessment and replication of innovative pilot practices. LGSPII was selected by the Government of Canada as a model capacity development project in 2003, and as a case study for local governance capacity development by the European Centre for Development Policy Management in 2004.
Vietnam Skills for Employment Project (VSEP)
Global Affairs Canada, $20M, 2014-2020
VSEP will contribute to sustainable economic growth in Vietnam by improving the enabling environment for investment, supporting rural small and medium-size enterprise development and enhancing access to skills for employment. Working in partnership with the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh, Agriteam will strengthen Vietnamese capacity for Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) leadership and management, and enable the knowledge-building and sharing of best practices in TVET institutions by developing two Training Centres of Advanced Management in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. The project is also strengthening management of the TVET system at the provincial level in Hau Giang, Vinh Long and Binh Thuan; improving the performance of one leading TVET institution in each of the target provinces; and improving the performance of select community colleges throughout the country.
Judicial Development and Grassroots Engagement (JUDGE)
In the process of transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a market economy, Vietnam has undergone a parallel process of large-scale judicial reform and institutional improvement in the last 20 years. In support of this transition, Agriteam partnered with the Vietnam's Supreme People's Court and Ministry of Justice to strengthen and modernize the Vietnamese justice system, promote citizen's access to the courts, and foster more transparent and accountable governance. The key objectives of JUDGE were three-fold: 1) professional training for judicial personnel in line with international standards and principles, 2) improved efficiency through administrative/procedural reform, and 3) improved dispute resolution and dissemination of legal information to citizens.
To meet these objectives, Agriteam employed a variety of innovative solutions including the use of select pilot courts to test administrative reforms. These reforms are now being included in the recent amendments to the Vietnam Civil Procedure Code (2015), which provides the legal framework to have them instituted in all courts across Vietnam. Further innovations led by Agriteam included support to the Ministry of Justice to develop mechanisms for public engagement in the legislative drafting process, as well as partnering with the National Judicial Institute of Canada to facilitate judge-led, peer-to-peer judicial training programs. Lastly, the development of national legislative and judicial standards of consistency resulted in improved efficiency and fairness in court proceedings, and enhanced public consultation on draft legislation and dissemination of new legislation improved public understanding and acceptance of legal reforms.
Tra Vinh Improved Livelihoods Project
The Tra Vinh Improved Livelihoods Project (TVILP) focused on improving rural economic development and poverty reduction in Tra Vinh province through increased private sector investment and development of key rural economic sub-sectors including pork, beef, aquaculture, rice, tourism and natural fibre products. Agriteam specialists designed the overall framework for rural development by adopting a value chain approach based on USAID's standardized value chain development methodology. Key sub-sectors with the highest growth potential were identified and sub-sector analyses were completed by Agriteam specialists, who then worked with local government departments to implement the value chain development plans. TVILP built the capacity of farmers, processors, wholesalers and input suppliers in crop diversification, the intensification of agriculture and the development of rural enterprise, leading to increased income earning opportunities both on and off the farm, and contributing to the Government of Vietnam's Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy.


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Last June, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that a shareholder derivative suit could be litigated in Delaware even after an identical claim had been dismissed with prejudice by a federal court in California. As we reported at the time, that decision suggested that Delaware corporations might not be able to achieve finality in Delaware following an out-of-state dismissal of a derivative case.
On April 4, 2013, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Chancery Court's decision. Citing the "strong[ ] national interests that all state and federal courts have in respecting each other's judgments," the high court held that once a derivative claim has been dismissed in a sister jurisdiction, the identical claim cannot be relitigated in Delaware if it would be barred under the rules of the other jurisdiction. The Supreme Court's ruling provides added assurance that once a company has achieved a complete win in derivative litigation, its victory cannot be undone by reexamination under separate principles in Delaware.
The case involved Allergan, Inc., a Delaware corporation that pled guilty to a misdemeanor misbranding charge in connection with alleged "off-label" marketing of one of its leading drugs. Two days after the plea was announced, a shareholder of the company filed a derivative suit in the Court of Chancery, alleging that the company's directors had breached their fiduciary duties in connection with off-label marketing. Later, several other derivative actions were filed, and subsequently consolidated into a single case, in federal court in California. The Delaware plaintiffs sought and received documents through a books-and-records demand. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaints in both cases, and the federal court in California ruled first, dismissing that derivative complaint with prejudice. The California court found that the plaintiffs had failed to establish that a pre-suit demand on the company's board of directors would have been futile, and that therefore those plaintiffs did not have standing to sue in the name of the company.
Following the California dismissal, the defendants supplemented their motion to dismiss the Delaware case on the basis that the Delaware action was barred by collateral estoppel, a doctrine that normally bars relitigation by the same plaintiff, or a closely related party said to be "in privity" with that plaintiff, of an issue that was litigated and decided in a prior proceeding. The defendants argued that because the plaintiff-shareholders in California and Delaware were both seeking to represent the corporation, they were in privity with each other.
In a lengthy 82-page opinion, the Chancery Court refused to dismiss the complaint, rejecting the collateral estoppel argument and permitting the Delaware derivative case to proceed after finding that pre-suit demand on the board was excused. The opinion was based on two key points.
First, the court believed that the central question—whether a shareholder could sue a Delaware corporation after an identical derivative claim had been dismissed—is one that must be decided under Delaware law. Because the question involved the "internal affairs" of Delaware corporations, it was not permissible to have courts in different jurisdictions decide the question under different criteria; it "should be governed uniformly by Delaware law." Second, the court discussed at length the perceived problem of plaintiff law firms filing claims quickly after a corporate event and arriving at hasty settlements that garner a fee for them but may not protect the interests of their clients. The court concluded that "fast filers" who do not at least seek to examine corporate books and records are presumptively inadequate shareholder representatives. Therefore, a judgment of dismissal in a case prosecuted by a "fast filer" was not automatically entitled to preclusive effect.
Once the Chancery Court decided that the Delaware suit was not barred by the dismissal of the California federal court action, it reached a different conclusion on the issue of demand futility. It found that the plaintiff had successfully pled that a demand on Allergan's board would be futile, and that therefore the suit could proceed.
In a terse 12-page opinion, the five justices of the Delaware Supreme Court, sitting en banc, resoundingly rejected both of the key conclusions of the Chancery Court and ordered the case dismissed with prejudice. First, the justices decided that, as a matter of both federal and Delaware law, Delaware courts are required to give "full faith and credit" to the judgments of courts in other states. Even though Delaware has a strong interest in governing the internal affairs of its corporations, that interest "must yield to the stronger national interests that all state and federal courts have in respecting each other's judgments." Second, the Supreme Court rejected the Chancery Court's irrebuttable presumption that a "fast filer" is an inadequate representative. Although that might sometimes be true, the Court acknowledged, there was no support in the record of the case that the California plaintiffs were inadequate.
Several members of the Delaware Chancery Court have recently expressed the view that cases involving the internal affairs of Delaware corporations should be heard predominantly, if not exclusively, in Delaware courts. This view can present problems for Delaware corporations in light of the reality that they are often subjected to multiple identical claims, brought simultaneously in different courts by different groups of stockholders. The Chancery Court's decision in the Allergan case was consistent with an "only in Delaware" approach to corporate litigation, but it would impose significant burdens if, for example, a company defending a derivative case in California could not be assured that a victory in, or a settlement of, that case would bar subsequent Delaware litigation by a different plaintiff group.
The Delaware Supreme Court's decision restores a measure of certainty to the process of defending multiple suits. Delaware corporations and their counsel now have added assurance that if a case is dismissed with prejudice by a state or federal court in a sister jurisdiction, and the doctrine of collateral estoppel would prevent relitigation of the same issue in the sister jurisdiction, the finality of the judgment will not be disturbed.


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How the Apple Car will make you money, and more fun about robot vehicles [Kahney's Korner]
By Leander Kahney • 1:13 pm, August 1, 2016
Autonomous cars are going to change the world like nothing we've seen before. A fascinating interview with robocar expert Paul Godsmark.
Photo: Paul Godsmark/Stephen Smith
The old adage is that new cars depreciate the minute you buy them. However, the rumored Apple car might be the first vehicle to actually make you money after you drive it off the lot.
If Apple's car is autonomous, it'll earn its keep delivering people or goods when you're not using it. So says Paul Godsmark, a robocar consultant and one of the leading experts on the upcoming autonomous vehicle revolution.
In this fascinating interview, Godsmark talks about the enormous changes that are coming up fast with self-driving vehicles, including Project Titan, the rumored Apple Car.
Buckle up! Everything is about to change dramatically — from the way we travel to the way we work.
4 lessons Apple Car should learn from Tesla
By Ste Smith • 12:10 pm, June 23, 2016
If Apple really is making a car, it should take some cues from Tesla.
With all the recent rumors that Apple will build an electric car within the next few years, obviously Cupertino is going to be compared to the big electric car company of the moment, Tesla Motors.
Tesla sold more than 50,000 model S sedans in 2015, so I'm taking a look at four Apple Car lessons that Tim Cook and Jony Ive should learn from Tesla.
How Apple Car could shake up the automotive world
By Lewis Wallace • 5:00 am, April 14, 2016
What will the Apple Car look like? And, more importantly, what will it do?
Image: Motor Trend
Even if Apple is not furiously trying to figure out how to make an Apple Car, the rest of the world is furiously trying to figure out what the Apple Car would look like.
And, perhaps more importantly, what the Apple Car would do.
Kia pledges to fully automate all vehicles by 2030
By Leander Kahney • 5:19 pm, January 5, 2016
Kia's concept for a fully autonomous car, which we'll all NOT be driving in 2030. Plus, we'll all be living in gleaming Sky Discs.
Photo: Kia
LAS VEGAS — It's not gadgets that are making the news here at CES 2016, but cars.
For example, at a press event this afternoon the Korean car giant Kia said all of its cars will be fully autonomous by 2030. Not just its high-end vehicles — all the cars it makes. And that's just 14 years away.
That means you be able to curl up in the back and sleep while the robot drives — or not be in the car at all. It'll drive itself to the airport to pick you up.
Kia is joined by dozens of other companies with futuristic visions of the car. Both Detroit and Silicon Valley are here at CES 2016 to talk up future cars, which are mostly electric and autonomous. It includes Ford, VW, Toyota and lots of others.
It's all good news for Apple, which is widely believed to be working on its own car.
Meet the Mercedes tech guru who defected to Apple
By Leander Kahney • 6:00 am, February 14, 2015
Johann Jungwirth used to head up Mercedes' R&D lab in Silicon Valley. He now works for Apple on Mac systems engineering. Yeah right. Photo: Mercedes Benz
Johann Jungwirth is a new Apple employee with one of the world's most unbelievable job titles.
Until the middle of last year, Jungwirth headed up the big Mercedes-Benz R&D facility in Silicon Valley that, among other things, is responsible for the futuristic self-driving car you see below. (The astonishing Mercedes F 015 is very real, BTW).
Jungwirth was hired by Apple last September and given the title of "Director of Mac Systems Engineering," according to his LinkedIn page. The title appears to be total hogwash. Jungwirth spent his entire 20-year career working on connected cars, not computers.
Apple is famous for obfuscating about its new hires to throw off competitors and journalists, and the company is reportedly working on a top-secret electric car. If Apple is interested in the stuff Jungwirth has worked on, it's going to be a wild ride.
Secret R&D facility suggests Apple might actually make a car
By Leander Kahney • 11:10 am, February 13, 2015
Is Apple designing a car? Maybe that's the real reason it picked up designer Mark Newsom, who created this concept car for Ford in 1999. Credit: Mark Newsom/Ford
Apple has set up a top-secret automobile R&D lab and is recruiting experts to possibly build a car, the Financial Times reports.
The lab is in a secret location away from Apple's HQ. Apple recently hired the head of Mercedes-Benz's Silicon Valley R&D unit, and has staffed the new lab with "experienced managers from its iPhone unit," the Times says.
"Three months ago I would have said it was CarPlay," said one of FT's sources. "Today I think it's a car."
Apple car? Cupertino's got the design talent to transform another industry
One of the designers in Apple's Industrial Design Group helped create this shape-shifting fabric-covered car for BMW. Photo: BMW
As rumors that Apple is making a self-driving car rev up, a peek under the hood of the company's famed Industrial Design studio reveals a crew of talented automobile designers.
An interest in futuristic cars is embedded deep within the DNA of Apple's vaunted design team. Working under Jony Ive, Apple employs designers who worked on several fantastic concept cars, including a fabric-covered BMW that shifts shape depending on speed.
Ive has long been obsessed by cars. (He has quite a stable.) As a teenager, Ive wanted to be a car designer. He visited a U.K. design school that specialized in automotives with a view to studying there, but he found the other students too weird. They were making "vroom vroom" noises as they sketched. Instead, he went to Newcastle Polytechnic (which has since been renamed Northumbria University).
A look at other key members of Apple's design team, and at a super-secret research-and-development facility planned for the company's new campus, offers a few clues about how Cupertino might go about producing innovative and unconventional cars.


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Comic books and science fiction fuel Bengals RB Rodney Anderson off the field
Rodney Anderson is part of the young NFL players coming in who aren't afraid to embrace science fiction.
By PatrickJudis@PatrickJudis Jul 15, 2019, 9:00am EDT
Share All sharing options for: Comic books and science fiction fuel Bengals RB Rodney Anderson off the field
Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It wasn't that long ago that things like comic books, anime and science fiction were considered taboo subjects for athletes.
It was unfortunate that liking such things would get you labeled as a nerd, which use to have a much more negative connotation.
Luckily for everyone, those preconceived notions about athletes having to be meatheads, and nerds being weird for liking these mediums have fallen to the wayside.
One Bengal player who grew up right as that shift was happening was running back Rodney Anderson. His father, Rod Anderson, got him started at a young age, and he could see the impact it had on his son.
"When [Rodney Anderson] was very young he would read a comic book or watch a film, you could see it, he was that superhero," Rod Anderson told Michael LaPlaca of Bengals.com. "Whomever is on the other side, they are going to get it. Silver Surfer, Spider-Man or Dr. Strange is ready to come out."
Rodney Anderson, like most young players entering the NFL now, grew up at a time when science fiction and superhero movies were becoming more and more mainstream. One main reason for that was superhero movies getting a drastic upgrade via CGI graphics and effects. Movies like the first three episodes of Star Wars and the Toby McGuire Spiderman showed how much easier it was to represent the original vision of the comics and ideas onto the big screen. It was this wave of movies that put Anderson on his track to fandom.
"I think with the success of the movies it changed people's perceptions," said Rodney Anderson. "Before people wouldn't read the comics unless you had true interest in it. For me, I feel like the movies do the comic books justice, as long as they are done right."
You can clearly see how mainstream these movies, comic books and animes have become. Whether it is Juju Smith-Schuster using a classic Dragon Ball Z attack as a touchdown celebration, or Carl Lawson having to try and explain how anime inspired him to start playing football. Not only that, but why these shows have a way of appealing to athletes.
Lawson's main point is that most anime's revolve around the story of underdogs. You travel with these characters as they reach their ultimate goals. Honestly, that couldn't be stated any better.
When you think of NFL athletes, these are guys that have pushed their bodies to abilities that most people will never reach in their lives. A lot of animes and superhero movies follow similar arcs to that of athletes. They face adversity, they work to get past that and reach their ultimate goal.
Whether it is inspiring players to get out there and play a sport, or allowing them to use their imagination on the field. It is clear that as more and more young guys come into the NFL the more these sorts of medium will be integrated into the NFL's fabric. It is something that you could easily argue the NFL will be better for.


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namespace Crm\MainBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

/**
 * status log
 *
 * @ORM\Table()
 * @ORM\Entity
 */
class CompanyStatusLog extends BaseEntity
{
    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Crm\MainBundle\Entity\CompanyUser", inversedBy="statuslog")
     */
    protected $user;

    /**
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     * @ORM\Column(type="string")
     */
    protected $title;

    public function __construct(){
        return $this->created;
    }
    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getTitle()
    {
        return $this->title;
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $title
     */
    public function setTitle($title)
    {
        $this->title = $title;
    }

    /**
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getUser()
    {
        return $this->user;
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $user
     */
    public function setUser($user)
    {
        $this->user = $user;
    }

}


1For the leader. Do not destroy! A psalm of Asaph; a song.
6Do not raise your horns against heaven!
* [Psalm 75] The psalmist gives thanks and rejoices (Ps 75:2, 10) for the direct intervention of God, which is promised in two oracles (Ps 75:3–4, 11). Expecting that divine intervention, the psalmist warns evildoers to repent (Ps 75:5–9).
* [75:2] You said: supplied for clarity here and in Ps 75:11. The translation assumes in both places that the psalmist is citing an oracle of God.
* [75:5] Do not raise your horns!: the horn is the symbol of strength; to raise one's horn is to exalt one's own power as Ps 75:5 explains.
* [75:9] A cup: "the cup of God's wrath" is the punishment inflicted on the wicked, cf. Is 51:17; Jer 25:15–29; 49:12; Ez 23:31–33. Spiced: lit., "a mixed drink"; spices or drugs were added to wine, cf. Prv 9:2, 5.
a. [75:4] Ps 46:3; 60:4; 93:1; 96:10; 104:5; 1 Sm 2:8; Is 24:19.
b. [75:5] 1 Sm 2:3; Zec 2:1–4.
e. [75:8] Jb 5:11; 1 Sm 2:7.
f. [75:9] Ps 60:5; Jb 21:20; Is 51:17, 21–22; Jer 25:15ff; Hab 2:16.