When it comes to climate change, speed kills.
The temperature changes that are causing heat waves, intense storms and other climate aberrations are dangerous today because they're happening so fast. The climate has indeed been as warm, and warmer even, in the past, but it reached those temperature levels over the course of thousands or millions of years — long enough for the changes to occur gradually. This time around, the climate is being altered too fast for animal and plant life to adapt.
A suggested fix for climate change could make the problem even worse.
A new paper out today in Nature Ecology & Evolution looks at how geoengineering — the concept of artificially manipulating the atmosphere to counteract the effects of climate change — would affect biodiversity on Earth. The effects are a bit mixed, but the paper's real warning note comes from an analysis of what suddenly halting geoengineering efforts would mean. If we begin to alter the climate and then abruptly stop, the consequences would be much worse than if we had never even begun in the first place, the researchers say.
For their analysis, researchers from the University of Maryland, Annapolis, Yale University and Rutgers University assume that humankind decides to begin geoengineering in the year 2020. Governments and scientists in this fictional (though plausible) alternate universe begin injecting sulfur aerosols into the climate at the equator, to the tune of five trillion grams (5 Tg) per year.
This kind of geoengineering is called stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and it's one of the most commonly proposed scenarios for geoengineering. Where carbon dioxide holds onto heat, making the planet warmer, sulfur helps to reflect the sun's energy, meaning less enters our atmosphere and the planet gets cooler. For evidence that this works, all scientists need to do is look at volcanic eruptions, which pump millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. There are noticeable dips in average global temperature following large-scale eruptions, and one of the most recent occurred in 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. Large parts of the planet experienced temperature decreases of almost a full degree Fahrenheit following the eruption.
Five trillion grams is about a quarter of the amount of sulfur that Mt. Pinatubo ejected, so placing that much into the atmosphere every year could be sufficient to cool the climate appreciably. The results would be beneficial on balance, at least as far as we can tell right now, though there is some worry that this kind of geoengineering might skew rainfall in harmful ways.
However, the gravest danger that geoengineering poses is that it only masks the real problem. We might spray sulfur into the atmosphere, but there would still be too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Therefore, if we were to stop geoengineering, the climate would snap back to where it was before, and likely get even worse, assuming that we didn't stop emitting CO2.
That shift wouldn't happen on a scale of thousands of years, or even of decades, as it is now. If geoengineering were suddenly stopped after 50 years in 2070, the researchers' analysis shows that the climate would warm by more than a full degree on land in just ten years—that's an incredible level of volatility when considered at a global scale.
The consequences for plants and animals could be severe. In the researchers' scenario, temperature changes are estimated to occur three times faster than if climate change had occurred at the predicted rate. That's a temperature change greater than in any other decade in the historical record, the researchers say, and more than any predicted under the climate forecast they use.
It's also much faster than most plants and animals can adapt. Regions that harbor some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth, such as tropical oceans, the Amazon basin, Africa and Eurasia, would be most affected, they say. Species living in these regions would face conditions that they had never before experienced and could potentially die out.
Ramping down geoengineering slowly would help to mitigate these problems—but that may not be an option. A geoengineering program would most likely be run by the government, or a coalition of governments, and would thus be subject to changes in political will. And when it comes to international cooperative agreements, nothing is ever guaranteed.
The best solution, the researchers say, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions the old-fashioned ways. To keep temperature increases within the bounds proposed by the Paris Agreement, that means emissions will need to peak by 2020.
Thank you. Burning fossil fuels is geoengineering.
Hey Nate, are you suggesting that the know-it-alls screaming about the end of the world due to man-made global warming don't know enough about complex ecosystems to fix them with a tweak or two? You must be a science denier.
I am prepared to make that sacrifice. Get your limp-wristed fist out of my wallet.
Children are born all over the world, with the opportunity to love, and adapt to Mother Nature and her bountiful gifts.
Who will we elect as our God, to change the our Blue Marble Earth's atmosphere?
The Chairman of the U.N.'s IPCC who was fired for sexual harasement? Who got the temperature predictions wrong, back in 1990?
Maybe the gang of corrupt tim pot dictators who run that failed Peace Organization, the U.N.? Their pals in the IPCC who's temperature models failed at the all three scenarios?
Especially with world agricultural food production setting new records every year, and the standard of living rising across the world!
At least let us send a team around the world to see how it all works. No decisions made by clerics and bureaucrats in darkened DC Committee rooms, Luxemberg, or academic Ivory Towers, or General Assemblies, folks who have never had a real job in their lives!
If we can't fix Wars, Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, Government corruption, and the living hell of the beautuful children in America's inner cities, who are kept illiterate and dependent, why should we trust the future of the Earth to these same folks?
These Geoengineers are just more frauds trying to bilk the public and/or governments or anyone else they can find that is gullible enough to swindle. These crooks don't know what climate is, much less be able to affect it.
Geoengineering is the biggest scientific farce, since the creation of Climate Science and the CO2 boogeyman.
These Geoengineering frauds should in jail, alongside those Climate Science frauds!
The notion of geoengineering the climate is hilarious and these fools should be laughed out of town!!
You want to "cool the Earth"? …then replant all of the trees that have been chopped down… it'll only take a few centuries (or longer) to "bear fruit".
As with most problems, the best solution is a combination of solutions. We reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we produce; we reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere; and we do geoengineering to reduce the impact that the existing greenhouse gases have.
No. This is not a "reasonable people always split the baby" situation. They are MASSIVELY geoengineering right now and the planet is experiencing die-offs of plants, animals, and microorganisms. As we speak the planet is 20 percent darker than it was a decade ago. What these fake news stories are doing is trying to come up with a take that will shut people up as the deleterious effects become so in-your-face that even the "straight clouds in x-formations are natural" set will be asking why they can't out stop coughing. STOP SUPPORTING YOUR OWN DEMISE!
Already geoengineered!!! Discover magazine never makes a mistake. It says this, and it never makes a mistake.
Humanity has no choice. Geoengineering, baloney, anything we start to do right now is Georemediation and will be for a while, untill we repair the dammage we've done so far. We have done this by deforrestation and rampant goat hearding in some parts of the world, but the dammage is not irreversable. There are some signs of hope. China is ahead of the world in reforrestation. That is working fantastically well. Africa is building the Trans-Africa cannal which, when finished, will turn the arrid central African continent into a garden. Russia has started to recharge the Aral Sea to bring it back. The Arabs are planting trees in the desert. Immagine what would happen to the arrid western part of our country, if we diverted just 10% of an Alaskan river that now drains into the Pacific to those areas. Immagine recharging the Ogalalla aquifer, and turnind barren landscape into Carbon scrubbing forrests and world feeding granaries. Half of Californias farmland lies fallow due to lack of water. So we import vegetables from Mexico. As a nation that built the Panama Canal, when others tried and failled, , we seem to have lost our edge.
Build anything substantial in America, face a decade of regulatory terror. We have neutered ourselves in deference to imaginary disasters. The AlGore-ithm is Pascal's Wager. End it.
Regulation = protection. Those rules aren't arbitrary, they arose for good reasons. Like the safety of humans and the planet. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Yes, deforestation, DEVELOPMENT, the ravenous cattle industry, and wayyyyy too many humans, all trying to outdo the Jones' as far as 'standard of living'. Heck, where I live in GA they are bulldozing millions of acres of carbon-sequestering forest and open spaces every year, to put in still more exacerbating roads and commercial development and housing. It's horrible, like living in a war zone, the things I value and need for my quality of life being forever sacrificed, daily for the almighty $$$. The cute horse farms, living scenic landscapes and biodiverse woodlands are falling like dominoes. And this is in America. If we are unwilling to face our responsibilities, make the tough choices, we are a huge part of the problem. Our unwillingness to change is not due to anything but selfishness and greed. I say we need to lead the world in making positive changes – Not reverse the progress of the previous decades just to appease the oil barons and other industry interests.
So you got yours where you live, but you don't want to give newcomers the same opportunity, right?
You take the water, electricity, natural gas, cable, roads, telephone, cellular signal, that come to your doorstep, all of which require land from other folks.
There used to be a word for that NIMBY or something!
Give up your land and move into an aprtment building which is way more efficient? Or is that just for "others" ?
You sound a lot like Al Gore!
Actually, it's been going on since 1998. And it is absolutely the cause of global warming.
This is fake news of the highest order. They're geoengineering on a massive scale right now and have been for YEARS. To you who are either genuinely this clueless or this much of a mental slave, please let us know where you plan on living when they "successfully" block out the Sun. Oh, and throw in the driving directions to the super-heated place your eternal soul plans to go after a life spent cheering on the demise of Planet Earth. I'll wait.


Like all Christians, our primary mission is to witness to the love and faithfulness of God.
Concerned for the society of her own time, St Marie Eugenie founded the Religious of the Assumption to bring the world to Christ through the work of education.
Today we live this same mission of education in many forms.
We are committed to the Christian education of young people in the Church.
Believing that the world is a place for the glory of God, we have a particular concern for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.
The steps we take may be small, but we always seek to make a significant difference in the lives of those we encounter and our society.


THE SHOW | Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the early flashbacks, it was the little things Wen did to distinguish the past May from present. Beaming warmly at husband Andrew as they looked forward to (ahem) "family planning." Reacting to a Coulson quip with an audible "heh." Carrying herself more softly (though still the dutiful agent) in an unfitted blazer, thanking a colleague for lending her his "tunes." And just, you know… smiling, in general.
And then things went sideways.
This May still had heroic inclinations, as demonstrated by her extremely able infiltration of a warehouse guarded by mind-controlled friendlies. But she also had heart, hesitating to inflict on her pals any more damage than need be. And it was that softer side which got socked hardest when May came face-to-face with the op's true adversary: a gifted, very young girl.
Wen showed us the storm of conflict churning inside May as she processed every conceivable outcome of this standoff, as insane Katya ended life after life with but a gesture. Then, when May's hand stumbled upon the gun behind her, Wen's expression shifted to one of clarity in purpose, dark as it may be. "Everything's going to be all right," the wannabe mother told Katya, before we cut to Coulson hearing the gunshot. In the coda that followed, back in the kitchen that had just been teeming with joy, Wen made clear that the gunshot that ended a young girl's life also forever altered one woman's world.
HONORABLE MENTION | Akin to Ming-Na Wen above, Jim Caviezel on Person of Interest has personified the strong and stoic, sometimes wry type. So when an episode such as "Terra Incognita" comes along, one must take notice. Reunited with former scene partner Taraji P. Henson, Caviezel found opportunity to tap into John Reese's sliiiightly softer side, as the heavy brushed up against (yet never crossed) the line of "opening up," during a stakeout. But it was the later sequences, when we discover John is no longer flashing back but delusional from blood loss and frigid temps, that Caviezel chilled us by allowing his steely alter ego to register the sober realization of both his predicament and his need to better connect with people, as he (mostly) did with Joss.
HONORABLE MENTION | If Monday's episode of The Originals was, in fact, the last we'll see of Mikael — though we're skeptical, considering it's not the first time he's "officially" died — then Sebastian Roché certainly gave his ancient character the exit of a lifetime. Several lifetimes, even. Opposite an equally impressive Joseph Morgan, and without saying much at all, Roché conveyed the hopelessness of a centuries-old vampire facing the last moments of his afterlife. Even in his most desperate hour, he remained every bit the cold, calculating monster we've loved to hate since we first encountered him on The Vampire Diaries four years ago, and he will be missed.
HONORABLE MENTION | In Thursday's episode of American Crime, Elvis Nolasco had us clutching the edges of our seats as Carter confessed to his sister (an also-superb Regina King) all the sins he had committed. What began as a quiet, heartbreaking chat — in which Carter divulged his past suicide attempt to Aliyah — quickly spiraled into an angry, almost violent acknowledgment of the ways in which he abused Matt and Gwen Skokie before murdering the former. Nolasco masterfully brought to life the storm of emotions inside his character, and although we shouldn't sympathize with Carter, his portrayer somehow gave us reason to do exactly that.


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Q: Excel Attendance by Team I have a list of people by team that I am taking attendance for. There are multiple teams (A, B, C, D, E, etc.), and multiple users (Amy, George, etc.). Some members serve on multiple teams.
I am trying to take attendance for our meetings, and so I have a list of the person and multiple columns with dates for the dates they attended (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
I want this attendance to be by person, but I also want a list that's by their team - so if any of the three people in team A attend on Monday, I want team A to have a "1" for Present for Monday. I need a way to lookup which team a person belongs to, even if they belong to multiple teams, and then to mark a 1 for Present beside the name of that team if ANY of the members of that team were present on a particular day.
Thanks!

A: If one has OFFICE 365, after FILTER() is released by Microsoft(currently only available to Office Insiders):
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIFS(B$2:B$6,1,$A$2:$A$6,FILTER($L$2:$L$9,$A13=$K$2:$K$9)))

Until then one would need to use this array formula:
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIFS(B$2:B$6,1,$A$2:$A$6,INDEX($L:$L,N(IF({1},MODE.MULT(IF($K$2:$K$9=$A13,ROW($K$2:$K$9)*{1,1})))))))

Being an array formula one must confirm with Ctrl-Shift-Enter instead of Enter when exiting edit mode.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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2012: Don't Believe the Hype.
November 4, 2009 By David Dickinson 3 Comments
I was recently at a waiting room the other day, when the secretary noticed that I had brought a copy of Death From the Skies! to "kill" time. "Is that stuff true?" she asked. I mentioned that yes, sooner or later, a killer space rock may well have our species collective name on it. I knew what was coming next. "I mean, I like saw this documentary on the Discovery channel about how the world is supposed to end in 2012…"
Every generation enjoys its own Apocalypse, and for better or worse, 2012 is ours. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Astro News, Astro News & Commentary, The Debunker Tagged With: 2012, apocalypse, armageddon, deep impact, galactic alignment, halley's comet, killer comet, long count, maya, movie, nibiru, polar shift, trailer
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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
DIY Astronomy
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Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
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The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
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Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
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Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth's shadow is apparent in the image.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Because of bad weather forecasted, the regularly scheduled meeting of the Sons and Daughters of Douglass Alumni Board for Saturday, January 14, 2023 has been canceled.
The next regularly scheduled meeting is for Saturday, February 11, 2023 in the Eastman Board Room, 2nd floor, V.O. Dobbins, Sr. Tower, 301 Louis Street, Kingsport.
--- Douglas Releford, president
The Sons and Daughters of Douglass Alumni Association, Inc.


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using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

//---------- Auto-generated ------------
namespace Org.Apache.REEF.Network.Naming.Contracts
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Used to serialize and deserialize Avro record Org.Apache.REEF.Network.Naming.Contracts.AvroNamingLookupResponse.
    /// </summary>
    [DataContract]
    public class AvroNamingLookupResponse
    {
        private const string JsonSchema = @"{""type"":""record"",""name"":""Org.Apache.REEF.Network.Naming.Contracts.AvroNamingLookupResponse"",""fields"":[{""name"":""tuples"",""type"":{""type"":""array"",""items"":{""type"":""record"",""name"":""Org.Apache.REEF.Network.Naming.Contracts.AvroNamingAssignment"",""fields"":[{""name"":""id"",""type"":""string""},{""name"":""host"",""type"":""string""},{""name"":""port"",""type"":""int""}]}}}]}";

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the schema.
        /// </summary>
        public static string Schema
        {
            get
            {
                return JsonSchema;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the tuples field.
        /// </summary>
        [DataMember]
        public List<AvroNamingAssignment> tuples { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district is presenting itself as a model for renewable energy usage with complete dependency on solar power for all its needs.
The solar-powered village in Chakanwala Panchayat named 'Mandironwala Bhuddi' has no electricity poles but is entirely lit up using solar power. Solar panels have been installed at every house in the village as part of government's scheme.
Kanwar Singh Tanwar, the MP for Amroha said, " This area was surrounded by the Ganges and we thought of utilising the power of the river. We have installed solar panels all across the area to make the lives of people easy. We will soon start working on the project pertaining to road connectivity."
A couple of villagers also spoke about how solar power has facilitated to bring brightness into their area.
Imarti, a village occupant said, "This is very advantageous to us as we can do our household chores easily in the solar light."
She also believed that she will be casting her vote in the impending elections and expects that government must work towards road connectivity and development of the village.
Ramshri believed, "The solar lights have come last year. Before that, all the children were living in dark. Now we need a road and bridge to get better connectivity for our village."
Village inhabitant Khacheru Singh said, "The life has changed a lot after the solar power was brought to the village. The facility was introduced in the village by local MP."
The children of the village can be seen using the solar-powered lights to study in groups during night hours. Solar panels have been installed at every house in the village as part of government's scheme.


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CartoonCrazy – Free Websites Like CartoonCrazy to Watch Cartoon Online
Cartoons have a huge contribution to making everyone's childhood colorful. Tom and jerry, poppy, Mr. Bean, Looney tunes, Scooby-doo, not a single day have passed without you watching any of these cartoons. Some people used to sit with their children to watch cartoons. Cartoons are so entertaining that any age category of people used to like them. Earlier were the days when we only used to watch cartoons on TV, gone that day. Now we have many platforms to watch cartoons. We can watch it whenever we want, anywhere, whichever we like. One of the popular and famous platforms to watch cartoons is CartoonCrazy.
It is a web-based application that will allow you to watch cartoons and full-length anime movies anytime, anywhere. Its database has a massive collection of cartoon series and anime movies specially designed to satisfy anime lovers. The single thing you have to do to enjoy this service is to go to its site and search for your favorite Cartoon and enjoy watching the high-quality stuff.
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There are many other CartoonCrazy Alternatives from where you can access cartoons to Watch Anime Online. Some of them are listed below. Do check it out.
Crunchyroll has the world's largest collection of anime. Moreover though it a premium-based account, you can watch several of its content for free. The excellent part is that you can watch videos without any ads. You can even download the wanted videos and watch them later.
It is available worldwide and has the biggest streaming catalog of licensed anime. You can run your favorite cartoons and anime anywhere, anytime from your mobile phone, PC, or TV, just by login up for a free of charge account. Well, Not only anime but this site will also share with you the latest news and updates regarding anime shows. This website is 1 of the Similar To CartoonCrazy.
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READ: Freeview, Freesat, or Youview - Which is Best for Me?
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From the title itself, it is quite clear that the platform is exclusively for anime lovers. GoGoAnime is a site where you can watch animes, ongoing series, movies, and popular shows.
You can very conveniently watch them sitting at your home or anywhere, even while you are traveling. All the anime and cartoon series is available in English, along with subtitles. It is one of the best programs to watch cartoons, and you can try it out in Site of CartoonCrazy.
AnimeHeaven
AnimeHeaven is 1 of the best online anime websites to watch anime online. You can avail of this service simply by getting into the website and choosing your desired anime or cartoon series. Subtitles are also allowed in the videos.
You can enjoy anime here without any subscription fee. This site updates itself with the latest animes, cartoons, and videos regularly. Now, You can enjoy high qualities videos here, and you are going to love this AnimeHeaven.
Netflix is gaining huge popularity and acceptance these days. Almost all movie lovers and series viewers will be having an account with Netflix. You can watch thousands of anime and cartoons from Netflix very conveniently.
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KissAnime is an anime-focused file streaming website where you can watch your favorite anime. You can both watch it on your phone or either from your system. Now, You can find dubbed anime and cartoon series here.
READ: Best Pirate Bay Alternatives - Top 10 Torrent Sites That Can Easily Replace TPB!
So, All you need to have is a good internet connection. Well, High-quality HD videos are stored in the database of this site. You can Now share the videos on the site or can even download them to watch later.
Watch Cartoon Online
It is very much clear that it is a platform where you can Watch Cartoon Online of the name itself. You can access all the thousands of cartoons, anime, videos on the site completely free. Suppose you want not to get interrupted in between. All you require to do is connect the system with a decent speed internet.
This site will also provide you with your favorite Cartoon to enter its name in the search bar and click go. You can enjoy the latest shows, cartoons, dubbed, subbed shows here. This is one of the best alternatives to the cartoon crazy website.
AnimeLand
AnimeLand is the best website to access anime from mobile phones. It is a very mobile-friendly page. You can watch your favorite anime series from AnimeLand at any time, anywhere, just with the mobile phone or system having sound internet connectivity.
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Additionally, they give you the options to check their last update, most-watched anime, upcoming update, and also the schedule. For all these tools, this website is one of the most favorite among anime lovers to watch dubbed anime online. Anime Streaming Sites to Watch Anime Online
A list of 10 alternatives to CartoonCrazy has been mentioned above in this article. If you are an anime lover, then this article will be beneficial to you. Cartooncrazy is an illegal website, so there is always a chance of getting it crashed at any time. If something like that happens, don't worry; you can try out any alternatives to enjoy your favorite anime or cartoon series. Do enjoy watching anime!
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Thanks to a British firm's new security system, your next passcode to log into your bank account could contain an emoji, replacing the traditional four-digit personal identification number (PIN).
Online banking service provider, Intelligent Environments, claims its "emoji security technology" is easier to remember, offers greater security, and of course, is a lot more fun than numbers with 44 different emoji to choose from.
Emoji are small icons used to express emotions and ideas in electronic communication. Different platforms have their own version of emoji for the same emotions or ideas. For example, the Apple iOS heart emoji looks different to the Android heart emoji, but they both express the same thing.
The company also says that when compared to number-only PINs and passwords, their emoji passcode system is more secure.
"It has 480 times more permutations using emoji over traditional four digit passcodes. Research revealed that one-third of the 1,300 people polled have forgotten their PINs before, and "64% of millennials regularly communicate only using emoji."
Putting the two together seemed the logical conclusion.
The creators behind the new technology recommend building a story to help you remember the sequence. For example, if your passcode was "baby, bike, apple, beer" you could use an imaginary day that begins with a baby's cry, continues with a cycle to work, takes in an apple at lunch and finishes with a beer. The company is currently in talks with banks to roll out the technology over the next 12 months.
Cybersecurity expert Professor Alan Woodward has praised the system, saying the technology would force hackers to run through a greater number of cycles to break the code. However, Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies cybersecurity and passwords, thinks it's a gimmick.
There are obvious drawbacks: For instance, emoji keyboards are often in flux, adding new symbols; PIN systems are the widely accepted standard. However, Mashable reports that the developers are tackling the first problem by only offering a limited number of emoji to choose from.


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Two for the Lions…
Two for the Lions | E18
رمز المنتج: Two for the Lions | E18 9780099799610 التصنيفات: Classic, Drama, English Books, History, Stories
Winner of the first Ellis Peters/British Crime Writers' Association Historical Mystery Dagger Award. In the first century A.D., when gladiators as popular as today's WCW champs fought to the death in the Colosseum, all of Rome cheered. Lindsey Davis makes this ancient world come alive. Her newest novel in the series featuring Marcus Didius Falco puts the tough private eye in the lions' den to investigate an extraordinary case of murder… TWO FOR THE LIONS. Nothing's certain except death and taxes. Catching tax evaders for the Emperor Vespasian looks like a plum position for Marcus Didius Falco, who has teamed up with his old boss, Anacrites, the crotchety chief spy of Rome. Soon, however, Falco is bogged down in bureaucracy, stuck at his stylus, and longing for a good murder to investigate. He gets one when someone kills Leonidas, the Empire's official executioner. Feared by plebeians and citizens alike, Leonidas administered justice with a swift, sure blow. Then he ate the offender. Now this king of beasts lies stabbed to death in his cage. Sniffing around for clues, Falco is soon led into the rowdy, decadent world of gladiators and bestiarii, fighters who specialize in contests against animals. Falco finds that it's dark and dangerous in the tunnels under the arena-and even blacker in the desperate souls of those who must kill or be killed each time the games begin. Yet no one has a motive for slaughtering a lion after hours. The unexpected slaying of the most glamorous gladiator in the city is another matter. Now Falco has a high-profile crime to handle-and a domestic crisis brewing. His lover, the patrician Helena, reports that her disgraced brother needs help in Tripoli. Since Africa may well be the missing link between the murders of man and beast, Falco is quickly en route to those far shores-and heading toward a dangerous rendezvous with the raging lions that reside in the human heart, and one particular person who stalks his fellow man…
Stories, English Books, History, Novels
Dying to Tell | E6
Stories, English Books, History
The Mulberry Empire | E8
Stories, Mystery, thriller
Hugger Mugger | E6


Property Losses (Ireland) Committee application for Margaret McKane.
Margaret McKane lived at 10 Henry Place, Dublin, the laneway adjacent to 16 Moore Street where Patrick Pearse held the final Council of War prior to unconditionally surrendering on April 29, 1916. Her 16-year old daughter Brigid was shot dead during Easter Week and her husband Thomas sustained 'five bullet wounds to the breast'.
Margaret submitted a claim to the Property Losses (Ireland) Committed for £24 6s 9d for damage to jewellery and personal effects which included her husband's suit and children's clothing. In spite of their great loss the McKanes were awarded just £20. The assessor remarked that 'the claimant has receipts...and appears respectable'.
The claim form is signed with an 'X' as Margaret could not write. It was witnessed by Mr. Vincent P. Dalton of nearby Batchelor's Walk.


Slovenia tourist visa is not required for citizens of Lithuania for a stay up to 90 days.
Slovenia visa for citizens of Lithuania is required. For more information please contact the nearest Slovenia embassy.


text:
using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

namespace TeamleaderDotNet.Common.JsonConvertors
{
    public class YesNoConverter : JsonConverter
    {
        public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
        {
            var value = reader.Value;

            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value?.ToString()))
            {
                return false;
            }

            switch ((string)value)
            {
                case "yes": return true;
                case "no": return false;

                default:
                    return null;
            }
        }

        public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
        {
            return objectType == typeof(string) || objectType == typeof(bool) || objectType == typeof(bool?);
        }
    }
}


text:
Education Center Home
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Episode 084: Quality Testing
Anne Pontius joins J. Baugh to discuss operating an in-office laboratory. Anne weighs out the pros and cons of doing your own testing in-house versus using a commercial laboratory.
CLIA Regulations
CLSI Laboratory Standards
OIG Compliance
Speaker 1: You are listening to Your Practice Made Perfect. Support, protection, and advice for practicing medical professionals brought to you by SVMIC.
J. Baugh: Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Your Practice Made Perfect. My name is J. Baugh and I'll be your host for this episode. Today we're going to be talking about operating an in-office laboratory. And to help us with this topic, we have Anne Pontius with us. Anne welcome.
Anne: Thank you J. I appreciate being here.
J. Baugh: Well, it's good to have you. Anne, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how long you've been at SVMIC?
Anne: Sure. I've been at SVMIC for 10 years now. Prior to that I had a consulting business. It was called Laboratory Compliance Consultants, and I did that for about 18 years. And during that tenure I also was privileged to be the president of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association. So I've spent most of my career in the laboratory world.
J. Baugh: Yeah, it sounds like you have a lot of great experience that will help us be able to work through the issues that we're going to talk about today. So let me ask you this. Some physicians have their laboratories in their office and use those, and some physicians send tests out to a commercial laboratory rather than having it done in-house. So why would a physician want to do laboratory testing in their office when they could send the tests out to a commercial laboratory?
Anne: Well, there's several reasons why a physician might want to do in-house testing. When a physician has a laboratory in their office, we call those POLs, Physician Office Laboratories. So you'll hear me refer to them as POLs.
J. Baugh: Okay.
Anne: The first and foremost reason to bring testing in-house is because you're going to be able to provide better patient care. And that can come in waves of continuity of care, it can come because you have a better turnaround time for that test result, and it also helps with the patient to give them convenience as to where they get their testing done. So they don't have to leave one facility and go to another. Oftentimes when that happens, the patient just, for whatever reason, doesn't go to that other facility and get the testing.
J. Baugh: Right.
Anne: Sometimes in a physician office we can actually get a more accurate result than if you send that result out to a commercial laboratory. And the reason for that is because there might be fewer steps involved in the process. And when you have fewer steps in the process, there's less opportunity for error. So for instance, if we were doing an INR test by point of care, and we call the test that you can do right there at the patient's side, we call that point of care. So if we did a point of care test, we'd prick the finger, get a drop of blood, put it in the analyzer, and in about three minutes you'd have a result, and you'd be able to provide the patient face-to-face education, and they would be very compliant in that scenario. But if you do the venous draw and then send that blood out to a commercial laboratory, you now have the paperwork that goes with that process. You have to spin that blood down and process it, or you have to just make sure its temperature is correct and that you then bag that up and you have a courier that'll come take that bag.
And during that process they have to make sure the temperature is maintained and that it doesn't get lost in the process. And then when you get it to the other laboratory, you want to make sure at that laboratory they don't mix up that specimen. So you can see that in the commercial area there are a lot more steps involved and a lot more opportunity for error. Where in the point of care, the physician office, sometimes we have less of those opportunities for error and therefore we get a more accurate result.
Anne: I'll ask physicians when they're getting ready to set up an office lab, what's your motive in doing this? And if they're talking about better patient care and they feel like they can get a good test result then I'm happy. But if the first thing that comes out of their mouth is, "I want to make a profit." Then I back up a step.
Anne: There's no reason why an in-office lab or POL should lose money. But that certainly shouldn't be the motive for getting into the physician office lab business.
J. Baugh: So we talk about having a laboratory inside a physician's office and when you talk about mixing things like that together, it makes me think about a law that I really don't want to think about much because it's so complicated. And that's to talk about the Stark Law. So let me ask you this. Doesn't the Stark Law prohibit a physician from referring a laboratory test to a facility that the physician has maybe an ownership interest in or an investment in, or some sort of a compensation relationship with? How does the Stark Law work when it comes to having a laboratory that is inside a physician's office?
Anne: Well you're right, the Stark Law can be very complicating. And so I always encourage physicians as they're going down this road to find an attorney that understands these rules. Just to make sure that they are not in noncompliance, that there's no problems here. The wonderful thing about Stark that they did for physician office labs, though, was they created what's called an exemption. And that exemption permits the physician to own and operate that laboratory within his own practice for his own patients or if it's a group they can do the testing for all the physician's patients within that group. So that's enabled the offices to have in-office testing.
J. Baugh: Okay. So this is in a situation where someone has tried to get creative with the Stark Law and kind of bend it in such a way that maybe we can allow something like this. It's specifically stated in the Stark Law that there is an exception for an in-office laboratory, is that right?
Anne: That's correct. So there are about 13 different designated health services under the Stark regulation. And those types of services are prohibited when there is a financial relationship. It can be a compensation relationship or an investment relationship.
Anne: So laboratory services is a designated health service, but the exemption allows for the in-office testing. What physicians have to be careful about is allowing patients to get tests done in their office for physicians that are outside of their practice. So they can only do the testing for those patients that are part of their practice that they're seeing and that they're overseeing that kind of testing.
J. Baugh: That's good to know because like we both said, the Stark Law is so complicated that it's good that we go ahead and address that, and as you said, if a physician is thinking about doing this, they need to contact an attorney who has a specialty in working with the Stark Law because it is so complicated. But now that we know that there is this exemption for having a laboratory inside a physician's office, we know that it's legal to do that if it's set up properly. I'm assuming that in addition to that Stark exemption, that there are other rules that would apply in a situation in which a physician has an in-office laboratory. What are some of those rules that physicians need to consider other than the Stark Law?
Anne: Just starting out. A lot of physicians are concerned about the money side of it, so we're not going to go into a lot of detail about billing for laboratory services. But it is important to know that there are specific rules for billing, particularly if you're dealing with Medicare and Medicaid services. A lot of it has to do with medical necessity and making sure that you have paired up a diagnostic code with a procedural code and that it is an allowable service under those payments groups. Aside from the billing rules, then we have CLIA. CLIA is the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, and it actually became effective in 1992. So these rules have been out there for a very, very long time and you would think that it would be easy for everybody to understand them and comply with those rules, but that's just not the case.
J. Baugh: Yeah, I'm sure that's true, and I'm guessing that it's gotten more complicated over time. That's what usually happens with this type of legislation. Something happens down the road and more gets added to it and there are more questions and so I'm sure it's pretty difficult to work through all of that.
Anne: Well, it can be. And one of the interesting things about CLIA though is it hasn't evolved a lot over time, but the laboratory industry is constantly changing and constantly updating. And so we're trying to fit today's atmosphere into some rules that are pretty archaic for the times of healthcare today. So for a physician office laboratory to operate, they need to have a CLIA certificate, and certificates are based on the type of testing that the laboratory is going to perform. Test or categorize by the FDA. They're going to look at those tests and they're going to make a determination about how complex it is to run that test and get a result. Some of them are going to be very easy, and they're going to label those as wave test and then there's going to be tests that are moderately complex. They call those moderate and then highly complex tests. So it uses a lot of judgment, a lot of techniques, specialized technique to perform those tests.
Then based on those types of tests you bring into your facility to run, you have to then figure out what kind of certificate you want. You fill out an application with CLIA and you can get an application of accreditation. And that means another entity such as the College of American Pathologists or COLA is an accreditation agency and they will collect fees and they will do inspections in lieu of CLIA. So it gives the end users some choice as to who they want to have come do their inspections. So you can get a certificate of accreditation, which means another entity will be doing the inspections and collecting fees, or if you're doing just wave test in your office you can get a Certificate of Waiver. If you're doing moderate or high complex tests, then you would get a Certificate of Compliance. So those are the types of certificates you can get.
And there's one other certificate out there. It's called a PPMP and that's a Provider Perform Microscopic Procedures. And that particular certificate allows for physicians and Advanced Practitioners to perform certain microscopic procedures and all wave test. Both the waived and the PPMP certificates do not have routine inspections, but there's still rules that you have to follow. So you have to follow what the manufacturers says for operating that procedure, which could include doing QC. And both the waived and the PPMP laboratories can get inspected and are subject to following those rules that the manufacturer says. And if they don't, they could be shut down. But if they're doing any kind of testing like CBCs or chemistries, most likely they're going to be doing a moderate complexity test and they're going to need to get a CLIA certificate of compliance.
J. Baugh: Okay. So we've talked a little bit about CLIA and what that is and about the different types of certificates that are available and which certificates apply to different types of testing that is being done in the lab. So once a facility gets one of these certificates, then what kind of rules do they have to adhere to?
Anne: Well CLIA has five main pillars, and those are personnel, quality control, proficiency testing, documentation and quality assurance. The personnel rules are sometimes the hardest to adhere to and there are separate rules for a moderate complexity laboratory and separate ones for a high complexity laboratory. And for the different roles that CLIA has defined, such as laboratory director, testing personnel, clinical consultant, technical consultant. All of these roles have very specific qualifications and they also have very specific responsibilities. And it's also noted that for all the accreditation agencies and for the CLIA inspections, the personnel requirements seem to have the highest number of deficiencies because there are also evaluations that must take place with your testing analyst. So there are a lot of very detailed rules that go along with the personnel requirements. And sometimes physicians believe that they've got their MD, so surely they are qualified to run any kind of laboratory that is out there.
But that's not necessarily the case.
You run quality control on every test and that lets you know that the testing analyst and the test itself are running correctly and you can get a good and accurate result. And there's very specific requirements. For every test there is some measure of quality control that must take place and it's important that the POL documents all of that quality control. Proficiency testing is a way for the inspectors to monitor the laboratory over time, and proficiency testing is run by an outside entity. And what that means is that outside entity that you're going to pay money for is going to send you sample specimens and you're going to run those and you don't know what those results are.
And you'll send those results you get back to the proficiency testing provider and they will grade them. And they will send your grades not only back to you but also to the inspectors. And that way the inspectors know whether or not you're doing high quality testing. And you can use those proficiency testing results to help ensure that you've got good quality results coming out of your laboratory. The documentation requirements, I'd like to sugarcoat that and say, "They're easy to do," but that is where the devil's in the details.
J. Baugh: I'm sure that's true.
Anne: And the mantra for the inspectors is, if it's not been documented, it's not been done.
J. Baugh: That's right.
Anne: So you really do need to dig into knowing the details of every one of these pillars that we're talking about because there's documentation requirements for every one of them. And the quality assurance program, that's looking at quality in every aspect of testing. And so when we think about all the aspects of testing, we think not only about the equipment that is giving us a test result, but we also have to think about pre-analytic testing and post-analytic testing.
So the pre-analytic area is going to be the ordering of the test and the processing of the specimen to get it ready to test. And there are very specific rules that accompany pre-analytic testing. And then we have our devices and we have to run that QC on those devices. We have to make sure our personnel are competent when they run that machine. And then after we get a result, we've gotta get that result back into the hands of the physician in a timely fashion, in a way that they can look at the result and then use those results. And that's the post-analytic process. So quality assurance is embedding quality measures throughout the pre-analytic, analytic and post-analytic processes.
J. Baugh: Okay. So it sounds like there are several different areas in which CLIA rules have to be followed, have to be adhered to, and so who is it in the physician's office who's responsible for making sure that everyone complies with all of these rules that you've just talked about?
Anne: Well, whether you're running a moderate complexity laboratory or a high complexity laboratory and even have a waive certificate, whoever is stated as laboratory director, that individual is ultimately responsible for the quality of the tests that are coming out of that facility as well as making sure they're in compliance with all of the regulations. And to check on that laboratory director, we have the inspectors that will come out and do inspections and so the moderate and high complexity laboratories generally get inspected every two years, at least every two years. So they're coming out, they know what rules, depending on the type of tests they're doing, whether it's moderate or high complexity, as to what rules they have to adhere to. And they're going right down their checklist and making sure that they're doing everything that they're supposed to do.
J. Baugh: Okay. Well that's some very good information. Anne, I appreciate you giving us some information about operating an in-office laboratory, and thank you for your time.
Anne: Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Practice Made Perfect with your host J.Baugh. Listen to more episodes, subscribe to the podcast and find show notes at svmic.com/podcast.
The contents of this podcast are intended for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Policyholders are urged to consult with their personal attorney for legal advice as specific legal requirements may vary from state to state and change over time.
The contents of this Podcast are intended for educational/informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Policyholders are urged to consult with their personal attorney for legal advice, as specific legal requirements may vary from state to state and/or change over time. All names have been changed to protect privacy.
About our Guest
Anne Pontius
Anne Pontius is a Sr. Medical Practice Consultant in the Medical Practice Services Department of SVMIC. In her 11 years with SVMIC she has provided medical practice business consulting services to physicians and their staff on the implementation of efficient business operations, strategic planning, OIG compliance programs, and regulations associated with CLIA, OSHA and HIPAA. Ms. Pontius has over 40 years of experience in healthcare. She has a BS degree in Medical Technology from UNC-Wilmington and a Master's in Business Administration from Pfeiffer University. She was the founder and CEO of Laboratory Compliance Consultants, Inc. for 20 years. She is certified in healthcare compliance (CHC) by the Healthcare Compliance Association and is a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has worked with hospitals, group practices, solo practitioners and academic medical centers. Ms. Pontius is a Past President of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA). She has served on several editorial advisory boards and is a professional speaker on several healthcare and physician office business topics.
J. Baugh is a Senior Claims Attorney for SVMIC. Mr. Baugh graduated from Lipscomb University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and from the Nashville School of Law with a J.D. degree. He is currently licensed to practice as a Certified Public Accountant and as an Attorney in the State of Tennessee. He has been a member of the Claims Department of SVMIC since 2000.
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I have manage to have a lot of good meals in my life, at least a few of them here, in this very church. Today, I wanted to tell you about one feast in particular. It was probably the most ornate meal that I have ever been to. I ate this meal... or, really, experienced this meal last year when Tasha and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Casablanca in Morocco. We knew that this meal was going to be an experience just as soon as we got off the bus at the venue. We heard music before we even got into the building. The building itself looked like a castle, which it kind of was. It was mostly square and took up nearly the whole block. It was two stories high and there were several different courtyards within it's walls. Inside, dark wood contrasted beautifully with gleaming white plaster and stone. The walls were full of calligraphy that I couldn't read and images of intertwining vines and flowers. The arches all had lovely scalloped edges. The windows were full of stars. And, the music, which we had first heard across the street, reverberated off the walls as we entered through 20 foot tall, fortified wooden door.
Inside were two dozen young men who raucously played drums and sang to welcome us to our meal. They were wearing what we learned was traditional dress for different cultural and regional groups in Morocco. You could tell who was Berber, or at least representing one of the Berber cultures because they wore bright yellow shoes and white fezzes. Once we arrived in the main courtyard, we saw beautifully set tables and a lovely fountain in the middle. Women were stationed on giant couches and piles of pillows throughout the space. If you wanted, they would draw intricate designs in henna on your hands and sometimes all the way up your arm. After seeing some friends, we sat down to our tables, and looked over our menu. We recognized some of the food names. They make these great stews called tagines in Morocco. We would have one that night. And, lamb was on the menu. That is also very common. But, there were cheeses that we had that I had never heard of, and fruit juices, too. They were also going to serve some kind of pastry. I sat at table with a bunch of other Americans. So much had already happened. None of us had any idea what else to expect for the rest of evening. e sat down to our tables, and looked over our menu. We recognized some of the food names. They make these great stews called tagines in Morocco. We would have one that night. And, lamb was on the menu. That is also very common. But, there were cheeses that we had that I had never heard of, and fruit juices, too. They were also going to serve some kind of pastry. I sat at table with a bunch of other Americans. So much had already happened. None of us had any idea what else to expect for the rest of evening.
As it turns out, the main thing that we didn't expect is that this dinner would go on to last five to six hours. Our menu said dinner would begin at 6 PM. Well, as it turns out, the dinner festivities began at 6 PM. It would be probably another hour and half or two hours before the first small course was served and yet another hour and a half after that before we actually got a decent amount of food. The tagine that was knew was coming didn't arrive until 9 PM. The food took a very long time to get to us, but when it arrived, there were massive piles of it, far more than the eight of us at our table could eat. When they brought the lamb course, they brought out an entire lamb to our table, plus more piles of roasted vegetables. I can not even tell you what our dessert was. I was filled to the gills by that point. There was also many cups of mint tea throughout the night. I was so hopped up on caffeine that night that I barely slept.
Here's the giant plate of lamb and vegetables.
Why, you may ask, did it take so long to get food? What was going on? Perhaps it would be helpful to know a little context here. The conference we were attending moves around every year. One year, it will be in either the US or Canada and the next is will be abroad. While there are often Moroccan scientists in attendance, this was the first time that a university in Morocco was able to host the event. They knew that this was likely the first time that many people had ever been to Morocco and it would maybe be the only time that some of us would have the opportunity to go. So, they wanted to go all out. They wanted to show us the best they had to offer. That meant good food and plenty of it. That also meant that they wanted to make sure that we learned something about Moroccan history and culture.There should also be something fun, so there should be singing and dancing. This feast was to include all those things. The trouble was, those of us who weren't Moroccan or hadn't traveled there before, had no idea what was going on and had not planned correctly to make this an enjoyable evening.
This feast, that our hosts hoped would be so much fun, turned out to being a confusing and frustrating night for many people. Most of us had not eaten anything since lunch. Most of us assumed that if the menu said we'd start at 6 PM, we'd at least get a first course pretty soon there after. Most of us assumed that we'd be done eating by 9 PM, not finally having our first real plate of food. This long meal broken up by dancing and singing exhibitions was not at all what we expected. It didn't help that the people who knew to expect this kind of experience, who knew that special celebrations would be marked by dancing, food, and drink long into the night and over several hours, they didn't seem to realize that this would be a surprise to the foreigners. So, they didn't know that many people would have appreciated a description of the night's events that would have allowed them have a snack before they came and to be prepared for a long evening.
Here is what ended up happening. Some people got so frustrated and hungry that they left before dinner arrived. One couple at my table ran across the street to a McDonald's to get something to eat while they waited. Still others chose to stay and complain heartily.Many of them took the first bus that they could back to the hotel, even though it had arrived only about a half-hour after the final course of the food. I would say that only about a third of the people who had attended the dinner actually enjoyed themselves as the hosts had intended. To this day, for many of the people I know, one of the most disappointing parts of that whole conference was this very elaborate, very drawn out dinner. To me, this is one of the strongest examples I have ever seen of cultural miscommunication, where some people are trying to be good hosts and the guests don't understand and the hosts don't even realize it in time to explain and the guests finally just get mad. I don't think that it ended up being the feast that any of us, guest or host, expected.
I thought of this feast that I experienced in Morocco when I read about Wisdom's feast in our Scripture for today. There are some ways that these two feasts are very similar. Both are in large, beautiful buildings. They both involved lavish table settings and tables filled with meat, a type of food that is not often available to the poor people of the Bible or in poor parts of Morocco. There were servants who called us to the feast in both cases. I will say, though, much to many people's chagrin, there was no wine in Morocco. Wisdom's feast was much more complete in that department. Most importantly, the hosts of both parties offered the best they could to their guests. Now, I told you how well the feast went for the hosts in Morocco. I can't tell you how Wisdom's feast turned out. Her feast is still on-going and I'm not sure how her guests are going to respond. I think we're probably barely through the first course right now and there's probably a lot more singing and dancing to come. The hanger has definitely set in for some and they may not be willing to stick around for Wisdom's full course. It would sure be a shame if they left. I really think there's some good stuff yet to come.
And, what might Wisdom's next few courses be? Honestly, I'm not sure. Wisdom is a gracious and accomplished host. She probably has dishes in mind that I can't even imagine. This is how she describes all the stuff she does in Proverbs: In chapter 8, she says, "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago." She goes on to speak of creation, piece by piece, saying that as God stretched out the heavens and filled the seas, "I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing his inhabited world and delighting in the human race." Wisdom loves humanity and really wants us to come to her party. And, she invited all people, not just the wealthy and learned, to her feast. Her gifts are open to everyone, if you're just willing to show up and stick around for all the courses. We can be pretty sure that the food was good. So, we're probably better off trying not to figure out the courses and, instead, spending our time figuring out how to be good guests at this feast.
I wonder if, in order to be able to make it through Wisdom's long feast, we have to be willing to do some of the stuff she did. We have to be willing to do some creating with God. We have to love our work and do it with joy. We have to delight in the people and the critters and the plants and rocks that surround us. And, we have to be willing to accept an invitation to a party where we might not know exactly what's going on but we have to trust that our hosts wouldn't have invited us if it wasn't worth coming to. We have to be willing to be surprised when the meal doesn't go as we planned, but trust that another good course will come very soon. And, we have to make sure that everyone has a place at the table. Maybe, just maybe, if we can do those things, if we can be like Wisdom, walk in her ways, and bring all our neighbors along, maybe we can get a better sense of what the Divine is truly like. And, maybe we can get some of the insight she promises will come. But, first, we have to be willing to stick through it, long dances, strange songs, and all. The bread's good. And so is the wine. Let's try to stick around a little bit longer.
So then, putting falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This image is called "Sharing" and it was shared by the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the book Gifts of Many Cultures: Worship Resources for the Global Community, edited by Maren C. Tirabassi and Kathy Wonson Eddy.
Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase 'politically correct' wherever we could with 'treating other people with respect', and it made me smile.
I know what you're thinking now. You're thinking 'Oh my god, that's treating other people with respect gone mad!'"
I remembered these words as I read through today's portion of the letter to the Ephesians. It appears that it is not only modern day people who are trying to figure out how to speak civilly to one another. Ancient Christians worked on that, too. I think the author of Ephesians would have appreciated Gaiman's ideas about treating people with respect. After all, that's what he seems to be telling this church to do.
The letter to Ephesus is intended to be a letter that does two things: provide theological grounding to address an issue, or, in this case, a couple issues, in the community and then, to offer concrete practices for living out that theology. We've already talked about the theological conversations in the first part of the letter. Today, we're going to talk about the concrete practices for living out that theology. This author wanted the church to know that this theology is something that they can't just say they like and then not ever actually live any differently. He is certain that faith in Christ is earth-shattering and world-changing. What that means is that you do not receive this grace without being changed. As I heard one speaker say at the UCC General Synod a couple weeks ago, people should see something change when you become a Christian. Your faith should affect your life. So, the author gave the people of this church some practices so they could live out their faith more fully.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've preached about the cultural and religious divisions that seemed to be affecting the church in Ephesus. There seems to have been a strong division between ethnically Jewish and ethnically Gentile Christians in this community. The division was strong enough that is seemed to be keeping people from actually learning to function together as a church. Also, the church was arguing over who's gifts for leadership were the greatest. This argument, too, seemed intense and seemed to be dividing the community. I would hazard a guess that many of the people in this room know something about living in a world that seems very strictly divided. I read some statistics this week that said that 60% of Americans feel like the country is more divided today than it was 20 years ago. These same studies indicated that there is far less political common ground in the platforms of our major political parties. Nearly one third of the members of each party feels like not only do they have major disagreements with people in the other party, but that the other party is actually a threat to the nation's well being. More than 25% of the members of both parties would be unhappy if someone in their immediate family married someone with different political beliefs.
Now, you might argue that those statistics are about the secular world, not the church. But, I think you can find divisions just as strong both between different Christian communities and within individual communities. I think there is a very similar tone of snark and negativity and pathologization of difference within Christian communities as there is in communities that aren't specifically Christian. Fear-mongering and meanness rule our rhetoric right now. It is very often hard to find the common ground that must exist if we all call ourselves Christian. In times when we struggle to find unity through our difference, it might be helpful to return to some of this author's recommendations to the Ephesians. And, what is says is to speak to people with love.
In order to overcome the divisions within the culture and within the church, this author says that the church is no place for falsehood. He says that the Church is no place for lies or hateful speech that is only intended to cause harm. As one scholar I read this week, Brian Peterson, puts it, "The church ought to be the place where the truth can be spoken: the difficult truths about our world and about ourselves, and the gracious truth about the God who has redeemed us." That doesn't mean the truth will be easy, but it does mean that our words should never be spoken with malice, manipulation, or intent to slander. This also doesn't mean that the truth will never be passionate or even angry. It does mean that the anger will be used more as a tool to disrupt unhealthy or unjust behavior and not as a corrosive force to destroy the community around it. As Peterson notes, anger is often justified and an appropriate response to injustice. We need to listen to people who present the truth with anger, and help to address this anger so that it does not fester.
Sometimes in my research for the week I come upon a discussion of translation that really helps me see a verse differently. That happened a couple of times with this scripture. There is one verse where is says "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths..." Scholar Karoline Lewis says that this is more clearly translated as let no putrid talk come out of your mouth. Make sure that your words aren't rotten and won't infect the entire place. This author puts malice and manipulation on par with putrefaction. It is a sign of disease or death. And, remember, this community is supposed to be living a new life in Christ, a life that has been renewed and cleaned from signs of destruction. Hateful words and lies are signs of death, not Christ. When speaking of Christ's life and sacrifice, the author says that it is a fragrant offering. That is quite different than words that smell of rot and destruction. He says that our offerings to one another should be more fragrant and less stinky. That's what Jesus would do.
A second place with a shift in translation appears to be important is in the word to thieves that is present right in the middle of the scripture. At first, at least to me anyway, this talk of robbery and honest work seemed a little out of place within a larger discussion of respectful, honest speech. But, Peterson argues that this isn't that out of place. He said that this section on work is less about taking care of your own business, and more about doing something worthwhile. Peterson says, "[T]he text speaks about doing 'the good.' This is not a call to keep your head down and just pay attention to your own 'honest work.' Rather, it is a call to pay open-eyed attention to the needs of those around us, so that we can discern the good thing that our neighbors need and then do it." This verse isn't best read as a call to some individualistic, solitary Protestant work ethic but, instead, as a call to service of our neighbor. In this way, according to Peterson, our actions, along with our words, can become a "conduit" of God's grace to others. This is how our faith changes us. Our actions and our words are not separate. They are united in the goal of sharing God's grace. This is how we imitate God. What we say matters. What we do matters. We have to pay attention. We have to be willing to be moved to do something different than the way with did it before we felt the seal of the Holy Spirit on our hearts.
Now, some might argue that this attention to what we say and what we do distracts us from more important, weightier matters of doctrine. Surely it matters most that we profess the right kinds of belief. Emphasizing kindness of speech and loving action is a distraction... it is unimportant. Well, I think that the author of Ephesians is telling us quite the opposite. He argues that how we communicate with one another and how we serve one another are directly related to how we understand ourselves as followers of Christ. In fact, this author has the audacity to charge the Ephesians to not just follow Christ, but to imitate God! How can we even begin to imagine imitating God? When we imitate someone, we look to their words and their actions in order to model their behavior. This author says that we can look to the example of Christ, the incarnation of our God who once walked among us, and is still present with us through the Holy Spirit, to be our model. Scholar Elna Mouton says that, for the author of Ephesians, Christ embodies a concept of God centered on shared work and loving concern. Christ is the model for how to live in humility, hope, love, forgiveness, and peace. When we model our behavior after Christ's, the way a child models her behavior after a parent, we are modeling our behavior after God. We are imitating the Divine.
Imitating God is no small task. It is best done in community, with people who will speak the truth in love, sometimes with anger, but not with malice. It is best done side by side, with an eye out for the people who need some help. It is work best shared among friends, neighbors, and also with people that feel very different from you. In the spirit of being willing to demonstrate how I've received grace, I want to tell you a bit about how I'm going to do some of my part of imitating God. On August 19th, at 2 PM, I'm going to a meeting in Augusta at the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ office where members of the Maine conference will gather to organize an anti-Racism Resource Team. You are invited, too, though I know many of you will be working and can't make a time during the work day. If you really want to be involved, we'll find a way to make that happen. So much of the unrest of the last year has reminded me that racism goes very deep in the bones of this country and in our churches. Just as Christ broke down walls between Jews and non-Jews, I believe that Christ can break down the divisions that we have built between people of European descent and people of Asian, African, Native American, and Latin American descent. But, that wall doesn't come down if Christians don't do the work of speaking the truth in love, addressing the anger, and doing the good to serve the people who need it. I hope that this will be a place that I can do the good, right here, in the place where I live. I hope you find a place where you can do the good, too. Go. Be imitators of God. Be willing to be moved by what you see as you work. Don't be afraid to speak and hear the truth. Christ did it before us and shows us a way. Let's keep on being imitators of God.
But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.Therefore it is said, 'When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.' (When it says, 'He ascended', what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
The scriptures this week tell an interesting story about receiving and passing on gifts from God. They do so by telling stories from two different faith communities: the ancient Israelites and the slightly less ancient church in Ephesus. At first blush, these two communities could hardly seem more different. It is interesting, though, that despite the difference, we'll see important ways that God worked in their communities. God didn't work in exactly the same way, primarily because the people didn't need the same things. God always seems to address people in our particularity, not in some kind of generalized way. Nevertheless, despite the different situations and different people, God showed up, and the people were able to get what they needed. Both communities felt God working, bring grace in their lives. Let's spend some time together talking about how that happened.
In Exodus, we have what some may describe as the biggest group of whiney whiners in all of the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites who are wandering in the desert. I think I may have accidentally ended up on a tour bus with some of these folks this week. First the van was too hot, then the air conditioner was too cold. The traffic was too bad and the tourists were too slow and in the way. To be fair, though, I also thought the tourist were too slow and in the way. As it turns out, I can be a whiney whiner, too. They also commented on how the trip was too long or had messed up their schedule and how hot it was outside. I was waiting for someone to start talking about delicious fleshpots back in Berkeley, but it never happened. The folks in the Bible story needed to renew their faith in God, the faith that drew them out of slavery in the first place. The people I was spending time with just needed to chill out.
Now, to be fair, it was probably reasonable for the Israelites to be worrying. They were in the wilderness after all, and the wilderness, as we have discussed before, is a hard place to live. Scholar Wil Gafney points out that they've been in the wilderness for a while, now, too, probably six weeks. She states that it has been six weeks since the miracles of the parting of the Sea of Reeds and the plagues in Egypt. It has also been six weeks since they left the oasis with fresh water and abundant food. They are six weeks into a journey that they don't know will turn into 40 years, and they are definitely getting worried. They had great faith... that's what had gotten them to this point in the first place. But, in the midst of the sand and the dwindling provisions, they needed a little renewal. They needed something to remind them that if God had gotten them that far, God would make sure they got the rest of the way. Who here hasn't needed their own bit of manna and quail in order to have the courage to take the next few steps towards liberation? The gift here is that God heard their needs, and, instead of dismissing them as whining, God provided them with a way to keep going and a lesson on how to take enough without taking too much.
The second group of people we are reading about today are the members of the church in Ephesus. Like the Israelites, the Christians of Ephesus seem to have some conflict, though they aren't complaining about food or freeway traffic. They seem to be complaining about each other, or at least fighting over who gets to be included in Christ's community and who has the most important gifts from God. Before we try to figure out why they are arguing, it seems important to learn a little about where they live. According to scholar Sarah Henrich, Ephesus was an exceptionally important and diverse city in ancient Rome. There was a lot of different religious faiths rubbing elbows in the city, and a lot of different ethnicities of people trying to make their way in a bustling urban area. Ephesus was particularly important for followers of the goddess Artemis, who's temple was located in the city. When you have that many people from that many ethnicities and religious communities in one place, it is not surprising that you would find ethnic conflict. Some of that conflict is definitely a part of the Ephesian church.
While they don't seem as conflicted as, say, the Corinthians (they seemed to be fighting all the time), the author of the book definitely felt like he had to help them figure out how to be one church, despite all of the walls that they and society had constructed to keep them apart. This author had to explain to them that Christ had broken down the divisions between Jew and Gentile,the ethnic divide that seems most important in this community, and that they were to no longer be bound by those cultural divisions. There is a second, also important conflict in this community. Not only are they having trouble navigating the old division between Jew and Gentile, they are also arguing about what kind of spiritual gifts are most important. Apparently, rather than celebrating having members who have a diversity of talents and gifts from God, they are arguing over who's gifts are most important. It would be like our Sunday School teachers fighting with our trustees over who's job was more important. They apparently spent at least part of their precious time together jockeying for position, trying to assert that prophets were more important than pastors or teachers more important that apostles.
This author, like Paul before him in the letters to the Corinthians, had to explain that such arguments were a waste of time and took away from the unity that they were seeking in the Gospel. He had to explain that all people received grace through Christ, and that just because the gifts may be different, that doesn't mean that one set of gifts is better than the other. These folks needed to be reminded that it takes all kinds to build the church, and it does the Gospel no good to pit people in the church against each other based on what they have gifts for doing at church. As scholar Susan Hylen put it, Christ does not require uniformity to create unity in the church. Grace abounds in many different forms and the church is richer for it.
So, what can these two groups of people tell us about being the church today? Well, I think these two stories can both tell us something important about grace, albeit grace that shows up in different ways. Exodus shows us that, sometimes, gifts fall right in our laps at the times we need them. We are lacking something important... vital, even, to our well being. And, then, it appears. Our call is, then, to use that gift in responsible ways. It's like when our church investments did so well last year at church. Lord knows we could use the money. And, we are so lucky to have trustees who know how to steward those investments well. One of the major questions we had when we saw that we would have a budget surplus was how could we use that money wisely and to further the mission and vision of the church. We don't want to be people who let the gift spoil, but we don't want to waste it, either.
In Ephesians, though, the gifts are different. They aren't things that fall out of the sky or investments that do much better than we imagined they would. In Ephesians, we ourselves are the gifts. Or, more clearly stated, we have been given gifts that allow us to serve our neighbor, or to quote the biblical text, to equip the saints. Rather than waist what we've been cultivating inside ourselves, we are called to use these gifts for equipping the saints so they can better follow the Gospel. And, importantly, there isn't a hierarchy of gifts. People may have received all kinds of gifts from God. Some are teachers. Some are prophets. Some make sure the lawn gets mowed and the toilet paper gets refilled every week. All are needed in order to build the body of Christ. Because everyone's gifts are need, being the body of Christ means that we are working together through our differences, not trying to erase them.
I've been trying to figure out how to end this sermon for a couple days now. I think, when it comes down to it, what we learn most from these scriptures is that we will receive grace, that is, gifts from God. Sometimes, the gifts will surprise us. That is half the fun. And, these gifts will sustain us on our way. Other times, we, ourselves, by virtue of that spark of divinity in us from creation as well as through our careful spiritual cultivation, carry the gifts inside of us. It is our calling to figure out how to use them to equip the saints in our lives. We are made of God's breath and stardust. We can be the gifts and make our community and our world a better, more just place. The gifts don't have to all be the same. We just have to be ready to make use of them. Remember, it takes all kinds. We can be the church together.


Roselyn Sanchez Celebrates With Hollywood's Favorite Latinas!
"1st Official Trailer For Tim Burton's MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN"
20th Century Fox has released a BRAND NEW trailer for MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN! From visionary director, Tim Burton, and based upon the best-selling novel, comes an unforgettable motion picture experience. When Jake discovers clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times, he finds a magical place known as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
Producers: Peter Chernin, p.g.a.; Jenno Topping, p.g.a.