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Tag Archives: emerge
International, News, Science
BlackBerry inventor starts quantum technology fund aiming to turn "Star Trek" devices into reality
BlackBerry Inventor Starts Fund to Make Star Trek Device Reality
By Hugo Miller & Jon Erlichman
Mike Lazaridis, inventor of the BlackBerry smartphone, is starting a C$100 million ($97 million) quantum technology fund that's aiming to turn devices like the medical tricorder from "Star Trek" into reality.
The fund, called Quantum Valley Investments, is being financed exclusively by Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, an old friend and co-founder of Research In Motion Ltd. (BB), the company behind the BlackBerry. The goal is to commercialize technologies from a cluster of research labs that have been bankrolled by Lazaridis. At least one startup has signed up with the fund and the first products may emerge in the next two to three years, he said.
"What we're excited about is these little gems coming out," Lazaridis said in an interview in Toronto. "The medical tricorder would be astounding, the whole idea of blood tests, MRIs — imagine if you could do that with a single device. That may be possible and possible only because of the sensitivity, selectivity and resolution we can get from quantum sensors made with these quantum breakthroughs."
Lazaridis, who stepped down as RIM's co-chief executive officer 14 months ago, is putting his time and fortune into quantum computing and nanotechnology — sometimes referred to as the "science of the small" — which uses atomic-sized technology in fields ranging from medicine to cryptography.
He opened the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre in his hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, last September, financing the effort with a $100 million donation. That lab complements the Institute for Quantum Computing and the more-than-decade-old Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, both founded with more than $250 million of Lazaridis's own money and additional funds he helped raise.
The Quantum Valley fund will probably focus on one to two dozen companies, he said. It may take a few years to make the investments, said Lazaridis, who declined to name the startups that are under consideration.
"We're being very strategic with the funds," he said. "This is not a venture capital fund that we're all used to."
Noninvasive medical-testing equipment — the real-life versions of the scanning devices used by "Star Trek" medics — will probably be a focus of the fund.
Continue reading BlackBerry inventor starts quantum technology fund aiming to turn "Star Trek" devices into reality →
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India, News, Politics
In India, new middle class awakens – Anti-corruption effort could signify change in national psyche
By Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi
NEW DELHI — As he waited in the rain for India's veteran anti-corruption crusader to emerge from jail, call-center employee Amit Bhardwaj was still troubled by the bribe he was forced to pay three months ago to get a birth certificate for his firstborn son.
"I hated it," he said, miming how the official had greedily counted the notes, worth about $20, in full public view. "I had hatred for myself and for him. This was the first thing I did for my newborn son."
Like millions of other Indians, Bhardwaj has found a degree of personal redemption by joining a national movement against corruption led by the unlikely figure of 74-year-old Anna Hazare. The peaceful movement has drawn in Indians of all ages and from all walks of life, but it marks the first time India's new, urban middle class has put aside creature comforts and personal ambition and taken to the streets for a political cause.
Read more → Washingtonpost → SINDH DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
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Current Issues, Media, Pakistan, Politics
Civilian supremacy over military: a process, not a transaction – Dr Mohammad Taqi
– In post-bin Laden Pakistan, a unique prospect exists for the civilian leadership to neutralise the establishment and literally reverse the power equation. Such a constellation of events does not happen often and the agents of the status quo are hard at work to quickly close this small window of opportunity
Wherever and whenever nation-states make the transition towards a democratic form of government, the question about civilian supremacy over the military is bound to come up. In stable western democracies, such as the US and Japan, both convention and the constitution provide well-established safeguards against the military's encroachment on the civilian power to oversee and control it. But in budding democracies, and especially countries like Pakistan that go through praetorian autocracy and democracy in a cyclical fashion, the issue of civil-military balance of power remains highly complex, unresolved and pernicious.
It was this struggle for power that Samuel Adams — one of the US's founding fathers — had warned against, in a letter to James Warren: "A standing army, however necessary it may be at some times, is always dangerous to the liberties of the people. Soldiers are apt to consider themselves as a body distinct from the rest of the citizens. They have their arms always in their hands…Such a power should be watched with a jealous eye."
Standing armies have nonetheless become a norm and the citizens' militias, looked upon favourably by Adams and the legendary Baloch leader Sher Muhammad Marri, as a bulwark against martial law, have survived just in theory. Since the Portuguese Carnation revolution of 1974, ironically led by the military, a series of new democratic dispensations — the so-called third wave democracies — have continued to grapple with the issue of consolidating civilian control over the military, as part of the overall cementing of democratic change. The quest for fledgling democracies has been not only to oust the military from power but also to prevent it from staging another outright coup d'état as well as an indirect intervention in or competition with civilian power.
In the political scenario evolving in Pakistan after the US took out Osama bin Laden, the security establishment has found its chokehold on power to be in mortal danger. The façade of the military's organisation and invincibility, nay infallibility, has been lifted, tilting the balance of power against it internationally, but more importantly, domestically. It is this exposed domestic flank that is really worrisome for the establishment, as a potential civilian compact could emerge and dislodge it from the direct and indirect role of control over the state that it is accustomed to exercising. The Latin American and Southeast Asian models of the juntas defanged and sent packing by the united political elite are not completely lost on the Pakistani deep state. …
Read more: Daily Times
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This year, the SCCER FEEB&D and the SCCER EIP will again organise a Joint Annual Conference on common topics. The conference will take place on 27 September 2019 at ETH Zurich.
Details about the programme, registration and the venue will be published on this website in due time.
Please save the date in your agenda!


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A Monetary Solution to Remove Settlers
Tags: Anti-Zionist, Arab, defense, Dr Sherman, Haaretz, IDF, Indigenous People, Israel, Israelis, Muslim, nations, problem, Settlers, Shomron, solution, War World
Dr. Martin Sherman gave a defense of his formula for solving the Palestinian Arab versus Israel conflict in an article titled, "</a href=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22651 target=blank>Haaretz vs. IISS-The anatomy of 'Fake News'," which he depicted how he was misrepresented in an article in Haaretz, and we would advise reading his defense. In his defense, he covers his concept for a solution to the Palestinian Arab-Israeli conflict which involves several interwoven cloths of solutions which are far different and more complete and far less violent than the Haaretz article depicted. We are not surprised by this but were conflicted as to why Dr. Martin Sherman actually deigned to give any interview to Haaretz and why he expected they would treat him with any sense of propriety or responsibility. Why Dr. Sherman thought he was getting an opportunity with any equal treatment from this far left newspaper with a record of excoriating every right wing or nationalist position and having done so for decades was beyond our scope of understanding. Their slanting of the news in our opinion was so far left and anti-Zionist that we stopped reading them except when they came up in searches for exact information, which we will credit Haaretz in that they do often represent facts with a straight-forward and honest manner which is why we have often quoted their presentation of facts. Their problem is with those who hold opinions which differ from their political framework, which Dr. Sherman qualifies, along with his great ability to speak and write in a clear and easily understood manner. Apparently, he was not clear enough or the author of the article had some animus for the position presented by Dr. Sherman and thus heard something quite different than the actual words presented, whatever the reason, she really got under Dr. Sherman's skin enough to have him write, as he pointed out, an entire article in defiance of the Haaretz lynching of his actual opinions and positions.
Dr. Martin Sherman
We actually agree with much of what Dr. Sherman includes in his formula with some basic differences. The very first item is to differentiate the indigenous people from the actual settlers. Factually, as you will realize, the Jews are the indigenous peoples while the Arabs are the settlers, so glad that has been sorted. The first item we would present the Palestinian Arabs with is that Israel will annex all the lands west of the Jordan River in a fixed period of one year or less, depending on the mood of the government and what they will accept. We would advise that the time period should be decided to be as short as considered feasible and not a second longer because the longer the time period, the more time there will be for problems and interference from the rest of the world. For some reason, the entire world believes that they have the right to tell Israel how they will be permitted to run their affairs. Simple things which if performed by any other nation would simply pass without even notice is immediately snatched by the busybodies of our world and immediately made into a life or death problem which must be negotiated by the European Union, the United Nations, the Arab League and so many other organizations and nations who all feel that before Israel is permitted to conduct any business, the item of that business must first be passed through the rest of the world and made to fit the particular perfidies of every critic. Sorry world, Israel is an independent and equal nation with the same rights, powers, political freedoms, passage of laws, declarations of national established origins, basic national flag along with anthem with language as well as being a national home for the Jewish People and court case decisions which do not require, need or desire your assistance in accomplishing these areas. So, when it comes to dealing with the remnants of Arabs left behind after Jordan lost the area it illegally occupied and illegally populated with numbers of their citizens, some which they forcefully transferred, Israel needs to tread softly yet definitively to correct the crimes committed by Jordan from 1948 through the Six Day War in 1967. In providing for solutions in many wars, including both World Wars, the people whose governing nations lost the regions which they resided within were relocated to their previous national lands often without any compensation and given a very limited time frame before threat of military force would be applied. This option was, of course, denied Israel as was retaining lands gained in a defensive war as has been the rule of international law except for Israel. So, how can Israel finally address this problem and possibly get this monkey off our backs and the whole world can finally rest at night, though we completely doubt that any of the detractors of Israel will lose ten seconds before exploding into indignation, but at some point Israel will have to weather such a storm and simply reply to the world that they can simply bug-off.
The solution which Israel may need to take, and do so in the near term, is to inform the Arabs residing in the Shomron (Jordanian named West Bank) that they will be required to sign a guarantee that as resident aliens of Jordanian lineage they swear to act in a manner which will have the characteristics and results of non-belligerence or face deportation without any reimbursement for property or other losses. They should also be granted that they have two other alternatives. The first and far preferable would include their being reimbursed for all properties for which they have deed proving ownership above market value plus a relocation bonus which should be of a level which would make them attractive to most nations as their wealth would be welcome. This bonus would be less than many Israelis or others might believe, likely less than one-hundred-thousand-dollars. This payment would be a one time offer and one time payment for which they would sign that they are satisfied with their settlement and also promise to never seek to reside within Israel in the future under pain of deportation. The other choice would be to refuse either option above and as such have decided to take up a belligerence against Israel and consider themselves to be in a state of open war with Israel. In response to those choosing this option will be complied with and will face the full power of the IDF as soon as they are located without any measure of remorse. These would be the three choice method in which the Arabs currently residing in the Shomron could be given which would resolve the difficulty and remove any doubt as to their desire to remain within Israel peaceably without any desire to disturb the peace while others will have chosen to not reside in Israel and take monetary compensation and seek to reside outside of Israel and surrender all rights to reside within Israel in the future. Then there will be those who will decide they wish to wage war against Israel. They will face the rules of war and such a war will be waged against those so choosing. We would believe that anybody choosing to war with Israel will be minimal and the vast majority of the Arab population would take the reimbursement and inducement and the remainder will likely choose non-belligerence and actually mean this.
The problem would result from those who either signed the documents and stay or take the payments and leave and then continue to commit acts of terror and target Israelis. This should also be stated that should any choose either option and continue to commit acts of terror, they will immediately be considered to actually be amongst those who chose to war with Israel and be treated as such. The likelihood that those deciding to be at war with Israel will continue to be a problem for more than a few months is highly unlikely as the Israeli Defense Force is a well trained military and as this will be actual acts or war, the IDF will be informed that they may feel free to engage those choosing to war with Israel with maximum vigor and that Israel is willing to take prisoners but that prisoners are not a high priority. Those taken as prisoners will be placed within a prisoner of war camps built specially to care for them until the entirety of the Arab and Muslim worlds make peace with Israel and establish friendly relations. We would prefer that they actually live long enough to see such become a reality but if they do not, we will not lose any sleep. Those who choose to remain within Israel as resident aliens will be given as many freedoms as feasible with the hope that they will fairly soon be able to be treated with equality to all other legal aliens who reside and work within Israel. All other problems should resolve themselves within two years and after these are settled, then Israel can hopefully live in peace and the world can finally take a breath and leave Israel to their own future.
A Few Things on My Mind
Filed under: Amalekites,American People Voice Opinion,Appease Islamic Interests,Appeasement,Arab Appeasement,Arabist,Assyrian Empire,Babylon,Ban Ki-Moon,Barbarian Forces,Blood Libel,Civilization,Conflict Avoidnce,Congress,Congress,Constitutional Government,Coverup,Cyrus the Great,European Pressure,Foreign Funding,Hate,Iran,Israel,Israeli Interests,Leftist Pressures,Muslim World,Nebuchadnezzar II,Non Binding Resolution,Nuclear Weapons,Palestinian Pressures,Peacekeepers,Persians,Politicized Findings,Politics,President Obama Pessing Freeze,Promised Land,Religion,Rioters Pressure,Roman Empire,Russian Pressure,Second Temple,United Nations — qwertster @ 3:30 AM
Tags: Administrative Detention, Anti-Semitism, Assassinated Family, Ban Ki-moon, Binyamin Kahane, daily assaults, Defense Minister Ya'alon, Eretz Yisroel, Fatah, Gandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, Gaza, Green Line, Greenhouses, Hakol Hayehudi, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Israel, Knifings, Mahmous Abbas, Meir Ettinger, Munich Olympics, New Yotk City, Over Politically Incorrect Blog Posting, Palestinian Authority, Probable Bew Six Months, Rabbi Kahane, Rioting, Ripped Apart for Rocket Tubes, Rock Throwing, Secretary General, Settlements, Settlers, Shootings, Six Months, Talia Kahane, Temple Mount, United Nations, Vehicular Rammings, Yasser Arafat
We may as well get the easy part before making some upset. Talking about making people upset, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appears to have decided better to upset the Zionists than the Arabs and Muslims after all there are a mere fourteen to fifteen million Jews and half of them are not Zionists and a fair number of that non-Zionist group are ardently anti-Israel themselves and there are well over a hundred times as many Muslims of which probably seventy to eighty percent would love to see Israel gone and the Jews along with them. Well, perhaps United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon should take a stroll over to CCNY's History Department and ask them about some of the other peoples whose leaders decided to side against the Jews and Israel and how they fared as there were almost always under twenty-five million Jews in the world thanks to our dedication to raising moderate size families and seeking quality in our children over sheer numbers and it has worked well. Just to assist him since the only one empire that once almost persecuted the Jews, but that failed as the Queen was a Jew and the King really loved his Queen so when Esther demanded that if Haman wished to murder every Jew in the Persian Empire on the morrow, then he should start with her. This did not work well for Haman and his assistants, his sons, as they hung on the gallows they had prepared and Jews celebrate Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordechai who raised her on Torah. But alas, Persia changed their name to Iran and apparently do not remember their own history. This is proven as they are allowing Cyrus the Great's tomb to be submerged under the waters of a dam rather than take the care to move it to higher ground; their reasoning is he ruled long before Islam so he does not matter. Iran will pay the same price as Haman if they remain blind to their past and that Cyrus was the Great because of his conquests over the Babylonians and that he feared Hashem and granted the Jews to return to their homelands and rebuild their Temple to Hashem and to make the daily sacrifices as spelled out in Torah and to remember his fair treatment.
Cyrus the Great's Tomb
He perhaps had heard of the amazing event which drove Nebuchadnezzar II to understand where true power resides as he had three of the Jews; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to bow before him or his idol nor worship his gods, to be incinerated in the fiery furnace. During their trial they answered the charges in their defense stating, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel 3:15-18). They were thrown into the furnace atop the timbers and flames which consumed them and only their prayers were heard and as the flames burned their brightest they walked from within the flames without even a singed strand on the ropes which held their robes and with an angel of the L0rd some said could be seen behind them as they emerged before it faded and vanished.
But Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is a hard and stubborn man who has perhaps too much faith in the presumed power of his position. He is also likely smitten by the spreading virus infecting too many so-called people of discernment, this virus is known as the BDS Movement which demands that Israel and her people be cast low through economic measures of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and also demands during protests that companies which do business with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) or any companies which are located in contested areas or who do business with such companies or whose workers live in these areas (translated simply anything Israeli as such terms are easily broadened as these have grown at times from a far more limited boycott which started against Caterpillar for selling Israel some heavy bulldozers which had been used to take down terrorist houses and for clearing a zone near a border fence, the same area that Egypt had since taken over and widened to almost a kilometer in places as they grew tired of being shot upon).
This BDS virus bears a uncanny resemblance to another virus named anti-Semitism. As these BDS Movement proponents have no such campaign against China over Tibet, occupied since 1951 after being overrun in 1950, with China setting up a puppet government which then surrendered Tibet to the Chinese. As such, the Chinese claim they did not conquer Tibet. Tibet petitioned to become a province though the Dali Lama, the one born in Tibet, not the one China appointed in his stead, has a wholly different point of view on this history despite its imaginative manner to conquer a nation.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Probably Denouncing Israel Once Again as
His Mouth is Moving and He is Behind the
Sign of the Bane of All that is Holy
the United Nations Emblem of Shame
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon really should check with the Philistines, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Byzantines or any of the others who have persecuted the Jews throughout history, but then they are all destroyed, vanquished from the face of the earth and only spoken of in the past tense. As for Israel's current enemies and nations or organizations which call for the chopping of Israel into pieces to be fed to her enemies in the hopes that will quench their blood lust and libels as excuses for terror and demands for the world, an all too willing world, to denounce and allow the destruction of the Jewish State, the time is fast approaching. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, let our warning be taken in heed and not interpreted as a threat in any form for I am far from able to speak for Hashem, but Hashem will speak and will protect His prize, Jerusalem and all Israel, repeat, all Israel from those who would dice and cut up the gift Hashem promise Abraham, Isaak, Jacob for their children to the last generation.
In case you think that gave you and the other haters who desire to undo what was their small part in Hashem's promise that Eretz Yisroel would be born in one day as it will go from nothing to a nation in the setting of the sun and in the next morning a nation would stand, the nation you know as Israel, a member nation of that club off Turtle Bay called the United Nations which means that the other members are forbid to attack her by the rules of the United Nations but the times they have assailed her borders there was no hue and cry of halt until it became obvious they had lost, then you demanded Israel stop and return most, and now all if not more, of the lands gained in a defensive war. Apparently you are unable to read the rules of Lawfare which allows the retention of such lands as payment for such a breach of the peace and all Israel has demanded is defensible borders which is why the Golan Heights were annexed, the Sinai Peninsula is supposed to be largely demilitarized and Egypt has worked with Israel within the treaty limitations and consideration considered and variances permitted, and Israel has been deemed by almost every military analysis seen to need the banks of the Jordan River and the high grounds overlooking the Jordan River Valley and the passes through those heights as a necessity for tactical depth and control of obvious attack routes. And now, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon takes yet another swipe at Israel the next day after all but condoning the Arab terrorists but not quite reaching the now infamous Abbas blessing of their holy blood he seems ready to at the least outmatch the United Nations Human Right Committee which condemns Israel as if it were their opening prayer.
These points must not be threatened from behind by an aggressor which is exactly what the Arab Palestinians would become according to their own promises we call threats using their assorted elements all numbering in the thousands if not tens of thousands and as near as we could ascertain the total approached two-hundred-fifty-thousand fighting force, an extreme threat to leave at your rear when facing untold numbers before your front, especially when the world body which should be preventing or protecting you from such an obvious aggression is sitting silently, or worse, debating on what sanctions to level against Israel should she respond to the troops massed on her borders managing another defeat. Now, one more time, as we doubt it will be the last, check United Nations Security Council Resolution which is a Chapter VI resolution making it an advisory and not militarily enforceable as they had the wisdom and foreknowledge to understand and that the wording would confuse people despite their taking near to six months working on an exacting set of words presumably to avoid such, but when one disregards the entire resolution and decides to simply condemn Israel because, well, because it's the Jewish State and that must not be permitted as per United Nations preoccupation and obsession with the destruction of Israel by any means.
The time is coming when the Arabs who demand to be called Palestinians will have escalated the now daily assaults, rock throwing, vehicular rammings, knifings, shootings and rioting with an ever increasing numbers of Israelis being murdered. Palestinian was a name which meant Jews before 1950s and not appropriated until the mid-1960s when the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was fashioned by Yasser Arafat with an enabling assistance from the Soviet KGB. This became one of the world's most universally recognized terrorist groups. The PLO can be credited with giving the world the hijacking of aircraft, the suicide human homicidal bomb, and the car bomb. The PLO provided training for other terror groups the world over. Eventually the world had no idea what to do with them so they worked with some Israeli politicians and other "worldly" entities and personalities, or so they viewed themselves, and transformed the PLO into a peace partner. They were even awarded semiautonomous regions with the terror master Yasser Arafat as the president and his trusty sidekick from the very start, Mahmoud Abbas the financier, accountant and manager of the Munich Olympics terrorist strike, as his vice president. You cannot make such insanity up and sell it to Hollywood as the plot for some misadventure movie.
What is preventing the Israeli government from acting to protect their citizens is beyond understanding and then for you, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, to have the gall of calling Israelis an impediment for peace. Where can you justify such when Israel tore apart the lives of almost ten thousand of their citizens to give the Arabs an opportunity for self-rule and left them millions of dollars' worth of operating greenhouses.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) forces, actually Hamas and Islamic Jihad, immediately took to dismantling these very same greenhouses and used their pipes to fashion rockets. Soon thereafter Hamas took over as the highly trained forces of the Palestinian Authority, trained by the United States under General Dayton, wilted before vastly inferior numbers, yes, lesser numbers, and did so with blinding speed in Gaza.
Israel is still paying for in ruined lives and other traumas for that sacrifice which has gained the world another dysfunctional terror state and the PA is still claiming that they must be given the opportunity to rule themselves. Really? What did they call Gaza? We call it Hamastan and the source of rockets and other offences against our citizens in communities within rocket range of Hamastan with distance meaning the rockets are larger and their explosions more potentially dangerous to property and lives. And you have the gall to talk to us and call our cities in Area C illegal settlements, though we are permitted to build in Area C and the Arabs are not. Talk to them about their building settlements in area C. You want to call our people settlers then show us where in Area A or even Area B that we have built any structures. You claim we are not honoring the agreement but are silent as they destroy repeatedly Joseph's Tomb and refuse Jews and Christians from praying and often even visiting the Temple Mount despite all holy sites given special mention and permission for easy and total access but there are no recriminations against their violence and destructions. Settlers, really? And exactly what term would you use to describe the European funded land grabs in Area C by the Arabs and their constructing shanty homes being constructed encircling the Cave of the Patriarchs so as to close it from Jewish access for prayer or any other reason. What is the name for actual illegal construction by the Arabs or is it you know they would not give you the time of day, let alone stop their illegal building and would laugh in your face for good measure.
Let us get down to basics and look at a condensed series of quotes from Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's address condemning Israel and specifically condemned any plans by Israel to zone lands near Jericho as state lands which is among the acts Israel has not permitted as there has been a freeze on all building beyond the Green Line since 2012, but there has been increasing terrorism both in quantity and lethality. But first your quote strung together. "Progress towards peace requires a freeze of Israel's settlement enterprise." And, "These provocative acts are bound to increase the growth of settler populations, further heighten tension and undermine any prospects for a political road ahead." Plus "The parties must act – and act now – to prevent the two-state solution from slipping away forever." In contrast, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appeared to excuse Palestinian terror attacks and on the same day as an Israeli woman died of injuries she sustained in a brutal stabbing attack the day before. He referred to "Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process." Thus, Ban Ki-Moon continued blaming "the occupation" for causing "hatred and extremism." And we'll use this as a closer where Ban Ki-Moon protested that, "As oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism." So Arabs stabbing twenty-two year old mother right in front of her children is their just expressing their frustration and a Jew praying upon the Temple Mount was the reason for Arab rioting and what were those Jews expecting; equality, compassion, understanding and respect but as long as the Arabs object to any action committed by Jews then the Jews must cease and desist immediately from any such action or land ownership and if they end up with no state and are treading water three miles out in the Mediterranean, if that is what it will take to satisfy the Arabs and maybe end terrorism, then it must be given them without any thinking or discussion as long as it only inconveniences or results in dead Jews, then what's the harm, right Ban Ki? Well, it seems Ban Ki-Moon is still stuck handing over the lands settled by the settlers today, and likely Jerusalem next week and then Tel Aviv by year's end, with the rest saved for next year with the final declaration of a Jew free Palestine from the River to the Sea and all in vain as it will not save a single soul, but we Jews will survive and return to Jerusalem as that is our final goal just as it has been for millennia, given the chance, Jews return to this their home, their treasured and ancient home where there is proof in almost every corner, you just need to dig a little further.
This is merely our history of longing for our return to Jerusalem, because that is what we do, and will always return to our homes fulfilling Torah. The problem I have is after the struggle to force the British to leave and end their occupation of our lands one would think that we would have written our own laws and constitution already but instead we retained some of the worst of the British laws. Probably the most liberty obstructing law has to be administrative detention which the British used to place those Jews who they believed would cause any disruption whenever an important group was scheduled. They also placed Jews into prison but on occasion they would place these Jews in a special location where they could get a confession which they would then use to round up the rest of the usual suspects and this time they had a confession implicating these leaders of the communities with some being Rabbis with congregations. Right now there is a man, the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, Meir Ettinger, is in his sixth month of administrative detention where after three months there had to be a hearing to determine whether or not it was in the State's interest such that it overwhelmed the legal rights of the individual. With only the evidence of a posting which expressed unpopular views in a blog he wrote on the Hebrew website "Hakol Hayehudi" they have been holding Meir Ettinger for almost six months and knowing what we have ascertained about the vengefulness of Yaalon, Meir is likely going to receive additional extensions for as long as Netanyahu and Yaalon control his fate.
Rabbi Meir Kahane with Son
Rabbi Binyamin Kahane and Wife Talia
Simply put, the powers-that-be don't like the way he thinks. Defense Minister Yaalon prefers that this grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane be held without charges potentially indefinitely. We will know soon enough as Mr. Ettinger will have a hearing to decide whether he will walk away or be incarcerated for potentially another six months without a trial or even an indictment. This is a holdover from the days of British occupation. We were glad to be rid of the British as they used underhanded laws such as this holding without charge and then letting them go well after any action was passed. These British left-over laws with such arbitrary and excessive power was the kind of rule one finds with Kings and Queens, Barons and Countesses, Lords and Ladies and a ruling elite and the peasants at the bottom and the royals could do as they pleased to the peasants. That is not the governance Israel has and the people of Israel should not tolerate such legal shenanigans and demand that such laws be stricken from the books along with anything remotely like administrative detention. The Kahane Family has seen the murder of the Rabbi Kahane right as he left the hall after giving a speech and taking questions which were just as likely to be directed at his mastery in Torah as they would the land of Eretz Yisroel. I can remember my shock and sorrow when the Rabbi was shot dead in New York City. One of his sons and his wife, Binyamin and Talia Kahane were also gunned down right in the middle of the day in Israel as they drove and this news brought back memories from Rabbi Meir Kahane's assassination and tears were again shed and thoughts felt insignificant in expressing the sorrow.
Pope Francis Latest to Eradicate Any Chance for Peace
Filed under: 1949 Armistice Line,1967 Borders,1967 War,Act of War,Administration,AIPAC,Amalekites,American Israel Public Affairs Committ,Anti-Israel,Anti-Semitism,Anti-Zionist,Appease Islamic Interests,Appeasement,Arab Authority,Arab League,Arab World,Arabs,Blood Libel,Borders,Britain,British Mandate,Cairo Speech,Catholic,Catholic Churh,Catholic Institutions,Civilization,Conflict Avoidnce,Consequences,Coverup,Defend Israel,Ditherer in Chief,East Jerusalem,Europe,European Council,European Governments,European Media,European Pressure,European Union,Forced Solution,Government,Government Controlled Media,Green Line,Hate,Holy Sites,IDF,International Politics,ISIS,Islam,Islamic Pressure,Israel,Israeli Capital City,Israeli Interests,Israeli Media,Jerusalem,Jewish Heritage,Jewish Home,Jewish Leadership,Jewish State,Jews,Jihad,Judea,Judean Hills,Kotel,Leftist Pressures,Mahmoud Abbas,Mainstream Media,Media,Media Bias,Middle East,Misreporting,Murder Israelis,Muslim World,Myth,Old City,Oslo Accords,Palestinian,Palestinian Authority,Palestinian Pressures,Peace Process,Politicized Findings,Politics,Pope,President Obama,Promised Land,Protective Edge,Response to Terrorism,Rocket Attacks,Samaria,San Remo Conference,Secular Interests,Settlements,Shechem,Six Day War,Soviet Union,Statehood,Submission,Support Israel,Tel Aviv,Temple Mount,Terror,Threat of War,Threat to Israel,United Nations,United Nations Presures,United States,United States Pressure,Victims,Western Wall,World Media,World Opinion,World Pressures,World War II,Zionism,Zionist — qwertster @ 2:11 AM
Tags: AIPAC Speech, Arab League, Arabs, Arabs Terrorize Chriatians, Bethlehem, Cairo Speech, Chriatians Fled, Christian Numbers Dropped from 60% in 1990 to 15% just last year of 2014, Christian Population Bethlehem, Christians Routed, Destroy Israel, East Jerusalem, Europe, European Union, Green Line, Holy See, Houses Confiscated, IDF, Israel, Israelis, Jerusalem, Jews, Khoury Church has been Firebombed Fourteen Times, Lives Destroyed, Palestine, Palestinians, Pope Francis, President Obama, Recognize Arab State, Refuseniks, Settlers, Stores Stolem, Strawman, Tel Aviv, Temple Mount, Treaty with Palestinians, United Nations, United States, Vatican, Walk Back Overstatements
Pope Francis has guided the Vatican politics straight onto a dead end street with this making of a treaty with the Palestinian Authority giving credence to the Arab claims that the Jews have no ties to East Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and potentially the deepest cut of them all, no claims or connections to the Temple Mount. I hear some of you saying hold on, there was no mention of the Temple Mount in the agreement, it was solely an agreement that the Pontiff with the full backing of the nearly one and one third billion Catholics of the world that the borders beyond which the Jews must never be permitted to claim is the Green Line 1949 Armistice Lines. This agreement gave complete and total backing to the Arab claims that Israel would take over the Middle East and after that, well, who knows, perhaps the world if not bottled up inside the Green Line. Pope Francis completed the damning of Israeli claims to any of the historic Jewish lands or any portion of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount or even access to the Western Wall by signing an agreement, a treaty with the Mahmoud Abbas and Palestine, which the Vatican had recognized as meeting all the criteria for statehood back in February 2013, regarding the life and activities of the Catholic Church in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem thus setting the minimalist acceptable borders for Palestine should it ever decide to claim statehood unilaterally and then claim all the lands which were part of this agreement as de-facto established and recognized border. What furthers the damage of this treaty in regards to the now defunct peace process is to have given United States President Barack Obama's hastily spoken and then withdrawn recognition of the Green Line, his reference to the 1967 Lines, was the obvious and logical border for any state of Palestine amending his words after creating a firestorm to these lines as the basis where any negotiations could use as a starting point and make mutually agreed upon land swaps. Even this idea is a far cry from the original implications of the Oslo Accords which recognized the Jewish claims to Area C and the Arab claims not to exceed Area A and Area B to be divided through negotiations.
The lie that Oslo or anything else defined Palestine as retaining all of Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and all of the old city including the Temple Mount and surrounding grounds has been stressed so vehemently and for so long while the media reported the grand claims of Abbas and the rest of the Arab Palestinian Authority, Fatah and the world's loudest kvetches of the far left that Israel must be forced to return all of the lands to the state of Palestine reestablishing it in its rightful borders when in reality Palestine was not even dreamed of and never existed, let alone been illegally conquered by Israel as Israel liberated these exact lands from Jordanian nineteen year occupation which stretched from 1948 until June 1967 when Jordan launched their attack joining in the repulsed attempt by Egypt and Syria to drive the Jews into the (Mediterranean) Sea, which was the promise and presumed rallying cry of the Egyptian troops and the expected outcome of Egypt and Syria and subsequently Jordan as well when they assaulted Israel from within their occupied areas of Judea, Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem and where they had denied Jewish rights to enter anywhere near the Temple Mount for the entirety of their occupation. There was no Palestine in 1967, there was no Palestine in 1948 as the Arab League refused to accept or recognize the partition plan thus forfeiting the lands west of the Jordan River to the nascent State of Israel which the Arabs nations, at least a half dozen plus numerous militias including the Arab Brigades commanded by the Mufti of Jerusalem , Amin al-Husseini ( Amin al-Husseini who spent the majority of World War II in Berlin and Nazi occupied lands in the Balkans where he assumed titular command though he did no fighting instead choosing to enjoy the pleasures available to him in Berlin and other European, mostly within Germany cities, immediately assaulted the Jewish State subsequent to its coming into existence such that the Jews were forced into a war on every conceivable front before they finished raising the flag on that fateful morning of May 15, 1948, responding to the Arab full-out assault and not successfully stopping their initial advance and slowly regaining land until the end to hostilities was established by the United Nations and the allies of World War II. The final ceasefire and the numerous ceasefires during the interim as the world ended the fighting every time the Israelis began advancing, retaking the lands lost in the Arabs initial assault, as the Israelis became more organized and answered by halting the advances and pushing the Arab forces to retreat but hostilities ended when the final ceasefire was established which also appeared to come before the Israelis had regained all of their lands.
The Arabs, with the media's full cooperation in repeating their claims, had already started their propaganda attacks by making claims that Israeli meant Jews and only Jews remained after the Jews had evicted everyone else from their lands making Israel free of anyone other than Jews, just as the Arabs had done to the Jews residing in most of their states, perpetrating the lie that only the Jews alone were fighting against the Arab invaders. The reality is that the Jews were joined, or at a minimum were not hindered in their efforts, by Druze and Arabs who intended to remain in the Jewish State and become citizens and whose children and their children are today also fully recognized Israeli citizens despite lies and propaganda denying the existence of Arabs and Muslims having full rights as citizens in Israel.
This propaganda war by the Arabs, and particularly by the Arab Palestinians and the media to which they feed their claims, often outlandish claims, making accusations of Jewish apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Arabs within Israel when the reality is that it is the Arab Palestinians who refuse to allow even a single Jew to enter their areas to live as has been abundantly clear with the hostility some Jews have faced whose homes are near Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Statehood is amongst the lies, falsehoods and fabrications which the European Union often supports but has fortunately not attempted to formalize in a treaty as the Vatican has now done endorsing many of the Arab accusations against Israel. President Obama recognized such things in his Cairo speech early in his Presidency where he supported the Green Line, or the 67 Lines as he put it, as borders for an Arab Palestinian state but was forced to walk back just as he later chose to do when he claims he was vague in his definition of wording when he told an AIPAC Convention that he supported an undivided Jerusalem (we suspect he was speaking the truth and just not telling them he meant under Arab rule). That the Arab League has backed statehood would be expected as they with Soviet assistance established this Arab Palestinian nation well after Israel had regained their lands west of the Jordan River liberating them from Jordanian occupation. The idea of an Arab Palestinian state was thus presented in order to have a weak and vulnerable strawman which the world could rally behind against the all-powerful conquering hordes of the IDF who; if the Arabs are to be fully believed including in all their propaganda spewed on Arab Palestinian television and radio stations, taught in their schools and permeating their society; would run roughshod over the entirety of the Middle East and beyond. That would be a tall order as Israel and the IDF do not have the numbers of soldiers, even including all the reservists, to take and hold such an expanse and do not even request, a grave mistake by the staff here feel, that the world recognize and honor their promises made at the end of World War I. These include those additional treaties entered into by the allies of World War I in response to the Balfour Declaration and included within the San Remo Conference Treaty, the Versailles Treaty and the Anglo-American Treaty, all of which defined Israel as the Jews state and encompassing the lands west of the Jordan River while the Arab Palestinian State would be Jordan on the lands east of the Jordan River.
The full ramifications of Pope Francis recognizing the 1949 Armistice Lines as the rightful borders and has included such in the treaty also claiming that his rights and the rights of the world's Catholics to visit their holy sites in Bethlehem, a city which has witnessed escalating terrorism, brutal treatment, loss of lands, loss of businesses, and being completely locked out of the judicial system courts and facing death daily from their Muslim tormentors who have already driven the vast majority of Christians from Bethlehem dropping their percentage of the population from 60% in 1990 to 15% just last year. Steve Khoury, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem, was quoted by Justus Reid Weiner, of Hebrew University, as having said, "Christians are facing continuous harassment. Due to this, many of them refrain from bearing crosses in public and carrying Bibles. He added that they are often told by Muslims to 'Convert to Islam. It's the true and right religion.' Khoury's church has been fire-bombed fourteen times." With this treaty the horrific and confiscatory nature of the treatment of the Christians will not decrease but, as we here fear, it will increase as now Mahmoud Abbas will claim the entirety of the lands beyond the Green Line, never moving from that delineation as will become the gospel for Abbas and he will wave a paper over his head claiming that, this peace treaty, as backed by the Holy See, the Catholic Church, and the leaders throughout the world declares our right as recognition as a true state. This treaty defines the minimum of the lands which Abbas will agree to accept and will now start claiming that the treaty is just proof that his claims have been valid all along and will regard the treaty just as much the basis that all subsequent treaties must meet but also as a bludgeon to beat his points home while clubbing Israeli leadership as 'refuseniks' opposing the now obvious truths which is why this treaty will be proven to have been the first shot in a coming disastrous conflagration and not what opened the door to reconciliation as this treaty will simply prevent any compromise from being reached. The one thing we can be assured of is that the Arab Palestinians will now wait out those nations seeking the Green Line to become the de facto framework by which any future treaty is measured. The sole item we can completely expect is for any number of European nations now also making treaties with the Arab Palestinian governance, for now with Fatah or the Palestinian Authority and wait to see if Hamas will also settle for some treaty or if they will continue with their maximalist demands for the destruction of Israel. This treaty will probably be lauded as just what was needed to force the Israelis to finally make peace and follow the example of the Vatican but the Israelis making any peace will not be the measure this action must be judged by. The real criteria of whether or not this treaty is a helpful act will be measured by whether terrorist acts against Israel cease or start anew using the Green Line as the definition of their jumping off point or if they Palestinians will be readily willing to make a final settlement. Our best guess is this treaty will be most helpful for some future leader of the Labor Party in Israel to use it as their platform of their expectation to agree and reach a peace with the Arab Palestinians and end the sources of all strife, Jewish presence beyond the Green Line and eastern Jerusalem including even the Temple Mount, the one area that will cause the greatest of difficulties. The end result will be that when such an offer comes, be it from a Likud leader desperate to simply end all confrontations or a Labor leader bearing what they will call the torch to a new beginning. All it will result in is the displacing of a million Jews from beyond the Green Line, the loss of any access to the Temple Mount and a great advancement for the Arabs who will then be lobbing their missiles and rockets into Tel Aviv itself within six months of any such agreement. Then the end result might not be anything the Vatican might have desired and they will likely lead the rush to denounce the Israeli defensive efforts as usual.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


departments, senior bureaucrats, regulators, the media, non-government organisations, consumer advocacy groups and, on occasion, members of the general public.
Representing the interests of the non-alcoholic beverages industry throughout the country, the Australian Beverages Council Ltd (ABCL) has been making strides to ensure that the interests of its members are maintained in regards to the important issues while also promoting healthy lifestyle choices to the broader community.
Offering representation across all levels of Government, ABCL speaks on behalf of thirty-one manufacturers, distributers, importers and franchisors as well as thirty-four suppliers to the industry, which is comprised of carbonated diet and regular soft drinks, sports and isotonic drinks, bottled and packaged waters, fruit juice drinks, cordials and iced teas.
Perhaps the strongest trend within the industry, both locally and globally, can be seen across the broad category of health and wellness products, including functional drinks such as sports drinks and vitamin waters, as well as energy drinks and even bottled water. Consequently, carbonated soft drinks are only experiencing moderate growth, likely a result of the current popularity of health and wellness drinks.
Of particular concern recently has been the effect of non-alcoholic beverages on a children's diet, especially as they relate to childhood obesity. ABCL undertook a study through Flinders University to determine the validity of some of those paradigms held by industry stakeholders regarding the potential impact non-alcoholic beverages could have on a child's health. Furthermore, ABCL organised fifteen meetings nationally and spoke to a range of stakeholders including government ministers, members of the media, dieticians and nutritionists.
In a related study, the ABCL commissioned a similar report on the role of pure fruit juice in a child's diet, in order to dispel popular fears of dieticians and nutritionists that fruit juice is bad for a child's diet. The report was independently written and peer reviewed by a prominent academic, and did in fact challenge those long-held beliefs. ABCL sent the report out to over 5000 registered dieticians and nutritionists to ensure that the proper information is available and promoted.
Not all of the work undertaken by ABCL is to promote existing beverages – frequently ABCL must take a proactive leading role in opening the discussion for issues within the industry. Recently, ABCL has done just that, working with others across the industry to produce a code of practice regarding acceptable levels of caffeine used in energy shots. The industry has also been working together to develop a number of commitments from members over and above legislation in areas of labelling, advisory standards, and distribution channels for energy drinks.
In order to promote and maintain this mandate, the ABCL has set out standards addressing obesity and health and wellness issues, which it requires its members to adhere to. These minimum standards again go above and beyond government legislation requirement, and concern competition, marketing to children, front of pack labelling and more. Each division of the ABCL is governed by its own code of practice specifically tailored to be relevant to that particular sector.


Semifinalists for the prestigious 2015 James Beard Awards were announced on Wednesday — and Austin was well represented.
Olamaie, a sweet downtown spot serving up Southern fare, garnered the most honors, receiving a Best New Restaurant nomination and a Rising Star of the Year nod for Chef Grae Nonas. Chefs Mark Buley and Sam Hellman-Mass of Odd Duck are also semifinalists in the Rising Star category.
In the Best Chef: Southwest category, three of Austin's most famous culinary stars received nominations. Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue, David Bull of Congress, and Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine are all on the list. Bull and Gilmore were nominated in the same category last year.
The James Beard Awards will be held on Monday, May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.


Abstract: Galaxy cluster counts at high redshift, binned into spatial pixels and binned into ranges in an observable proxy for mass, contain a wealth of information on both the dark energy equation of state and the mass selection function required to extract it. The likelihood of the number counts follows a Poisson distribution whose mean fluctuates with the large-scale structure of the universe. We develop a joint likelihood method that accounts for these distributions. Maximization of the likelihood over a theoretical model that includes both the cosmology and the observable-mass relations allows for a joint extraction of dark energy and cluster structural parameters.


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Entertainment ecosystems, part 2: The Broadway Channel
Posted by metaphorical on 30 January 2008
… we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
— Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel
I argued in an earlier post that the music industry was killing off its ecosystem. Well, theatre has never had much of one, and it's killing off what little it has.
Back in December, Carroll Senior High School, in Dallas, Tx., mounted a production of "The Phantom Of The Opera." It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is. As the local NBC station reported,
R&H Theatricals, a division of The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, has selected Carroll Senior High School as one of six pilot productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's acclaimed musical in anticipation of its eventual release into the community, regional and school theatrical market.
"While there are no plans at this time to release Phantom to the stock and amateur market, we want to be fully prepared for when that great day arrives," said Charlie Scatamacchia, Vice President for R&H Theatricals. "What we learn from the production at Carroll Senior High School and five other sites we've chosen will help us with the process of bringing the longest running musical in Broadway history to theaters across the country."
Working from the very same script and score that is currently being enacted every night on Broadway, in London's West End, and on U.S. National Tour, the production here at Carroll Senior High School along with the five other pilot productions will provide R&H Theatricals with the roadmap for future local stagings of "Phantom" across America.
Phantom is a very carefully managed theatrical property. And it's wealthy beyond belief. It's the exception. It opened in London in 1986 and is still playing in the same theatre there. It opened in New York in 1988, and is still playing at the Majestic Theater, 20 years later, the longest run in Broadway history, and the only current show to run permanently in other cities as well.
"'The Phantom Of The Opera" has been produced in hundreds of cities in more than 20 countries around the world, and seen by an estimated worldwide audience of 80 million people to date. It has received more than 50 major theatre awards, among them seven Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Phantom spun off a movie in 2004. Of course, the play is loosely based on the classic 1925 movie, itself adapted from a classic 19th century novel. Phantom is a phenomenon. It's also the exception.
Playbill calls it the "the most successful stage musical of all time."
The Phantom of the Opera has worldwide ticket sales exceeding $3.2 billion (surpassing the highest grossing film of all time, "Titanic," which has grossed $1.9 billion worldwide) and has been seen by over 100 million people. The winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the New York production has been seen by over 10 million people and grossed over $550 million.
A top play on Broadway will break $1 million in ticket sales, and a great week on Broadway would be $20 million across 30 shows. A single movie will routinely break $20 million in its first week.
A studio spends $10 or $110 million making a movie and then an equal amount to promote it. In only a few weeks we go from having never heard of a movie to knowing quite a bit about it — for values of "we" that go as high as 300 million people. Oceans 12, a truly awful movie, cost $110 million and grossed $125 million.
What a studio is doing in those few weeks is creating a brand. And it pays off. The initial marketing creates reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations, blog comments — in general, mindshare. And the brand, in turn, generates ticket sales, foreign ticket sales, DVD sales and rentals, and, at least occasionally, a bidding war among television stations to air it, McDonalds give-aways, toys, and, last but not by any means least, sequels, remakes, and television shows (e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and In the Heat of the Night). It's fair to say that "Titanic," "Mission Impossible," and the James Bond series are all multi-billion-dollar enterprises.
And it's not just the top movies. Here's a really unscientific comparison to describe what I mean. Search for "God Grew Tired of Us," which won a jury prize at the 2006 Sundance festival, and you get 145,000 hits. Of course they may not all be about the movie, but a spot check suggests at least the first 800 are. By contrast, "I Was Tom Cruise," which was an Outstanding Play winner at the 2006 Fringe NYC festival has a mere 9830 hits.
What theatre does, by and large, is create brands that it then just wastes. Phantom has not. It is the exception.
Yet look again at Phantom's stats. Its New York ticket sales of half a billion dollars, over the course of 20 years, are far less than Titanic achieved in a matter of months.
And its rights-holders are only now getting ready to "release Phantom to the stock and amateur market," as Scatamacchia put it. What that means is that for 22 years, high schools and amateur and regional theatre companies have not been able to mount productions of it. They can't even get the scripts, or sheet music, or information about building the sets. In fact, they have no clue what the show even looks like without traveling at least to Las Vegas to see one of the few licensed live productions of it.
And that's true for most Broadway shows (except the Vegas part). It's why "The Wizard of Oz" and "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" are performed so often by high schools, and "Rent" and "Phantom," enormously popular among teenagers, aren't. It's easy to secure the rights, scripts, and music for the one, and literally impossible to get them for the other.
Theatre survives and even thrives in New York and London because it attracts money from around the world. The most coveted orchestra seats can sell for hundreds of dollars now because rich tourists and sheiks are willing to pay for them. But in the same way that major league baseball needs the minor leagues and pro football needs the NCAA, theatre cannot flourish as a key element of our culture if it is fat and healthy only in two cities on on the planet.
Without a farm system of schools and summer camps, amateur groups and regional companies, without off-off Broadway and off-Broadway, where will future actors and directors and stage managers come from? Without a farm system, where will new scripts come from, and who will stage them?
Theatre has cut itself off from any possible ecosystem. It needs high school students turned on by theatre, learning its language and history, its great designs and performances. Any budding 15-year-old with a videocamera can rent "Citizen Kane" for $2.99 and see Welles's groundbreaking ideas about cinematography. But if that kid wants take up her sketchpad after listening to the soundtrack to Phantom, where does she go to see its legendary set designs?
Does anyone at The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization really think that a high school production of Phantom will do anything but whet a Texan's appetite for the real thing? To be sure, it's possible that a really bad production would turn people off. But not only would those people probably not have ever gone to see Phantom in Las Vegas or New York or London, but we can extend the question. Does anyone at The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization really think that a videotape of a New York performance would do anything but whet a viewer's appetite for the real thing?
And so I propose The Broadway Channel.
Broadway — and live theatrical performance in general — needs its own cable network. Take two cameras, one wide-angled and fixed, and the other one closeup on the singers, and film every show on Broadway, and every off-Broadway show as well. Show them on The Broadway Channel. Make it a vehicle for selling scripts, sheet music, and set designs. Put clips up on YouTube.
Broadcast the NYC Fringe Festival, and the Edinburgh one as well. Cabarets and nightclub acts come and go — lift them from the depths of ephemera by recording them for posterity. The ones that have a strong viewership on The Broadway Channel have a strong case for being reprised.
Run a contest for best high school productions of a drama and a musical, with prestigious judges from Broadway, the winning tape to be shown on The Broadway Channel. Create Broadway Idol, an American Idol limited to show tunes and with judges who know and care when someone is off-pitch.
Be creative. And create an ecosystem.
Posted in pop culture, the arts | Tagged: musicals, The Broadway Channel, theatre | 8 Comments »


text:
The 'murderous puncher' who has shown Andre Ward he's ready for Sergey Kovalev
Khristopher Sandifer/Roc Nation Sports
Andre Ward talks candidly about the fighters who hit him the hardest
MUCH has been made of Andre Ward rising in weight to challenge arguably the biggest puncher in boxing, Sergey Kovalev. Ward respects Kovalev's power and he's expecting to feel it, but he's prepared – largely thanks to the mental techniques used by his trainer Virgil Hunter, and the lessons he's learnt against big punching opponents in the past.
Ward has been in with the likes of Carl Froch, Edison Miranda, and Mikkel Kessler as a super-middleweight, rivals who tested his resolve. None really came close to beating the 32-year-old, and nor did the fighter Ward credits with giving him the biggest post-fight headaches of his career; Arthur Abraham lost a lopsided decision in 2011 but he left a mark that has shown Ward he will be able to stand up to whatever Kovalev throws at him.
"Abraham was a murderous puncher, Froch was a big puncher, Kessler was a big puncher, Miranda was probably the biggest puncher that I ever faced – that dude hit like a mule," Ward revealed.
"I'm going to be honest. I probably never said this in public but the worst I've ever felt after a fight, the Abraham fight, and I didn't take a lot of punishment in terms of to the eye. He hit me with some shots and I was like 'wow' but I was able to walk through it because Virgil before camp started looked me in the eye and said 'taking a punch, some of it is physical but a lot of it is mental. Make up your mind right now that no matter what this man hits you with it is not going to be enough'.
"I was like, 'man'. When I got hit with those shots I came right back. I got hit with a right hand and you can hear me and I turned this way and before I could even think I came back 'boom, boom, boom'. I felt it for two or three days after. It was the worst I felt after a fight but my mind was in such a place where I didn't feel it. That is the mindset you have to have when you fight guys like Kovalev. 'You may hit me with a punch that would take most men out but tonight it ain't enough, bro'. That is a mindset thing."
Tagsandre ward arthur abraham kovalev-ward sergey kovalev
Anthony Yarde: 'You can achieve the things you put your mind to'
Fitness • Technique
The Andre Ward guide to winning
Premium • Feature • Issue
Analysis: The light-heavyweight division
Boxing News At Five
Boxing News at Five: Wilder blames defeat to Fury on his 40-pound uniform, Kovalev arrested for DUI


Has your daughter been practicing her Charleston? Her feet swinging out in impossible ways. Or perfecting the Black Bottom? Her arms doing a funky chicken kind of motion, an pulling her knees up to her chest. Then doing what looks like jumping jacks. Tap dance and ballet have become boring to her, tedious even. They have too strict movements, unlike the Peabody where she can be as flamboyant or elegant as she wants.
Then there is the way she has been dressing. It's a cute style, but you can't quite figure out where she got the loose vee neck sweater. Or the knee length pleated skirt. Or the long pearl necklaces for that matter. And those shoes. You can't quite remember buying them for her, maybe they are her tap shoes. Guess that's just what happens when you have kids, can't remember anything.
For her school dance she has asked for the whole get up. This Child Black Fringe Flapper Costume is the perfect item to pull together her look. She will showoff her awesome dancing skills. And her dress fringe will be doing a crazy swish while she is doing the funky chicken and jumping jack motions of the Black Bottom. Her shoes making the rhythmic tap on the gym floor as she does the Charleston. Her pearl necklaces swinging back and forth as she kicks her feet high. Just hope she doesn't start talking like a flapper girl. You'll have to ask Google what she means when she calls someone the 'big cheese'.


text:
A Torre Auchenbathie () é uma torre atualmente em ruínas localizada em Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Escócia.

História
A estrutura pertenceu à família Wallace de Elderslie em 1398.

Estrutura
A torre mede 8,8 metros de altura por 3 metros de largura, mas é provavelmente uma parte das muralhas restantes, que tinham uma altura de 5 metros.

Ver também
Lista de castelos da Escócia

Auchenbathie
Ruínas da Escócia
Torres da Escócia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In the North Lane Residence Complex it is offered for selling and rent studios, 2 rooms apartments, 3 rooms apartments, 4 rooms apartments, penthouses, apartments for offices and service spaces, all new and fully furnished.
These flats are available for long term renting (minimum one year) .
The residential complex is located in the Northern part of the city, in Baneasa, on Apicultorilor Bd, sector 1, Bucharest and consists in several buildings situated at No.10, No. 12, No. 38, No. 56 and No. 70-72.
The apartments for rent located in the building on 70-72 Apicultorilor Bd , consists of 2U+GF+6 floors, being offered 95 apartments, out of which 24 studios, 41 apartments with 2 rooms, 24 apartments with 3 rooms and 6 apartments with 4 rooms.
The building has also 102 parking spaces, out of which 70 basement parking spaces and 32 outside parking spaces.


In a double broiler melt the first 3 ingredients. While that is melting fill a muffin tin with paper or foil baking cups. Fill each cup with 1 Tbsp shredded coconut and about 1/4 C macadamia nuts. Once mixture is melted pour over the nut/coconuts until covered, filling each baking cup. Sprinkle salt on top to flavor. Refrigerate overnight or freeze for 1 hour. Remove from pan and store in bags or tupperware. Best stored in freezer.


This is for those who think that Glenn Beck is truly a beacon of light.
Wake up! You are being used.
Note: Due to the amount of hate mail received in response to this posting, comments have been shut down. If you want to comment and say that this site is a "far left hate monger," or that we will end up in hell for exposing Glenn Beck for the charlatan he is, do it on your own dime, not mine.
Having worked in the political arena for a few years, we learned the tactics and methods used to control and deceive people. In fact, I learned so much that I could write a short book on the subject, but I'll keep it short.
Before I begin, I want to insert a disclaimer. I am not picking on conservatives in this article. I would be best categorized as one myself. The goal of this article is to expose some mainstream figureheads who are not who you think they are. The education and information applies equally to conservatives, moderates, liberals, libertarians, and constitutionalists.
Howdy! Here I am again, folks. And this time, I've decided to lend a hand to all those people who might want to help out those poor, misunderstood people at the American Defamation League (ADL). After all, they need to know just who to target, and I am sure that all you nice folks out there would just love to give these people exactly what they deserve, or is it exactly what they are asking for? Anyway, I just reckon it's my civic duty to pass this along.
You might be on the ADL hit list if….
You believe that Obama and his administration pose a threat to the future of the United States.
You believe that Obama and his administration are trampling on individual freedoms and civil liberties.
You have a problem with Obama's economics and social policies.
You don't like Obama's health care reform.
You think that the government is eyeballs deep in a eugenics program.
You have attended a Tea Party.
You disagree with the agenda at a town hall meeting.
You question where Obama was born.
You subscribe to World Net Daily.
You listen to Glenn Beck or Alex Jones.
You think that the government is not looking out for your best interests.
You advocate resisting government-sponsored tyranny.
You belong to Oath Keepers.
You are a 3 percenter or member of a militia.


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How To Choose a Church: Praise
Summary: The early church was marked by seven key characteristics we should look for in a good church today.
Have you ever wondered, why Christians sing so much? Why do we begin, and end our services with songs? Is Sunday morning worship like a short-concert with a TED talk? What's going on? Well, we're going to talk about that this morning, because we're working our way through the book of Acts – the history book of the New Testament and we're looking at the very beginning of the Church.
We're learning, what the first Christians did, what their church was like. You remember all this happened after Peter preached to the crowds about Jesus, and people responded by repenting of their sins, receiving Christ, and being baptized, and then:
Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
So here are seven observations about the early church – things you should look for when you look for a new church.
There was prayer
There was preaching – specifically, the apostles' doctrine
There was praise – which we'll look at this morning
There was power – which is so important, because you have to recognize that
ultimately God was working through them, He was doing all these things, pouring out His Spirit, empowering people to serve and minister, and adding people to the church, God was in control
There was unity – among a diverse group of people
There was a spirit of service – they met one another's needs
There was perseverance – they continued in all of these things steadfastly, even in
the face of opposition
These are seven characteristics we hope you find here every week. In fact, we're off to a good start because you've already experienced prayer and praise and we're getting some preaching right now.
But there's nothing special about that really, right? You kind of expect to encounter prayer, singing and preaching at a church, don't you? It's just a question of: what kind or style will you experience and whether you will like it or not and that's what I want us to spend some time thinking about this morning – because we can make an awful lot of decisions about whether we like a church or not based on whether or not we liked the music.
It's an important topic, and it always has been. Think about this: there are hundreds of us in this room, and hundreds of millions of Christians on the planet joined with a few billion others throughout history… and we're all part of one Church. We belong to something that was here before the oldest of us in this room was born, and, should Jesus delay His return, when the youngest of us in this room dies, the Church will continue on and praise will be a part of what it does.
We see here in Acts that the Church praised God from the beginning, we experienced this morning that the Church is praising God now, and but see in the book of Revelation that the Church will continue to sing praise to God in the ages to come.
People are often distracted by all the strange and unusual things in the book of Revelation, but there's a whole lot of worship that happens too. All around the throne of God you find people singing, praying and praising. For example, consider what we read in
Rev 15:1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. 3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
"Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested."
Now, there's a lot going on there, but I bring our attention here to help us see, Christian worship begins with the early church and continues for all of eternity. And also, to point out something SUPER important about that: we never see anyone worshipping God privately in Heaven. It is always in the midst of the congregation. There is something to be said about
Copyright 2019 The City Gates Church – No Distribution Beyond Personal Use Permitted 2 Imagery sourced from Google images using tag "labeled for non-commercial use."
private, devotional praise, but there is also much, very much, to be said about worshipping God with other Christians.
Dietrich Bonheoffer is remembered today as a famous Christian pastor, theologian, and spy who was martyred by the Nazis just as the Allied forces were freeing Berlin. But before all that happened, he was a visiting student from Germany living in New York City while studying theology at a seminary in the 1930's before World War II began. On the weekends he would visit African-American churches in Harlem and he was captivated by their worship. It was completely different from his own culture, but he felt that it was real, it was authentic, and it provoked and challenged him.
Their praise expressed vibrancy and a reality that he had not experienced in the German churches back home where music was something that was performed for the congregation but not always by the congregation. So, when he returned to Germany, during the war, he made sure to emphasize the role of corporate worship for Christians in a new way.
Now, can we stop for a minute and marvel at the majesty of our God who would use African American congregations in Harlem to stir the heart of a German pastor who would return home to agitate the stagnant German Church and participate in the resistance effort to overthrow the Nazi government with it's goal of white supremacy? Human beings don't dream up this kind of strategy.
Bonhoeffer wrote:
"The more we sing, the more joy we will derive from it, but, above all, the more devotion and discipline and joy we put into our singing, the richer will be the blessing that will come to the whole life of the fellowship from singing together. It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song."1
He's saying something many of you have come to learn: singing praise to God in the congregation, blesses you as your voice fits itself into the chorus, as you join in the communal event, but it also blesses everyone else whose voice is being woven together with yours, and it leaves a lasting impression on those who don't yet believe.
The church always tends to elevate musicians and preachers – to separate them from the congregation and say: you do that God thing for us. That's what was happening in the German church as Bonhoeffer was growing up – you went to church and people performed music for you, a priest read the Bible to you and explained it for you. People, even people
1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Chapter Two: The Day With Others; Singing The New Song
who attended church regularly, were there as religious consumers instead of fully engaged participants.
And that's what happens in too many churches today – you have someone or a team up on stage, and they lead and the rest of us choose whether we're going to join in or not based on things like who we're standing next to, or whether or not we like the song, or whether or not we feel like singing – we have all sorts of reasons, but it boils down to this: worship seems optional. He, or she, or they, up front are going to do the thing and I can choose whether or not to join in.
But look back at what we see in Acts – people, average people, all the people, were engaged in the life of the church. And, when we look ahead to scenes in Heaven from Revelation we see people, all the people, fully engaged in worship.
That's what we want to see, hear, and experience in this church. The worship team and I stand up here on the platform so people in the back can see us and we have microphones so everyone can hear us, but the hope, the goal, is that we're all in this together. We even work hard at vocabulary – I try to call this the platform, not a stage, because this is a worship service, not a performance.
We call this a sanctuary not an auditorium. And after each service the question we want to ask is not "How did the band sound?" But, how did the congregation sing?
Now, that's not true in all churches – sometimes you have a soloist who performs special music for you, and it may be beautiful, and it may cause you to think and reflect, but you're still consuming, not producing worship.
Other churches will have a full band, sometimes including paid musicians, and they're there to pump you up – to get you excited. They may say things like "I can't hear you!" and try to get you to join in, but even if you don't they're still going to make sure "worship" occurs.
Some churches have a choir so you take a bunch of people from the church and put them up front to sing for everyone else. And look, there's nothing inherently wrong with any of these – they're not sinful, and there are occasions for all them to be used with great effect, but they should never silence or overpower the most important instrument in the room.
And what do you think that is? It's not the piano, it's not the guitar, it's not the drums – it's us. It's the voice of the congregation. That's the most important source of praise and it's the one we want to hear above all the others. We want to be in a room full of people singing to God because they have affected by God.
We want to be a church like Paul encouraged the Ephesians, to be
Eph 5:18… filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
Make a note of the flow there – filled with Spirit, then speaking and singing. That's important. In fact, listen to what He said in his letter to the Christians living in Colossae, encouraging them:
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
It sounds very similar, right? And note the flow – Let the word of Christ dwell in you, then speak and sing. What comes out of us should be an evidence of what is happening in us.
Music helps us expresses the things we already think and feel – so if you're filled with the Spirit, if the word of Christ dwells in you richly, it should compel you to sing – there should be something in you that wants to come out.
And when it does, it's an act of worship to God, but it's also an encouragement and a witness to people around you.
Do you remember what drew all the people to hear Peter's first sermon on Pentecost? You had all these religious pilgrims in town for the Jewish Feast and they came together because they heard Jesus' disciples "speaking in our tongues the wonderful works of God."
They were praising God – speaking, not singing in this case – but the still it was their praise of God that drew people in. Years later the Apostle Paul and Silas would be wrongfully arrested and jailed and they began singing to God in their jail cell and all the other prisoners listened to them – their worship under the worst of circumstances, along with a miraculous earthquake led the jailor to ask: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). And they said:
Acts 16:31 … "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Later, in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul is giving the church instruction on what to do and not do in their worship service because he assumes people who are not Christians will come, see and hear what's going on, and be saved. So there's this connection = Christians worshipping God with authenticity can lead to the salvation of others.
I like to remind the worship team of my own testimony occasionally. I walked into Calvary Chapel of Oceanside, right outside Camp Pendleton, as a young Marine one Sunday
morning. God had been stirring things in my heart and mind for months but I wasn't going to church, I was just trying to figure life out. And then, as I stood in the congregation and they sang on Sunday morning everything came smashing together. I don't remember what they were singing. The pastor hadn't preached. But being there, in worship, God nailed me. And He spoke clearly to me – You've been living for yourself, and you know it's wrong; you need to live for Me.
God crushed me that morning, and He started the rebuilding process of my life and it all began during worship surrounded by people who knew and worshipped their God.
So, there is a pattern of congregational worship in Scripture and in life, and there is a powerful testimony we experience in worship, as we find encouragement, instruction, or conviction. But there are also some obstacles to congregational worship, so let's talk about those for a few minutes too. I have three things to point out: culture, style and content.
One of the first obstacles is that we have come to the place in our culture where people rarely sing anymore; we let other people sing for us. And so, for many people, singing doesn't feel natural. It feels uncomfortable because we don't really know how to do it, and no one likes trying to do things they're not good at while standing next to a bunch of other people. We don't even really like to sing Happy Birthday, so we take our friends out to a restaurant where someone else will sing to them for us.
As a Christian you will have to make the choice to sing in the congregation. And that choice might not be easy. I still remember quite vividly being at that point when I had to decide, when it comes time for worship will I sing or just listen? Am I going to be an active part of this, or a passive bystander? It all feels very self-conscious and awkward at first, but the more you do it, the better you become.
You might never sing a solo in front of a crowded room, but you learn how to join your voice into the chorus of Christian community that is gathered to praise our mighty God. You learn how to be part of something, to fill your space in this enormous thing we call worship.
Do you remember how Bonhoeffer described it?
It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song.
You are part of something bigger than yourself in congregational worship. Something so hard to replicate, that even if you attend some mega-church that has satellite campuses where they set up a screen and broadcast the sermon in on video, they usually still have a live worship team, because you can't replicate the experience of worshipping God in a congregation with live music.
But here's the problem – it's a two-edged sword. Being present in worship with a group of other people can be comforting and powerful and humbling… or it can make you feel like you're completely out of touch with what others are experiencing because, we are what I like to call, a one room schoolhouse.
We have people in here who are nine years old and people who are in their 80's. We have people who grew up in France and people who grew up in Franconia. We have people who speak English as a second, or third, or fourth language. We have people who listen to hip- hop and people who listen to classical music. People who like country music and people who can't stand it. And all of us, are somehow, supposed to find a single musical style to bind us together in expressing our praise to God.
Friends, that's next to impossible. Our worship team tries to play an assortment of songs, some old, some new and in a variety of styles. But there is no way for them to pick songs that are your absolute favorite every week and still touch the lives of the diverse family of God gathered around you. It just isn't going to happen.
But you know what? That's actually a good thing – because it reminds us that worship is not just about us. It's for God – so, as long as it pleasing to Him, we need to see if we can find a way to engage in it. And, maybe the song we're learning this week is exactly what we will need to sustain us when find out what's happened two months from now. Maybe God is equipping you with a song today that will express something you'll feel or understand then.
When you don't like a song, ask yourself why? Is because you don't like the style? That's OK – maybe it's somebody else's favorite style and we're all doing this together. Or, maybe we're limited because we don't have the musical skills or ability on the current worship team to play another style – maybe you need to join the team, or pray that someone who can lead in your style would – we're open to having a variety of styles.
But it's the content that is really important because what a songs says is more important than how it sounds.
Outside of the church people usually like songs based on how they sound – this is why people like songs and don't even know the lyrics or don't understand them. But inside the church, content always trumps style.
Think about this: the Bible is full of songs that have been preserved over time – all the way back in Exodus you have things like the song of Moses and the song of Miriam. The biggest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms – literally Praises in the Hebrew – it's 150 songs used by the Jews in worship. And, the Bible ends with the book of Revelation, another book filled with songs.
We have the lyrics for all them, but we don't have the music for any.
Musical styles come and go – instruments fall out of favor. But the truth of the lyrics, the content, remains because it's enduring and true, no matter how it is said.
So here's something you have to watch out for in the church – some songs are more devotional than congregational. In other words, sometimes the song is about us, and how we respond to God or feel about God.
For example, a few years ago there was a popular song called How He Loves Me – and some people really loved it, it had a great sound, a great style – but the original lyrics said
We are His portion and He is our prize, Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes, If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
Those are the original lyrics and they're full of artistic, poetic, meaning to the original author, but when it was recorded for the radio and sung in churches the lyrics were changed to "Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss" and then it goes on:
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don't have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way
That He loves us,
Now, here's the problem. We had people in their 20's and 30's who loved the song. But there are also people in the church who love God, I know they do, I would never question that they do, and I know they would never say that God makes their "heart turn violently inside of their chest." If you do feel this way, you say "YES!" best song ever! I love how this sounds, I love what it says! But the person standing right next to you who doesn't relate to God that way, is left saying, "huh?" And neither of you is wrong.
So here's the thing – songs like this are more of a devotional song. If it expresses what you feel, personally, individually, that's great. Use this song on your own. But when we come together as a congregation to worship, understand that we need songs that tell us things that are true at all times for all people. That's not easy and it's not an ironclad rule. But it's something you have to keep in mind. The average person in the congregation should be able to agree with the declarations of the worship songs we sing.
I want to encourage you to pray for our worship team.
I want to encourage you to pray about joining our worship team – maybe up here, or maybe at another point in the week at a small group or other event.
I want to encourage you to consider learning an instrument or vocals if that's something that interests you.
But more than all of these things, I want to encourage you to expand the role of worship in your life. You're never going to run out of reasons to worship. You're never going to run out of reasons to praise God. I want to encourage you to get to the point where worship music is the soundtrack of your life – it's what goes through your head when you wake up and when you fall asleep, it's the tunes you find yourself humming as you go about your day – it will please God, it will strengthen your soul, it will be a witness to a world full of needs and questions today.
And it will prepare you so that when we come together corporately, we can be like the early church:
Acts 2:46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Let's pray.