text:
Rubens's Self-Portrait and Bruegel's Dulle Griet head off for restoration
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 — Rubens's Self-Portrait from the Rubens House and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Dulle Griet ('Mad Meg') from Museum Mayer van den Bergh have been sent for restoration. The two masterpieces have left Antwerp and will not appear again in all their glory until 2018 and 2019.
Rubens's Self-Portrait from the Rubens House and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Dulle Griet ('Mad Meg') from Museum Mayer van den Bergh have been sent for restoration. The two masterpieces are iconic and rarely leave their customary places. They have been taken to Brussels, where they will be restored by the world-famous Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA).
Restoration in a world-famous studio
The restoration of Peter Paul Rubens's Self-Portrait and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Dulle Griet ('Mad Meg') will begin in January 2017. The process will take roughly a year and will be performed in stages. The work will be done by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), which has gained a worldwide reputation, not least through the restoration of the Van Eycks' Lamb of God altarpiece.
For the duration of the restoration, the masterpieces will not be on view in Antwerp and will not be accessible to the public. The Rubens House and Museum Mayer van den Bergh will organize a variety of public initiatives to share information about this exceptional restoration process with a wider audience.
The restorers will begin by examining the two paintings, based in the first instance on the available expert data. In 2012, a team headed by Prof. Maximilaan Martens from the University of Ghent used macrophotography, infrared reflectography and X-ray photography to reveal some surprising facts about Dulle Griet. It was shown, for instance, that Pieter Bruegel himself gave the painting its title, as the word 'dul', written in pen and ink, was found beneath the paint surface. The work is likely to have formed a series with The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) and the Triumph of Death (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado), confirming its linking function. The research also provided a detailed image of the painting's underdrawing. It was found, for instance, that 'Mad Meg' originally stuck out her tongue. Bruegel subsequently decided to paint only the severe contours of her lips. The original colours were likewise revealed.
The Conservation Department at London's National Gallery examined Rubens's Self-Portrait in 2014. It was found that the portrait's existing layer of varnish is extremely complex in composition and will have to be meticulously removed. The results of this research might provide increased insight into Rubens's painting technique and the construction of the panel. Although Rubens was an extremely methodical craftsman in every respect, he was in the habit of constructing the panels he painted for himself – landscapes, for instance, and family portraits – from different planks of wood. This makes the panels in question especially fragile, with inevitable implications for conservation. It is tricky, for instance, to transport works of this kind, as each join represents a potential risk. The Self-Portrait panel too is made up of different planks.
The restorers will begin by subjecting both paintings to technical examination, including dendrochronology and pigment analysis, before beginning the restoration proper.
Open day at KIK-IRPA
The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels has invited everyone to an open day on Thursday 9 March 2017. It will be a unique opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at your own pace at the study and restoration of artworks. Passionate specialists will be on hand in each documentation department, workshop and laboratory, to explain the process.
Return in 2018 and 2019
The Self-Portrait and Dulle Griet will not appear again in all their glory until 2018. The Self-Portrait will be the number one calling card for the year-long 'Antwerp Baroque City' event. It is Antwerp's way of honouring its most famous citizen and his Baroque cultural legacy. Rubens in all his finery will act as host of this urban cultural festival. Dulle Griet, meanwhile, will undoubtedly be the top attraction at Museum Mayer van den Bergh during 'Bruegel Year' in 2019. Restoration by the KIK-IRPA is taking place as part of a large-scale programme of events across Flanders in 2019 to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Bruegel's death. The focus in the spring of 2019 will be on Brussels, with Antwerp launching its Bruegel programme in the autumn.
Download images via http://pers.museummayervandenbergh.be/media# and http://pers.rubenshuis.be/media#
Practical details:
Thursday 9 March 2017, 10 am to 5 pm.
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA)
Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark 1, 1000 Brussels
Nadia De Vree Press coordinator museums and heritage Antwerp
About Rubenshuis
The master lived here in this house with his family for years and painted with his colleagues and assistants in a studio that he designed himself. He created many of his paintings in this house, in the centre of Antwerp.


Some days everything seems to go wrong. Every phone call brings bad news. The mail is nothing but bills. The children come home from school with some kind of injury or a bad report. Work is frustrating. What do you do when you have one of these days?
"My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word. My eyes fail from searching Your word, saying, 'When will You comfort me?' For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes…. The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your law" (vv. 81-83,85). Here's a man who was fainting and failing. He was like a wineskin in the smoke. Wherever he walked there was a pit for him to drop into. What did he do? He turned to God. His source of hope was His Word.
If you hope in circumstances, you will be disappointed, because they change. The psalmist hoped in the Word and trusted in God's faithfulness, and God comforted him.
People will fail you, but God never will. "All Your commandments are faithful" (v. 86). The psalmist clung to the comfort, hope and faithfulness of God, and as a result he experienced revival. "Revive me according to Your lovingkindness" (v. 88). God came with a Breath of fresh, heavenly air–the Holy Spirit–and revived him.


Hey guys, does anyone have one of these? I noticed they are pretty cheap, at least in the stores by me. It looks like they used to sell for a lot more but I guess enough people didn't grab them.
For the price it seems like a really cool midi ableton controller, drum machine, looper and side friend to use with my moog. Or just a cool thing to jot musical ideas onto when I'm at the cottage and I don't have anything else with me. When I first saw it, it looked gimicky. But the more I read about it, the cooler it seems. So I thought I'd ask if anything has one and what their thoughts are on it?


text:
Kraut Creek Ramblers and Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road
« Visual Arts Exhibition: "Matrilinear" with Elizabeth M. Claffey
"My Life in the Theatre:" NC Black Repertory Company Artistic Director Jackie Alexander »
Live from Rosen Concert Hall, on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, with an introduction by Mark Freed, Adjunct Instructor of Appalachian Music at App State.
Tune in for a special double-bill concert featuring local bluegrass bands Kraut Creek Ramblers and Cane Mill Road performing an energetic set live from Appalachian State University's Rosen Concert Hall, with a special introduction by Mark Freed, a member of the Hayes School of Music and Appalachian Studies faculty.
The Kraut Creek Ramblers is the premier old-time string band of the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University. With members hailing from Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina, the Kraut Creek Ramblers play a range of traditional mountain music, from hard-driving fiddle tunes to two-step country classics from the Carter Family. Named after the waterway that runs through campus and is steeped in Boone history, the core members of the Kraut Creek Ramblers include faculty and staff at App State: Julie Shepherd-Powell (banjo) and Alex Hooker (fiddle), professors of Appalachian Studies; Trevor McKenzie (fiddle, guitar, vocals), archivist in the Special Collections at Belk Library; and Adrian Shepherd-Powell (fiddle).
Growing up just down the road from Doc Watson, Liam Purcell leads the Deep Gap, NC-based Cane Mill Road as they rock the traditional bluegrass standards they were raised on, yet boldly write original music with roots in the fertile grounds of bluegrass, old-time, Americana, jazz, and blues. Seventeen-year-old mandolinist/fiddler Purcell and CMR have been featured on PBS three times, including on David Holt's State of Music Show. The band's first three albums resulted in 10 weeks on Billboard's Bluegrass Albums Chart including a #2 spot right behind Billy Strings. The band recorded with Jim Lauderdale and will be featured on his next album.
To learn more about Cane Mill Road: https://canemillroad.com/home
Pre-show content begins at 6:50pm; concert begins at 7pm.
This event is an exclusive live stream only and will not be available for later viewing upon its conclusion.
bluegrass, cane mill road, kraut creek ramblers
Rosen-Schaffel Concerto Competition
July 24 | 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Joseph Matthews, D. M., Professor Emeritus of Music in piano at Chapman University, received the Bachelor of Music and the Master of Arts in Music from the University of Missouri, and received the Doctor of Music from Indiana University. Prior to his thirty-four years of teaching at Chapman University, Dr. Matthews taught at the College of the Ozarks and at the Christian College Preparatory Department of Music. He was also a teaching assistant at Indiana University while pursuing the doctorate.
Dr. Matthews remains an active member of the Music Teachers' National Association (MTNA), the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC), and the National Guild of Piano Teachers. He recently served as President of the Orange County MTAC, and has also served as District President in the CAPMT. He is currently the southern California Chair of the MTAC Adult Performance program, and has served as southern California Chair of the MTAC Concerto-Solo program.
Dr. Matthews' students have received high honors in numerous international, state and local competitions, including the International Young Keyboard Artists Competition, Los Angeles Liszt Competition, MTAC Young Artist Guild, MTAC Panel Honors and Master Class, MTAC Concerto-Solo, Young Musicians' Foundation, Southwestern Youth Music Festival Young Pianist, Cypress College Grand Prize winner, Pasadena Symphony Concerto Competition, Pacific Symphony Concerto Competition, Orange County Philharmonic Concerto Competition, Sigma Alpha Iota Scholarship collegiate winners (5), CAPMT Bartok Competition, La Primavera "Stars of the Future", Orange County Philharmonic Musical Encounters, MTAC Adult Performance, Southern California Junior Bach Festival, Musical Arts Club of Orange County, Fine Arts Club of Pasadena, and more.
In 1982, he was one of ten West Coast college and university professors selected by Pomona College and the American Council of Learned Societies to receive the Arnold L. and Lois P. Graves Award for outstanding teaching in the humanities, and he also received the Valerie Scudder Distinguished Faculty Award at Chapman University. He has appeared as piano soloist with Long Beach Community Orchestra, the Chapman and the Saddleback Symphonies, and for the past fifteen years in duo piano recitals with Karen Knecht. He has also collaborated with many other instrumentalists and singers throughout his many years of performing and teaching.
Since retiring from Chapman University, Dr. Matthews has done guest teaching at California State University, Fullerton, and has taught several students from the Orange County High School of the Arts. On May 29, 2012, four of his piano students performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in a program entitled "West Coast Sounds: The Pianist Program from the Orange County High School of the Arts." In 2010, Dr. Matthews received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Association of Professional Music Teachers.


text:
"Now we know" — how ancient historians worked
In 1935 the foreign correspondent of a certain English newspaper, finding himself without much material to report, despatched to England stories which supposedly dealt with the build-up to the Abyssinian war but which were in fact derived from an old colonel's military reminiscences, published several years previously in a book entitled In the country of the Blue Nile. The correspondent's newspaper was delighted with the reception given to these stories by its readers, and accordingly sent him a series of congratulatory telegrams – whereupon a colleague remarked to him: 'Well, now we know, it's entertainment they want!'41 The colleague had only then come to realize what had been known long ago to Tacitus, to whom the foreign correspondent's technique would have seemed very familiar.
41 For a full account of this amazing and instructive story see Knightley (1975), 176—7 (whose book should be recommended reading for those who wish to understand how ancient historians worked). The reporter who deceived his newspaper and the public on this occasion assumed (quite rightly) that no one could check his stories on account of the distance involved. The same is even more true of ancient historians (see above, p. 153), who lived in a world where communications were so much more difficult.
Woodman, Tony. 1980. "Self-Imitation and the Substance of History. Tacitus, Annals 1.61-5 and Histories 2.70, 5.14-15." In Creative Imitation and Latin Literature, edited by David West and Tony Woodman, 155, 235. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tags Ancient historians | Comments (4)
Noah's Birds and the Documentary Hypothesis
Noah, a few birds, and a mermaid
Neil recently posted about the Documentary Hypothesis, citing Thomas Brodie's Genesis as Dialogue (2001), a book I enjoyed but in the end did not convince me to abandon the DH. While reading the post, one quotation caught my eye.
Nor do the two diverse types of bird (the raven and the dove, 8:6–12) mean two sources. In Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Noah-like Utnapishtim sends out three diverse birds—a dove, a swallow, and a raven (Brichto, 1998, 114) — but that does not mean three sources. (Brodie 2001, p. 182)
This sort of overstatement, which comes with implicit eye-rolling and foot-tapping, plays well to the converted, but falls flat among the rest of us. Do DH adherents think there are two sources merely because there are two species of bird? Surprisingly, no.
Here are the arguments, briefly:
Gen. 8:7 is self-contained.
Noah releases the raven.
The bird goes out and returns, back and forth, until —
"the water dried up from the earth." The flood is over; the narrative restarts at 8:8, wherein water still covers the earth.
The language in 8:7 is different from the language in 8:8.
Noah releases the dove from him.
The words translated as "earth" in this passage and in 8:7 are different.
Tags Book of Genesis, Documentary Hypothesis, Noah | Comments (2)
Is Josephus Evidence that a Messianic Movement caused the Jewish War?
A historian specializing in the study of Josephus, Steve Mason, presents a case that the war that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple was not prompted by any messianic movement among the people of Judaea. Rather, Mason suggests that the prophecy of a ruler to come out of the east and rule the entire world was a product of hindsight and that there is little reason to think that there was a "messianic movement" propelling the Jews to rebel against Rome.
I can't hope to cover the full argument set out by Mason in A history of the Jewish War, AD 66-74 in a single post but I will try to hit some key points from pages 111 to 130 here.
To begin. It is a misunderstanding to think that we can read the works of Josephus as if they were a chronicle of facts happily shedding light on the background to the rise of Christianity.
History as Tragedy
To get the most reliable data from Josephus we need to study his works in the context of other historical writings of his day. In that context it is evident that Josephus is writing a "tragic history" — a narrative that he presents as a tragedy, a form of narrative with which his Greco-Roman audience was familiar. As a tragedy Josephus seeks to elicit tears of sympathy from his audience by using all of his rhetorical skills to portray graphic suffering and misfortune. In War Josephus opens with the proud Herod whose hubris is brought low by the misfortunes that follow. The audience knows how the story ends and knowing that only adds to their awareness of the tragedy in each scene. The irony of temple slaughter at Passover time would have been as clear to Roman as to Jewish readers: Passover was known to have been the festival of liberation.
A tragedy needs villains and Josephus fills his narrative with an abundance of "robbers" or "bandits" who polluted the temple, just as per Jeremiah 7:11 said they would.
"Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?"
Josephus was in good literary company since we find the same motif being drafted by the Roman historian Tacitus when narrating the destruction of the central temple in Rome:
Thus the Capitoline temple, its doors locked, was burned to the ground undefended and unplundered. This was the most lamentable and appalling disaster in the whole history of the Roman commonwealth. Though no foreign enemy threatened, though we enjoyed the favour of heaven as far as our failings permitted, the sanctuary of Jupiter Best and Greatest solemnly founded by our fathers as a symbol of our imperial destiny . . . was now, thanks to the infatuation of our leaders, suffering utter destruction. (Hist. 3.72 — I am using my Penguin translation and not the one used by Mason)
Josephus blends Jewish and Greek literary motifs in his tragic narration (Mason, pp. 114-121). A stock motif in tragic narrative were omens of imminent disaster and ambiguous prophecies that would mislead the hapless victims.
Tragedy's Stock Omens and Prophecies
A motif that was virtually universal in ancient historiography was that a change of ruler should be preceded by omens and prophecies. We see it in the history of Tacitus describing the ascent of Vespasian (I quote from LacusCurtius, Histories, Book 2.78- the extract is not quoted by Mason): read more »
Tags Josephus, Mason: A History of the Jewish War A.D. 66-74, Messianism | Comments (30)
Did the Roman Emperors Use Josephus to Help Pacify the Jews?
The Caesar's Messiah myth proponents appear to involve Josephus in some sort of conspiracy to pacify the Jews. Their primary method, according to their view, is that Josephus was involved in the creation of the Christian religion as a kind of pacifist-messiah cult to replace their traditional supposedly militaristic messiah cult said to be found in their Scriptures.
I recently had a difference of opinion with Joseph Atwill, author of Caesar's Messiah, over whether Josephus's history of the Jewish War was an "official" history. I had written that it was not an "official" history in the sense that it was commissioned or ordered to be written and vetted by the emperor. (The claim I was responding to was that "Josephus was employed to write the official history" and that is quite simply incorrect.) Joseph Atwill was nevertheless right to correct me insofar as I should have added that the emperor Titus, Vespasian's son, at least did like Josephus's history and ordered it published, at least according to Josephus's own account. In his Life or autobiography Josephus boasted about his history of the Jewish War:
Now the emperor Titus was so desirous that the knowledge of these affairs should be taken from these books alone, that he subscribed his own hand to them, and ordered that they should be published; and for king Agrippa, he wrote me sixty-two letters, and attested to the truth of what I had therein delivered…
Why would Titus have done that if the Caesar's Messiah theory of Atwill is correct and that history of the war apparently exposed the "truth" behind the gospels, that Jesus was a pacifist foil to Titus the conqueror?
Yet there were many other historians writing about that war at the time and Josephus compares his work with theirs:
Yet persons with no first-hand knowledge, accepting baseless and inconsistent stories on hearsay, have written garbled accounts of it; while those of eyewitnesses have been falsified either to flatter the Romans or to vilify the Jews, eulogy or abuse being substituted for factual record. . . .
Yet the writers I have in mind claim to be writing history, though beside getting all their facts wrong they seem to me to miss their target altogether. For they wish to establish the greatness of the Romans while all the time disparaging and deriding the actions of the Jews. But I do not see how men can prove themselves great by overcoming feeble opponents! Again they are not impressed by the length of the war, the vastness of the Roman forces which endured such hardships, and the genius of their commanders, whose strenuous endeavours before Jerusalem will bring them little glory if the difficulties they overcame are belittled.
However it is not my intention to counter the champions of the Romans by exaggerating the heroism of my own countrymen: I will state the facts accurately and impartially.
Josephus is telling readers what they would have expected to hear about other historians of the time, that they wrote flattering propaganda extolling the power and all-round superiority of the Romans while deriding the weakness and ineptness of their enemies, the Jews. Josephus, on the other hand, did point out certain failings of the Roman soldiers and the courage of his own countrymen. His own Judaeans, he writes, gave the Romans their money's worth in order to win their victory.
The question must be asked, then, why did Titus, according to Josephus, prefer his work rather than one of the many other historians of the day? Why would Titus have ordered more widely disseminated a work that did not ostensibly flatter the Romans or denigrate the Jews?
I think Steve Mason in his study of the Jewish war gives a cogent answer to that question:
Why, then, might Titus have promoted Josephus' work?
Titus was reportedly a man of the arts and letters (Suetonius, Tit. 3.2). Pliny's dedication of his Natural History declares Titus an excellent judge of literature, with unmatched ability in oratory, letters, and poetic composition.226 Granted Pliny's hyperbole, such interests might suffice to explain some level of support for his protege turned author Josephus. Titus recognized quality when he saw it, and might have preferred Josephus' obviously knowledgeable account to the thin agitprop of the Flavianist hacks.227
Second, the obvious independence of Josephus' War could have been useful. After all, Christians would exploit Josephus' work precisely because it was so clearly Judaean that it could not be suspected of bias toward them (Chapter 1).
Third, after the war it was in the rulers' interest to rehabilitate Judaeans, the dominant and traditionally stabilizing ethnos of southern Syria (Chapter 4). Would not such a mature political analysis by one of the region's prominent aristocrats, written from realist premises, help everyone to settle down? Titus' endorsement and broader dissemination of Josephus' War could help to tamp down lingering hostilities and unproductive reprisals as in Alexandria and Antioch (cf. Ant. 12.122-24).
(Mason, pp. 129-130)
That to me sounds more likely than the Caesar's Messiah hypothesis. Josephus was as prepared to point out failings of the Roman armies at times as well as the courage of his own people against them. read more »
Tags Atwill: Caesar's Messiah, Gospels and Acts (Canonical), Josephus, mythicism | Comments (2)
Fishing for Parallels
"But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. — Jeremiah 16:16
And passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. — Mark 1:16 -17
They lay in heaps in the blood and dust, like fish that fishermen have dragged out of the grey surf in the meshes of their nets onto a bend of the beach, to lie in masses on the sand gasping for the salt sea water till the bright sun ends their lives. Thus, like a catch of fish, the Suitors lay there heaped upon each other. — Odyssey, Book 22, 380ff
Nakht escapes from the clap-net in which the divine 'fishermen' seek to trap him (spell 153A). Papyrus of Nakht, late 18th or early 19th Dynasty, c. 1350-1290 bc.
On this papyrus the illustrations to two spells, 153A and 153B, appear side-by-side. Both concern the deceased escaping from a net stretched by the gods to entrap her. The vignette of spell 153A, at the right, shows an open clap-net stretched between two pegs, one of which bears a human head. The text relating to this spell contains the deceased's declaration of knowledge of the components of the net, by means of which she avoids being caught in it. . . . To the left is the vignette of spell 153B, 'for escaping from the catcher of fish'. Three gods are shown hauling on a large net which they are dragging through the water to catch those who are unworthy of entering the next world.
Homer. 1946. The Odyssey. Translated by E.V Rieu. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin Books.
"'The Suitors' by Gustave Moreau." n.d. Accessed November 29, 2018. http://www.victorianweb.org/decadence/painting/moreau/12.html.
Taylor, John H., ed. 2010. Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead : Journey through the Afterlife. London: The British Museum Press.
Tags Atwill: Caesar's Messiah, Criteria for Parallels, Gospel of Mark, Josephus, mythicism, Parallels | Comment (1)
When is a parallel a real parallel and not parallelomania?
The question of parallels has been raised in different posts and comments lately on Vridar.
Firstly, I questioned Joseph Atwill's claim that there was a parallel between Jesus calling disciples to become "fishers of men" beside the "sea of Galilee" and a scene in Josephus' War where Romans kill drowning Judeans in a battle that had spread to a the lake of Galilee. I also took exception to his parallel between the act of cannibalism that Josephus narrates in the same work and the gospel accounts of the Passover.
Soon afterwards, I posted about parallels between the Hebrews Bible and certain Hellenistic myths and other literature in relation to the works of Russell Gmirkin and Philippe Wajdenbaum. Further, I posted something by a classicist, Bruce Louden comparing a scenario in the Odyssey with the biblical story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to which I added further details between Greek myths and the Lot story identified by Wajdenbaum.
So am I being inconsistent in being critical of one of Atwill's parallels but posting without critical commentary some of the work by Gmirkin, Wajdenbaum and Louden?
One reader, Austendw, has posted a frequent criticism when this topic surfaces, and no doubt he speaks for many others. I copy just part of his comment:
And as for Saul in Mizpah, you relate Saul in hiding among the baggage, to Rachel hiding the teraphim in the saddlebag. The Hebrew says merely that Rachel "put" them in the saddle-bag; a nit-picking difference perhaps, but bearing it in mind reveals that, apart from the common place-name Mizpah, (a different Mizpah of course – it's an extremely common place name in the OT), there isn't a single verbal correlation between the two passages. Therefore your comment that Saul turns up like "Laban's long-lost idol" (singular, though Laban's teraphim were plural), strikes me as nothing other than your own imaginative eisegesis; you have imposed a meaning on the text and thereby constructed a parallel between the two stories that simply isn't found in either of the texts themselves.
The details are indeed very different. But what is it, then, that makes it a "genuine" parallel in the minds of some others? Are we stretching different images almost to breaking point to make them seem somehow, even bizarrely, like one another? Is it reasonable to compare a person hiding in baggage and another person putting an incriminating object in a saddlebag?
Ideal Type compared with specific details
In order to try to understand what is going on here, to help us understand if we are manufacturing artificial parallels or discovering "real" ones, here is something written by Robert Price in The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems. Price is addressing a concept developed by the sociologist Max Weber, the Ideal Type. (Ideal relates to the world of ideas, not perfect ideals.) read more »
Tags Atwill: Caesar's Messiah, Parallel, parallelomania | Comments (7)
Two Mini-Apocalypses, Greek and Biblical & A Common Mythic Grammar
Stop me if you've heard this one before….
There was once a very pious man who lived in a city that had been taken over by very wicked people.
Messengers from the deity came to visit that pious man and were very impressed with his hospitality toward them even though he did not know they were divine persons on a divine mission. These messengers also witnessed the wickedness of those around him.
So the divine agents stepped in to help that pious man in his troubles with the wicked ones
First, they (the messengers) warned the pious man that the deity was going to destroy all those wicked folk.
Meanwhile the wicked people not only ignored the warning that they also heard but continued in their wickedness, including forbidden sexual behaviour.
The pious man was so pious that he even tried to warn the wicked doers that they were about to be destroyed but they ignored him.
Finally, all the wicked perish.
Further destruction awaits those who ignore a specific divine interdiction.
I dare say most readers would have recognized the story of Lot, his daughters and wife, and the people of Sodom.
Ancient persons more familiar with Homeric epics would have recognized the story of Odysseus's homecoming.
I should emphasize that I am not arguing for influence between the Odyssey and the biblical account, nor a common source. Rather, I suggest that as both accounts share a considerable number of motifs, a similar "grammar" underlies each myth.
(Louden, 96)
In Genesis 19 we read how Lot welcomed two strangers not realizing they were in fact angels. As we know, like Abraham before him he passed the hospitality test. Odysseus was similarly tested by a divinity in disguise:
Athene now appeared upon the scene. She had disguised herself as a young shepherd, with all the delicate beauty that marks the sons of kings. A handsome cloak was folded back across her shoulders, her feet shone white between the sandal-straps, and she carried a javelin in her hand. She was a welcome sight to Odysseus, who came forward at once and accosted her eagerly. 'Good-day to you, sir,' he said. 'Since you are the first person I have met in this place, I hope to find no enemy in you, but the saviour of my treasures here and of my very life; and so I pray to you as I should to a god and kneel at your feet. (Odyssey, Book 13 Rieu translation)
The goddess Athene repeatedly helps and advises Odysseus in order for him to be able to reclaim his household from the evil suitors who have taken over everything of his. The suitors were all earnestly hoping to have Odysseus wife Penelope, but in the meantime they slept with Odysseus's maidservants, wasting his resources, and acting violently towards strangers and guests, so that their "insolence and violent acts cry out to heaven."
The evil suitors merely laughed at the warnings of their imminent doom. read more »
Tags Homer, Little Apocalypse, Wajdenbaum: Argonauts of the Desert | Comment (1)
Deciphering the Gospels Webpage
And while we're looking at updates to recent books, R. G. Price has an informative webpage for his book Deciphering the Gospels. It's an active page, too, meaning Price is regularly adding to it in responses to common criticisms. Click on the image to pay a visit.
Tags Gospels and Acts (Canonical), Price: Deciphering the Gospels | Comments (17)
Time Shift Hypothesis Presentation
Youtube now has a PowerPoint presentation of Lena Einhorn's hypothesis on Jesus and the Egyptian Prophet/the Shift hypothesis.
It is a somewhat longer version (45 min. ) of the presentation Lena made at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in 2012. I like the idea of visual presentations over text posts. I might do something similar one day.
We have posted a few times on Lena's Time Shift hypothesis on Vridar.
Tags Einhorn: Shift in Time | Comments (4)
A Balanced U.S. Policy in the Middle East
It's nice to see some balance and even-handedness by the U.S. in the Middle East at last. Some of us had been somewhat concerned that the U.S. was the lackey of the state of Israel but recent events have served well to remind us that the U.S. is just as willing to advance the interests of the "the Arabs", too.
Trump's Saudi First Foreign Policy Strikes Again (by Daniel Larison)
citing
US 'slams the brakes' on UN Yemen ceasefire resolution (by Michelle Kosinski)
The US has "slammed the brakes on" a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN.
Trump's outrageous Saudi propaganda statement from last week confirmed that he would happily lie to defend Saudi Arabia from any and all criticism, and now he is shielding them from international scrutiny and pressure at the U.N. He is not just serving as a Saudi mouthpiece, but acts as their lackey as well.
Tags Saudi Arabia | Comment (1)
Understanding Historical Evidence
This post is a presentation of a few of the key points set out by Steve Mason in his 2016 study A History of the Jewish War, AD 66-74. The points are taken from the first part of his second chapter titled Understanding Historical Evidence. I found his explanation a most enjoyable read because it coheres so closely with the explanations of other historians I have posted about here and it offers a strong correction to the way so many historians, especially those in theology departments, have tended to do history.
Most of the post is a paraphrase or quotation of some of Mason's points except where I have introduced my own voice or given examples relating to Christian origins or the historical Jesus and the uses of the gospels as sources. I have sometimes reformatted Mason's text and any bolding added in the quotes is my own; italics are original. So let's start.
It is mistake to pick up a primary source like Josephus' War or Plutarch's Lives or the Gospel of Luke and think we can just "extract raw facts" from them "while ignoring their nature, structures, and themes." Before we can take anything as a fact we need to understand what, exactly, our sources are and if they are even capable of answering questions we would like to put to them. But too often
Historians are often impatient with theory. We feel that we know what we are doing, and abstract philosophizing can get in the way. We should just get on with the hard work.
(Mason, 61)
Too often historians and their readers think that all that is required is to follow wherever the evidence leads in order to produce an authoritative account of the past. If a historian or philosopher of history starts talking about analysing literary sources as literature before using those sources to elicit facts to tell us what happened in the past some voices will protest that such a procedure is only for the "literary types" and not relevant to the historian. Mason's warning is worth taking seriously:
In the final months of preparing this book I have heard professional historians express such views as these: History is the past or an authoritative account of it; historians must follow the evidence and avoid speculation; history concerns itself with elite literary texts and neither material evidence or the life of ordinary folk, which are the province of archaeologists; historians are either maximalists or minimalists, realists or postmodernists, left-wingers or conservatives, or they fall in some other two-kinds-of-people scheme. A problem relevant to this chapter is the notion that those who care about the meaning of texts must be literary types unconcerned with the actual past. And these positions are held by historians. If we include more popular ideas about history, including those espoused by political leaders and school boards, the picture becomes bewildering.
(ibid)
Mason cites a reviewer of one his own works to illustrate the point. I can cite a critic of my approach studying the gospels who makes the same point graphically:
McGrath, James F. 2008. The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith. BookSurge Publishing. p. 57
(I was surprised to see that even Matthew Ferguson appears to accept that stark division of labour between historical and literary approaches to a source text so I have to suspect that this misleading concept is more prevalent than I would hope and that Mason acknowledges.)
Our job description
A common belief is that history can be discovered by a painstaking effort to sort through sources and extract the facts of the matter from them. Sometimes the sources will be contradictory and then we need to make a judgement about which set of facts to follow. The point that is taken for granted is that the point of the inquiry is to come to know what actually happened. Historians are expected to be able to give an authoritative account of the past. But there is a but: in ancient history the nature of the evidence simply does not allow us to "know" in the way we would like.
Ancient historians must make their peace with uncertainty because that is where the nature of surviving evidence requires us to live much of the time. Our job description is to investigate responsibly, not to know what happened.
(ibid, 63)
Tags Historical Method, Historical Sources | Comments (4)
Why internet trolls mindlessly repeat . . . .
They're merely trying to use the debate to show that they and their positions are superior.
Oh yes. And it explains why they resort to insult and ridicule when called upon to engage in a defence of their claims.
Oftentimes, she said, people aren't really having a discussion when they argue about politics. They're merely trying to use the debate to show that they and their positions are superior.
"An effective piece of rhetorical persuasion usually happens when people are trying to honestly resolve a conflict, otherwise, all you're doing is just fighting—which we see all too easily in our society," Matelli explained.
At this point, in her view, it might make the most sense to simply end the argument — instead of letting it devolve into insults and competing slogans.
H/T Alternet: A rhetoric professor explains why internet trolls mindlessly repeat ridiculous right-wing slogans
Tags Internet trolls, Social media | Comments (2)
Telling lies for Jesus mythicism
"[Josephus] was employed to write the official history that we have. The other histories from this period have been destroyed ruthlessly by the Romans. Josephus tells us this in very chilling passages how the Romans exerted complete control of the literature of this period. There were alternative histories of the Jewish war written, while the Romans rounded up the writers of those histories and executed them. They rounded up all the copies of those histories and destroyed them. That is to say they ruthlessly wiped out any alternative history, so that the only history we have is written by Josephus." — Dr Rod Blackhirst, Lecturer in Religious Studies, La Trobe University
On my shelf I have a book titled Telling Lies for God by I.R. Plimer. I was a bit disappointed in it when I read it because I thought it was itself misrepresenting some of the apologist arguments and could have had more credibility by not sometimes garnishing the facts at hand.
Not long ago I took up a request to engage with a video on youtube, Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Christianity. The presentation contains so many exaggerations and falsehoods that it would take me forever to address in detail, but I did tackle some of them here and here. Some of the contributors interviewed, namely Dr Robert and Timothy Freke, did not make any extravagant claims, but others did — namely Joseph Atwill, Rob Blackhirst, John Hudson and D.M. Murdock/Acharya S.
One point I have not yet addressed in depth, however, and that is the claim I placed in the quotation box at the top of this post, the one made near the video's beginning by Dr Rob Blackhirst. To fast forward to the conclusion, I am astonished that a serious academic employed at a bona fide university could mouth such total fabrication. Not a word of what is quoted is true, but that's what he claimed for the "benefit" of viewers of the video.
Point #1. Josephus's history of the Jewish war is not an "official history". It was Josephus's personal history that did not have to be submitted for approval to the emperor or his agents.
Point #2. We have no record to substantiate the claim that "other histories from this period [the period of Josephus in the time of Vespasian and Titus] have been destroyed ruthlessly" — or leave off the "ruthlessly" and just say "destroyed". There is absolutely nothing in the sources that permits Rob Blackhirst to make that claim.
Point #3. Alternative histories were written? Romans rounded up their authors and executed them? These claims are absolute fabrication. There is not a shred of evidence in our records that any such things ever happened.
Not quite. There is another series of false claims from about the 17th minute. We hear the following: read more »
Tags Atwill: Caesar's Messiah, Conspiracy theories, mythicism | Comments (15)
A Response to Dr Sarah, Geeky Humanist, on the Jesus Question
Dr Sarah of FreethoughtBlogs.com Geeky Humanist has posted two interesting posts in favour of the historicity of Jesus. It makes a wonderful change to read arguments on this topic that are expressed in a civil and calmly reasoned tone. Her first post is Jesus mythicism vs. Jesus historicity: an argument in favour of the latter; her more recent one, Jesus mythicism vs. Jesus historicity: a reply to R. G. Price. This post gives my take on her earlier essay. (All formatting and bolding in Dr Sarah's comments is my own.)
If Jesus did exist, we have to explain how, within a relatively short time of his death, he was being spoken of as some kind of mythical semi-deity in the writings of some of his followers.
If Jesus was a myth from the start, on the other hand, we have the reverse problem of having to explain how he then came to be written about and taught about as an actual person who walked the face of the earth and did normal (as well as miraculous) things.
Dr Sarah finds the first option the more simple one.
My first thought is that the two options are embedded in faulty, or at least questionable, assumptions. If the gospel figure of Jesus did indeed reflect the life of an ordinary person then the two horns of the dilemma are both a quandary. If, on the other hand, we pause to reflect that the earliest gospel that we believe to have been written was the Gospel of Mark, then we have quite different options. That's because in the Gospel of Mark the Jesus figure is most unlike any ordinary human figure in ancient (or modern) literature. He is a human, of course, with brothers and sisters and a mother, and he eats and drinks. But he is unlike any other figure in works that we know to be ancient biographies or histories. He is presented to us "cold", that is, without us having any knowledge of who the biographer is or why he is even writing about him. Without any explanation of how the author came to know anything about his life, he is depicted as engaging in conversations and activities with spirit beings both in heaven and on earth. He calls and mere mortals drop all their livelihoods in a moment and obey. He reads peoples minds and hearts. He exercises God's prerogative to forgive sins and rules the physical elements. He talks in mysteries so none can understand, and though he explains all his mysterious messages to his disciples, even they don't truly believe. Even his disciples are far from genuine human beings: they walk as if mesmerized into obedience to follow him at his call; they are unrealistically stupid in not recognizing his power despite seeing it demonstrated time and again; they, along with the crowds in the narrative, come and go as the author needs them, not as per any realistic plot device. In other words, Jesus is depicted in the earliest gospel as a figure of a human but certainly something trans-human. The story-line is absurd — quite against the grain of the way real people really are and how real people really respond — if read "realistically". But if read a ciphers, or symbols, or personifications, or mouthpieces for some particular set of beliefs and doctrines, if read as a parable or symbolically, the story makes perfect sense.
We have evidence to encourage us in our view that this earliest gospel's Jesus and disciples (and even his enemies and other persons that appear in the narrative) are far from realistic or natural. That evidence lies in the way that the subsequent evangelists ("Matthew" and "Luke" — even "John", some would argue) changed Mark's Jesus and disciples into somewhat more realistic figures. ("John", on the other hand, went in the other direction and made him even less human.) "Luke" even reduces Jesus to a martyr in the tradition of the Maccabees.
With that background, the two horns of the dilemma are modified somewhat:
If Jesus was a myth from the start, on the other hand, we have the reverse problem of having to explain how he then came to be written about and taught about as a parabolic or allegorical type of person who walked the face of the earth conversing with humans and spirits and did many inexplicable things and spoke in ways that his hearers did not understand.
Or maybe I should make the dilemma a triceratops with a third horn:
If Jesus was a myth from the start, on the other hand, we have the reverse problem of having to explain how two of the three canonical evangelists who followed their earliest predecessor "corrected" his account and made him and his followers a little more realistically human.
Okay, you might think I'm playing with that second option a bit too loosely. But how else might it be worded given what we know about the Gospel of Mark's Jesus and characters generally?
Dr Sarah proceeds to set out her reasons for embracing the historicity of Jesus in five dot points. I address each one. read more »
Tags Christ Myth Debate, Christian Origins, Tim O'Neill | Comments (43)


text:
How to Train Your Dragon Font
About How to Train Your Dragon Font
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation. It follows a young Viking teenager named Hiccup aspires to follow his tribe's tradition of becoming a dragon slayer.
The font used for the film title in the poster seems to be Compacta, a grotesque sans with very narrow letterforms. In the sequel, namely, How to Train Your Dragon 2, the font used for "DRAGON" is still Compacta, but the "how to train your" part is replaced with an inscribed serif typeface, which is very similar to Friz Quadrata.
Download Compacta Font
The Compacta font identified above is not available for free, please follow the link above and purchase the font. Meanwhile, you can take a look at our collection of fonts for cars, pop music and apparel as well as round-ups of new & fresh fonts around the web.
Compacta Typeface in Use
In addition to How to Train Your Dragon, Compacta typeface is also used in the following logos, movie posters or album covers etc., including: Pillowtalk (Zayn), Road To Hill 30, The Last of Us, Burnout Paradise, Dirt: Showdown, Harry's Law, Harley Davidson, Straw Dogs, Lego Dimensions, Hell's Highway, The Infamous (Mobb Deep), 3 Backyards, Trench (Twenty One Pilots), Pretty Woman, Rolling Loud.
tags: comic cartoon, 100% free
Linolphabet Bold
Latin Condensed
tags: groovy, 100% free
tags: modern, 100% free
Carbon Block
Low Font
Bacardi Font
Qatar Airways Font
The Recording Academy Font
The Keg Font
Elle King Font


Quattro Sticker [IHS-C-QUATTRO] : ihatestickers.com, Your number one online source for edgy stickers.
Quattro diecut sticker. Change the color of your quattro logo with this sweet authentic looking quattro sticker.


This pristine 5.25 acre parcel is nestled between the beautiful Wasatch mountain range and includes breathtaking 360 degree mountain-views of the entire Ogden Valley, with direct views of Snowbasin Ski Resort and Southfork Canyon. The parcel is located just inside the entrance of River Ranch subdivision, considered one of the most luxurious developments in Huntsville, and doubles as a perfect horse property with plenty of wildlife. The property is easily accessible and is only minutes from three major ski resorts, stream or lake fishing, Wolf Creek golf course, Causey Reservoir, Pineview Reservoir (both which offer boating, paddle boarding and kayaking) and more. This area has everything to offer for the outdoor enthusiasts! The land also comes with 1 acre-foot allotment of replacement water with irrigation supplied by sub-surface or pond water. Currently zoned as greenbelt. Electric and Gas located at the front of the lot.


Boeing Co workers began voting Wednesday on a landmark labor contract, a historic decision that could forever alter the course of Boeing's presence in Washington state.
If International Association of Machinists members accept tough contract terms offered by Boeing, they'll win at least 20 years of work building Boeing's newest jet, securing the company's widebody production for a generation.
If they reject the deal that ends their traditional pension plan and raises healthcare costs, Boeing has said it intends to seriously consider building the jet, known as the 777X, elsewhere, likely in nonunion states or in Japan.
Workers lined up in predawn darkness on Wednesday outside the union hall in Everett, Washington, where Boeing builds the current 777 model, and elsewhere in the Seattle area and in Oregon. About 31,000 workers are eligible to cast ballots, and many told reporters they plan to vote no.
"I'm not really liking it for the young guys that are going to be new hires in the future, so I'm going to vote no," said one worker standing in line before his shift. "They did that for me years ago."
But others said they would accept it, fearing Boeing would eliminate 20,000 jobs over the next decade as it moved work elsewhere.
"I don't think Boeing's bluffing at all" about moving the work, said another worker. "They did it with second line of the 787."
Separately, Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said on Wednesday the company would definitely look at alternative sites for the production, but declined to say if the vote was a "take it or leave it deal," according to an interview with KING 5 TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate station.
"If they turn it down, then we'll figure out what to do next," McNerney said, according to the report.
Boeing's alternatives include nonunion South Carolina, where the company currently assembles 787 Dreamliners, and where it broke ground on Tuesday for a new factory that will make engine housings for its forthcoming 737 MAX planes.
Boeing is buying more than 200 acres near the 787 campus to expand its facilities and has agreed to invest more than $1 billion and hire 2,000 more workers over the next eight years.
Boeing also may consider giving the wing work to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Japanese industrial giant that already makes wings for the 787.
Reuters reported exclusively on Tuesday that Mitsubishi had made a detailed proposal to Boeing for building the 777X wing.
Boeing also has facilities in Long Beach, California, where it builds the C-17 military transport plane. That program is ending, freeing space and workers for 777X production.
Some Wall Street analysts expected the union to approve the contract, by a slim margin, since losing the work is worse than losing the pension.
But a no vote on Wednesday might not mean the 777X ultimately gets built outside Washington, because moving the work would bring logistical headaches, analysts and industry experts said.
Any other site would require time to set up tooling, train workers and deal with the distance between its current 777 operations and the 777X line.
"The door isn't shut on Washington," said Ken Herbert, an analyst at investment firm Canaccord Genuity in San Francisco.


Learn how our award-winning solutions create a VIP experience for patients.
The RigthPatient team is going to HIMSS in Florida from January the 11th until the 15th. Members of our team will be happy to meet you there.
HIMSS will be a great opportunity to discuss our last projects or your needs.
Feel free to book your meeting with us.
RightPatient® brings a 360 degree approach to the patient experience through personalization, operational optimization & engagement.
level so they can all feel like VIPs.
Increase efficiency and productivity to boost HCAHPS scores.
Keep your brand engaged with patients while improving their wellness.
© 2019 RightPatient Inc. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Kelvin Wade
February 12, 2012 in Columnists, Uncategorized
What if you were straight in a gay world?
by Kelvin Wade
Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in California, was unconstitutional. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing for the majority, wrote "The people may not employ the initiative power to single out a disfavored group for unequal treatment and strip them, without a legitimate justification, of a right as important as the right to marry."
This seems obvious to me. It wasn't obvious to New Jersey Governor Christ Christie, who said recently that residents should hold a referendum on gay marriage. He further said that blacks in the Civil Rights Era would've liked to have had a referendum. How idiotic. Blacks would've lost. And since when do we put civil rights up for a majority vote in this country?
In 1967 the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia struck down bans on interracial marriage throughout the country. A 1968 Gallup Poll found only 20 percent of Americans supported marriage between blacks and whites, while 73 percent opposed. What if there'd been a national referendum on interracial marriage? Sometimes courts and legislatures have to do the right thing in the face of public opposition.
With gay marriage, we're in a strange position. A 2011 Gallup poll found that 53 percent of Americans support gay marriage. This time the public is ahead of our government.
Despite what some opponents believe, the marriage equality fight isn't about religion. The state must show a compelling reason to deny gay people the right to marry. One's religious viewpoint is not a valid reason. It's strange that the same folks who fear Islamic Sharia Law sweeping the country, think nothing of our elected officials and judges making decisions based on Christian texts.
For straight people who oppose gay marriage, let's try an exercise. Imagine for a moment that you lived in a society where homosexuality was the majority orientation. (Let's imagine that people procreated through homosexual sex.)
How eager would you be to even hold hands with the opposite sex in public if everywhere you looked, you saw gay couples? What if you knew that merely holding your opposite sex lover's hand in public could result in stares, putdowns, confrontations and even violence? Think about that.
How would you feel if someone told you that your attraction to the opposite sex was abnormal? What if there were therapists and companies who were in the business of trying to convert heterosexual people to homosexuality. Would you go? Or would you be offended that anyone would want to change your sexuality? Do you think you could be "converted" into being sexually attracted to the same sex?
Now stay with me. What if you were in a deeply committed relationship with a person of the opposite sex? If you're involved with someone now, just imagine you and that person in a world where homosexuality was the dominant sexual orientation. What if you wanted to marry that person and you were told that marriage wasn't an option since your relationship is nontraditional, but you could have a civil union that wouldn't come with the same federal rights and tax breaks as gay marriages? How would you feel?
Would you think your partner deserves the same dignity and respect under the law as all of those gay couples walking around holding hands in public with no fear?
What if people said that according to their religion, your feelings were wrong? What if you didn't subscribe to that religion or any religion for that matter? Do you think that the government and courts should follow the dictates of their religion?
What if someone told you that marriage wasn't allowed between you and your opposite sex partner because it would harm gay marriage? Your love would endanger theirs. Does that sound rational to you?
Perhaps we would understand each other better if we just stop and try walking in someone else's shoes. Social change on this scale can be unsettling. But gay people aren't trying to convert your children, invalidate your faith or ruin America. They just want the same dignity and respect from the law that you receive. Nothing more.
Madgew
Great article today Kelvin. I say the people who have ruined marriage are the heteros and their divorce rate. I can't understand why anyone would want to be married but hey that is just me. I will fight for anyone who wants to fall in love and get married. I will fight so everyone has equal access to whatever floats their boat.
Thank you. I'm relatively new to this. I used to oppose same sex marriage. I've written columns years ago opposing it. But I was never passionately opposed to it. And it wasn't on religious grounds. (It's strange to me how much time Christian churches spend on gay marriage when the biggest threat to marriage is divorce. In fact, the Bible only list adultery as grounds for a divorce. Any other reason is sinful and you remarry a divorced woman who didn't get divorced for adultery, then THAT'S adultery. But you have all of these divorced and remarried people in churches condemning gays. But I digress.) It wasn't that I "hated" gays. I think it's wrong to label everyone who is opposed as haters. While I think some people do hate gays and a lot of others are opposed on religious grounds, I think the most persuadable group are just those who are nervous and uncomfortable about such a broad societal change. But rights aren't dependent on my comfort level.
It's like when a gay person comes out to their parents. Sometimes they're met with hostility. Sometimes disappointment. Sometimes they're hit with religion and the whole "pray away the gay" thing. But often they have parents who are just uncomfortable and need time to come to terms with it. I think that's why you see the numbers moving towards gay marriage. People have seen it now for years in Massachusetts. They've seen it in other states. And it's had ZERO effect on heterosexual marriage or churches. People can still go to church and believe what they want to believe. As I pointed out in the column, most Americans opposed interracial marriage even after it became legal. It took time for society to catch up. And I think acceptance of gay marriage is dependent on people absorbing the change.
There's a segment of society that sees the rise of China, the 1% owning Congress, a black President, gay marriage as huge changes that they're just not ready for. But the one thing you can always count on is… change.
Crap. I just wrote another column here. LOL
Judy N
Nice column, Kevlin. And important, honest comment. It's good to hear stories of change!


text:
Kurt Busch Suspended From Daytona 500
Jerry Markland/ Getty Images
Kurt Busch is not racing at the start of the NASCAR season. This decision was handed down from NASCAR today. (2/20)
The suspension was made public just two days before the Daytona 500. A Delaware judge issued the ruling that Busch committed an act of domestic violence against his ex-girl friend and in the judges opinion, the possibility of repeating the offense.
Busch has denied the alleged assault. He becomes the first driver suspended by NASCAR for domestic violence.


text:
Castello Monforte localiza-se na cidade de Campobasso, na Itália.

História

O castelo foi danificado após o terremoto de 1805.

Castelos da Itália
Campobasso

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Ислай () — одна из 8 провинций перуанского региона Арекипа. Площадь составляет 3886,49 км². Население — 51 328 человек; плотность населения — 14,63 чел/км². Столица — город Мольендо.

География
Находится в южной части региона, занимая 6,13 % его площади. Граничит с провинциями Арекипа (на севере), Камана (на северо-западе), с регионом Мокегуа (на юго-востоке). Омывается водами Тихого океана (на западе). Прибрежная равнина, протяжённостью около 90 км, довольно узка; она отделяет Прибрежную Кордильеру от Тихого океана.

Климат
Среднегодовая температура на большей части провинции составляет 17-18°С.

Административное деление
В административном отношении провинция делится на 6 районов:
 Мольендо
 Кокачакра
 Деан-Вальдивия
 Ислай
 Мехиа
 Пунта-де-Бомбон

Провинции региона Арекипа


JSNAs will take account of data and information on inequalities between the differing, and overlapping, communities in local areas and support the meeting of statutory requirements in relation to equity audits.
use local community views and evidence of effectiveness of interventions to shape the future investment and disinvestment of services.
underpin the Local Area Agreement and the choice of local outcomes and targets.
Information is the key to a good JSNA. Information on illness, what people are dying of, and what stops people living the best life they can, is available, but not necessarily in one place or systematically. It can be used, alongside cost information, to make the best judgements possible. Programme budgeting information will help local authorities, PCTs and the wider Local Strategic Partnerships to understand where they are spending their resources and identify the potential for shifting resources between activities to produce better outcomes.
The production of JSNAs are the responsibility of the Director of Adult Service, Housing and Health, Director of Children's Services and the Director of Public Health, but many others are likely to have a role to play in getting the JSNA right and delivering better outcomes.
JSNAs will become an integral part of the planning cycle of local authorities and the NHS. It is likely that they will need to be carried out in line with the three-year Local Area Agreement cycle.


There is nothing better than soft, luxurious carpeting to make your home a relaxing and comfortable place to live. In fact, your whole home can be transformed with the right kind of flooring. That's why your Waterford, Connecticut Carpet One offers you so many quality flooring choices. At Carpet One, we are proud to bring you only the very best in carpeting, hardwood flooring, luxury vinyl tiles, ceramic tiling, and laminate flooring.
Your Carpet One in Waterford knows that choosing flooring that suits your home can be tricky. We are home to sales professionals who are specially trained with the expertise to pick the perfect flooring for you from our wide selection. Working with our Waterford sales professionals will ensure that your flooring choice will provide comfort and strength, day in and day out. There is a large number of types of materials, styles, and brands from which to choose, including many brands of flooring that are made exclusively for Carpet One. From protection against stains to everyday durability, our Waterford flooring ensures that every need is met. And Waterford Carpet One is always the best solution for affordable, stylish flooring that is held to the highest industry standards. We also have multiple levels of increasing protection in our easy-to-understand SelectAFloor™ warranty system, so you can protect your Waterford floors. Carpet One also goes above and beyond to ensure that your carpet is installed by the best. The experts at Carpet One can install your flooring professionally, so you can have peace of mind and beautiful new floors.
Want to explore all of our flooring options? We proudly carry a wide variety of carpeting, hardwood, laminate, vinyl, and tile flooring. Carpet One is ready to help you choose the perfect flooring for your home. To learn more about why Carpet One flooring is the best choice for your Waterford home, contact your nearest Carpet One location. Carpet One has the best in Waterford carpeting and flooring! Come in to a store near you today and see for yourself.


Meanwhile, even when deciding upon the wooden shoe storage, you need to think about several matters, too. First, you should choose the bench which is made from your easy-to-clean material. When a child learns to consume alone, it is sure to be shattered right here and there. Therefore, choose a dining table bench with a base which isn't difficult to completely clean to retain baby cleanliness. Next, pick the height that can be adjusted. The further selections the elevation of this dining bench is, the longer it is utilized. You can adjust the height of the wooden shoe rack bench according to your dining table in home, or you are able to correct the size of this different benchs in your household. In any case, you should also pick the bench that isn't difficult to maneuver. To give a new air when your son or daughter eats, you can take him to try to eat on the porch, or in an room in your residence. So, choosing a dining bench which isn't hard to move is fantastic to ease your kid's freedom. Acquire a dining kids bench that's readily constructed to make it even more sensible to store and proceed as desirable.
Alternately, utilize a bench that may likewise be put back. Perhaps not simply the elevation of the bench has to be corrected however also the top of the backrest. It really is better to allow one to pick a bench whose backrest can be corrected in accordance with your shoulder elevation. To avoid aches or pain in the shoulders and spine, the bench you employ must have a back that is the very same elevation as your own shoulder. The past, opt for wooden shoe rack bench together with head-rests. benchs who have added head-rests can actually make the human body posture when sitting down. The reason isthis backrest causes the neck and head parallel into your ear lobe. The hallway shoe bench will force you to stay away from throat muscle pains.
People are introduced by the other kind of settee wooden shoe rack bench, that is an air couch idle bench. Together with the advances in technology, this lazy air settee will allow one to truly save even more distance. Due to this settee bench only takes atmosphere, you are able to reposition it once you want. You are able to bring this hallway shoe bench wherever you're gone. You are able to make this when you are going camping, going to the beach, or when you have a backyard party with your buddies. This atmosphere sofa even comes from lots of measurements. You can purchase the smaller one for yourself, or you could get the huge one so that it is possible to use it with your friends. Irrespective of the sort of lazy sofa you pick, the principal utilization of these will be virtually exactly the same. That is to make you truly feel comfortable and relax.
A high back bench must get an arm bead to keep you at ease throughout working. For the comfort and health reasons, it needs to form ninety degree angle. It's a requirement for being a workplace bench. It is best to attempt to assess it before. It is utilised that will allow you to comfortable or not when you use this wooden shoe storage. You have to select the most complete options that come with this wooden shoe rack bench to get the working. The optimal/optimally bench is boosting your own comfort at any time you make use of it. All those are a few matters regarding the appropriate high straight back benchs to select.


text:
QIAGEN Agrees to Acquire Gentra Systems Inc.
WEBWIRE – Thursday, May 4, 2006
QIAGEN to Add Consumable and Automation Systems Targeting an Expanding Field of Nucleic Acid Purification
VENLO, The Netherlands, May 4, 2006 - QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGEN; Frankfurt, Prime Standard: QIA), a leading provider of molecular diagnostics products and the world's premier supplier of solutions for preanalytical sample preparation, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to purchase all outstanding shares of Gentra Systems Inc. (Gentra) based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Gentra is a privately held leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of non-solid phase nucleic acid purification products, providing both consumables and automated platforms. The acquisition expands QIAGEN's position as a leading provider of preanalytical and molecular diagnostics solutions to research and diagnostic customers. The transaction is subject to approval by Gentra's shareholders and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close at end of the second quarter 2006.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, QIAGEN will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Gentra for approximately US$38 million in cash. QIAGEN expects to incur one-time charges of approximately US$0.02 in EPS at the closing of this transaction. Based on preliminary analyses and depending on the date of the closing, QIAGEN expects this transaction to contribute approximately US$6 million in sales in the second half of 2006. On an adjusted basis without one-time charges, integration and restructuring costs and amortization of acquired IP the acquisition is expected to be neutral to EPS in 2006 and to be accretive by at least US$0.01 in 2007.
Gentra is focused on the niche market of nucleic acid purification from large scale blood samples up to 10 ml. Such large samples volumes are processed mostly in biobanking and DNA archiving market segments where Gentra's Puregene® consumables and Autopure LS® instruments hold a strong position. In addition, Gentra has developed the Purescript®, VersageneTM and Generation® line of nucleic acid purification consumables. Well documented, long-term DNA stability data of more than 11 years and proven efficiency for purification of large DNA molecules are important advantages of the Gentra products and are evidence of Gentra's strong focus on and commitment to these segments.
The Gentra product line is highly synergistic with QIAGEN's product portfolio and broadens QIAGEN's value proposition for customers in areas such as molecular diagnostics, biobanking and translational medicine. DNA purified with from such large scale blood samples with Gentra products is well suited for applications such as QIAGEN's PCR-based genotyping, molecular testing products or comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). In addition, many customers in biobanking and DNA archiving use QIAGEN's whole genome amplification technology (WGA) to replicate and thereby immortalize precious samples. Gentra has placed nearly 100 Autopure LS instruments globally which are recording significant consumable run rates.
Traditionally, biobanking was a confined market niche and mostly targeting population genetics studies. QIAGEN believes that the rapidly emerging trends towards translational medicine and biomedical research are creating a reinforced focus on biobanking and are thereby creating new opportunities for the hereby enlarged QIAGEN portfolio of products targeting these segments.
"Gentra is a well established leader in nucleic acid purification consumables and automation for important niche markets such as biobanking and DNA archiving, where larger sample volumes and long term stability are important for customers," said Peer M. Schatz, QIAGEN's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe that this market segment is increasingly attractive due to current trends in molecular diagnostics, biomedical research and translational medicine. The Gentra products are very complimentary to QIAGEN's product and technology portfolio providing additional solutions to enable large-scale research in biomedical, genomic and molecular diagnostic laboratories."
"The acquisition of Gentra fits into our corporate strategy of expanding our market and technology leadership in preanalytical solutions. Gentra's portfolio of consumables and instruments for nucleic acid purification, as well as its strong reputation in an increasingly important market niche are a perfect fit for QIAGEN," he continued. "QIAGEN provides a comprehensive direct-sales and service channel as well as a complete and complementary product portfolio to increase the value for customers in these market segments."
"We are very pleased and excited to join forces with QIAGEN – the world's leading provider of preanalytical solutions and molecular diagnostic assays. Given QIAGEN's sales and marketing leadership and geographical reach, we believe the combined companies can expand and accelerate, getting our technologies into the market and into the hands of more customers," said Dr. Ruth Shuman, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Gentra. "QIAGEN's global presence, its recognized excellence and its operational strength make QIAGEN a perfect partner."
Financial Highlights of the Pending Acquisition:
* Transaction is expected to close at the end of the second quarter of 2006.
* Expected to add revenues of approximately US$6 million in the second half of 2006 and of approximately US$14 in 2007.
* Expected to be neutral to adjusted EPS in 2006 and accretive to adjusted EPS in 2007 and beyond. Impact on reported EPS to be dilutive by US$0.02 in 2006 and slightly accretive to reported EPS in 2007.
* Consideration represents a multiple of approximately 2.7x 2007 annual sales.
Rational Highlights of the Pending Acquisition:
* Acquisition of a leading player in the DNA purification market with a strong brand value in a well defined market niche.
* Adds four new consumable product lines in nucleic acid purification based on proprietary technologies to the QIAGEN portfolio for manual use and use on Gentra's automation platforms:
o Puregene® consumables for genomic DNA isolation. The isolated DNA is of the highest purity, has a high molecular weight of up to 200 kb and is therefore well-suited for long term storage, archiving and length-sensitive applications such as comparative genomic hybridization (CGH).
o VersageneTM consumable product line for both RNA and DNA purification in convenient single column and 96-well formats for use with a broad range of sample materials. The purified nucleic acids can directly be used for amplification (PCR, RT-PCR), microarray analysis and other assays.
o Generation® consumable product line, including fast systems for DNA purification for direct use in amplification based techniques. Four different formats address a variety of customer needs.
o Purescript® consumable product line for isolating RNA from different sources. The purified RNA is suitable for all kind of downstream applications including RT-PCR and in vitro translation.
* Adds two new automation platforms: Autopure® for large scale blood (up to 10 ml) DNA purification and Autotech™ for smaller samples and lower throughput.
About QIAGEN:
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company, is a leading provider of innovative technologies and products for pre-analytical sample preparation and molecular diagnostics solutions. QIAGEN has developed a comprehensive portfolio of more than 500 proprietary, consumable products and automated solutions for sample collection, and nucleic acid and protein handling, separation, and purification. QIAGEN also supplies diagnostic kits, tests, and assays for human and veterinary molecular diagnostics. The company's products are sold to academic research markets, and to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; as well as to diagnostics laboratories. QIAGEN also provides purification and testing solutions to applied testing markets: such as forensics, animal or food testing, and pharmaceutical process control.
QIAGEN employs more than 1,700 people worldwide. QIAGEN products are sold through a dedicated sales force and a global network of distributors in more than 40 countries.
Further information about QIAGEN can be found at www.qiagen.com
About Gentra Systems, Inc.:
Gentra Systems, Inc., based in Minneapolis, MN, is a rapidly growing company that specializes in developing nucleic acid purification reagents and instruments for clinical and clinical research laboratories. The company markets its products worldwide through direct sales and distributors. Gentra's Website at http://www.gentra.com carries more information about the company and its products.
Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products, markets, strategy or operating results are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations and risks of dependency on logistics), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the applied testing markets, clinical research markets and proteomics markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's, products (including fluctuations due to the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets, and other factors), difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors' products, market acceptance of QIAGEN's new products and the integration of acquisitions of technologies and businesses. For further information, refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Gentra Systems, Inc.
Dr. Solveigh Mähler
Director of Investor Relations
QIAGEN GmbH


Up for a new site? The workshop designs and builds it! You can bring in your own complete design or basic idea, or decide over a few design proposals. From there we go into close collaboration: Every step of the way is being communicated with you and together we refine the process untill the end results meets what you had in mind.
Not only do I build whatever website you want, I team up with you and your plan, crawl inside that idea and find how we can improve it together. In a non-committal meeting you explain your wishes, and then and there we invision the look and feel that best suits your needs. I then will translate that into a proposal which I will sent you together with an offer, on the basis of which you will be able to decide.
The pros: After our initial meeting there's no obligations, you're working on design and implementation in the same proces, and you're in direct contact with the one executing your assignment (that would be me).
And finally: Your plan becomes your online story, a personal and unique site!
Design based on your excisting logo or corporate identity, or teaming up to build a suiting design.
Site maintanance and management: do it yourself or hire me hourly, quarterly or annually, it's up to you.
Advice on web-friendly design (responsiveness, social media, SEO).
Any doubts? Go ahead and contact me for a talk. It's for free!
Ralph invested tremendously in our co-operation on developing my site. He was a professional in handling my wishes from start to finish and motivated me to allow new ideas to surface and be developed. The collaboration felt very natural and was of clear added value. Thanks!
Working with Ralph was very easy-going, with clear communications and a good understanding for my wishes. From the start I felt very well advised and supported. I can recommend him wholeheartedly!
Don't hesitate to call or mail me. A first meeting is always free and without obligations!


Beautiful Toyota Pick Ups 98 With Additional Used Car Dealerships with Toyota Pick Ups is free HD wallpaper. This wallpaper was upload at August 31, 2018 upload by amri in .
Beautiful Toyota Pick Ups 98 With Additional Used Car Dealerships with Toyota Pick Ups - We hope that, by posting this Beautiful Toyota Pick Ups 98 With Additional Used Car Dealerships with Toyota Pick Ups , we can full fill your needs of inspiration for dream car. If you need more ideas to Auto New Car Gallery, you can check at our collection right below this post.


A long-distance kayaker, overlooked the challenge of the Pend Oreille for so long, the mighty river that begins in my hometown of Sandpoint.
As a long-distance kayaker, I don't know why I overlooked for so long the challenge of the Pend Oreille, the mighty river that begins in my hometown of Sandpoint. I had been travelling thousands of miles to find waterways to navigate — to the Thames in England, the Bío Bío in Chile, the Mississippi, the Hudson — when all I had to do was walk down to War Memorial Field and start paddling.
The Pend Oreille is a worthy river, flowing 130 miles west from Sandpoint into Washington, and then north to Canada, where it jogs west again to join the Columbia. In volume, it's bigger than many well-known waterways, including the Hudson, Sacramento, and Colorado rivers. It carries waters from Montana's Flathead and Clark Fork rivers, and, of course, it's the exit of Lake Pend Oreille, the largest lake in Idaho.
Jim Payne, long distance kayaker, the journey begins.
In early June, 2016, I slid the kayak off the roof of the car, loaded it with gear, and embarked upon the river. At that early morning hour I enjoyed one of the special thrills of the Pend Oreille: the vast mirror vista that opens up in the absence of wind. None of the narrower, busier rivers I'd recently paddled offered this kind of magical, 360-degree panorama. Here, spread out before me, was the entire Baldy range, once in the sky and, secondarily, reflected on the water. As I made my way west, the noisy rush of traffic on the Long Bridge behind me receded, and I had the river to myself.
After a full day of paddling, I found a relatively undeveloped stretch of shore near Seneacquoteen to pitch my tent. Watching a water skier carve graceful loops in the water, I ate my supper of oatmeal cookies, nuts and raisins. (I've long since dispensed with the fuss and bother of stoves and cooking on my kayak journeys.) Later, I stretched out on my air mattress to sleep, listening to the warbling robins in the trees above who couldn't believe that on this incredibly long summer day, darkness would ever come to silence them.
The next morning I made my way across glassy waters to Priest River, where I had breakfast at the Village Kitchen. Back on the water, my first challenge lay four miles down the river: Albeni Falls Dam, the structure that holds back the waters of the Pend Oreille River. As I neared the looming concrete faces of the dam, the water picked up speed, swirling in little whirlpools. Only a thin rope floating on buoys separated me from the naked spillway 50 feet away. I pitched my tent for the night at the nearby campground and, the next morning, I crammed my foldable Feathercraft kayak into its backpack, hiked around the dam, and put in below the spillway.
A mile of swirling, energetic water later I was in Newport, Washington, and landed at the dock of the Old American Kampground, where I stayed for two nights. During that visit I took in the museum, had breakfast at Owen's (founded in 1938, coffee at 50 cents a cup), and browsed a consignment gallery featuring over 200 vendors.
Once back in my kayak I faced intermittent rain, and a 1.4 mph current that slewed the water around in worrisome surges. The next two days were miserable, with rain and blustery winds retarding my lonely progress on the water, and bone-chilling, 38-degree nights that robbed me of sleep. When I finally reached the town of Usk, I positively craved the comforts and entertainments of civilization.
I took her advice, making my way two miles further down the river to Cusick, which features a concrete boat ramp and toilet facilities. It also boasted a bar called The Tavern, probably the only tavern in America that's closed Saturday night, but open Sunday morning. They serve beer along with breakfast but, the waitress told me, hardly anyone ever asks for it.
In the afternoon I came upon a large canoe paddled by five young people who waved to me as they passed. I met them again later at the Forest Service's Panhandle Campground. Their craft was no ordinary canoe, but a gigantic cedar dugout three feet wide. The paddlers were Kalispel youths who, with the help of their elders, had worked all winter hewing the boat out of a cedar log. That afternoon's trip was the canoe's dedication voyage from the Kalispel headquarters at Cusick.
From Left; Cliffs in early morning sun at Seneacquoteen, near Laclede, Albeni Falls Dam, the first portage, Reassembly after a grueling portage at Box Canyon Dam. This canoe's dedication voyage, built by Kalispel youth with help from their elders.
The barrier at Box Canyon, which I soon faced, is a run-of-the-river dam. It doesn't back up the water, but makes use of the sharp drop at that point to generate electricity. Locals advised me to pull out of the river at the town of Ione, three miles before the dam, and have a vehicle take me to the put-in below the dam. That would have been the sensible approach, but I was stubborn. I wanted to make the portage by myself, so that I could say at the end of the voyage I had done the entire trip under my own steam.
But the banks of the river in this section are very steep; in most places outright cliffs. Finally, I did find a way to reach the railroad tracks that I could hike along to the dam. Four hours later — four grueling hours — my portage was nearly complete, with all my equipment deposited at the edge of the railroad trestle that soars 100 feet high above the Box Canyon Dam. All that stood between me and a restful campsite on the other side of the river was 100 yards of train trestle. But, I discovered to my horror, this trestle had no guard rail, and no supports between the ties — just air. It would be a tip-toe balancing act to get across, especially with the kayak pack balanced on my back, and I didn't dare try it.
I couldn't bear the thought of retracing my steps back along the river to the take-out. So I scrambled up the cliff, and under a chain link fence to the visitor's observation deck. From there, I had an easy walk on the road to the put-in below the dam.
That evening I discovered the perfect campsite: a flat alluvial island whose top, standing 12 feet above the water, was covered in high grass. I drew the kayak into the grass at the shore and left it, assuming it would be secure, because nowhere else on the Pend Oreille had I encountered any significant daily change in water level. However, when I peeked out of the tent the next morning, I was shocked to see the kayak floating 10 feet from shore: the water level had risen 2 feet overnight! Fortunately, I had tied the bow line to a clump of grass, which was enough to keep the kayak from floating away to Canada.
Before I set out on this trip, I had toyed with the idea of running Metaline Falls and making it all the way to Boundary Dam at the Canadian border. When I reached the falls early the next day, I clambered up the rocky cliff to get a good look. The drop looked rather tame, more like a slide than a waterfall. I was 99 percent sure I could scoot through without overturning.
But I couldn't put that 1 percent chance of failure out of my mind. After the falls, the river enters a canyon, with cliffs on both sides. If I should turn over, there would be no place to come ashore, and no one to help me nor to notify rescuers. Reluctantly, I voted against running the falls, and decided to make the town of Metaline Falls the end of the trip.
On Saturday morning, while waiting for Corky Sanborn to arrive from Sandpoint to take me back home, I wandered down to the highway bridge that crosses the river above the falls and carefully marked the exact spot between the middle rock and the right bank where a kayaker could shoot through safely — just in case a person wanted to try it.
Sandpoint resident Jim Payne, 77, has been making long-distance solo kayak journeys for more than 20 years. His books include "One Inch above the Water: Running Away on America's Rivers" and "Chasing Thoreau; An Adventure in Paddling and Philosophy." His 91-mile expedition from Sandpoint to Metaline Falls, Washington was his 16th voyage.
Jim, I loved this article and I am interested in reading more of your many works. You may not remember, but you taught me to drive a stick shift… long ago. I babysat for you & now have 4 grown children of my own. My oldest son is mayor of Giddings, Texas. Nice to come across you again & hear of your journeys, both physical and philosophical. You are a brave soul!
Amazing you made the connection from so far off in space and time! Yes, I've been doing a lot of long distance kayaking and writing about it: lyttonpublishing.com will tell you more.


If superheroes were real, they'd be real f***ed up. #TheBoysTV is coming 7/26, only on @PrimeVideo.
Series premiere July 26, 2019. THE BOYS is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes, who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods, abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It's the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about "The Seven," and their formiddable Vought backing.
Want to watch it now? We've got it. This week's newest movies, last night's TV shows, classic favorites, and more are available to stream instantly, plus all your videos are stored in Your Video Library. Over 150,000 movies and TV episodes, including thousands for Amazon Prime members at no additional cost.
"Before we're done, we still have one promise to keep." Marvel Studios' #AvengersEndgame is in theaters in 10 days.


Started begin 2008 speedsurfingblog.com. The reason to start speedsurfingblog was from start to promote windsurfing and speedsurfing by quality articles. To start I blogged mainly about my own findings. Later I started to interview some important people in the speedsurfing world. In 2010 I decided to offer even more information and made a menu with plenty of information for non-windsurfers till pro-windsurfers.
The site is non-profit and thanks to a large amount of returning visitors, we are able to get more worldwide attention for this beautiful sport.
Windsurfing44.com: "le blog d'Erik Loots : Toujours de super articles (en anglais) orientés"
Dailybits.be: "Erik is al enkele jaren goed bezig met zijn blog speedsurfingblog.com en laat zien dat je het speedsurfen technisch dient te bekijken om de grote stap voorwaarts te maken."
(5 minutes of your time) Would you like to help? (1) Click on the article title (2) Link articles with 1 of the big icons below the articles (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) . This way speed(wind)surfing articles will show up inbetween other sports, share our sport worldwide!!
Incredible weblog! Good, obvious as well as well crafted. Many thanks with regard to discussing!


text:
Drei Eichen steht für:
 Drei Eichen Verlag in Hammelburg (Unterfranken)
 Naturschutzgebiet Drei Eichen, Brilon, Nordrhein-Westfalen
 Haus Drei Eichen (Görlitz), Eckhaus am Klosterplatz in Görlitz, Sachsen
 Besucherzentrum "Drei Eichen", Buckow, Brandenburg
 Drei Eichen (Eugendorf), Rotte in der Gemeinde Eugendorf, Bundeslandes Salzburg, Österreich
 Drei Eichen (Heidelberg), Naturdenkmal und historische Wegkreuzung auf dem Königstuhl bei Heidelberg
 Drei Eichen (Wertheim), Naturdenkmal
Siehe auch:
 Dreieichen
 Dreieichenhain


The Flow is playing at Emerson Vineyards 11665 Airlie Rd., Monmouth!
This is a family-friendly show on a beautiful country hillside where you spread your picnic blanket or set up your chairs under the oak trees, watching the sun set while taking in local music and drink. Admission is $7.50 per person plus a can of food for a local food pantry. Round out your dinner with Emerson wine and/or Deluxe Brewing Company pilsner for purchase. If you don't feel like packing a picnic dinner, Tom will be grilling and selling hot dogs, $3.50 for a dog and bag o' chips.
Tom says we hold the attendance record for our show out there a couple of years back and so, obviously, we want to break it. Maybe that's a lame reason for you to come to our show, but a really good reason to come to our show is that I think you'll have a great time.


iPROMOTEu is one of the largest and fastest growing distributor organizations in the promotional products industry.
Approximately 1,000 experienced independent promotional products distributors and their salespeople are affiliated with iPROMOTEu.
Unlike other industry organizations, with iPROMOTEu there are no non-compete provisions, or other onerous provisions, that prevent Affiliates from doing business how they want, when they want, and with whom they want.
Our extensive list of resources and support offered include order financing, order follow-up, sales and marketing support, a payment advance program, a network of preferred vendors, advanced and constantly evolving technology, and professional development opportunities to keep Affiliates learning and connected to the iPROMOTEu family.
iPROMOTEu believes distributors spend too much of their time not selling and, instead, focus too much of their time on tedious, time consuming, non-revenue generating activities. iPROMOTEu relieves you of this burden so you have more time to sell – and earn more money.


The Nisha 55mm Fogglizer Filter features a semi-opaque substrate that allows it to create the appearance of fog in an entire image. Unlike a soft-focus filter, its effect is not limited to affecting how light entering a camera is refracted. Instead, image details are deliberately obscured in a manner similar to how natural fog prevents an observer from clearly discerning objects or elements within a scene, while light sources become substantially diffused.
This filter is constructed from optical glass for clarity and its aluminum alloy filter ring includes 55mm front filter threads to allow for use with other filters.


text:
Q: Unexpected result after converting uint64_t to double In the following code:
#include <iostream>

...

uint64_t t1 = 1510763846;
uint64_t t2 = 1510763847;
double d1 = (double)t1;
double d2 = (double)t2;
// d1 == t2 => evaluates to true somehow?
// t1 == d2 => evaluates to true somehow?
// d1 == d2 => evaluates to true somehow?
// t1 == t2 => evaluates to false, of course.
std::cout << std::fixed <<
        "uint64_t: " << t1 << ", " << t2 << ", " <<
        "double: " << d1 << ", " << d2 << ", " << (d2+1) << std::endl;

I get this output:
uint64_t: 1510763846, 1510763847, double: 1510763904.000000, 1510763904.000000, 1510763905.000000

And I don't understand why. This answer: biggest integer that can be stored in a double says that an integral number up to 2^53 (9007199254740992) can be stored in a double without losing precision.
I actually get errors when I start doing calculations with the doubles, so it's not only a printing issue. (e.g. 1510763846 and 1510763847 both give 1510763904)
It's also very weird that the double can just be added to and then come out correct (d2+1 == 1510763905.000000)
Rationale: I'm converting these numbers to doubles because I need to work with them in Lua, which only supports floating point numbers. I'm sure I'm compiling the Lua lib with double as the lua_Number type, not float.
std::cout << sizeof(t1) << ", " << sizeof(d2) << std::endl;

Outputs
8, 8

I'm using VS 2012 with target MachineX86, toolkit v110_xp. Floating point model "Precise (/fp:precise)"
Addendum
With the help of people who replied and this article Why are doubles added incorrectly in a specific Visual Studio 2008 project?, I've been able to pinpoint the problem. A library is using a function like _set_controlfp, _control87, _controlfp or __control87_2 to change the precision of my executable to "single". That is why a uint64_t conversion to a double behaves as if it's a float.
When doing a file search for the above function names and "MCW_PC", which is used for Precision Control, I found the following libraries that might have set it:

*

*Android NDK

*boost::math

*boost::numeric

*DirectX (We're using June 2010)

*FMod (non-EX)

*Pyro particle engine

Now I'd like to rephrase my question:
How do I make sure converting from a uint64_t to a double goes correctly every time, without:

*

*having to call _fpreset() each and every time a possible conversion occurs (think about the function parameters)

*having to worry about a library's thread changing the floating point precision in between my _fpreset() and the conversion?

Naive code would be something like this:
double toDouble(uint64_t i)
{
    double d;
    do {
        _fpreset();
        d = i;
        _fpreset();
    } while (d != i);
    return d;
}

double toDouble(int64_t i)
{
    double d;
    do {
        _fpreset();
        d = i;
        _fpreset();
    } while (d != i);
    return d;
}

This solution assumes the odds of a thread messing with the Floating Point Precision twice are astronomically small. Problem is, the values I'm working with, are timers that represent real-world value. So I shouldn't be taking any chances. Is there a silver bullet for this problem?

A: From ieee754 floating point conversion it looks like your implementation of double is actually float, which is of course allowed by the standard, that mandates that sizeof double >= sizeof float.

The most accurate representation of 1510763846 is 1.510763904E9.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange