It is almost eight years since the Greek debt crisis began. Now, with Greek GDP 25% lower than at the start of the crisis and nearly one quarter of the work force unemployed, the European creditor countries have once again failed to reschedule the debt in a way that would be sustainable and allow Greece to have the prospect of growing again. The IMF argues that the debt is 'highly unsustainable' and has tried to use its bargaining power to achieve a sensible resolution in the latest negotiations, but the eventual compromise was that Greece would be given enough support by the Europeans to meet its debt repayments next month, while a rescheduling decision would be deferred. This is bad news for Greece, but also says something about the governance of the IMF, unable to impose sensible economics when opposed by a block of powerful member-countries with their own agenda.
The nub of contention is seemingly trifling. The Europeans believe that Greece can attain 1.25% growth on average in the longer term, while achieving a primary budget surplus (the budget balance not counting interest payments) of nearly 3% of GDP. The Fund thinks a primary surplus of 1.5% is all that can reasonably be expected, and tougher budgets would put the growth forecast - already overly optimistic - out of reach.
This might seem to be a trivial difference, especially as forecasts are so uncertain. But there is a fundamental difference of mindset. The IMF argues that Greece has already reduced its budget deficit by more than 10% of GDP and its current account deficit by 15% of GDP. There is only so much that can be achieved within the political constraints: to push too hard will stifle growth and put debt sustainability even further out of reach. The Europeans (led by Germany) note that the reform task is incomplete: the pension system deficit is still 10% of GDP and tax arrears are 70% of GDP. They want to keep Greek 'feet to the fire' to maintain pressure for reform, with the ultimate threat being forced departure from the euro. The tough strategy has left Greece with no recovery in prospect, its banks weighed down by unrepayable loans, and no possibility of foreign borrowing until old debt is clearly resolved.
The Greek rescue has been a debacle from the start. The debt burden should have been resolved back in 2010 (which would have meant very substantial rescheduling, with big, 'haircut' losses for private creditors). The European governments, anxious to protect their own banks which had foolishly over-lent to profligate Greek governments, essentially took over most of the private-sector debt in 2012, without requiring sufficient 'haircuts' to put the debt within Greece's capacity to repay. Thus, despite spreading the debt over more than 30 years and reducing interest rates, it is still unsustainable. For their part, the spendthrift Greeks got themselves into such deep trouble that it will take a generation of austerity to reform their tax and pension systems, and meanwhile many of the most dynamic elements in the economy will depart the country, seeking their fortunes elsewhere.
The current deal has left everyone unsatisfied: all agree this is not the best solution. Europe has managed to get its way, with no further rescheduling. The Fund is still participating (as the Europeans demand), but will not release any more funds until a debt rescheduling is reached. Another vexed negotiation lies ahead.
There is a reminder, here, of the Fund's governance challenges. There is a good argument that the rescue of a euro-member should have been left to the euro-countries. The Fund, pressured by its European members and the then-Managing Director - Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn - was shanghaied into participating in the rescue and now can't withdraw, even though it disagrees fundamentally with the crisis-recovery strategy. Its contribution is relatively small: €13 billion so far, compared with the EU's €226 billion. But the IMF is supposed to represent all its members, not just do what the Europeans want.
In a broader context, it is also a reminder of the failure of the international governance system to produce a satisfactory procedure for international bankruptcy. Domestic bankruptcy processes allow a debtor to move forward again after resolution. Even in the simplest case of international debt – that of sovereign debt – self-serving creditor pressures have prevented sensible procedures from being developed.


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Researchers at the University of Warwick in England went back to the ideas of Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein to create a new double glazed solar panel that could also be used as a window.
Scientists Channel Tesla & Einstein To Invent New Double-Glazed Solar Panel
Let's begin by saying this is a story about a laboratory experiment that may be good news for renewable energy advocates in the future. It has no practical industrial application at the present time. But how a technological breakthrough in solar panel design came to be is fascinating.
Dr Gavin Bell and Dr Yorck Ramachers are researchers in the physics department at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. They recognized that conventional photovoltaic solar panel technology has reached a practical limit when it comes to improving efficiency and lowering manufacturing costs. Any gains from this point forward are likely to be incremental at best.
So, the pair went back to the research and writings of Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein to see if the work those pioneers did could point the way to a better panel design. A present, a solar panel relies on a vacuum between the outer surface and the solar cells inside. What if, Bell and Ramachers asked themselves, they used a gas like argon to fill that space? What they envisioned was really a variation of a modern double-glazed window.
In the prototype the scientists built, the outer pane is transparent and conducts electricity. The inner pane is coated with a special material developed in the lab which releases electrons when illuminated by sunlight. They call that layer a "photocathode." In the presence of sunlight, electrons are kicked loose from the photocathode, travel through the gas. and are collected by the outer pane. Dr. Bell says, "It's satisfying to find a new twist on ideas dating back to the start of the 20th century, and as a materials physicist it is fascinating to be looking for materials which would operate in an environment so different to standard photocathodes."
Bell and Ramachers hope their work will act as a catalyst for further investigation by materials engineers. The optimum composition of the photocathode layer is yet to be determined. Although, they think a thin diamond film would be very durable. They also think the photocathode layer could have variable transparency, making it suitable for solar windows. Filling the inside of the panel with an inert gas like argon could also cost less to manufacture than creating a vacuum.
"We think the materials challenge is really critical here so we wanted to encourage the materials science community to get creative," says Bell. "Our device is radically different from standard photovoltaics, and can even be adapted for other green technologies such as turning heat directly into electricity, so we hope this work will inspire new advances."
We know you get tired of hearing news of potential breakthroughs in the lab that promise better electric car batteries, better solar panels, or better ways to make hydrogen from water. Most of those developments never make it out of the laboratory. There is no information available yet on how much electricity one of these gas-filled double-glazed solar panels can generate, how efficient it might be, or what it might cost. All those answers are yet to be supplied or discovered.
What deserves our attention, though, is the willingness of two scientists to go back and do a total rethink of solar panel technology. Maybe nothing will come of their work. But then again, they may have just made a quantum leap in renewable energy technology. This is one story of an advance made in a laboratory worthy of following.
Source: University of Warwick
In this article:Albert Einstein, double glazed solar panels, Dr Gavin Bell, Dr Yorck Ramachers, nikola tesla, University of Warwick
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Posted by Gabe Johnson | 0
Isela Santana and the Merritt Community
By Gabe Johnson, Staff Writer
It takes a committed educator to ensure that community college students develop the tools needed to recognize their potential and reach their higher education goals. Isela Santana has acted as a bridge for students to guide them from community college to university, with the use of a powerful pedagogical system.
Merritt College English Instructor Isela Gonzalez Santana was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She grew up and went to school (elementary through high school) in the Mission District. After graduating high school, Santana moved across the Bay to attend UC Berkeley, where she completed her undergraduate studies in English. The youngest of six siblings and born to Mexican immigrant parents, Santana was the first and only one in her family to go to college and graduate from a four-year university. Going to school in the 1970's, neither she nor her siblings were encouraged to further their education after high school. What's more, they were directed by the educational system to become blue-collar workers.
"Even at my private Catholic high school–which was mostly Latinas and Filipinas–they focused on preparing us to become receptionists or secretaries, and maybe go to city college for short-term careers, but not a university," Santana recalled.
Seeing how exhausted her siblings were each day after working hard-labor jobs, she realized she wanted more for herself. With a strong interest in education and English, and a group of peers that urged her to apply, Santana decided to prove to herself and others that she could go to college. Santana began tutoring at the age of 15, a practice that led her to UC Berkeley's ESOL program. The ESOL director at the time saw the teaching potential in her, who mentored and guided Santana throughout her Berkeley years and beyond graduation in the process of applying to Harvard, where Santana earned her masters in Education.
"I had this English degree background," Santana said, "But I think that learning about education and issues surrounding how we teach people gravitated me towards learning how to be a good, relevant teacher."
Alba Lopez (left) holding Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa and Isela Santana (right) with Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario. Santana uses the books in her teaching. (Photo by Brisa Santana)
Santana is currently Director of the Learning Center at Merritt College, where she is also an English instructor and co-coordinator of the Puente Program, whose objective is to help students transfer from community college to four-year universities while also giving back to the community. Santana stated that the program uses a culturally relevant pedagogical approach to teaching, and being that the majority of students in the program are LatinX, many of the books and articles being discussed are about LatinX issues and/or are written by LatinX authors and researchers. This cultural focus, combined with an ongoing validating and emotional support system, makes the program successful and incentivizes students to continue attending.
Laura I. Rendón, a professor at the University of Texas researched the Puente program and found that the validation system has boosted the number of students transferring from community college to four-year universities, and highly improved their preparedness in university-level reading and writing.
One former Merritt student and instructional assistant, Alba, described Santana's teaching approach as very committed, caring and mindful of her students. "She's very supportive, keeps a strong student/professor relationship, and her methods rub off on her students and Puentistas," Alba said. Having known Professor Santana for ten years, Alba revered that she has a very familia approach; makes students feel very comfortable and creates a safe, warm learning environment for them.
"She's a force, and has a very motherly spirit," said Alba.
Dr. Chriss Foster, English Chair at Merritt College, also spoke highly of Santana's pedagogical methods. She described Santana's work at Merritt as instrumental to both staff and students, and merited her achievements for her preparedness and experience in education. Serving as co-chair of Merritt's English department alongside Dr. Foster, they collaboratively introduced new concepts to Merritt's tutor training program, worked on student outcome transformation grants and served on hiring and tenure-review committees, amongst various other projects.
"She's a great person to work with because she always follows through on things," Foster said. "You give her the task, and it's gonna be done–you don't even have to think about it. It may be done sooner than you think."
Isela Santana has been an asset to everyone she's worked with in the Merritt College community. Through progressive, relevant educational practices and a firm belief in success through encouraging and highlighting her students, she has strengthened and reformed the Merritt College learning institution. It was through her early interest in education that she was directed on this academic voyage, guided and uplifted by her mentors. In turn, Santana has earnestly given back a hundred-fold to her students and staff, providing them with new perspectives on learning and helping them sharpen the skills that they will use to change their lives.
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What Is The Negation Of A Tautology?
What is the negation of an OR statement?
How do you use negation in a sentence?
What is definition by negation?
What is the negation of some A are B?
What is the negation of P and Q?
What is the negation of a contradiction?
What is an example of a tautology?
What is negation philosophy?
Is tautology a fallacy?
How do you prove tautology?
What does Contrapositive mean?
Which of the following is the best example of a tautology?
What is a tautology statement?
What is an example of negation?
What are the different types of negation?
If we let A be the statement "You are rich" and B be the statement "You are happy", then the negation of "A or B" becomes "Not A and Not B." In general, we have the same statement: The negation of "A or B" is the statement "Not A and Not B.".
Negation sentence examples" No negation of a fact can involve a contradiction." … characteristic is primarily the negation of the Finite. … The Schoolmen sought to establish other divine attributes by negation of human weaknesses and by finding in God the cause of the varied phenomena of creation.More items…
A negation is a refusal or denial of something. If your friend thinks you owe him five dollars and you say that you don't, your statement is a negation. A negation is a statement that cancels out or denies another statement or action.
The negation of "Some A are B" is "No A are (is) B." (Note: this can also be phrased "All A are the opposite of B," although this construction sometimes sounds ambiguous.)
if p is a statement variable, the negation of p is "not p", denoted by ~p. If p is true, then ~p is false. Conjunction: if p and q are statement variables, the conjunction of p and q is "p and q", denoted p q….(p q) ~(p q) p xor qExclusive Orp ~(~p)Double Negation
A tautology implies and is implied by the negation of a contradiction: … That is, a truth can not be false, and a non-falsehood must be a truth.
In grammatical terms, a tautology is when you use different words to repeat the same idea. For example, the phrase, "It was adequate enough," is a tautology. The words adequate and enough are two words that convey the same meaning.
In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition to another proposition "not ", written , or . It is interpreted intuitively as being true when is false, and false when is true. Negation is thus a unary (single-argument) logical connective.
A tautology in math (and logic) is a compound statement (premise and conclusion) that always produces truth. No matter what the individual parts are, the result is a true statement; a tautology is always true. The opposite of a tautology is a contradiction or a fallacy, which is "always false".
If you are given any statement or argument, you can determine if it is a tautology by constructing a truth table for the statement and looking at the final column in the truth table. If all of the truth values in the final column are true, then the statement is a tautology.
In logic and mathematics, contraposition refers to the inference of going from a conditional statement into its logically equivalent contrapositive, and an associated proof method known as proof by contraposition. The contrapositive of a statement has its antecedent and consequent inverted and flipped.
In the realm of logic, a tautology is something that is true in all circumstances. A common example of a logical tautology is the following: The dog is either brown, or the dog is not brown.
A tautology is a logical statement in which the conclusion is equivalent to the premise. More colloquially, it is formula in propositional calculus which is always true (Simpson 1992, p. 2015; D'Angelo and West 2000, p. 33; Bronshtein and Semendyayev 2004, p.
Negation in Words Some words such as ever, anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere, instead of never, nobody, no one, nothing, nowhere, etc. represent the Negation. Examples: I do not think he can ever reach within time.
Types of Sentence Negation "It is usual to distinguish between two types of non-affixal sentence negation in English: firstly, negation with not or -n't; and secondly, negation with the negative words never, neither, nobody, no, none, nor, nothing and nowhere.
What Are Three Synonyms For Jump?
What is a good distance for Triple Jump? For a middle
Question: Who Owns The Daily Mail In The UK?
Who owns the newspapers in the UK? Broadsheet and former
Quick Answer: Who Are The Black Moors?
What is a black Moor person? a contemptuous term used
Question: Why Are My Messages Not Showing Up On My Screen?
How do I fix my text messages not showing up?
How Was Apartheid Finally Replaced?
Who ended the apartheid? The apartheid system in South


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Csigo - Rite Of Sounds
electronic / industrial / noise / avant garde
rite of sounds by Csigo
Support Merchants Of Air, check out our shop
An album that opens with a song titled 'Life Is Noise Around Me', you might start to expect a challenging listening experience. You could be right about that too. In fact, at first listen, this album really might sound somewhat unconventional. Yet, sometimes "challenging" and "unconventional" result in something interesting and that's exactly what's happening here. Let's see if I can guide you through this one.
Csigo is a singer-songwriter and guitar player from Hungary who played and plays in bands like Dubcity Fanatikz, Anima Sound System and Beat Dis. However, don't let those references fool you, because on this solo album, Csigo does things quite different. This has nothing to do with dub, rock or even techno music, although at times it's quite danceable. So what is it? Well, basically, it's the lovechild between eighties avant garde electronics and rhythmic noise.
Opener 'Life Is Noise Around Me' and follower 'Interplanetary' remind me of acts like Suicide and Throbbing Gristle, while on other occasions Crash Course In Science, The Normal or even Prurient come to mind. That being said, yes, this is a heap of minimal but dark electronics, perfectly suited for those industrial dancefloors. 'Vexation' even takes the "industrial" tag quite seriously, being a droning and repetitive piece of music.
In all, this is a strange and harsh album, one which I would recommend to all you dark electronics freaks out there. Perhaps not to the people who are into easy-digestible dance music, but for those who dare to experiment and seek deep, dark music to accompany the noises in their heads. The last track, 'Blank Look', might terrify you a bit, but don't worry, it's just music... I hope...
Serge


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About the Office of the Sheriff
The Sheriff is elected by the citizens of the City of Falls Church every 4 years. The Sheriff is referred to as a constitutional officer because the office is specifically established by the Constitution of Virginia.
The Sheriff's Office provides court security and prisoner transportation in addition to serving civil warrants and legal notices, as mandated by the Virginia Constitution and the Virginia Code. The office works in conjunction with the City of Falls Church Police Department in the performance of law enforcement functions including the issuance of traffic summonses, traffic control, special events, emergency response, and training exercises.
Meet Sheriff Matt Cay
The Virginia Sheriffs' Association profiled Sheriff Matt Cay. Read the full interview here, and see two highlights below:
On what new initiatives do you plan to focus?
"The new initiatives I plan on focusing on include increasing the level of crisis intervention, de-escalation and alternate enforcement awareness and training provided to our deputies. This approach will also include an increase in all areas of training required in our operations to maximize competency and to optimize the abilities of all members of our agency."
How has COVID-19 impacted you, your office, and your work?
"COVID-19 impacts essentially every aspect of our operations and the implementation of our duties. However, maintaining a constant vigilance and awareness and the implementation of current best-practices including the recommendations and protocols of our community partners permits us to effectively address this challenging situation. Input from our surrounding jurisdictions, including affiliated law enforcement, government agencies, and health departments, permits us to maximize the safety to our personnel as well as to the members of the public with whom we interact and serve."
Thank You for Your Service, Sheriff Bittle
In August 2020, Sheriff Stephen Bittle retired after 54 years of service to the City of Falls Church, 28 of which were as Sheriff.
Sheriff Cay has over 20 years of law enforcement experience. He started service with the City in February 2003 in the Sheriff's Office, then joined the Police Department, and then rejoined the Sheriff's Office as Chief Deputy in October 2016. Previous to that, he practiced law in Virginia.
"I am looking forward to continuing to serve the City of Falls Church and our community as the Sheriff," said Cay.
Below: Sheriff Matt Cay (left) is sworn in with the help of retired Sheriff Stephen Bittle.
Metin "Matt" Cay
Center Level, Suite 205
Virginia Department of Emergency Management:
Virginia State Police and Virginia Sex Offender Registry
Traffic Safety Programs


Established in the year 2007, we India Phosphate is engaged in processing, exporter and supplying of Calcium Phosphate. The chemicals are highly appreciated for purity, accuracy and economical price-range. The product is fabricated using high quality material like phosphoric acid and rock phosphate. The raw material used for the production process is procured from reliable vendors of the market. Along with high quality and economical product we also provide are clients with customization facility.
We have also established well equipped infrastructure in wide area of around 30,000 sq feet. The infrastructure is segmented into different units which include manufacturing unit, research & development unit and many other. Also, we have wide area covering as our warehouse and packaging unit. All the raw material procured from vendors and the finished products are stored in the unit. We also prefer to label the products with name and serial number to minimize the confusion at the time of transit. In the packaging unit we look after the product packaging which is done with superior quality product for keeping the chemicals away from decaying.


Copper-exchanged and acidic zeolites are shown to produce nitric oxide (NO) from a nitrite source in biologically active (nanomolar) concentrations. Four zeolites were studied; mordenite, ferrierite, ZSM-5 and SSZ-13, which had varying pore size, channel systems and Si/Al ratios. ZSM-5 and SSZ-13 produced the highest amounts of NO in both the copper and acid form. The high activity and regeneration of the copper active sites makes them good candidates for long-term NO production. Initial cytotoxicity tests have shown at least one of the copper zeolites (Cu-SSZ-13) to be biocompatible, highlighting the potential usage within biomedical applications.


In Amsterdam, I invited a man to my film set. On agreement, I asked him to tell his sad story in front of the camera. While he is telling his story, I gave him absurd direction, and made unnecessary interruption to make the scene uncomfortably and unnecessarily comical. This work is a part of public collection at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.


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DeniseBoyleKiarakolinsSilverWingpanteramisterios .AnnelieBensUmaHollisterLexibabedarius2509 .Apricot1JenniferEveAllyBritoFfoxxyy .MistressSEXYCOCKNancyMatureblondfistingonline1topTSpride .MilesKeplerStephanysweetmeiblleSilverWing .NicoleSummerNATHANXDBIGMistressSEXYCOCKGoddeessTasha .CecilleAmourGreisonhot4youXXX7CiaraxJones .shuimitaoUmaHollisterLvlyMarioGinaSugar .JenniferEvexAnjelicaCatxbygHerculeSexMusicCouple .xAnjelicaCatxAllaJonesBrayleeAnnelieBens .bygHerculeAlessiaGreyBeckySantossRandyOxton .


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Guangzhou Bi Jia Automobile Parts Co., ltd is an excellent supplier of high quality motorcycle racing parts. Founded in 2008, we offer one stop solution for aftermarket motorcycle parts and accessories .
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text:
List

See also
Grammy Award
Grammy Hall of Fame
List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (E–I)
List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (J–P)
List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients (Q–Z)

References

 A-D
Music award winners

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Find great deals on eBay for gravely stump grinder and gravely attachments. Looking to purchase a stump grinder for my 16hp gravely walk behind tractor.
stump grinding gravely manufacturer in Has anyone used one of the stump grinder attachments, Demonstration of Stump Grinder on a Gravely Walk Behind Tractor.
Knowing how to select the best portable stump grinder for the money can be challenging. After all, there are so many things that should be taken into consideration. Portable stump grinders, also known as walkbehind stump grinding machines, are used in a range of industries.
Gravely Pro with the stump grinder attachment. 1964 Gravely walk behind with mower deck. Bought by my dad in the late Restored by my brother.
Gravely stump grinder Gravely walkbehind Gravely Stump Grinder Attachment cone type or roller type wet grinder which is the best Get More Info.
Gravely Stump Grinder Attachment gravely walk behind stump grinder eBay. Find great deals on eBay for gravely walk behind stump grinder. Shop with confidence.
Find great deals on eBay for gravely walk behind stump grinder. Shop with confidence.
Oct 28, 2010 · Gravely Attachment Compatibility Question I Now to go do some more digging to see if Mr. Kohlbus still makes the stump grinder attachment I read about.


I'm trying to get superscript for numbers to work using the unicodes of the font.
Anyone know of a hack to achieve this ?
off the top of my head /u2074 will display 2 in superscript.
The font i'm using is palatino which has all the superscript codes for numbers 1-9.
The problem is i need to read the text from an external xml file. I've put the text i want in cdata so /u2074 will be read.
Anyone have any ideas or managed to achieve this :D ?
i'm looking for an answer to this too.
but the old-ness of this thread, and lack of response is disheartening.
edit: it might work if you took the CDATA tags out, as then it would read it as a unicode character rather than html. but if your situation is like mine, you need the CDATA because you need the html formatting... i have html lists, so i need the CDATA tags.


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Le district de Limassol est l'un des six districts qui divise officiellement la République de Chypre. Il couvre à l'origine une partie du sud de l'île.Pendant l'invasion de l'armée turque de Chypre en 1974, il fut l'un des seuls à avoir totalement échappé à l'occupation des troupes d'Ankara. Il englobe entièrement le territoire britannique de la base militaire d'Akrotiri.
Il a pour chef-lieu la ville de Limassol, capitale de la vigne et du vin de l'ile, où chaque année, au mois de septembre, se déroule le festival du vin de Limassol.

Limassol


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Measles Outbreak In The Philippines The Philippines is now dealing with one of the worst measles outbreaks in the world. Since January, the country has had more than 33,000 cases. More than 450 people have died.
Measles Outbreak In The Philippines
Measles Outbreak In The Philippines 4:53
Jason Beaubien
The Philippines is now dealing with one of the worst measles outbreaks in the world. Since January, the country has had more than 33,000 cases. More than 450 people have died.
While the U.S. has been grappling with a surge in measles cases, the Philippines has had one of the worst outbreaks in the world. The disease had almost been eliminated there, but since January, nearly 500 people have died. Behind the outbreak - a distrust of vaccines in a country that already has low rates of immunization. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from Manila, where health workers and hospitals are overwhelmed.
JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE: The San Lazaro Hospital in Manila was getting so many measles patients a few weeks ago that they had to set up tents in the parking lot and the courtyard to house them.
FERDINAND DE GUZMAN: The ward only accommodate 50 patients.
BEAUBIEN: One five - normally?
DE GUZMAN: Five zero.
BEAUBIEN: Five zero.
DE GUZMAN: But at the height of the outbreak, 300 patients per ward.
BEAUBIEN: That's Dr. Ferdinand de Guzman, the head of family medicine at the hospital. He says there were three patients per bed in some measles wards during the peak of the crisis in February.
DE GUZMAN: We had to limit admissions for other diseases and admit measles cases.
BEAUBIEN: The most dangerous complication from measles is a type of pneumonia that, if not treated quickly with antibiotics, can be fatal. In February, the government launched a massive nationwide measles vaccination campaign. Health workers inoculated 5 1/2 million people, mostly kids. The targeted vaccination slowed the outbreak significantly, but the country continues to have hundreds of new measles cases each week.
Standing in one of the current measles wards at San Lazaro, Dr. De Guzman says the hospital is now getting between six to 10 new patients, most of them kids, every day.
DE GUZMAN: It's very typical case of measles. The rashes start from the face, then hairline, then goes down the whole body.
BEAUBIEN: An 8-year-old girl is lying on a hospital bed in a pair of blue jeans shorts and a faded T-shirt. She's so dehydrated that her lips are cracked. The nurses have hooked an IV drip up to her foot, but she rolls constantly from her fever. And they've had to tape the line securely with surgical tape. Her father is sitting in the bed with her.
DE GUZMAN: I ask her where they stayed, where they're living. They live in the cemetery.
BEAUBIEN: The father says his daughter was vaccinated against measles, but Dr. Guzman is skeptical. He says the vaccine is very effective. If she'd been vaccinated, she probably wouldn't be here.
DE GUZMAN: Most of the time, the mothers would tell us that they had their children immunized because they're afraid of being scolded because doctors usually scold the mothers. So they would say we were given the vaccine, but it turns out they didn't have the vaccine.
BEAUBIEN: He says this type of miscommunication has been an ongoing problem in getting vaccination rates up to where they need to be. But he says the bigger problem in the Philippines right now is a botched rollout of a dengue vaccine that has made some parents refuse all vaccines. In 2016, the Philippines launched a nationwide effort to immunize kids against dengue. The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had just won approval for what health officials hoped would be a game-changing weapon against the brutal tropical disease.
But after almost a million kids were given the new dengue shot, the campaign was suddenly suspended. It had become clear that the vaccine could make some children susceptible to severe, even fatal, dengue. The government revoked the license for the vaccine and brought criminal charges against officials responsible for the campaign.
LEONILA DANS: The impact of that controversy was all over the country. And it's not just in the areas where they received the dengue vaccine.
BEAUBIEN: Professor Leonila Dans is a clinical epidemiologist at the University of the Philippines Manila. She says the dengue scandal undermined Filipinos' confidence in vaccines and has made the measles problem worse.
DANS: The administration of dengue vaccine eroded the vaccine trust, and because of this, a loss in vaccine trust, it exacerbated - I'm not saying it's the only cause - it exacerbated the problem of poor immunizations for measles.
BEAUBIEN: And back at San Lazaro, Dr. De Guzman says some parents aren't just resistant to vaccines now. They're openly hostile towards the community health workers who are trying to immunize their kids.
DE GUZMAN: They would set the dogs free to run after the ones who immunize door to door. The Tagalog term is vacunadores. They would set the dogs. They would slam the doors.
BEAUBIEN: Distrust of vaccines was not the only reason that the Philippines was ripe for a measles outbreak. Immunization rates had been falling even before the dengue fiasco. According to the Department of Health, in 2009, 89% of Filipino kids had gotten all of their childhood vaccinations. Last year, only 66% of them were considered fully immunized. Professor Dans says if there's any silver lining to this current measles outbreak, it's that many Filipinos are once again embracing the need to get their kids vaccinated. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Manila.


The ASUS ZenFone Zoom S (ZE553KL) has just been announced in India. The ZenFone Zoom S is a compelling mid-range offering from ASUS, this phone comes with a set of three capacitive buttons below its display, and it is made out of metal. The device sports a dual camera setup on its back, and the fingerprint scanner is also placed on its back side. All of the device's physical keys can be found on the right, and the phone also comes with ASUS' 0.03s TriTech+ autofocus for quick focus in 0.03 seconds. Now, in order to achieve this, ASUS included a second-gen laser autofocus and subject-tracking autofocus in this smartphone.
The ASUS ZenFone Zoom S sports a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED display, while Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 protection is included on top of it. The ZenFone Zoom S packs in 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 64-bit octa-core SoC fuels the ZenFone Zoom S, and it is clocked at 2.0GHz, while it comes with the Adreno 506 GPU for graphics processing. Two 12-megapixel snappers are included on the back of the ZenFone Zoom S, its main snapper comes with PDAF, f/1.7 aperture, 1.4um pixel size, three-axis EIS, four-axis OIS and this is Sony's IMX362 sensor we're looking at here. The secondary 12-megapixel shooter offers an f/2.0 aperture and a 5P Largan lens. A 13-megapixel shooter (f/2.0 aperture, Sony's IMX214 sensor) is placed on the phone's front side, and a rather large 5,000mAh battery is included in this smartphone, along with the BoostMaster fast charging.
The ZenFone Zoom S comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, and it offers hi-res audio (192kHz/24-bit standard), while it also has dual internal microphones. There are two SIM card slots included here (hybrid dual SIM, micro + nano SIM), while Android 6.0 Marshmallow comes pre-installed on this phone, along with ASUS ZenUI 3.0 skin. Bluetooth 4.2 is also a part of this package, and so is a Type-C USB port. The ZenFone Zoom S comes in Navy Black and Glacier Silver color variants, while it is priced at Rs. 26,999 ($421) in India, and you can buy it exclusively from Flipkart.


text:
London Love Story
London is open...
credit: fazon1
Times are tricky. We're still recovering from a certain shock US election and our divorce from Europe is on the horizon. But despite all the doom and gloom, London remains open.
TNT loves to travel but no matter where we roam, we retain a soft spot for the English capital. And for good reason for in London, there is always something to do. You have everything you want in terms of activity and accessibility. Every week a new (independent, naturally) bar or restaurant is opening.
The city also offers a cornucopia of world class carnivals, museums and art galleries in addition to gorgeous gardens and parks, meaning it's nigh on impossible to get bored.
Of course, critics counter that the city gets crowded and can be costly (true, but the same could be said of any metropolis) not to mention lonely but, here at TNT towers, we've never understood that argument. Next time you're in town, look around: you'll find that you're surrounded by Londoners - aka some of the most interesting, outgoing and open people on the planet.
Londoners are people who want to participate in life, with many having moved to the big smoke so as to escape their humdrum hometowns.
On any given day, expect to find the Windrush generation interacting with immigrants from India, Asian neighbourhoods juxtaposed alongside Jewish communities – and Poles working alongside Portuguese. Very few places on the planet opens its arms, to so many...
Or, in the words of British fashion designer and businesswoman, Vivienne Westwood, "There's nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere."
Here's why we think London is just capital:
Food at Brick Lane Market credit: LanceB
London caters to every pocket and palate. Blow the budget in an acclaimed Jason Atherton restaurant or spend a fiver eating from a food truck at the upcoming Night Market, a bustling outdoor dining experience organised by the London Evening Standard, that will take place over 12 evenings in June - it's your call.
The cosmopolitan mix
London is one of the most diverse destinations in the world: 37 per cent of the population were born outside the UK and over 300 languages are spoken.
Shop to it
From the shopping mecca that is Selfridges to the flagship Topshop and markets such as Spitalfields and Portobello, London's shops rock.
Park Life, Hyde Park, London credit: AndyJarvis
Thirty per cent of the capital is given over to green space so wherever you find yourself in the city, a leafy retreat is never far away.
Fab theatre
London's theatre land is the best in the world. Whether you want to see a straight play like The Ferryman or a musical such as Book of Mormon or Beautiful, you'll be spoilt for choice.
See TNT's review of The Ferryman here.
London knows how to party
The Royal Wedding, Queen's Diamond Jubilee, London 2012 Olympics... we could continue, but you get the gist. All were London based celebrations that were enjoyed, in recent years, by people all over the planet.
Notting Hill Carnival credit: AmyLaughinghouse
And how to put on a world class festival
The Notting Hill Carnival – aka Europe's largest street party – takes place annually over the August bank holiday. It's a colourful riot of reggae and rum. And the best bit? Everyone is invited!
Escaping is easy
Should you need to leave London, it's easy to do so. The capital is home to five international airports and the main Eurostar terminal. Paris for the weekend? We say oui.
But don't just take our word for it... over to Benjamin Disraeli, the British politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
"London is a roost for every bird."
Words by Kaye Holland
Previous Interview: Charley Boorman
Next Top 5 Sinful Cities


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O adrenocromo (fórmula: C9H9NO3) é um composto químico produzido pela oxidação da adrenalina (epinefrina). O carbazocromo derivado é um medicamento hemostático. Apesar da semelhança nos nomes químicos, não está relacionado ao crômio ou à cromagem. Quimicamente, o adrenocromo e a adrenolutina são substâncias muito reativas.

Quimica
In vivo, o adrenocromo é sintetizado pela oxidação da adrenalina. In vitro, o óxido de prata (Ag2O) é usado como agente oxidante. Em solução, o adrenocromo é rosa e a oxidação posterior do composto faz com que ele se polimerize em compostos de melanina marrom ou preta.

Efeito no cérebro
Vários estudos em pequena escala (envolvendo 15 testes ou menos) conduzidos nas décadas de 1950 e 1960 relataram que o adrenocromo desencadeou reações psicóticas, como distúrbios do pensamento e delírios. Os pesquisadores Abram Hoffer e Humphry Osmond afirmaram que o adrenocromo é uma substância neurotóxica psicotomimética e pode desempenhar um papel na esquizofrenia e outras doenças mentais. No que eles chamaram de "hipótese do adrenocromo", eles especularam que megadoses de vitamina C e niacina poderiam curar a esquizofrenia reduzindo o adrenocromo cerebral. O tratamento da esquizofrenia com tais antioxidantes potentes é altamente contestado. Em 1973, a American Psychiatric Association relatou falhas metodológicas no trabalho de Hoffer sobre a niacina como um tratamento para esquizofrenia e referiu-se a estudos de acompanhamento que não confirmaram nenhum benefício do tratamento. Vários estudos adicionais nos Estados Unidos, Canadá e Austrália da mesma forma falharam em encontrar benefícios da terapia com megavitaminas para tratar a esquizofrenia. A teoria do adrenocromo da esquizofrenia diminuiu, apesar de algumas evidências de que pode ser psicotomimético, já que o adrenocromo não foi detectado em pessoas com esquizofrenia. No início dos anos 2000, o interesse foi renovado com a descoberta de que o adrenocromo pode ser produzido normalmente como um intermediário na formação da neuromelanina. Esse achado pode ser significativo porque o adrenocromo é desintoxicado pelo menos parcialmente pela glutationa-S-transferase. Alguns estudos encontraram defeitos genéticos no gene dessa enzima.

Status legal
O adrenocromo não é regulamentado pela Lei de Substâncias Controladas dos Estados Unidos. Não é um medicamento aprovado pela Food and Drug Administration e, se produzido como um suplemento dietético, deve estar em conformidade com as boas práticas de fabricação.

Na cultura popular
Em seu livro de 1954, As Portas Da Percepção, Aldous Huxley mencionou a descoberta e os alegados efeitos do adrenocromo, que ele comparou aos sintomas de intoxicação por mescalina, embora nunca o tenha consumido.

Anthony Burgess menciona o adrenocromo no início de seu romance de 1962, Laranja Mecânica. O protagonista e seus amigos estão bebendo leite misturado com drogas: "Eles não tinham licença para vender bebidas alcoólicas, mas ainda não havia lei contra cutucar alguns dos novos veschches que costumavam colocar no velho moloko, para que você pudesse peçá-lo com vellocet ou synthemesc ou drencrom ou um ou dois outros veshches [...] "

Hunter S. Thompson mencionou o adrenocromo em seu livro de 1971, Medo e Delírio. Esta é provavelmente a origem dos mitos atuais que cercam este composto, porque um personagem afirma que "Há apenas uma fonte para isso ... as glândulas de adrenalina de um corpo humano vivo. Não adianta se você tirá-la de um cadáver." A cena de adrenocromo também aparece na adaptação do romance para o cinema. No comentário do DVD, o diretor Terry Gilliam admite que a interpretação dele e de Thompson é um exagero ficcional. Gilliam insiste que a droga é totalmente fictícia e parece desconhecer a existência de uma substância com o mesmo nome. Hunter S. Thompson também menciona o adrenocromo em seu livro Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Nas notas de rodapé do capítulo abril, página 140, ele diz: "Era algum tempo depois da meia-noite em um quarto de hotel surrado e minha memória da conversa é nebulosa, devido à ingestão maciça de bebida, gordura e quarenta cc de adrenocromo."

A extração de uma glândula adrenal de uma vítima viva para obter adrenocromo para o uso de drogas é uma trama do primeiro episódio da série de televisão Lewis (2008).

Adrenocromo é um componente de várias teorias de conspiração falsas, como QAnon e a teoria da conspiração de Pizzagate.

Compostos orgânicos
Compostos heterocíclicos
Drogas


We took a trip up to Aberdeen yesterday to meet up with friends from Gairioch Church. As part of their planning/organisation, they have a bi-annual 'sounding board', where they invite some outsiders like us to come and be part of a conversation about where they are up to, where they are heading and to discuss challenges they are working through. Michaela and I always feel like frauds as what they have achieved is special, and the thought that we might have some expertise to offer seems to us a little silly- however, it all seems to come out in the conversation.
How do we lead without becoming oppressive? How is power shared, or at least mitigated?
How do we lead in a way that does not create passivity and dependency on the part of those we journey with?
How do we lead in a way that creates safety, warmth and stability?
How are specific responsibilities shared and encouraged?
Where does the buck stop?
Within my own community, these questions are still largely unanswered. We find temporary solutions only, which is a weakness but paradoxically also sometimes a strength.
My rough conclusions from conversation yesterday where that three things are vital in trying to deal with leadership in small groups; Context, purpose and developmental stage.
Context might mean the place where people meet, the nature of the group in terms of comfort with one another, experience of individuals within it etc. Leadership has to emerge from what the group is comfortable with. Our context is a small town in which most of our members have done with 'religion'- we have been inoculated against the formality and rigidity of leadership structures, at least in part because of our own and others failure. Leadership for us had to be small. It had to be shared.
The purpose of small missional groups will of course have some variability. At times we work together on specific tasks- food banks, art installations, kids events, worship services, community projects. Some tasks clearly benefit from a leader, an organiser, an agitator. Someone needs to see the big picture and hold everyone else to account for delivering what they said they would deliver. This probably does not need to be the SAME person each time, as we all have different skills and experiences.
However, the starting point of most small missional groups is community. Our hope and conviction is that our activism will grow out of our connectedness, our common place of becoming. We are a constant experiment of turning an inside outside; of practising the art of love so we can learn to be deliberate in our love of others outside the group (an easy thing to write but an extremely difficult thing to achieve.) If this is the ultimate purpose of our group then leadership is probably much more akin to facilitation. The role of the leader is to create safe space for others to adventure in, not necessarily to direct what happens within it.
dreaming – gathering – planning – forming – conflict – reforming (repeat last two stages several times) – ending.
Leadership at different parts of the groups life may need to be very different. I think there is also a need for EXTERNAL leadership (or at least facilitation) at times to bring new perspectives and refreshment.
I have great hopes for Garioch church. They are a lovely bunch of folk who are asking all the right questions. The model of church – deliberately small enough to be around a table, but networked with bigger relationships – is one that really appeals to me.
Leadership, networking and the trajectory of pioneering groups.
Leadership in small missional communities.
Church in the margins- gender and leadership.
Leadership in the new context, lessons for post-charismatics.
Reflecting on the life of small 'missional' groups.
6. I'm not arguing for institutional church and reject the 'black and white' thinking that because we have buildings, staff, programs (alongside experiences and life changing growth), that what I say is aimed at promoting institutions. I actually believe we all believe to institutions, the current preference being for the self in consumer society. What imaginations drive the way we relate about church is what interests me the most.
You lost me a bit on that one I am afraid.
I think you may have been reacting a little to my suggestion that people who are part of large institutional Churches, with their paid staff and building/admin costs have a lot at stake when faced with people leaving. It is an understandable pressure on those whose life has been in faithful service of these institutions and each time someone leaves it can feel like a real kick where it hurts. It is hard to then maintain relationships and remain open to learning from that rather hurtful event. Those who remain will also likely see the leavers as having betrayed them in some way- they will now have become 'the other', and it will be a natural tendency to make easy judgments. Of course this works both ways. The end result is that the gap widens.
I would reiterate however that I am someone with a love for the Church- and am puzzled by my current situation on the outside (trying to find other ways to do church.) Gifted pastors are a treasure (I know several of them who need a pay rise) and in our climate a good roof is rather necessary.
But you also used that word 'consumer' again, as if leaving Church was primarily a consumer choice for most of us. Can I push you a little on this one too?
In an age where we have been hammered into being consumers above all else, it is not surprising that our Church members make consumer choices- including changing their religious outlet when better spiritual bargains come on the market elsewhere. But surely the same is true of those who stay. They are perhaps expressing consumer satisfaction- niche product though it may now be.
Also (and most crucially)- what alternative to consumerism is Church really offering? Is there a danger that we ask people to reject consumerism as far as church is concerned but change nothing else? Drive to church in the same cars, from the same big houses, full of the same gadgets? The logical extension of what you say might be to continue to attend a Church even if it tears you apart, as to NOT go would be to serve the institution of Consumerism.
Can we really complain of consumer choices within a Church that is fully participant in the consumer marketplace?
I would suggest that people (like me) leave Church for other reasons too. To categorise leavers as somehow having sold out to easy consumer choices might risk not listening what is going on at a deeper level. It also means that re-engagement with Church for people who have left is that much harder.
7. My post was not a diatribe against non attenders trying to get them to attend. The future of the church is not in attendance, but in participation. I just think people mistake non attendance with participation. We are all attending something weekly, and participating on ways of life, the only choice is what sets the agenda for that participation and regularity.
We can condemn it as another example of what is wrong with the sinful world.
We can demonstrate an alternative in the form of a flowering of all that relational Holy Spirit fruit. People would then know the Church by the love we have for one another.
We can take note of the new social landscape and start to re-imagine a Church that fits within it.
Sorry if you felt that I did that in my earlier comments- I certainly did not mean to. I was more suggesting that the Fresh Expressions movement was an attempt to move Church away from corporate worship in the more traditional sense- as in meeting to sing and hear preaching in a large building. Again, not that there is anything in the slightest bit wrong in doing just that, my suggestion was that the cat gets skinned in many different ways.
9. The state of the church in the UK is dire. If I wasn't planting one, I'd probably struggle with the ones local to me. I hope I'd choose the one that offended me the least and let me serve, give, pray and engage in mission with others. I'd want to be part of the solution and not just walk away, which is what I hope I have done.
But there might come a time when we all have to walk away. Your reason might be different to mine, but our hope is that the faith journey would not end there- rather we would be looking to start again.
We usually have to start small- with a few friends. Some of us will be carrying wounds and scars from the leaving. We may avoid using words like 'Church' and we will be suspicious of how people use power. What we start will be very fragile, shot through with the same imperfections as we are. Most of our projects will not survive- particularly without support from Church.
What this support looks like is unclear, but we will probably not be easy to support as we will be very sensitive to (perceived or actual) judgementalism. We will tend to keep away from those in Churches who do not understand the journey we have been on.
Church may chose to ignore us, watch us inevitably fail but this would be a dreadful mistake. Many of the people I have spoken to who find themselves outside Church are the very ones who have been the Church planters, the worship leaders, the youth workers, the street preachers, the messy church makers, the alternative worshipers. They burned out on Church, but are people of vast experience. They can not go back, but they might go forward with the right kind of encouragement.
10. Context is everything, and I fear people reading the comments here will do so without listening to my talk and the context within which it was made!
Fair point Jason. Observer bias in blogging is pretty hard to fight! I hope I have not been disrespectful of your comments in responding in the way that I have.
All the very best to you and yours.
If you are interested in this debate, I suggest you go and read Jason's post (and listen to his podcast), as well as reading my post in response.
There were some great comments on my piece, including a poetic one from Sam and a deeply heartfelt one from a dear friend (and the Pastor of the church I attended before we moved to Scotland.) Jason also took the time to make some further comments, and I decided to extend the discussion a little in a couple of further posts.
I do so because people continue to leave Church and even though I have been a leaver too, I am certainly not done with church. I think that what both Jason and I have in common is a hope for the kind of Church that is a an engaged, hopeful, critical part of our society. One that tries to work out what living the radical call of Jesus might mean in THIS culture, not the Victorian one. What this looks like for me is small community in all its fragility and brokenness. What this looks like for Jason is large urban growing Church, in all its fragility and brokenness. We need both. Our contexts dictate that they must be different.
My journey through Church has led me to be very critical at times yet it is obvious that Church is very much alive. Many good things are happening all over the country. People are engaging in acts of service to their communities because the Church enables this. You only need to check out the website of my old Church, or Jason's church to see this.
Jason made ten points in relation to this discussion, and I intend to split my responses to them over two posts. The first part of this is below.
I would repeat my deep respect for Jason (although we have not met.) This debate feels rather retro really- blogs used to be full of these kinds of discussions 10 years ago. We have all moved on to tweets and short status updates now. So- those of you who persist in reading all this stuff are part of a future-retro elite, and I salute you!
1. Context: I'm not speaking to a US context, the talk was for my church community in the UK. I am convinced more than ever that the future of the church in the UK depends on communities of faith not disappearing into private spaces, but to have a vibrant public life. That is in contrast to the civic religion of Sunday services by many churches that are more about cultural religion than faith communities.
Making generalisations about what church is, where it locates itself and whether some forms are more vibrant/cultural than others was not the point of my post. Rather I was concerned to understand what it meant in MY context, and in my community.
My experience has taken me towards a small community that meets in private spaces but seeks also to provide worship events in public spaces. This was in part because a feeling that Church (with many glorious exceptions!) has often become a no-go zone for the vast majority of the local population. The 'public' meeting is anything but- it has become a private club for a dwindling minority. Sure, we talk evangelical language, but engagement with our local communities was mostly confined to hoping that they realise that we were right all along.
I know I am describing a kind of church that is NOT like the one you lead, and that many churches are fighting to change to become something else- more missional, engaged, vibrant etc. But that is your journey, I was speaking of mine.
I mention this not because I want to defend my position, but rather because I really do not think I am alone.
2. My talk and post was not about Sunday attendance. I have no interest, as I mentioned at the start of the talk, about Sunday attendance, and calling people to that. Being church is all too often reduced to Sunday attendance, by those who attend and those who don't. Two sides of the same coin – those just turning up thinking they are doing something and those established by their non attendance as the measure of having done something.
Apologies if I misrepresented you, I think I responded to your use of the words 'meeting together for corporate worship', which is usually understood to mean Sunday services. Of course, 'corporate worship' might mean many things.
I think every church tradition would echo your words about church not just being about Sunday. It certainly has never been this for me- in fact at some points of my life I have spent most of my available non-employed time doing church related activities. Most of this was focussed inwards though; it was planning activities for services of varying descriptions, organising music, having meetings, even doing one-to-one pastoral work. All of it felt very necessary. This was often exciting, it gave my life urgency and purpose. It was often exhausting.
The best of what I have experienced was good indeed, shadowed by inevitable human imperfections, but as to whether all the activity I was involved in was necessary, even advisable- the jury is out on this one I think.
3. I was focused on something I do believe as mentioned in 1 above as key to the church having any future. Christians will need to figure out a way to not collapse church into private lifestyles. Too much of evangelical church dispenses religious goods and services to people to fit around the lives they were making elsewhere. The logical extension to this, is to collapse church even further until it is just a resources for experience and private God spaces. I believe the church is about real concrete communities, like the household codes in the NT, visible and able to transform communities by living and being something other than personal interest groups.
Another friend (who is a NT scholar) cautioned me once about the way we tend to suggest that our way of doing church is reflective of the NT idea of community (every new church development seems to claim this!) Firstly, we no longer live in the NT world, and have a poor and partial understanding of their culture and context. Secondly, Church tend to owe more to Victorian ideas of service to establishment than it does to embattled scattered persecuted 1st C Roman citizens/slaves.
What we do know about the NT church though is that it tended to meet in private spaces. The transformation it achieved was often in spite of persecution which prevented the visible gatherings that you seem to advocate.
I like your warning against a collapse of Church into just being a resource for 'experience and private God spaces'. One criticism of Western Evangelicalism is that it has fallen into the trap of 'Therapeutic Moralistic Deism'- offering a psychological God who will make your life happy if you follow a certain moral code. Church has followed the same individualising trend as the rest of the world – it offers individual salvation and an individual bonus-reward scheme.
I am not sure however the degree to which continued attendance can be seen to mitigate against this kind of privatised individualism. Perhaps we should leave this kind of church.
4. There is a current trend in thinking we can separate a relationship with Jesus from the church. We can't, that's the myth of consumer and secular imaginations.
You also used the word 'myth' to suggest describe Churchless faith. How are these things mythological? Is it because you believe they only exist in imagination? If so, they are powerful myths shared by many. Even if we are all wrong, then the relationships between church/Jesus/individuals have become a very poor one in lots of cases.
If people did not separate their belief in Jesus from their relationship with the Church then how does the church become challenged, changed? How can it respond to what may be prophetic critique? Jesus himself was hardly conformist after all.
That is not to say that we do not learn in community and in respect for those who have gone before us– I like Karen Ward's differentiation between small and big theologies- the latter being those of our forefathers, the former being what we work out in small community. I think this is perhaps another one of those both/and paradoxes, but not a 'myth' surely?
On a personal level I had no choice but to go through a very painful experience of separation. I have spoken to many others who have done the same. This had little to do with consumer choice and a lot to do with survival of faith (it was touch and go for a while) by rediscovering Jesus in the midst of what can only be described as traumatic loss. To suggest that this was an easy consumer decision is to profoundly misunderstand the hurt that many people who have been through this process experience. I think this was at the core of my original response to your blog post, although I did not articulate it clearly at the time.
5. I'm not naive (at least I hope I am not), I spend a great deal of my time exploring the problems of church, and it has many. But on the other hand I do believe there is also a problem of Christians who don't understand how to relate to church at all, that is not the fault of the church. It's a two way problem.
I know and respect your thinking on lots of aspects of Church having been dipping into you blog for years!
But I must push you a little on this- if an institution is no longer doing the work it was intended for, is it reasonable to blame the people who no longer find it useful? That seems like a rather Stalinist argument to me!
The now rather antiquated debate around the so called 'emerging church' was founded on a dissatisfaction on Church and a hope for what might be developing. The question many of us still ask is what did all those blogs and conferences and books actually achieve? I suppose this is still a work in progress, but if all we did was open up some space for theological debate then it is an entirely unfinished project.
For people like me, the issue was not to try to preserve what was withering before our eyes, but rather to look in hope and expectation for what was becoming. Like a starving man grabs for bread we seized hold of ideas – missional church, new monasticism, fresh expressions, forest church etc – some of these things were lovely, but could not really be regarded as a new stream of church, just different flavours of what was there already.
Even more worryingly for those of us whose theology had gone through something of a revolution, some Churches appeared to be doing very well- those whose version of religion was all hard lines and narrow doctrine.
Part two, including a discussion about consumerism, tomorrow.
2014- could this be the year we start to reclaim Christianity from Capitalism?
I am not into making new year's resolutions- I tend not to keep them. However this time of year is the time to take stock, to dream of what might be ahead.
As well as the personal stuff it is a great time to wave some spiritual litmus paper in the stew of culture that we swirl around in. What is there that we can celebrate? What should we protest? How does the life of Jesus within us open us up to new ways of living in this new year?
A year or so ago, I wrote a post reflecting on the relationship between Capitalism and Christianity. This seems even more relevant now as austerity measures hit the poorest and weakest in our economy. Something is wrong– not just at an economic level, but rather in our very ways of being.
There are some encouraging signs that the Church is starting to realise this however- and that we need to be the voice of instability, not conformity. Sometimes it seems that our religion is like smoke blown into a hive while the honey is stolen. The Pope appears to understand this, as does Archbishop Welby.
By emphasising personal, individual salvation above all else. The only useful purpose of mission is to save people from hell after they die. This means that active engagement in any other activities (particularly 'social issues') is downgraded, or even downright suspicious. For many these activities are only really acceptable if used as a trojan horse to smuggle in the gospel message.
By embracing success culture. We use the same corporate structures, we reward our religious successes as we would our CEO's, we value hard measurable outcomes, we construct programmes about personal empowerment and success.
We make mission a kind of hostile take over. Business success involves out-performing the opposition, and rejoicing in their bankruptcy. We need to sell more, penetrate all markets, dominate the marketplace, crush to opposition.
Christianity became a lifestyle choice that required no change to the way we live our economic lives. Yes, I know there is the old 'tithing' argument around Evangelical churches, but we drive the same cars, live in the same houses, take the same holidays, fill our lives with the same gadgets- or (and here is the sting) even if we do not have these things, we aspire to them. St Jobs is venerated in many a trendy Christian Church every time people meet.
We bought into lives characterised by individualism above the collective. The model given to us by the life of Jesus and the early church was all about learning to live in loving community- how we live for one another, how we hold things in common, how we find ways of including the poor, the weak. Can we still hold these things as defining characteristics of church?
We did not see injustice, inequality, poverty, unfair taxation, usury, over-consumption, environmental destruction, as any of our business. Which relates to point 1.
Even where there was visible discomfort with Capitalism, we lacked any coherance, we lacked leadership, we did not become a critical movement. Rather we splintered and focused on totemic side shows live homosexuality and women bishops- all of which destroyed our credibility to speak prophetically into our culture anyway.
Our mission to the poor was conditional on redeeming them to become like us. Difficult one this, but stay with me. There are lots of examples of Christian engagement with the poor, from the good old Salvation Army right through to the new food banks. However, these activities might be seen as cleaning up the edges of Capitalism– but also justifying the dominant ethos. It encourages us to lift people back into becoming productive consumers – just like us. This fails to engage with any idea that we need to become more like them; that the problem is caused by people just like us.
We forgot that the Church exists not to give us a better life, but to serve the lost and the least. If we are serving the lost and the least, how can we have convinced ourselves that our unsustainable greedy lifestyles are God-given rewards for our moral superiority- which we Brits built an Empire on, and then passed the baton to the USA?
We failed to form partnerships with other grass movements for change. Because anything outside of the walls of our particular church is suspicious, we are reluctant to engage with all those good 'holy' groups whose members are seeking to redeem and restore- the environmentalists, those working for social justice etc.
May our evangelical zeal be set free from the tramlines of heaven/hell. May our concept of salvation be much more gracious and generous, and may our evangelists be empowered to be agents of the Kingdom of God.
May we see success for what it always is- a distraction from our call towards personal weakness, humility and love.
May we be among the first who chose to live differently- more simply, less driven by crazy consumerism. May we be a new kind of Amish people- not rejecting of technology, but neither enslaved by it.
May our living draw us together, rather than forcing us apart.
May our way of living be genuinely different- may we be consumers of less, wasters of less, sharers of more. May we party hard, love greatly, laugh a lot and weep when the time is right for weeping. May we be the first to demand products that last, that are updateable, that do not denude the environment or depend on the slavery of others and the raw materials dug out of some other part of the world for our own benefit.
May we be angered by injustice, by poverty, by destruction of the beauty all around us, and may we express this anger in protest, in art, in full engagement.
Rise up people who would show the way- give them a prophetic voice. Lead us out of our concrete wildernesses.
May we see first the value in the other, not the rightness in ourselves.
May we see our privilege for what it is; the inverse of the poverty of others.
May we look for beauty and shine light on it. May we seek out flavour to savour with our salt. May we find out where Jesus is and try to join him there. May we seek partnership and friendship with other groups.
On the 13th of March 1996 a man marched into Dunblane Primary School and started shooting kids. 16 children died and one adult.
On Sunday, Michaela and I visited Dunblane. It is a sleepy town, famous only as the town in which tennis player Andy Murray grew up. In fact, he was a pupil in the school during the shooting. It is a small town steeped in gentile prosperous tradition. How on earth do people make sense of such horror? Even all these years later?
What is the place of faith in understanding and finding peace?
I have no answers to these questions really- my children did not die, I was not part of the wider community. I can not begin to presume to understand what the journey might have been like for these people. I do know however that the degree to which experience is collectivised, shared, held in common, can become an essential part of this journey for many.
And for this, I am grateful for the Church. Not because it has answers- easy explanations are an insult. Not because it has skilled pastors, after all there are many more highly trained in counselling the bereaved. Not because the Church can expect to be the point where people gather any more at times of crisis.
But having said all this, where else would people go? Who else can listen to the cries at funerals? Where else can people be to share their grief, their anger, their survivor guilt, their hopelessness?
Michaela and I have just had a really lovely trip up north to spend some time with friends who are part of Garioch Church. We had been asked to be part of something called a 'sounding board'- a group of people from outside the church who meet a couple of times a year to reflect on where the church is heading, and what challenges it is facing. We were looked after by Andrew and Jane magnificently and it was a privilege to hear something of their story, not least because it enabled us to reflect anew on our own.
Garioch is an area on the outskirts of the city of Aberdeen- a string of villages over a 10-15 mile area. It is a largely affluent place, with pockets of deprivation, fueled by prosperity from the oil industry. We had never spent any time in that part of Scotland before, and in many ways it felt like a different Scotland to the one we knew. It was busy, bustling, full of industry and people had a pace of life very different to our small west coast town.
Gairioch church wanted to remain based around homes, families, small community. They wanted to be a local, connected expression of faith- engaged in their small context. What they now have are three thriving home groups which are the focus of 'church'. Once a month they meet in a school hall where they can make a bit more noise and feel a wider sense of connection.
Simple huh? Sounds very like that elusive but often used idea of trying to connect with a New Testament idea of what church looked like?
Alongside this deliberate emphasis on the small, they have found themselves having to grapple with some familiar themes- what does leadership look like in this context? How do you survive community? How do you continue reaching out when there is so much to do within the social context of community itself? What does teaching look like when traditional 'preaching' no longer fits? What about all the children? How do we manage all these competing demands with such limited time?
It was rather special to see them feeling for answers to all these questions- to appreciate the freedom that allows them to try, and the long tradition of Christian collectives who have done the same.
My own small community feels special too. We are different, in that we are one (rather isolated) community, and in many ways the pressure to lead, to organise, to manage is very different. As a result of this we are less hierarchical, more driven by the need to be joint travelers, not leaders and followers. This made for some interesting parts of our discussion at the sounding board day. How much do we as leaders, in taking responsibility, remove this in both obvious and more subtle ways from the people we lead?
I came home inspired, humbled and also grateful for the fact that people remain inspired by Jesus towards the new. That Christians in these times are still looking for new ways to love better, to live better, to serve better.
Yesterdays post was a rather cynical one about church names- I removed it as although a whiff of controversy in blogging is usually a good thing, I never like giving offence, and it turned out that some friends of mine have a church whose name I accidentally lambasted. As part of yesterdays post however, I said this, and I will repost it as a prayer for our churches everywhere!
I think the words of Jesus lead us on a path emphasising a whole different set of principles. Rather than our success he promised that the last shall be first. Rather than our satisfaction, he promised a hard road. Rather than storing up comfort and riches he pointed us towards the lost and the least.
When Church is defined as being the provider of success and abundance I also cringe for those whose experience has NOT fitted into this shiny stereotype. People who even whilst in this kind of environment feel unable to share pain and brokenness. People whose lives fall apart for no apparent reason.
I think we can take heart and courage, because good things are growing in the cracks of Old Church.
I had lots of good discussions on my recent wilderness retreat, one of them was a chat with Andrew about teaching in church.
This was relevant as in my 'church' we do not really do teaching- most of us have had a belly full of sitting in church services listening to people preach at us. This has been replaced by lots of different kinds of learning however- reading, internetting, discussing, visiting other places. Whether or not this is a fair exchange has been the cause of some discussion.
Andrew however (who is a NT scholar at Aberdeen University, so his opinion seems well worth listening to) described his own frustration with how church has become addicted to teaching, but has forgot entirely about learning.
I had to think about that- surely if someone is a good teacher, then this has to be measured by the degree to which his or her (but lets face it, in this context it is more likely to be his) pupils learn? Well no, says Andrew, at least not in the context of Church. Rather, his experience of preaching/teaching is that it is mostly totally disconnected from learning; rather it offers a kind of moralised, spirtualised entertainment for the faithful. Rather than challenging anyone to change, to develop, to grow, to explore, to adventure with the Spirit, it actually just provides a religious diversion from real life.
The interesting question is, if people are not learning from our teaching, what do we do instead? How do we set people free to learn for themselves?
My initial response to Andrew was that I thought it was something to do with hierarchy. Churches have people whose job it is to teach others- the paid ministers. Therefore the rest of us step back and leave the hard work to them. Sometimes they (and in turn, we) are inspired, but mostly we defer responsibility to them. What if we actually had to come up with our own solutions to the small theological questions that surround our every day life? Sure, it might be possible, even necessary, to not get into the meat of all of them, but no faith is possible without a search for meaning- and in this instance, the meaning we find is our own, it is not lazily appropriated.
However, I am not fully satisfied with this answer- after all, we are all standing in a long line of followers of Jesus, and to suggest that others have not got things to teach us is foolish. We are all subject to the influence of others, and why not at least listen to people who have given this more thought than we have.
There is still the issue of learning. What are we learning for? Is it to refine the subtleties of our doctrine? There has been a lot of this kind of learning after all. Or should learning be actually about being schooled in the disciplines shown to us by Jesus? These are perhaps best understood in terms of learning to love one another, to live in community, to let go of all the stuff that gets in the way, be they possessions, selfish obsessions, or sins. This kind of learning seems to be to be as much about unlearning, simplifying, going deeper and slower.
I write these things not because I have learnt well- rather because I am a long term remedial pupil in need of extra tutoring.
I think that is what the Holy Spirit was tasked with was it not?
Which makes me wonder again whether we have not made his job rather difficult- by filling the classroom with theological masturbation.


Oh, what had happened is that I thought if I quit and rejoin, it would like reboot my setting back to like the beginning so that's what I did. Just have to be careful now not to screw it up again.
Our last trip together, cruise to the Bahamas. What a great memory.
that is such a beautiful history and you had such a beautiful wife.
it shows we should all treasure what we have.
Your wife, the love of your life, is BEAUTIFUL! And it does seem like it was destiny that brought the two of you together. Beautiful story of the two of you meeting for the first time.
Like Linda says, we have to be grateful that God sent us our soulmates. And I am grateful, even though we only had 19 years together. But so many people don't ever get a soulmate. But all of us here did. And I am grateful for that gift.
Your wife is beautiful. We just have to so blessed for God sending us our soulmates.
Thanks for the cudos. I know every one of us is trying to cope with the loss of our Beloved Spouses. I too cannot do the things we shared and that's just about everything. Our likes were the same, so the only thing I did alone was run. He was always at every race I ran. The worst part I miss is his smiling face at the finish line. But I know his heart was beating in mine. This is one of tattoos I have on my arms.
I am so grateful that each of you share what you are doing and how you are dealing with your loss at whatever stage in months or years. In the past I never had to worry about looking for company for misery. I wasn't miserable. Now I find I need to hear that I am not alone in my misery as I crawl through the hours that make up a day which extend to a month and total a year. Just to know what you are feeling helps because so much of the time I have felt the exact same way.
Although I have to admit I don't think I could do something as energetic as 26 mile runs. Wow, Linda, that is amazing. I mean how do you manage to breathe? I have lost so much of my physical abilities. You should be very proud that you are able to do it for Julian. I bet he is breathing for you!!
Trina.....as usual we feel much the same. I can absolutely feel how you wanted to just disappear for the 15th and it was very kind of you to meet with the student of Joseph but I know exactly what you felt when you said it took you days to recover because of the amount of energy it took to do it. I SO get that. You hit the nail on the head. At this point in our time without our loves we get better at functioning but the energy it takes to do everything much less something where you have to grin and bear it to bring some "normalcy" to engaging with someone who knew him.......oh dear, how hard that must have been. I ran into an old friend of my husband about a month ago and he had no idea my love had died and he was so shocked and I just collapsed. I barely made it into my friends car and I just melted. I can imagine how difficult it was to stay focused during the time with Josephs student and there is every reason for it to take days to recover. It took everything you had....bravo to you and I hope you are getting some of that energy back.
Marita, like you I have a terrible time doing anything that remotely has a connection to what we did together. I just can't handle it. I have just given up pushing myself too hard and have to be ok with it. The things I have to do I force myself but if I know I have a choice and it wont make much difference I decline to do it. On looking back I see I was trying to present myself as being able to do things because others needed to see me as the "old" me. Now I just consider that their problem not mine and I am working towards being able to be a full time hermit.
I think overall I am just angry I am being put through this. I never wanted to live alone and I am certainly never going to be with another man and though right now I have a friend staying with me who just needed a place to get through for awhile, I feel alone. Its not that my husband chose to leave me alone. I'm not angry at him. I'm mad that the universe sees fit to keep me behind. I want to be where he is and even if he isn't there its got to be better than this painful daily burden we all carry here.
And here we have three new people joining the website looking for advice and help......Its just so hard to keep up with the emotions that result from each of our situations.......I would have no way to write to everyone but I do hope they find nuggets of help by reading....its pretty much all we've got.


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Edible Omaha
CSA DIRECTORY
GROWING AND LEARNING
June 8, 2013 by Edible Omaha
Instructor Jasmyn Thompson works with Brilynne Smith and
Tia Ford of the Solomon Girls Center in a raised garden bed located on
asphalt at the north Omaha Heartland Family Service location. (Photo
courtesy of the Solomon Center.)
Teamwork and Education Provide Fish and Produce
By Mike Brownlee
The youth garden at the Heartland Family Service Solomon Girls Center is grown on asphalt, but its produce is fresh, providing food and education to the at-risk girls in the program.
At the north Omaha center, youngsters ages 5 to 18 work in raised plots behind the building on 30th Street, or inside using an aquaponics method that uses fish to feed plants.
The Solomon Center's staff teaches the girls about what they should eat and how to grow it, incorporating the garden into both the sustainability and nutrition curriculums. "It's growing food, but it's also learning," says Tammy Green, director. "We do nutritional education, and show the girls what a healthy plate should look like."
Most of the Solomon Center students live in poverty. Their families bring in less than $30,000 yearly. The center provides enjoyable after-school learning opportunities for 80 girls, and serves as many as 150 girls during the summer. Along with education, Tammy says the center is charged with making sure the girls have access to healthy meals and fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks.
On a recent Friday afternoon, the girls were rambunctious but good-natured. Some played Just Dance 3 on the Wii, while others tended to the aquaponics system.
Michaela Atkins, left, and Brilynne Smith describe the aquaponics project they help with at the Solomon Girls Center youth garden program. The system features a tank full of fish. The water the fish swim in is pumped into a bed of soil pellets and lettuce seeds, where the nutrient-rich water helps spur rapid growth.
Photo by Mike Brownlee
The system features a tank full of fish. They switched from tilapia to yellow perch since the former breed always fought. Water is pumped into a bed of soil pellets and lettuce seeds. The nutrient-rich water helps spur rapid growth. "In that itty-bitty spot, it's amazing how much they grow," Tammy says.
Brilynne Smith, 10, and Michaela Atkins, 12, worked the soil while looking over some fledgling lettuce. The water courses through the system, adding nutrients to the crop, while the pellets filter the water. "The plants filter the water for the fish, and the water that the plants use is great for the plants," Tammy says, explaining that the nutrients added by the fish enrich the water. With a chuckle, Brilynne adds: "The fish poop helps the lettuce grow." "It's a very symbiotic system," Tammy replies.
When the fish are full-grown, Tammy hopes they'll provide food for the girls. The Solomon Center is currently working on a possible arrangement with the Institute for the Culinary Arts at Metropolitan Community College. The center would provide fish for Metro students to butcher as part of their curriculum. They would return the fish to the Solomon Center for on-site meals or for the girls to take home.
Both Brilynne and Michaela assist with both the aquaponics and the traditional outdoor gardens, saying the vegetables and fruit help them in a number of ways. "We've learned how to take care of a garden—how to be responsible," Michaela says. "We realize what all you can do in gardening. You can figure out ways to get things done."
The youngsters learn about when and how much to water; when to harvest; how to look for weeds; when to feed the fish; and why fruits and vegetables are a key part of a nutritious diet. They've also learned how to freeze and can produce for future use.
Michaela talks about the money saved by growing your own food, while Brilynne discusses the nutritional benefits. "We grow the lettuce, and then we're able to put it in a salad," says the always smiling Brilynne. "It's healthy. This helps us stay healthy." Both say they've taken skills learned at the Solomon Center home to use while working with their families in gardens of their own. "We'll be able to take these skills and use them when we're older," Michaela says.
Good nutrition has been a foundation of the Solomon Center's curriculum since its inception, but the garden started just four years ago. "We were discussing eating healthy, and one of our teenagers said, 'If my mom has to choose between a $5 bag of oranges and a $1 box of Little Debbies (snack cakes), she's getting the Little Debbies,'" Tammy says. "That hit my heart. I wanted to help empower these girls."
Tammy decided to start the garden with help from Mutual of Omaha and the United Methodist Ministries of Omaha Big Garden. Th e ministry provided a system for establishing the garden and manpower. Construction of the raised beds was completed by the girls and staff from both the Solomon Center and Big Garden. Big Garden volunteers also helped the girls decide what to plant, and met with them weekly to ensure that the garden thrived.
Big Garden took on a reduced role in 2009, and by the third year the youth garden was purely in the hands of the Solomon Center girls. "It was a great way to implement a community garden," Tammy says. "(The Big Garden volunteers) helped get us off the ground."
Today, the garden features six raised beds, in addition to the aquaponics system, which was installed last year. The fish-assisted system grows lettuce in two to three weeks (compared to fi ve to six weeks in the beds), and allows the girls to garden year-round.
"We compare our lettuce to what's in the store. Ours is this long," Brilynne says, while holding her hands two feet apart. "And theirs was like this," she says, while holding her hands about a half-foot apart.
The girls also grow radishes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, turnips and strawberries. Much of the crop goes home with the girls to eat, while roughly half is sold at the numerous bake sales that the Solomon Center holds. Th e chef at the center also incorporates lettuce and turnip greens into afternoon meals.
As planting time approaches, the girls will be out in the beds again tilling the soil, adding nutrients and planning what crops they'll grow. They will spray each other with hose water too, giggling all the while. "It's fun to do this with friends," Brilynne says. "It's so much fun."
BIG GARDEN, BIG MISSION
Founded in 2005, the United Methodist Ministries of Omaha Big Garden program has grown from a few plots to a network of more than 70 community gardens. The gardens are run by more than 1,500 volunteers in the Omaha metro area, rural Nebraska and northeast Kansas. Director Nathan Morgan explains that Big Garden works with nonprofit organizations, churches and schools to help provide fresh produce in areas devoid of supermarkets or other stores that would provide access to healthy, nutritious food. "We use community gardens as a way to address food insecurity," Nathan says.
Working with partner organizations, Big Garden staff and volunteers provide supplies, seeds, seedlings and instruction during the first two years of launching a new community garden. By the third year, the program is set up so the gardens are self-sustaining.
For more information on the program, go to GardenBig.org.
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Turkey's Armenian church elects new patriarch
Bishop Sahak Masalyan speaks during a special ceremony after his election as the new Patriarch of Turkey's Armenian community, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Armenian community voted on Wednesday Masalyan as its new patriarch, in an election critics say was overshadowed by Turkish government intervention. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's Armenian community on Wednesday voted in Bishop Sahak Masalyan as its new patriarch, in an election that critics say was overshadowed by Turkish government intervention.
Delegates elected Masalyan, 57, as the 85th patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Christians in Turkey, the church announced at the end of a election process that began on Dec. 7. He succeeds Patriach Mesrob II, who died in March at 62.
Masalyan's rival, Archbishop Aram Atesyan, had been serving as acting patriarch since 2008, when Mesrob became incapacitated and withdrew from his duties.
Atesyan and Masalyan were among only three candidates who were able to stand for the position after Turkey ruled that Armenian clergy currently serving abroad would not be eligible. The third candidate dropped out of the race in protest, while some community members boycotted the election process, according to Turkish media reports.
The patriarch is considered the head of the Armenians in Turkey, which numbers an estimated 70,000, and serves as a go-between the government and the community. Turkish officials often rely on the patriarch's cooperation for their efforts to counter moves around the world to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed around World War I, and many scholars see it as the 20th century's first genocide. Turkey disputes the description, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of a civil war. Turkey has repeatedly called for a joint committee of historians to investigate the slayings.
Garo Paylan, a legislator in Turkey's parliament, was among community members who boycotted the election process.
"I will not consider the chosen one as my Patriarch," he wrote on Twitter, adding that those who interfered in the election process would go down in the "dark pages" of history.
Last year, the Turkish government intervened to halt elections at the patriarchate on the grounds "that the necessary conditions for the electoral process had not been met" and that Mesrob was still alive.