A doors and windows project ?
We're open for comments !
Follow us on social media and please feel free to subscribe and make suggestions to our posts and activities online. We're more than happy to see our customers really enjoying our windows and doors, while your sincere online feedback is highly appreciated.
Engaging with our customers and friends is a continuous improvement process for which our commitment has always been steadfast.
Over the years, we've encountered numerous situations that concerned pretty much the same type of questions and answers. So we thought of compiling these reoccuring instances into the set of Frequently Asked Questions s you can see right here on the side.
Of course, you can always call or email us, as we're always very happy to help! But if you fell hesitant and really don't know yet what you want, these topics might shade some light on the basics of how things work with us.
Go ahead and check them out !
Custom-made or standard products ?
Benati tries to balance the amount of products that could be considered standard as opposed to the range of windows and doors that are manufactured according to the specific desire of our customers. Most of the time we tend to create products that are tailored-made to fit the precise requirements the client desires. We're able to perform such tasks masterfully mainly because of our factory's technological state-of-the-art equipment but also thanks to our skilful carpenters, engineers and experts in doors and windows production.
Where can I see Benati's windows and doors ?
Depending on our customer location and connection fit, Benati holds both a show-room at the factory premises in Harghita County and also one in Bucharest.
These are the places where you can see and feel the whole range of windows and doors that are produced in our factory.
Please check our contact page to get the exact location.
Who deals with the installation ?
Since being mainly a manufacturer, Benati does not offer installment services for its products. We only concentrate on producing our windows and doors at the highest level of quality and detail.
Please discuss this issue directly with our sales representative when arranging the order. The instalment team is also the third-party responsible with the correct measurement of your windows and doors.
How and where do I place an order ?
As observed in our contact page, depending on our customer's location and project size there's to choose either from the factory headquarters, or our Bucharest Show-room sales team.
Providing us with a very detailed request for your project is a sure way to receive a price quotation that reflects a profitable deal. We will always make sure that you receive the most accurate calculation according to your request.
Contacting us on either phone, email or social media will always return a rapid and expert response from our team of professionals.
Our project managers will assist you at every stage of your project, making the ordering process as straightforward and as stress free as possible. That being the reason why so many of our customers come back to us and recommend us each time. At the core of our business model stand proficient, experienced individuals who have your full satisfaction in mind in everything they do.
Give us a try! You won't be dissapointed.
Delivery, transport and packaging ?
Benati makes sure it protects every piece of material in the best way possible, hence all our products leave the factory properly secured and ready for transport.
Depending on the customer's order volume and value we usually arrange home deliveries anywhere in the country or in our warehouses in Bucharest. You can always pick up a product directly from our factory if the item is on stock or ready to be delivered.
When placing an order, please discuss this issue more with our sales representatives.
How should I fill in the online price request form?
Providing your measurements when you have a new building project or house extension is relatively easy. You can send us your drawings and sketches and we can work with those dimensions. However, we understand that it is not so easy accessing the outer edges of windows and doors and the process might be difficult. Simply measure the window or door from edge-to-edge of the visible frame or aperture. This will be more than enough for us to prepare your quote in the first stage. Afterwards, we'll arrange a home visit for the final measurements and details.
What types of wood do you use in production?
First of all, the process of constructing a door or window starts with the wood beams dried in the oven to a moisture content of up to 12% and impregnated with a preservative. The timber is also cut in finger joints to reduce the number of knots. This not only provides a high quality finish and appearance, but also helps to strengthen the product on the long run, making it more stable, eliminating any possibility of resin infiltration after the final construction of a window or door.
Benati products are made of well-managed sustainable wood. Using a technically advanced approach known as lamination, the beams of wood are created by 3 or more wood layers that are arranged with the grain in opposite directions to allow the wood to move while being kept in control by the adjacent sections. This creates an extremely strong and rigid material that simply can not twist or warp.
Choosing a hardwood alternative has become a very popular solution for recent projects, for example with sliding or folding doors that lead to a terrace area. Often, these projects include an aluminum-coated product along with an wooden interior. There are other situations where renovation or expansion projects are located in a conservation areas that require an exact match of the wood with the rest of the property. We can offer a wide range of timber, including oak, larch, meranti.
See more about our wood essences in the Windows section of our website.


text:
Q: Oracle : Combine unique row values into comma-separated string I have a query that returns data like below, need to combine the value column into comma-separated string excluding duplicates and null values.
g_name    g_id      v_data
-----     ----      ------
Test      123        ABC
Test      123        ABC
Test      123        DEG
Test      123        None
Test      123
Test      123        HIJ

Desired output :
g_name    g_id      v_data
-----     ----      ------
Test      123        ABC,DEG,HIJ

I have tried using XMLAGG but can't remove duplicates and null values.
select g_name,
     g_id,
     RTRIM(XMLAGG(XMLELEMENT(e, v_data || ',')).EXTRACT('//text()'), ',')
from tblData
group by g_name, g_id

A: You can use the LISTAGG function:
select g_name, g_id, listagg(v_data,',') within group (order by v_data) v_data
from (
  select distinct g_name, g_id, v_data
  from tblData
  where v_data is not null
)
group by g_name, g_id

In the inner select, we deal with the DISTINCT and NULL removal (you could also remove None here if you wanted).
The outer query deals with grouping by your name and id and concatenating the values

A: Just pre-filter your rows with a common table expression, then do your string concatenation.
with cte1 as (
    select distinct *
    from tblData
    where v_data is not null
)
select g_name,
    g_id,
    RTRIM(XMLAGG(XMLELEMENT(e, v_data || ',')).EXTRACT('//text()'), ',')
from cte1
group by g_name, g_id

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home > Alumni > News > University of Sheffield ranked in top 50 most international universities in the world
University of Sheffield ranked in top 50 most international universities in the world
The University of Sheffield has been named as one of the 'most international' universities by The Times Higher Education.
The list celebrates institutions that have an outstanding international reputation, in turn helping to attract the very highest calibre of staff and students. The University of Sheffield was ranked 42nd out of the 800 leading universities worldwide.
A place in the highly-regarded top 50 – which also includes Oxford, Cambridge and the leading universities in the U.S. and Asia – marks a significant increase in Sheffield's international reputation ranking in 2018. A key factor in this success has been the concerted effort at building overseas partnerships with the world's top universities and industry, efforts which open opportunities for staff and student exchange, research collaboration and inward investment in the local economy.
The diversity of a university's student and staff body, and the extent to which its academics collaborate with international colleagues are also signs of how global an institution is. These factors are included in the metrics that allow Times Higher Education to produce the most comprehensive global university rankings in the world.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Keith Burnett – who has personally led the university's focus on global reputation and strategic partnerships, in particular in China – said:
"The University of Sheffield has always been internationally minded but recently we have focused even more on the partnerships we know are crucial not only to our research but which will also create opportunities for our students and our region. As a result, the University is now working with four of the top five universities in China and our industrial partnerships are highly regarded around the world, with the AMRC also active in the U.S., China and South Korea.
"I am also deeply proud that The University of Sheffield is a global university with over 140 nationalities represented on campus and that our city has always made clear that staff and students from around the world are welcome. We know these students and staff make a huge contribution to academic life, knowledge and our economic growth as a nation as well as working in our local hospitals as trainee doctors, carrying out invaluable research into diseases like cancer and motor neurone disease, and also volunteering for charities."
Phil Baty, Editor at Times Higher Education, said:
"The best universities in the world live or die by their ability to attract the brightest talent from all across the world - students, academics, researchers and managers. I believe that a university simply cannot be world class without a global outlook, a global network and a global pool of talent."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The full CQC report can be downloaded as a pdf.
Some excerpts, which can be summarised as: lack of community staff, lack of beds and organisational chaos. If this is the situation now, what will it be like at the end of March when more than one quarter of community team staff will have been made redundant?
Click the image below to be taken to Adam Gretton's story on the EDP website.


text:
Beautiful Countries To Visit Before You Die
It can be hard to think of exciting travel destinations when you feel as if you've already been everywhere you want to go. The curse of a travel fanatic is that they see all the best places in the world and then they lose their steam. Where do you go once you've run out of places to which to travel? You start to consider places you'd never considered before. You might have visited everywhere in the world that you've ever wanted to visit but that might just mean that you'd never previously been adventurous enough with your travel wishlist. Nobody can ever see "everywhere" in the world.
It's time to think outside the box. Traveling is an exciting experience because you can never see it all; that means the unknown is always out there. Okay, somebody's seen pretty much every square inch of the earth but you haven't. And seeing pictures of pretty destinations on Instagram doesn't count. You can't beat a real-life experience of a beautiful place. And if you're running low on inspiration then it's time to broaden your horizons. That might be a cheesy line but it's true. Here are some of the beautiful countries you need to visit before you die.
Australia is a stunning and mysterious place. Despite its immense size and bubbly modern culture, it's a sparsely populated place. That means it's a country which boasts a beautiful blend of stunning natural scenery and vibrant cities packed full of awe-inspiring skyscrapers, exciting events, and coastlines with the classic surfer stereotypes. It's everything that you'd imagine it'd be from films and the media but it's also so much more. With incredibly intriguing ecosystems that are unlike anything on earth as well as highly-cultured cities packed full of human life, this really is a country that provides landscapes on both ends of the spectrum.
You should start off with a visit to Sydney. That might seem a little typical but it is a beautiful city. As we've mentioned before, it's the destination people visit if they're searching for a highly cultured place. It obviously boasts the iconic Sydney Opera House. That's a landmark which is known worldwide but it's more than visually impressive. The architecture makes a great first impression, of course (it's even better in person), but there are also fantastic shows on offer in this incredible building. Obviously, once you're done with culture, you can get changed out of your suit and into your swim gear to try out some diving and snorkeling off some of Sydney's stunning beaches. There's something special about Australian coastlines; there's an energy and warmth which comes from the vibrant people as much as the natural heat.
What kind of list would this be without France? There's little doubt that this is the most beautiful country in the world; it's home to Paris. And, beyond being the global city of "romance", the capital offers a lot of natural beauty and exquisite culture. As mentioned over at https://allovertop.com/most-beautiful-countries-to-travel/, Paris is one of the most distinguished cities in the world and there's good reason for this. Iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe are testaments to magnificent French architecture.
But it's the bakeries which make France so special. Even if you venture outside the capital (which you should, as suggested over at https://www.ucityguides.com/cities/top-10-most-beautiful-countries-in-the-world.html), you'll find splendid bakeries all over the country. You need to try an authentic baguette and a pain au chocolat; cheap imitations will never taste the same after you've had the real thing. Of course, French cuisine is beautifully delicious on the whole.
Indonesia is a stunning country. Made up of thousands of islands, it's hard to know where to start. You should definitely start with Java. It's home to cities such as Magelang which boast sites such as Borobudur Temple (an ancient Buddhist site). If you really fall in love with the country then you might never want to leave, of course. You could check out sites such as https://rumahdijual.com/properti-dijual for a look into some of the properties in beautiful cities such as Jakarta (also on the island of Java). As the capital of this beautiful country, Jakarta is certainly the heart of all the culture and wonder of Indonesia. It's definitely worth visiting. Whichever of the islands you choose to visit, however, you'll have an eye-opening experience into the beauty of Indonesian culture both past and present.
Let's get it out of the way: London. The capital is an incredible city well worth seeing, of course. It's the hub of both ancient history and modern, contemporary culture. It has something for everybody. Perhaps you might have misplaced preconceptions that this city (and England as a whole) is drab, dreary, and forever drenched in rain. Okay, it may not be the warmest or the sunniest place in the world but that doesn't mean it isn't beautiful. The city of London offers a look into past centuries through public buildings such as the Natural History Museum. If you're looking for something a little more lighthearted and fun then you could try an escape room such as Enigma Quests.
We could be here forever discussing all the many things to do and see in London; you probably know about all the iconic landmarks and you've already planned a route to see them all. However, there's a lot more to England than London. If you head north then you could explore fantastic cities such as Manchester. It offers the National Football Museum if you want to learn about the history of the beautiful game. If you're more interested in natural beauty, however, then you should head to Didsbury Park. Even in the center of an urban environment, Manchester still offers heaps of natural beauty. And we've only talked about 2 British places; think of how much more this great country has to offer. Put the Lake District on your "To See" list.


I have four items for my blog post today about I Chronicles 11. I will follow that with some reflections.
1. In I Chronicles 11, David captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The notes in the Jewish Study Bible (written by David Rothstein) contrast how this is depicted in I Chronicles 11 with how it is depicted in II Samuel 5.
—-In II Samuel 5, David arguably has a political motive for capturing Jerusalem: "to consolidate his hold over a newly united political entity (Israel and Judah), which emerged only after a lengthy period of political instability" (Rothstein's words). Jerusalem belonged to the Jebusites, not to any of the Israelite tribes, and so David's establishment of Jerusalem as the capital city would appease all of the tribes, in that David would not be showing favoritism to any of them. In I Chronicles 11, by contrast, David already has the support of all Israel, even before he takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Whereas II Samuel 5 presents David taking Jerusalem with the help of his own men, I Chronicles 11:4 affirms that all Israel accompanied David to take over Jerusalem. David in II Samuel 5 captures Jerusalem to appease the tribes and consolidate his hold over the nation, whereas David already has all of the nation's support in I Chronicles 11. Why, then, did David see a need to conquer Jerusalem in I Chronicles 11? According to Rothstein, it was because David in I Chronicles 11 foresaw that Jerusalem would be religiously important, which would be true: it would be the site of the Temple.
—-In II Samuel 5:6b, 8, David appears to run all over the lame and the blind to take the city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The Jebusites said that the lame and the blind would be able to hold David's forces back, and David proved the Jebusites wrong. I Chronicles 11 lacks that, and Rothstein speculates that this may be because it does not want to depict David as prejudiced against the lame and the blind.
2. I Chronicles 11:17-19 troubles some people. David longs for water from the well of his home town of Bethlehem, but the Philistine garrison is there. Three of David's men bravely break through the Philistine ranks, draw water from the well, and bring the water back to David. David then refuses to drink the water but pours it out as a drink offering to God, for his three men put their lives in danger by getting that water for him.
Some religious readers have problems with this because it appears that David was initially commanding his men to get him the water—-to risk their lives just because he wanted a drink. That looks pretty trivial to them! Consequently, some preachers note that David was merely expressing a wish, not making a command.
The Orthodox Jewish Artscroll commentary presents another interpretation: David was not requesting water, but rather something more serious: halakhic guidance—-guidance on how to obey God's law. David was curious as to whether he could take barley for his men's animals from Jewish farmers and later pay those Jewish farmers back with lentils that he was about to take from a Philistine field (see vv 13-14). David's three intrepid men risk their lives to inquire of the Sanhedrin and learn that David as king is indeed allowed to commandeer crops from Jewish farmers and pay them back later. David decides, however, not to benefit from this royal privilege. This, according to the Artscroll, is a view within rabbinic literature.
Some Christian pastors try to get homiletical meaning from I Chronicles 11:17-19: David's wish was his three men's command, as God's wish should be our command.
3. I Chronicles 11:41 refers to Uriah the Hittite. The Artscroll cites Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 7b, which states that the men of v 41 were Israelites, and that they are being mentioned in reference to where they lived, not their nationality. Uriah was not a Hittite, according to this reasoning, but was an Israelite who had lived among the Hittites. This interpretation makes a degree of sense, for why would a Hittite have a name that refers to the God of Israel: Uriah means "YHWH is my light"? Perhaps one could respond that YHWH was honored by non-Israelites and thus a Hittite could have a Yahwistic name, or that Uriah changed his name to Uriah from something else when he joined David's men. I don't know.
4. A few evangelical preachers I heard drew from I Chronicles 11 the lesson that Jesus is the only way to God: as all Israel followed David, so should all people follow Jesus, otherwise they won't be in the kingdom. It's interesting to me, however, that David in I-II Samuel and I Chronicles honors those who honored Saul, the very one who was against David. David honored goodness wherever he saw it. Yet, those who honored Saul still had to honor David once David became king! Or at least they could not revolt against David. What can a Christian do with these insights, assuming that she wants to draw a typological connection between I Chronicles 11 and Jesus? Perhaps she could say that Jesus honors virtue wherever he sees it, even from non-Christians, but that, at a certain point in time, everyone will have to believe in Jesus and accept Jesus' authority to be in the kingdom of God. Some may say that the time for this has past: In the Book of Acts, God honored Cornelius' good works, and God let nations go their own way in the past, but now God is commanding people to believe in Jesus, and God has demonstrated Jesus' authority as judge by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:31). Others may argue that the time when people are expected or commanded to believe in Jesus will come in the future, when Jesus will rule the earth and his authority will be evident to all (something that is not currently the case).
Reflections: The Chronicler makes David look better than II Samuel does, and the rabbis make David look even better than the Chronicler does. You have all these spins, wrestling with who David was and how he related to all Israel. Should all of this spin undermine the religious value of the Bible, for those who seek religious value in this book? It might, for some. I personally see something divine behind all these human wrestlings: I see profound points about God being at work, the importance of doing good, and dependence on God. These ideals are important, even though people fall short, while occasionally manifesting flashes of goodness.


Burlington, MA, June 19, 2012 – Daymark Solutions, a leading provider of information technology solutions to companies in the northeastern United States, today announced that it has been recognized by UBM Channel as a part of CRN's 2012 Solution Provider 500 list, which ranks the top technology integrators in North America. Formerly known as the "VAR 500", the Solution Provider 500 ranks the highest producing solution provider organizations in the IT channel from hardware sales, software sales, and managed IT services.
The Solution Provider 500 ranking is based on revenue size, and considers each company's forward-thinking approach to the channel. In particular, the Solution Provider 500 selection panel sought to recognize companies that are building out practices around the data center and virtualization while offering software integration and application development skills. Revenue size is determined by the amount of annual products and services sold over the course of 2011. Companies with no public documentation were required to submit a notarized affidavit attesting to their 2010 and 2011 revenues.
The 2012 Solution Provider 500 list was announced at the SP500 Executive Conference and Awards, an elite two-day conference designed for high level executives to meet with companies to discuss business models, technology offerings, and partnerships. Held June 5-6 at the Westin Charlotte Hotel in Charlotte, NC, the conference focused on channel marketing strategies and direction, offering actionable content to the top Solution Provider organizations in North America. Attendees learned the secrets for uncovering new market opportunities from industry experts, peers and fellow Solution Provider 500 companies.
A sample of the SP500 list will be published in print and online at CRN.com on June 25, 2012.
Daymark Solutions is an experienced technology solutions provider that helps organizations in the Northeastern United States effectively apply technology to solve business challenges. Specializing in data protection, virtualization and cloud computing, Daymark architects and implements best-of-breed server, storage, network and security solutions. The company's unique combination of in-depth technology knowledge, extensive experience, and proven methodologies enable its clients to successfully address even the most difficult technology challenges. For more information, call 781-359-3000 or visit www.daymarksi.com.
UBM Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With more than 30 years of experience and engagement, UBM Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives, managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. UBM Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about UBM Channel, visit us at http://www.ubmchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ubmchannel.
UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.


text:
Pretty Willie :: Enter the Life of Suella
Steve 'Flash' Juon May 7, 2002
In case you were wondering, or even if you weren't, "Suella" is actually an acronym that means "Suave Usually Educated Luckily Ladies Ask." It seems that the young man born Willie Moore Jr. has a pretty high opinion of himself, which is where the name "Pretty Willie" actually comes from; so don't get it twisted and think he's on some OTHER shit.
In fact, Willie's pretty down to earth in his raps; which revolve around interactions with women ("Cut the Chase") fast moving cars ("High Speed") and yet more women ("She Got a Man at Home"). Sounds familiar? It's not just the topics that will give you deja vu. Willie hails from the scenic city of St. Louis, Missouri. If the topic matter and his birthplace haven't already keyed you in, here's the icing on the cake: he has a SING-SONG RAP FLOW. When you put one and one and one together, it all adds up to one thing: he's the second coming of Nelly.
The problem with being the second is that it also means you're not the first. To JL's credit, the producer who handled most of this album including the lead single "Roll Wit Me," the music definitely SWANGS with that smooth Midwestern style that made Nelly and his fellow St. Lunatics so popular. If Nelly is going to learn anything about being "#1" it's that imitation is the greatest form of flattery; but ALSO that the imitators are gunning for your spot on top and aiming to knock you off.
Even though Willie says we're going to get "REALLL close and personal" with him on the 'Big Al' produced "I Can Only Be Me," no other song on the album does that. An undeniable feeling of flossin' permeates the air throughout, which means for Pretty Willie his life is already as 'Pretty' as it can get. He even rubs it in on "Lil Piggy" with a hook based on a well known nursery rhyme, with a whole new twist:
"This Lil' Piggy got money money
Y'all lil' piggies got none
This Lil' Piggy eat shrimp and steak
While them other lil' piggies want some"
Haterism has no place here, since plenty of rappers flaunt their success in big ballin' fashion and always have since rap's earliest days. What does apply here is the fact that Pretty might be more highly regarded if he was Nelly-Come-Early instead of Willie-Come-Lately. This stylistic similarity in fact be unavoidable since they came from the same town, but when the two are compared Willie suffers a bit. He spends so much time talking about how 'Pretty' he and his life are that he forgets to inject the humor and fun into his raps fellow St. Louis denizen Nelly does, which goes a long way toward explaining his popularity beyond the style and the beats. Willie does have both, but that alone can't carry this album – which it should also be noted is CENSORED and contains so little foul-mouthedness in it's debauchery it feels like a Disney-ized porno movie. This does make a difference when you're rapping, because you're using words to paint a picture, and the picture Willie paints is that he's a great pretender to the throne, but he's certainly not the King.
Pretty WillieUniversal Music Group
Previous ArticleBlackalicious :: Blazing Arrow
Next ArticleAnti-Pop Consortium :: Arrhythmia
Cap One: Through the Eyes of a Don
Mr. S August 29, 2000
Hitman Sammy Sam :: The Step Daddy
Pastor Troy :: Universal Soldier
Ali :: Heavy Starch
Steve 'Flash' Juon May 21, 2002
504 Boyz :: Ballers
Sampa the Great :: As Above, So Below


text:
Former driver Volochkova has refused to apologize for stealing money
The man went towards the ballet dancer. Anastasia was ready to close my eyes to the fact that her worker Alexander Skirtach appropriated large sums of money. She wished he had the courage to apologize for the faults.
Yesterday, August 28, program "Let them talk" was devoted to the conflict Anastasia Volochkova with driver Alexander Skitaca. Famous dancer of the accused man that he is, polzovalis her trust, appropriated large sums of money. However, the former subordinate of the actress does not recognize his guilt and tries to justify himself.
Today presenter Dmitry Borisov tried to understand the complicated case. As it turned out, Alexander had a personal driver. Before Skirtach worked as a lawyer, but after he was ruined, did not indulge in familiar comfort. And if all day he carried Anastasia on her business, from his home to the mansion Volochkova he has ridden as a passenger, and it was driven by a hired chauffeur. A man named Ivan came to the Studio and told about some aspects of the work. It turned out that it was asked to buy drugs, which the male then hocus Volochkova. Moreover, he said that the case involved a wife Skirtach Sonia.
"This is his wife directly told me. I was asked to buy psychotropic drug. I thought it was Sonia, she was always stressed out, furious. I found. I thought for his wife Alexandra. There is one such pharmacy where you can buy without a prescription," – said the man.
Anastasia confirmed that at certain points felt bad. She also remembered that Alexander had insisted on her coming home, the doctors and the drip. But then the dancer said that her debt to the clinic amounted to 42 thousand rubles. Volochkova was outraged, because she gave money to the driver so he paid for the services of physicians. Alexander strongly denied these allegations.
"I was saved by the fact that you had access only to USD but to the ruble no," Anastasia admitted.
Volochkova outraged that Alexander lacks the fortitude to apologize for the caused sufferings. She admitted that not even waiting for a refund from the old driver. Dmitry Borisov said to the man with the question whether he is going to settle the conflict with the ballerina.
"So I have Anastasia's mother asked forgiveness. But after she started to threaten children, audio is, the statement is. What I got was a beating – is that okay? What forgiveness?" – asked a former driver.
Anastasia was horrified by what he heard words. She refuted the statements of men about the threats to his family.
Famous violinist Dmitry Kogan has died of cancer
Valeria shared the details of the rehearsal of "the New idol"
Canelino.com Celebrity News


Terrinoth is a land of forgotten greatness and lost legacies. Once ruled by the Elder Kings who called upon mighty magics to perform great deeds and work marvels, the land has suffered greatly at the hands of its three great foes; the undead armies of Waiqar the Betrayer, the demon-possessed hordes of the bloodthirsty Uthuk Y`llan, and the terrifying dragons of the Molten Heath. Many of its great cities have been cast down into ruins, and many wondrous secrets and powerful artifacts have been lost. For hundreds of years, Terrinoth slipped into gloom and decay. But, heroes arise just when their lands need them the most. Courageous adventurers brave the ruins of past ages and the foul creatures within to uncover the treasures of their ancestors. A sourcebook for the Genesys Roleplaying System, Realms of Terrinoth explores the world of Mennara featured in Runewars: The Miniatures Game, Legacy of Dragonholt, Descent, and Runebound, covering the many races, weapons, gear, and careers that can be discovered in the embattled realm of Terrinoth.


text:
\subsection{Introduction}

In string theory, when considered as a framework for unifying gravity
and quantum mechanics, the fundamental strings are naturally thought
of as Planck size objects. At much lower energies, such as the typical
weak or strong interaction scales, the strings have lost all their
internal structure and behave just as ordinary point-particles. The
physics in this regime is therefore accurately described in terms of
ordinary local quantum field theory, decoupled from the planckian
realm of all string and quantum gravitational physics. The existence
of this large separation of scales has often been used as an argument
against the potential predictive power or even the potential reality
of string theory. However, as we will argue in this letter, there
are a number of recent insights and ideas that suggest a rather more
optimistic scenario, in which string physics may have visible
consequences at much lower energies scales than assumed thus far.  The
two particular recent developments that we wish to combine are:\\

\noindent
(i) {\sc The AdS/CFT correspondence}

The basic example here is the proposed duality between four-dimensional
${\cal N}$ =4 SYM theory and type II B string theory on $AdS_{5} \times
S^{5}$ geometry
\begin{equation}
ds^{2}\,\ =\,\ e^{-2y/R}\,\ {\bf {\it ds}}_{4}^{2}\,\ +\,\ dy^{2}\,\
+R^{2}d\Omega _{5}^{2}  \label{adayes}
\end{equation}
Here ${\bf {\it ds}}_4^2 = dx_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}^2$ denotes the flat four-dimensional
metric and
\begin{equation}
\label{radius}
R^{2}=\alpha'\sqrt{4\pi N g_{s}}\
\end{equation}
with $g_{s}= g_{ym}^2$ the type IIB string coupling \cite{jm}
\cite{jm2}. In this AdS/CFT dictionary, the
coordinate $y$ needs to be thought of as parametrizing the four-dimensional
scale: two SYM excitations related by a scale transformation
\begin{equation}
x_{{\!\!{}_{/\!/}}}\rightarrow e^{\lambda }x_{{\!\!{}_{/\!/}}}
\label{scaletr}
\end{equation}
translate on the AdS-side into two excitations concentrated around
different locations in the $y$-direction related by a translation
\begin{equation}
y\rightarrow y+\lambda R.  \label{transl}
\end{equation}
This map thus provides a ``holographic'' projection of the physics of
the gauge theory (which can be thought of as living on the
AdS-boundary) onto the one higher-dimensional AdS space.

Truncating the AdS theory to $y$-values larger (or smaller) than some
finite value $y=y_{0}$ amounts to introducing an UV (or IR) cut-off in
the gauge theory \cite{susswit}.
In the strict continuum limit, however, the range of
$y$-values extends over the full real axis.  A consequence of this is
that, while the type II theory on the AdS-space contains gravity, the
dual conformal gauge theory on the boundary does not.  Modes of the
AdS gravitational field that extend all the way to the boundary
$y\rightarrow-\infty$ are not normalizable, and therefore do not
fluctuate.

The metric $ds^{2}$ has the rather striking property that for
sufficiently large $y$-values it differs from the four-dimensional
brane-metric ${\bf {\it ds}}_{4}^{2}$ by an exponentially large
``red-shift factor'' $e^{-2y/R}$ , that is, distances along the
$x_{{\!\!{}_{/\!/}}}$-directions are measured very differently by both
metrics. A most dramatic consequence of this that the fundamental IIB
strings, while still of Planck size when viewed by the full metric
$ds^{2}$, can become arbitrarily large when measured in terms
world-brane metric ${\bf {\it ds}}_{4}^{2}$, simply by moving to
larger $y$ values. The SYM interpretation of these large IIB strings
is that they represent the color-electric flux lines \cite{jm2}.

In principle this type of holographic correspondence can be
generalized to less symmetric gauge theories with non-zero
beta-functions and more complicated phase diagrams. The idea remains
the same, namely that $y$-translations in effect amount to
renormalization group transformations on the gauge theory
side. Beta-functions or symmetry breaking or other type of phase
transitions thus translate into a non-trivial $y$-dependence (e.g. in
the form of domain wall structures) of the metric, dilaton and other
fields relative to the $AdS_5$-background. \\

\noindent
(ii) {\sc Compactifications with a D3-brane world}

In a large class of type I string compactifications, the gauge theory
degrees of freedom in our four-dimensional world may be thought of as
bound to a (collection of) D3-brane(s). These 3-branes wrap our world
but are otherwise localized as point-like objects somewhere inside the
compactification manifold. Scenarios of this type have recently been
studied from various points of view, as in particular they seem to
offer some promising new avenues for addressing the gauge hierarchy
problem \cite{ahdd,rs}. Besides (perhaps) allowing for the possibility
of large extra dimensions \cite{ahdd}, a second new aspect of these
type of compactifications is that (due to the backreaction of the
D3-branes) various fields, such as the dilaton and in particular the
conformal factor of the four-dimensional metric, may acquire
non-trivial dependence on the compact coordinates.

An interesting example of this type of geometry was recently
considered by Randall and Sundrum in \cite{rs}.  In this set-up, the
four-dimensional conformal factor is found to depend exponentially on
the extra fifth coordinate $y$, precisely as in the AdS-geometry
(\ref{adayes}). A new ingredient, relative to the standard AdS
situation, is that in \cite{rs} the extra coordinate $y$ is chosen to
run over a finite (or semi-infinite) range. As a consequence, there
exists a normalizable gravitational collective mode, given by those
fluctuations of the metric $ds^2$ that preserve the form
(\ref{adayes}) but with ${\bf {\it ds}}_4^2$ replaced by a
(sufficiently slowly varying but otherwise) general four-dimensional
metric
\begin{equation
{\bf {\it ds}}_{4}^{2}={\bf {\it g}}_{\mu \nu }^{(4)}(x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}})
dx_{{\!\!{}_{/\!/}}}^{\mu
}dx_{{\!\!{}_{/\!/}}}^{\nu }.  \label{fourdee}
\end{equation}
Hence this collective mode behaves just as the ordinary graviton
of our four-dimensional world. In addition, due to the exponential
$y$-behavior of the graviton wave-function, a given object with
five-dimensional mass $m$ has an effective four-dimensional mass
$m_{{4}}$, that depends of its $y$-location via
\begin{equation}
\label{red}
m_{{4}}(y) = m e^{-y/R}
\end{equation}
In \cite{rs} the presence of this exponential red-shift factor (or
``warp factor'') was argued to provide a natural explanation of the
large mass hierarchies, such as between the weak and Planck scale.  \\

\noindent
{\sc Putting} (i) {\sc and} (ii) {\sc together}:\\
It seems natural to look for a way of combining these two ideas.
Concretely, one could ask the following two (probably equivalent)
questions:

\begin{itemize}
\item{Can the AdS/CFT type of dualities be extended to situations where
the radial AdS-coordinate is effectively compactified, and does this
compactifiation indeed automatically imply the presence of four-dimensional
gravity on the boundary?}
\item{Are there string compactification scenarios where a
compact slice of AdS-space appears as part of the compactification
geometry, and does the radial AdS coordinate then again
have a ``holographic'' interpretation as parametrizing the RG scale
of the four-dimensional theory?}
\end{itemize}

\noindent
In the following we will argue that both questions have a positive
answer, though the first one only for a (large but) finite set of
D3-brane charges $N$. Consequently, the compactified AdS-geometry will
be a good approximation provided the string coupling $g_s$ is not too
small compared to $1/N$.  In the concluding section we will address
some of the possible consequences of this new view on string
compactification.

\figuur{orient}{11cm}{At the $U(N)$ symmetric point,
when $N$ D3-branes coincide, their backreaction produces a (compact)
$AdS_5 \times S^5$ sub-region, that can be glued into the $R^4 \times
T^6$ geometry.}

\subsection{AdS Compactification}

Let us start with considering the toy example
of a four-dimensional ${\cal N}$=4 supersymmetric world described
by the $T^6$ compactification of the type I superstring. Its low energy
effective description is given by ${\cal N}$=4 super-Yang-Mills theory,
with as maximal unbroken gauge symmetry group ${\cal G} = SO(32)$,
coupled to supergravity. In the following we will consider the
situation where this symmetry is broken down to an $U(N)$ sub-group
with $N\leq 16$.

By applying $T$-duality this type I string theory can be equivalently
described as an orientifold of type II string theory on $T^6$. In this
representation, there are $2^6 = 64$ orientifold planes located at all
the half-way points of the $T^6$. In addition, there are 32 D3-branes
inside the $T^6$ which are pairwise identified under the orientifold
${\bf Z}_2$-action \cite{jtasi}.  Hence it is possible for $N\leq16$
of these D3-branes to form a small cluster inside the $T^6$, and in
the limit where all $N$ coincide at the same point, the unbroken
$U(N)$ gauge symmetry appears.

At low energies in the uncompactified world, gravity effectively
decouples from the $U(N)$ SYM dynamics. Thus we can look for a
regime of parameters in which we can apply the AdS/CFT duality map
and obtain type II theory on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ as a good dual
low energy description. The main restriction (in order to be
able to trust the sigma-model approximation) is that the $AdS_5$
radius of curvature $R$, given in (\ref{radius}), needs to be
large compared to the string scale,
\begin{equation
\label{ineq}
g_s >\!\! > {1\over 4\pi N}.
\end{equation}
Hence, relative to the usual large $N$ context, we now have a somewhat
more limited control over the approximations involved in the duality
map.

Around the string scale $L_S$, open string effects will start to
modify the SYM dynamics. Let us choose the radial AdS-coordinate $y$
such that this string scale $L_S$ gets mapped to the region around
$y\simeq 0$. Then the $AdS_{5} \times S^5$-description is a valid
approximation for the low-energy regime $y>\!\! > R$.  Around $y\simeq
0$, on the other hand, we reach the transition region where the low
energy regime meets with the high energy regime described by orientifold of
type II on $T^6$. Our main new proposal is that these two regimes can
be consistently glued together into one single dual type II string
background.  In the following we will assume that the size of the
$T^6$ is bigger or of the order of the AdS-radius $R$ in (\ref{radius}).

As a first approximation, we can visualize the total target space of
this new type II theory as follows. We first cut out a small ball
around the D3-branes inside the $T^6$, such that its outside radius
coincides with the $S^5$ radius $R$ in (\ref{radius}). Then we replace
the inside of the ball by the $y\gsim 0$ region of $AdS_5 \times
S^5$. (See fig. 1).  It seems reasonable to assume that the resulting
total space can be smoothed out to obtain an exact consistent type II
background, and the end result of this procedure should be equivalent to
taking into account the gravitational backreaction of the D3-branes.

In a more complete treatment, we must also include the backreaction
of the 64 orientifold planes. These have a negative tension equal to
$-1/4$ times the D3-brane tension, which need to be taken into account.
we can write an explicit form for the background metric, by
starting from the general form
\begin{equation
\label{hades}
ds^2 = {1\over H(x_\perp)^{1/2}} \, {\bf \it ds}_4^2 \, + \,
H(x_\perp)^{1/2} \, dx_\perp^2.
\end{equation}
with ${\bf \it ds}_4^2 =
dx_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}^2$, and where $x_\perp$ denote the coordinates inside the
$T^6$. For simplicity, let us consider the most symmetric example
of the $SO(32)$ invariant point, where
all 16 D3-branes coincide with their 16 ${\bf Z}_2$ images at one
of the orientifold fixed points, say at $x_\perp \! = 0$.
Taking the $T^6$ to be an exact cube with period $R_c$, the harmonic
function $H(x_\perp)$ then takes the form
\begin{equation
H(x_\perp) = 1 + 4 \pi g_s (\alpha')^2 \Bigl[ f_D(x_\perp) -
f_O(x_\perp) \Bigr]
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation
f_D(x_\perp) = 2 \sum_{\vec{n} \in {\bf Z}^6} \;
{16\over |\vec{x}_\perp +\vec{n}{R}_c|^4} \,
\end{equation}
denotes the contribution of the 16 D3-branes and their ${\bf Z}_2$-image, and
\begin{equation
f_O =
2 \sum_{\vec{n} \in {\bf Z}^6}  {1/4 \over |\vec{x}_\perp
+ {1\over 2}\vec{n} R_c|^4}
\end{equation}
that of the 64 orientifold planes located at all the half-way points
inside the $T^6$.  In the region close to the D3-branes at $x_\perp = 0$,
the above geometry indeed reduces to the $AdS_5 \times S^5$ metric
(\ref{adayes}).\footnote{For the $SO(32)$ symmetric example
at hand, the $S^5$ must in fact be replaced by its orientifold
$S^5/{\bf Z}_2$.  We further notice that close to the other
orientifold planes the function $H$ goes through 0; in this horizon
region, however, $\alpha'$ and non-perturbative string-corrections are
expected to play an important role.}

The present minimal example (of the simple $T^6$ orientifold
compactification) can straightforwardly be generalized to less
symmetric theories obtained e.g. by applying further orbifoldings.  In
this way one can find holographic duals to a large class of
four-dimensional type I string theories, typically with a reduced
number of (or even zero) supersymmetries.  The total target space of
the type II duals should all describe consistent compactifications of
the $AdS_5\times S^5$ geometry. The number of such consistent
AdS-compactifications, however, is constrained by the usual tadpole
cancelation conditions. In particular, one needs to make sure that the
RR flux $N$ that escapes the AdS-region gets absorbed by the
appropriate number of branes and orientifold planes present in the
compact outside region. Consistent solutions to this condition can be
found only for a finite set of $N$-values. Still, relative to our
minimal set-up, one can significantly extend the range of allowed
values for $N$, up to values of the order of $N \simeq 10^3$ or
larger, by considering more general orbifold spaces. Hence in this
more general setting, the restriction (\ref{ineq}) in effect just
amounts to $g_s >\!\! > 10^{-4}$, which leaves a quite sufficient
parameter range for which we can trust our approximations.

\subsection{Gravitational coupling}

This geometric set-up is now indeed very similar to that of \cite{rs},
where our $T^6$ region with the orientifold planes plays the role as
the positive tension brane in their scenario.  Several of the same
conclusions apply. In particular, we must find a collective graviton
mode of the exact same type as described in the Introduction, that
couples precisely as the four-dimensional graviton to the boundary
field theory. In our case this result was of course expected from the
start, since the boundary theory is in fact the type I string theory
on $T^6 \times {\bf R}^4$, that also contains a gravitational closed
string sector.

The relation between the four-dimensional Planck length
$L_{pl}$ and the 10-dimensional one $L_{\! {}_{10}}$ takes the
usual form \begin{equation (L_{\! {}_{10}})^8 = (L_{pl})^2 \, V_6 \end{equation} where $V_6$ is the
appropriately measured volume of the $T^6$.  Plugging the form
(\ref{hades}) into the ten-dimensional action gives
\begin{equation
{1\over (L_{\!
{}_{10}})^8 }\int \! d^{10} x \,   {\textstyle \sqrt{-g}}{}_{\! {}_{10}} \,
 R_{\! {}_{10}}
= {V_6 \over (L_{\! {}_{10}})^8} \int \! d^{4} x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}} \,
 {\textstyle \sqrt{-g}}{}_{{4}} R_{{4}}
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation
V_6 = \int_{\strut T^6} \! d^6
x_\perp \, H(x_\perp).
\end{equation}
Notice that, in spite of the fourth order
pole in $H(x_\perp)$ near the branes, this integral indeed yields a
finite answer.

The collective mode of the 10-dimensional metric that produces the
four-dimensional graviton again has the same shape as the full metric,
as given in eqn (\ref{hades}), with $ds_{4}^2$
a general four-metric (though sufficiently slowly varying with
$x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}$).  The shape of the graviton wave-function the AdS-region
decays with $y$ as $e^{-2y/R}$. This exponential factor is reflects
the fact that the coupling of matter to the graviton becomes weaker
and weaker at lower and lower scales.
Indeed, we can extract the strength of the coupling to matter by inserting
the variation $\delta g^{(4)}_{\mu\nu} = h_{\mu\nu}$ of the four-metric
$ds_4^2$ into the the ten-metric (\ref{hades}). The corresponding
variation of the 10-d matter action reads
\begin{equation
\int \! d^{10} x \,  {\textstyle \sqrt{-g}}{}_{\! {}_{10}} \,
\delta g_{\! {}_{10}}^{\mu\nu} \,
T_{\mu\nu} \,
= \, \int \! d^4 x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}} \, h^{\mu\nu} \, \overline{T}_{\mu\nu}
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation
\overline{T}_{\mu\nu}(x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}) =
\int \! d^6 x_\perp \, H(x_\perp)\, T_{\mu\nu}.
\end{equation}
Inserting on the right-hand side the energy-momentum tensor
(here all indices contracted with the ten-metric $ds^2$)
\begin{equation
T_{\mu\nu} = {m \over \sqrt{- g_{\! {}_{10}}}}\, \int \! d\tau\;\,
{\dot{x}_\mu\dot{x}_\nu \over \sqrt { \dot{x}^2}} \;\,
\delta_{{}_{10}}(x \! - \!
x(\tau))
\end{equation}
of a 10-d point-particle, with mass $m$ located at a given
location $y_\perp$, gives for the effective 4-d energy-momentum
tensor (with all indices contracted with the four-metric $ds_4^2$)
\begin{equation
\overline{T}_{\mu\nu} = {m \over  H(x_\perp)^{1/4}} \, \int \! d\tau\;\;
{\dot{x}_\mu\dot{x}_\nu \over \sqrt { \dot{x}^2}} \;\;
\delta_{{4}}(x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}} \! -\! x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}(\tau))
\end{equation}
So the four-dimensional mass depends on $x_\perp$ as
\begin{equation
m_{4}(x_\perp) =  {m \over H(x_\perp)^{1/4}}.
\end{equation}
This is the expected red-shift effect; close to the D3 branes it reduces
to (\ref{red}).

\subsection{RG scale as a real extra dimension}

Though familiar and standard, the appearance of both open and closed
string dynamics in type I string theory is still a deep fact. The two
are indeed intertwined in an intricate way, since when one
starts including the open string quantum effects, there is no
obviously unique way of separating the open string loop diagrams from
closed string tadpoles. This very subtlety of course lies at the heart
of the D-brane correspondence between gauge theory and gravity.
A microscopic reconstruction of the reasoning of \cite{jm}
indeed shows that the appearance of the curved AdS-metric (\ref{adayes}),
as describing the near-horizon region close to the D3-branes, must be
thought of as a cumulative consequence of open string quantum effects.

Concretely, one can imagine setting up a renormalization group flow,
where via a Fischler-Susskind type mechanism, the effect of
integrating out successive momentum shells in the open string channel
gets absorbed into an appropriate redefinition of the world-sheet
sigma-model couplings.  Roughly speaking, in this procedure the slice
of the AdS target space in between two values $y_{1}$ and $y_{2}$ gets
created from the open string dynamics in between the corresponding
energy scales. Eventually, after all open strings are integrated out,
its planar diagrams have been replaced by a stretched-out closed
string worldsheet, moving inside the semi-infinite AdS-throat
geometry. Thus, in a quite precise sense, the AdS closed strings
provide the long sought after dual representation of the gauge theory
planar graphs \cite{jm} \cite{jm2}.

If instead one runs this renormalization group flow from the string
scale down to a certain finite length scale $L$ (for example the weak
scale), the resulting target space consists of a compact slice of AdS
bounded by the Planck region $y \simeq 0$ on one side and by an
effective D3-brane located at $y \simeq R \log L/L_{S}$ on the other.
The D3-brane hosts the remaining sector of low energy open strings\footnote{Due to the redshift, these open strings have acquired a
renormalized tension $\alpha'_{ef\!f} \simeq \sqrt{Ng_{s}}\; L^{2}$.
The energy of a string with this tension stretched over a distance $L$
reproduces a force comparable to the $1/L$ Coulombic force of the SYM
model.}, describing the physics at distance scales larger than
$L$.  Sub-planckian physics thus happens far inside the AdS-tube,
and from this perspective the $T^6$-orientifold region merely acts as
a kind of sounding board, providing some appropriate boundary
condition in the far away planckian regime.  Via high energy
experiments on the D3-brane world-volume, however, one can still
generate quantum fluctuations that extend to smaller values of $y$ and
thereby probe the corresponding planckian geometry.

\medskip

What new lesson can we extract from this? It is clear that, relative
to the standard notion of an extra dimension, the $y$-direction is
rather unusual. Normally one would expect that space-like separated
events are independent, while here we are learning that
$y$-translations are in effect scale transformations. Therefore, to
avoid over-counting of the number of degrees of freedom, we thus
indeed need to
adopt the hypothesis that physics that happens far out in the
$y$-direction is not really independent from that, say, at the
boundary region $y \simeq 0$, but rather a ``holographic image'' of
physics at $y\simeq 0$ happening at a corresponding scale $L(y)= L_S
e^{y/R}$.\footnote{Because of this holographic identification, the
distinction made in \cite{rs} between a ``hidden'' and ``visible''
brane is no longer applicable in our context.  Also the (continuum) KK
tower of gravitational excitations must be reinterpreted as actually
representing low energy SYM degrees freedom in the boundary theory.}
This is the familiar dictionary of the AdS/CFT
correspondence \cite{gkp}\cite{wads}.

Though quite miraculous, in itself this holographic equivalence
doesn't teach us anything new yet, as it simply points to some
redundance in the description. We could for example insist on
describing all the physics as happening just at $y\simeq 0$, and
consider the holographic map as some purely mathematical
equivalence. Relative to the standard AdS/CFT situation, however, we
now have four-dimensional gravity as an essential new ingredient. In
first approximation the gravity coupling seems quite consistent with
holography, since (as seen from the previous section) it looks like to
a relatively standard Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction. The
holographic reconstruction does, however, strictly amount to a
non-trivial redistribution of matter, and since gravity is still in
the game, in the end we do need to specify which energy-momentum
distribution acts as a source for the gravitational field.

The new consequence of this holographic view of gravity, therefore, is
that the renormalization group scale is promoted to a real physical
extra direction. Concretely, this means that for type I string theory
the gravitational energy-momentum in our four-dimensional world really
spreads out into the extra $y$-direction, indeed similar to a
holographic, or in a perhaps more accurate analogy, chromatographic
image.

\subsection{Concluding remarks}

Finally, let us try to draw a few obvious and less obvious conclusions.
We begin with \\

\noindent
{\it The Planck vs large N QCD string}

A first striking property of this new scenario is that the planckian
type II string and the low energy electric flux strings are in essence
made up from one and the same object: the two are simply related by a
translation in the $y$-direction. Similarly, in more realistic type I
compactifications with QCD-like confining gauge sectors, one expects
to find glueball excitations that on the type II side correspond to
bound state solutions to the graviton wave-equation, localized
(possibly around some domain wall structure) far inside the
AdS-region. This is just like in the standard AdS/CFT correspondence.
However, the new ingredient here is that the bulk gravity (used for
representing the glueballs) and the gravity in the physical ``boundary
world'' are directly linked and produced by the same type II string.\\

\noindent
{\it Low energy string phenomenology}

The above set-up seems to open up the possibility of finding type II
string compactification scenarios that in effect bypass the quark and
gluon stage and immediately connect with the infra-red degrees of
freedom in terms of mesons, baryons, etc. More generally, instead of
the usual ``top-down'' approach to string phenomenology, one may
contemplate a rather different ``bottom-up'' philosophy.  Ideally, one
could first try to connect string theory with low-energy physics
(e.g. via standard non-compact AdS/CFT type technology and variations
thereof) and then afterwards introduce gravity by trying to look for
all possible consistent compactifications of this AdS-type space. Of
course, there are still important technical as well as conceptual
obstacles to deal with, such as supersymmetry breaking, unification,
massless moduli fields, and allowing $N$ to be small rather than
large, just to name a few. \\

\noindent
{\it The gauge hierarchy problem}

Perhaps the deepest consequence of the above picture is that the
renormalization group scale parameter of the four-dimensional world
gets promoted to a real physical extra dimension. In this way all
relative mass hierarchies, such as those between the weak scale and
the Planck scale, are translated into relative separations in this
extra direction. Since the conformal factor decays exponentially with
$y$ with a planckian decay length, separations of say 50 or 100 times
the Planck length generate scale factors as large as $10^{15}$ or
$10^{30}$ \cite{rs}.  While perhaps one could argue that this gives a
natural explanation of the large mass separations in our world,
without giving a good reason of why string theory would necessarily
choose this type of compactification geometry, one cannot claim it
really solves the hierarchy problem. Instead, it seems more sensible
to turn the conclusion around, and consider the existence of a large
mass hierarchy as evidence supporting this type of compactification
scenario as its most natural geometric realization.\\

\noindent
{\it The cosmological constant problem}

The most vexing hierarchy problem is of course that of the
cosmological constant. In essence it arises as a clash between
experiment and the theoretical knowledge of general relativity and the
renormalization group. There are several ingredients in the present
set-up, however, such as (i) the reinterpretation of the RG scale as a
holographic extra dimension, (ii) the intimate connection between the
RG flow and the AdS-gravity equations of motion, (iii) the presence of
a planckian size negative cosmological constant inside the AdS-region,
that suggest a rather new perspective on this problem.

In this connection, it seems interesting to note that a naive AdS
holographic description of the universe (as a boundary theory with
finite temperature equal to that of the microwave background)
identifies the total geometry with that of an AdS black hole
\cite{ewtemp} with a horizon radius of about a millimeter, and thus
with associated entropy of the order of $10^{90}$. A suggestive
coincidence is that this horizon size is of similar magnitude as the
thermal wavelength of the radiation itself, which perhaps indicates
that holography may provide a link between the size and the total
entropy of the universe \cite{erik}.

Finally, we notice that this view of the universe as an AdS black hole
has the striking consequence that any pair of points
can be connected via a path of at most a couple of millimeter
length. Indeed, one can simply first travel close to the black hole
horizon, traverse the required distance in the $x_{{}_{\!\!{}/\!/}}$-direction,
and then go back. This does not mean, however, that one can travel at
super-luminous speeds, since the travel time (as measured in our
world) is delayed correspondingly by the red-shift factor.\\

\bigskip

\noindent
{\sc Acknowledgements}

This work is supported by NSF-grant 98-02484, a Pionier fellowship of
NWO, and the Packard foundation. I would like to thank Costas Bachas,
Micha Berkooz, Jan de Boer, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Savas Dimopoulos, Lisa
Randall, Savdeep Sethi, Raman Sundrum, Erik Verlinde, and E. Witten
for very helpful discussions.\\

\bigskip

\bigskip
\renewcommand{\Large}{\large}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


BCMNP and NFDC work together to keep low protein food prices as low as possible. Some manufacturers recently increased their food prices and NFDC had to increase their price. There are many brands and products that did not experience a price increase. Please contact your dietitian for suggestions on food choices and ideas to maximize your food budget.?
Yes. Blood dot cards do expire and the laboratory is unable to process samples collected on expired cards. Please make sure to check the expiry dates on the top left hand corner of the cards you have at home. ?


text:
Q: NumberFormatException in Location.DistanceBetween result i create location-based application. within the application there is a method to get user position. Some of users encountered that the app crash when trying to get user position. below is my get user position method.
// Method to get user position
public void getUserPosition(double latitude, double longitude){
    // Check distance between user position and default position
    Location.distanceBetween(latitude, longitude,
            mUtils.ARG_DEFAULT_LATITUDE, mUtils.ARG_DEFAULT_LONGITUDE, mCheckDistances);

    // If the distance is more than maximum distance, then use default position
    if (Double.valueOf(String.format("%.2f", (mCheckDistances[0] / 1000))) > mUtils.ARG_MAX_DISTANCE) {
        mCurrentLocation = new Location("");
        mCurrentLocation.setLatitude(mUtils.ARG_DEFAULT_LATITUDE);
        mCurrentLocation.setLongitude(mUtils.ARG_DEFAULT_LONGITUDE);
        mCurrentLatitude = mCurrentLocation.getLatitude();
        mCurrentLongitude = mCurrentLocation.getLongitude();

        if(mLocationResultStatus == Activity.RESULT_CANCELED){
            showSnackbar(getString(R.string.gps_not_enabled_alert));
        }else {
            showSnackbar(getString(R.string.distance_alert));
        }

    }else{
        mCurrentLatitude = latitude;
        mCurrentLongitude = longitude;
    }

    // Move camera to user position
    CameraUpdate cameraUpdate = CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLngZoom(
            new LatLng(mCurrentLatitude, mCurrentLongitude),
            mUtils.ARG_DEFAULT_MAP_ZOOM_LEVEL);
    mMap.animateCamera(cameraUpdate);

}

and below is the error log,
java.lang.NumberFormatException: Invalid double: "12550,25"
at java.lang.StringToReal.invalidReal(StringToReal.java:63)
at java.lang.StringToReal.initialParse(StringToReal.java:164)
at java.lang.StringToReal.parseDouble(StringToReal.java:282)
at java.lang.Double.parseDouble(Double.java:301)
at java.lang.Double.valueOf(Double.java:338)
at com.pongodev.locazee.activities.ActivityHome.getUserPosition(ActivityHome.java:675)
at com.pongodev.locazee.activities.ActivityHome.onLocationChanged(ActivityHome.java:1031)
at com.google.android.gms.location.internal.zzi$zzb.handleMessage(Unknown Source)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:145)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6837)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1404)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1199)

The error log says that Invalid double but the result of Location.distanceBetween is float. is there anyone can help me to fix this out? many thanks.

A: You can cast the float to a double by doing (double) floatName but this will cause round-off error so don't expect precision.

A: The actual error is with your value :  12550,25
the value should be like 12550.25 not 12550,25.
If you want to convert any string to double, that string should contain only numbers and "." not anything else.

A: This looks like a localization issue when formatting your string. Take a look at this post: DecimalFormat and Double.valueOf()


text:
Corvallis Activists Bring #StopLine3 Art to Farmers' Market
Correction: The Defund Line 3 posters will be available next Saturday, August 14. Our original article had the wrong date.
Resistance against construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in northern Minnesota has been gaining nationwide momentum, in no small part thanks to numerous climate activist groups turning to arts- and culture-based tactics to educate and engage their own communities on the issue. Spanning multiple states and cities — including Corvallis — these tactics were first made widely possible through the collaboration of NDN Collective and Stop the Money Pipeline, which co-organized a #DefundLine3 Arts Visibility Week of Action during the week of July 12.
The week of action was a call for widespread, hyper-visible solidarity with Indigenous water protectors and allies who continue to put their bodies, voices, and futures on the frontlines in their efforts to stop the continued development of Line 3, which would desecrate the ancestral homelands, waters, and lifeways of various Indigenous nations in its path.
Ten Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from across the climate justice movement contributed poster designs for people to use during the week of action. These posters were enclosed in newspaper sets, 6,000 of which were printed and shipped to over 400 climate justice groups and activists throughout the US — one of them being 350 Corvallis.
"I asked for three newspapers and they sent me 40," said local environmental activist Patti Warner, a member of 350 Corvallis.
The newspapers included tips to help spread these images in public spaces, such as displaying them in the windows of houses and businesses, wheatpasting them near the banks funding and profiting from Line 3, turning them into protest signs, or hosting pop-up art shows. The latter was the first action to be taken up in Corvallis.
The Clothesline Art Show
On July 14, Warner, along with fellow environmental activists Karen Kos and Larry Weymouth — both of whom traveled to the Treaty People Gathering in early June — hosted an informal "clothesline art show" at the Central Park gazebo from 12:00 to 9 p.m. Posters were clothespinned to string tied around the poles of the gazebo with the artists' statements displayed next to them. Additional copies of the posters were available for passerby to freely take, as were yard signs that featured poster designs on both sides.
Warner was able to create these by reusing 45 leftover yard signs from Energize Corvallis, as well as yard signs promoting the election campaigns of Sami Al-AbdRabbuh and Luhui Whitebear during this year's Corvallis School Board race. Not only practical, it proved to be a creative alternative to the restrictions Corvallis has in place that limit how visual art can be displayed around the city.
"We didn't go wheat pasting all over Corvallis since they have so many laws and regulations in place for posting signs," said Warner.
Leading up to the week of action, Stop the Money Pipeline and NDN Collective hosted an art deployment training webinar, where participants heard from artists David Solnit and Cy Wagoner, the Creative Resistance Coordinator of NDN Collective, about different art-based tactics and ideas to utilize in their communities.
"It was cool because nobody else [in the U.S.] started putting the posters on yard signs," said Warner. "And [at the] art activist webinar a few days before the week of action… David brought up, 'Someone in Corvallis decided to put the posters on yard signs!'"
Arts Exhibit at the Farmers' Market
With a handful of posters left over from the art show, Warner pasted a copy of each design onto cardboard to make a triptych, which made its first public appearance at a demonstration held in front of the Wells Fargo building on 3rd and Monroe on July 18 — the final day of the week of action. Thanks to Warner's efforts, however, the posters have continued to turn up in Corvallis, albeit this time in a more visible — and casual — community space.
On July 24 and 31, Warner's triptych — equipped with maps, a list of recommended actions, and President Biden's phone number — made the rounds again at the Farmers Market. Curious onlookers asked questions about the posters and were provided information by Warner about the Line 3 pipeline, including the sacred lands and waters it threatens.
One of the onlookers was Shiggoap, an Alaskan Native of Ts'msyen, Haida, and Tlingit descent who was visiting Corvallis over the weekend of July 24 with his two children.
"I'm from Southeast Alaska, and we have the exact same issues," said Shiggoap. "Cruise companies dump all their waste in the waters. In northern Alaska, oil companies are threatening the tundra and caribou, which is important to my relatives up there. And mining companies are threatening our rivers and salmon habitats."
Art as Storytelling
Salmon are a sacred cultural resource for many Indigenous nations across the Pacific Northwest, including the Nez Perce or Niimiipu people, who, on July 29, returned to and blessed part of their ancestral homelands in Joseph, Oregon, which they were forcefully driven from more than 100 years ago by the US Army, which sent the Nez Perce people to a reservation in Idaho.
Earlier that month, the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Banock Tribes called on President Biden to act on their ongoing efforts to petition for the removal of four dams along the lower Snake River, the Columbia River's longest tributary, to restore once-abundant salmon populations.
Much like the arts visibility week of action, five Indigenous artists — including Aly McKnight of the Shoshone-Banock Tribe — were commissioned by IllumiNative to create pieces that tell a story of the urgent need to protect at-risk sacred sites, including Anishinaabe territories threatened by Line 3. These artworks were deployed to support and amplify the Red Road to D.C., a cross-country journey in which a 25-foot-long, 5,000-pound totem pole carved and painted with imagery illuminating the struggles that Indigenous communities face as a result of environmental desecration — including the loss of salmon and other culturally important wildlife — travelled from the Lummi Nation in Bellingham, Washington all the way to Washington D.C.
According to the Red Road to D.C.'s website, the totem, which arrived at the country's capital on July 29, made multiple stops along the way "for ceremony and live-streamed events with communities leading efforts to protect sacred places under threat from resource extraction and industrial development." These stops included Snake River, Bears Ears, Chaco Canyon, Standing Rock, and the Shell City Campground in Menahga, Minnesota, which saw an increasing number of anti-Line-3 activists gather for a "Women for the Rivers" rally in mid-July.
On July 25, the totem was met and blessed by water protectors at Shell River, which is currently being drilled for Line 3 to cross under. Among these water protectors was Trish Weber, a Corvallis-based Board member of Honor the Earth who, along with six other women — including prominent Anishinaabe activist Winona LaDuke — were arrested on July 19 for blocking an Enbridge easement along the river by chaining themselves to lawn chairs.
"As the pole travels it draws lines of connection — honoring, uniting and empowering communities working to protect sacred places," the site says.
Staying Engaged
Warner will continue to display her triptych at the Farmers' Market over the next coming weekends and offer information to anyone who's interested in learning more. She has informed us that she will have 20 extra copies of the Defund Line 3 posters for people to take during next Saturday's market, though anyone can always download them from the digital #DefundLine3 Art Kit, which also includes other printable resources such as zines and songsheets. In addition, the kit contains instructions on other arts-based tactics for community engagement, including painting street murals, creating stencils and virtual banners, and using chalk art.
For more updates from the frontlines on the ongoing struggle to stop Line 3, follow Giniw Collective and Northfield Against Line 3.
Another countrywide day of action to call out the greenwashing of major Line-3-funding banks is scheduled to take place on Friday, August 13. Stay tuned to 350 Corvallis' calendar for pending information on a local demonstration.
By Emilie Ratcliff
Previous ArticleCHEERS & JEERS: Give Peace a Chance, Buy Something
Next ArticleWhat's Burning Where in Oregon


Sharpe coined the name Yugambeh–Bundjalung as a cover term for a group of dialects from north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland (2005) and produced a dictionary (on CDROM) of Yugambeh–Bundjalung in 2013. Reported by the Geytenbeeks with only the dialect name and location recorded (in Crowley & Sharpe, 1996:33). The name Wudjehbal (E96) is derived from 'those who say wudjeh "you singular absolutive" (Rocky River)' ... ' (2001:7). See also: Birihn E72; Casino language E73; Ngarabal E92; Dinggabal E16.1; Galibal E15; Geynyan D36; Gidhabal E14; Mananjahli E76; Minyangbal E18; Nerang Creek language E77; Nganduwal E78; Ngarahgwal E79; Nyangbal E75; Wahlubal E16.2; Wehlubal E80; Wiyabal E16 and Yugambeh E17. Documentation for Bundjalung E12 may be relevant.
Crowley, Terry and Margaret Sharpe. 1996. Yugambeh-Bundjalung dialects. In An Introduction to the Yugambeh-Bundjalung language and its dialects. Armidale : The author.
Sharpe, Margaret. 1985. An introduction to the Bundjalung language and its dialects. Armidale: Armidale College of Advanced Education.
Sharpe, Margaret. 2005. Grammar and texts of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung dialect chain in Eastern Australia. München: Lincom Europa.


Annette Buchanan Perkins went to be with our Lord on April 27, 2014 at the age of 99. She was born on September 14, 1914 to Fannie (Hook) and Verner Buchanan who preceded her in death. On June 6, 1932 she married Arthur Perkins who preceded her in death in 1993. Her sisters May Etta Rottgering and Magdalene Kell also preceded her in death. Annette is survived by her daughter, Andolene Inman, husband Thomas, granddaughter Jennifer and grandson Terry and his wife Jennifer and three great-grandsons. Also by several nieces and nephews. Visitation will be at Morrow Funeral Chapel in Kevil at 9:00am May 1st with funeral services to follow at 10:00am. Burial will be at Bethel Cemetery in Gage. Annette lived in the Kevil and Gage community all of her life until her last 7 ½ years to be near her daughter and family in Springfield, MO. Annette enjoyed her Kentucky farm, working 32 years in the Ballard Memorial High School cafeteria and the company of many friends and loved ones. Annette was the oldest and longest member of Kevil First Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family wishes donations to be made to the mission fund at Kevil First Baptist Church.
Becky A. Rollins, of Jackson, Mich., formerly of Wickliffe, died Thursday, April 24, 2014, at Allegiance Hospice Home in Jackson, Mich. Graveside service will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, 2014, at Wickliffe City Cemetery. Friends may call after 1 p.m. at Milner & Orr Funeral Home of Wickliffe. Other arrangements were incomplete.
Brenda Gayle Scruggs, 66, of Madisonville, passed away Monday, April 7, 2014 at her residence. She was born September 19, 1947 in Anna, Ill., to James Marshall Scruggs and Mary Gibson Scruggs. She was also preceded in death by one brother, Leslie Scruggs. Ms. Scruggs worked as a grant writer for Madisonville Community College. She was a member of McKendree United Methodist in Kevil, Ky. She started her teaching career in Ballard County, Ky. She also taught school in Sikeston, Mo. She is survived by one brother, Tom Scruggs of Paducah, Ky. Memorial services were held Tuesday, April 29, 2014, at McKendree United Methodist in Kevil, Ky. and at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, 2014, at Madisonville Community College John H. Gray building room C12. Burial will take place in McKendree Cemetery. The family requested that attendees wear UK attire to the memorial services in honor of Ms. Scruggs. Memorial contributions may be made to: the Hopkins County Humane Society; or the McKendree Cemetery Fund, 2860 McKendree Church Road, Kevil, KY 42053.


Hope didn't quite understand why she let her best friend Mayra talk her into going to the last football game of the season.
As a matter of fact Hope didn't even like football. Maybe the only reason she agreed to go was that Jason was playing.
At a height of 5'11 Jason was the quarterback for Lakeview High School. He had broad shoulders light brown eyes that were almost hazel, short, curly, black, hair, and tan skin.
Hope had crushed on Jason since she saw him on her first day in Lakeview but she believed he'd never notice someone as plain looking as her.
Jason never liked looking up at the bleachers before a game, that always made him more nervous than necessary. For some reason on that last game of the season he felt a strong urge to turn. He felt something greater than him asking him to look, at what he wasn't sure.
When he did finally look he caught sight of what he thought was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Where had this girl come from? He was sure he'd never seen her before yet there was something familiar about her.
He felt attracted by her. He wasn't exactly sure what it was about her but he'd have to find out. He needed to get closer.
While Hope was talking to Mayra she felt she was being watched. She wasn't sure what to think of it at first. Should she even pay attention to it?
On the other hand Jason couldn't be sure if the brunette sitting in the bleachers was looking at him or at someone else from the team. He turned around him to check if anyone else was looking up at her but found no one.
Hope kept staring towards the football players while Mayra kept talking.
"Hope I'm talking to you are you even listening?" she asked.
Startled Hope turned to her friend looking very annoyed with her obvious distraction.
"What are you staring at?" Mayra asked turning in the direction of the football field instantly understanding why Hope looked out of it. "Oh Hope you're looking at Jason again? Just talk to him already."
"Yeah i was looking at him," Hope started, "it's just that I thought he was looking this way but it was nothing. And i can't just go up to him and start a conversation."
Mayra looked at her friend then at the football field and saw Jason looking their way but before she could say anything the game started.
Soon the excitement of the game took over Mayra's mind and since her boyfriend Alex was also in the football team she let Jason slip her mind easily.
She was completely absorbed in the game that nothing else mattered.
The game was oddly exciting for Hope. She caught herself yelling and cheering for the Lakeview stallions a lot.
The game was finally over and the stallions beat the Riverdale bulldogs 35-21. Mayra left Hope alone to run and congratulate her boyfriend.
Hope was talking to some friends near the football field when she felt someone tap her on her back.
She had expected for Mayra to be standing right behind her but when she turned she couldnt believe her eyes. How was it possible?
Jason was standing where Hope had expected Mayra to be. He looked at her with a huge smile drawn on his face. She felt nervous with Jason so close to her since it had never happened before.
"Hi" he said looking at her. "I'm Jason"
"I know" Hope told him. "My name is Hope."
They stood looking at each other for a moment. It only took that moment for Jason to take a good look at Hope.
She was shorter than him, maybe 5'7 had hazel eyes long wavy brown hair and light brown skin. "How do you know who I am?" he asked.
"Well doesn't everyone know the who the quarterback is?" Hope asked smiling nervously.
They stared at each other not knowing what to say.
Jason felt strange he'd never been nervous around a girl before, after several more awkward moments he finally decided to speak.
"So umm... Hope. . . I was watching you earlier and I was wondering if maybe... umm idk you wanna go out to eat or the movies or something?"
Hope was a little shocked but after a little while she answered, "Umm yeah sure I-I-I'll give you my number."
They quickly exchanged numbers but before any of the two could say something Justin, Jason's twin brother walked over to take him away.
Although they were identical twin brothers Justin had lighter skin and green eyes. As both guys walked away to the locker room Jason promised to call or text her later.
Mayra who had been watching from a distance practically ran to Hope's side once the twins had walked away.
"Omg Hope what just happened? Did you guys just exchange numbers?"
"Yeah I think we did," Hope said excitedly.
They both started wondering why Jason had approached her all of a sudden. They sat talking for a while longer when Alex found them.
"Ready to go girls?" he asked both of them.
"Ready" the girls said in unison as they got up and followed him.
I am from moba also and cant wait till you get the second cool up cuz i really wanna know what is going to happen!
This page was created in 0.7627 seconds.


Today we celebrate a great feast of the Church that speaks directly to the spiritual challenges that we all face on a daily basis, both as particular people and as members of this parish community. For today we celebrate the presentation of the infant Jesus Christ, forty days after His birth, in the temple. The Theotokos and St. Joseph bring the young Savior there in compliance with the Old Testament law, making the offering of a poor family that could not afford a lamb, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the old man St. Simeon proclaims that this Child is the salvation "of all peoples, a light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." The aged prophetess St. Anna also recognizes Him as the fulfillment of God's promises.
Our epistle reading from Hebrews reminds us that the One brought into the temple that day is the Great High Priest Who offers Himself, Who becomes the Passover Lamb through Whom sin and death are destroyed so that we also may enter into the Heavenly Temple, into the very life of God. In ways that our minds cannot fully understand, Christ's offering and priesthood are eternal, as He now intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. He fulfills all the foreshadowing of the Old Testament to bring us through Him into the true Temple, the eternal Sanctuary of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Every day of our lives, in all that we say and do, we have the opportunity to join ourselves more deeply to Christ, to become more fully "partakers of the divine nature" whose lives are constant offerings to the Lord. He created us and all that is, and His salvation is the fulfillment of the entire universe. All that we must leave behind is our corruption, our sin and its sickening effects. Even as the person with a broken bone wants to get past the resulting pain and disability in order to regain health and strength, we want to do the same thing in every dimension of lives. The focus is not on legal judgment, but on the healing of our distorted, weakened selves and world.
A very important aspect of this healing that we have not talked about a great deal in our parish is the strength that we find through participation in the full liturgical life of the Church. By that I do not mean coming to the Divine Liturgy on Sunday and major feast days whenever possible, which is a fundamental practice of the Orthodox Christian life. At least for Sunday liturgy, we do that fairly well here at St. Luke. Instead, I want to draw your attention this morning to the two other services that we celebrate virtually every weekend, Great Vespers on Saturday evening and Matins on Sunday morning.
These services, along with others, are conducted daily in monasteries, but most parishes understandably serve them only on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We do so because of the great glory and dignity of Sunday as the day of resurrection, the day in which we celebrate Christ's resurrection. His High Priesthood shines forth in the Divine Liturgy of every Sunday, for it is through Him that we enter into the Heavenly Banquet, into the joy of the true Temple of the Kingdom of Heaven. And when we receive Communion, we are united with God in the most profound and intimate way possible. His Body and Blood truly become our own.
As we all know, deliberate preparation is in order each time that we receive the Eucharist. We must say the prayers of preparation; we must fast from food and drink; and we must take Confession on a regular basis and especially when we have a guilty conscience or are aware of having committed grave sin. None of us should ever take Communion for granted or fail to prepare ourselves as best we can. Whenever you have questions about anything related to taking Communion, just let me know.
Participation in Great Vespers is also very helpful preparation for the Sunday Divine Liturgy. It is actually the first service of Sunday, for in biblical times the day began with sundown the night before. Vespers is much simpler and less ornate than the Divine Liturgy, as it consists of prayers, hymns, readings and Psalms that recall our creation, our fall, and the shining of the "Gladsome Light" Jesus Christ Who rose victorious from the tomb. Portions of the service focus on the distinctive themes of that particular Sunday and prepare us to meditate upon them in preparation for Liturgy. Sometimes there are Old Testament readings, and the service usually lasts about an hour.
"Orthros" means "early dawn" and we pray at that time on Sundays because that is when the women went to the tomb of Christ and received the good news of His resurrection. "Matins" means "morning" and is simply another name for the service. On most Sundays, the service focuses on the resurrection. Each week, the priest reads one of eleven accounts from the gospels of Christ's appearances after His resurrection. The chanters sing one of the eight resurrection troparia and there are various other readings and chants that relate to the saints being commemorated and the season of the church year. We move from orthros into liturgy with the Great Doxology that begins "Glory to Thee, Who has shown us the light." That's when we turn up the lights and open the royal doors, for we are now entering through our Great High Priest into the great glory of the liturgy of the Kingdom of Heaven. The One who was taken to the temple as a baby now takes us into the true Temple, into heavenly worship of the Holy Trinity as He nourishes us with His Body and Blood.
If something is important to us, we prepare for it. The more we put into something, the more we get out of it. Attending vespers and matins prepares us to share in the great blessing of the Divine Liturgy and especially of receiving Communion. It will also strengthen our parish as a community, for at the very heart of the life of the Church is our worship, which is not limited to an hour and half on Sunday mornings. We do not have as many services as larger parishes with a full-time priest and more chanters and servers, but we do what we can. As your priest, I ask you to do what you can to strengthen your spiritual life and our collective entrance into the Heavenly Temple by coming to vespers and orthros whenever that is possible for you. You will find it to be a blessing in your life and not a major inconvenience.
Of course, some have health problems, transportation issues, and work schedules that make it impossible for them to do so with regularity; if so, pray at home. Most of us, however, could attend either service at least once a month. Rest assured that this is not some kind legal requirement and no one is taking roll; instead, it is an invitation to join ourselves as fully as we can to Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest Who wants us to share with Him in the joy of the Heavenly Temple. Sts. Simeon and Anna were prepared by years of prayer and fasting to meet Him in the Jerusalem temple, and now He makes it possible for us to meet Him in the Temple of Heaven, and even to dine at His table. There is no question that we all need to prepare for that, for we want the eyes of our hearts to be as open as possible to the "light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel," our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and honor, together with His Un-originate Father and the All-Holy, Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.


text:
'Fire Rhule' chant breaks out as Panthers drop 6th straight at home with 32-6 blowout loss to Bucs
by: Jesse Ullmann
CHARLOTTE, NC (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – In the final home game of what has turned into another tumultuous season for the Carolina Panthers, reigning Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers went home with a late Christmas gift.
Behind 232 yards on 18-of-30 passing from the 3-time NFL MVP, the Bucs defeated Carolina 32-6 Sunday at Bank of America Stadium, and with it clinched a playoff berth and an NFC South title, its first since 2007. With Sunday's loss, the Panthers have been officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Quarterback Sam Darnold, who the Panthers (5-10) signed in the offseason, was made available after returning from a hamstring injury and a big hit to the head where he went into concussion protocol. Darnold returned with 8 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter and made an instant impact connecting on a 63-yard pass to Shi Smith that ended on the Buccaneers 10-yard line. Newton would return on the next play but there was some confusion and the Panthers had to burn a timeout. The Panthers would end up settling for a field goal.
It was unclear if this was the final game for Newton as a Panther. Darnold has an option year for over $20 million next season. He was in for Carolina's final drive while Newton watched from the sideline.
Bookend scores by Tampa in the 3rd quarter put the game out of reach at 29-6 with a field goal in a series of plays highlighted by a 23-yard catch by Rob Gronkowski and then a rushing touchdown from Ronald Jones II.
Things fell apart in the 4th quarter as the offensive line seemed to be falling asleep, along with many of the fans in the stands who headed towards the exits. Darnold took hits in every series, and the Bucs finished with 7 sacks on the day, the most they've had since 2013.
Lirim Hajrullahu, who the Panthers signed last week to replace injured Zane Gonzalez, connected on a 24-yard FG to take a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Tampa Bay responded on the next possession with a 55-yard TD run from Ke'Shawn Vaughn.
Tampa Bay (11-4) tacked on a field goal and a momentum-shifting touchdown when Brady found Cyril Grayson for 62 yards putting them in the red zone under the 2-minute warning. Brady would find Cameron Brate in the endzone for a 19-6 lead and the game seemingly felt out of reach for Carolina before halftime. The Bucs would go on to fail on a 2-point conversion attempt.
Brady, who was selected to a record 15th Pro Bowl last week, finished with 1 TD, 232 yards on 18-of-30 passes. Darnold completed 15-of-32 passes for 190 yards with no TDs while Newton was 7-of-13 with 61 yards and 1 INT.
Antonio Brown, who was returning from a suspension for violating the NFL COVID-19 safety protocols, led the Bucs with 101 yards on 10 catches. Tampa Bay was without Leonard Fournette, who is on IR with a hamstring injury. Shaq Barrett left the game and did not return after suffering an apparent knee injury in the first half. Jason Pierre-Paul did not play with a torn rotator cuff.
The Panthers return to action next Sunday in New Orleans (1 p.m., Fox 46 Charlotte).


text:
Children's rights are human rights
30 March 2021 | Story Dikgapane Makgetha | Photo Supplied
Social Work students at the UFS are working with the relevant stakeholders in an Engaged Teaching and Learning service-learning project to promote and respect children's rights.
The protection of children's rights is the principal achievement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda. Emphasis has always been on the promotion and respect of children's rights. Since the SDGs are grounded in a child rights-based approach, the University of the Free State (UFS) Social Work students – by engaging in a multi-disciplinary methodology – involve all the relevant stakeholders in their Engaged Teaching and Learning service-learning module project.
The social partners, which included the South African Police Service (Child Protection Unit), the Department of Social Development, the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Health, faith-based organisations, and other children's advocacy agents, were involved from inception until the apex launch of the project.
Access to basic human rights
In their exit level, fourth-year Social Work students participate in community work practicums, which incorporates the theoretical development process in adherence to the objectives of their community work. The initial phase of the project involved the situation analysis exercise, which the students implemented through collaboration with the Rekgonne Primary School action committee.
The outcome of the survey indicated that some learners were exposed to physical and sexual abuse. It was also found that they did not have access to basic human rights such as education, health care, and social grants due to the absence of the required legal documents. From the interactive discussions that took place during the launch, it emerged that some children do not have birth certificates required for school registration and access to social grants.
Through the students' community project, a platform was created where important skills and information could be shared among all important role players (who are in different professions and guardians of children's human rights). It is believed that since learners are spending more hours in school, educators would be the primary detectors to notice signs of negligence and potentially adverse circumstances among their learners.
Role players collaborate to make a difference
Through the scholarship of engagement, students succeeded in engaging with the community to attend to societal challenges (violated children's rights). In order to realise the outcome of the project, continuous collaboration among all role players must be sustained. All parties adopted a resolution to create safe environments both at school and at home by supporting families and caregivers.
Government partners that participated were determined to strengthen protection systems and improve child welfare, reinforcing the implementation of the Children's Act 38 of 2005. Educators were empowered and supported in the mandate of the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC). This is an initiative that involves stakeholders in improving the quality of education for all children and addresses issues of safety and well-being for all children.
University hosts Mandela Rhodes scholars
Kovsie Dux student and SRC member Tumelo Moreri (centre), with Danielle Bowler and Unnel-Teddy Ngoumandjoka, two of the Mandela Rhodes Scholars who attended a summit for past and current recipients of the prestigious bursary on the Bloemfontein Campus.
Photo: Johan Roux
Some of Africa's top young minds gathered at the University of the Free State to discuss new ways of thinking about education on the continent.
About 50 current and past recipients of the prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship from across the continent gathered on the Bloemfontein Campus to attend the Community of Mandela Rhodes Scholars Summit from 29 September to 1 October 2012. The theme for the summit was Re-Imagining Education in Africa and recipients from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda attended.
Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the university, addressed the Mandela Rhodes scholars and told them as Africa's next generation of leaders they have to be courageous, caring and agents of change. "You cannot re-imagine education unless you have imaginative leaders", he told them. Referring to leaders like Martin Luther King, Chief Albert Luthuli, Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, Prof. Jansen told them in order to lead, they should have the capacity for caring, contemplation, courage, change,contrition,conciliation and clarity.
Mandela Rhodes Scholar and Convener of the Summit, Andrew Gasnolar, said the insights gained will be utilised by recipients in their spaces. "A consistent element which cropped up was that our privilege requires us to do the right thing. Active citizenry is required in which we all actively take a part in the education situation - from adopting a student to adopting a school to taking up teaching."