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Communi3r
Communi3 is a technology platform designed to revolutionize the way organizations manage their communities in places such as Discord, YouTube, Twitter, podcasts, metaverses and any other platform. We do this in multiple ways; - Gamification through questlines, badges, ranks, rewards, currencies, tiers and digital storefronts designed to engage community members online. - The creation of tools to manage your community through workflows. Self onboarding, payments, verification, marketplace, management and communication handled seamlessly through the online portal - Activating your community to grow further through social media integration that allow your most passionate fans to get the word out. - Boring stuff like reporting for compliance issues (see why this matters below). Why is that important? Web3 communities are managed through a variety of discord bots, spreadsheets and other loose structures that are disjointed and incredibly work intense as soon as your community begins to grow. It is impossible to understand what is happening in the community and incentivize people accordingly. As Web3 grows, NFT passion projects become subject to government regulation, board oversight and other compliance issues. Our technology helps you to manage this while not losing that "grassroots" feel your organization had when you started. A lot of companies grew outstanding communities within them only to lose sight of the goals and ambitions of that community. We built this in part, to emphasize how important community is and how much it contributes to the success of any project, large or small. How far are you in building this? We raised 9m from VC's and have built a high functioning Beta, we have launched with Web3 customers like The Sandbox into the beta in 2022. Web3 represents an even greater use case, as there is nothing more fundamental than community in this new era. No longer are communities relegated to the fringe as large organizations seek to limit their influencer. Today, the biggest and the best companies in Web3 are working to empower their communities and give them tools to be more influential. We finally found our home. Who are your current clients? We have game publishers like The Sandbox and Ethermon, NFT Projects and DAO's like Ethaliens or Secret DAO, as well as many more. How can I be a part of this? We would love to engage the community with an NFT collection of 5,001 Mad Scientists (we are a technology company after all) that you will be able to mint imminently. You can also take part in our IDO later this year. NFT holders will be able to stake their NFT's and there will be a meaningful allocation in the IDO reserved for NFT holders. More important to us than the fundraising from this NFT/IDO drop is for us to plug into the community, to create advocates for our software, and help open the doors to the rest of the companies in the space who have needs of our software. Everyone needs it, they just don't know it yet. This is about establishing and nurturing OUR community. TLDR: You will be able to mint our scientists and be part of our journey to become the backend software for all communities in the Web3 space, as well as earning tokens in our IDO. Even though our software is built, deployed and working, we still have a lot of work to do to continue iterating and solving our clients' technology problems.


Wednesday's barrier draw will determine which filly becomes Chris Waller's top pick in Saturday's Group 1 $500,000 Treasury Brisbane Queensland Oaks (2200m) at Doomben.
Trainer Chris Waller, above, will have multiple runners in the 2018 Queensland Oaks at Doomben. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Waller has eight fillies listed among the twenty-one first acceptances for the Queensland Oaks with Youngstar and Another Dollar leading the charge after finishing first and second in the Group 2 $175,000 Magic Millions The Roses (2000m) at Doomben on May 12.
Youngstar had the better of her stablemate Another Dollar by a length on the line but Waller said that the second placed filly had been hampered by wide barriers in her recent outings which also includes The Roses.
Another Dollar jumped from barrier twelve in The Roses while Youngstar came out of gate four in the sixteen horse field and Waller said with a good barrier and better luck the second placed filly could have reversed the finishing order.
"She's (Another Dollar) had no luck at all," Waller told The Courier-Mail.
"Barrier draws have cruelled her. If she can get a gate, she will be in the race for sure.
"Youngstar has won three in a row and winning with a bit of arrogance.
Waller is hoping for a decent barrier draw for all of his fillies in the weekend's Queensland Oaks.
Waller is considering putting the blinkers on Youngstar in the Queensland Oaks after The Roses winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy told the master trainer that he felt the head gear might add something to the High Chaparral filly's performance.
Waller's other fillies that could be in Queensland Oaks contention are Savacool, Impulsive, Miss Shanti, Saint Katarina, Via Veneto and Twilighter.
Youngstar scored a hat trick of wins with her victory in The Roses and has been installed as the $2.70 Queensland Oaks favourite in pre-post betting at Ladbrokes.com.au ahead of Another Dollar at $4.60.
The final field for the 2018 Queensland Oaks will be released on Wednesday morning, May 23.
Early betting for the 2018 Queensland Oaks at Ladbrokes.com.au: $2.70 Youngstar, $4.60 Another Dollar, $7 Aloisia, $8.50 Savacool, $11 Coral Coast, Sheezdashing, $13 Terra Sancta, $15 Play That Song, $17 Tinkermosa, $21 Highway, $34 Miss Shanti, Twilighter, $51 She's Reliable, $61 Impulsive, Saint Katarina, $81 Protest, $101 Via Veneto, $251 Delaney's Desire, She Salutes.


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What's past is prologue: Joe Geever at the fiercely loved lagoon; Credit: Jennie Warren
Paving Over Playa del Rey
Tibby Rothman October 21, 2009
It could have been any other early-fall Southern California barbecue. The easygoing weather, old friends and good food in a sleepy beach town — Playa del Rey.
But partygoers were dismayed over three developments proposed by Edward M. Czuker and his company, EMC Development LLC, for the heart of the community. The developer was said to be seeking three projects including about 148 residential units and encompassing roughly 20,000 square feet of retail.
Czuker is not known for subtle or small. He once plunked a faux–French chateau apartment complex on a stretch of Lincoln Boulevard. And he was involved in megadevelopments in Marina del Rey and Channel Islands Harbor in Ventura County. Would Czuker's plans spell the demise of the last original beach town still standing in Los Angeles?
To look at Playa del Rey is not to look at much, at first. Real estate interests tried and failed to define the community, founded in 1901, through large-scale development projects at four pivotal points in the town's history, says local historian David "Duke" Dukesherer. The attempts did not always work out. During the depression, Fritz Burns, general manager of a local real estate empire, was so destitute he lived in a tent.
Instead, Playa del Rey grew more or less organically. Today, it is a sliver of a town composed of nondescript architecture and mini-neighborhoods like "the Jungle," jammed with 1950s apartments and gentrified condos a stone's throw from the beach. Up on the bluffs, more luxurious homes have taken root.
Even "the village," as residents dub the small retail area where Czuker has two parcels, has none of the quaint visuals this designation implies on the coast. Instead, it's ramshackle bars, funky cafés and squat little stores.
Residents, however, see the 11,000-person town differently. "It's kind of a little gem, this little beach village we have," says Marcia Hanscom, an environmentalist. "People enjoy the beach and the wetlands, but it's a quiet little town during the evenings."
With swank Manhattan Beach to its south, the skyscrapers of Marina del Rey to its north, and the insta-city of Playa Vista to its east, the area has still got that hometown feel.
"You can walk down the street and say hi to neighbors and friends," says Lance Williams, who, 13 years ago, purchased Playa del Rey Florists, a local institution for decades.
The yearning here for livable space is, in truth, replicated all over Los Angeles, where large-scale development and mansion-ization are sweeping away communities. Mom-and-pop stores are wiped out by chains, and unique histories give way to the generic.
Joe Geever, born in neighboring Westchester, which sits atop a bluff and looks out over the Ballona wetlands, camped on Playa's dunes as a kid. Now he's an attorney for the Surfrider Foundation, which fights to protect the ocean.
"Playa del Rey is representative of a cultural heritage," Geever says. "The beaches in the '60s and '70s were not the place for wealthy residential development. Back then, they were really attractive to people who went out and used the beach — swam and surfed."
Until the 1970s, places like Palos Verdes were populated by those "fascinated with coastal culture," notes Scott Hulet, who edits The Surfer's Journal. "People who spent every waking moment they weren't at work on the beach." The ocean was beautiful, but also part of the fabric of life, from the black sea bass they spear-fished to the lobsters and abalone they dove for.
Hulet pegs the demise of Southern California's beach-town lifestyle to a specific event: "I see the tipping point as being really definable — and that's when you could no longer find abalone, in the late '60s," he says. Locally, the kelp beds and sea life were being wiped out by undertreated sewage, runoff and other degradation from L.A.'s burgeoning population.
"Now," says Geever, "I've got a sense that people who live right on the beach in the most expensive property, they're not there because they use those resources. They're there because they like to look at them from inside their darkened windows."
The notion of living closer to the natural world drew many to Playa del Rey. The Pacific lay to the west, Ballona Creek to the north, the Ballona Wetlands to the east, and a freshwater lagoon sat at its center.
"The beach was my backyard," says Dukesherer, whose family also lived in Westchester, and spent hours on the water together. "I have a crystal-clear recollection of being on my dad's paddleboard, with my dad. He was in awe of the ocean."
Dukesherer became a surfer and took on that philosophy. "I learned a lot on Toes Beach — about people, respect for the water, respect for the land. You're dealing with some pretty big waves, so you better respect the ocean and the tides. You're trying to control them but they can control you pretty darn fast."
Julie Inoye, a resident for 30 years, mirrors Dukesherer's values. "We have 200-plus acres of open space and wetlands. Where else do you have that in the city? I grew up on a farm; so did my husband. I'm very appreciative of land. I don't think we own land, we care for land."
It's this custodial identity that drives concern about Czuker's proposed development for Toes Beach. His plan to build 28 homes there would wipe out a stretch of very rare sand dunes.
"[That] is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, like we don't have enough homes on the beach already," Dukesherer says.
"The one piece that really raises red flags for me is development on those coastal dunes," agrees Geever, who also learned to surf at Toes Beach.
Known technically as foredunes, "they are the last [such topographies] in the whole Santa Monica Bay area," according to Janice Whiffen, who heads Save Our Dunes Alliance. "There are professors at UCLA who bring their students to this area to study foredunes."
"My colleague Tony Orme did so for many years," says Travis Longcore, a lecturer at UCLA who specializes in conservation biology and restoration ecology, and is co-founder and science director of the Urban Wildlands Group.
Longcore sees the dunes as a key component of a project to re-establish and link natural habitats that were once part of a strongly connected ecosystem including Baldwin Hills, the Ballona Wetlands, the lagoon, the foredunes and even grasslands near close-by LAX.
While representatives of Czuker's company have met with some residents, presenting the firm's ideas to the local neighborhood council in August, last month Czuker's team ramped up its activity, approaching the area's Los Angeles City Council representative, Bill Rosendahl — a traditional step taken by any smart L.A. developer about to file official papers and seek permission to build in an area.
With both the dunes and the beach-town ethos threatened, community members are gearing up to resist. "We learned from Playa Vista that we acquiesced too much, that we gave too much — we're not going to do that now," says Dukesherer. Despite years of battle by more than 100 environmental groups, the go-ahead for the massive Playa Vista came down, in part, to a single politician — then-Councilwoman Ruth Galanter — a reflection of Los Angeles City Hall's infamous practice of letting each of the 15 council members act as sole "development czar" for the huge, 266,000-person City Council districts they represent.
But Dukesherer notes that this time, city planners and politicians, and even the California Coastal Commission, may not have the last word: A report to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the impacts of climate change has projected that by 2050, Czuker's prized Playa del Rey properties may be underwater.
Reach the writer at tibbyrothman@gmail.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Since 2015, France-IX, the main Internet exchange point (IXP) in France, has been collaborating with Senegalese digital players for the creation and development of a similar, independent IXP in Dakar.
Internet exchange points (IXPs) allow local operators, content and service providers to save money by using local bandwidth rather than paying to use expensive international transit infrastructure. They allow companies and administrations to interconnect through them and thus improve access speed for their users by reducing latency time.
The development of IXPs is a crucial part of building a sustainable domestic Internet ecosystem. Their creation in African countries is an important step in fostering Internet-based economic growth and stands as a positive marker of commercial and social improvement.
At that time, an initial skills exchange meeting with France-IX highlighted the importance of setting up SENIX not only around operators (infrastructure owners) but also around suppliers (content and services owners) and in the form of an association - this being the sole guarantee of its neutrality. The associative status is ideal for establishing an egalitarian relationship between different stakeholders, for the benefit of all.
"Following the meeting with France-IX, we decided to open the SENIX creation process to all content producers, service providers as well as all other key players in the cultural sector. This new impetus laid a solid foundation for the creation of the SENIX association and made it possible to move on to the operational part of the IXP's construction. The first constitutive general assembly then took place in 2015. The State Informatics Agency (ADIE) was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SENIX and work on the first Centre began," says Cheikh Bakhoum, President of SENIX and Managing Director of ADIE.
Following France-IX's recommendations, the Centre was built on a neutral site in Dakar, owned by SENIX. "This site made it possible to respect a certain equidistance between operators and equal treatment in the technical design. Orange, Tigo, Expresso, Arc and Hayo, as well as ADIE, are physically present but the SENIX infrastructure remains completely independent. The interconnection of these operators favours the distribution and availability of local, nationally-produced content, which is of critical importance at the national and international level," explains Alassane Blaise Diagne, Adviser to ADIE's MD.
Bocar Kane, member of the France-IX Board of Directors until September 2017 and a telecom entrepreneur in Senegal, shares its vision from a user's perceptive: "The benefits of SENIX today are undeniable for all stakeholders, consumers and the Senegalese economy: for businesses and individuals, SENIX means more bandwidth, less latency, more accessible content and better services. The ability to exchange traffic locally, instead of using extremely expensive submarine cables, has created a virtuous circle for the entire digital chain, as the resulting cost savings are passed on to consumers in end-user bundles," he says.
The overall improvement in traffic and accessibility is another step towards the implementation of Senegal's 2016-2025 digital plan, which embodies the country's ambition to maintain a leading position in the African digital sector. Indeed, one of the objectives of this plan is to ensure that all citizens have low-cost and high-quality access to the Internet.
Today, SENIX is working on its expansion and commercial development. The construction of a second site is already under consideration to improve the resilience of the infrastructure and improve international connectivity. Seven major international cables transit or land in Senegal. Because of SENIX, Senegal is able to compete with other West African trading points and will be able to position itself as a real hub to transport Internet traffic from the continental sub-Saharan region to the rest of the world.
Thanks to a transfer of skills and a sharing of experience, France-IX has enabled Senegal to acquire a world-class exchange point to promote the growth of its digital economy and the development of the Internet in West Africa. France-IX will continue its programme of supporting the creation of new IXPs in Africa, which started with CASIX in Morocco launched in 2016. Plans are currently underway to help Congo. France-IX' support for developing IXPs in African countries consists in providing mentoring, training, equipment donation and technical assistance.


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A Daily History of Holes, Dots, Lines, Science, History, Math, Physics, Art, the Unintentional Absurd, Architecture, Maps, Data Visualization, Blank and Missing Things, and so on. |1.6 million words, 7500 images, 4.9 million hits| Press & appearances in The Times, Le Figaro, Mensa, The Economist, The Guardian, Discovery News, Slate, Le Monde, Sci American Blogs, Le Point, and many other places... 4,750+ total posts since 2008..
« The Phonograph as a "Philosophical Toy" in April 1878, and then not so in May. | Main | Stalin and France, 1945 (And a Mention of the "Great Terror") »
A Note on Venn and his Diagrams (continued)
A Note on Venn and his Diagrams
JF Ptak Science Books Post 1952 from 2013, expanded
It seems so unlikely that the Venn diagrams took so long to appear, that it hadn't been Aristotle's Diagrams, or Cartesian Diagrams; rather, these elegant creations--about a different way to represent propositions by diagrams-- belong to Mr. Venn's invention in 1880. Mostly. It was in that year that these famous more fully-developed diagrams first appeared in a paper entitled "On the Diagrammatic and Mechanical Representation of Propositions and Reasonings" in the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. They seem so beautiful, and so simple, and so powerful, and so elegant. So necessary. And so why-did-they-take-so-long-to-appear, so obvious. In a way, they are in that category of The Great Obvious Invention, in a similar vein to Mr. Luke Howard first classifying the names of clouds in 1803. Sometimes things are not obvious until they are.
[Source: Internet Archives, John Venn, Symbolic Logic, 1881]
Well, almost. The diagrams did mostly make an appearance earlier--though not in the Venn form--in the work of Christian Weise (d. 1708) and then in that of Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), that according to the great William Rowan Hamilton, explained in his work Metaphysics and Logic (1858-1860). But the final form seems to be that of Venn.
Hamilton's work appears so:
They also appeared in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, volume 4, 1880, in his article "On the employment of geometrical diagrams for the sensible representation of logical propositions" in which he discusses the history of the diagrams, including the Hamilton history. Venn also includes this beautiful logic template of Bolzano:
All of this brings us back to where I silently started, finding a wonderful book review of the 1880 Venn Symbolic Logic, and that appeared the following year in the journal Nature on 14 July 1881. The review is by one of my favorite 19th century figures, the inimitable W. Stanley Jevons, and is reproduced below.
Posted by John F. Ptak in Information, Quantitative Display of, mathematics, logic | Permalink
Uncommon Photo of the Surrender of the German Fleet, 1918
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Words, Deeds, and Henry Ford (1927)
The Beauty of a Hexadecimal Tonal System (1863)
The Costs of Television Sets, 1946
Statements by the Editor of Nature on Equality in the Sciences (1910).
Unusual German WWI Book Reviews, 1936
An Odd Perspective Looking Through the RAF Wellington Bomber (1941)
Rare Document Announcing the Retrieval of Fallen Soldiers of the Bataan Death March (1945/6)
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Your Waco Vision Source is focused on delivering the highest quality eye care using the most innovative technology to provide a superior patient experience.
Since 2000, Dr. Stacie Layne Virden and the Waco Vision Source Team have been the ones to see in Central Texas for eye care. Now we are making our next move to provide even better care for our patients.
To better serve you, we are making a short-term move while we completely make over our main office. To keep things simple, we aren't going far. Our practice will still be in The Ridge Office Park, just across our parking lot in SUITE 510. This is in Building 5, next door to Dr. Eric O'Neill.
As ever, we will still offer the most comprehensive vision examinations available in Central Texas. So that you see as well at home as you do through our state of the art equipment during your exam, we always use the latest technology in both glasses and contacts.
We are committed to improving the quality of life of those in our community through enhanced vision. Give yourself the gift of clear vision – schedule an appointment with Dr. Virden today. We want to help you achieve and maintain your best vision for years to come.
Waco Vision Source — Your Sight is Our Vision.


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Doing Spirituality
Doing Healing
Jesus Breaks Lockdown
A Response to Prophets Apologising for their Trump Prophecy
by Alexander F. Venter | Jan 14, 2021 | News | 0 comments
How do we respond to Jeremiah Johnson, Loren Sanford and Kris Vallatton, who have publicly apologised for getting it wrong in prophesying a second presidential term for Trump? And perhaps others I'm not aware of?
We forgive them! Anyone who humbles themselves to apologise ought to be forgiven, just as God forgives us. We pray that, in the aftermath and unravelling of all that happened this past week, indeed this past year, others will come forward.
To respond to these apologies by putting the false prophesy into context and to ask some questions, is not to be unloving. To discern why and how prophesies of such magnitude can go wrong is not "throwing them under the bus." To evaluate what they, and we, can learn from what happened is not recriminatory in any way.
In our world of hyper sensitivity, insecurity and broken identity, to evaluate, and even disagree, is mostly taken personally. Tragic! What Robert Bly called The Sibling Society. There is no recrimination or rejection in reflecting on the apologies. It is, in fact, to hold the prophets, and each other, accountable. That is truly loving them. To "speak the truth in love" is to grow to maturity, saving us from permanent infancy (Ephesians 4:14-15).
Context of The Prophecies
6 January 2021 will infamously go down in US history as a failed insurrection by Trump supporters. No, it was not perpetrated by Antifa. The more we see the video clips and research of what really happened, with the unfolding fallout, the more we will see how huge it is in significance, symbolism and shame. The culmination and unmasking of the real character of Trump and his presidency of American Christian Nationalism (explained here).
The false prophesies and the apologies must be seen in that light. Johnson and Sanford apologised the day after (not before) the violent attempt to stop confirmation of Biden as President-Elect, targeting VP Mike Pence to hang him, because he said he wouldn't overturn the election results as Trump wanted. Kris Vallotton apologised on 7 November 2020, then removed his post by advise of fellow prophets, then reuploaded it on 9 January 2021.
All this while other prophets are hardening their hearts, continuing to believe the devil (meaning Democrats) stole the election. Even telling the other prophets not to apologise!
Reality is what we run into when we are wrong. To be hard-headed is to not face reality and be adjusted by it. Johnson, Sanford and Vallotton have yeilded. Will the others face what really happened or remain in denial? Will they see how their prophesies were in service of the spirit that inspired Trump and his supporters to keep him in power "no matter what"?
This is the seriousness of the context of these wrong prophecies. They were not spoken in a vacuum. Neither were they simply personal or local church prophecies. They were national prophecies of national determination and destiny – with international ramifications.
The rest of the world looks on in shock. And wonders how and why Christians (actually, fundamentalist charismatic evangelicals) can get into such political prophesying and nationalistic deception. The rioting protestors invaded the Capitol under the waving flags of "Jesus" and "Trump" and the national flag, which were prominent in all of Trump's rallies throughout his presidency. God's credibility is at stake. The Church's witness is weakened.
This is no small thing. Therefore, though we forgive, the apologies raise questions.
What is really being apologised for?
How well do they understand what has gone wrong? Why and how they went wrong? What is behind it? What are the root(s) that allowed them to falsely prophesy at national level?
What was/is the effect/damage of their wrongdoing on others, on the nation? To what extent did their wrong prophecies inspire what happened on Capitol Hill? What is the damage to Christian credibility and witness, both nationally and internationally?
Do they understand and own that? I.e. is there "godly sorrow that leads to true repentance" or "worldly sorrow that brings death"? (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)? Therefore, with the apology, is there repentance, metanoia, a turning away from by a change of mind and direction? If so, what do "the fruits of that repentance" look like?
Have they held themselves accountable with their internal team? Or have they subjected themselves to external respected credible leaders (untainted by any wrong prophesying regarding Trump) to hold them accountable? To correct and discipline where needed?
Most importantly, what can they, and all of us, learn from this?
What actually is prophecy… biblical prophetic ministry? It's nature, function, practice?
What is the difference between true and false prophets? Or true prophets who "get it wrong" once in a while?
Is there a difference between Old and New Testament prophecy and prophesying? If so, what continues in the New Testament, and what is discontinued, or changes?
We can go on. I can't answer all of these questions here – I list them to challenge you to think, pray and search the scriptures like the Berean Christians (Acts 17:11). I plan on writing a more comprehensive piece on A Re-examination of Biblical Prophetic Ministry in Contemporary Context.
I will give an orientation on prophecy, then brief comments on some of the questions in response to the apologies given.
Orientation re Prophetic Ministry
Prophecy is inspired speech. Biblically, to prophesy is to speak by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. The source of inspiration, however, can also be one's own spirit (ideas, imagination, emotions, interests). Or another (evil) spirit. This raises the nature of inspiration and the steps involved in prophesying, which I cannot elaborate on here.
Essentially, biblical prophecy is to speak God's mind/truth/will on a matter, to a person, church, or nation. It takes the form primarily of "forth-telling" and on occasion "fore-telling". Its common mode is to tell forth (reveal and proclaim) God's mind/truth. What God is saying and doing at this time in/to this person, situation, church, or nation.
God sometimes reveals future events/happenings which prophets predict. But if they do not take place there are consequences for that prophet, as in this case under discussion. "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD? If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously" (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).
The primary purpose of prophecy is to comfort, encourage and build up (God's) people (1Corinthians 14:3). But it also has other purposes: to confront wrongdoing, expose hidden sin, correct error by speaking God's truth, give direction, and to predict. Normally the latter functions are for more mature and reliable practitioners of prophetic ministry.
Biblically speaking, "the prophetic" is the flow of the Holy Spirit in all the enabling grace-gifts that the Spirit manifests through us by inspiration. Thus 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, words of knowledge, wisdom, faith, discerning of spirits, healings, prophesy, tongues, etc, are all prophetic ministry. And all God's people in the new covenant of the outpoured Gift of the Holy Spirit can prophesy (Numbers 11:29, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Acts 2:17).
Thus prophetic ministry is not for the specially anointed or gifted. We all manifest The Gift of the Spirit via various manifestations of enabling graces. We are humble servants and instruments of grace, not owners of the gift(s) that we share, as in "I am a Prophet".
Jesus fulfilled the "Offices" of Prophet, Priest and King (capital P, P, K), which God worked through under the Old Covenant. The ascended Christ now gives "grace" (Ephesians 4:7-11) to followers to express his offices, as in his ministry (not ours) of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor-teacher (small a, p, e, p-t). They are functional descriptions, not positions, titles, offices. Jesus expressly taught his followers against the use of titles (Matthew 23:5-12), because it's the way the world does leadership. It feeds ego. We find identity in titles and ministry, and become demigods that lord it over others (Mark 10:42-45).
If we take a person as a "Prophet", the implication is they're infallible, they have "plenary inspiration" like the Old Testament prophets. If the Old Testament prophets got it wrong their failure was fatal, they were stoned (not with marijuana!). In exercising Christ's prophetic ministry, however, we humbly and openly acknowledge that we only "know in part, prophesy in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9).
Therefore, we do not say, "God says…", "Thus says the Lord". Because, if we get it wrong, it's God's fault – he said it through me! And God cannot be wrong! No, we prophesy, not God. We take responsibility for what we say and how we say it, because "the spirit of the prophet is subject to the control of the prophet" (1 Corinthians 14:32). Using disclaimer language like "I sense the Lord is saying…", "I feel the Spirit is doing…", leaves the door open to be wrong. In that way we invite testing and evaluation as Paul teaches (1 Corinthians 14:29). We hold ourselves accountable to be corrected by leaders.
There are "levels" of prophecy and accountability. Giving someone "a word" is personal prophesy. Or prophesy in/to a home church. Or to/for a local congregation, a city, a nation, including international prophetic words and ministry. The move from personal through local church to national means higher levels of accountability and judgement, because more people and constituencies are affected, for better or worse. And if we get it wrong at any level, we apologise to that level at that level. National voices are subject to public national evaluation and accountability, whether they like it or not.
Therefore, discernment and accountability of prophetic words and ministry is not only needed, but required in both Old and New Testament. Here are two references.
In Deuteronomy 13 Moses teaches: do not be dazzled by the manifestations and power of dreams, signs and wonders through which the word of the prophet is spoken. Rather discern the content and intent of the word of prophesy, whether it is consistent with the faith of Yahweh revealed in Torah – fulfilled by The Prophet greater than Moses, who will give the Messianic Torah (Deuteronomy 18:18-19). Or, does it subvert, undermine and draw you away from God's revealed word to other ideas and beliefs, into idolatry? It is scary and challenging to realise that God actually allows false prophets/prophecies, in order to test us, to see if we really love God, or other gods (Deuteronomy 13:4).
Besides Paul's instruction to "carefully weigh" prophecies (1 Corinthians 14:29), John says, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out" (1 John 4:1).
Discernment, arguably, is our greatest need in this post-truth ideological world of lies and conspiracies. We stand or fall by our training in discernment of truth and error, or lack thereof (Hebrews 5:14). The disappearance of the moral knowledge to distinguish good and evil, right and wrong, is plunging our world into profound darkness, preparing people for "the lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11); i.e. the numerous lies and untruths that many will and do believe, "because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved." The spirit of prophecy is the testimony (truth, teachings) of Jesus. If we are truly his disciples (disciplined learners), we will love, study and obey his teachings, then will know the truth that liberates.
Reflecting on the Apologies
Anyway, back to responding to the apologies! A few comments.
First, there is – as indicated above – a difference between false prophets who routinely prophesy falsely, and true prophets who might "get it wrong" on occasion.
Second, I find the apologies a mixed bag of confession with reasons, explanations and interpretations that reveal underlying theological AND ideological paradigms governing their thinking and praxis of prophecy.
Thus the self-reflection on why and how Johnson, Sanford and Vallotton "missed it" is key. Because, to remind us, this was national prophecy of a determinative event that did not happen. To his credit, Sanford says he got it wrong because he was emotionally caught up with the other prophets prophesying Trump's second term. He didn't hear God properly for himself. Citing Jeremiah 23:30 (God says, "the prophets steal from one another words supposedly from me"), Sanford says his insecurities and need to belong was the cause.
He says "another element of how I got it wrong: The tendency we have to hear what we want to hear. Strong desire and strong opinions play a huge role in distorting the words we believe we hear, if we allow that to happen." Referring to his "strong negative opinion of the Democratic Party played a role". This is closer to the deeper causes that not only make us vulnerable, but actually pre-condition us to "get it wrong"… our underlying worldview.
The extent of our ideological conditioning (e.g. as Democrat or Republican), from mild to extreme, determines how we see and respond to life. It interacts with our theological paradigms (biblical interpretation). Both are determinative in making us vulnerable, or not, to getting it wrong, or to even be used by another (evil) spirit. Rightly understood, theology is not ideology. But theology can be – is often – used ideologically, i.e. in service of socio-political group interests over against "the other" group. Christian nationalism is a classic example. Ideologies reflect the spiritual principalities and powers behind them.
For example, in Matthew 16, Peter had pure revelation from the Holy Spirit of who Jesus was/is, God's Messiah/King. Then the King explained he would suffer and die in Jerusalem. Peter responded, "No ways! That will never happen! We need to defeat our enemies and set up the Kingdom in Jerusalem and reign." Jesus rebuked him: "Satan, get behind me! You speak from your own vested interests, not from God's plan and purposes that I've just explained to you". One breath God's Spirit, the next breath evil spirit. How so? Could it be that Peter's ideological interests, and mixed theological paradigms, had so conditioned his view of the President and his MAGA kingdom, that he got it wrong?
Sanford cited Jeremiah 23:30, being stirred up by what the other prophets were wrongly prophesying. The context says more: how much of "getting it wrong" was motivated by their own mindset, like Peter ("delusions of their own minds", v.26. "prophesying from their own imagination… following their own spirit", Ezekiel 13:3)? Or worse: was it "reckless lies" (v.32) that "filled (the people) with false hopes" (v.16)? That even "strengthened the hands of evildoers" (v.14) leading to the shame of Capitol Hill, where five people were killed.
So, the ideological context of Jeremiah 23 is important. In Jeremiah 6:14 the prophets don't address the root corruption, but "dress the wound lightly" by prophesying "peace, peace" to the king, princes and people, "no harm will come to you" (23:17). Typical prophecy in ideological service of those in power, saying what they want to hear in order to stay in power. I.e. they are "court prophets".
What the "wilderness prophets" like Jeremiah (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, etc) refer to – regarding the false prophecies, and indeed, court prophets – is their proximity to power. Their ideological conditioning through loyalty to and support of power. Their uncritical laying on hands and blessing the kings and princes. Little or no healthy distance to "unblind" them for relative objectivity, for critical engagement with the powers.
And, biblically, behind every earthly ruler/government is a spiritual principality and power. The interaction between these "gods of the nations" and the earthly rulers and their people, is little understood. As they become corrupt, seeking to incarnate themselves in the nation through idolatry, ideology, injustice, corruption, God judges them (Psalm 82).
Sanford also referred to 1 Kings 22, how God allowed a "lying spirit" to be put in the mouth of 400 prophets to say what the King wanted to hear: "You will win". God allowed it to carry out judgement on King Ahab. Only Michaiah – 1 in 400 – "heard" right and courageously prophesied truth. How can a prophet be vulnerable to a "lying spirit" in his/her mouth?
Is it because of an ideological environment built on lying? Read the context of Ahab's kingship. Bad character in leadership, as in President Trump's pathological lying, releases and gives permission to a spirit of lying at all levels of leadership, society and the nation. Is this partly why and how the prophets were vulnerable to prophecy the lie of Trump's second term? Is the fruit of this lying spirit seen in the deception of lies believed to be truth and truth seen as lies? And in the election debacle where half the voters believe it was fraudulently stolen? And that Antifa invaded Capitol Hill?
Lastly, a word on theological paradigms. In brief, the following underlying theologies need to be examined as possibly at work in why and how the prophets got it wrong.
Dispensationalism, with its Israel theology – Christian Zionism and support for Israel.
Restorationism, with its "Apostles & Prophets" theology and practice of prophetic ministry.
Spiritual Warfare teaching of bind and loosing, proclaiming, declaring, commanding, fighting in the heavenlies, pulling down powers, and so on.
Reconstructionism, with its Seven Mountains teaching to Christianise nations, contributing to the rise of Trumpism. It's a skewed understanding and practice of Church-State relationship.
These seriously "mixed seed" theologies are part of the problem. Jesus' worldview of the Kingdom of God, in terms of what he taught and practiced, and how his first followers interpreted and lived it, is so different to the above. The theology of the Kingdom, correctly understood, addresses answers these theological paradigms.
A (Real) Prophetic View of what happened on Capitol Hill What we witnessed in the storming of Capitol Hill in the USA yesterday – the Day of Epiphany of Christ's...
Authority – Kingdom Leading in an Uncertain World These notes are the basis of Alexander's presentation to the Australian Vineyard National Leadership Conference, 30 October 2020. You can...
Is God on our side? Does God take sides? Meditation on Joshua 5:13-15 (New International Version) Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man...
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Tanzania: Lack of Rules Affects Investors in Islamic Banking
Tanzania lacks an Islamic banking regulatory framework and the situation affects investors in the field, an executive has said.
"Such a framework is vital for managing Islamic banks and identifying elements that are different from conventional banks. We lack Treasury instruments for speeding up investments and governing our banks," Amana Bank Limited managing director Muhsin Salim Masoud told BusinessWeek recently.
Moreover, he said, the country was short of experts in Islamic banking. However, he has commended the government for allowing Islamic banks to operate in the country. According to him, it is vital for the country to hasten the formation of Islamic banking instruments to guide potential investors.
He stresses that under Sharia, Islamic financial institutions are not allowed to have interest rates components in their products as is norm in conventional banks.
For example, if a person wants to buy a car worth Sh20 million, an Islamic financial institution does not offer a loan and charge an interest rate.
Instead, it will buy the Sh20 million car and sell it to the person at Sh21 million.
According to him, Islamic banks are allowed to trade and not seek interest rates.
According to him, Islamic microfinance institutions are also good tools for social development and without the treasury instruments the banks cannot go far.
In another development, Basleym Insurance marketing director Saidi Abdallah recently said they had invested in an insurance company in Zanzibar.
However he said they had been facing challenges in operating insurance companies in Zanzibar because the government had not enacted laws for managing such institutions.
He explained that the process started in 2009 under the Zanzibar commissioner for insurance but to date nothing is clear of what is happening.
The People's Bank of Zanzibar director for Islamic banking division, Mr Said Mohamed, said before the coming of Islamic financial institutions the majority of Muslims took risk of keeping money at home.
According to him, Tanzania has a population of 45 million according to the 2012 census and only about a quarter of them access financial services especially banking.
He said until 2008 the only banking system prevailing in the country was conventional and many Muslims did not have bank accounts because of their religious faith.
"Islamic financial institutions started in 2011 and up to date there are five operating branches and one in Mtwara is expected to be opened soon," he said.
The Bank of Tanzania in recent years has been promising to put in place regulations in Islamic Banking but it is yet to do so
Source: The Citizen


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Getting Kids to Learn Coding
How can you get your children started in computer coding?
Apr 10, 2018 By Team YoungWonks *
Getting children to code can be a tricky thing. Yes, you can tell them about the increasing demand for computing skill, but is that it? Is it the best way to get your kids started with coding? Given the ever-widening scope for computer programming - it's said that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million computing jobs available but only 400,000 computer science students out there to fill these roles - it's perhaps no wonder that a lot of parents are eager to have their kids learn coding and thus ensure a safe future. In fact, many are letting their children have an early start in coding by exposing them to the plethora of coding tools for kids that are available in the market today.
The Coding Beginner's Resources
Many coding apps have been created specially for kids, including elementary school students. On one hand, there are apps such as Scratch Jr, which are hugely popular, and then there are apps like Daisy the Dinosaur, which are known for their ease of use. If this is not enough, there are several coding kits too, which are essentially electronic hardware kits meant for older children (middle and high school students). Young coding enthusiasts are known to find the littleBits Electronics Arduino Coding Kit quite helpful and the soon-to-be launched YoungWonks Raspberry Pi kit - which comes with an impressive DIY circuit - also shows a lot of promise. These kits typically include an instruction guide for a variety of playful projects that are said to be ideal for beginners.
The question then is how effective are coding apps and kits? Do coding toys helps kids? Will they help turn your son/ daughter into the next coding genius? In a 2016 interview to the website Live Science, Andrew Ko, a computing education researcher at the University of Washington, pointed out how there's very little research that can throw light on this subject. To begin with, he stressed the need of kids knowing how to read or write before they could use coding toys or apps. He shared that such kids can learn the most basic building blocks of coding with toys.
Similarly, it is said that children aged 5 and above can use image-heavy kids' coding tools or games. As they get older (read: ages 7 and up), they are supposed to be better equipped to use simple visual coding languages such as Scratch or Tynker. This could then lead them to building their own robots that carry out simple tasks.
The Right Coding Curriculum And Guidance
Kids learning coding, experts are quick to emphasise, are often in need of good guidance. This then is where after-school coding classes come in. Vishal Raina, founder and senior instructor at YoungWonks, says that while coding apps and kits make for good tools, merely owning them won't translate into excellence in coding. "Yes, they can boost your confidence when you begin to learn coding but there's little proof that a few hours of tinkering with a coding game will help you excel at coding later on," he says. The problem, he explains, can be traced to the fact that more often than not, such kids do not have their basics in place. "YoungWonks' after-school coding program will help the student build a strong foundation in coding. Parents need to realise that coding apps and kits are no more than props, which means that one still needs proper curriculum and guidance to know how to use them. At YoungWonks, we rely on a self-paced, enquiry-based style of learning where we encourage kids to use these props by employing analytical thinking. And that is one of the biggest takeaways," says Raina.
The Ideal Coding Kit
So what are the musts for a good coding kit? It's interesting to note that while there are several big coding kit makers in the market right now - Vex Robotics and Lego are two instances - they often don't help as much as they should. "These kits belong to the mass-produced variety and essentially dissolve the fundamental engineering challenges that they should be encouraging students to take on. With these kits, most of the tasks are simplified and goals can be met with just drag and drop, which effectively doesn't teach your kid much," Raina reveals.
What kind of kits then must one look at? Raina recommends the YoungWonks Raspberry Pi kit for the actual learning it offers. "It is an ideal coding kit as it allows the student to build something on his/ her own using the kit's basic components. These include materials such as cardboard, wood, 3D printed parts, electrical wires and other such hardware. Here, nothing is pre-made; you have to build it from scratch under the direction of a teacher/ instructor and therein lies your lesson," he says. The YoungWonks Raspberry Pi kit also saves one the trouble of sourcing varied electronic components from different websites, as it provides everything in one package. Moreover, there's the YoungWonks supplemental kit which offers access to different kinds of motors, servos, mounting hardware and the Robot Chassis. "So the student using this kit will have a piece of cut wood or acrylic and he/ she will have to write a program in order to make the servo work," explains Raina.
Getting The Timing Right
Age-driven coding education is also an important factor that needs to be considered by the parents. An early exposure (ages 5 and above) is recommended as kids have good grasping power at that stage. This initial learning in coding also keeps them in good stead when they opt for Computer Science (CS) at a later age. It is well-known that many first-timers are put off in their introductory coding classes in college when they see that they are up against peers who have been familiar with Python and similar programming languages for years.
Concept Is Key
It's imperative to know that coding can be learnt at any age. Raina says that even if the kid does not pursue coding as a profession in the future, learning coding - especially under the attention of a dedicated tutor - will only be beneficial to him/ her in the long run. And thanks to free, open-source programs such as Arduino as well as pocket-size computers such as Raspberry Pi, kids today can be taught to build their own robots and games. "When you have a curriculum, you get to work with concepts; think sequencing, looping and so on. And when you have a teacher mentoring you, the apps and toys now assume greater significance because now you can convert ideas into working projects. It's like having a yoga mat; it's of no use unless you know yoga. Similarly, just playing with a simple toy will not exactly go a long way in helping the kid learn coding, nor will it stimulate critical thinking and logical reasoning," he says.
Initiating kids into coding then doesn't just rely on parents investing in good coding tools. It is equally (if not more) important that they (parents) offer their children exposure to an environment that can suitably harness their talents.
Sources: https://www.livescience.com/53963-are-coding-toys-useful.html
*Contributors: Vidya Prabhu


Catherine is a director in the banking and finance group at Walker Morris dedicated to transactional finance work.
Catherine has a wide range of experience acting for lenders, borrowers and equity investors across a range of debt finance deals, including acquisition/leveraged finance, large property investment and development funding, project finance transactions (including PFI), refinancing and general corporate borrowing.
"I enjoy the challenge of identifying and resolving complex technical issues in a straight forward, practical way, making deals happen smoothly with a successful outcome for my clients. I am proud to be part of a team that has a reputation for technical excellence coupled with a real appreciation of what clients are looking to achieve. Building long term relationships with clients, really understanding their business needs and getting to know them as individuals is really important to us."


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by Brett Stevens on October 6, 2009
I'd like to present to you today a statement of what I'd call "New Realism."
For those of us who take Plato seriously, and are alert enough to see that we could live at any stage of his civilization cycle, it's clear that we're in the declining stage. Furthermore, we can see the evidence all around us, as this blog chronicles among other things.
I guess when you wake up and find out that, despite all the happy admonitions from people around you who desperately want to believe what they are saying, your society is in decline you realize you have a choice: either go with the decline, or try to stand against it.
The latter is of course riskier because there's no guarantee you'll succeed, while on the other hand, there's no risk in going with the flow. You're not trying to do anything but please yourself, and you've written off the progress of history. You don't want kids. You don't care about the future after your own death. Whatever: they're all excuses to save you from possibly failing after you declare an ambitious mission, like, say, "resist decline instead of going with the flow."
So most people are going to wimp out, but some of us are going to want solutions, and I call this "New Realism" because we're not conservative as much as we are realists who no longer care about the left/right divide because that in itself is an artifact of decay. True, liberalism is the cheerleader of decay, but the cause is the decay itself, and we don't want to swat at heads of a Hydra when we can simply cut its throat.
New Realism starts with a simple principle: look at the world larger than the self. Even more, realize that it's a smoothly functioning machine and therefore, we should try to understand it instead of yelling at it how we think it's unfair or awful. It got us to where we are. We should take it seriously.
That viewpoint in itself clashes with more than liberalism. It clashes with modernity, or the idea that each individual should pursue his or her own desires with minimal interference by society. That mode of thought is fundamentally anti-cooperative and therefore causes a society perpetually at war with itself that needs increasingly powerful methods of control to keep the yobs, proles, drones and disaffected underachievers in line.
New Realism bypasses the whole mental holocaust of debate engendered by the individualist/control struggle in our society. Instead, we assume there's a mathematical or logical reason behind the patterns of nature, and adapt to them. I know: really obvious. But also taboo, which in a dying society may be a sign of truth.
Humans have spent uncountable time trying to understand their problem, but like someone who has left his glasses on his head and can't see them, they just can't seem to land a fist on the problem. As in most cases, they have failed to look deeply enough toward the assumptions we make about how reality works. In doing so, they have confined themselves in a human perspective and used it to supplant knowledge of the world as it is.
From this fundamental solipsism, all of our problems emerge. We know life through conclusions we make about facts; those conclusions replace facts. This means that we no longer know things outside of ourselves, but know only their effects on us or people like us, blinding us to any view beyond the individual end result. Process, cause/effect, even wider implications are off our radar entirely.
We were able to keep our delusion in check when every day meant a confrontation with reality on a farm or when hunting. But as civilization grew, we enabled ourselves to drop out of reality entirely. Around that dropping out a movement sprang up, called liberalism, which with a defensive and reactionary view of the world lashed out at any aspect of society that demanded individuals pay attention to reality instead of their own desires.
Our solution is simple: shift to a perspective of the whole, including time, so that we see "process" instead of "end result" (conclusion about effect on us or people like us). This simple but fundamental alteration allows us to escape the ghetto of human thinking and see reality more as it is, and in addition, allows us to act on consequences instead of our conclusions about consequences to us personally.
If the failings of the industrial age have taught us one thing, it's that any society which does not notice pervasive problems is somehow very broken. That break occurs when individuals stop paying attention to anything but themselves, and therefore ignore bad effects on the reality shared by all. We cannot blame government, religion or history for the fact that oblivious individuals ignoring problems just perpetuate those problems.
Looking at life from a wider perspective than the human individual is the eternal taboo. It is not polite; affirming the worth of every single person is. But it is realistic. Seeing life as sacred, and individual lives as a means to that end, is far closer to how reality operates than pretending that effects on an individual somehow define reality. The wider perspective scares us because in it, we are tiny, mortal and insignificant.
However, that in turn mirrors the challenge to ourselves as a species: to evolve to a state beyond self-consciousness where we are aware of the world as an interconnected whole, and therefore, can accept our own mortality and insignificance as part of a larger, more important process. Any species that does that will overcome its infighting and pretense, and go on to explore the stars; any species that does not will devolve to its proximate ancestor.
In practical terms, our goal is a society that:
* Accepts biological determinism. Intelligence is innate and cannot be changed. For this reason, we should quit dicking around with jobs and false assessments and just group people by intelligence so they might find each other and produce children who preserve their abilities. Furthermore, people should have roles according to their abilities, not their willingness to endure more workplace hours than others.
* Recognizes the desires of the average person are infinite and will be destructive unless stopped. That's right: "freedom" and "equality" are no longer the goals because they encourage reckless, unstoppable, and selfish consumption. Instead, all consumption should be seen as a means to an end, and any reckless consumption as a sign of mental derangement.
* Preserves two-thirds of usable land in its natural state, undivided by fences and unpolluted. This allotment would preserve ecosystems, not just patches of land, by allowing the thousands of creatures and plants who interact as part of their reproductive and life cycles to do so unmolested. That in turn preserves their genetic health, and through allowing natural competition, keeps them healthy as species.
* Recognizes the need for competition, and is committed to the principle of rewarding those who do well, or are more competent, over those who do poorly, do evil, or are less competent. Life is not fair. Some are gifted; they should be promoted. Others are not; they should not be rewarded. That is natural selection and while it makes people afraid, it's what promoted us above apes and what will get us to the next stage as well.
* Sacralizes role, replacing authority/control models with those of duty to an ideal. The best goals are those which can never be attained but can always be approximated; if we organize a society around such goals, leadership occurs as a matter of achieving those goals, and is not justified for its own sake (obey the law because it's the law). By making these roles sacred, we unite participants and leaders in a non-adversarial relationship.
* Seeks unity among each of its parts. People united by heritage, values and culture — themselves a product of the natural selection that produced that group — need fewer laws, far less control, and have less internal strife because they are all headed in the same direction. What separated us created us, and the different approaches taken by each population need be preserved and nurtured.
We recognize these terms seem on the edge of taboo now, but as the failings of the industrial age manifest, it becomes apparent that we need a new direction, not another flavor of our existing political, legal and social systems.
Our society cannot offer that to us because, by being based on "freedom" and "equality," it is unable to say NO to individuals who are doing passively destructive things. As a result, it cannot stop itself from being an ongoing disaster.
As this disaster culminates, there will emerge a group of citizens who are willing to accept the negative aspects of what we propose in order to gain its salient positive aspect, which is a self-regulating, positively-directed society.
They will be opposed by the irrational who fear more for themselves than they want a good result for all of us, and as time goes on and problems proliferate, we will recognize that behavior as what it is, a mental disease, and act accordingly.
Reality, by the nature of being a process, never exists in a state that is purely good or bad. This is the challenge of existence: to accept that over the long term, good comes from the struggle between good and bad. Our future will be defined by the separation between those who see this and those who cannot.
I don't care if you like it, but I hope you recognize its potentially accurate representation of the task of biological adaptation to the shared space of objective interaction known as reality, a.k.a. "realism."
Tags: cognitive dissonance, crowdism, idealism, jihad
Nature recycles patterns | Why Michael Moore loves socialism


During our evening classes on Tawheed (adults and kids were all welcome) at Islamic Society of Vaughan with Imam Ashur, he asked us to write a list of ten seen and ten unseen acts of Worship in Islam, Alhamdulillah. This was a very interesting assignment that made us think and made for some great discussions around our house! This is what my Sister, Ivanna, and I came up with!


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One more sleep until the lifts start to turn and we couldn't help but do our own early season turns.
With Winter 2017/18 Opening Day here in Niseko tomorrow and with so much snow about we couldn't resist hitting the slopes and getting in some first turns for the season!
Niseko Winter 2017/18 Season Opens Tomorrow from Experience Niseko on Vimeo.
Want to experience Niseko's world famous snow for yourself?
Check out our Snowfall Tracker, pack your bags and get ready for winter in Niseko!


The title itself explains the journey through the photo series in black and white, where the artist clearly discovered a new way of being. Reaching the white, means reaching a point of understanding, seeing the light. The photos in cotton paper with pigmented inks, produce a velvety effect over the black, taking away the harshness and giving it more depth.


text:
Safety Records
SHIP REGISTRY
Property and Liens
Segumar
MERCHANT MARINE COMMUNICATIONS
Vessel Inspection
Flag State Control
Recognized Organizations
BALLAST WATER SECTION
Career at Sea
Steps for Certification
Maritime Labour Affairs
Seafarer Verification
Offender Query
UN Security Council List
Seafarers Affairs
PMA / IMO Resolutions
Forms & Requirements
Fees & Calculators
Panama Ship Registry, moving forward.
The Republic of Panama is a country in Central America that limits to the west with Costa Rica, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. It is important to mention that the country is home to approximately 4 million people. The ethnicity of the people is very diverse, including mestizos (the majority), native panamanian, afro-panamanian, mulatto and white panamanian.
There are different versions about the etymological origin of the name Panama but most of them agree that its origin is related to the interpretation from the spanish colonists to the indigenous dialect. According to the Guna Yala people when spanish colonists arrived to the country, they were asked where was the capital and a Guna said over there (Bannaba) and the spanish colonists interpreted as Panama, since then Panama has been related to the phrase "moving forward".
The Republic of Panama, given its strategic geographical position and the existence of the Panama Canal, has become a pillar of the maritime trade among the nations of the world.
In 1917 the Panama Ship Registry was created with the establishment of the procedures for the nationalization of ship's tonnage. With over a century promoting seaborne trade, Panama is currently the world largest State-owned Ship Registry with more than 8,000 vessels, summing up 217 million GT, which represents 17% of the world fleet. This responsibility also extends to over 629,000 seafarers worldwide who hold Panama competency licenses, the largest manpower ship registry globally. Furthermore, Panama has been a leader of the ship mortgage registration. The ship mortgages under the Public Registry of Panama provide confidence to banks and to the international finance community.
The income of the Ship Registry provides an important contribution to the National Treasury of the Republic of Panama. The Panama Ship Registry recognizes the importance to be adapted to the maritime changing environment and commits to the improvement of the quality of the services to meet the needs and requirements of the clients.
Our three pillars of commitment:
Safety and Prevention – We are strongly committed to safety of human life, pollution prevention and navigation safety, ensuring strict compliance with all international regulations and conventions of the IMO. We are committed to the improvement of the performance in the Port State Control.
Sustainability – Sustainability is crucial in the maritime industry and this is why the Panama Ship Registry promotes the efforts of ship-owners and shipbuilders who invest in technology that reduce pollution through the attractive programs incentives: Green and Eco ships.
Economic – Competitive fees through a multiple discount scheme.
Newbuilding vessels – Vessels registered in the Merchant Marine within five years from the date of the laying down of the keel
MODUs ships – MODUs ships which can show that they have been registered in the Merchant Marine and who re-apply for registration no later than two years after this law comes into effect.
Good performance – These incentives are also directed to vessels that have not been detained for any Port State Control inspection within a twenty-four month period, vessels belonging to economic groups, among other features.
Our competitive advantages:
– Competitive price and service.
– Your investments are backed up by a State-owned ship registry.
– 24/7 Segumar.
– No limitations regarding the ship's construction country or the nationality of the seafarers.
– Worldwide coverage.
Stay Informed on our Latest Shipping Notices and Guidance Notes!
Property & Liens
© Panama Gov. All Rights Reserved | Terms and Policy | Cookies


for I am your annihilation come to make peace.
Many Neo-Pagans believe in reincarnation. Others do not. Whatever their views on the survival of the soul, Neo-Pagans share a positive view of death.
In the Neo-Pagan mythos, life and death are joined in a sacred marriage. The Goddess is both creator and destroyer. The Earth is both womb and tomb. This paradoxical life-death function promises resurrection in recurrence, and eternal return through annihilation. This is manifest in the seasonal turn of the year, in which the sacrifice of the old year makes the new year possible. In this view, every sacrifice promises new life. Nothing dies in vain. No virtue or energy is lost. There is only transfiguration and transformation. The cyclical movement of nature thereby transforms apparent defeat into transcendence.
Neo-Paganism thus sanctifies our ultimate annihilation and holds that death is no less sacred than life. Indeed, death possesses a holiness which transcends the individual ego's will toward life. Neo-Paganism cultivates a transformation of our consciousness to an acceptance of our role in the eternal cycle of birth, life, and death. It encourages us to fearlessly accept the ruthless immolation which somewhere awaits all of us. This requires abandoning the egocentric perspective of human fate and coming to terms with the unalterable truth of the cyclic harmony of the cosmos. Time and death are only evil in the limited perspective of the ego. The Neo-Pagan perspective deprives death of its individual reference and view death as a moment in the experience of the cosmos.


For three years UCAIR, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS) have partnered together to provide grants for small businesses through the Air Assist program. The grants were available for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to assist them in making business process improvements to reduce emissions and improve air quality. The goal of this program was to support small business owners as they make these business upgrades. Because the cost of making these air-friendly changes can be overwhelming, the Air Assist Program was created to help ease this financial burden and save jobs.
The UCAIR Grants program encourages businesses, government and non-profit organizations to invest in emissions-reducing and energy-efficient technology. The program is meant to foster creative thinking and will be based on solid metrics that can show actual pollution reduction. Typically the UCAIR Grant cycle begins with a Letter of Intent in August and full applications are due in October. UCAIR Grants are awarded once a year, in November. Please visit the main UCAIR Grants page for further information on this year's grant cycle.
The State of Utah's grant and loan program is for government vehicles and private sector business vehicles and for refueling equipment that dispenses a clean fuel.
The State of Utah provides a tax credit for motor vehicles that meet certain air quality and fuel economy standards.
The State of Utah provides a tax credit for the qualified purchase of a natural gas heavy duty vehicle (category 7 or 8 vehicle) that has never been titled or registered.
The Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) Business Assistance Program, BizHelp, provides information on pollution prevention practices, environmental permits, sustainability resources, and the Clean Utah business recognition program.


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