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The Simpsons Season 7 1995
Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
Genre: Family, Animation, Comedy
Stars: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria
Director: Danny Elfman
1. Who Shot Mr. Burns? (2) 1995-09-17
2. Radioactive Man 1995-09-24
3. Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily 1995-10-01
4. Bart Sells His Soul 1995-10-08
5. Lisa the Vegetarian 1995-10-15
6. Treehouse of Horror VI 1995-10-29
7. King-Size Homer 1995-11-05
8. Mother Simpson 1995-11-19
9. Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming 1995-11-26
10. The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular 1995-12-03
11. Marge Be Not Proud 1995-12-17
12. Team Homer 1996-01-07
13. Two Bad Neighbors 1996-01-14
14. Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield 1996-02-04
15. Bart the Fink 1996-02-11
16. Lisa the Iconoclast 1996-02-18
17. Homer the Smithers 1996-02-25
18. The Day the Violence Died 1996-03-17
19. A Fish Called Selma 1996-03-24
20. Bart on the Road 1996-03-31
21. 22 Short Films About Springfield 1996-04-14
22. Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" 1996-04-28
23. Much Apu About Nothing 1996-05-05
24. Homerpalooza 1996-05-19
25. Summer of 4 Ft. 2 1996-05-19
Father Ted (1995)
Extras (2005)
King of the Hill (1997)
Daria (1997)
Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
Reno 911! (2003)
South Park (1997)
Malcolm in the Middle (2000)
Spitting Image (1984)
The Care Bears (1985)
Count Duckula (1988)
The Venture Bros. (2004)
'Allo 'Allo! (1984)
The Middle (2009)
Loonatics Unleashed (2005)
The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958)
Family Guy (1999)
American Dad! (2005)
Two and a Half Men (2003)
How I Met Your Mother (2005)
The Fairly OddParents (2001)
That '70s Show (1998)
Bob's Burgers (2011)
Married... with Children (1987)
SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)
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Posts published in "Day: February 7, 2017"
North Houston District Recognizes Community Champions
HOUSTON – The North Houston District recently celebrated community and corporate partners who contribute to the area's growth and success. North Houston District President Greg Simpson highlighted the importance of the honorees by saying, "Our ability to continue building this community is closely tied to our partnerships and volunteers."
Melody Douglas, vice president of Finance & Administration for Morganti and vice-chair of the District's board, joined Simpson in awarding outstanding community servants for 2016.
Hardy Properties at Intercontinental was recognized as Company of the Year for its substantial investment in a 34-building business park along West Hardy near the Sam Houston Parkway. Improvements at their business park changed the landscape of the District in that area.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office took home the award as Partner of the Year for the commitment and dedication of the Harris County Task Force. Launched in March of 2016, the Task Force has contributed to an overall reduction in crime. Furthermore, their efforts to build relationships with area residents, especially youth, is changing the dynamic between law enforcement and the community.
As Volunteer of the Year, Tom Wussow, a longtime District board member, was acknowledged as a leader whose vision and insight continues to be an integral part of the organization's progress. Credited with being the District's founder, Wussow still offers guidance that helps the area address tough challenges. Following the 2016 Tax Day Flood, Wussow led efforts for an engineering study that puts the community in a position to compete for federal funds for flood mitigation projects.
Three Community Spirit Award recipients were honored for the critical roles and resources provided to support flood recovery efforts. Aldine ISD helped rescue families and safely transport them to shelters. Its M.O. Campbell Educational Center served as the primary shelter for District families displaced by the flood. Harvest Time Church became a primary donation drop-off and distribution point in the heart of the community, offering hot meals and supplies within walking distance of many of hardest hit apartment communities. The City of Houston worked tirelessly to expedite recovery efforts. A team met weekly with property owners to assist with critical needs, like permitting for repairs, debris removal, additional law enforcement and providing housing options and resources for displaced families.
North Houston District board members are also recognized for their service at the luncheon. Donna Volkerding, area business travel manager for Interstate Hotels and Resorts, was recognized for one year of service.
The volunteer appreciation event began in 1992 as a way to acknowledge individuals and organizations whose partnership and efforts significantly enhance or expand programs in the North Houston District service area.
About the North Houston District
Created in 1991 by the Texas Legislature, the North Houston District is a business improvement district that leverages public and private partnerships to provide enhanced services in transportation mobility, public safety, beautification and recreational development, marketing and strategic planning and development. Minutes from Bush IAH, the District's 12-square-mile service area has 20 million square feet of office, retail and industrial properties. The District includes more than 4,400 businesses, 74,000 employees and 115,000 residents.
For more information, visit	www.northhouston.org.
Continue reading...North Houston District Recognizes Community Champions

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Tag Archives: World history
#WPLongform, European History, History, Mongols, This is Life, World History
The Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe
August 22, 2015 tvaraj	Leave a comment
By T.V. Antony Raj
In the 13th century, the Mongols invaded Europe. General Subutai, a Mongolian general, and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan was the mastermind behind the invasion. Batu Khan and Kadan, both grandsons of Genghis Khan, the first Khagan of the Mongol Empire commanded the Mongolian forces.
Mongol Empire, 13th century.
The Mongol invasion caused the severe and rampant destruction of East Slavic principalities and major cities, such as Kiev and Vladimir. The invasion also affected Central Europe. The Battle of Legnica on April 9, 1241 that caused the fragmentation of Poland and the Battle of Mohi on April 11, 1241, in the Kingdom of Hungary threatened to cast European Christendom under the rule of Ögedei Khan, the 2nd Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Realizing they had to cooperate in the face of the Mongol invasion, warring princes of central Europe suspended local wars and conflicts until the Mongols left their lands.
The myth of Prester John
The early missionaries to the East and Far East countries were inspired by the myth of Prester John (Latin: Presbyter Johannes). The popular European chronicles and traditions from the 12th through the 17th century abound with various accounts about this mythical personage.
One such account depicts him as a Christian patriarch, a descendant of the Three Magi, ruling a kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures.
According to some early chronicles, Prester John, a Patriarch of the Saint Thomas Christians, resided in India. But after the Mongol invasion of eastern Europe, some accounts said he ruled a "Nestorian" (Church of the East) Christian nation somewhere amid the Muslims and pagans of the Orient in Central Asia. The authors of these chronicles must have assumed so from works like the Acts of Thomas, one of the apocrypha of The New Testament. This apocryphal work has documented the tales about Thomas the Apostle's subcontinental travels and the evangelistic success of the Nestorian Christians. The Acts of Thomas inculcated in the minds of the Europeans an image of India as an exotic country. It described the earliest account of Saint Thomas establishing a Christian sect called the "Saint Thomas Christians". These motifs were instrumental for the later accounts of Prester John.
It was a time when ethnic and inter-religious tension prevailed. The European Christians saw Prester John as a symbol of the Church's universality, transcending culture and geographical bounds to encompass all humanity.
Thus, the kingdom of Prester John fired the imagination of generations of adventurers and became the object of a quest that remained out of reach.
"Preste" as the Emperor of Ethiopia, enthroned on a map of East Africa in an atlas prepared by the Portuguese for Queen Mary, 1558. (British Library)
Portuguese explorers of the time thought that they had found the king in Ethiopia, which had been a Christian kingdom since the 4th century.
Alberic de Trois-Fontaines, a 13th-century chronicler, recorded that in 1165 several European rulers, such as Manuel I Comnenus (1143 – 1180), the Byzantine emperor, and Frederick I Barbarossa (1122 – 1190), the Holy Roman emperor received a letter sent by Prester John.
The Letter had a tale of wonder about the richness of the Nestorian Kingdom. The contents of the letter suggest that the author was aware of the Romance of Alexander and the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. The many marvels of the richness of the Nestorian kingdom captured the imagination of Europeans.
For centuries, the letter translated into many languages circulated accruing more embellishments with each copy. Today, more than a hundred examples of the letter still exist. The invention of printing perpetuated the letter's popularity during the Age of Discovery. The essence of the letter was that a lost kingdom of Nestorian Christians still existed somewhere in Central Asia. It is presumed the author of the Letter was a European though the purpose served by the letter remains unclear.
The credence given to the reports about Prester John was such that on September 27, 1177, Pope Alexander III sent his physician Philip to Prester John with a letter. The physician never returned with a reply from the mythical Prester John, who never existed!
Friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine
While some scholars argue the Age of Discovery began in 1492, others point toward earlier dates. I would place the Age of Discovery to the mid 13th century, when the 65-year-old Friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine led the first formal Papal mission to the Mongols in April 1245 after the Mongol invasion of eastern Europe took place
With the dread of the Mongols still on the mind of the people in eastern Europe, Pope Innocent IV, sent the first formal Papal mission to the Mongols. The Pope chose 65-year-old Friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine to head this mission. The aim of this mission was in part to protest against the invasion of the Christian lands by the Mongols, and also to gather trustworthy information about Mongol armies and their future intentions.
The mission left Lyon on Easter day April 16, 1245. Friar Giovanni bore a letter "Cum non solum" dated March 13, 1245, from the Pope to Ögedei Khan, the Mongol Emperor. Another friar, Stephen of Bohemia, accompanied Giovanni, broke down at Kaniv near Kiev. Another Minorite, Benedykt Polak, appointed to act as interpreter joined Giovanni at Wrocław.
After their perilous journey the Papal legate wrote that they were, "so ill that we could scarcely sit a horse; and throughout all that Lent our food had been nought but millet with salt and water, and with only snow melted in a kettle for drink."
Friar Giovanni and his companions rode an estimated 3000 miles in 106 days. Only when they reached their destination, they came to know that Emperor Ögedei Khan had died nearly four years before they undertook their journey.
On August 24, 1246, Friar Giovanni and his companions witnessed the formal enthronement of Güyük Khan as the Third Khagan of the Mongol Empire. The new emperor refused the invitation to become a Christian, but demanded that the Pope and rulers of Europe should come to him and swear their allegiance to him.
When Güyük Khan dismissed the expedition in November 1246, he gave them a letter to the Pope, written in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin. It was a brief imperious assertion of the Mongol emperor's office as the "scourge of God."
Later on, other Catholic emissaries followed. In the 1250s, William of Rubruck, traveled east on a quest to convert the Mongols to Christianity.
The Age of Discovery: Timeline & Explorers (study.com)
Mongol invasion of Europe (en.wikipedia.org)
Prester John (newadvent.org)
Prester John (geography.about.com)
Prester John? 13th, 14th, or 15th century? Orthodox Ethiopia (dacb.org)
Prester John (en.wikipedia.org)
Prester John – Legendary ruler (britannica.com)
The Letter of Prester John (Abridged) Sent to Emanuel of Constantinople in 1165 (graveworm.com)
#WPLongformÖgedei KhanEuropeanFriar Giovanni da Pian del CarpineGüyük KhanGenghis KhanHistoryLegendary rulerMongol invasion of Eastern EuropeNestorianPope Alexander IIIPope Innocent IVPost A Day 2015Presbyter JohannesSaint Thomas ChristiansThe myth of Prester JohntvarajWorld history
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The Iberian Peninsula: Part 2 – The Reconquista
August 14, 2015 tvaraj	1 Comment
Many ousted Gothic princes and nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands. From there, they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors. This war is known as the Reconquista, the Spanish and Portuguese word for Reconquest.
Co-existence and alliances between Muslims and Christians were prevalent, so also were the frontier skirmishes and raids.
At the end of the 9th century, the ideology of a Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula started to take shape. The Christian Chronica Prophetica (883-884), a document stressing the Christian and Muslim cultural and religious divide in Iberia set a landmark by stressing the necessity to drive the Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula. Even then, it was common for the Christian and Muslim rulers to become divided and to fight amongst themselves. Also, the mercenaries from both sides fought for whoever paid the most.
As time wore on, the idea of the Reconquista seems to have faded in the minds of the Christians. The 10th and 11th-century documents are silent on any idea of a reconquest.
By 1172, all Islamic Iberia was part of the Moroccan Berber Muslim Almohad Caliphate. Between 1146 and 1173, the Almohads wrested control of the Moorish principalities from the Almoravids and transferred the capital from Cordoba to Seville.
In the late 11th century, when staunch Muslim Jihad ideology in Al-Andalus confronted the Christians, the religious ideology of a Christian reconquest sprouted once again in the minds of the Christians and they started the Crusades. Later, military orders like the Order of Santiago, Montesa, Order of Calatrava and the Knights Templar fought in Iberia.
The Almohad Caliphate dominated Iberia until 1212. At that time, the Christian princes of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal formed an alliance and defeated Muhammad III, "al-Nasir" (1199–1214) at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena. Soon after, the Almohad Caliphate lost all their Moorish dominions in Iberia. In 1236, the great Moorish city of Cordova fell to the Christians. In 1248, the Christians conquered the city of Seville.
Gradually, the Christian kingdoms to the north retook control of the Iberian peninsula, and by 1300, the Moors controlled only Granada, a small region in the south of present-day Spain.
The Catholic Monarchs
"The Catholic Monarchs" (Spanish: Reyes Católicos) is the joint title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were second cousins from the House of Trastámara. Since both descended from John I of Castile, Pope Sixtus IV gave a papal dispensation for their marriage to deal with consanguinity.
Queen Isabella I of Castile and León with her husband King Ferdinand II of Aragon.
The marriage of 18-year-old Isabella and 17-year-old Ferdinand took place on October 19, 1469, in the city of Valladolid. This marriage helped to unite the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon under the same crown. Isabella became the Queen of Castile in 1474 and Ferdinand became the King of Aragon in 1479. Though their marriage united the two kingdoms, what later became Spain, it was still a union of two crowns rather than a unitary state. They ruled independently and their kingdoms retained part of their own regional laws and governments for the next few decades.
The Spanish Inquisition
In the twelfth century, Pope Lucius III created the Inquisition to fight heresy in the south of what is now France and constituted it in some European kingdoms. In 1478, the Catholic Monarchs requested the assent of Pope Sixtus IV to introduce the Inquisition to Castile. On November 1, 1478, the Pope published the Papal bull Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus, to establish the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Castile. It was later extended to all Spain.
The Spanish Inquisition targeted forced converts from Islam (Moriscos, Conversos and secret Moors) and from Judaism (Marranos, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews) who came under suspicion of either continuing to adhere to their old religion or of having fallen back into it. Thus, Spain modeled its national aspirations as the guardian of Christianity and Catholicism.
The Granada War
The Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand set a goal to complete the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula by conquering the Moorish Sultanate and Kingdom of Granada. They launched a series of campaigns known as the Granada War. Pope Sixtus IV helped the Granada War by granting a tithe and implementing a crusade tax to invest in the war.
Two Andalusian nobles, Rodrigo Ponce de León and Diego de Merlo led the Castilian forces. The Granada War began in 1482 with the seizure on the strategic town of Alhama de Granada, in the province of Granada, about 50 km from the city of Granada.
The war proved to be a long, drawn-out campaign. The 10-year Granada War was not a continuous effort, but a series of seasonal campaigns launched in spring and broken off in winter.
In 1491, the Catholic Monarchs summoned Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII, the twenty-second and last Nasrid ruler of Granada to surrender the city of Granada, besieged by the Castilians.
After 10 years of fighting, the Granada War ended on January 2, 1492. Muhammad XII surrendered the Emirate of Granada, the city of Granada, and the Alhambra palace to the Castilian forces.
The Capitulation of Granada by F. Pradille y Ortiz, 1882.
Six days after the event, an eyewitness wrote a private letter to the bishop of León:
The Moorish sultan with about eighty or a hundred on horseback very well dressed went forth to kiss the hand of their Highnesses. According to the final capitulation agreement both Isabel and Ferdinand will decline the offer and the key to Granada will pass into Spanish hands without Muhammad XII having to kiss the hands of Los Reyes, as the Spanish royal couple became known. The indomitable mother of Muhammad XII insisted on sparing her son this final humiliation.
Though the Granada war was a joint project between Isabella's Crown of Castile and Ferdinand's Crown of Aragon, the bulk of the troops and funds came from Castile. So, Castile annexed Granada. Apart from the presence of King Ferdinand himself, the Crown of Aragon provided naval collaboration, guns, and some financial loans.
The traditional Spanish historiography considers the Granada War as the final war of the "Reconquista".
The aftermath of the Granada War saw the end of "convivencia" ("live and let live") between religions.
Between 1480 and 1492, the Christian Monarchs forced all Muslims and Jews to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. Many Jews and Muslims fled to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.
The Alhambra Decree issued in January 1492 forced the Jews in the Iberian peninsula to convert to Christianity or be exiled. In 1501, all of Granada's Muslims were obliged to either convert to Christianity, become slaves or be exiled. By 1526, this prohibition spread to the rest of Spain and the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula was complete.
← Previous: Part 1 – Conquest by the Muslims
The Iberian Peninsula: Part 1 – Conquest by the Muslims
(tvaraj.com)
Iberian Peninsula (en.wikipedia.org)
Reconquista (en.wikipedia.org)
The Reconquista – Spain's ascendancy under Ferdinand and Isabella (lookandlearn.com)
Marrano (en.wikipedia.org)
Morisco (en.wikipedia.org)
Catholic Monarchs (en.wikipedia.org)
Granada War (en.wikipedia.org)
Muhammad XII of Granada (en.wikipedia.org)
#WPLongformAlmohad CaliphateAragonCastileCity of CordovaConversosCrusadesCrypto-JewsEuropeEuropean historyExigit Sinceras Devotionis AffectusGranada WarHistoryIberian PeninsulaKing FerdinandKing Ferdinand II of Aragon.Kingdom of GranadaKnights TemplarMarranosMoriscosNavarrePapal bullPope Sixtus IVPortugal.Post A Day 2015Queen Isabella I of Castilesecret MoorsSpainThe Alhambra DecreeThe ReconquistaThe Spanish InquisitionThis is lifetvarajWorld history
#WPLongform, Christianity, Christians, European History, Food for Thought, History, Ibeerian Peninsula, Islam, Muslim, Post A Day 2015, tvaraj, World History
Greek geographers used the ancient Greek word Ιβηρία (Ibēría) to refer to the land mass known today as the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal). Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 550 BC – c. 476 BC), an early Greek historian was the first to use this term during the time of the first Persian invasion of Greece which began in 492 BC.
In Europe, after the Scandinavian and Balkan peninsulas, Iberia is the third-largest peninsula, located in the southwest corner of Europe.
Hispania in 418 AD
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. The modern name España derives from Hispania.
Roderic, the last king of the Goths
In 711, an army of Muslim Moors composed of North African Berber soldiers with some Arabs, under Tariq ibn-Ziyad and other Muslim generals, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and landed at Gibraltar. The Islamic army began its conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania ruled by King Roderic, known in the legends as "the last king of the Goths".
According to the Chronicle of 754, a Latin-language history in 95 sections composed in 754 in a part of Spain under Arab occupation, Roderic immediately upon securing his throne gathered a force to oppose the Moors raiding in the south of the Iberian peninsula.
Since there were just a few freemen among the Goths, Roderic gathered together an army of unwilling slave conscripts. He made several expeditions against the invaders led by the Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad.
The early modern historian al-Maqqari, in his "The Breath of Perfume," places the following long sermon to the troops in Tariq ibn-Ziyad's mouth before the Battle of Guadalete:
"Oh my warriors, whither would you flee? Behind you is the sea, before you, the enemy. You have left now only the hope of your courage and your constancy. Remember that in this country you are more unfortunate than the orphan seated at the table of the avaricious master. Your enemy is before you, protected by an innumerable army; he has men in abundance, but you, as your only aid, have your own swords, and, as your only chance for life, such chance as you can snatch from the hands of your enemy.
If the absolute want to which you are reduced is prolonged ever so little, if you delay to seize immediate success, your good fortune will vanish, and your enemies, whom your very presence has filled with fear, will take courage. Put far from you the disgrace from which you flee in dreams and attack this monarch who has left his strongly fortified city to meet you. Here is a splendid opportunity to defeat him, if you will consent to expose yourselves freely to death.
Do not believe that I desire to incite you to face dangers which I shall refuse to share with you. During the attack, I myself will be in the fore, where the chance of life is always least. Remember that if you suffer a few moments in patience, you will afterward enjoy supreme delight. Do not imagine that your fate can be separated from mine, and rest assured that if you fall, I shall perish with you, or avenge you.
You have heard that in this country, there are a large number of ravishingly beautiful Greek maidens, their graceful forms are draped in sumptuous gowns on which gleam pearls, coral, and purest gold, and they live in the palaces of royal kings.
The Commander of True Believers, Alwalid, son of Abdalmelik, has chosen you for this attack from among all his Arab warriors; and he promises that you shall become his comrades and shall hold the rank of kings in this country. Such is his confidence in your intrepidity. The one fruit which he desires to obtain from your bravery is that the word of God shall be exalted in this country and that the true religion shall be established here. The spoils will belong to yourselves.
Remember that I place myself in the front of this glorious charge which I exhort you to make. At the moment when the two armies meet hand to hand, you will see me, never doubt it, seeking out this Roderick, tyrant of his people, challenging him to combat, if God is willing. If I perish after this, I will have had at least the satisfaction of delivering you, and you will easily find among you an experienced hero, to whom you can confidently give the task of directing you. But should I fall before I reach to Roderick, redouble your ardor, force yourselves to the attack and achieve the conquest of this country, in depriving him of life. With him dead, his soldiers will no longer defy you."
The weakness of the Visigothic kingdom was displayed in Roderick's stunning defeat at Guadalete / Río Barbate, (July 19, 711). (Source: histclo.com)
On July 19, 711, Tariq ibn-Ziyad defeated Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete / Río Barbate. Roderic and much of the Visigothic nobility were killed in the battle and aftermath.
Facing no further strong resistance, Tariq swept north toward Toledo, the Visigothic capital.
Al-ʾAndalūs, the Islamic Iberia
In an eight-year campaign, the Moors brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control. In 719, they crossed the Pyrenees and took control of Septimania, the last province of the Visigothic kingdom. In 721, the Moors tried to conquer Aquitaine from their stronghold of Narbonne, but suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Toulouse.
At no point did the invading Islamic armies exceed 60,000 men.
The invading Moors gave the Arabic name Al-ʾAndalūs (الإندلس) to the region under their control, maybe to mean "Land of the Vandals". The Islamic rule lasted 300 years in much of the Iberian Peninsula and 781 years in Granada.
From their stronghold of Narbonne, the Moors launched raids into the Duchy of Aquitaine, a fiefdom in western, central and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the Loire River.
Al_Andalus & Christian Kingdoms (Source: en.wikipedia.org)
After establishing a local Emirate, Caliph Al-Walid I, ruler of the Umayyad caliphate, recalled many of the successful Muslim commanders to Damascus including Tariq ibn Ziyad, the first governor of the newly conquered province of Al-Andalus. Musa bin Nusair, his former superior replaced him.
Governor Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, married Egilona, Roderic's widow. He established his regional government in Seville. Under the influence of his wife, Egilona, he wanted to convert to Christianity. He was then accused of planning a secessionist rebellion, and Caliph Al-Walid I ordered his assassination.
By the year 1100, local Iberian converts to Islam, the so-called Muladi formed the majority of the Iberian population. The term 'Moor' was the generic term used to refer to the Islamists that composed the initial Arabs and Berbers and the converted Muladi. The Iberian Peninsula transformed from a Romance-speaking Christian land into an Arabic-speaking Muslim land. However, pockets of Arabic and Romance-speaking Christians called Mozarabs and a large minority of Arabic-speaking Jews survived throughout Al-ʾAndalūs.
In the chronicles and documents of the High Middle Ages the Christians used the terms Spania, España or Espanha derived from Hispania in reference to Muslim controlled areas. King Alfonso I of Aragon (1104–1134) says in his documents when in 1126 he made an expedition to Málaga he "went to the lands of España."
During the Middle Ages, the Iberian peninsula housed many small states, including Castile, Aragon, Navarre, León and Portugal.
The five kingdoms of Iberia in 1360.
Towards the end of the 12th century, the whole Muslim and Christian Iberian Peninsula became known as "Spain" (España, Espanya or Espanha). The term "the Five Kingdoms of Spain" referred to the Mussulman Kingdom of Granada and the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Portugal and Navarre.
The Muslim caliphs competed with each other in the patronage of the arts. From the 8th to the 15th century, the Iberian Peninsula incorporated into the Islamic world became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Cordoba. It reached its height under the rule of Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III.
Next → Part 2 – The Reconquista
The Iberian Peninsula: Part 2 – The Reconquista (tvaraj.com)
Caliphate of Córdoba (en.wikipedia.org)
Almohad Caliphate (en.wikipedia.org)
Tariq ibn Ziyad (en.wikipedia.org)
Roderic (en.wikipedia.org)
#WPLongformAge of DiscoveryAge of ExplorationAl-ʾAndalūsal-MaqqariAlmohad CaliphateAragonCastileEgilonaEspañaEspanhaEuorpean HistoryEuropeFood for ThoughtGothsHistoryIberian PeninsulaLand of the VandalsLeónMoorsMozarabsmuslimsMussulmanNavarrePortugal.Post A Day 2015postadayReconquistaRodericSpainSpaniaTariq ibn-Ziyadthe Islamic IberiaThis is lifetvarajVisigothsWorld history
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A European in the Orient: Part 3 – Did Marco Polo Really Travel to the Far East?
June 17, 2015 tvaraj	3 Comments
Marco Polo (Source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Marco Polo died at his home in Venice on January 8, 1324. Before his death, friends and readers of his book visited him and urged him to admit that his book was a fiction. Marco would not relent. He told them:
"I have not told half of what I saw!"
Marco Polo has been long regarded as the earliest and most distinguished of European travelers of all times for traversing Asia from one extremity to the other. He surpassed every other traveler of his time in the extent of the unknown regions he visited, as well as in the amount of new and important information he had collected. His description of the Chinese imperial court and the Chinese empire under the most powerful of the Asiatic dynasties, and tales of the adjacent countries in the Far East, forms a grand historical picture not painted by any other traveler of his period.
Authenticity is important in any travel narrative, otherwise it altogether becomes a worthless romance. A profound ignorance veiled Europe when the Polos returned from the East. Doubts of the authenticity of Marco's tales arose since most of the regions he had traversed were wholly unknown at that time. And his discoveries far transcended the knowledge of his age. Also, many editions of Marco Polo's travelogue proliferated in an age when printing was unknown. The narratives varied from one another, often corrupted to a great extent.
Even now, some argue that Marco Polo never reached China, but cobbled together secondhand accounts of what he had heard. They say there are inaccuracies in the tales. They point out that he never mentioned the basic elements of Chinese culture, such as drinking tea, the use of chopsticks, the Chinese characters, or the tradition of foot-binding.
Responders to such skeptics have stated that if the purpose of Marco Polo's stories of travels was to impress others with tales of his high esteem for an advanced civilization, then it is possible that Polo shrewdly would omit those details that would cause his readers to scoff at the Chinese with a sense of European superiority. Marco lived among the elite Mongols. Foot-binding was almost unknown among the Mongols and was rare even among Chinese during Polo's time.
Some observers, who have only a cursory view of the history of China, say he never mentioned the Great Wall in his book. These people are ignorant of the fact that the Great Wall, familiar to us today, is a Ming structure constructed, about two centuries after Marco Polo's travels in China, to keep out northern invaders.
It is odd that Marco Polo never produced a single map to accompany his narrative accounts in the ghostwritten book. Hence, scholars have long debated its the veracity. Now, there is new evidence in favor for this historical puzzle of whether Marco Polo did indeed visit China and the Far East. The proof is in the form of a curious collection of fourteen little-known maps and related documents purported to have belonged to the family of Marco Polo.
In the 1880s, Marcian Rossi, an Italian, immigrated to the United States. He brought along with him a collection of sheepskin vellum he said were of the 13th and 14th century. There were 14 little-known maps and related documents detailing Marco Polo's journey to the Far East. These documents bear the signatures of the three daughters of Marco Polo — Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.
The existence of these parchments came to light only in the 1930s, when Marcian Rossi contacted the Library of Congress. He explained that Marco Polo had bestowed the documents upon a Venetian Admiral, Ruggero Sanseverino, and that they had been passed down through generations of the Rossi family. But the collection did not undergo exhaustive analysis.
Are the maps forgeries or facsimiles? They created a problem for the historians of cartography. Did Marco Polo's daughters, whose names appear on some of these artifacts, preserve in them geographic information about Asia as told by their father? Did they inherit the maps created by him? Did Marco Polo entrust the maps to a Venetian admiral who had links to Rossi's family line? Or, if the maps have no connection to Marco Polo, who made them, when, and for what purpose?
While some historians discounted the 14 parchments as mere fantasy, forgeries, or facsimiles, others wanted a balanced, detailed study of the documents.
Benjamin B. Olshin, a historian of cartography and a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, spent more than a decade studying the artifacts. He translated the Italian, Latin, Arabic and Chinese inscriptions found therein. All but one of the original documents, a map Marcian Rossi donated to the Library of Congress, remain in the possession of Rossi's great-grandson Jeffrey Pendergraft in Texas. Olshin is the first scholar in decades to see those originals.
Marco Polo's 'Map with Ship' (Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)
The map donated by Marcian Rossi to the Library of Congress, dubbed "Map with Ship," is a curious one. It has an illustration of a Venetian sailing vessel and a sketch of what appears to be outlines of Japan, Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the Bering Strait, the Aleutian Islands and the coastlines of present-day Alaska and British Columbia. The map was not a navigational aid because it lacks longitude and latitude reference lines.
The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps by Benjamin B. Olshin
Olshin has detailed the results of his intensive research in his book, "The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps." The book is the first credible book-length analysis of these parchments. It is a balanced, detailed, and a non speculative work of cartographic scholarship, not another 'who discovered?' sensation. Olshin charts the course of the documents from obscure origins in the private collection of the Italian-American immigrant Marcian Rossi in the 1930s. He describes the investigations by the Library of Congress, J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI for their authenticity. Olshin describes his own efforts to track down and study the Rossi maps.
After a thorough tracing of Marcian Rossi's ancestry, Olshin asserts that Rossi's explanation that Marco Polo had bestowed the documents upon a Venetian admiral, Ruggero Sanseverino, and that they had been passed down through generations of the Rossi family was credible.
Olshin describes himself as an "evidence guy" and makes no claims that the document "Map with Ship," depicts Alaska for certain although there are similarities. Olshin also admits, the authenticity of the ten maps and four texts is not settled. The ink on the parchments remains untested. A radiocarbon study of the sheepskin vellum of one key map, the only one subjected to such analysis, dates it to the 15th or 16th century, making it at best a copy.
Regardless of the origin of the documents, Olshin offers insights into Italian history, the age of exploration, and the wonders of cartography. He then takes his readers on a fascinating journey to the early legendary lands of the Chinese.
Alessandro Scafi said in Times Literary Supplement (UK):
"Olshin plays with the idea that Marco Polo's relatives may have preserved geographical information about distant lands first recorded by him, or even that they may have inherited maps that he made. If genuine, Olshin argues, these maps and texts would confirm that Marco Polo knew about the New World two centuries before Columbus, either from his own experience or through hearing about it from the Chinese … Fascinating material … Olshin himself admits that there is no hard evidence to support his thrilling speculations. Including translations of every annotation and inscription, Olshin's study and description of the fourteen parchments are exhaustive. His analysis, however, leaves many questions open … A fascinating tale about maps, history and exploration."
The parchments in the Rossi collection may not only back up Marco Polo's claim that he journeyed to the Orient, but also could reveal he might have set foot on the North American continent, 200 years before Christopher Columbus. It is purported that Columbus carried a well-worn copy of "The Travels of Marco Polo" with him on his historic 1492 voyage. It is conjectured that the travels of Marco Polo inspired Columbus to seek a westward sea route to the riches of East Asia, but instead landed in the New World.
← Previous: Part 2 – The Book "The Travels of Marco Polo"
A European in the Orient: Part 1 – The Adventures of Marco Polo (tvaraj.com)
A European in the Orient: Part 2 – The Book "The Travels of Marco Polo" (tvaraj.com)
Niccolò and Maffeo Polo (en.wikipedia.org)
Marco Polo (en.wikipedia.org)
The Travels of Marco Polo (en.wikipedia.org)
Marco Polo Biography – Journalist, Explorer (c. 1254–1324) (biography.com)
Kublai Khan (en.wikipedia.org)
Marco Polo's India (shunya.net)
Rustichello da Pisa (en.wikipedia.org)
The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps (amazon.com)
Did Marco Polo Visit Alaska? (history.com)
Christopher Columbus (en.wikipedia.org)
Origin theories of Christopher Columbus (en.wikipedia.org)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 1 – The Hongwu Emperor(tvaraj.com)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 2 – The Yongle Emperor (tvaraj.com)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 3 – The Seven Voyages of Zheng He (tvaraj.com)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 4 – Zheng He's fleet (tvaraj.com)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 5 – Zheng He's Seventh Voyage (tvaraj.com)
15th Century Chinese Mariners: Part 6 – Did They Reach the Americas Before Columbus? (tvaraj.com)
Vikings, the First Colonizers of North America: Part 1 – Erik the Red (tvaraj.com)
Vikings, the First Colonizers of North America: Part 2 – Leif Erikson (tvaraj.com)
Vikings, the First Colonizers of North America: Part 3 – America Honors Leif Erikson (tvaraj.com)
#WPLongformBeijingBenjamin B. OlshinChinaChinese historyChristopher ColumbusConstantinopleDaduEuropeFood for ThoughtHistoryItalyKublai KhanLivre des Merveilles du MondeMap with ShipMarcian RossiMarco PoloMiddle AgesMongol EmperorOrientPost A Day 2015Ruggero Sanseverinosheepskin vellumThe Mysteries of the Marco Polo MapsThe Travels of Marco PolotvarajVeniceWorld history
A European in the Orient: Part 2 – The Book "The Travels of Marco Polo"
When Niccolò, Maffeo, and Marco Polo, arrived in Italy they found the Republic of Venice at war with the Most Serene Republic of Genoa, that had one of the most powerful navies in the Mediterranean.
Marco Polo joined the Venetians in the war. He commanded a galley equipped with a trebuchet, a type of catapult that used as a siege engine in the Middle Ages. The Genoans captured Marco in a skirmish in 1296, off the Anatolian coast between Adana and the Gulf of Alexandretta, and imprisoned him.
While spending several months in prison between 1298–1299, Marco became a friend of a fellow prisoner Rustichello da Pisa, an Italian writer of romance. Marco told Rustichello about his time in Asia. Rustichello soon committed his stories to paper in Old French. The romance writer also incorporated into it tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China.
Le livre des merveilles du monde. Marco Polo
After his release in 1299, Marco Polo and Rustichello da Pisa together turned the written notes into a travelogue titled "Livre des Merveilles du Monde" (Book of the Marvels of the World) or "Devisement du Monde" (Description of the World). In Italian the account appeared as "Il Milione" (The Million) or Oriente Poliano and was published later in English as "The Travels of Marco Polo."
Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China.
Marco Polo was the first to leave a detailed popular chronicle of his experience in medieval China to the world, but he definitely was not the first European to travel to the Far East.
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine's great journey to the East. His route is indicated, railroad track style, in dark blue. From the "Historical Atlas" by William R. Shepherd, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923 (2nd edition)
During the time of the great Mongol invasion of eastern Europe, the Battle of Legnica on April 9, 1241, proved disastrous. The loss threatened to cast European Christendom under the rule of Ögedei Khan, the 2nd Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
Four years later, with the dread of the Mongols still on the mind of the people in eastern Europe, Pope Innocent IV, dispatched the first formal Catholic mission to the Mongols. It was partly to protest against the latter's invasion of Christian lands, partly to gain trustworthy information about Mongol armies and their intention for the future. The Pope chose 65-year-old Friar Giovanni da Pian del Carpine to head this mission.
The mission started on Easter day April 16, 1245, from Lyon, where the Pope then resided. Giovanni bore a letter "Cum non solum" dated March 13, 1245, from the Pope to Ögedei Khan, the Mongol Emperor. Another friar, Stephen of Bohemia, accompanied Giovanni, broke down at Kaniv near Kiev. Another Minorite, Benedykt Polak, appointed to act as interpreter joined Giovanni at Wrocław.
Their journey was perilous. The Papal legate wrote that they were, "so ill that we could scarcely sit a horse; and throughout all that Lent our food had been nought but millet with salt and water, and with only snow melted in a kettle for drink."
Friar Giovanni and his companions rode an estimated 3000 miles in 106 days. By the time they reached their destination Ögedei Khan was dead.
On August 24, 1246, Giovanni and his companions witnessed the formal enthronement of Güyük Khan as the Third Khagan of the Mongol Empire. The new emperor refused the invitation to become a Christian, but demanded that the Pope and rulers of Europe should come to him and swear their allegiance to him.
When Güyük Khan dismissed the expedition in November, 1246, he gave them a letter to the Pope, written in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin. It was a brief imperious assertion of the Mongol emperor's office as the "scourge of God."
Later on, other Catholic emissaries followed. In the 1250s, William of Rubruck, traveled east on a quest to convert the Mongols to Christianity. These early missionaries were largely inspired by the myth of Prester John (Latin: Presbyter Johannes), Christian patriarch and king popular in European chronicles and in the tradition of the 12th through the 17th century.
The accounts about this mythical king vary. They are just a collection of medieval popular fantasy. One such account depicts him as a descendant of the Three Magi, ruling a kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures. Polo mentions the fictional monarch in his book, and even asserts that Prester John fought a great battle against the Mongol ruler Genghis Kahn.
A Lombardian surgeon also had reached the city of Khanbaliq in 1303. A merchant named Petro de Lucalongo, had accompanied the monk John of Montecorvino to Khanbaliq in 1305.
In his work "Histoire de l'Empire Mongol," Jean-Paul Roux, a French Turkologue and a specialist in Islamic culture says that a person named André de Pérouse had mentioned that there was a small Genoese colony, in the harbor of Zaytun in 1326. Andolo de Savignone was the most famous Italian resident of the city. In 1336, Toghon Temür, the 15th Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the 11th Emperor of the Yuan dynasty sent him to the West to buy "100 horses and other treasures."
In 1339, a Venetian named Giovanni Loredanoto returned to Venice from China during the reign of Emperor Toghon Temür.
A tombstone with the name of Catherine de Villioni, daughter of a Dominici, who died in 1342 during the reign of Toghon Temür was discovered in Yangzhou.
An illuminated manuscript on Marco Polo's fascinating and adventurous travels (Source: facsimilefinder.com)
Well-known master artists of the medieval times steeped the manuscripts like the one shown above in enchanting colors.
The Travelogue, "The Travels of Marco Polo" soon spread throughout Europe in manuscript form. It gave the curious Europeans in the Middle Ages craving to know more about the marvels of the Orient, the first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the Far East, including China, India, and Japan. Rarely have secular topics had such an intense echo.
The Travelogue is divided into four books:
Book One describes the lands of the Middle East and Central Asia that Marco Polo traveled through on his way to China.
Book Two describes China and the court of Kublai Khan.
Book Three describes some of the coastal regions of the East: Japan, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and the East Coast of Africa.
Book Four describes some of the then-recent wars among the Mongols, and some of the regions of the Far North, like Russia.
No authoritative version of Marco Polo's book exists. The early manuscripts differ much from one another. Also, inadvertent errors and discrepancies crept in during the process of copying and translating.
The published editions of the travelogue either rely on single manuscripts, or a blend of many versions. For example, the popular translation published by Penguin Books in 1958 is the handiwork of R.E. Latham, who blended several manuscripts together to make a readable whole.
A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot based their 1938 English translation on a Latin manuscript found in the library of the Cathedral of Toledo in 1932, and is 50 percent longer than other versions.
Probable view of Marco Polo's own geography drawn by H. Yule, 1871. (Source: The Book of Ser Marco Polo. London, 1871, vol. I, p. cxxxv)
Some published editions carry notes to clarify, as exemplified in the English translation by Henry Yule.
To date, approximately 150 manuscript copies exist in various languages.
After his release from prison, Marco Polo returned to Venice. He married and raised three daughters. During the next 25 years, he carried on the family business.
Next → Part 3 – Did Marco Polo Really Travel to the Far East?
← Previous: Part 1 – The Adventures of Marco Polo.
A European in the Orient: Part 3 – Did Marco Polo Really Travel to the Far East? (tvaraj.com)
Europeans in Medieval China (en.wikipedia.org)
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (en.wikipedia.org)
Cum non solum (en.wikipedia.org)
Möngke Khan (en.wikipedia.org)
Güyük Khan (en.wikipedia.org)
#WPLongformÖgedei KhanBeijingChinaChinese historyConstantinopleDaduEmperor Toghon TemürEuropeFood for ThoughtGüyük KhanGenghis KahnGiovanni da Pian del CarpineHistoryItalyKanbaliqKublai KhanLivre des Merveilles du MondeMaffeo PoloMarco PoloMiddle AgesMongol EmperorNiccolò PoloOrientPost A Day 2015Prester JohnThe Adentures of Marco Polothe Silk RoadThe Travels of Marco PolotvarajVeniceWorld history
A European in the Orient: Part 1 – The Adventures of Marco Polo
A 13th-century travelogue titled Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Book of the Marvels of the World) or Devisement du Monde (Description of the World) introduced Europeans to the geography of the Orient and the ethnic customs of its indigenous peoples.
The book described the travels of the Italian merchant traveler Marco Polo between 1276 and 1291, through Asia: Persia, China, Indonesia, Burma, Tibet, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan, the fifth Khagan (Great Khan) of the Mongol Empire. The book described Cathay (present-day China) in great detail and its abundance of riches. Though Marco Polo was not the first European to have visited the Far East, he still became famous after the publication of the book.
Marco Polo (Credit: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)
Marco Polo was born in Venice on September 15, 1254 to a wealthy Venetian merchant named Niccolò Polo. Marco's father and his uncle Maffeo Polo being merchants had established trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak in Crimea, and in a western part of the Mongol Empire in Asia.
In 1264, the Polo brothers joined up with a diplomatic mission sent by Hulagu, the ruler of Il-khanate to his brother Kublai Khan, both grandsons of Gengis Khan. They reached the seat of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, in Dadu (present day Beijing, China) in 1266.
Kublai Khan, Emperor of China. The 5th Khagan of the Mongol Empire. The First Emperor of the Yuan dynasty.
Kublai Khan, the Mongol Emperor, received the Polos well and expressed his interest in Christianity. He then sent them back to Italy with a Mongol named Koeketei as an ambassador to Pope Clement IV. They carried a letter from the emperor requesting the Pope to send 100 educated people to teach Christianity and western customs to his people. He also requested oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. The emperor also gave them the paiza, a golden tablet a foot long and 3 inches (7.6 cm) wide, to signify certain privileges and authority, allowing them to acquire lodging, horses and food throughout his dominion.
Koeketei left in the middle of the journey, leaving the Polos to travel alone to Ayas in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. From that port city, the Polos sailed to Saint Jean d'Acre, capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Pope Clement IV died on November 29, 1268. The long sede vacante between the death of Pope Clement IV, and the election of a new pope delayed the Polos from fulfilling Kublai Khan's request.
In 1269 or 1270, Teobaldo Visconti, then papal legate for the realm of Egypt suggested that the brothers return to Venice and wait for the nomination of the new Pope.
Niccolò Polo once again saw his son Marco, now a teenager, who had been living with his aunt and another uncle in Venice since the death of his mother at a young age.
Niccolò Polo and Matteo Polo remitting a letter from Kublai Khan to Pope Gregory X in 1271.
In 1271, Theobald Visconti was elected as Pope Gregory X. He received the letter from Kublai Khan brought by the Polo brothers.
The Polo brothers left Venice on their second voyage to the Orient along with a 17-year-old Marco. Unable to recruit the 100 people that Kublai Khan had requested to teach his people, the Polos left with only two Dominican friars: Niccolò de Vicence and Guillaume de Tripoli. They set sail to Acre.
At Acre they joined a caravan of merchants travelling to the Persian port of Hormuz. Soon, bandits attacked their caravan using the cover of a sandstorm to ambush them. The marauding bandits killed many members of the caravan and enslaved the rest, but the Polos managed to escape to a nearby town.
Marco reveled in the adventure, but the two monks after getting a taste of the hard journey ahead of them, soon turned back for home.
When they reached Hormuz they wanted to sail straight to China, but the ships in Hormuz were not seaworthy, so they continued overland through the Silk Road.
The journey was challenging and at times they had to traverse harsh terrain. In what is now Afghanistan, Marco fell ill. He had to retreat to the mountains to recuperate from the illness.
Crossing the Gobi desert, proved long and, at times, arduous. Marco told later: "This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end. And at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat."
In 1274, three and a half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, the Polos reached Kanbaliq or Dadu, the capital of the Yuan dynasty (present day Beijing). Kublai Khan who welcomed them into his summer palace known as Xanadu, a grand marble architectural wonder. The Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to the Mongol Emperor.
The Polos spent the next 17 years in China under the patronage of Kublai Khan. Niccolo and Maffeo were granted important positions in Kublai Khan's Court. The Mongol Emperor took a liking to Marco, an engaging storyteller. Marco's immersed himself into the Chinese culture and mastered four languages. He served as an official in the salt administration and made trips through the provinces of Yunnan and Fukien. At one stage, he was the tax inspector in the city of Yanzhou.
Marco Polo marveled at the use of paper money in the Mongol empire, an idea that had not reached Europe at that time.
Kublai Khan employed Marco Polo as a special envoy. He sent Marco to Burma, India, Tibet and other far-flung areas hitherto never explored by Europeans. Marco was promoted again and again for his work. He served as governor of a Chinese city. Later, Kublai Khan appointed him as an official of the Privy Council.
The Polos asked permission on many occasions to return to Europe, but Kublai Khan liked them so much that he would not agree to their departure.
In 1291, Kublai Khan entrusted the Polos with their last duty. It was to escort the Mongol princess Koekecin to her betrothed, the Il-khan Arghun of the breakaway state of the Mongol Empire in Persia, ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu.
The Polos departed from the southern port city of Quanzhou with a caravan of several hundred passengers and sailors. They sailed to Sumatra, Ceylon and India. They visited Mylapore, Madurai and Alleppey in India. Marco Polo nicknamed Alleppey as the "Venice of the East."
The journey was harrowing due to storms and disease. Many perished. By the time they reached Il-khanate in Persia in 1293 or 1294, only 18 people, including the princess and the Polos, were still alive. They came to know that Il-khan Arghun to whom the princess was betrothed had died. They left the Mongol princess Koekecin with the new Il-khan Gaykhatu. The Polos then moved to Trebizond . From there they sailed to Constantinople and then reached Venice in 1295. They had travelled almost 15,000 miles (24,000 km). The Polos returned to Venice with thier fortune converted in gemstones. In Venice, the Polos struggled to converse in their native tongue. Above all, they were unfamiliar to their family.
Marco Polo's Route (Source: httpdepts.washington.edu)
Next → Part 2 – The Book "The Travels of Marco Polo"
Pope Clement IV (en.wikipedia.org)
Pope Gregory X (en.wikipedia.org)
#WPLongform5th KhaganBeijingBurmaCeylonChinaChinese historyChristianityConstantinopleDaduDevisement du MondeEuropeFood for ThoughtHistoryI ndiaIl-khanateIndonesiaItalyKanbaliqKublai KhanLivre des Merveilles du MondeMaffeo PoloMarco PoloMongol EmperorNiccolò PoloOrientPope Clement IVPope Gregory XPost A Day 2015South China SeaTeobaldo ViscontiThe Adentures of Marco Polothe Silk RoadThe Travels of Marco PoloTraveltvarajVeniceWorld history


If you are woman, and did not get pregnancy termination yet, what does that makes you? Are you for or against pregnancy ending? Many of us find the topic subjective, and others are confused or indecisive to be either pro-life or pro-choice. Several are staunch in their beliefs and either is completely against pregnancy ending or for it. And then there are those, who think a female can take abortion pill under medical emergencies, sexual abuse or other conditions. We find a switch of opinion in women wherein pregnancy termination is because of accidental conception, fetus abnormality or other causes.
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Are you a Pro-Choice or Pro-Life?
Well, the truth is ladies; most pregnancies terminated are accidental or unintended. It means anyone, even you or the person next to you at any point of time in the life; get pregnant even after using birth control. The incidences are rare but common, and global! This is why it is important to have an opinion about pregnancy termination, before similar situation come your way. Now, how do we shape our opinions about something so controversial or sensitive? We all have our ethics and do not harm anyone until there is a serious problem. No one wishes to end life just for the heck of it.
Sometimes, things get murky and there are so many stuff going at a moment that one may not find becoming a parent the right choice. Other than that health issues are something we may not always have a control over or fetus abnormality as well, also it is not wise to force a person who has encounter sexual abuse and got pregnant to go ahead and become again a parent, while emotional and physical trauma may be great itself. In most of these instances, even if we do not completely agree, it is wise to be a pro-choice individual, because at least there is some serious ground for such a decision.
Besides these, anyone can find ending pregnancy logic as right or wrong. Though women must have access to buy abortion pill for managing pregnancy, they must not exploit the chance to avoid birth control. It is good to be supportive for reproductive healthcare, but as a female, it is important to be careful about one's health and take precautions when possible. Some regions lack care for contraception, maternity or pregnancy termination all together, and it is difficult for people of such areas to have a way to control pregnancy or handle their reproductive health.


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text:
require 'spec_helper'

describe 's3cmd::config', :type => :define do
  let(:title) { 'foo' }

  let(:default) { { :aws_access_key => 'ASmasdADS', :aws_secret_key => 'mADDFSDS' } }

  context 'with default values and non root user' do
    let(:params) { default }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg') }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*gpg_passphrase =/) }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*gpg_command = \/usr\/bin\/gpg/) }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*bucket_location = US/) }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*use_https = True/) }
  end

  context 'with aws_access_key => ASmasdADS and aws_secret_key => mADDFSDS' do
    let(:params) { { :aws_access_key => 'ASmasdADS', :aws_secret_key => 'mADDFSDS' } }
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*access_key = ASmasdADS/).with_content(/^\s*secret_key = mADDFSDS/) }
  end

  context 'with default values and root user' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :user => 'root' })}
    it { should contain_file('/root/.s3cfg') }
    it { should contain_file('/root/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*gpg_passphrase =/) }
    it { should contain_file('/root/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*gpg_command = \/usr\/bin\/gpg/) }
  end

  context 'with home_dir => /opt/home/foo' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :home_dir => '/opt/home/foo' })}
    it { should contain_file('/opt/home/foo/.s3cfg') }
  end

  context 'with use_https => true' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :use_https => true })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*use_https = True/) }
  end

  context 'with use_https => false' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :use_https => false })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*use_https = False/) }
  end

  context 'with bucket_location => EU' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :bucket_location => 'EU' })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*bucket_location = EU/) }
  end

  context 'with encryption_passphrase => blabla' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :encryption_passphrase => 'blabla' })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*gpg_passphrase = blabla/) }
  end

  context 'with proxy_host => http://localhost' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :proxy_host => 'localhost' })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*proxy_host = localhost/) }
  end

  context 'with proxy_port => 8080' do
    let(:params) { default.merge({ :proxy_port => '8080' })}
    it { should contain_file('/home/foo/.s3cfg').with_content(/^\s*proxy_port = 8080/) }
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: drawImage (canvas) is not working I want to draw multiple canvases on a single canvas using drawImage() method but it is not working
Code
<html>
 <head>
  <script>
    window.onload = function() {
    var context1= document.getElementById("canvas1").getContext("2d");
    var context2  = document.getElementById("canvas2").getContext("2d");
    var context3  = document.getElementById("canvas3").getContext("2d");

    context1.font = "20pt Calibri";
    context1.fillStyle = "blue";
    context1.fillText("Hello ", 50, 25);

    context2.font = "20pt Calibri";
    context2.fillStyle = "red";
    context2.fillText("World!", 100, 25);

    var imageObj = new Image();
     imageObj.onload = function() {
      context3.drawImage(context1.canvas, 50, 25);
      context3.drawImage(context2.canvas, 100, 25);
        };
  };

</script>
 </head>
<body>
<canvas id="canvas1" class="canvas" width="200" height="50"></canvas>
<canvas id="canvas2" class="canvas" width="200" height="50"></canvas>
<canvas id="canvas3" class="canvas" width="200" height="50"></canvas>
</body>
</html>

JS Fiddle
http://jsfiddle.net/4xT2j/2/

A: Your images have no source. Add one if you want to see something.
The onload function cannot be called as long as you don't have a src.
And you must provide the image to the drawImage function :
 var imageObj = new Image();
 imageObj.onload = function() {
   context3.drawImage(imageObj, 50, 25);
   context3.drawImage(imageObj, 100, 25);
 };
 imageObj.src = "someFile.png";

If what you're trying to do is draw canvas1 and canva2 on context3, simply do all this outside the imageObj.onload function which is never called : http://jsfiddle.net/KCyvE/
A precision following a question in comment :
My code in the fiddle uses context1.canvas. This works because The context is an instance of CanvasRenderingContext2D and thus has a property named canvas which is a "Back-reference to the canvas element for which this context was created".

A: Your imageObj.onload function is somewhat wrong. This is what you want: http://jsfiddle.net/4xT2j/3/
Please observe there isn't necessarily a reason to write canvas3 to an image object since it already is an image object.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Time's Running Out on Ubisoft & 2K Games Switch Sales
Published on September 2, 2020, by Faith - Posted in News, Switch 0
While you sit around and bemoan the slow release schedule for Switch titles over the next few months—until we all get overwhelmed with launches for the holidays, that is—some publishers are taking advantage by running their own giant sales, but only for a limited time. This is a great opportunity for folks (in North America) to try out some older games that they may have missed the first (and second) time around due to time, finances, or competing interests.
The Ubisoft "Summer Blowout Sale" ends on September 7th. offering up to 75% off some of its superstar titles.
Assassin's Creed III: Remastered — $14.79 ($39.99)
Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection — $19.99 ($39.99)
Child of Light: Ultimate Edition — $4.99 ($19.99)
Just Dance 2020 — $19.99 ($39.99)
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Gold Edition — $19.99 (previously $79.99) *standard edition also on sale
Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition — $9.99 (previously $39.99)
South Park: The Fractured But Whole — $14.99 (previously $59.99)
South Park: The Stick of Truth — $11.99 (previously $29.99)
Starlink: Battle for Atlas — $14.99 (previously $59.99) *deluxe edition also on sale
Trials Rising — $5.99 (previously $19.99) *deluxe edition also on sale
Valiant Hearts: The Great War — $4.99 (previously $19.99)
You'll have a few more days on the 2K Games sale, which runs until September 11th .
BioShock: The Collection — $39.99 (previously $49.99)
BioShock Remastered — $15.99 (previously $19.99)
BioShock 2 Remastered — $15.99 (previously $19.99)
BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition — $15.99 (previously $19.99)
Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition — $23.99 (previously $29.99)
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection — $31.99 (previously $39.99)
Borderlands Legendary Collection — $39.99 (previously $49.99)
Carnival Games — $9.99 (previously $39.99)
Civilization VI — $29.99 (previously $59.99)
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 — $5.09 (previously $29.99)
WWE 2K18 — $19.79 (previously $59.99)
XCOM 2 Collection — $39.99 (previously $49.99)
And hey, if you're browsing the eShop and can't keep track of which title to invest your hard-earned cash in first and which can wait until payday, a handy and welcome update to the digital store now shows how many days a game will remain on sale directly below its listing. You don't have to click into the individual game page to see this information, which makes browsing the eShop that much more convenient.
Enjoy the sale and happy gaming!
Author: Faith View all posts by Faith
Faith likes games and books and cake and writing and Lara Croft, not necessarily in that order. She also thinks a Skylanders cartoon show is a really, REALLY good idea...


NSA and CIA whistleblower Dennis Montgomery has sued former FBI director James Comey, as well as President Obama, former CIA director John Brennan and current NSA director Mike Rogers, for allegedly covering up mass surveillance of United States citizens including President Donald Trump.
Circa confirms, based on their review of government documents, that Montgomery provided hardware disks to the Federal Bureau of Investigation containing information connected to his claims. Montgomery worked as a contractor for the NSA and CIA. He claims he worked on a secretive surveillance program overseen by Brennan and James Clapper, which began in Nevada during the Bush administration.


As I write this today, I am sitting here in the midst of transition. For the first time in my life, I am no longer a resident of the great state of Oregon, where I was born and raised. I no longer live in Portland, which was my home for the last 5 years. And last Sunday was my last day with HOMEpdx, the community in downtown Portland that I have been blessed to be a part of for the last three years. So why all this transition? On January first my wife Rebecca and myself begin the wonderful and daunting task of helping to begin a new church community in Everett, Washington. This is not something either of us are jumping into lightly, and something that comes after a long time of discernment. We both feel that this move, and this new endeavor, are what we are supposed to be doing in this next season of life.
This is something that we are not supposed to do alone. Obviously, the new church cannot be done alone. We are excited to meet new people, continue the conversations we have already been having, and see who else might feel called to join us in the crazy new adventure It is our hope that this church will be a place of love, a place of justice, a place where a diversity of voices are not only heard but are called to lead and serve, and a place where all people are welcome. And this will require the wisdom of others who will join us on this journey.
We also hope to learn from those who might not be able to join us, or who are already practicing church, whatever that looks like, in their own respective traditions and locations. This is one big reason why I finally decided to have a website (Rebecca, my crazy talented wife, actually made the website, because she is awesome). I hope that this is a space where you not only can keep us with us on this new part of our journey, but also where you can join in and wrestle with the questions that come up as we ask what church should look like in 2015. One beautiful thing the internet has provided is the ability to collaborate across distance. So our church-in-formation, which will be embedded in the location and context of downtown Everett, can learn from your church and the context you are in. With all that is going on in the world, we need to be able to listen to others, outside of our location and context, as to how we as a new church can practice the gospel of God's love and justice in our community.
With all of that, welcome to my website. I am not the best at regularly writing on a blog, though I do hope to get better at that practice as part of my new routine. I am also horrible at promoting myself, even when I should, though eventually there may be some of that here as well. This will be an evolving space, as this journey moves Rebecca and myself in uncharted waters.
If any of this connects with you, you can follow along this journey here. And If the idea of this new church intrigues you, you can read more about that here. I look forward to connecting with friends new and old, and I wish you the best this holiday season.


text:
No turtle doves! Alert over bird celebrated in Twelve Days of Christmas as numbers fall two thirds in five years
Posted byadminlebanon December 7, 2012
07:50 GMT, 7 December 2012
If you are expecting a gift of two turtle doves from your true love this Christmas, you may be disappointed.
For the bird, celebrated in the Twelve Days of Christmas, is in peril, conservationists have warned.
Latest figures show that the number of turtle doves has plummeted by nearly two thirds in five years and are in increasing danger of disappearing from the British countryside for ever.
Turtle doves are in danger of disappearing from the British countryside for ever, numbers have plummeted by nearly two thirds in the last five years
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warned that the grey partridge – which features in the first verse of the song – is also under threat.
With just 14,000 turtle dove pairs in Britain the population is 'balancing on a knife edge', the RSPB said.
Dr Mark Eaton, a scientist with the charity, said: 'Losing six out of ten of our turtle doves and three out of ten grey partridge in five years is nothing short of an unsustainable wildlife disaster.
'The turtle dove is in a great degree of danger – if this trend were to continue we could be down to fewer than 1,000 pairs by the middle of the next decade, with complete extinction a real possibility.
'These two icons of Christmas are telling us that wildlife is in crisis. We are urging the Government to take urgent action to save these species from becoming just memories within the 12 days of Christmas festive classic.'
Figures from the RSPB last month showed how the turtle dove and grey partridge populations have plummeted by 93 per cent and 91 per cent respectively since 1970.
Operation Turtle Dove: The RSPB has launched a three year project to save the turtle dove
But it appears that the decline in numbers of both birds has been particularly marked in the last five years.
Turtle doves are smaller and darker than the more common collared doves, and are only slightly larger than a blackbird. Their gentle purring call, and the fact that they bond for life, has made them an emblem of devoted love.
In reality, they have never been in Britain at Christmas because they migrate to Africa each September. Scientists believe the move to intensive farming in their sub-Saharan wintering grounds is robbing them of their natural habitat.
The birds may also be victims of droughts overseas, triggered by rising temperatures. And they are also being shot by Mediterranean hunters as they fly back to Britain in the spring. Disease may also be taking its toll.
The RSPB warning came as the Government published updated figures on Britain's declining bird population.
They also showed that there are just 43,000 pairs of grey partridges left – a 30 per cent fall in five years.
The birds – one of two types of partridge native to the UK – may also being hit by changing farming practices.
In the Twelve Days of Christmas, the partridge in a pear tree is thought to represent Jesus, while the two turtle doves are supposed to stand for the Old and New Testaments.
The three French hens represent faith, hope and charity while the four calling birds are the four Gospels.
The RSPB has launched a three year project to save the turtle dove. Operation Turtle Dove encourages farmers to protect the hedgerows, for nesting, and plant wildflowers that produce seeds the turtle doves like to eat.
The charity's Grahame Madge said: 'We are in a race against time. We have already lost turtle doves in some key areas like the south west of England and parts of northern England. All across the range, their population is declining rapidly.'
Mother-of-twelve loses home in fire days before Christmas as she sat at daughter"s bedside in hospital
An appy Christmas: Record breaking download numbers on Christmas day as Apple"s iPad takes the festive crown
Pope"s dove of peace almost ends in pieces: Seagull attacks bird seconds after Pontiff releases it from Vatican balcony
The great Christmas Eve skive! Record numbers head to work on Monday
Working on Christmas Day? You"re not alone: Number of people at work on the big day jumps 78% in eight years
Posted byadminlebanon December 7, 2012 Posted inNewsTags: british, christmas, doves, extinction, knife, partridge, peril, result, royal, society, urgent
Mother who rushed her son to hospital with meningitis symptoms is stunned to receive letter accusing her of wasting NHS time
Cancer cases rise but deaths FALL, thanks to earlier diagnosis and better treatment


Porcelain veneers are a thin shell of porcelain that is bonded to the front surface of the tooth and are designed to dramatically improve the appearance of your teeth. The dentist is able to retain the natural structure of your teeth, and the results achieved are very natural. Veneers are able to straighten the appearance of your teeth, whiten or if required change the shape of your teeth. Veneers are usually made on groups of teeth eg. the front upper 6-8 teeth, as it is very difficult to precisely match one veneer to adjacent teeth.
Two visits, in most cases, is all that is required. The length of the appointments varies depending on how many veneers and the complexity of the design.
The first appointment we shape the teeth to allow for the thickness of the veneer, an impression is taken of the prepared teeth and sent to a dental laboratory, who will construct the veneers to the dentist's specifications.
During the period of time between the first and second appointment, we may, if needed, prepare temporary veneers and temporarily bond them onto the prepared tooth.
The second appointment is when the permanent veneer is bonded, we will trial fit them first to ensure we are happy with the final appearance.
What is the life span of a veneer?
The average life of veneers is between 7 to 10 years. The main factor involved in how long they will last is how well you look after them. Veneers usually require replacing due to gum recession or decay. Both these are preventable with meticulous cleaning, and regular examinations and cleaning by your dental team. The other main cause of a veneer failing is due to a heavy bite, or night grinding, in these circumstances the dentist may recommend a night splint to prevent damage to the veneers and to your natural teeth.
Regular professional cleans are essential for long-term maintenance of veneers. Veneers are very strong; however like your natural teeth, very strong force on the teeth can result in fractures, avoid chewing pens, very sticky foods and other hard objects, just as you would for your natural teeth.
Regular brushing and flossing, as instructed by the dental team will allow a long and successful life of veneers.
Resin veneers are a thin shell of composite material (ceramic particles embedded in a plastic matrix) which are bonded to the front surface of the tooth and are designed to improve the appearance of your teeth. Veneers are able to straighten the appearance of your teeth, whiten or if required change the shape of your teeth. Veneers are usually made on groups of teeth eg. the front upper 6-8 teeth, as it is very difficult to precisely match one veneer to adjacent teeth.
One visit is all that is required. The length of the appointment varies depending on how many veneers and the complexity of the design.
At this appointment we shape the teeth to allow for the thickness of the veneer, often no shaping or drilling is necessary. The tooth surface is then prepared for bonding – this is the 'glue' that holds the resin onto the tooth surface. The resin is placed and then contoured to the optimum shape.
The average life of veneers is between 5 to 7 years. The main factor involved in how long they will last is how well you look after them. Veneers usually require replacing due to discolouration, chipping, wearing or decay. These are preventable with meticulous cleaning, and regular examinations and cleaning by your dental team. The other main cause of a veneer failing is due to a heavy bite, or night grinding, in these circumstances the dentist may recommend a night splint to prevent damage to the veneers and to your natural teeth.
Regular professional cleans are essential for long-term maintenance of veneers. Veneers are quite strong; however like your natural teeth, very strong force on the teeth can result in fractures, avoid chewing pens, very sticky foods and other hard objects, just as you would for your natural teeth.
The surface of the veneer will lose its gloss with time and is likely to discolour and lose its vital, natural appearance. Avoiding products that stain your teeth such as smoking, red wine, tea and coffee, will extend the life of the veneer.


text:
Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Hospitals in the Treasure Coast Fall Short on Ratings
According to several sources, hospitals along the Treasure Coast offer only average care at best, and many of them are lacking in significant areas of care. A watchdog organization, called The Leapfrog Movement, is a non-profit group that collects and analyzes hospital data which they use to expand safety and improve quality in hospitals. This organization is one of the several entities that has gathered data that has allowed for the unveiling of the flaws in Treasure Coast hospitals. A second organization that rates these hospitals is Medicare, which uses a scale of 1-5 to rate hospitals, with a higher number correlating with higher performance and/or accomplishments in a certain area. What is frightening is that people might still go to these local hospitals thinking that they continue to have high ratings, while being unaware of the recent data. More specific information on three of the Treasure Coast's largest hospitals can be found below:
Ratings of Treasure Coast Hospitals by Reputable, Unbiased Entities
Martin Memorial
Medicare: On a scale of 1-5, Martin Memorial received a dismal 2-star ranking from Medicare with major problems in the areas of safety, readmission, patient experience, and timeliness. Martin Memorial scored below the national average regarding nurse communication, doctor communication, promptness of help, the staff explaining medications before administering them, room and bathroom cleanliness, and more.
Medicare reported that Martin Medical Center had a rating of 1.594, an extremely high rate of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a very dangerous staph infection, as compared to a 1.0 rate nationally. Martin Memorial's infection rate for c-diff, another dangerous hospital acquired infection, is 1.121, and the infection rate for catheter associated urinary tract infections in ICU's is 1.205.
Leapfrog: Leapfrog states that Martin Memorial's MRSA infection standardized infection ratio (SIR) was 3.270. This is an alarmingly high rate of infection. This means that taking into account the types of patients at the hospital, the expected infection rates should be 1 or lower. Thus, Martin Memorial's MRSA rate is alarmingly higher than the national benchmark.
Consumer Reports: Consumer Reports has a scale of 1-5 which rates hospitals in certain areas. In the area of avoiding MRSA infections and communicating properly about drug information, Martin Memorial received the lowest score on the scale. They received a poor score regarding avoiding c-diff infections, avoiding readmissions and communication about hospital discharge. Even further, Martin Health reported 10 MRSA infections in 124,884 days its patients spent in the hospital between 1/1/15 and 12/31/15. This is 101% worse than national rates.
Health Grove: According to Health Grove, Martin Medical Center has a higher rate of occurrence, as compared with the state ratio, regarding the following: surgical site infections from abdominal hysterectomies, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections in ICU's, serious blood clots after surgery, and a wound that splits open after surgery on the abdomen.
St. Lucie Medical Center
Medicare: St. Lucie Medical Center received 2 stars from Medicare's rating, with their negatives being listed as mortality, readmission, and patient experience. According to patient surveys compiled by Medicare, St. Lucie Medical Center scored below the national average regarding nurse communication, doctor communication, promptness of help, cleanliness of rooms and bathrooms, and more.
Leapfrog: They rated St. Lucie Medical Center a B with their weakness listed as being their lack of ICU specialists.
Consumer Reports: According to this company, St. Lucie Medical Center received only an average score regarding avoiding c-diff infections.
Health Grove: According to Health Grove, St. Lucie Medical Center has a higher rate of occurrence, as compared with the state ratio, regarding the following: c-diff infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, accidental cuts and tears from medical treatment, and a wound that splits open after surgery on the abdomen.
Lawnwood Regional Medical Center
Medicare: Lawnwood Regional Medical Center received 2 stars from Medicare's rating with their minuses being readmission and patient experience. According to patient surveys compiled by Medicare, Lawnwood Regional scored below the national average regarding nurse communication, doctor communication, promptness of help, the staff explaining medications before administering them, room and bathroom cleanliness and more. Similarly, Medicare reported that Lawnwood Regional had a rating of 1.235 regarding c-diff events, with 1 being the national benchmark and a lower number being more desirable.
Leapfrog: Leapfrog rated Lawnwood as a C with their weak point being antibiotic-resistant infections.
Consumer Reports: According to Consumer Reports, Lawnwood Regional received a poor score regarding avoiding MRSA infections and c-diff infections. They also received the worst score on the scale regarding avoiding readmissions and communication about drug information. Even further, Consumer Reports goes on to show that this hospital reported 6 MRSA infections in 97,669 days its patients spent in the hospital between 01/1/15 and 12/31/15, which is 62% worse than national rates.
Health Grove: According to Health Grove, Lawnwood Regional Medical Center has a higher rate of occurrence, as compared with the state ratio, regarding the following: c-diff infections, MRSA cases, central line-associated bloodstream infections, serious blood clots after surgery, and a wound that splits open after surgery on the abdomen.
Overall, these nonpartisan entities work to ensure the betterment of hospitals around the United States. Leapfrog's mission is to expose the fact that not every hospital affords the same quality of care to its patients, and they urge the underperforming or inept hospitals to change. Consumer Reports' mission is to ensure a fairer, safer, and healthier world. Health Grove uses Graphic's technology to provide health data. Interestingly, Jupiter Medical Center received 4 stars from Medicare's rating, and also received an A from Leapfrog, which suggests that Jupiter Medical Center is doing something different and perhaps safer to earn these ratings. Hopefully, with further training and changes, the Treasure Coast can rise to the same level of care. Lastly, it is important to take note that the data provided by these entities doesn't account for the underreporting or lack of reporting by these hospital in some key areas.
Over the years, various organizations have favorably ranked our local hospitals. But these recent reports confirm hospitals on the Treasure Coast are not performing well in key safety issues, including antibiotic-resistant infections. From 2004 – 2014, GloriaLaw litigated numerous MRSA cases against Martin Memorial. Those cases were resolved. Unfortunately, it does not appear Martin Memorial has managed to clean up its hospitals, according to the articles and data compilation from various highly respected governmental, non-profit and investigative entities.
Hospital acquired infections can be prevented, if the correct, current, standard-of-care advancements in infection control are utilized by the hospital. This requires a managerial and monetary commitment to properly sanitize the hospital. It also requires an infection control team to analyze every infection to determine the origin of the infection. It requires the judicious use of antibiotics and monitoring of antibiotic usage in the hospital.
These reports should be a wake- up call for Treasure Coast residents, who have a right to expect safe care in the hospital, instead of becoming sicker from a hospitalization. This is a minimum expectation that should be an overriding goal for these hospitals for the safety of our community.
Please call my office for a free consultation if you feel that you have been exposed to a hospital error or malpractice. It is important to protect yourself and your loved ones from this too-often shielded form of harm.
http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-county/2016/12/27/treasure-coast-hospital-ratings/93163754/
http://www.leapfroggroup.org/
https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html?
http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/hospital-ratings.htm
http://hospitals.healthgrove.com/
malpractice hospital negligence
malpractice hospital infection
Children's Injury


text:
Q: Udacity OnTheMap: Unable to parse data into JSON using JSONSerialization I am working on the Udacity OnTheMap project and for some reason am unable to successfully convert data in JSON. I attempted to post on Udacity's forum but am not getting prompt response, and hence the post here. The function for authenticating to udacity is as such:
func authenticateToUdacity(_ email: String, _ password: String, completionHandlerForAuth: @escaping (_ session: AnyObject?, _ error: NSError?) -> Void) {
    let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: URL(string: "https://www.udacity.com/api/session")!)
    request.httpMethod = "POST"
    request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")
    request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
    request.httpBody = "{\"udacity\": {\"username\": \"\(email)\", \"password\": \"\(password)\"}}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)

    let session = URLSession.shared
    let task = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest) { data, response, error in
        if error != nil {
            print(error)
            completionHandlerForAuth(nil, NSError(domain: "authenticateToUdacity", code: 1, userInfo: nil))
            return
        }
        let range = Range(uncheckedBounds: (5, data!.count - 5))
        let newData = data?.subdata(in: range) /* subset response data! */
        print(NSString(data: newData!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)!)
        print(NSString(data: data!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)!)

        let parsedResult: [String: AnyObject]!
        do {
            parsedResult = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: newData!, options: .allowFragments) as? [String: AnyObject]
            print(parsedResult)
        } catch {
            print("Error parsing result as JSON")
            completionHandlerForAuth("" as AnyObject?, nil)
            return
        }

        completionHandlerForAuth("" as AnyObject?, nil)

    }
    task.resume()
}

Note that the reason for subdata is because the first 5 characters are used for security purposes and we are required to truncate the first 5 characters.
Here, the I am always getting the "Error parsing result as JSON" and I am suspecting that the data and newData are of the wrong format. My suspicion came when I print both newData(truncated) and data(not truncated) as above, and the results are as such respectively:

{"account": {"registered": true, "key": "xxxxxxxxxx"}, "session": {"id": "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy", "expiration": "2017-02-24T13:29:05.59684
  )]}'
{"account": {"registered": true, "key": "xxxxxxxxxx"}, "session": {"id": "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy", "expiration": "2017-02-24T13:29:05.596840Z"}}

In any case, I tried serialising both, but both doesn't seem to parse successfully. Anybody any help pls?

A: You need to drop the first 5 characters before parsing
something like this
guard let data = data.dropFirst(5) else {
        return
        }

your code will become
func authenticateToUdacity(_ email: String, _ password: String, completionHandlerForAuth: @escaping (_ session: AnyObject?, _ error: NSError?) -> Void) {
    let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: URL(string: "https://www.udacity.com/api/session")!)
    request.httpMethod = "POST"
    request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")
    request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
    request.httpBody = "{\"udacity\": {\"username\": \"\(email)\", \"password\": \"\(password)\"}}".data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)

    let session = URLSession.shared
    let task = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest) { data, response, error in
        guard let data = data.dropFirst(5) else {
        return
        }
        if error != nil {
            print(error)
            completionHandlerForAuth(nil, NSError(domain: "authenticateToUdacity", code: 1, userInfo: nil))
            return
        }
        let range = Range(uncheckedBounds: (5, data!.count - 5))
        let newData = data?.subdata(in: range) /* subset response data! */
        print(NSString(data: newData!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)!)
        print(NSString(data: data!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)!)

        let parsedResult: [String: AnyObject]!
        do {
            parsedResult = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: newData!, options: .allowFragments) as? [String: AnyObject]
            print(parsedResult)
        } catch {
            print("Error parsing result as JSON")
            completionHandlerForAuth("" as AnyObject?, nil)
            return
        }

        completionHandlerForAuth("" as AnyObject?, nil)

    }
    task.resume()
}


Evanger's Chicken Dinner is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO nutrient profiles for all life stages. Puppies, pregnant and nursing dogs may require 2-3 times above amounts, and reduced for less active or older dogs. Amount of food your dog requires depends on activity, age, environment and breed.


NasalGuard uses electrostatic technology to create an invisible filter around the outside of your nasal passages. With a mild electrostatic charge, this topical gel reduces inhalation of particles as small as rhinovirus, pet dander, or pollen, along with many other pollutants and airborne contaminants.
A pin-sized drop or two of NasalGuard restricts thousands of fine and ultrafine particles from entering your system for up to six hours by either attracting the particles to stick to the gel rather than being inhaled, or by repelling the particles away from your nose in the first place.
Standard shipping in the USA.