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January 13, 2022 Case Studies
Customer Case Study: Special Events Management, Inc.
From Shutdown to Sellout: How the Switch to GiveSignup Led to This Community Festival's First Sellout Ticket Event
Founded in 1988, Special Events Management (SEM) is the Midwest's largest special event services company servicing all types of major outdoor public events (e.g., festivals, concerts, art fairs, community celebrations, and endurance sports, such as running, walking, cycling, and triathlons). Notable events include Northalsted Market Days Chicago, Wells Street Art Festival, and the Life Time Chicago Triathlon. The company specializes in supporting nonprofit organizations, which make up almost 90% of its client base. Between the 50+ nonprofits, SEM helps raise over $20 million annually. This critical customer group requires efficiency, low costs, and transparency from all services SEM provides. They look to SEM for direction on how best to organize and deliver their events, which includes determining what platform to use to generate the event's revenue from ticketing, registration, and peer-to-peer fundraising.
Multiple Platform Inefficiency. In early 2020, SEM was utilizing two different platforms for registration events (e.g., the Salt Lake City Marathon benefitting the Huntsman Cancer Institute) and for peer-to-peer fundraising events (e.g., the Cycle of Hope benefitting Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley). A third platform was used for ticketed events (e.g., Chicago Tacos and Tequila Fest benefitting the Chicago Canine Rescue). Managing three different platforms meant three times the work on training, reporting, financial reconciliation, and onsite fulfillment.
Nonprofit Customer Needs. Working across so many nonprofits and customizing SEM's services for each to meet specific needs requires a robust but easy-to-use platform that is customizable yet standardized. To succeed, nonprofits need extensive tools related to donations and fundraising that must work seamlessly with ticketing and registration.
Resource Utilization. During the industry-wide shutdown of events at the beginning of 2020 due to COVID-19, SEM was forced to reduce its staff — temporarily but drastically. To stay viable and survive these tough times, its team needed to find new efficiencies and centralize its online revenue-producing efforts. Its nonprofit clients were experiencing the same squeeze on resources. At the same time, SEM wanted a platform that would work in both lean and full times. The struggle to find a single source for online registration and ticketing was an internal conversation and opportunity discussed for many years prior to the global pandemic.
More Marketing Support. Another struggle SEM faced was finding a platform that offered a significant amount of promotional tools without adding a line item to already tight budgets. Furthermore, the existing tools offered were not cutting it. For example, a consistent pain point for ticketing events on Eventbrite was the inability to offer a website that did not include the platform's branding (without paying extra). SEM needed a platform that brought new value to its clients while the clients needed to find additional savings.
The Switch to GiveSignup | RunSignup
When the pandemic brought in-person events to a screeching halt in March 2020, SEM was introduced to RunSignup through its partnership with Chronotrack. A timer with Chronotrack and heavy user of its registration platform over several years, SEM was apprehensive to switch at first. There were many questions internally about how to bring data over from existing events and what would look, feel, and operate differently with a new vendor. As its staff looked to find virtual endurance event products for its nonprofits, the choice became clear.
"We could see that RunSignup was investing in new tools and features for virtual events that our clients were desperate to implement, while other platforms were focusing on providing the bare minimum to support its existing products. Having a solution, and a strong one at that, to offer them saved many client contracts and relationships."
Hank Zemola, CEO, SEM
After moving over endurance event registration events and pivoting to virtual events in the Spring of 2020, SEM experienced the immense power and flexibility RunSignup endurance event registration and peer-to-peer fundraising products had to offer. During this trial with endurance registration events throughout the remainder of 2020, SEM's nonprofit clients liked what they saw with their 5Ks, cycling rides, and associated fundraising, and they wanted to know more about what else GiveSignup | RunSignup could do. As the relationship grew, SEM learned more about other products and features related to ticket events, donation forms and websites, and fundraising campaigns.
Then, as vaccinations became available in early 2021 and restrictions on permitting made live events possible again, SEM brought over its ticketed events. The first was a big one: The Chicago Craft Beer Fest, an event held annually in June, that offered three days of tasting sessions with over 80 beers, live music, and exhibitor booths. Benefitting the West Loop Community Organization, the festival was scheduled for June 18-20, 2021.
The Result: A Sellout Event
SEM launched ticket sales for the Chicago Craft Beer Fest and sold out all sessions two weeks before event day. This was the first time the event sold out in its history. SEM and its client, the West Loop Community Organization, were tickled by the event's impressive financial success that resulted before the gates even opened.
The Tools and Features
Free Event Website With Dynamic Visuals. SEM's client liked the ability to leverage fully branded websites and avoid the competing branding of its prior ticket platform, Eventbrite. Additional content options through GiveSignup's cover page tool allowed SEM to present a comprehensive and compelling representation of the event — this being so important to motivate ticket buyers at the actual point of purchase.
Advanced Tickets and Ticket Groups. Presenting multiple sessions over several event days was difficult on SEM's previous platform, Eventbrite. Each day's session had to exist as a standalone ticket without any connection or relationship to other sessions on the same day. With GiveSignup's advanced ticket features, SEM was able to visually group the three tasting sessions under each event day, resulting in a less confusing purchase experience for ticket buyers and less customer service emails and phone calls. It could also set multiple attendance caps: by session, across sessions, by day, and for the entire weekend — something not previously available to it on Eventbrite.
Free Email. To reduce costs, SEM used GiveSignup's email marketing tool to communicate with ticket purchasers and ticket holders rather than import data to a third-party mail client. This allowed its team to use up-to-date purchase data to personalize pre-event communications that were most relevant to each tasting session. Emails felt custom and individual. Open rates improved by 18%.
Powerful and Flexible Marketing Tools. SEM was able to create and effectively manage many simple and complex coupons for its media and advertising partners. This allowed for customized code names, configuration, and tracking that worked optimally for each promotion. Referrals turned ticket purchasers into ambassadors recruiting friends and families while earning money back.
Ticket CheckIn App. The icing on the cake, though, came unexpectedly on opening day. In past years, this event (and other SEM events) had been plagued by long and slow-moving checkin lines while using its old platform's tools. The SEM team employed the GiveSignup Ticket CheckIn app and experienced its smoothest and quickest checkin process ever. This success was attributed to the easy-to-use nature of the app's interface and its ability to download all ticket purchase data onto checkin devices; thus, eliminating the reliance on Internet connections and speeds.
"Service at crowded events like these is always a concern for us. With other tools that relied on a continuous online connection, checkin would only go as fast as the app would load the data. We are so happy to not experience any of these types of delays with GiveSignup's Ticket CheckIn app."
Karyn Terrones, Media and Marketing Director, SEM
Looking Ahead: More Money, Less Work
The future for SEM looks bright as it focuses on bringing all of its events onto the GiveSignup | RunSignup platform in 2022. Its team is looking forward to streamlining its training and lift required of its event managers and accounting staff. SEM also looks to strengthen its client relationships by introducing them to the platform and acting as their guide on the implementation process.
"We are always looking for ways to provide more value to our clients without incurring additional costs. GiveSignup | RunSignup allows us to be heroes in delivering effective and efficient online revenue generation solutions that help our nonprofits raise more."
Chicago Craft Beer FestSpecial Events Management
QR Codes for Ticket Event Websites
Email Builder Now Available for GiveSignup's Free Ticket Event Email Marketing


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3 F.3d 1254 (9th Cir. 1993), 91-16762, Adams v. United States
Docket Nº: 91-16762, 91-16840.
Citation: 3 F.3d 1254
Party Name: Lester ADAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee. Lester ADAMS, Plaintiff-counter-defendant-Appellee, Jean D. Adams, individually and as Trustees of the 1984 Living Trust, Plaintiff-counter-defendant-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant.
Case Date: August 31, 1993
Court: United States Courts of Appeals, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
3 F.3d 1254 (9th Cir. 1993)
Lester ADAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant,
UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee.
Lester ADAMS, Plaintiff-counter-defendant-Appellee,
Jean D. Adams, individually and as Trustees of the 1984
Living Trust, Plaintiff-counter-defendant-Appellee,
UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant.
Nos. 91-16762, 91-16840.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Argued and Submitted June 14, 1993.
Daniel Markoff, Markoff & York, Las Vegas, NV, for plaintiffs-counter-defendants-appellants-cross-appellees.
Peter A. Appel, Environment & Natural Resources Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for defendants-counter-plaintiffs-appellees-cross-appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.
Before: FAIRCHILD, [*] BEEZER, and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges.
BEEZER, Circuit Judge:
Lester and Jean Adams own two noncontiguous tracts of land in Nevada surrounded by the Toiyabe National Forest. The Adamses brought this action against the United States Forest Service for quiet title to certain land they claimed was erroneously surveyed, an easement for ingress and egress to their land pursuant to the former provisions of Revised Statute 2477, 43 U.S.C. Sec. 932 (1970), and an easement to transport water between the two parcels of land. The United States counterclaimed, asserting that the Adamses had trespassed on National Forest land. The United States sought an injunction and damages for the trespass.
The district court held that the statute of limitations barred the Adamses' quiet title claim. Adams v. United States, 687 F.Supp. 1479, 1488 (D.Nev.1988). It also determined that the Adamses had no right to maintain an easement over the Forest Service road to their land, enjoined the Adamses from using and maintaining the easement without prior approval, and held that the Adamses owed the United States $11,000 for damage to the National Forest. The court also held that the Adamses had an easement to transport water between the two parcels. The Adamses moved for relief from judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b); District Judge George denied the motion. Both the Adamses and the United States appeal from the judgment. We affirm in part, reverse in part, vacate the damages award, and remand for further consideration.
The claims of the landowners and responses of the government raise almost exclusively questions of fact. The district court considered the history of land use, water use, and land surveys in and around the private land for the last 100 years. Two district judges ruled on separate claims in this action; both made detailed, written findings of fact.
The land in question lies in southern Nevada. The land consists of two tracts, one made up of three parcels, the other a separate parcel. Both tracts are completely surrounded by the Toiyabe National Forest.
The land lies near Clark Canyon. The Clark Canyon Road (Forest Service Road 20071) leads through the National Forest from the west to the Adamses' larger tract. The road continues on National Forest land between the two parcels to the western edge of the Adamses' separate, smaller tract.
The other road in question is referred to as the North Canyon Road, although it seems to be little more than a trail. This road veers off Clark Canyon Road approximately 1.5 miles west of the Adamses' larger tract's western boundary. The Adamses have built a switchback on Forest Service land leading from North Canyon Road to their property. This is called the North Canyon Switchback.
The Adamses constructed a "fuel break" road (presumably for fire prevention) on Forest Service land along the southern boundary of the larger tract.
There are at least two water sources on the Adamses' land. The Culinary or Mill Spring percolates on the larger tract of land. The spring with a greater water flow, the Clark Canyon Spring, lies on the smaller tract of land. The United States' appeal focuses on the Clark Canyon Spring.
The United States acquired this land in 1848 after the Mexican-American War. The United States owned the land until 1892 when it transferred it to Nevada. During the next seven years, Nevada transferred the property to various private owners. The United States retained ownership in the land surrounding the property. On November 5, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt reserved the surrounding land for what is now called the Toiyabe National Forest.
The Adamses purchased the property in 1964. At the time, Clark Canyon Road was impassable; the Adamses accessed their land on the North Canyon Road. The Adamses have built a house and seven out-buildings on the land; they have also developed a 45 acre irrigated horse pasture.
Township 19 South was originally surveyed in 1881 by Deputy Surveyor Theodore Binge. The much maligned Binge was apparently no perfectionist. Binge did not accurately reflect the survey he ran on the plat map; the original survey "must be considered as of a fradulent [sic] and fictitious character." Letter from Carl S. Swanholm, United States Cadastral Engineer, United States Dep't of Interior, General Land Office, Public Survey Office, to G.D.D. Kirkpatrick, District Cadastral Engineer (May 13, 1936). The resurvey of the land was accepted by the General Land Office in 1939. In 1990, the government performed a resurvey of only a portion of the Adamses' larger tract. The resurvey placed the Adamses' western boundary several hundred feet west of the presumed location, increasing the size of their tract by at least 25 acres.
The district court found that a sawmill existed on the Adamses' land between 1876 and 1881. On the plat map of the 1881 survey, Binge indicated a road leading to this sawmill. The road fell out of use and was not regularly maintained; however, the road is probably the present Clark Canyon Road.
The district court found appropriation of water from the Clark Canyon Spring for the sawmill. The United States disputes whether the sawmill ever appropriated any water. Water is not mentioned in the chain of title between the original patentees and John Spann, the Adamses' immediate predecessor in interest. In the deed between Spann and the Adamses, Spann purported to "convey all water rights appurtenant to" the two parcels.
The Adamses purchased the property based on a map that was based on the 1939 survey boundaries. Since 1964, the Adamses have widened and graded Clark Canyon Road and built the North Canyon Switchback. The Adamses' fuel break road ventures onto Forest Service land.
In 1965, the Adamses built a pipeline from Clark Canyon Spring (on the smaller tract) to the larger tract. The Adamses applied for vested water rights in 1968; they represented that the water had been used for irrigation each and every year since appropriation and that the water was used continuously for sawmill purposes but that the present owner discontinued the mill. The state did not accept the application. The Adamses later applied for a certificate of appropriation for the Clark Canyon Spring from the Nevada State Engineer. This certificate was granted with December 7, 1976 as the date of priority. In 1980, the Adamses installed a second pipeline; the two water lines do not follow the same course.
It is undisputed that the Adamses have never obtained authorization for the activities on Forest Service land. It appears from the record that the Adamses and the Forest Service have had misunderstandings over the road and Forest Service land since 1969. In 1986, the Adamses filed the underlying complaint in this case.
Both parties moved for summary judgment on all claims. District Judge Pro held that the Adamses' quiet title action for land based on the 1881 survey was barred by the statute
of limitations. The court denied summary judgment for either side on the easement and waterline issues.
After a bench trial, District Judge George found that whatever historic road existed in the Clark Canyon area no longer existed. This meant the Adamses were not entitled to a Revised Statute 2477 easement. The court ordered the Adamses to obtain the appropriate permits and comply with governmental conditions before using the Forest Service road. The court also found that most of the work done on Forest Service land were acts of trespass. The court enjoined the Adamses from "further use or occupancy of National Forest lands without first obtaining prior approval" and set a further trial date to determine damages.
The court found that the Adamses had a vested water right under Nevada law and therefore had an easement to transport water across the Forest Service land. In the damages portion of the action, the district court made additional findings of fact and awarded the Forest Service $11,000 in damages. The Adamses and the Forest Service appeal the district court's decisions adverse to each.
We review issues of fact for clear error; we review issues of law de novo. United States v. City of Spokane, 918 F.2d 84, 86 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2888, 115 L.Ed.2d 1053 (1991). We review the district court's denial of relief under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) for abuse of discretion. Northern Alaska Envtl. Center v. Lujan, 961 F.2d 886, 889 (9th Cir.1992).
The Adamses have three separate arguments in support of their easement claim. They claim they are entitled to a right-of-way (1) under Revised Statute 2477, (2) under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. Secs. 3101 et seq., and (3) under the common law doctrine of easement by necessity. Their claims under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The likely direction of online shopping is spelt out in new figures released this week.
Research from business adviser PwC found that fewer shoppers are using their PC to buy online. Rather they're turning to smartphones and tablets.
The study, Achieving total retail: consumer expectations driving the next retail business model, questioned more than 15,000 online shoppers in 15 countries over the course of August and September 2013. Of those, more than 1,000 respondents were from the UK.
The study found that the use of PCs in ecommerce was down by 7% in August and September 2013, compared to the same research carried out in 2012. Stores also saw their share of trade fall, with shopping down by 5%. Instead, the use of mobile to shop online was up by 46%, and the use of tablets by 56%.
More than a third of UK internet shoppers (37%) now buy online every week, and 64% say better deals are the big attraction.
Interesting findings included the statistic that 57% of UK online shoppers buy with five or fewer online retailers. Asked why they shopped at their top three retailers, 85% cited trust, and 79% price.
A third of UK respondents had shopped cross-border, buying from European retailers. When asked why, 83% of those that did said it was because the product was not available in the UK.
Our view: There are useful insights here into the changing way we're shopping. The large-scale transition from the PC to mobile device will be confirmation for many of a well-established trend. More surprising statistics, and one that retailers must take into account in their strategies, are how willing UK shoppers are to shop across borders, and the fact that most UK shoppers can count the number of online retailers they shop with on the fingers of one hand.


Please join us for the Pacific Northwest Debut Appearance of Kahn, who is without a doubt one of the most crucial and commended producer/dj's to emerge in the past few years. Kahn very much embodies the Bubblin ethos of embracing a wide range of dance sounds in both his productions and his dj sets, with distinctive and compelling takes on garage, grime, and dub wise styles – we can hardly wait for his set, trust it's going to be amazing.
This will also be Lincolnup's birthday party – come hug it out with your guy! Plus we're stoked to be throwing our first event at Tonic Lounge, who have graciously re-opened their fine venue to dance music sounds. They've even taken Lincoln on to do their dance music programming and talent buying – at last providing a solid, and very much needed, additional venue for dance parties on the Eastside. We're programming two rooms of dope sounds for the occasion, featuring a bunch of our favorite local ringers in addition to Kahn – a whole lotta vibery awaits!
Hailing from Bristol (U.K) and having grown up immersed in the city's renowned culture of sound systems, punk rock and hip hop; Kahn is at the forefront of the new wave of Bristol producers and DJs.
From his first vinyl releases in 2011 on cult record label Punch Drunk Records to his more recent cuts on Mala's Deep Medi label, Kahn has established himself as one of the most diverse producers of his generation.
His production style tends to draw influence from dub reggae, early 2000's grime, digital dancehall, UK steppers and music from across the 140bpm spectrum. As part of the Young Echo collective, Kahn has also explored other areas of electronic music and incorporates his own vocals and instrumentation into his sound.
As a DJ, Kahn keeps true to the traditions of sound system culture with sets full of dubplates and versions. Whether performing solo as Kahn, alongside fellow grime producer and DJ Neek or as Gorgon Sound (dub and dancehall project also with Neek), it's always a dubplate and vinyl operation.
As well as releases and affiliations with a number of respected record labels, Kahn also runs his own imprint with Neek, Bandulu Records. Since forming at the beginning of 2012, the record label has gone on to showcase the darker forms of instrumental Grime permeating from Bristol's current underground scene, with limited runs of heavyweight vinyl and hand screen-printed artwork.
This entry was posted on March 25, 2014 at 9:43 am and is filed under Bubblin.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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Turning Point: Michigan's strong start on special teams vs. Maryland
Michigan's special teams made two noteworthy plays in the first half vs. Maryland.
By Trevor Woods@WoodsFootball Nov 3, 2019, 12:48pm CST
Share All sharing options for: Turning Point: Michigan's strong start on special teams vs. Maryland
Michael Allio-USA TODAY Sports
The Michigan Wolverines 38-7 win over the Maryland Terrapins was a convincing one, but there are certain moments in any game that greatly influence the trajectory of how the game unfolds.
This week we point to two turning points in the game, both in the first half, both on special teams for Michigan.
The first play of the game is turning point No. 1.
Michigan received the ball first and Giles Jackson took the kickoff return 97 yards for a touchdown to put Michigan up 7-0 before their offense or defense took the field.
Let's check in on Michigan.
Giles Jackson just housed the opening kick. @gilesjackson__ | @UMichFootball pic.twitter.com/L2bxBaS5qL
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 2, 2019
"You know we always try to start the game off fast and that was a big emphasis coming into this game, on the road," Shea Patterson said. "It was cool to see him (Jackson) take off and set the tone for the game."
"His confidence is really high right now," Jim Harbaugh said. "He just hit it."
Jackson's score set the tone and allowed Michigan to start fast, so to speak.
Turning point No. 2 is the fake punt run by Michael Barrett.
With a 4 & 1 situation with Michigan up 14-0 in the game but needing a spark to increase their lead, Jim Harbaugh decided they wouldn't be punting. Instead, they trusted Michael Barrett to run the ball up the gut on a fake punt to get a first down.
"We thought we could get it," Harbaugh said. "We've practiced it now for several weeks. We were waiting for a fourth and one, fourth and two type of situation on our own side, and it was there so we took advantage of the work we had put in. I thought it was a good time to call it and it helped us win this game."
MICHIGAN FAKE PUNT!!!!! pic.twitter.com/QLxCjmeB6h
— I'M SEEING GHOSTS (@FTBeard11) November 2, 2019
The run by Barrett went for 14 yards and it didn't take much time for Michigan to score after the conversion. Patterson hit Nico Collins for 51 yards and two plays later an 8-yard Zach Charbonnet touchdown run put the Wolverines up 21-0.
"That fake punt, we needed it pretty badly," linebacker Josh Uche said. "It kinda killed their (Maryland) momentum and killed their spirits."
The special teams gave up a kickoff return touchdown of their own in the second half, but Jackson's return and Barrett's run were great plays by the Michigan special teams unit.


An experienced deer hunter knows that it takes extra effort to get the best buck, and marriage is like a deer hunt. With time and effort you have found the right one, and in order to symbolize that catch we are offering this Black Zirconium 8mm Flat Band with Deer Track Pattern at a wonderful price. We don't sacrifice quality, and the strong zirconium metal used to make this ring will last you a lifetime without fading or cracking. It's also hypoallergenic, so the most allergy prone gentlemen can wear this metal. Invest today in this beautiful ring.
The Zirconium 8mm Flat Band with Deer Track Pattern provides you with years of use and long life. In fact, we ship it with a full satisfaction guarantee and a limited lifetime warranty, so you can rest assured that when you buy from us, you're getting the absolute best services, quality and prices available!
• Easy to care for - simply use a soft cloth with warm soapy water. No harsh cleaners needed!


text:
Die Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway war eine britische Eisenbahngesellschaft in Shropshire in West Midlands in England. Die Gesellschaft entstand  auf der Grundlage des Light Railways Act am 23. Mai 1901 zum Bau einer 19 Kilometer langen Strecke von Cleobury Mortimer nach Ditton Priors. Am 19. Juli 1908 konnte die Strecke für den Güter- und am 20. November 1908 für den Personenverkehr eröffnet werden. In Cleobury Mortimer bestand eine Verbindung zur Great-Western-Railway-Strecke von Tenbury nach Bewdley.

Am 1. Januar 1922 wurde die Gesellschaft von der GWR übernommen. Am 26. September 1938 wurde der Personenverkehr eingestellt. Mit Wirkung zum 1. Mai 1957 übernahm die Royal Navy die Strecke, da sich in Ditton Priors eine Waffenlager befand. Als dieses stillgelegt wurde, stellte man auch den Betrieb der Bahn zum 16. April 1965 ein.

Die Gesellschaft besaß zwei dreiachsige Tenderlokomotiven, die bei der GWR später die Nummern 28 und 29 erhielten.

Literatur

 M.R.C. Price: Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway. Oakwood Press, 3. Auflage 1995, ISBN 978-0-853614-47-0

Great Western Railway
Bahngesellschaft (England)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


How many times previously, if any have you used Scrub-A-Dub Car Wash and Oil Change?
What time of day did you bring your car in to Scrub-A-Dub?
How many cars, if any, were ahead of you?
How long was you car actually in the service bay?
Do you plan on returning for Scrub-A-Dub services again?


Stanford Advanced Materials (SAM) is a world leader in the manufacturing of custom-engineered nitrogen generators. Our nitrogen-generation systems are simply reliable, yet high-tech. We can design any size nitrogen generation system to meet your specific needs, schedule or budget. We offer a wide array of nitrogen generators and accessories.
The operation of membrane systems is based on the principle of differential velocity with which various gas mixture components permeate membrane substance. Nitrogen as "slow gas" is collected at outlet of Membrane Nitrogen Generator.
Stanford Advanced Materials (SAM) can provide membrane nitrogen generator used for various applications. Other kind of nitrogen generator such as PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) Nitrogen Generator is also available.


text:
[ Lecture: 16th February, 1911 | Berlin | GA0060 | KnoxWF ]
A Lecture by
Dornach, February 16th, 1911
Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner in Dornach, 16th February, 1911. Translated by Walter F. Knox and published for the first time in English in 1927 by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung. This lecture is number twelve of fifteen in the lecture series entitled, Spiritual Science's Answer to the Large Questions of the Present Time, and published in German as, Antworten der Geisteswissenschaft auf den Grossen Fragen des Daseins. Also known as, Hermes and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, this lecture is in the lecture series entitled, Turning Points in Spiritual History. It is contained in Volume No. 60 of the Complete Centenary Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works.
This e.Text edition is provided through the wonderful work of:
The Anthroposophical Quarterly
Search for related titles available for purchase at Amazon.com!
Thanks to an anonymous donor, this lecture has been made available to everyone.
By RUDOLF STEINER
A Lecture delivered by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in the Architektenhaus, Berlin, February 16th, 1911, and published by kind permission of Frau Marie Steiner from a shorthand report unrevised by the lecturer. For the first lecture of the series on the Great Teachers (Zarathustra), see Anthroposophy, Easter, 1927.
WHILE it is of vital importance in Spiritual Science to study the whole spiritual life of humanity as it advances from one epoch to another, rising slowly to the surface from hidden depths, it is perhaps of still greater significance to study the culture and civilisation of ancient Egypt. We realise this the more strongly when we try to penetrate deeply into this ancient Egyptian spiritual life.
The echoes sounding to us across the ages seem at first to be as full of mystery as the Sphinx itself, standing there as a memorial of the civilisation of ancient Egypt. The mystery grows deeper still when we find that even external research has recently been compelled to go back to ages more and more remote in order to explain the culture of later Egyptian times of which certain physical evidence is still available. According to external research the prime of Egyptian culture must be dated at least seven thousand years before our era, perhaps even earlier still. This may be one reason for the great interest evinced to-day in Egyptian culture, but another is that man of the present day feels, whether he likes it or not, that there is a mysterious connection between this ancient civilisation and his own aims and purposes. It is not without significance that Kepler, at the very dawn of the development of modern Natural Science should have spoken of the achievements of Science up to that time and his own contributions to knowledge, in words like these: "When I have endeavoured to unravel some of the mysteries of the course of the planets round the Sun, I have tried to peer into the secrets of cosmic space. And it has often seemed to me as though I have actually penetrated to the mysterious sanctuaries of the Egyptians and brought their holy vessels into our modern age. I have felt then that the significance of my message to the world will only be understood in the future." So strongly did one of the greatest minds of modern times feel himself related to ancient Egyptian culture that he could only express the keynote of his knowledge by speaking of it as a renewal of the wisdom given to the disciples in the secret sanctuaries and places of learning in ancient Egypt, although it was clothed, naturally, in different words. It must therefore be of great interest to us to understand how these ancient Egyptians themselves conceived of their whole culture, of their whole nature as human beings.
A certain very significant incident has been preserved by Greek tradition. It indicates not only what the Egyptians themselves felt but the way in which Egyptian culture was regarded by the civilised world in general in olden times. An Egyptian sage once said to Solon: "You Greeks are still children. All you know is the outcome of your own contemplation and vision; you have no ancient traditions, no wisdom hoary with age, and children you will remain." Wisdom hoary with age — the significance of this expression only dawns upon us when the light of Spiritual Science is cast upon the whole mode and nature of Egyptian thought and feeling.
In the successive epochs different forms of consciousness have unfolded in humanity. Our consciousness to-day, the way in which we grasp the outer world by means of our senses and the combining of intellect and reason, in short, our scientific mode of thought, has not always been in existence; consciousness has ever been subject to the laws of evolution. Not only is the external world of form subject to these laws but man's qualities of soul and consciousness also. This is an indication of the fact that we can only understand ancient centres of culture if we begin by admitting what Spiritual Science tells us, namely, that in olden times, in the place of our present intellectual consciousness, men possessed a clairvoyant consciousness unlike our waking consciousness and yet unlike the complete absence of consciousness during sleep. Traces of this consciousness of prehistoric man are now only retained atavistically as a waning heritage, in the picture world of dreams. But whereas our dreams are chaotic and meaningless in ordinary life, the picture consciousness of the Ancients was "clairvoyant," although, indeed, of a hazy, dreamlike nature. The pictures referred not to the physical world but to the spiritual world behind. In reality, all clairvoyant consciousness, that of prehistoric man, as well as the clairvoyance acquired by true discipline in this age, works in pictures and not in the concepts and ideas of outer physical consciousness. The pictures must be related to the spiritual realities lying behind the sense-realities of the physical world.
The marvellous pictures that have come down to us in the mythologies are not merely phantastic concepts of Nature, as materialistic consciousness imagines to-day. On the contrary, these pictures indicate an actual vision of the spiritual world. If we study the old mythologies and legends — not with the materialistic consciousness of to-day, but with a true feeling for man's spiritual achievements — the strange stories related in the mythologies will reveal a wonderful connection with cosmic laws higher than our laws of physics, chemistry and biology. A note of spiritual reality permeates the old mythologies and religious systems.
Now it must be clearly understood that the several peoples built up this world of pictures in different ways, according to their own nature, temperament and race. These picture-worlds represented, to the several peoples, the higher forces underlying the purely external forces of Nature. We must also realise that in the course of evolution there have been many transitional stages between the old clairvoyant consciousness and the objective consciousness of modern man. The ancient clairvoyance grew dim and gradually faded away. Clairvoyant powers decreased little by little in the different peoples and the pictures arising before the souls of those still able to gaze into the spiritual world contained less and less of spiritual force. The higher worlds gradually closed their doors until only the lowest stages of spiritual activity were perceptible to lower clairvoyance. Then, so far as humanity in general was concerned, the old clairvoyance died out entirely. Waking consciousness was limited to the physical world around and to ideas and conceptions of physical phenomena. Thus arose our modern science. The old clairvoyant powers gradually faded as the development of present-day consciousness proceeded — although of course the process varied in the different peoples.
All that we know from olden times, even what external documents have told us in recent Egyptian research (if we understand aright) proves the truth of what Spiritual Science asserts, namely, that the mission of the ancient Egyptian people was to look back to still earlier times when their leading Individualities were able, with their wonderful powers of clairvoyance, to gaze into the spiritual worlds. In the people of Egypt a somewhat feebler clairvoyant power was preserved on into relatively late times. The later Egyptians — down to the last millennia before the Christian era — knew from actual experience of another mode of vision besides that of ordinary daily life, a vision enabling man to see into the spiritual world. But they only knew the lowest images of the realm of which this vision made them aware, and they looked back to olden times when their Priest-Sages were able, in the golden prime of Egyptian civilisation, to gaze into the very depths of the spiritual world.
The mysteries of the spiritual worlds were preserved, more especially by the earlier Egyptians, with great piety and reverence for thousands of years. Those who lived in the later Egyptian epoch could say: "Even now we can still perceive a lower spiritual world; vision of the spiritual world is possible and to doubt it would be as senseless as to doubt that our eyes can behold the external world." These later Egyptians had, it is true, only a dim perception of the spiritual worlds, but they felt that there had once been an age when their predecessors had gazed more deeply into all that lies behind the physical world. And this old Wisdom-teaching — of which the Egyptian Sage spoke to Solon — was preserved in wonderful scripts in the Temples and on the columns, bearing witness to deep and all-embracing clairvoyant powers in days of hoary antiquity. The Being to whom the Egyptians looked up as the embodiment of the primal glory of that old clairvoyant wisdom, was called by the name of HERMES. And when in later times a man came forth with a message which was to renew the ancient wisdom, he also (according to the custom of Egyptian sages) called himself "Hermes," and his disciples, believing that he had revived the primeval wisdom of the old Hermes, called this first Being, "the Thrice-Greatest," "Hermes Trismegistos." (It was of course, only the Greeks who called him Hermes; among the Egyptians he was known as Thoth). We can only understand this primeval Being if we realise what the Egyptians, under the influence of the later teachings of Hermes or Thoth, took to be the true Mysteries of the Cosmos.
Such beliefs as have been handed down to us from Egyptian times by external evidence seem very strange. Various Gods, of whom the most important are Osiris and Isis, are represented in forms not wholly human; we often find human bodies and animals heads, or an amalgamation of human and animal forms. Wonderful legends of this world of Gods have come down to us and there is something very remarkable in the Egyptian animal-worship, the worship of the cat and so forth. Certain animals were even recognised as being sacred animals; deep veneration was paid to them for they were regarded as the embodiment of higher beings. It is even said that cries of lamentations were uttered at the death of cats. Again, we are told that if an Egyptian saw a dead animal, he dared not approach for fear of being accused of having killed it, in which case he would have been severely punished. It is said too, that in the age when Egypt was subject to Rome, any Roman who had killed a cat was in danger of death, because his act aroused such fury among the Egyptians. This animal-worship is an enigma in the sphere of Egyptian thought and feeling. And again — what a curious impression is made on modern man by the Pyramids, standing on their four-cornered bases, with their triangular sides! Strange indeed are the Sphinxes and everything that is being continually excavated and brought to our knowledge from the depths of Egyptian civilisation. And now we will ask ourselves: of what nature was the life of feeling and ideas among the ancient Egyptians? What had Hermes taught them? How did they acquire all these strange conceptions?
We must realise that all these Legends, especially the more significant, contained a deeper wisdom and their purpose was to convey in picture form, knowledge of definite laws of spiritual life, laws higher than those of external Nature. The Egyptian legend of the God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis, is a case in point. According to the legend, Osiris was a Being who lived in dim primeval times in regions later inhabited by human beings. Osiris is represented in the legend as the benefactor of humanity under whose wise guidance Hermes or Thoth gave the Egyptians their ancient culture. Osiris had an enemy, for whom the Greek name was Typhon. Typhon pursued Osiris, killed him, dismembered the body, hid it in a coffin and threw it into the sea. Isis, the sister and spouse of Osiris, sought unceasingly for him who had been torn from her by Typhon or Seth, and when at length she found the fragments of his dismembered body, she buried them in different places in the land where Temples were then erected. Then, after the death of Osiris, Isis gave birth to Horus. A spiritual ray descended upon Isis from Osiris, who had meanwhile passed into another world. The mission of Horus was to conquer Typhon and, in a certain sense, to re-establish the dominion of a life, which, proceeding from Osiris himself, was again to stream into mankind.
Such a legend must not be analysed merely in the sense of allegory or symbol. It should be used as a means whereby we are led into the whole world of feeling and perception of the old Egyptians; for only so can our understanding of such figures as Osiris and Isis become really living. It is not right to state crudely that Osiris is the Sun, Isis the Moon and so forth. An astronomical interpretation of this kind leads men to believe that the legend only contains symbolical images of certain occurrences in the Heavens. This is not the case. Rather must we go back to the feelings living in the ancient Egyptians and envisage the nature of their upturned gaze to super-sensible, invisible Powers underlying the world of sense, and typified in the figures of Osiris and Isis.
Let us try to conceive what the names of Osiris and Isis conveyed to the ancient Egyptian. He said to himself: "Behind man there is a higher spiritual essence, which does not proceed from his material existence. This spiritual essence has 'condensed' into material, human existence. The real evolution of man has proceeded from a more spiritual existence. When I look into my own soul I realise that I have a longing for the Spiritual, a yearning towards the spiritual wellsprings of being from which I myself have descended. The forces from which I came forth are still living within me. My highest powers are inwardly related to these primordial Osiris-powers within me, bearing witness that I was once a super-sensible being dwelling in other worlds, in worlds of Spirit. And although this being of Spirit has but a dim and instinctive life, although it had perforce to be clothed with the physical body and its organs in order to perceive the physical world, yet in days gone by this being lived a purely spiritual existence."
According to the ancient Egyptian conception, human evolution must be regarded as a duality, consisting of the Osiris-forces and the Isis-forces. "Osiris-Isis" — this was the duality. Let us consider our own being, as we now exist. The idea of a triangle, for instance, must have been preceded by active thinking. After having been active in soul, we may then be passive as regards the result of our thinking and conceptual activity. Ultimately we perceive in our soul the form that has been built up by our active thinking. Now the act of thinking bears the same relation to the final thought, the conceptual act to the final concept, the active principle to the product of the active principle there before us, as Osiris to Isis. In short, activity per se is a Father-Principle, a masculine Principle. The Osiris-Principle is male, active — filling the soul with thoughts and feelings. The old Egyptian said to himself: "Man as he stands here to-day has within him substances living in his blood or forming his bones, but these substances were not always within his blood or bones, they were spread over cosmic space. This physical body is a combination of substances which have now passed into the human form, whereas they once filled the Cosmos. The same is true of the powers of thought. The active principle of thought has become the power of ideation in man. Just as the substances in the blood now live in the human form but were formerly spread over cosmic space — so the Osiris-power now living within us as the active principle of thought was once spread over the spiritual universe as the Osiris-power that permeates and weaves in the Cosmos, pouring into human beings, just as in the case of the substances composing blood and bones in the bodily nature of man. Into the thoughts and ideas there flow, from out of the Cosmos, the living and weaving Isis-Powers." — This is how we must envisage the attitude of soul in the ancient Egyptians towards Osiris and Isis.
This old consciousness could find no expression for such ideas in the world surrounding physical existence on Earth; for everything here was known to be of the world of space and it could offer no outer image of the super-sensible world. And so, in search of some form of language, some kind of script in which to clothe such conceptions as "the Osiris-Power is active within me" — men reached out to the script placed by heavenly bodies in cosmic space. They said: "The super-sensible power of Osiris may be envisaged as the active power of light proceeding from the Sun, living and moving through space. Isis may be seen in the sunlight reflected by the dark Moon — just as the soul is dark when the active principle of thought does not enter. The Moon awaits the light of the Sun in order to reflect it, even as the soul awaits the Osiris-Power to reflect it back as Isis-Power." But when the old Egyptian said — "The Sun and Moon out there show me how I can best picture the activities of my soul," — he knew at the same time: there is no mere chance connection between the Sun with its outpouring light and the reflecting Moon, but this radiating and reflected light has some inner connection with the super-sensible forces I feel within my soul.
Although we would not describe a clock as something that drives its hands with the help of little demons, but as a mechanical contrivance, we realise, nevertheless, that the thought of the inventor, the thought proceeding from the soul of a human being is at the back of the construction of the clock. Something spiritual, therefore, is responsible for its mechanism. Just as the hands of a clock are interrelated and dependent upon each other, so did the Sun and Moon appear to the Egyptians as the expressions of a mighty cosmic clock. When we gaze at this mighty clock in space, it seems at first sight to be subject to mechanical laws, yet in the last resort it is subject to those laws which a man felt in his soul when he spoke of the powers of Osiris and Isis. The old Egyptian did not merely say: "Sun and Moon are images of the relation between Osiris and Isis." He also felt: All that lives in my being was once subject to the mysterious relationship between light and the Sun and Moon.
Again, a relation similar to that between Osiris and Isis and the Sun and Moon was seen to exist between the stars and planets and the other Gods. The Egyptians saw in the positions of the Heavenly Bodies, images of their own super-sensible life, or of traditional experiences of ancient Seers, but in these expressions of the mighty cosmic clock they saw a portrayal of forces within their own souls. Thus the great cosmic clock, with the movements of its stars and the relation of its moving stars to the fixed stars, was a revelation of underlying spiritual, super-sensible forces — forces which had determined the positions of all the stars and had created in a cosmic script, an expression of super-sensible activities.
Such were the feelings in regard to this higher world, feelings which had been handed down to the Egyptians by their traditions of ancient clairvoyance. They knew of the existence of this spiritual world because they themselves still possessed the last remnants of ancient clairvoyance. But now they said: "We have descended from this spiritual world and we are now placed in a world of matter manifesting in physical phenomena, physical processes. We come from the world of Osiris and Isis; the highest qualities within us, the qualities which make us strive towards higher perfection, came forth from Osiris and Isis. These qualities live invisibly within us as energy and power. The physical part of man's being is derived from external circumstances, is taken from the outer world. This physical part of man is but the vesture of Osiris-Isis."
Now this conception of primeval wisdom was the one dominating feeling in the soul of the old Egyptian; it filled his whole life of soul. A man may imbue his soul with abstract ideas and yet remain untouched in his moral and ethical life; his sense of destiny or his happiness may be quite unaffected. Abstract and mathematical concepts of Natural Science may be so deeply absorbed that a man can discuss electricity and other forces of a similar nature without feeling any need to concern himself at the same time with problems of destiny. Now the feeling of kinship with Osiris and Isis, the vision of the spiritual world existing in ancient Egypt — these things could not be conceived of apart from thoughts of destiny, happiness and moral impulses. For the ancient Egyptian said to himself: "I bear a higher Self within me, but since I have entered into a physical body this higher Self withdraws to the background and is at first not wholly manifest. Osiris and Isis are the primal source of my being; but Osiris and Isis belong to the archetypal worlds, to the golden, holy ages of long ago. The Osiris-Isis nature is now subject to the forces which have condensed outer physical substances into man's body. Osiris and Isis are fettered within the corruptible body, and this body is subject to decay even as the outer forces of Nature."
The legend of Osiris and Isis must thus be interpreted in terms of the inner life. Osiris, the higher power in man, spread over cosmic space, is overcome by forces which are subject to destruction in the realm of human nature. The Osiris-power living in man is fettered by Typhon — fettered within a form that is the "coffin" of the spiritual nature of man. Into this coffin the Osiris-nature in man disappears and is invisible to the outer world. The mysterious Isis-nature remains, in order that in future ages, after it has been permeated by the power of the intellect, it may again reach the well-springs of man's being. Thus there lives in man a hidden quality which strives to bring Osiris to life again. The Isis-power lives in the human soul in order gradually to lead man back again to Osiris. So long as man remains a physical being he cannot of course be separated from the world of matter, yet it is the Isis-power which enables him, while he remains a physical being in the outer physical world, to maintain in his inner being a striving towards a higher Ego. And according to every true thinker, this higher Ego is there, deeply concealed in all the powers of man. This being — who is not the outer physical man but the man who has an unceasing urge to rise to the light of spirit, who is ever impelled by the hidden Isis-forces — appears as the earthly son of One who did not arise in the earthly world. He is the earthly son of Osiris who remained in the spiritual worlds. This invisible being — the being who strives to reach the Higher Self, was known by the name of Horus, the posthumous son of Osiris.
Thus the old Egyptians looked up with a certain sadness to the Osiris-origin of man, but at the same time they gazed into their innermost being, saying: "The soul has retained something of the Isis-power and this Isis-power gives birth to Horus who has the urge to strive towards spiritual heights. In these heights man finds Osiris." Man can attain to Osiris in a twofold way. The Egyptian said: "I came forth from Osiris and to Osiris I shall again return. Osiris, my spiritual origin is within me: Horus will lead me back to Osiris his Father; but Osiris can only be attained in the spiritual world. He could not enter into the physical nature of man. In the physical nature of man he was vanquished by the Typhon-forces which are subject to decay because they are forces of external Nature."
Osiris can therefore only be reached along two paths. One is the path leading through the Portal of Death; the other is the path through the Portal leading not to physical death but to Initiation. The Egyptian therefore said: When man passes through the Portal of Death and has passed the stages of preparation, he comes to Osiris. When he is freed from the sheaths of his earthly body in the spiritual world, the consciousness of his kinship with Osiris awakens within him. The dead man feels that in the spiritual world he may himself be called "Osiris." And so, after death, everyone was an "Osiris."
The other path to Osiris — the other path into the spiritual world — is through Initiation. To the Egyptian this path was a means whereby man could learn to know the Invisible, the Supersensible in human nature — Isis, or rather the Isis-power. In the knowledge gleaned from everyday life man does not penetrate to the depths of his soul, he does not reach the Isis-power. Yet there is a means whereby he can pierce through to this Isis-power, whereby he reaches the true Ego and realises that it is enveloped in physical matter. If we follow this path we reach the spiritual home of the Ego. This, then, was the teaching of ancient Egypt: Man must descend into his own innermost being; there he first understands his physical nature — the expression of his Ego. He must force his way through this physical nature. He beholds the outer world, the creation of spiritual, super-sensible Powers, in the three kingdoms of Nature: in the stones with their forms based on mathematical laws, in the plants with their life-filled forms which are the dwelling place of Divine Powers, and in the animals. But when he beholds Man he must penetrate through the outer form to the Isis-powers of the soul.
Part of the Initiation into the Isis-Mysteries, therefore, consisted in showing man how he was clothed in matter. The processes enacted when a man thus plunged into his own nature, were practically the same as occur at death but they were enacted in a different way. The aspirant had to pass in actual life through the Portal of Death, to learn of the transition from physical to super-physical vision, from the physical to the spiritual world — in short the transition experienced in actual death. He had to follow this path of descent into his own inner being, to learn what can only be experienced there. And in this region he learnt, in the first place, how the blood, the physical instrument of the Ego, is formed from Nature. Now the system of nerves is the physical instrument for the soul-activities of Feeling, Willing and Thinking and the instrument of the Ego is the blood. If a man would descend into his instruments — so thought the old Egyptians — he must descend into his physical-etheric sheaths, into the etheric qualities of soul. He must learn to be independent of the forces in his blood upon which he otherwise depends, and, after having first freed himself from these forces, he must then enter into the marvellous processes of his blood. He must learn to know his higher nature in its physical aspect. This he can only do when he is able to contemplate himself as he contemplates an outer object. Now man can only know an object as object if he himself is outside it; thus if he wishes to perceive himself, he must stand outside his own being. That is why Initiation develops forces which enable the soul-powers to have real experiences without making use of physical instruments. The physical instruments are there objectively before man, just as after death his spiritual being looks down at his physical body.
And so the pupil in the Isis-Mysteries was first taught the secrets of his own blood. He passed through an experience which may be described as an approach to the Threshold of Death. This was the first stage of Initiation into the Isis-Mysteries. The pupil had to behold his own blood, to behold himself as object, to plunge down into the sheath that is the instrument of his Isis-nature. In the sanctuaries of Initiation he was led to two Portals, where he was shown in picture form the processes taking place in his inner being. Two doors stood before him, one open, the other closed. These teachings, echoing down to us across the ages, harmonise most wonderfully with what man believes at the present day, although he now gives a materialistic interpretation to everything. The old Seers of Egypt said: "When man is in the underworld he comes to two doors; through two doors he enters into his blood and his inner being." The modern anatomist would speak of the two entrances lying beside the valves of the heart. If the pupil wished to penetrate into his body he would have to pass through the "open" door, for the "closed" door is there to prevent the blood stream from taking a wrong path. These anatomical phenomena are material images of what the ancient sages experienced in clairvoyant form. The forms were of course not so exact as the structures confronting the modern anatomist, yet they represented what clairvoyant consciousness perceived when it gazed at the inner being of man from without.
The next stage of the Isis-Initiation may be described as follows: The pupil was led through the tests of Fire, Air and Water — that is to say he learnt to know the nature of the sheaths around his Isis-nature. He learnt to know Fire as it courses through his body, using the blood as its instrument; he learnt to know how air enters the body in the form of oxygen; he learnt to know his watery nature. Fire, Air and Water — the warmth of the breath, the fluidity of the blood. And his knowledge of the sheaths, of Fire, Air and Water purified him until he finally attained to his Isis-nature. This again may be expressed by saying: Only when the pupil reached this stage did he feel that he had really "come to himself," realising his spiritual existence, no longer limited to the human faculties pertaining to the outer world but able to gaze into the spiritual world. In the outer world we can only see the physical Sun by day; at night it is hidden from us by matter. In the spiritual world, however, it is not so; in the spiritual world man beholds the spiritual Powers at the very time the physical eyes are not functioning. In the Isis-Initiation it was said: When a man is purified he beholds the spiritual beings face to face; he can see the Sun at Midnight. That is to say, when darkness prevails, the spiritual life and the primal spiritual Powers behind the Sun are visible to those initiated in the Isis-Mysteries.
Such was the path of the soul to the Isis-powers, the path which might be traversed by those who while still living sought to energise their deepest forces of soul. There were still higher Mysteries — the true Osiris-Mysteries. In these Mysteries man learnt how through the Isis-power he might find himself one with the spiritual super-sensible Power whence he himself had come forth. — He knew Osiris and Osiris arose within his soul.
Now when the old Egyptian wished to depict the relation between Isis and Osiris, he used a script drawn from the movements of the Sun and Moon in the Heavens; he used the relationships of the other starry bodies to express the activities of the other spiritual Powers. His script was drawn from the Zodiac in its condition of comparative rest, and from the Planets moving across the constellations. In all the mysteries thus revealed, the ancient Egyptian saw a spiritual script. He knew: Nothing that is on the Earth can help me to express what man experiences if he goes forth to seek Osiris with the Isis-power within him. The starry constellations themselves must be the script.
Hermes, or Thoth, the mighty Sage of antiquity, was revered by the Egyptians as having had the most profound insight into this relation of man to the Cosmos. It was Hermes who expressed with the greatest sublimity the relation of the stars to these spiritual Powers and to events in the Cosmos. The language of Hermes was the language of the stars themselves. The relation of Osiris to Isis, for instance, could be explained exoterically to the people in the form of legends. Those who were preparing for Initiation were taught in greater detail of the light proceeding from the Sun, its reflection by the Moon, and the marvellous processes enacted by the light passing from the new Moon through different phases to the full Moon. The primal forms of writing were derived from processes taking place in the Heavens. Man little knows to-day that the consonants are images of the Zodiacal constellations, of a cosmic element that is at rest; the relations of the vowels to the consonants are images of the connections between the moving Planets and the Zodiac. The earlier forms of the letters of the alphabet were in this sense derived from the Heavens.
The ancient Egyptians felt that the great Hermes had himself been taught by the Powers of the Heavens and that he expressed, in his own being, the deepest soul life of man. All that was expressed in the deeds of man, even in daily pursuits where mathematical sciences, geometry (which Pythagoras afterwards learnt from the Egyptians), land-surveying and the like, were needed — all these things were traced back to the wisdom of Hermes who had seen the processes and phenomena of Earth to be reflections of heavenly activities as expressed in the stellar script. This script was brought down by Hermes into mathematics and geometry and he taught the Egyptians to find, in the stars, the counterpart of earthly happenings.
Now we know that the whole life of Egypt was deeply bound up with the floods of the Nile, with the deposits swept down by the Nile from the mountainous lands in the South. And we can realise how necessary it was for the Egyptians to know in advance when these floods would occur. They reckoned time according to the stellar script in the Heavens and when Sirius, the Dog Star, was visible in the Sign of Cancer, they knew that the Sun would shortly enter this Sign and that its rays would charm forth all that the flooding of the Nile bestowed upon the soil. They said: "Sirius is the Watcher; it is he who tell us what is to come." And they looked up in gratitude to the Dog Star, to Sirius, for it was he who enabled them to cultivate their land aright and provide for the needs of their daily life. They looked back to ages of hoary antiquity when mankind had first been taught that the movement of the stars is the expression of the mighty cosmic timepiece.
Thus did the Egyptians take counsel from the stellar script. Hermes, or Thoth, was the great Spirit who, according to the oldest traditions, had given the original script of the Cosmic Wisdom and with the inspiration flowing into him from the stars, had built up the alphabet, had taught men the principles of agriculture, geometry, land-surveying — in short all they needed for their physical life. Physical life, however, is but the body of a spiritual life, a cosmic spiritual life whence Hermes drew his inspiration. Thus all culture and civilisation came to be bound up with the name of Hermes, and indeed the Egyptians felt themselves connected with him in a still more intimate sense.
Suppose, for example, that an Egyptian living in the year 1322 before our era, were looking up to the Heavens. He would behold a certain constellation. The ancient Egyptians had a convenient method of reckoning time-conditions, convenient, that is to say, for purposes of calculation; twelve months of thirty days each, with five additional days — making three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. They had reckoned thus for centuries, for the method was really a mathematical convenience. After three hundred and sixty-five days a year had run its course. Now as we know from Astronomy, this leaves a quarter of one day unaccounted for; that is to say, the Egyptian year fell a quarter of a day too early. If you reckon it out, you will see that every successive year began a little earlier than the last. So month by month the year receded until, after a lapse of four times three hundred and sixty-five years it returned to the beginning. Thus it always happened after a period of one thousand, four hundred and sixty years that the heavenly relationships were readjusted with the earthly calculation. In the course of one thousand, four hundred and sixty years the year receded through a complete cycle. If you reckon this back three times from the year 1322 before our era, you have the epoch to which the Egyptians ascribed their holy primal Wisdom. They said: "In those ancient times men possessed the very highest clairvoyance. Each of the great Solar Years denoted a stage in the waning of clairvoyant power. We are now living in the fourth stage. Our culture has reached a point where we have only traditions of the teaching of antiquity. But we look back through three great Cosmic Years to an age when the greatest of our Sages taught his pupils and successors what we to-day possess — though in much changed form — in writing, mathematics, geometry, the science of land-surveying and astronomy." At the same time the old Egyptians said: "Our human calculations — which adhere to the convenient numbers of twelve times thirty plus five supplementary days — bear witness how the divine-spiritual world must correct our affairs, for our intellect has estranged us from Osiris and Isis. We cannot reckon the year accurately. But we look up to a hidden world where the Powers guiding the stars correct us."
Thus even in their Chronology the old Egyptians looked up, as it were beyond the feeble quality of the intellect, to spiritual Beings and Powers living in hidden worlds, who in accordance with deeper laws, supervised protected and watched over all that man has to experience on Earth. And in Hermes, or Thoth, they revered the Being whose inspiration flowed from these watchful Powers of Heaven. Hermes was not only a great Teacher, but a Being to whom the old Egyptians looked up with feelings of deepest gratitude and reverence, saying: "All that I possess comes from Thee! Thou wert there in days of old and lo! Thy blessings stream into the world for the healing of men through those who have been Thy messengers." Thus both the original source of Power — Osiris — and Hermes, or Thoth, — the Guardian of that Power — were not only known to the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians, but their souls were filled with a deep moral feeling, a feeling of reverence and gratitude. All external evidence shows that the wisdom of the Egyptians (especially in very ancient times, and later to a less and less degree) was permeated with religious feeling. All human knowledge was bound up with feelings of holy awe, all wisdom with piety, all science with religion. In the later Egyptian epoch this no longer appears in its purest form. For just as in the successive epochs it is the mission of the several peoples to express the Spiritual in different forms, so do the several civilisations begin to fall into decadence when their prime has been reached. Most of what has been preserved from ancient Egyptian culture belongs to the period of decadence and one can only surmise what lies behind the marvellous pyramids, for instance, and the strange animal cults. The Egyptians knew: The age when wisdom itself was working was preceded by another, when all beings — not only man — descended from divine-spiritual heights. If we would understand the innermost nature of man we must not look at his outer form, but penetrate to his inner being. What we see externally are stages at which primordial creation has remained stationary; such stages are to be seen in the three kingdoms of Nature. The first stage is the world of the minerals and stones — the forms of which are expressed in the Pyramids. The second stage is the world of plants and the inner forces of this world are expressed in the Lotus flower. The third stage is represented by the animal forms, strewn, as it were, along the path to man. Divine forces which have not attained to the human stage have poured and crystallised into the different animal forms. Such were the feelings of the old Egyptian when he beheld the retarded forces of the Gods. He looked back to primeval ages when all creation sprang from Divine Powers. He felt that Divine Powers had remained at an earlier stage of development in the beings of the three lower kingdoms of Nature and had finally risen to human form in his own being. We must always be mindful of the feelings, the consciousness of the old Egyptians, for then we shall realise that their wisdom had a moral effect in their souls. Their conception of the Divine world and Supersensible forces gave rise to a relation to the animals, which only assumed a grotesque form when Egyptian culture entered upon its period of decline. The imperfections of later Egyptian culture were not there at the beginning when it was filled with spiritual revelation. We must not — as is so often done to-day — ascribe primitive and simple conditions to the early stages of civilisations. On the contrary, primitive conditions belong to periods of decadence which set in after the original spiritual treasures have been lost. Barbaric conditions are not to be regarded as the original states of civilisation; they are in reality the result of the decadence of civilisations which have fallen from their spiritual prime.
Such a statement may be a cause of irritation to the science that describes all civilisations as having originated from old primitive conditions such as survive in savage tribes to-day. Primitive states of culture still in existence are to be regarded as stages of decadence; at the beginning of human life on Earth the early civilisations were directly inspired from the spiritual world by the Spiritual Beings standing behind external history. This is what we are told by Spiritual Science.
Again it may be asked: Does the science of to-day, representing as it does, the heights of modern culture, come into collision with this statement of Spiritual Science? I should like here to quote from a recent work by Alfred Jeremias, The Influence of Babylon on the Understanding of the Old Testament, which shows that outer research too has found its way back to an ancient culture permeated with sublime and far-reaching conceptions and that the so-called barbaric civilisations must be regarded as the outcome of decadence. This point is clearly made in the book:
The oldest records, as indeed the whole cultural life of the Euphratean civilisations, postulate the existence of scientific and at the same time religious conceptions not only in the secret lore of the Temples but according to which the State organisation was regulated, justice declared, property administered and protected. The further back we go into ancient times, the more do we find the domination of these conceptions; only when the ancient Euphratean culture enters on its period of decadence do other forces make themselves felt.
External science is here beginning to open up paths which can unite with what Spiritual Science has to introduce into modern civilisation. If it advances along these paths it will gradually abandon the dead image of primitive conditions at the starting-point of human civilisations and will come instead to the Great Individualities. And they appear before us in all sublimity because it was their task to transmit to men who still possessed the power of clairvoyance, the greatest blessings in every branch of culture. And so we look back to mighty figures — to Zarathustra, to Hermes — who appear so sublime because they were the first to give the great spiritual impulses to mankind in those remote ages of which the Sage spoke to Solon. Hermes stands there as a great Guide of mankind. As we contemplate these great Individualities, we feel a strengthening of our own powers. We realise that the Spirit not only lives in the Cosmos but flows into cosmic deeds, into the evolution of man himself. Our own life is fortified, we have greater confidence in our own actions, our hopes and purposes are strengthened by the contemplation of these great Individualities. We who are born in after ages look up to Them, seeking the fulfilment of our own existence in Their mighty powers of soul, understanding our own actions in the light of the eternal Spirit pouring into humanity through Them.


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Weekly mortgage applications soar 30% as homebuyer demand hits the highest level in 11 years
You are here HomeInvestmentChina starts lifting restrictions on foreign investment
By Loknath Das January 4, 2020 Investment
Beijing: China has started lifting major restrictions on foreign investment in its financial sector, a move long demanded by the United States as the world's two biggest economies are locked in a fierce trade battle.
From the start of 2020, foreign banks can now set up wholly-owned branches in China without a local partner holding the majority stake, the banking regulatory authority, CBIRC, announced on Friday.
In the past, foreign banks were required to have a local Chinese partner and not allowed to hold more than 49 percent of their respective joint ventures.
The announcement could be seen as a gesture of goodwill by China towards the US as Washington says a preliminary trade agreement between the two sides looks set to be signed this month.
The world's top two economies have been waging a merciless trade war since March 2018, resulting in mutual tariffs being slapped on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of annual trade.
Beijing has long promised to further open up its economy to foreign investment, but it was slow to do so in the financial sector.
In October, China unveiled a timetable for lifting a number of the restrictions. And in December, the Swiss bank UBS was authorised to take a majority stake in its activities in the country.
But starting from January 1, foreign companies specialising in futures contracts will now be able to invest in China with no limits on the amount of capital held.
Fund management companies will be able to do so from April 1 and brokers from December 1, 2020.
Tags:ChinaForeigninvestmentLiftingOnRestrictionsStarts
Punjab CM meets Japanese ambassador, seeks investment in state


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Q: Adding images to a UITextView It appears that this has been asked and not answered before, but the question is ancient and there have been many Xcode / iOS updates since then, so I am going to give this a shot.
I have a simple view controller laid out. There is a single View that contains a read-only Text View with some instructions on how to use the app. I would like to intersperse some images in the scrolling text view to refer to the buttons and other elements that I am referring to in the instructions.
Here is the view:

So for instance, when the instructions refer to the green start button, I would like to insert an image of that button inline with the rest of the text.
I am using Xcode 5.1.1 and of course storyboards. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

A: You can use the NSAttributedString with NSTextAttachment to attach an image to the text
NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"press   to start"];
NSTextAttachment *imageAttachment = [NSTextAttachment new];
imageAttachment.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"AnyImage.png"];
NSAttributedString *stringWithImage = [NSAttributedString attributedStringWithAttachment:imageAttachment];
[attributedString replaceCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(5, 1) withAttributedString:stringWithImage];

self.textView.attributedText = attributedString;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


MY HANDS, MY TOOLS INC. is an entity registered at NEW YORK county with company number 4970775. MY HANDS, MY TOOLS INC. located at the address 230 West 147 Street Apt 2H New York, New York, 10039. Company is incorporated on June 25, 2016. Current status of the company is active.
June 29, 2016 Actual MY HANDS, MY TOOLS INC.
FIVE BOROUGH BEST CONSTRUCTION INC.


Service to request a new departmental FalconNet or Email account, or request for a new student club email and print quota account.
Request access to a department email account or department-use FalconNet (network) account.
Link for the Self-Service site to enroll or to reset your FalconNet password.
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Use this form to request access to a campus club or other student organization Email or Print Quota account.
Use this service request if you have not registered on the self-service password website, or have forgotten your security question answers to reset your own password.


text:
Previous Post Do You Need a Lawyer for Cruise Injury Claims? Next Post Things You Should Know Before Going on a Cruise
Category: Cruise Injuries | Cruise Lines | Cruise Ships | Safest Cruise Lines
Many potential cruise customers have been turned off by recent reports of mechanical failures, sickness, and injuries on major cruise lines.
But despite horror stories like the incident aboard the Carnival Triumph in 2013, the vast majority of passengers have a wonderful cruise vacation. Cruise ships are often more safe that living on land. Even outbreaks of norovirus—a virus so commonly associated with cruise ships it's sometimes called "the cruise ship bug"—are more likely to strike on solid ground.
Some cruise lines have more of a checkered past than others, however. If safety is a primary concern for you when shopping for a cruise, you should know that all cruise ship companies are not equal in their safety precautions. We've rated the safest cruises thus far this year, based on data from ProPublica.
Safest Cruise Companies by Sanitation Score and Number of Incidents
ProPublica reporters gathered their data from a number of sources. The first data set comes from the ratings from the CDC Vessel Sanitation program. Twice every year, each vessel is inspected by a team from the CDC and rated on sanitation on a 100 point scale. Any score below 86 is considered a failure.
The second data set looks at the number of incidents on each cruise ship. This could include slips and falls, drownings, or onboard crime. Each incident is recorded and tallied for each individual vessel, then added up for the entire cruise company's score. The recorded incidents occurred during a period of time from 2010 until 2015.
1. Disney
Avg. Health Score: 99
Number of Incidents: 20
There's no doubt about it—the Disney Company runs a tight ship. No Disney Cruise ship has ever scored lower than a 99 during the CDC inspections. Furthermore, the company has only 20 reported incidents in the past five years, and zero outbreaks of sickness.
2. Celebrity
Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that a luxury cruise line scores high in health and safety. Though most of the Celebrity fleet scores exceptionally well on CDC inspections, their average score is weighed down by the Celebrity Constellation, which barely passed with a rating of 88.
3. Holland America
Holland America has earned a reputation for ethical business practices, and it seems their philosophy extends to keeping their customers healthy and safe. Most of the ships score in the high 90s for CDC inspections. One notable exception, however, is the MS Rotterdam, which earned a barely-passing score of 86. Still, Holland America has a strong reputation and seems to live up to the hype for the most part.
4. Norwegian
The Norwegian cruise ships vary more than most, with many ships like the Norwegian Jewel earning perfect scores on the CDC's inspections, but others like the Norwegian Breakaway earning scores as low as 91. Still, the number of incidents onboard Norwegian cruise ships has been relatively low, with 91 reported crimes or injuries among their entire fleet of 14 ships. Compare that to Carnival's 437 incidents since 2010.
Remember, cruise ships are often safer than life on dry land. But when injuries or accidents do occur on a cruise ship, they aren't governed by the extensive laws that protect your rights on American soil.
Instead, they are mostly covered by maritime law, which often leaves victims without compensation or justice for their injuries. If you or someone you love has been injured on a cruise ship, you should contact an experienced cruise ship attorney as soon as possible.
A partner at Lawlor, White & Murphey and a distinguished personal injury lawyer, Ben Murphey tries complex disputes that include civil appeals, maritime and admiralty claims, wrongful death, and labor disputes. Mr. Murphey has been recognized for his excellence in the area of personal injury litigation by being rewarded with a 10/10 Avvo Rating and named a Super Lawyers "Rising Star" for the last four consecutive years (2011-2014). Mr. Murphey regularly tries cases in state and federal courts around the country, being admitted to practice before all Florida courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Jones Act
Largest Cruise Ships
Princess Cruise LInes
Royal Carribean
Safest Cruise Lines
Summer Cruises


A Master's degree is an academic qualification granted at the post-graduate level to individuals who can demonstrate a high level of expertise in a specific field of study. Not only will a Master's degree help you stand out in the job market, but it's key to career advancement and increasing your earning potential.
As a Master's graduate, you will be the preferred candidate for top jobs and a treasured asset in whichever company you choose to work for.


In this AeroCast episode, UND Aerospace discusses the Slow Flight maneuver as performed in the Piper Warrior (PA-28-161), referencing the procedures and standards outlined in the UND Warrior Standardization Manual. All performance tolerances are based on the performance standards set forth by the FAA Private Pilot Practical Test Standards. Since the most critical phases of flight occur at airspeeds less than cruise, a pilot must always be comfortable with his or her airplane's handling characteristics at reduced airspeeds.


text:
Ross Stores Stock's Bearish Signal Has Never Been Wrong
A shit in analyst sentiment could further pressure ROSS
Jake Scott
The shares just pulled back to the historically bearish 180-day moving average
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) is moving higher today, last seen up 3.5% to trade at $88.98 and pacing for its fifth daily win in six. Though the catalyst for today's positive price action is unclear, the equity has fared considerably well over the last three months, adding 20.2% despite a 2.3% dip in September after its mid-month pop was cut short at the $96 level. However, today's pop has put the equity in line with a historically bearish moving average that could see its upward efforts stalled.
The trendline in question is Ross Stores stock's 180-day moving average, which the shares just came within one standard deviation of after trading well below it for much of the year. Per data from Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, five similar signal have been observed in the last three years. After all of these of these occurrences, the stock was lower, averaging a one-month drop of 7.1%. A similar move from its current perch would put ROSS at $82.66.
Looking at the rest of the brokerage bunch, 10 of the 16 analysts following the stock consider ROST to be a "strong buy," while the other six say "hold." An unwinding of this optimism could also weigh on the shares. Meanwhile, the consensus 12-month target price of $98.96 is an 11.2% premium to the equity's current level.
Options look like a an ideal way to speculate on the equity's next move. This is per the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 76 out of 100, which indicates the stock has consistently realized bigger returns than options traders have priced in over the last 12 months.


Who will succeed the abruptly resigned Jim Yong Kim as the next president of the World Bank has drawn much attention from the international community. The White House has recently denied that President Trump's daughter Ivanka is a candidate for the post. Ivanka has been only assisting U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and White House Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney in the selection of candidates for the World Bank president.
The World Bank currently has 189 member states. The United States is its largest shareholder and has 16 percent of the voting rights, which allows it to exercise veto power when it deems necessary.
In 2012, facing pressure to allow people from emerging economies to compete for the presidency, the Obama administration eventually put Jim Yong Kim in the position. Now, in any case, it seems that Kim's successor, the next president of the World Bank, is most likely to be another American.
The Trump administration has been trying to consolidate the U.S. leadership in selective multilateral institutions, while simply withdrawing from international mechanisms that it believes are useless for achieving the "America First" policy.
In December 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in Brussels that the United States is reshaping the international system after World War II to establish a "new liberal order," which includes promoting the reform of the World Bank.
The Trump administration opposes World Bank's support for projects related to climate change, but the World Bank regards improving developing countries' capacity to cope with climate change as an important task, for instance, promoting the use of clean electricity in Vietnam, Brazil and other countries.
The fund was established in 2010 to promote projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Obama administration promised to contribute 3 billion U.S. dollars in November 2014, but Trump decided to "terminate" U.S. contributions to the fund in June 2017.
In October 2018, the "Global Commission on Adaptation" was set up by people such as former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates, and was launched in the Hague. The commission's goal is to stop the reversal of global efforts in dealing with climate change – World Bank CEO Georgieva is one of the members of the commission.
In fact, in order to get the support of the Trump administration, Jim Yong Kim once supported the establishment of the "Women Entrepreneurs Fund" and Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump is in charge of the project. Even so, Jim Yong Kim and the World Bank under his leadership are still viciously criticized by the Trump administration, and many of these criticisms are related to China.
In order to strengthen its ability to invest and finance development projects worldwide, the World Bank had hoped to push forward a capital increase in 2017, but the U.S. Treasury blocked it. The Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass said the World Bank needs major reforms, especially in reducing or even canceling loans to middle-income countries.
According to the U.S. side, it is unacceptable for China to obtain a large number of loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development under the framework of the World Bank. The Trump administration has positioned China as its primary strategic competitor.
In response, Jim Yong Kim has argued that the benefit of lending to China is two-fold. First, it can increase the World Bank's influence on China's domestic reforms. Second, the World Bank's experience in China is helpful to the Bank's work in other developing countries, especially in areas like poverty alleviation.
What makes the Trump administration even more dissatisfied is that the World Bank has been very supportive of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Like many other leaders of international organizations, Jim Yong Kim attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing in May 2017.
In addition, the World Bank has also worked closely with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank initiated by China to provide joint financing for infrastructure projects in Pakistan and other countries.
This does not mean that the World Bank is a pro-China organization. As Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based think tank Center for Global Development, said, the World Bank is merely trying to reduce the impact of the AIIB through increased contact with China. Considering China's increasing influence in international development, the World Bank's "contact" strategy is actually wise. The AIIB, which was officially launched in 2016, has received AAA ratings from international rating agencies such as Moody's, signaling recognition of the institution's compliance with international rules.
But the problem is that the United States is increasingly looking at China's role in international development from a zero-sum perspective. Republican Senator Todd Young who's a member of U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations claimed that the United States must maintain its leadership in multilateral economic institutions such as the World Bank, or China will take advantage of the leadership vacuum to distort the mission and values of these institutions.
However, China currently is not in a leadership position in the World Bank. As the world's second largest economy, China has only 4.45 percent of the total voting power in the Bank.
In fact, international development is facing severe challenges, requiring more cooperation rather than competition between the U.S. and China. For example, 600 million people in Africa still live without electricity supply, and the "Power Africa" initiative put forward by the Obama administration has basically stagnated.
According to a study conducted by the Global Development Policy Center of Boston University, since 2000, China has provided 34.8 billion U.S. dollars in financing energy projects in Africa, including power stations and power grids. Chinese enterprises in Africa can buy a large amount of equipment and technology from General Electric, a U.S. company.
In a nutshell, no matter who the next president of the World Bank will be, such an international multilateral mechanism should not be reduced to a proxy for competition between major powers. There are indeed some differences between Trump's "America First" strategy and collaborative values and spirit that the World Bank ought to uphold.
Zhao Minghao is a visiting fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies under Renmin University of China.


Researchers in an international study have uncovered new genetic evidence of how the benefits of the world's most commonly used Type 2 diabetes drug may vary between individuals.
Metformin, a drug used by hundreds of millions of people with Type 2 diabetes worldwide, has been in use for over 50 years. It has been shown to protect against heart disease, and eye and kidney disease in people with Type 2 diabetes, and has also been shown to have benefits against cancer. Metformin is also undergoing new clinical trials to determine if it can promote healthy aging.
Genetic studies such as these can provide important clues to underlying mechanisms, and may go some way to explaining why different treatments work particularly well - or poorly - in a given individual. This study is also testament to the value of international, collaborative research.
It has been known for some time that metformin works better in some people than others but the reasons for this have not been understood. Now research carried out by the large international Metformin Genetics Consortium, including Oxford University researchers, has identified a genetic variant (a change in the DNA code for a particular gene) that alters how well metformin works.
Researchers found that overweight people carrying two copies of a genetic variant responded so much better to metformin that it was equivalent to receiving an extra 550mg of the drug.
They say their findings represent a significant step towards personalised, targeted therapy in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
The research has been funded by Wellcome, Diabetes UK and the National Institutes of Health in the US and is published in the journal Nature Genetics, investigated how well metformin worked in 13,123 participants of different ethnicity.
The Metformin Genetics Consortium identified a genetic variant in the gene encoding the glucose transporter GLUT2, a protein that plays an important role in transporting glucose inside the body. They showed that those people who carried this variant had reduced levels of GLUT2 in the liver and other tissues resulting in a defect in how the body handles glucose. Metformin acted to specifically reverse this deficiency resulting in a better response to metformin in people carrying this gene variant.
Metformin is a widely used drug but researchers are still discovering more about how it works. Scientists have known that GLUT2 is important for glucose transport for many years, but had not previously thought that variation in the gene encoding this transporter would alter how metformin works.
This finding helps move forward the major efforts being made to personalise therapies for individuals with type 2 diabetes and to make more effective use of the drugs that are already available.
Dr Elizabeth Robertson, Director of Research at Diabetes UK, said, 'This study sheds important light on why people with Type 2 diabetes respond differently to metformin, and could be used to identify distinct groups of patients or develop new therapies in the future. Altogether, this research represents an exciting step towards personalised therapy for Type 2 diabetes, moving away from a 'one size fits all' approach to ensure people receive the best treatment possible.
The paper, Variation in the glucose transporter gene SLC2A2 is associated with glycemic response to metformin, is published in Nature Genetics (doi:10.1038/ng.3632).