I want to offer up some comments on a long, ranting screed Brannon Howse recently wrote against Phil Johnson. The one ironic aspect of it is that many of Brannon's fans will not necessarily see it because it is posted at an obscure Facebook page. I think this is intentional deceit, as I will explain in a moment.
Now. Before I begin, it may be helpful to provide a little background for those readers not up to speed on the latest evangelical kerfuffle. Earlier in June, Brannon Howse, who hosts Worldview Weekend, a daily radio show heard on the VCY America network, launched a "discernment" crusade against James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. Brannon had two self-proclaimed Islamic experts on his program to critically discuss a dialog James had with Yasir Qadhi in Memphis this past January.
The dialog itself was two nights of informal discussion between James and Yasir as to the distinctions between Islam and Christianity. One was held at a church in the Memphis area, the second at a mosque also in the Memphis area. Both hour and a half discussions can be watched HERE and HERE.
Brannon and his two experts, however, smeared the discussions as an "interfaith dialog" of the compromising sort. They suggested that James was compromising the Christian faith in the same way one of those gummy bear evangelicals like Rick Warren embraces Roman Catholics, or any other false religion, in a Coexist fashion. Additionally, they questioned James's motives in doing the dialog, giving the impression he was soft-peddling the Islamic agenda. They falsely labelled him a "dupe" and a "useful idiot" who was lied to by Yasir, because according to the two experts, he is really a terrorist sympathizing ISIS supporter who was playing James like a fiddle in order to make Islam more accepting among American evangelicals.
Brannon devoted three programs assailing James's character and ministry. When he encountered strong push back from folks on social media, he spent another week of follow up episodes in which he dug in against his detractors. I'll point readers to Phil Johnson's public remarks summarizing the entire affair because they reflect what I think it about it as well. See HERE.
Phil then followed that tweet up with another, recalling a program from 2008 on which Brannon went after John MacArthur for his views that said the Revolutionary War was biblically unjustified. On that program, Brannon had on Tim Wildmon from the AFA, and Marshall Foster from the American History Institute, to publicly scold John MacArthur and his so-called woefully ignorant position on the American Revolution.
It is at this point, after Phil's second tweet, that Brannon's campaign against James White becomes an even hotter dumpster fire than it was already.
At first glance, his description gives the impression that John is going to address the idea of Christians talking with Muslim imams and finding common religious ground with them. However, the words "Muslim" or "imam" are no where mentioned in the talk. In fact, nothing John states in his message would condemn what James White did with that imam. John's message was aimed at genuine theological compromise with unbelievers, something James never did when he spent two days interacting with Yasir.
In response to Phil's tweet comments, Brannon left this obfuscating statement on Facebook. (He also read it on his Worldview Weekend program).
The reader will note a glaring omission. The one name he conspicuously left out of his statement: Phil Johnson. That raises an intriguing question, why?
I'll venture an educated guess and say it is because he intentionally clouded who it was he was responding to. A lot of the folks who hear Grace to You also hear Brannon's Worldview Weekend. It is uncomfortably awkward if the director at the ministry of the very pastor he cites in support of his position took him to task regarding his hamfisted accusations against James White.
But folks may pause here and say, "Fred, aren't you being just a tad unfair? Maybe he wanted to protect his identity." That brings me to Brannon's long rant.
The weekend after Phil posted his final thoughts on Brannon's ridiculous "James White's Islamic Peril" (see my link above), he posted three audio files in which he interviewed Phil back in 2011 on the topic of dealing with false teachers in the church. He also wrote up his fuming tirade against Phil. He even brought up the stupid controversy he manufactured in February 2015 when he went after Todd Friel about how many people died during the Catholic Inquisitions. Without rehearsing that entire drama, I can just say that what Brannon presents is lopsided and only half-way accurate. In other words, he is intentionally misremembering what happened. I ought to know, because I was at the center of that entire storm.
Unless a person knows who Sam is, more than likely he isn't gonna see it. Brannon's fans are certainly not gonna see it. As of this writing, there are just 11 shares. I personally left a comment refuting Brannon's claims, but of course Sam, probably out of ignorance of who I am, dismissed me as a buffoon. I left a second comment, but that got removed and now I am blocked from leaving any responses whatsoever. If Brannon was genuinely serious about responding to Phil, he'd do it on his website and his own personal Facebook page for all to see. He would not run to an obscure yes man who is simply using Brannon as a stick to beat James White.
Brannon's clumsy, half-baked crusade to uncover imaginary collusion between a well-respected, rock solid Christian apologist with a 25 year track record of Gospel ministry and an accused Islamic terrorist sympathizer is bad enough. Compounding the problem is him mass blocking an entire online community of believers pleading with him to step back and reevaluate the foolishness he has presented. Worse still is him hiding his dispute with a ministry that on the one hand he uses for his credibility, but on the other hand, disparages the men associated with that ministry. Such vacillating behavior reveals some troubling character issues that need to be addressed.
On the Thursday, September 18th Worldview Weekend program, Brannon Howse and Justin Peters talked about Kirk Cameron doing an interview for a Catholic radio program, Busted Halo. The WVW episode can be heard HERE until it gets archived in the Situation Room. Justin talked about the interview more for the Monday, September 22nd edition of his own program, that can be heard HERE.
I'll say up front that I have appreciated both Brannon and Justin and what they do. I have particularly liked Justin's ministry of exposing the heresies of the Word of Faith movement. I know a lot of people who have been helped by his teaching in that area. I had the privilege of meeting him last year at the Strange Fire conference and spent some brief time with him at the RefMont conference in June up in Montana. And even though I have had disagreements last year with Brannon, I am supportive overall with what he is doing at Worldview Weekend, especially his efforts with pulling together the team of radio/podcast hosts that are heard on his network.
But with that said, however, I thought their critique of Kirk was grossly unfair. They accused him of giving an implicit endorsement of Catholicism because he didn't immediately go into "sharing" the Gospel at the beginning of the interview when he and the host were making their opening pleasantries. They didn't like certain terminology he used when he gave his testimony. And they were particularly bugged by the theme of his upcoming Christmas movie.
My honest evaluation: I think they are reading way too much into his comments given in a promotional interview for a recent DVD release and his film on Christmas.
Now, I don't want to come off as a gushing, wide-eyed fanboy. I have had my criticisms of Kirk as well in the past. In fact, when it came to his teaming up with Glenn Beck for his film, Monumental, in a post I wrote up about it, I agreed with Brannon's criticism of Kirk's affiliation with Beck. But this recent interview was in no way like his teaming up with Glenn Beck for a screening of a movie. Their critical charges against him are in my estimation, so wildly off-target to almost be considered purposefully dishonest.
Kirk, for a while, attended Grace Church with his family where I got to chat with him a few times. Through a weird occurrence of providence, my former pastor from my college days in Arkansas now lives out here in California and he and his wife have become big buds with Kirk and his wife. My family and I once attended a picnic fellowship with my old pastor, his church, and the Camerons. We had a lovely time with them all. Kirk's a sincere, genuine guy who loves the Lord.
So when I heard that he was cozying up to a Catholic radio host and treating him as a brother, my immediate reaction was, Really? I downloaded the WVW podcast and gave it a listen, and when they played the suspicious clips of the interview, I was not hearing what Brannon and Justin were claiming to hear.
I went a step further. I found the September 4th, Busted Halo episode with his interview and gave it a listen. After hearing the 20 or so minute interview, I became irritated. It was like they were not just mistaken about what they heard, but they were intentionally maligning the guy's character. For example, they got all over him for giving a weak testimony about his salvation experience. They pettily complained about his illustration he used of liking his pre-conversion life as eating a hamburger to his post-conversion life of eating a steak. Sure, maybe it was a silly comparison, but to conclude he now has compromised the Gospel in some dastardly fashion? Really?
They were also critical of him saying that his new movie about Christmas will "talk about the biblical foundations of Christmas." Both Brannan and Justin jumped on that, saying there are no "biblical foundations" for Christmas traditions, but they all have their origins in pagan religions that were co-opted by Christians. They even played a couple of clips from John MacArthur who talked about the pagan origins of Christmas in an old Q&A session at Grace a number of years ago.
Just a side note: during the Busted Halo interview, Kirk, without naming him, recounted the advice MacArthur gave him about his interest in seminary and his desire with pursuing movies and media culture. I thought that was a bit funny in light of how John was being used to refute Kirk.
Anyhow, if you listen to Kirk's statement, he wasn't denying the pagan connections of many of the Christmas traditions like Christmas trees, the nativity, and of course Santa Claus. He was just saying his movie will address the biblical aspects of the holiday. Will he take David Barton like liberties with the history of Christmas and make it Christian when in fact it is a stretch to say such a thing? I hope not; but I'll be happy to write on that if he does. However, even the world recognizes the Christian elements to CHRISTmas, because they are attempting to tone down those elements during Christmas. Come on people!
Well. With a lot of things in our social media driven internet culture, there is a broader perspective to stories like this one. I just so happen to have a good friend who is also a good friend with Kirk. He texted back and forth with him about the criticism from WVW. Kirk lent us this insight. He stated basically that after he reheard the Busted Halo interview, he figured he could have done better, had been clearer, and maybe more direct with the Gospel. What preacher hasn't gotten out the pulpit and thought such a thing? How many of us have had similar missed evangelistic opportunities because we weren't "on the ball" or were just wanting to get out of the conversation and on with our chores? A similar thing more than likely happened here, because the interview was like the 15th one he had done, and like all of us who are exhausted after a long day of talking, you want to wrap things up and get back home. Is that something we can learn from? Absolutely? Has he compromised the faith? Of course not.
Look it. If Kirk Cameron begins to frequent Roman Catholic TV shows, really becomes chummy with them, speaks at their gatherings, or whatever, believe me, I'll be the first one calling him out on it. But just because he gave one mediocre promotional interview to a host of a Catholic radio program, I am not ready to throw him under the bus and label him an ecumenist.
BTW, one final thought before I publish my post. Were Brannon and Justin wrong for criticizing him without "contacting him privately first?" I don't think so. Kirk is a public figure and it was a public interview, it's fair game for criticism. But I do think Kirk has earned the respect of such a contact and I hope when those two brothers can be shown they have overreacted that they will have the courage to apologize to Kirk in front of their listening audiences.
I want to offer a bit of a response to an interview Chris Pinto gave to Brannon Howse on September 16th in which he attempted to answer the critics of his documentary, Tares Among the Wheat. [The full length video can be viewed (Updated: "Could have been viewed") on Youtube (Ironically posted by a KJVO guy, a position Pinto claims to reject)]. BTW, he did kindly send me a DVD of his documentary that I hope to write up a review about in the future.
If the mp3 of the interview goes behind the WVW pay wall before you can catch it, Pinto did write an article that outlines the basic talking points in response to another critical review of his documentary.
With that stated and for my purposes now, I want to primarily focus upon a few of the questions and comments that were covered in the interview, but before I begin, it may be helpful to provide a bit of background for those unfamiliar with the "controversy" if we can call it that.
Pinto has come under extensive criticism over the last couple of months by a number of folks who take serious issue with the egregious assertions he makes in his Tares Among the Wheat documentary regarding the history of Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest and most complete NT codex we have.
Basically, he suggests that Constantine Von Tischendorf, the textual scholar who discovered the codex at St. Catherine's monastery, was in league with the Vatican and the Jesuit order to develop a false "Bible" for the purposes of undermining and wrecking the Protestant Christians, especially the doctrine of sola scriptura. He erroneously identified the codex as a 4th century document (even possibly "intentionally" identifying it as such for his nefarious Jesuit purposes), when in reality, Sinaiticus had been created in the 19th century by a guy named Constantine Simonides.
After Tischendorf began to publish the codex, Simonides wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper in September 1862 in which he claimed he was the writer of the codex as a youthful teenage boy in 1839-40. Other scholars of that day came to Tischendorf's aid and debunked Simonides claim rather soundly and he left England in disgrace and eventually died a few years later in 1867. That true history of the codex's development, as presented in Pinto's documentary, has been dismissed and largely forgotten by the modern Christian world who know virtually nothing about Sinaiticus's true origin and Simonides's hand in producing it.
I honestly believe Pinto blows the Simonides affair way out of proportion than what it really was and seizes upon the fact that a lot of modern day Christians are unfamiliar with the events. He presents the story in his documentary as some bombshell historical fact that is meant to change the way we should look at the history of our Bible and as a smoking gun that the Roman Catholic Jesuits were involved in corrupting our Bibles so as to supplant the Christian doctrines taught by the Protestant Reformation.
So with that in mind, I want to select a few questions that were raised in the summary of the program, because I believe Pinto, as well intentioned as he may be, is not responding to his critics honestly.
Question: First off you are not a King James Only proponent correct?
Brannon Howse opened up the interview by asking Pinto if he was a KJV onlyist, to which he replied that he wasn't. He says he "prefers" the KJV because to him it is the most faithful and accurate translation we have in English. He doesn't, however, support all the KJVO arguments because they are extreme.
That is a rather odd statement, because the so-called "featured experts" listed on the promotional material for his documentary are Dr. David Brown, Dr. Henry Hudson, Dr. Ronald Cooke, Dr. Alan O'Reilly, Les Garrett, Roger Oakland, Dr. D.A. Waite, and Dr. H.D. Williams. If you "Google" their names along with "King James Version," practically everyone of them are featured on KJVO sites or have written books and articles defending KJVO propaganda.
In email correspondence, I have raised this discrepancy with Pinto, asking him why he says he isn't a KJVO guy, but at the same time seeks out KJVO men as "experts" for his documentary. He claims they did not like the final conclusions of his documentary (whatever that means) and that any refusal by KJV apologists to promote his documentary is proof that he is allegedly outside the camp of KJV onlyism. Yet in spite of that, his documentary is still heavily promoted on a number of KJVO websites and blogs.
Howse also made the comment that just because someone raises scrutinizing questions about the authenticity of Codex Sinaiticus that doesn't mean the person is a KJV onlyist. But that is not really the issue. The problem is with how Pinto is spinning the historical facts concerning the discovery of the codex and Simonides's fraudulent claim to be its author to prop up his particular view of the Bible. My concern is also with the honest portrayal of the facts and besides, Pinto defends his position arguing like a KJV onlyist whether he is one or not.
Question: Codex Sinaiticus seems to be surrounded in controversy and serious questions so why are people that question its authenticity attacked and called names by even some Christian?
Brannon then fields a number of questions about Codex Sinaiticus and Pinto gives the basic background to its discovery and publication. He insinuates that the codex is veiled in a sinister cloud of controversy and conspiracy and rehashes a number of KJVO talking points about it having 23,000 corrections, passages of Scripture missing, and the addition of early Christian literature like the Shepherd of Hermas. Brannon even does a "Hold on a minute! You mean the codex had non-canonical books with in its pages!?" when Pinto mentions about the Shepherd.
That brief discussion then leads to the conspiracy portion of their talk about the Codex, where Pinto implies that Sinaiticus just "appeared out of nowhere" under suspicious circumstances, that Tischendorf quietly publishing the codex had "sinister" motives attached to it, that he had "connections" to the Vatican, and the "23,000 corrections" in the Codex itself is the primary source for a lot of higher criticism that attacks the authenticity of the Bible and orthodox Christianity.
As a side note, it's important to mention that Pinto seems to believe that higher criticism, the textual criticism that denies the infallibility, inerrancy, and authenticity of Scripture and that has given us the Anchor Bible commentary series, really had its beginnings with the Jesuits. The Jesuits developed higher textual criticism for the sole purpose of attacking the Reformed doctrine of sola scriptura.
Now all of that leads up to Pinto laying out his story about Simonides and him claiming to have created Codex Sinaiticus. The basic gist of the story is that after Tischendorf published the codex and the scholarly world was all abuzz about it, Simonides wrote a letter to The Guardian newspaper in which he claimed to have made the codex for the Czar in Russia and that Tischendorf misidentified it. That claim, at least according to Pinto, stirred up a raging scholarly controversy that lasted 4 years until the academic big guns who were all Tischendorf's pals, ridiculed Simonides so that he left England in disgrace, yet going to his grave insisting that he was the author of the codex.
Pinto has put a lot of stake into the character of Simonides, even calling him a renowned paleographer and manuscript expert. He makes a big deal out of the fact that pretty much all modern Christians who are familiar with textual criticism are unaware of who Simonides was and the claim he made about the codex. But the reality of who Simonides was is a much different picture than the one Pinto has painted.
If you recall your history regarding the 18 and 19th centuries, the British Empire became the dominant international superpower. Their presence in the Middle East, coupled with the waning influence of the Ottoman Empire, allowed westerners access to many of the ancient places of the world. The 1800s saw an explosion in the discovery of ancient documents, both secular as well as biblical, along with a greater understanding of ancient societies and cultures like Egypt. The reason being is that people, Christian westerners to be exact, now had unfettered access to those treasures that they previously did not when those areas were under the control of the Ottomans.
Obviously, with money bag westerners coming into the land looking to spend small fortunes to acquire rare works of antiquity, including ancient manuscripts, an entire cottage industry of forgery and art counterfeiting grew up. Simonides was one of those guys — a conman who happened to be a talented calligrapher who could forge ancient documents.
An ingenious Greek, Constantine Simonides, had about 1855 brought to England a number of manuscripts, among which was one which purported to be a lost history of Egypt by one Uranius. The well-known scholar, W. Dindorf, accepted it as genuine and prepared an edition for the Oxford University Press; but when a few sheets of it had been printed, another German scholar detected that the chronology was obviously taken from a modern history, and after a short controversy the fraud was exposed and the edition suppressed. Tischendorf had taken a hand in denouncing the imposture, and Simonides took his revenge by declaring that, while the Uranius was perfectly genuine, he had written another MS., viz. the Codex Sinaiticus, which he had copied from a Moscow Bible in about six months at Mt. Athos in 1840. The story was patently absurd; for in 1840 Simonides was only 15 years old, he could not have obtained 350 large leaves of ancient vellum (modern vellum is quite different), he could not have copied it in six months, and no Moscow edition of the Bible with a similar text exists. Moreover the codex is written by a least three different scribes, and has a large number of corrections in various hands. The story is merely one of the comedies of crime, and is only worth mentioning, because it has since been revived. The character of Simonides is further illustrated by the fact that he subsequently claimed to have discovered among the Egyptian collections of a Liverpool gentleman a papyrus copy of St. Matthew written fifteen years after the Ascension, with fragments of first-century manuscripts of the Epistle of St. James and St. Jude and other equally surprising documents. These ingenious forgeries may still be seen at Liverpool. [Kenyon, 80].
So basically, Simonides came to England with some fake manuscripts that he tried to pass off as authentic. One of them was exposed as fraudulent and Tischendorf just so happened to have played a roll in exposing it. That just so happened to be around the time when Codex Sinaiticus was being published and Simonides just so happened to then claim to be its creator. What an amazing coincidence.
Pinto also mentions another scholar named James Farrer, who published a work called Literary Forgeries in 1907 that discussed the Simonides affair. According to Pinto, Farrer concluded that the whole controversy is one of the "great" mysteries of recent history and that vague conclusion supposedly lends credibility to Simonides as the creator of Sinaiticus.
But Farrer's book is on-line at Google books and anyone can read the third chapter that goes into the whole Simonides affair. Though Farrer was a tad more charitable to Simonides's character than Kenyon in his analysis, he still clearly gives the reader the picture of a con artist who was trying to make a buck and a name for himself by passing off fraudulent documents. Farrer even states that the letters Simonides produced allegedly written by priests and other supporters of his stating that he was in deed the creator of the codex, were thought to also have been forged by him.
All of that to say that Simonides was certainly not the renowned, scholarly paleographer that Pinto wants to make him out to be.
Question: If reporting on the Jesuits, Masons, and Masonic statues and occult symbols and secret societies causes some discernment bloggers to call you names then why are these same bloggers not attacking John MacArthur for talking about the Masons, Jesuits, and even the secret words of Masons as he did in a sermon we have played here on our program? The answer may be these bloggers claim to like Pastor MacArthur so they have a double standard and only attack with what and when it fits their agenda.
That is an odd comment. I imagine they may have me in mind because I happen to attend Grace Church and work for Grace to You radio ministries. Honestly, I can't understand why Brannon and Chris believe there is an inconsistency or double-standard here. It is true John has preached messages on Catholicism and the Jesuits. I can't recall if he has specifically addressed the Masonic symbolism, maybe briefly in a sermon, but I'll take their word for it.
That said, the distinguishing difference between what John has preached about those things and what Pinto is telling us about those things is that John doesn't take those facts and spin an alternative history that is highly speculative and flounders in the realm of conspiracy. Again, my concern — the concern with all those who have been critical of Pinto's documentary — is the accuracy of reporting the facts and passing off ridiculous notions about the Bible to an unlearned listening audience.
At various points during the interview, Brannon Howse raises a few questions about the motives of Pinto's critics. He talks about having emails from people who have not watched the documentary but are still willing to be critical of Pinto's research. Howse asks why everyone is so upset about questioning the authenticity of just one biblical manuscript among thousands and what difference does it make if it is proven to be fraudulent.
Pinto explains that all he is doing as a documentarian is reporting the historical facts and allowing the listening audience to decide how those facts should be interpreted. But rather than dealing with the "facts" of the documentary, Pinto's critics are painting him as a conspiracy nut and a KJV onlyist. I guess he means to say we are just leveling ad hominem attacks against him.
Pinto is being completely dishonest here. He is not just "reporting" the history behind the publication of Sinaiticus as if the Simonides affair was just an amusing little episode surrounding the publication of the manuscript. Oh sure, I guess if a person wants to thoroughly cover the history of Sinaiticus, he'll mention about how Simonides claimed to have written it in 1840 as a teenager. But if he is a honest researcher, he'll also present the damning evidence against Simonides claim.
That is the problem people have with Pinto's documentary. He isn't just laying out all the facts as he claims he is. He WANTS his viewers to go away from watching his documentary doubting the authenticity of Sinaiticus. He WANTS them to go away thinking that the Jesuit order had a heavy hand in promoting Sinaiticus as a legitimate manuscript because it had such a prominent roll among textual scholars in shaping textual criticism in the 1800s onward. A roll that moved people away from the Received Text that was utilized to translate the KJV.
As Christians, we serve a God of truth. We cannot promote ourselves as "discernment" experts and hold seminars for which people spend good money to attend while being profoundly wrong in one major important area of church history. Even worse is when people point out how profoundly wrong you are, you bristle and refuse correction.
Chris Pinto is going into David Barton territory with his Thomas Jefferson stuff. If I recall correctly, Brannon Howse has taken David Barton to task on that subject as well as posted articles by others. Well, here we have another guy who is spinning history to promote a particular agenda. His errors in misrepresenting the historical facts have been documented, and yet, both men dismiss it out of hand.
I like Brannon and appreciate what he is doing at Worldview Weekend. If he honestly doesn't have a dog in this fight, as he says during the interview, he needs to find some person or persons who he will also interview and allow them to interact objectively with Pinto's presentation. That is what a genuine "Berean" would do.


This image, taken prior to focusing for the evening, shows what happens when an 80% full moon lies 10 degrees from the cluster we are studying. You gotta know when to fold 'em.
This image, taken prior to focusing for the evening, shows what happens when an 80 percent full moon lies 10 degrees from the cluster we are studying. You gotta know when to fold 'em.


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text:
Q: Breadth First Search Algorithm Does Not Work Results in Infinite Loop I am trying to do a BFS search where I dynamically create the Nodes of the graph as I search the State Space. I followed the book but it does not work the frontier keeps on running and the explored set stays at the start value only. Please help, I have been stuck here for 4 days. Still a beginner programmer.
Problem Class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Test
{
    internal class Problem
    {
        public State start { get; set; }
        public State end { get; set; }

        public string[] action = { "UP", "LEFT", "DOWN", "RIGHT" };

        public Problem(State x, State y)
        {
            start = x;
            end = y;
        }

        public State Result(State s , string a)
        {
            State up;

            if (a == "UP" && s.X - 1 >= 0)
            {
                 up = new State(s.X - 1, s.Y);

            }
            else if (a == "LEFT" && s.Y - 1 >= 0)
            {
                up = new State(s.X, s.Y-1);

            }
            else if (a == "DOWN" && s.X + 1 <  5)
            {
                up = new State(s.X, s.Y+1);

            }
            else if( a == "RIGHT" && s.Y + 1 < 11)
            {
                up = new State(s.X + 1, s.Y);

            }

            return up;

        }

        public bool GoalTest(Node<State> goal)
        {
            if (goal.Data.Equals(end))
            {
                return true;
            }
            return false;
        }

    }
}

Search Class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Test
{
    internal class Search
    {
        public void BFS(Problem p)
        {
            Queue<Node<State>> frontier = new Queue<Node<State>>();
            HashSet<string> explored = new HashSet<string>();
            List<Node<State>> nNodes = new List<Node<State>>();

            Node<State> root = new Node<State>() {Data = p.start,};
            frontier.Enqueue(root);

            while(frontier.Count > 0)
            {
                Node<State> next = frontier.Dequeue();
                if(!explored.Add(next.Data.Data)) continue;

                next.Children = new List<Node<State>>();
                foreach(string action in p.action)
                {
                    next.Children.Add(new Node<State>() { Data = p.Result(next.Data, action), Parent = next });
                }

                for(int i = 0; i < next.Children.Count; i++)
                {

                        if (p.GoalTest(next.Children[i]) == true)
                        {
                            //Solution(next.Children[i]);
                            break;
                        }
                        frontier.Enqueue(next.Children[i]);

                }
            }
        }

        public void Solution(Node<State> n)
        {
            while(n.Parent != null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(n.Parent.Data);
            }
        }
    }
}

Node Class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Test
{
    internal class Node<T>
    {
        public T Data { get; set; }
        public Node<T>? Parent { get; set; }
        public List<Node<T>> Children { get; set; }

    }
}

State Class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Test
{
    internal class State
    {
        public int X { get; set; }
        public int Y { get; set; }
        public string Data { get; }

        public State(int x, int y)
        {
            X = x;
            Y = y;
            Data = $"{X}-{Y}";
        }
    }
}

Main Program
using Test;

State start = new State(0, 1);
State end = new State(3, 7);

Problem p = new Problem(start, end);

Search s = new Search();
s.BFS(p);

This is actually for my assignment hence I named it test.
I am trying to implement the pseudocode from here: (Page 82)
https://zoo.cs.yale.edu/classes/cs470/materials/aima2010.pdf
Update
It does not stuck now but it does not input anything into the console after the loop runs it is supposed to get the links between the goal node and the start node via the "Parent property".

A: You are never checking if nodes are already explored, so you will likely enter an infinite loop:
explored.Add(next.Data.Data);

should be
if(!explored.Add(next.Data.Data)) continue;

But there might be other problems with the code. I would highly recommend reading Eric Lipperts article How to debug small programs since problems like this should be fairly easy to find and fix yourself with the help of a debugger. Learning how to use a debugger is an invaluable skill that will make troubleshooting much easier.
I would also recommend removing all the strings from your program. Instead you should create type representing a coordinate, i.e. a Point, or vector2Int. I would recommend making this a readonly struct, and add ToString overload, IEquality<Point> implementation, operators for addition  subtraction, equality etc. This type could then be used both for representing the state, and to represent the offsets. Such a type would be reusable for all kinds of different projects.

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In life, injuries are inevitable. They occur in the body as well as the mind. Some leave visible scars and some are unseen.
When a injury occurs in our physical body, we must first clean the wound to insure that the newly formed cells will have a good surface to cling to. Then we apply a medium to encourage these cells to flourish and heal.
Healing of physical wounds is a science that has come a long way, from a start of cleaning and bandaging to a medium that actually uses live cells to heal more quickly and effectively.
Healing of the mind can be thought of the same way. First we must clean the surface of the injury. This occurs with forgiveness. This is not an act accomplished to somehow benefit the offender but has the sole purpose of cleaning the wound for the one offended.
Next we must build new connections and associations so that healing can occur. Being tied to the past is a sure way to extend the life of a wound.
Application of such tools as affirmations, expression through art, communication with like minded people or family, and prayerful meditation allow for healing and scars to be less noticeable...to the point where you rarely see them at all.
My hope for you is that health and healing will be a growing part of your daily routine.


Mr McMahon has a combined 30 years of experience across U.S. and Asian Exchange and Regulatory frameworks. He has led the development of exchange traded cleared futures and OTC products including exchange architecture development. Former CEO of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), Mr McMahon has served as the President, Deputy Chairman of Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx), Director – Asia at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) based out of Tokyo as well as Member, Board of Directors and Chairman of Petroleum Advisory Committee at NYMEX based in New York.
Dr T Chandroo is the Chairman & CEO of the Modern Montessori International Group (MMI), the largest Montessori franchise in the world. MMI network spans across and beyond the Asia-Pacific region today, operating over 100 pre-schools and training colleges in 16 countries worldwide. Dr Chandroo holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Southern Cross University (NSW Australia) in addition to a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of East London (UK) and Fellow of Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK). Dr Chandroo is also a Master Trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Dr Chandroo has also received several awards including the recent Times Now-ICICI Bank NRI of the Year Award 2014.
Tawili is the CEO & Founder – I.B.O. Connection Group Ltd.,Israel's leading business promotion and technology transfer organization. Using its wide knowledge, contacts and networking in the Israeli market, IBO bridges the gap between emerging markets to innovative & cutting-edge technology from the start-up nation – Israel. IBO operates across many industries, among them are the Medical, Hi-Tech, Agriculture, Food retail, Real estate, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Energy, Financial and other sectors. Mr. Tawili is an Israeli entrepreneur based in Tel Aviv. He holds more than 10 years of experience and knowledge in the Israeli market. Prior to establishing IBO, Itay has played key roles within the Israeli High-Tech industry and as a result has been exposed to a wide range of Israeli technology organizations & startups. He believe that the fundamental of technology should be for the use of people welfare and businesses growth. Mr. Tawili brings to BERG a synergy and smooth access to Israel innovation.
Dr Jaroen Atitya is a Mentor & Adviser to the startup ecosystem in Bangkok. A director on the board of Bangkok Ventures, Dr Jaroen has had an illustrious career across the technology domain for more than three decades. Starting off as an academician, he taught at the University in Bangkok for almost a decade, before moving on to the field of alternative energy, where he led the Asian foray for some of the leading Dutch companies. Subsequently, he was also involved in representing many Western companies in the areas of automobiles, engineering and defence equipment across the Far East before switching to Information Technology through some close association with Silicon Valley based companies. Dr Jaroen brings to BERG a deep knowledge and expertise not only in the Thai market, but across the South East Asia.


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Fiix, a Toronto, Canada-based maintenance and asset management software provider, closed a $40m USD Series C funding.
The round was led by Georgian Partners, with participation from previous investor BuildGroup. In conjunction with the funding, Simon Chong, Managing Partner at Georgian Partners, has joined Fiix' board of directors.
The company intends to use the funds to continue scaling the company's go-to-market capacity and make key investments in technology, exploring new technological trends, including AI, IoT and predictive maintenance capabilities.
Led by James Novak, CEO, Fiix is a provider of a cloud-based maintenance and asset management software platform that allows businesses to plan and schedule their maintenance in order to increase production and decrease unplanned downtime—essential factors for end-users in production and equipment-intensive verticals, such as manufacturing, energy, and construction.


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Total U.S. sales of packaged alcoholic beverages 1990-2014
This statistic shows the trend of total alcoholic beverage sales from 1990 to 2014, purchased at stores other than food or liquor stores. According to the report, sales of packaged alcoholic beverage in 'other' stores amounted to approximately 22.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2013
Total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages sold in the U.S. outside food and liquor stores from 1990 to 2014 (in million U.S. dollars)
Sales in million U.S. dollars
U.S. beer market: leading imported beer brands 2020, based on sales
Producing wineries in the U.S. 2021, by state
Per capita alcohol consumption of all beverages in the U.S. 1850-2019
Total alcoholic beverage sales in the U.S. 2006-2020
Statistics on "Alcoholic Beverages in the United States"
U.S. on-premise and off-premise retail dollar sales of alcoholic beverages in 2020
United States: volume of alcoholic beverages 2012-2025
Market share of the U.S. alcohol industry by beverage 2000-2020
U.S. wholesale sales of beer and wine 2002-2019
U.S. wholesale purchases of beer, wine and distilled alcoholic beverages 2002-2019
Value of U.S. wholesale alcoholic beverage inventories 2002-2019
Beer market revenue in the United States 2012-2025
U.S. beer consumption 2013-2020
U.S. per capita beer consumption 2012-2015
U.S. beer volume sales 2020, by category
Total number of breweries in the United States 2012-2020
Beer production in the U.S. 1860-2020
Craft brewer volume share of U.S. beer production 2013-2020
Leading domestic beer brand sales in the United States in 2020
Total retail value of wine sales in the U.S. 2000-2020
DtC wine shipment sales value in the U.S. 2011-2020
Total wine consumption of the U.S. 2005-2020
Average wine consumption per U.S. resident 2005-2020
Producing wineries in the U.S. 2009-2021
Amount of grapes crushed in California for wine production 2000-2020, by wine variety
U.S. wine market: dollar sales of the leading table wine brands 2021
Dollar sales of distilled spirits in the U.S. 2020, by tier
Retail spending for distilled spirits in the U.S. 2020, by category
U.S. spirits industry's supplier gross revenue 2005-2020
Sales volume of the U.S. spirits industry by category 2010-2020
Share of distilled spirit consumption in the U.S. 2020, by category
Distilled spirits consumption per capita in the U.S. 1960-2020
U.S. spirits volume sales 2020, by brand
U.S. sales of alcoholic drinks away from home 1990-2014
U.S. food stores: sales of packaged alcoholic beverages 1990-2014
U.S. liquor stores: total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages 1990-2014
U.S. total sales of alcoholic drinks at eating and drinking places 1990-2014
All other alcoholic drinks sales in the U.S. 1990-2014
U.S. total sales of alcoholic drinks at hotels and motels 1990-2014
US food sales of food stores
Sales of Lassonde Industries Inc. North America 2014-2020
Total sales value of Canadian farms 1900/2015
Kikkoman's operating profit FY 2014-2019
Kikkoman's operating profit share FY 2019 by segment
Sales of Carl's Jr in New Zealand 2015-2019
Kikkoman's net sales FY 2014-2020
Popular alcoholic beverages U.S. consumers drink with pizza 2016, by type
Sales value of integrated circuits Thailand 2021
Sales value of printed wiring boards Thailand 2021
Per capita volume of alcoholic drinks in Australia 2012-2025, by segment
Alcoholic beverage retailers in the Nordic countries Alcoholic Beverages Industry worldwide Alcohol and health Alcohol consumption in Canada Alcohol market in Europe
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (January 26, 2016). Total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages sold in the U.S. outside food and liquor stores from 1990 to 2014 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/207960/total-us-sales-of-packaged-alcoholic-beverages-since-1990/
Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages sold in the U.S. outside food and liquor stores from 1990 to 2014 (in million U.S. dollars)." Chart. January 26, 2016. Statista. Accessed January 21, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/207960/total-us-sales-of-packaged-alcoholic-beverages-since-1990/
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016). Total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages sold in the U.S. outside food and liquor stores from 1990 to 2014 (in million U.S. dollars). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: January 21, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/207960/total-us-sales-of-packaged-alcoholic-beverages-since-1990/
Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Total Sales of Packaged Alcoholic Beverages Sold in The U.S. outside Food and Liquor Stores from 1990 to 2014 (in Million U.S. Dollars)." Statista, Statista Inc., 26 Jan 2016, https://www.statista.com/statistics/207960/total-us-sales-of-packaged-alcoholic-beverages-since-1990/
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Total sales of packaged alcoholic beverages sold in the U.S. outside food and liquor stores from 1990 to 2014 (in million U.S. dollars) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/207960/total-us-sales-of-packaged-alcoholic-beverages-since-1990/ (last visited January 21, 2022)


Stand Up Against Cuts to Jobs and Programs!
On February 1, the Minister of Finance presented a budget in the Legislative Assembly which cut even more GNWT positions, as well as two important programs at Aurora College.
February 7 - 9 saw lunchtime rallies at the Legislative Assembly as well.
The Union of Northern Workers is calling on the regular Members of the Legislative Assembly to oppose the budget and stand up for Northern jobs and programs. We believe that the government should COMPROMISE when it comes to infrastructure and supporting the workers of the NWT. Cutting jobs and programs, and offering zero increases, will NOT make the economy better!
Sign the petition calling for a reversal to the budget cuts to Aurora College.
Write letters to the newspaper in support of workers of the NWT.
Get your COMPROMISE button from your RVP or Local President.
Here is what has been going on in the Local News!
Please see Todd Parsons' recent Labour Views column, which appeared in Yellowknifer.
'Whoo!' Progressive lenses now partly covered for seniors, Indigenous patients in N.W.T.


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Media ignores, misportrays Kansas' novel bill-signing events
Posted in Kansas, Kansas Abortion Law, Media, tagged Gov. Sam Brownback, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 30, 2015| 2 Comments »
Gov. Brownback and legislators with pro-lifers in Wichita (photo by Joseph K. Myers)
It's no real surprise that abortionists and their supporters are furious about the ban on dismemberment abortions which has been newly enacted in Kansas and Oklahoma. Aside from the fact that legal minds realize this is a true threat to the abortion status quo. what sticks in the craw of abortion supporters is how the entire law targets dismemberment abortions that torture a living, unborn child.
Like the ban on partial-birth abortion method abortions (upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007), the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act outlaws a particularly brutal process. Dismemberment abortions tear apart living unborn babies "one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments," as SB 95 spells out.
"I am pleased that Kansas is the first state in America to ban dismemberment abortions," said Gov. Sam Brownback. "This is extraordinarily important." So important, in fact, that he decided to memorialize its enactment by staging four ceremonial signings across the state on Tuesday.
Since this was virtually a never-before-event, one would expect an outpouring of media interest.
Not so.
Instead there was a virtual media blackout on the event. It would appear obvious that any reporter who did turn up had been sent solely to get quotes from the Governor on the state's budget woes (before the legislature reconvened Wednesday), or to recycle the opinions of angry Kansas abortion clinic directors.
Of the few small stories that were actually published, none quoted the speakers at the four events or interviewed the attendees for their opinions.
Hundreds of people came to the signings—people of all ages —yet more than a few pro-abortion bloggers intentionally misconstrued the events, including Tara Culp Ressler's coverage which ran under this headline, "In Bizarre Stunt, Governor Pretends To Sign Extreme Abortion Ban For Group Of Teenagers ."
She reminded her readers this was the same governor who was photographed a few weeks ago at the initial bill signing, "flanked by large photos of fetuses." [insert "gasp!"] That reminder was supposed to make readers collectively shudder at the thought that photos got out that actually linked innocent unborn babies with this law. This was impolite, because pro-abortionists have worked very hard not to allow any stories to mention "the baby."
At the events Tuesday, Brownback spoke without notes, from his own conviction about the beauty of life and Kansas' commitment to defending the sanctity of life. He said,
"Kansans do not support the dismembering of babies. This a major piece of legislation, for the major issue of our day… and hopefully, starting a movement that will spread nationwide."
That this grassroots movement will spread from state to state is why pro-abortionists are furious SB 95 ever passed. They are determined to put out the flames with lies, distortions, and by omitting the little ones whose lives the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act is intended to save.
Kansas Gov. signs dismemberment abortion ban in 4 cities
Posted in Kansas, Kansas Abortion Law, Public Events, tagged Gov. Sam Brownback, Mary Kay Culp, Rep. John Rubin, Rep. Steve Brunk, Sen. Garrett Love, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
SB 95 ceremonial signing in Lenexa includes pro-life legislators
A special event is happening in Kansas for the first time today, as Gov. Sam Brownback travels to four cities for ceremonial signings of SB 95, the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act
The model language for the Act was provided by Kansans for Life, from the National Right to Life Committee. It prohibits the barbaric abortion method of dismembering living unborn children and has been enacted in both Kansas and Oklahoma.
SB 95 was technically signed into law April 7, but this dismemberment ban has such significance to advancing the pro-life cause that Gov. Brownback deemed it important enough to mark its signing with a wide public audience.
The governor is traveling with the bill's lead sponsor, Sen. Garrett Love (R-Montezuma) and the bill's carrier in the House, Rep. Steve Brunk (R-Wichita) to school locations in the four quadrants of the state: Lenexa, Pittsburg, Wichita and Hays. Rep. Brunk was lead sponsor of Kansas' Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2007 and Sen. Love was a lead carrier of Kansas' Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act in 2011.
The signing events kicked off at 9 a.m. in northeast Kansas at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church and elementary school. Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Catholic Conference Director Michael Schuttloffel, and representatives of Benedictine College, were among the special guests. Also in attendance were numerous legislators, including Rep. John Rubin (R-Shawnee) who assisted in the defense of the bill during floor debate.
Gov. Brownback commended the "outstanding long-term work of Kansans for Life" and for "bringing this measure to ban a horrific abortion procedure." He told the audience that when the American public learned about partial-birth abortion, they strongly wanted it banned and the Supreme Court said it could be done. "The people of Kansas don't support dismembering unborn children."
Archbishop Naumann, who has been involved in pro-life advocacy for many decades, said, "We look forward to many lives being saved by this law; it is an answer to many peoples' prayers. It will educate and awaken people to the horror that is abortion, which is the civil rights issue of our times."
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, offered some remarks to the the crowd, which included 7th & 8th grade students.
"The signing of this pro-life law shows Kansas' deep commitment to protecting innocent life and setting an example for the nation.
Often a formal signing ceremony is done in the Capitol and is witnessed by those most affected by the change in law. In the case of SB 95, those who are most affected, the unborn, cannot be here today. So we stand in solidarity with those unborn children by standing here for them today.
Kansas is a great place in which to be born and to live. We are a state where our top universities are working on unlocking the keys to treating disease by using our own cells, called stem cells. We are a state with specialty care for unborn children with serious health problems. We are a state where every community has a place to help struggling mothers-to-be get the immediate and long-term help they need to become a great parent.
Let us applaud all our pro-life lawmakers and our pro-life governor for achieving this law and pray that Kansas will continue to work to show respect for life."
Pro-lifers in southeast Kansas will be gathering at 11:00 at the St. Mary Colgan high school, and pro-lifers from south central and western Kansas can attend the 1:30 signing at Bishop Carroll High School. Update: Bishop Carl Kemme also spoke at the Wichita gathering,
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, who is a physician and testified in support of SB 95, will join the final signing event at 3:30 at his alma mater, St. Thomas More Prep- Marian school in Hays.
Kansas abortionists use dismemberment ban to fundraise
Posted in Kansas Abortion Law, Kansas abortionists, Planned Parenthood, tagged dismemberment abortion, Gov. Sam Brownback, McQUade, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri hates the new ban on dismemberment abortions passed in Kansas. But it is already eagerly using opposition to SB 95– "this atrocious law" in their words–to fundraise.
However, there are two things they have had to tiptoe around in bashing this example of so-called "extreme political measures." First, is Senate Bill 95's title in statute–"which shall be known and may be cited as the Kansas unborn child protection from dismemberment abortion act."
The second is the descriptive definition of what is outlawed:
"'Dismemberment abortion' means, with the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child's body in order to cut or rip it off."
An email solicitation sent to supporters yesterday, signed by PPKMM President/CEO Laura McQuade, read (with their emphasis in bold):
"If Senate Bill 95 goes into effect in Kansas on July 1, 2015, PPKM will need to drastically alter our surgical services. Using inflammatory and non-medical language, this bill bans one of the safest methods of second trimester abortion according to every major medical authority including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization."
Before dissecting that information, insert the reminder that abortion is never safe for unborn babies.
SB 95 bans one method of abortion: the shredding of a still-living unborn child in which the abortionist reaches into the mother's womb with an instrument similar to a pair of pliers and grabs onto a body part, ripping a tiny baby apart, piece by piece until she bleeds to death.
It should be noted that McQuade does not write "THE safest," but ONE of the safest methods. She's backing off what all abortion chatter, and testimony to committees, has been against this bill–that dismemberment was THE safest method.
(In its partial-birth ruling of 2007, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on that gruesome abortion method. At the time partial-birth abortion proponents said this was THE safest for women.)
PPKMM issued a public statement in opposition to SB 95 on April 7, the day the bill was signed into law by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Again, their statement omitted the title of the law and gave not a hint about the abortion method banned.
The statement pledged to protect women's "decision-making ability" and "ensure that every individual has the knowledge, opportunity and freedom to make informed private decisions."
In reality, PPKMM wants women to stay unenlightened about the Dismemberment abortion procedure which they describe innocuously on their website as "removal of the pregnancy with forceps."
This complete lack of candor is in line with court testimony from other abortionists that they are comfortable withholding a straight explanation of dismemberment to pregnant women considering abortion.
Truly informed decisions are those made with all the facts.
I guess the hypocrisy escapes McQuade.
Dismemberment ban coverage shows unchanging media bias
Posted in Kansas, Kansas Abortion Law, Media, National, Planned Parenthood, tagged dismemberment abortion, fetal pain, fetal surgery, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I came across an article online this weekend in which a media critic from the Los Angeles Times insightfully demonstrated the abortion bias of the media. The article was in-depth, explaining reasons why 82% of reporters supported abortion, and then listing the ways the media shapes biased messages, including how:
abortion advocates are quoted more frequently and characterized more favorably;
the news media consistently use language and images favoring abortion;
newspaper op-eds favoring abortion are 2 to 1 to those opposing it.
The trigger for the analysis had been a complaint from a female reporter that abortion interests were unhappy about her reports that examined advances in the treatment of premature babies. She was told to back off because those reports were undermining support for the abortion-rights movement.
It's logical that abortion proponents would indeed want fewer glowing reports in which medical practitioners admirably perform surgery to save preemie babies (as in the recent PBS series, Twice Born), because it can only unfavorably contrast with abortion practitioners who brutally dismember living babies in the womb–a practice recently banned in Kansas and Oklahoma. (More on this momentarily.)
But something caused me to stop reading and turn back to the byline. That's when I got a surprise, because the article I was reading was actually published in July of 1990! The author was the late Pulitzer Prize-winning media-critic, David Shaw.
Shaw's observations from 25 years ago were as current as when he first wrote them— as borne out in this Friday's NPR/All Things Considered radio report on the Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act and an editorial published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times blasting the same law.
First, the NPR radio report. It was filed by an intern, Eleanor Klibanoff, who taped me talking for nearly one hour (yes, I can speak nonstop on this bill). During that interview, I spoke of the law's purpose, the Supreme Court's role and –repeatedly– the gruesome shredding of unborn children while the mothers are anesthetized.
At the reporter's request I even specifically read aloud the law's definition of dismemberment, giving me some hope that at least a few words of it would get into the final 4-minute report. No such luck.
In the aired report, NPR gave Planned Parenthood three direct quotes, while I only got one –and not anything dealing with the victim unborn babies.
My quote, unmoored from the source (Justice Anthony Kennedy), said that good public policy required that what really takes place in these abortions not be obscured. NPR then ignored that admonishment and refused to clarify what exactly does happen during dismemberment abortion!
Also withheld by Klibanoff, or her editor, was the information that at least two pro-choice Supreme Court justices (former justice John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg) had admitted that partial-birth and D&E /dismemberment abortion methods were equally brutal–not to oppose either but to make the case that if the state had an interest in preventing one, it also did in preventing the other. The partial-birth abortion method is banned nationwide and banning dismemberment abortions is long since past due.
Other errors in the NPR report were incorrect assertions:
that there is no alternative abortion method to dismembering a live unborn child, and
that the ban violates a Supreme Court viability standard. (That so-called standard didn't apply to the partial-birth abortion ban in 2007 when the Court upheld the ban on that method of abortion regardless of viability and it shouldn't apply to this method either.)
NPR's storyline was shaped to advance abortion interests just as Shaw described 25 years ago, with comments from a pro-abortion law "expert" and Planned Parenthood stitched together to portray a meme of unfairness to women. The NPR listener heard repeatedly that dismemberment abortion is "common," "safest," and "medically-sound," and how "astonishing" it is that the legislature would "override medical science."
The Los Angeles Times editorial riffed off of that NPR viewpoint, following up last week's New York Times slam of the dismemberment ban. Both newspapers want the ban struck down; no surprise there.
Not needing to fake the "neutrality" of NPR news, the Los Angeles Times editorialist grabbed the soapbox, but didn't have the guts to quote the entire legal definition of dismemberment. Excluded was the essential language about "the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments [that], slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child's body in order to cut or rip it off."
And while whining about the "drama" of the bill, they ginned up their own drama. They portrayed women as relying on such abortions due to possible fetal disability, miscalculated gestation, or maternal health problems –while deliberately not mentioning that other abortion methods remain available, and that the law has exceptions for protecting maternal health and life.
Then there's the gratuitous swipe at unborn children, in case readers have somehow learned what this inhumane abortion does to a well-developing baby. The editorial insists that dismemberment abortions are done to "fetuses that are not viable outside the womb and that scientists agree cannot feel pain," regardless of "the unscientific claims of some anti-abortion groups." (P.S. With fetal anesthesiology a bona fide medical specialty, how long can fetal pain deniers hold sway?)
Finally, copying a page from abortion guru David Grimes' recent columns on dismemberment (which I've critiqued several times), the reader is advised to, in essence, 'chill out' because a D&E/ dismemberment is just an unsavory 'tissue removal like a mastectomy.'
The media top dogs are certainly collaborating with the abortion agenda, but, despite this–as NPR grudgingly admitted–pro-lifers, "are winning in the court of public opinion."
Pro-abortionists realize Dismemberment Ban threat
Posted in Kansas Abortion Law, NRLC, tagged dismemberment, partial-birth method abortion, U.S. Supreme Court, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 16, 2015| 1 Comment »
Amanda Marcotte is a strident abortion proponent who is in abject misery about the passage of the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Her headline reads "Anti-Choicers Are Going to Take Away Second-Trimester Abortion Without Much Notice" and though the actual content of her piece is all over the place, her message is clear; she is
distressed that a significant abortion restriction is now available to reach the Supreme Court, and
frustrated that her side not only has no defense, it can't even discuss the law's content for PR reasons.
They have no defense because there is no defense for dismemberment abortions which crush, tear and pulverize living unborn human beings. Marcotte dares not even mention the unborn baby, which is the focus of this new law.
By necessity all state pro-life measures attempt to navigate the landscape and boundaries set out by the U.S. Supreme Court. That includes understanding that with the 1992 Casey decision, the justices have left the door ajar for additional limitations.
Marcotte recognizes that the authors of various pro-life bills over the past decade have taken different approaches. Why wouldn't they probe and prod, looking to see what the justices will accept? That only makes sense.
Marcotte tries to dismiss these laws, which is her prerogative, but it is simply foolish to dismiss the fact that there is a public receptivity to them.
Marcotte does recognize that this dismemberment ban (with language provided by the top experts at the National Right to Life Committee) is a genuine threat to the abortion status quo. The law is a natural follow-up to the ban on partial-birth abortion, upheld in the 2007 Gonzales v Carhart ruling. Let me explain.
The Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act has several purposes
to educate the public about the gruesome torture inflicted on the living, unborn child in a D&E dismemberment abortion;
to stop such abortions; and
to present the Supreme Court with a bill that is consonant with what a majority of the High Court held in the partial-birth abortion ruling.
Abortion attorneys themselves anticipated–with dread, of course– this ban on dismemberment abortions after Gonzales. In Gonzales, the justices upheld the public's right, through duly passed laws, to halt a barbaric abortion method, despite the protests of abortionists that this partial-birth method was "safer" for women and needed.
States have provided a variety of significant pro-life measures that the Court may indeed soon chose to weigh in on, including conflicting rulings on the woman's full access to viewing her unborn child's ultrasound prior to abortion.
However, this ban on dismemberment abortions would present the Court with a direct follow up to their last abortion ruling. That is what scares Marcotte.
And it should.
Hiding facts is 'anti-woman', not dismemberment ban
Posted in Kansas Abortion Law, Media, Pro-life laws in other states, tagged Gov. Sam Brownback, Unborn Child Protection from DIsmemberment Abortion Act on April 15, 2015| 1 Comment »
The ground-breaking Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act is now on the books in two states, signed into law within this past week by Gov. Sam Brownback (Kansas) and Gov. Mary Fallin (Oklahoma). This law forbids a particularly gruesome method of abortion which (for that reason) abortionists do not honestly describe in detail to women.
It is difficult for most of us to imagine how someone, particularly a trained physician, could reach into the womb with an instrument like a pair of pliers and grab onto a body part, ripping a tiny baby apart, piece by piece until she bleeds to death.
Yet that is exactly what occurs in a dismemberment abortion.
To ordinary men and women who have learned about this grisly act –and, no doubt, even to some within the abortion industry who are a party to it–the effect has been profound shock and sadness.
But some, particularly those who have defended abortion for decades, have gone in the opposite direction. They have become so hardened that they will say almost anything to protect dismemberment abortions.
Take for example, David Grimes– a long-time abortionist, abortion promoter, and prolific abortion apologist. While the dismemberment ban was working its way through the legislative process, Grimes championed the dismemberment method as popular and safe for women, without the slightest acknowledgement of the victim of this act, the unborn child.
In a February 19 article written with another long-time abortion proponent, Grimes extolled dismemberment abortion as cheaper and more convenient—for the mother, that is, since the baby is not a consideration.
He characterizes dismemberment abortionists as noble "removers of tissue" [again, denying the baby] who do an unpleasant task but, in so doing, save women from any 'emotional' burdens.
Thus, as could be expected, the first passage of a ban on dismemberment abortions sent Grimes over the edge.
In his regular Huffington Post blog spot Tuesday, Grimes blasted the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act with this headline, "Kansas as Medical Misogyny: Kansas Mandates Substandard Abortion Care."
His rebuke began by defining misogyny as "hatred, dislike, mistrust of women, or prejudice against women." Of course abortion is itself an anti-woman act, half the time destroying females, and all the time harming mothers who submit to the abortions. But not to Grimes.
Grimes claims that this new ban on a barbaric abortion method punishes women by denying abortionists the use of that method, leaving only "inferior methods." And to him, that is 'anti-women'.
But Grimes is showing the height of hypocrisy about treating women respectfully!
Grimes knows, as well as those of us who followed the partial-birth abortion litigation, that abortionists under oath admitted that they don't tell the mother the actual procedure of the dismemberment abortion, merely referring to it as a 'D&E.' Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri is equally unforthcoming. On its website it describes the method as "removal of the pregnancy with forceps."
In what other medical treatment or surgery would that kind of paternalistic/ misogynistic omission of facts even be attempted?
It is the ultimate in disrespect and deception– misogyny–to hide the truth from a mother contemplating abortion that the dismemberment method demolishes her unborn child until the baby bleeds to death! And pity the women who are just now discovering that is the kind of abortion they have already obtained.
Grimes' wrath is really directed at the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld, in 2007, a ban on another brutal, inhumane procedure —partial-birth abortion. How ironic (but unsurprising) that partial-birth abortion defenders also insisted that delivering all but the baby's head and then plunging surgical scissors into her skull and suctioning out the child's brain was 'safer for women.'
However, the High Court, in that 2007 ruling, wrote (emphasis added):
Any number of patients facing imminent surgical procedures would prefer not to hear all details, lest the usual anxiety preceding invasive medical procedures become the more intense. …It is, however, precisely this lack of information concerning the way in which the fetus will be killed that is of legitimate concern to the State. The State has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed. It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know…" Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 159-160
The dismemberment law now in place in Kansas and Oklahoma exposes what happens in a abortion. Any departure from the truth is misogynistic, and furthers the myth that women need abortion.
What they need is the truth.
NICU care by parents benefits both parents & preemies
Posted in Culture of Life, Newspaper story, tagged NICU, preemie care on April 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Parents care for preemies, photo by Patrick Giles, WSJ
For those who enjoy learning about how the tiniest human "patients" are being ever-better treated, today's Wall Street Journal
article "What Parents can do to help Preemies" is must reading.
NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units in hospitals) are little seedbeds of research on how to assist babies who were delivered too early. The generous care and dedication that babies have received from NICU staff, especially nurses, is truly commendable.
However, a trial program is demonstrating that daily physical care by the preemies' parents is not only preferable, it is a win-win, according to the Journal's Dana Wechsler Linden.
"Typically, babies born prematurely, who might weigh little more than a pound, are considered too fragile for anyone but highly trained doctors and nurses to care for," Linden explained. But a pilot program at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital (which has spread to 20 hospitals in Canada and 10 in Australia and New Zealand) took a very different approach. Parents took charge of their preemie's care for at least eight hours a day.
The pilot program showed that 42 premature newborns cared for each day by their parents gained 25% more weight and were nearly twice as likely to be breastfeeding when they went home as those taken care of primarily by nurses.
A potential fear that multiple caregivers would increase infections (that can be so deadly for these tiny 1-2 pound babies) is negated. While 11% of the babies in the nurse-only group had infections, the parent-assisting group had none!
In the pilot program parents were successfully trained how to handle fragile babies and the medical equipment they use. And though the initial steps were a bit daunting, a wonderful benefit was reaped not only by babies but also by their parents.
For example, parents of preemies are, understandably, concerned about their baby's fate. By being involved, not only did the preemies greatly benefit, parental stress levels went down.
"This started because parents told me they feel hopeless, helpless," said Shoo Lee, chief of pediatrics at Mount Sinai, who led the group that developed the new approach.
"Within the first three days I learned everything I needed to do," Cynthia Schaeffer, whose son, Joshua, was born after 26 weeks of gestation at just over 2 pounds, told Linden. "I started feeling like a mother."
Watch the Kansas Senate debate the Value Them Both Amendment live! youtu.be/SB7cpZtZoec #ksleg -- 51 minutes ago


text:
PND Health
The Truth Of Health
'Dwarf Pride' Was Hard Won. Will a Growth Drug Undermine It?
Steve September 6, 2020 September 6, 2020
"I can do everything that someone a foot taller can do, with minor accommodations," Ms. Schimmel wrote in an email, adding that vosoritide sent a message that those with achondroplasia "are broken."
Melissa Mills, of Jacksonville, Fla., who does not have the condition, said she had already decided that her 4-year-old daughter, Eden, would use vosoritide if it is approved by the F.D.A.
Yes, Ms. Mills could get a $900 custom bike so her daughter could ride or teach her to drive a car with pedal extenders, but she will embrace an alternative. "With dwarfism, the world wasn't built for my child, so if there is something I can do to help her navigate the world a little bit better and on her own, I want to do it," she said.
After Eden's diagnosis, Ms. Mills said, she joined every support group she could find to learn about her daughter's condition. Her questions about treatments that increased height whipped up tension. "The more I got involved in the groups and the L.P.A." — the organization Little People of America — "the more I pulled away."
The debate over the drug resembles a decades-long discussion among deaf people over cochlear implants, with some taking exception to the suggestion that they should be "fixed" with the device.
Vosoritide, said Mark Povinelli, the L.P.A.'s president, "is one of the most divisive things that we've come across in our 63-year existence."
The organization does not endorse specific treatments, but encourages members to consider more than height in medical decisions. "We want to show that you can have a completely fulfilling life without having to worry about growth velocity," said Mr. Povinelli, calling fixations on height a societal issue.
A Son's Future, a Father's Final Down
In Sign of Progress, Fewer Than 1% of New York's Virus Tests Are Positive
Zoom Funeral Tips – The New York Times
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What to Know About the World's Top Covid-19 Vaccines
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Set Your Exercise Goals High, but Not Too High
A Better Way to Take Blood Pressure?


Dune Womens Shoes Light pink 'Hyacinth' corsage ballerina shoes This elegant Hyacinth ballerina pumps makes for a pretty daytime style. Showcasing a corsage trim with pearl detail and a round toe. The toecap and heel panel detailing completes this slip on style.


COLUMBIA, Mo. - Two Stephens College equestrians recently returned from South Africa, where they assisted in capturing two gold World Cup trophies for the United States in the three-gaited and five-gaited events at the 2006 International Saddle Seat Equitation World Cup. The competition, which also included competitors from Canada, Great Britain, Namibia and South Africa, was held from Dec. 4-10, 2006, in Parys, South Africa.
Stephens alumna Cristina Sloan-Heet '04, who now teaches in the Stephens College Children's School, competed as the captain of the five-gaited team; and alumna Ellen Beard '84, an assistant professor in the Stephens Equestrian Studies department, serves as the executive director of the U.S. Saddle Seat Equitation World Cup. Beard, a professional equine consultant, judge and clinician, is an experienced trainer of world-class saddle seat riders.
"International competition is much more than just riding horses; there is a great commitment to representing the United States in a positive light," Beard said. "Our Stephens College heritage strongly contributed to the professionalism of our actions. The College has a tradition of enhancing a student's leadership ability. This was very evident in that Cristina set an example for her teammates."
Stephens freshman Mandy Martin, an Equestrian Business Management major, qualified for the three-gaited team but was unable to attend the event. Martin was a member of the gold-medal winning 2004 five-gaited team.
With the two gold medals, the U.S. successfully defended its double gold-medal performance in 2004. For more information, visit www.saddleseatworldcupusa.com.
Stephens offers a B.S. in Equestrian Business Management; a B.S. in Equestrian Science; a dual-degree program in Equestrian Science at Stephens and Animal Science at the University of Missouri-Columbia; and a "3-2" cooperative partnership with Washington University in St. Louis. Stephens also offers minors in equestrian science and animal science.
The College's riding program began in 1925 and occupies 16 acres on the Stephens campus. Equestrian students and faculty will host the 80th annual student-produced Prince of Wales Charity Horse Show in April 2007. Stephens' Prince of Wales Club was established in 1926 and is one of the oldest continually active riding clubs in the nation.
Stephens College, established in 1833, is historically committed to meeting the changing needs of women. Stephens engages students in an innovative educational experience focused on pre-professional fields and the performing arts and grounded in the liberal arts.


text:
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goog.require('blk.env.BlockFlags');
goog.require('blk.env.blocks.BlockID');
goog.require('blk.env.blocks.SolidBlock');
goog.require('blk.env.materials');

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blk.env.blocks.GlassBlock = function() {
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      blk.env.blocks.BlockID.GLASS,
      'Glass',
      blk.env.materials.glass,
      blk.env.BlockFlags.BREAKABLE | blk.env.BlockFlags.COLLIDABLE,
      49);
};
goog.inherits(blk.env.blocks.GlassBlock, blk.env.blocks.SolidBlock);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Plus, what surprised her about the reaction from early friends and family screenings.
Rebecca Hall owns this chronicle of the polyamorous relationship that inspired the 'Wonder Woman' comic.
The biopic explores how a forbidden polyamorous romance inspired the beloved hero.
'Professor Marston and the Wonder Women' chronicles the stranger-than-fiction tale of how the Wonder Woman character was created.


text:
Home Voice of the Voice Not walking, but hiking: it's the new chic
Voice of the Voice
Not walking, but hiking: it's the new chic
Forget the breakfast and get up in the hills: hiking is the new chic
Don't speak of walking: go hiking. And dress to impress while you're at it: for hiking is the new chic activity of choice through which to achieve the body beautiful.
When we're in our beloved Northumberland, more than anything we like to walk. We're not intrepid. We don't go in for 12 or 15-mile long-hauls: rather, we're out for a couple of hours around our local north-eastern edge of the Cheviots. In that part of the range, half an hour is enough to get out beyond Yeavering Bell, Humbleton Hill or Tom Tallon's Crag. The landscape opens out towards Commonburn and Broadstruther, and the biggest hills, Hedgehope and The Cheviot, dominate the skyline.
In recent months, indeed, we've been relying on walking for exercise due to back trouble which has prevented my feeble if regular attempts at running. More of that later.
But, wherever we found ourselves in the hills (or on Bamburgh Beach, frequently gloriously warm in this remarkable summer!), we failed to note the phenomenon identified in the Daily Telegraph this week. According to that organ, hiking [sic] has "become the peak of chic". Witness such celebs as Reese Witherspoon, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Garner, who talk of the heart-pumping, bum-sculpting and mind-clearing benefits of a good walk.
I'm with them, well, part of the way. Heart-pumping: certainly, puffing up a hill or two. Mind-clearing? Undoubtedly. Indeed, a longer-than-usual walk in the College Valley last October saw a tune take shape in my mind. It emerged almost fully-formed to become my setting of the medieval text, Sir Christemas, which won BBC Radio 3's Christmas carol competition and is now published (note to Editor: am I allowed a plug here?) by Banks Music Publications. Buy it for your choir to sing this Christmas! (Is that allowed, too?)
Hiking sculpts the figure: does my bum look big in these hills?
As for bum-sculpting, I guess it works for some. Mrs Trafford, for one, remains slim and lithe whether we hike or not. While my posterior: to sculpt that would exceed the powers even of Michelangelo. It would be a tough call for a road mender with a jackhammer.
Inevitably, though, the new chic trend must be re-packaged. We talk of walking in the hills: now it must be rebranded as hiking. More important even than the celebs quoted is the requirement to sport the right designer gear. So if you're female and a fashion icon, you have to go to Gucci for your boots, Prada for the pink walking socks and all the other items (including a belt that looks like a climbing rope) to various fashion houses that I hadn't heard of.
The Telegraph puff sparked some discussion on Twitter. I fell into the camp of other old gits (including Brian Groom, @GroomB) who, like me, reckon they've never encountered immaculately dressed beautiful young women during their hill-walks. Another school of thought, represented by Hugh Macknight (@Hughmacknight) claims to spot one "fantastically attractive young woman" every outing. Perhaps he knows where to go.
On our last walk in the hills, some 10 days ago, we only saw one other hiker, male and not fashionably dressed, making his way along St Cuthbert's Way. Even in high holiday time, we don't see that many walkers in our patch of the Cheviots.
Alas, I couldn't test this theory further, as we had to leave Northumberland and head south. As I write this I'm about to have a modest back operation to solve a disc problem. Even hill-walking has failed to cure it, so we went together to see a back-surgeon. This is Oxford, so naturally he boasts a Professorship and an OBE as well as the requisite set of sharp knives.
As medics do these days, he asked what we wanted out of this: we said we were looking for an end to the pain. "I can't stand much more of the groaning and the effing and blinding every morning," said Mrs Trafford.
As the surgeon nodded sympathetically, I leaned towards him in a confidential manner. "I must confess," I added, "My language hasn't been good either."
Sir Christemas
Cheviots
http://www.bernardtrafford.com
Doddington Dairy 15 August 2018 At 8:27 am
We are so lucky that we don't have to 'dress' stylishly each time we go out for a 'hike', they generally just happen as part of day to day life… I hope your operation is successful!
Hugh Macknight 15 August 2018 At 8:34 am
I was speaking of Mrs @hughmacknight, obviously
Weather finally smiles on Ford Castle's al fresco operas
"Do you hear the people sing? It is the sound of angry men" (and women)
What the complacent West must learn from Ukraine's fight for democracy and self-determination – the importance of education for democratic citizenship
Farewell, Banksy. You'll be missed
Remembering my best friend Dave Banks
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text:
GreekReporter.comAncient GreeceWhat Were the Ancient Spartans Like?
What Were the Ancient Spartans Like?
By Duncan Keenan-Jones*
The statue of Leonidas in Sparta, Greece. Credit: pxfuel.com
If something defined the Spartans, it was their great fighting spirit and bravery; their confidence was so great that they did not have walls since their own army was in charge of defending them.
By Duncan Keenan-Jones
In the second episode of the third season of the TV show Lego Masters, contestants were asked to build a castle and then watch it be destroyed by a bowling ball.
In the lucky dip that followed, teammates Fleur and Sarah drew a Spartan figure to signal their theme for the task. Others worked on Viking, Medieval, or samurai strongholds. They went on to build a giant Spartan warrior, standing protectively against white city walls.
The inclusion of Sparta in a gathering of Lego warrior figurines might seem incongruous to those familiar with ancient history. Sparta, located in Greece's southern peninsula, the Peloponnese, was one of the oldest and most powerful Greek city-states. Helen, whose abduction started the Trojan War, was married to the king of Sparta in Homer's Iliad, probably composed in the 8th century BCE.
Sparta was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BCE. But the Spartans are now a touchstone of popular culture as portrayed in movies, such as 300 and Troy, and video games, such as Assassins' Creed: Odyssey and Rome: Total War.
The Heraion of Samos as seen by players of the "Odyssey Assassin's Creed" video game. Credit: https://twitter.com/ArchaicWorlds
Unfortunately, for these hopeful Lego Masters, the city of Sparta was not famous in the ancient world for its walls but for its lack of them.
Surrounded by men—not bricks
The Athenian historian Thucydides was probably alluding to this lack of walls when he described the primitive urbanism of Sparta. Later, Greek and Roman authors, including the philosopher Plato, considered Sparta's lack of walls to be a reflection of Sparta's belief in the superiority of its justly famed soldiers.
The Spartan general Lysander orders the walls of Athens be destroyed as part of the Athenian capitulation to Sparta. The Illustrated History of the World/Wikimedia Commons
As Sparta's mythical founder Lycurgus is reputed to have said: "A city will be well fortified which is surrounded by brave men and not by bricks."
Other Spartan notables insulted (in the ancient Greek mindset, at least) cities with impressive walls by describing them as "fine quarters for women."
Archaeological excavations in 1906 to 1907 confirmed walls were not built around the town until shortly after 184 BCE and long after the height of Sparta's power during the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars in the 5th century BCE.
Yet, while Sparta was protected by an army and not a castle, Sparta and her Peloponnesian allies did seek to shelter behind a set of walls—not walls around the city of Sparta but the walls across the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow strip of land connecting the Peloponnese to the rest of Greece.
This was the fall-back position argued for by many Peloponnesians before and after the eventual defeat of Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans by the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BCE.
The Peloponnesians even offered that other city-states move their families behind the walls.
Looking for weaknesses
This isn't to say Spartans didn't recognize the value of a good wall; they saw them as a barrier to other Greek city-states.
The Spartans attempted to convince the Athenians not to rebuild their city wall after it had been torn down by the Persians when they occupied the city after Thermopylae. Once the Persian threat was reduced after Greek victories at Salamis (480 BCE), Plataea, and Mycale (479 BCE), Sparta began to fear the growing power of Athens.
An unfortified Athens would be at the mercy of Sparta's dominant land army. A fortified Athens, however, could rely on its dominant navy to supply itself at sea and hold out for a long time against a future Spartan siege.
Cannily, Sparta argued Athens should join them to fund the building of walls around other, less powerful city-states—which also happened to be less of a threat to Spartan dominance.
Athens delayed its answer to the Spartans, giving itself time to hastily erect a wall of sufficient height to withstand a siege.
In the 5th century BCE, in an arms race between Greek city-states, Athens wanted its own set of walls to keep pace with other members of the confederacy.
According to Thucydides—an excellent source, even if he did treat his speeches and statistics a bit liberally at times—the Spartans eventually became so fearful of Athens' growing power that they fell into the "Thucydides' trap," where a dominant power allows its fear of a rising power to result in conflict. This resulted in the Peloponnesian War, which is said to have taken place around 431 to 404 BCE.
Lycurgus, is that you?
Today's brick-builders on Lego Masters surrounded their Spartan stronghold with protective walls.
Although this isn't quite how Sparta was built, Fleur and Sarah's creation of a giant Spartan warrior towering over the fortifications and facing off invaders (or bowling balls) was an inspired choice. Their work echoed the words of famous Spartans including Lycurgus, Agesilaus, and Antalcidas, as Sparta's walls were its warriors.
*Duncan Keenan-Jones, is a Lecturer in Ancient History, The University of Queensland. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
ancient Sparta
Missing Ancient Greek Inscriptions Solved by Artificial Intelligence


text:
Q: How to catch 1 row in set (0.01 sec) in mysql How to get mysql "1 row in set (0.01 sec)", like in the example below?
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|  6541555 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

A: you can use

*

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to get duration.

A: if you using php you can get number of rows affected as follows.
$select_1 = $db_connection->query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM your_table");
$num_rows = $select_1->num_rows;


The secret to its warmth is the brushed reverse side of the fabric. The long pile provide extreme warmth just like being wrapped in a wool blanket! The outer material is durable and stretchable, with a fashionable stripe print design. This item will keep you cozy and warm even in the coldest of weather.


text:
Q: Lua/LOVE2D - attempt to index local 'quad' (a nil value) The issue lies with line 26, because quad does not work here, but it does in other lua scripts.
I attempted to use this code in order to make a system to update animations for sprites akin to a class module.
The line on it's own is fine, but then when used in line 29 and 49, it then gives me an error.
I have checked for typing, used similar issues and answers to and no success. It's near line for line form a video by a guy named "recursor", and my code STILL refuses to cooperate.
local class = require("class")
local Anim = class:derive("Animation")
local Vector2 = require("Vector2")

function Anim:new(xoffset, yoffset, w , h, column_size, num_frames, fps, loop)
    self.fps = fps
    self.num_frames = num_frames
    self.column_size = column_size
    self.start_offset = Vector2(xoffset, yoffset)
    self.offset = Vector2()
    self.size = Vector2(w, h)
        --loop = false, playthrough once, otherwise, loop forever
    self.loop = loop == nil or loop
    self:reset()
end

function Anim:reset()
    self.timer = 1 / self.fps
    self.frame = 1
    self.done = false
    self.offset.x = self.start_offset.x
    self.offset.y = self.start_offset.y
end

function Anim:set(quad)
    quad:setViewport(self.offset.x, self.offset.y, self.size.x, self.size.y)
end

function Anim:update(dt, quad)
    if(self.num_frames <=1) then return

    elseif self.timer > 0 then
        self.timer = self.timer - dt
     if self.timer <= 0 then
            self.timer = 1/ self.fps
            self.frame = self.frame + 1
            if self.frame > self.num_frames then
                 if self.loop then
                    self.frame = 1
            else
            self.frame = self.num_frames
            self.timer = 0
            self.done = true
             end
            end
            self.offset.x = self.start_offset.x + (self.size.x * ((self.frame - 1) % (self.column_size )))
            self.offset.y = self.start_offset.y + (self.size.y * math.floor((self.frame - 1) / self.column_size))
        -- print (self.frame .. ""..self.offset.x .. "  " .. self.offset.y)
            self:set(quad)
         end
    end
end

return Anim